Bab 61: The Archangels Sanctuary (3)

Cresting a desolate mountain leading his group Dax stopped in his track and simply stared ahead, making Terra right behind him run up to him to ask what was wrong, before she herself simply stopped and stared herself.

"Well this is… Really impressive."

"It is yeah…"

Standing at the peak of the world about 5 clicks in front of them was a massive marble compound, but calling it simply a compound might be an understatement. Stretching out accorrs the cold and thin air of the highest mountain was a massive city complex of pure white marble with runic inscriptions and elaborate golden inscriptions, the scale of the sanctuary not unlike the megacities or gigafactories from Dax's Empire. Furthermore the entire complex appeared completely sealed without a single opening to the outside, with the only sign of some sort of life being massive golden spheres inscribed with complex runes floating around.

(ICI start virtual mapping and weak point analysis for possible enactment of Exterminatus.)

(DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED, COMPILING SENSORY DATA FOR RENDER AND MODELING.)

"Teresa pick up your jaw of the floor, you're representing a country. Let's go find a doorbell of some kind."

While admiring the gigantic sanctuary Dax was joined by Teresa, along with Marie, Marcus, Rei and Alice.

"You seem way to fine Dax.."

"Well yeah, I've conquered cities larger than this with a small squad in an afternoon~"

Delivering that line with a completely straight face coursed Alice in her exoskeleton to release a slight chuckle, while Terra sighed deeply.

"Again with the jokes…"

"What? You don't believe your teacher Terra?"

"No I don't, you taught me that, remember?"

"Touché, ICI unlock data cache #21 section 411, close quarter invasion of Ja'LI 3 -2."

[AFFIRMATIVE, UNLOCKING DATA CACHE #21, 411, TACTICAL LESSON ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTEGRATED FORMATION WARFARE FROM THE 125TH COMBINED OPS ORBITAL DROP TROOPERS….. ORDER COMPLETE, DATA CACHE SHARED TO CADET.]

"What the fuck did it just call me?"

"Cadet - A young trainee in the armed services. Basically a child, which you are, I'm going ahead."

Deciding he was done waiting for some sort of grand reception Dax took a few steps ahead and found stable ground, before setting off and jumping about 4 kilometers towards the sanctuary and landing as he kicked up a bunch of snow and debri.

"There he goes… Now what the hell did he share with me?"

Taking off her breather and replacing it with her pure white reaper mask Terra opened up the data packet, making her view change completely. As if possessing some other person Terra's view was that of some soldier inside some sort of cramped room along with 7 others, one of them she recognized.

"Is that Dax?... He looks younger somehow?"

Terra only caught a brief look at the younger Dax as he spoke some sort of alien language before putting on a sturdy helmet with a reflective visor. As the other soldiers did the same Terra realized she was watching looking through the eyes 8th soldier. Borrowing the eyes of the soldier Terra saw how she put on her own helmet, and her view was filled with information as she heard a familiar voice.

["We're fully isolated, let's go over the plan of attack one last time. Mark?"]

["Yes sir, a main uplink is 500 meters from the 54th dock which we're arriving at. While Lux is on overwatch I hack the terminal with Charles and Ra'Li while the rest cover, from there we declare state of war, then move to mindmelt level red and then take the over the city. Do you have anything to add Dax?"]

["I do. While they might just be local soldiers with Iron industrial class drones don't hold back or let your guard down! Any that take hits will have their vacation replaced with a training program, and if by God one of you fucks up and dies like an idiot I will personally break all the laws and revive that person, just so I can beat them to death with my bare hands! Understood!?"]

[""""SIR YES SIR!""""]

As if waiting for that moment in time a small lamp in one of the corners of the room turned from green to yellow.

["Lux take it from here."]

["Yes sir! Master armourer Lux Jameson, weapon inspection complete! Ready yellow, 1 minute confirm!"]

[CONDITION YELLOW CONFIRMED.]

["Yellow confirmed! Weapon condition yellow!"]

[""""Weapon condition yellow!""""]

With all the soldiers repeating her words as they inserted magazines into their weapons and primed them Terra realized she was observing from through the eyes of this 'Lux' person.

["30 seconds! Charles and Ra 8 to 10, Mark and Lukas 10 to 12, Andre and Zao 12 to 2, me and Dax 2 to 4!"]

With her those commands the the a large door suddenly opened and the soldiers rushed outside and spread out in a half circle formation outside what Terra realized was some sort of camouflaged landing craft. Outside was a mostly empty concrete field, with a few other craft parked. Scanning the area they found no activity, making Dax shout 'clear' over the coms and Lux ran around the craft and climbed on top of it, sitting down and crossing her legs, placing her left elbow on her left knee then used that arm to support her Rex-0999 squad support weapon.

["On overwatch"]

["Copy, moving out"]

Watching over her comrades as they made it to the edge of the landing zone where a small building was located.

["Breaching."]

Terra watched as one marine kicked open the door and immediately got into cover as another tossed in a flashbang that exploded in blinding light as a third marine with a compact weapon charged in followed by the others.

["GO GO GO!"]

["GET DOWN!"]

["RUNNER! LEFT!"]

["GET HIM!"]

["RUNNER DOWN! LEFT CLEAR!"]

["RIGHT CLEAR!"]

["ALL CLEAR! Move to lock down perimeter."]

With Dax's voice sounding over the coms not even 10 seconds after the door had been kicked open the fighting had stopped and the marines moved out of the building with a few confused and frightened civilians in handcuffs.

["Uplink secure! Mark do your magic"]

["Yes sir!"]

Waiting for a few minutes some sort of white noise suddenly started filling the area, making Terra realize that there was speakers all over the place, and then a massage started playing.

