Effects of an extraterrestrial beings interference (3)

[EXTREME MANA SIGNATURE DETECTED]

"Go to alert state 1! And give me a position immediately."

At the base build around what remained of the second orb, Dax awoke of his meditation and sprang into action. Over the last 4 days, Dax and the available 4 drones had completely broken down the orb and started to process it into base materials, with the help of 2 additional zero-g forges constructed form rare metals present in the orb. Therefore the 'orb' was not so much an orb anymore, and more like a basecamp where the expected equipment of such status had been prepared.

In the very centre of the camp were a dirt covered bunker, made of high tensile reinforced concrete made from a mix of metal slag from the orb refining and pulverised rock found in the surroundings. The bunkers main purpose was to house and protect a server cluster made from the last leftovers of the drop pod. The cluster was powered by a low output fusion reactor able to pump up and refine water into tritium from groundwater.

The server cluster's main purpose was to offload the processing load of Dax's ICI and it ran everything in and around the base, from schematic work to guard supervision. placed around the base was 12 concrete pillars each 3 meter high topped improvised turrets, all armed with a REX-334's and was powered trough buried wires running to the main bunker, even ammunition could be transported from there through a buried pneumatic system. With the protection of the base covered by the improvised turrets, and the server handling tasking of and manufacture of drones Dax had found himself quite free, and spent most of the day meditating, that is until ICI had warned him of a large scale mana signature. Instantly moving the base to the highest alert state, manufacture of the 20 new REX-Delta 04 Cyclops' stopped as all non essential power was cut and the already constructed drones stopped construction work and gathered on Dax as he waited for a location of the treat.

[MANA SIGNATURE PASSED, EVENT OVER.]

"What the fuck?"

[MANA SIGNATURE APPEARED TO BE A BURST.]

"And where did it come from?"

[SOME 70 KILOMETERS FROM BLACK HOLLOW.]

"WHA!- Say that first! Prepare all drones to move out NOW!"

Rushing to his feet, Dax quickly went into the main bunker and grasped a large reinforced weapon case, some 3 and a half meters long. Having grabbed the case, Dax also took a gauss rifle and quickly started running towards Black Hollow.

[SOURCE LOCATED BY COMSAT-1, DOWNLOADING RENDER.]

As ICI shared a satellite video live feed of the threat, Dax released all his limiters and rushed ahead.

[COMMANDER BREAKING FORMATION.]

"Shut up and make them follow me!"

[NOT REC-]

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE IF THEY BREAK! OVERLOAD NOW!!"

[AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.]

"JUST FUCKING DO IT!"

[CONFIRMED, ALL CYCLOPS' NOW OPERATING ABOVE FACTORY SPECIFICATION STRESS LIMITS.]

Now barely able to keep up with Dax, the drones clearly operated way above any safety margins as they had a hard time even dodging smaller obstacles like branches and such, smashing through them.

[INCOMING COMMUNICATION FROM UNIT 02.]

["WAITWAITWAIT!! We need to speak with Dax, It's an emergency!"]

["There's a serious problem so we need to talk now!"]

"So Alice and the disappointment? Check for counterfeit signatures."

[SUBJECT, 'ALICE' AND 'DISAPPOINTMENT' CONFIRMED. LIFTING LEVEL 4 RESTRICTION.]

"So it is them, just tell the kids to stay put and then make your way to the outer wall."

[DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED….. COMMUNICATION COMPLETE.]

"Good then link me in and initiate full domination, Spectors too."

[NOT ADVISED, RAW SENSOR FEED AT 5 PETABYTES PER SECOND.]

"That would be a bit much to process by myself while fighting…. Override, suppress server cluster ICI OS and task array to handle sensory overflow, use 5 Specktors to set up a high speed databrige."

[OVERRIDE CONFIRMED, TASKING 5 GUARDIAN SPECTERS FOR DATA CONNECTION, STANDBY.. DATABRIDGE ESTABLISHED SERVER CLUSTER BASE OS SUPPRESSED, OVERFLOW NOW POSSIBLE.]

"Initiate full domination."

