315 Cultural exchange 4

(Not really, but something tells me it is for the better that she doesn't know that I'm a commander of my own little special forces outfit… Having an unlimited budget really is great.)

"...Yeah, I know."

Pouting slightly as Dax reminded her of something obvious, Ke was nevertheless struck with awe when a massive craft suddenly parted the nearby trees as it sat down in a clearing in front of her, it's massive engines roaring with power even as they spun down. Having never seen anything like that up close before, Ke was at a loss for words and a tiny bit scared when the CAS-7A's rear ramp suddenly opened, making the lamia flinch slightly as she drew away from the craft.

"Are you really sure that thing is safe?"

Seeing how her newest rival acted, Solaris didn't even have to understand what she was saying to understand her. Taking full advantage of the situation, Solaris drew near to Dax before taking his arm as she started dragging him towards the CAS-7A.

"Let's go already, poor miss lamia is scared of the transport, so just leave her behind."

Not even slightly attempting to hide the mockery in her voice, Solaris' words easily transcended the language barrier and made Ke blush in embarrassment before she quickly collected her courage.

"W-wait for me!"

With all passengers having boarded the CAS-7A, it quickly closed up the rear ramp and launched, climbing to an altitude of 5 kilometres before it accelerated to mark 1.5.

"It's fine to move around now, we're done accelerating."

"O-okay."

As the craft she suddenly found her inside had suddenly started accelerating, Ke had clung to anything she could get a hold of for dear life, but after reassured her that it was fine, the lamia started exploring the CAS-7A's interior, finding it quite quaint with nothing except for a line of seats on each side of the compartment.

Of course, when the walls and floor suddenly turned transparent Ke once more lost her nerve, but after a bit of experimenting she found out that the craft responded to where she was looking, so if she stared at a wall for too long it became transparent.

"So, what are we doing? You still haven't told me anything."

"We're going to investigate the other anomalies on this planet while your people pack up for evacuation and it's highly likely that other things from your plane of existence found their way here, just like that hydra."

"So I'm your guide?"

"Yeah, is that an issue?"

Finally being told what she was doing, Ke reacted with mixed feelings, that is until she realized she could leverage this to her advantage.

"Not if I get properly paid for my services~"

"We're here, or almost here anyway."

"Solaris, be ready for anything."

"Sure."

Alerting both Ke and Solaris to what was happening, the latter responded quite coldly to Dax, although she still made preparations, filling her surroundings with mana as she readied several different spells.

"Stay behind my right shoulder at all times, I'll only be able to guarantee that no harm comes to you if you stay there."

With Solaris ready, Dax turned to Ke as his aura once more changed into that of a special forces commander.

"O-okay..."

Seeing another entirely new side of Dax, Ke acted strangely meek as her heart started racing. As the rear ramp of the CAS-7A opened, more pure black foliage greeted the trio who currently found themselves in the middle of a clearing.

"The anomaly is 508 meters in that direction, Solaris, take point."

"Roger."

Advancing quite at a fast pace through the black vegetation the group eventually reached a clearing where a massive grey sphere hovered motionlessly in the air.

"What the hell is that?"

"One of the things which brought you and your people here, we're not exactly sure how they work yet, but it seems like it's forcefully converging another plane of existence onto this one."

Explaining what he knew about the piece of lost technology in front of him to Ke, Dax scanned the surrounding terrain at the same time, looking for any sort of irregularities as he connected to the IMI surveillance network, getting a birds eye view of the surroundings from the air support which was standing by up high.

(It looks like nothing is here… Except for that.)

Having 'looked around' a bit, Dax suddenly started walking around the sphere, keeping to the edge of the clearing until he reached something which was partly covered by the black grass.

"Looks like this one didn't make it…"

Crouching down next to what was unmistakably some kind of mummified corpse Dax offered a silent prayer as Ke recognized the dead creature.

"That's a dryad. From what I know they're creatures who can only survive when living in harmony with select trees."

"So it was translocated here and staved… It looks like there's nothing else here, let's move on."

-

Investigating other sites it quickly became apparent that Ke and her people were part of the lucky minority which had managed to survive on Marex 4, as Dax, Solaris and Ke only found remains of different creatures, that is until they reached the 4th anomaly. Not even completely out of the CAS-7A, a massive arrow suddenly bounced off Dax's hurriedly prepared defensive spell formation. 

"Well, at least there's life here."

Examining the colourfully fletched arrow as he gave out that nonchalant comment, Dax stomped his foot into the ground and created a defensive wall of bedrock which quickly absorbed another hail of arrows. Done with being on the defensive, Solaris formed a lance out of condensed light while Ke opened up her arms wide as a complicated pattern of bright red, glowing runes spread out all over her body, but before either of them got to fire their spells, Dax intervened.

"Yeah, no. We're here in peace, hold your fire Solaris."

"... Fine."

While instructing his subordinate not to engage, Dax gave Ke a reproachful glace which had the same effect. Stepping forth past his defensive line, Dax scanned the forest ahead as he dodged another arrow clearly meant for his head before he removed his helmet, showing that he wasn't a machine, despite what his XMRA armour indicated. With the attacks seizing immediately after that, Solaris and Ke also lowered their level of hostility slightly, although both of them were still ready to slaughter whoever had tried to kill Dax just now.

Without knowing it, the two of them had already made common ground.

Waiting for a slightly less hostile response, Dax continued monitoring the 'people' hiding in the nearby vegetation as their leaders decided on what to do, he even sent covert bursts of bloodlust towards the ones which still wanted to kill him to suppress them. Before long a group of figures started emerging from their hiding places before cautiously starting to approach Dax, and as he dismissed the CAS-7A it seemed they calmed down a bit more before finally making the first contact.

(So first it was lamia's and now it's centaurs and what looks to be some kind of dark elver… What's next? An arachnid?)

This time it appeared that Dax was dealing with at least two different species, first of which were a group of muscle clad half humanoid, half horse men and women with large bows which Dax figured had fired the almost spear sized arrows at him earlier. The second group had long, narrow ears not entirely unlike the ones Lilly sported, but that's where the similarities ended. With obsidian black skin covered in tribal tattoos, white or grey hair which was mostly braided, strong bodies standing at least 2 meters tall and eyes which had black sclera and purple iris', these creatures were radically different from the elves Dax had met before.

(Okay, two more instances of first contact to make… I really hope we can wrap all this diplomacy up before the Emergence crashes the party.)