330 Contact 3

The moment Dax got back to the Lazarus battlecruiser and took off his helmet he showed a grim expression as he started giving direct orders to Ra and Mu, something the pair seemed surprisingly okay with, which was not unexpected given the current situation.

"Sure… Then is it really true? Did we-"

"Yeah, we did. Mu confirmed it herself."

Not only had the latest encounter revealed multiple vulnerabilities in Mu's communications systems, Dax had also finally succeeded in identifying the mysterious 3rd party which had been helping the Emergence, but out of the multiple possibilities, it had been the absolute worst option of the bunch.

"The rest of you with me, I'll bring the rest of you up to speed with a briefing."

While Ra and Mu started the long and arduous task of securing the communications system, Dax brought the rest of the combat personnel along with Ke who immediately picked up on his serious mood.

"We've happened upon the worst case scenario, although it hasn't been confirmed I'm now working on plans together with Ra and Mu that supports a high confidence that the 3rd party that has been aiding the Emergence is the same race which created the qitons."

"... So, we're fighting our creators?"

As expected, the first one to react to such news was Phillipa who acted very conflicted to such news. Even if Phillipa didn't consider herself religious or a traditional qiton, the idea of fighting against her creators which were worshipped and so deeply ingrained in her culture wasn't something she was particularly happy about.

"Look on the bright side Phillipa, they are a challenge like none other."

Dax, of course, knew she would react in that fashion, so he immediately appealed to her qiton sensibilities, with the will to fight strong opponents being chief among those.

"I would expect no less from our dear creators… Well, I'll stick with you for now Dax."

"I appreciate that Phillipa, I really do."

With Phillipa and Dax sharing a moment most of the people not really understanding, a somewhat awkward silence fell over the room, that is until Lilly who was starting to get annoyed because she couldn't follow along finally broke it.

"So, why is this even such a big deal? Now we know what we're fighting against, isn't that a good thing, so why the sombre mood?"

"Because if this spreads to the rest of the Empire, it's going to shake it to its foundation, if not outright fracture it."

"The administrative AI which is one third of the central government was made by them and is still loyal to its creators."

Seeing Lilly's confusion at Lux's answer, Dax added to the explanation which started making Lilly and the others aware of the implications.

-

After the first contact with his creators, friction and mistrust from the galactic navy over his vague reports continued souring their relationship as they pushed further into Emergence space, but as Dax had placed control of information above all else there was really nothing he could do about it.

"And that's a critical failure, you've just killed yourself and your entire crew."

While Dax continued to deal with the invasion and infighting in the operational unit, Ra found herself with a surprising amount of free time while Mu was reworking the entire communications infrastructure, she used this time to help Ke become a hellwalker.

"Wait, what? How?"

While Ke had a keen sense of combat which in some parts already was on Dax's level, she struggled with other duties hellwalkers were expected to perform, such as naval combat.

"Your last manoeuvre took your fleet straight into a minefield, about 70% of your fleet was destroyed before anyone even knew what was going on."

"Shit… This really is confusing."

Although she was a fast learner, Ke still made the occasional critical mistake that would lead into serious trouble, this was not because she made those mistakes consciously, but because she still wasn't used to all the new terms and rules which she had learned at record speed. While Ra figured she would eventually grow out of those issues, the speed Ke improved at was still too slow for her liking, something which started to frustrate her.

"Let's go again."

"... Sure, that's a good idea."

"And what-"

[IMI TO ALL CREW: MASTER ALERT, READY FOR ACCELERATION.]

Before Ke could respond to Ra's sarcastic remark, a ship wide broadcast forced them to halt all simulations as the battlecruiser had entered combat.

On the bridge Dax remained calm as numerous warning flashed up on his screen, those warnings steamed from a sudden spike in heat from a nearby planet of the system they had just entered, this spike in heat was so extreme that the relatively unassuming ball of metal now glowed as almost as brightly as the encased main sequence star it orbited. All of a sudden this light cut short before the very space seemed to warp, in response one of the galactic navy battleships violently ripped apart as a multitude of warnings flashed.

"So, a gravity weapon of some sort? What's the range to target?"

[1604 LIGHT SECONDS TO TARGET.]

Perhaps it was due to the scorn he had been constantly receiving from the navy or due to his genetic and chemical makeup, but Dax didn't really care that much about the friendly ships and the sailors which died around him if anything he felt deep down that the current mission to exterminate the Emergence could be done faster if it was left to him alone, that way there was no need to hold back, no need to express his non existent grief over the loss of his allies.

It was around this time Dax well and truly abandoned the Galactic Empire in honesty, he simply didn't care for the rotten institution of power which had created him anymore as he had found people who loved him.

(They better not continue to slow me down, this is the last campaign before my exodus. If the navy drags me down I'll leave them behind.)

"It's charging again."

"Yeah it is, do you have the precise signal source locked down?"

"Not yet."

"Then don't fire, we don't want to distinguish ourselves from the pack."

"Roger."

By not firing until they had a solid lock on the core facility inside the planet, Dax chose to sacrifice the other navy units to buy time as the Lazarus battlecruiser cut thrust and let the navy units continue their charge alone. As Phillipa and Mu continued to work on identifying the core, Solaris looked ahead at the other navy ships which disappeared off into the distance, even though she wanted to fire off a spell which could save them, Dax wouldn't allow her to do so before they had found the gravity weapons weak point.

"Now?"

"Wait for it Solaris, we need a proper lock first."

"Fine…"

While she impatiently waited, Solaris continued to enhance the base of her spell, but before that command came, two other navy ships fell to the gravity attacks as they were ripped apart by gravitational tidal forces. Walking to her ready position, Solaris took a stand right in front of the bridge, if she extended her hand she would hit the armoured sections which separated her from the cold vacuum of space.

[ECHO DRIVE ONLINE, WAITING FOR TASKING.]

"Target locked, go ahead Solaris."

"Roger! Lighting spear of the prophet!"

Not wanting to delay for another split second, Solaris formed a spear out of lighting in front of her outstretched hand, at the same time the Lazarus battlecruisers mana drive lit up in a roar. With a core of elemental magic, the imitation drive of the mana generator surrounded Solaris' spell with a non elemental 'echo' which greatly enhanced her spell as it shot off at near light speed towards the metal rich planet, having seemingly little effect on the surface as it only left a 10 centimetre wide entry hole, but after Solaris had hit it, the gravitational weapon hidden inside the planet fell silent.

"Target hit, good job Solaris."

"Thanks."

While Solaris wasn't exactly happy about the losses they had suffered while Phillipa and Mu confirmed the position of the core, Dax was even more frustrated, the reason being that the navy had known about the fortification but somehow failed to share that with Dax's unit.

"Mu can you crack the navy's data fortress? I want to make sure they're not hiding more critical intel like this."

"Sure I can crack it, I'm the one that made it for them, but they're going to know someone breached it."

"That's fine. Seeing as they don't want to share I see no reason to mind them."

While talking with Mu, Dax blocked multiple hails from the navy, he figured if they didn't want to share critical intelligence before a fight, there was no reason he would need to debrief them after the fact.