314 Cultural exchange 3

Standing over a collection of vaguely humanoid scrap metal, Ke was at a loss for words. Sure, she and her people had fought against the Emergence before, but that was only limited to larger, strange looking craft which spied at them from a distance.

These creatures were vastly more frightening for their failed mimicry of living beings.

"Yeah, or at least a part of it. The main body is a very long distance from here, think of these drones serving a central hive."

"Why do they look like this?"

"Humanoid? No clue, some researchers I know think it's because they absorbed so many humanoid creatures into its hive mind that the Emergence is starting to be affected by the collective subconscious impulses by the decaying minds in its system, but I think it's just a matter of convenience."

"Convenience?"

The nonchalant way Dax talked about these disturbing imitations of life in front of her put Ke on edge, she simply couldn't understand how he was able to keep his cool like that, especially after sharing that these things absorbed other living beings.

"Yeah, you need a hand to hold a weapon and drag live prisoners back to the biological converter, likewise bipedal or quadrupedal means of propulsion are effective in multiple different levels of gravity. The Emergence is simply just mimicking its victims and reusing what works, discarding most of the unnecessary parts while still keeping enough to continue experimenting."

"How can you be so calm about this?"

"Because I've been fighting against this threat for a long time, so I've gotten used to seeing these horrible things on a daily basis. Besides, letting your emotions impact you against an opponent who has none is a recipe for defeat, and in this war of annihilation defeat means losing everything."

Looking at Dax, Ke didn't see a hint of the 'mare soldier' he had described himself as, no this person was a hardened killer drenched in so much blood that it had stained his very soul, worse yet, that didn't appear to bother him in the slightest, it was like he revelled in it.

This was the true Dax or at least more than he had shown Ke thus far. Although Ke was frightened by this unknown side or Dax she was now seeing, deep down she still felt it was exciting.

"Commander."

"Yeah, I know."

With Lux reminding Dax to contain his true colours, Dax calmed down slightly as he got back on topic.

"That reminds me, have your tribe come into contact with other creatures or people from your world? We've detected a lot more convergence signatures than just the ones responsible for bringing your tribe and the hydra to this land."

"... I'm not aware of any others inhabiting this land, we believe we were the only ones here until you showed up."

"That's fine, we'll be making contacts with those people if there are any survivors. Let's move on with relocation, how fast can you and your people pack up and be ready to leave this world? While the Emergence has been mostly ignoring this system so far, that's going to change fast now that we are here to investigate."

"No need to worry about us, we can-"

"Can you really? Yeah, you might be fine if it just keeps sending lightly armed scouts like this, but can you fight off a titan or similar type of large war form? Or 500 of them for that matter? When the Emergence attacks for real it does so in a swarm, just like locusts it overwhelms, then devours everything before moving on. Countless worlds with trillions of souls have fallen to them already, it's only recently the Galactic Empire has regained momentum to fight back against it. To make matters worse, this world is inside its territory"

While Ke listened to what Dax was saying, she also paid careful attention to what he wasn't saying.

(He never said we can decline this 'offer', does he plan on taking us by force if we refuse? Then there's the matter of this 'Emergence', for all I know he could be making it all up. But it is true we can't stay in this world, there's really nothing here to eat and these long days are driving everyone insane…)

While things were holding up, for now, Ke could see things were starting to turn dire. It's true that her and her people could most likely survive here, but they couldn't thrive.

If things went on like this, they would all eventually perish, starving to death or even getting assimilated by the Emergence when sanity finally failed them.

"We can be ready within this day, please save us all."

Simply, Ke had no other cards to play other than lowering her head and begging, although this vexed her greatly she needed to put her people above everything else, like her mother did when she sacrificed herself to save her people.

"Sure, leave it to me. I wouldn't really be a good man if I abandoned my 'wife', now would I?"

As Ke had finally lowered her head to a level he could reach, Dax reached out and ruffled up her hair with a bright smile on his face, unknowingly sending Ke's heart into overdrive as she fought very hard to not just make him forcefully hers at that moment. Having reassured Ke, Dax turned to Lux and the others as his attitude changed somewhat.

"Lux. Take Lilly, Ifrit, Lia and Terra back to the lamia village and lock down the area while they pack up. I've already tasked heavy transport and additional support equipment so make it fast."

"Sir, yes sir."

"Phillipa, group up with the rest minus Solaris and go take a look at that sphere, see if you can disable it and get it ready for transport with the help of Ra and Mu's live assistance."

"Yes sir~"

Rapidly barking out orders, Dax divided up his team as the first class commander he was before switching character once again. Approaching Lilly, Dax quickly drew her into a tight hug and took remote control of her XMRA armour before she could offer up any sort of resistance.

"Hya!-"

Quickly blowing a bit of air into her ear, Dax seized the moment as she was distracted to pacify her.

"Please wait until we get back home before skinning me alive."

"... Sure."

With her face and even ears blooming entirely red, Lilly's rage towards Dax quickly evaporated. With one taken care of, Dax turned to his next target of suppression but as he hadn't really hidden his intentions that well, the second target was already on guard against him, giving Dax no chance of a surprise attack. 

"Please give me a few more hours before you skin me alive."

"... Fine, but you're living on borrowed time."

Settling with patting the top of Alice's helmet, Dax couldn't see her expression, but from the tone of her voice alone it appeared she had understood that the entire 'incident' wasn't his fault.

"So, what are we doing?"

"Scouting. We're taking a quick look at the other anomalies and seeing if there's anything worth saving before the Emergence shows up."

Having turned to Solaris it was clear by her bloodlust alone that she wasn't ready to forgive Dax, so he chose to just stick to official business until she had had a chance to calm down a bit.

"Sure, let's get going then."

"Wait a second, we need a local guide."

"A what?.. You can't be serious."

Not immediately understanding what Dax meant by a 'guide', her mood quickly soured when she found that his eyes had settled on Ke.