["Residents of Ja'LI 3 -2 station habitation complex 'Dawnstar' this is an declaration of war! In accordance with the rules of urban combat from the Bai'rfg treaty no civilians will be harmed, stop what you're doing, get down on your knees and place your hand behind your head to be considered a non combatant!..... I repeat-"]

As the massage continued looping Lux jumped down from the landing craft and rallied with the other marines.

["Let's get on with it, take your meds and prepare for mindmelt people"]

As the Marines took off their helmets and took and cocktail of different pills one of the captured civilians scoffed at them.

"What is it just you 8? This station garrisons over a thousand soldiers, not even counting the drones!"

"I know, I estimate a standing army of about 1057. That's why I bought 7 people with me, and 1057 rounds of ammo."

With a smile on his face as his subordinates all took some pills and injected themselves with syringes Dax took a deep breath while cracking his neck.

"Initiate mindmelt, level red."

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED. PREPARING FOR PARTIAL MIND MELT. WARING: MIND MELT IN EFFECT. EXPECTED CORRUPTION AT 22.57% PATTEN RED NOW IN EFFECT.]

With the marines mindmelted together Terra's vision and senses started to turn, strange. Suddenly her vision overlapped with a bunch of others from the other marines and Dax himself and sound suddenly came from different directions as if she suddenly had 8 pairs of ears."

"What the fuck…."

As the civilian witnessed Dax and the other marines sync up he felt a chill down his spine and he felt the blood drain from his face as the marines all equipped black facemask with white skulls painted on.

""""We have control, no irregularities detected, mindmelt nominal. All good. 125th Hellwalkers, 7th detachment, squad 44 commencing Dawnstar takeover.""""

From that point onwards it was a blur. Sensory input from all the marines mixed together constantly as they slaughtered their opponents. As if walls and cover didn't exist gunshots found their targets while their opponents seemed like they where reacting in slow motion with the tactical capacity of toddlers. About 2 hours later the last enemy soldier surrendered and was handcuffed as the mindmelt disengaged.

[MIND MELT TERMINATED, STARTING POST PATTERN RED CLEANUP AND EVALUATION.]

"That's the good shit! 1068 hostile combatants disabled with 2736 drones wrecked, all without civilian casualties! Beers on me, but first raise radio silence, let's end this proper."

Pulling out a over ear headset with a microphone from a pouch on his hip, Dax put it on and said a single sentence as Terra felt the datastream ending.

"This is squad 44, Dawnstar takeover complete."

"Terra come on it looks like Dax found a way inside."

As Marie tapped Terra her shoulder she snapped back to the desolate mountain in front of the Archangels sanctuary. Taking off her facemask Terra looked confused at Marie.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just give me a second… How long did I stand here?"

As Terra said that it was Marie's turn to look confused at Terra.

"5 minutes. Why did something happen?"

"I guess not.. I just felt like a couple of hours passed."

"What are you talking about? Come on let's go."

Standing for a bit while Marie went ahead Terra pondered for a bit before mumbling to herself.

"I guess he could take control of a city that size…. Well the inhabitants might be slightly more uncooperative…"

Sprinting to catch up with Marie and the others, Terra soon caught up to Dax, standing in front of a truly massive door lined with complex runes.

"That is a large door…"

"It is yeah…. How do we open it?"

Looking at the door for a bit Dax looked to ponder something, before turning to Alice.

"When in doubt, C4. Time for the RDX."

Coming to the conclusion to blow up the door Dax went to get plastic explosives off Alice's exoskeleton, and with that as the exact moment as a que as if rejecting the idea of blowing the door up it opened. Marcus and Rei being the most mana sensitive of the group felt it first.

"Master run away!"

"Your highness get behind me now!"

As the door slowly opened a cold golden light shone out from the inside, along with a massive pressure that even made Dax flinch slightly as he stopped himself from reflexively grabbing his pistol.

"What an immense presence you have in person."

"Ara~ I'll take that as a compliment, you're not half bad yourself, with that hidden bloodlust."

"Well I'm trying to be civil believe me."

Standing right on the other side of the door as it opened welcoming Dax and his group was an angel about the same height of Dax himself. Her most eye catching feature was her 3 pairs of, well, angel like pure white 1 and a half meter wings extending from her shoulders. Her eyes were like a entire sea of stars, with a bright white/green pupils staring at Dax like she was looking at his entire being like a biologist looking at a worm. Her silver hair was shoulder length, being braided up in a elaborate pattern with precious gems that coloured it like a rainbow with reflections and refractions. Her body was covered in what could be both taken as an ornate set of armor, and a luxurious wedding dress, with armor plates flowing like a skirt and a chest piece that looked like a priceless necklace with different coloured gems/refined monster cores. Her face was (of course) entirely flawless, with not even the inclination of a single imperfection to be seen, with a fair nose and bright red lips and pale eyebrows that didn't show a hint of hostility or happyness. Above her head floated a formation of golden halos, likely a effect of multiple defencive and offencive spell that had been formed and where ready for execution, which would explain the intense mana enhanced pressure the magic abled people in Dax's group were feeling. Inspecting the forring group one by one, lightly lifting a single brow when looking at Alice in her exoskeleton and the irrationally strong willed but slightly shaking Teresa the angels line of sight eventually settled on Dax before a thin smile formed on her face.

"Welcome to the Archangels 14th Sanctuary, Dax and comrades. I archangel Solaris of the high council welcome you with open arms, I hope your stay here will be to your absolute pleasure."

"I warmly accept your welcome Solaris~ It is nice to finally meet face to face."