[PREPARING FOR CUSTOM MIND DOMINATION. WARNING: COMPLETE MIND MELT IN EFFECT, ALL GUARDIAN SPECTOR'S AT 500 MS DELAY. EXPECTED CORRUPTION AT 100% PATTEN BLACK NOW IN EFFECT.]

Guardian Specter

The Guardian Specter is the highest class of stealth communication and surveillance offered by Guardian's robotics division after the failure of their drone platform race against REX heavy industries. Tracing it's way back to the dawn of fourth generation warfare, the unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV have been a cornerstone of information gathering, and the Specter is a modern implementation of that doctrine. Taking the shape of a cylinder about 20 centimetres high and 60 wide, the monocopter drone is powered by a single counter rotating rotor and it's lightweight design packed to the brim with sensor and communication equipment. The Specter gets its name from its advanced stealth capabilities, taking advantage of first generation low resolution active camouflage. The low resolution optical camouflage proved extremely capable in active warfare, as a slew of Spectors was always operating at high altitude, making it not impossible to locate, but in most cases simply not worth it to find and try to shoot down a single UAV at a time when there often are multiple redundant Spectors ready to take over traffic and/or mark hostiles for elimination.

"[I have control.]"

In a single second Dax's vision extended out way past his field of view, with the help of the Spectors he suddenly saw everything.

"[That really is a large lizard..]"

As sensors trained in on the current treat Dax saw what he could only describe as a dragon, large reptile wings that somehow still couldn't explain extremely fast flight, and shiny reflective green scales covered all its body, from head to tail.

(Why the hell does a dragon exist in this world?... Those scales look tough, so glad I bought the R04 special)

Making his way to the outer wall, Dax dropped the weapon case for the drones and jumped cleanly above the wall, landing somewhere in the industrial district. 2 of the drones picked up the weapon case and hurled it up the wall with great difficulty, after scaling the wall they ran in formation to the place at the wall the dragon was most likely to encounter first. Not caring for the confused guards, the drones carefully put down the weapons case and opened it. Inside was something entirely alien to the inhabitants of a world of magic. About 2 meters long and over half a meter wide, the strange machinery appeared to weigh an absurd amount as it took 3 drones to lift it out the case, cracking the stone floor below. The heavy machinery looked like a single barrel with 2 thirds covered in thick sequential armour plates on both sides.

[ENTERING SIGE MODE. EXTENDING STABILIZERS, STAND CLEAR.]

Not willing to doubt the strange golems in the process of setting up what looked like some sort of strange cannon, the surrounding guards stood back and spikes extended from the bottom of the cannon and pieced the stone floor, locking the equipment in place.

[STABILIZERS DEPLOYED. ENTERING SIGE MODE, EXTENDING AUXILIARY RAILS.]

As the odd machinery extended to solid looking metal square rods, making the construction about 3 meters long.

[GUARDIAN R04 SPECIAL CLASS ANTI MATERIAL RAILGUN DEPLOYED, INITIATE PRIMARY READY STATE CHARGING.]

Guardian R04 Special class anti material railgun.

Born of a collaboration between Guardian's 5th prototype division and the 125th Hellwalkers the R04 is properly the most extreme example of miniaturization in the Galactic empire. The idea of a man portable railgun has long been considered a pipe dream, with the difficulty of constructing durable, man portable rails capable of withstanding sustained fire, a pipe dream that has run multiple companies into bankruptcy. But money always talks, after a longer than necessary siege of some far off planet, that was needlessly extended by a lack of high powered air support due to extreme hostile air cover, Hellwalker command expressed interest in the pipe dream. Throwing an absurd amount of money at Guardian's 5th prototype division, and cooperating with testing directly, the 125th Hellwalkers soon found themselves in the possession of a level of firepower that was until that point only found on fire support vehicles in form of the R04. Galactic senate doubted the authenticity of the weapon, however, prompting an investigation of the military command, being accused of funnelling money at some bogus project, promoting declassification of footage showing a single unnamed female qiton wielding the system solo and using it to utterly obliterate a bunker complex, forever ingraining the effectiveness of Guardian industries and the 125th Hellwalkers.

[PRIMARY READY STATE CHARGING COMPLETE, RAIL WARMUP COMPLETE, MOVING ALL CYCLOPS' TO WAR LEVEL OUTPUT, PURGING HEATSINK COVER AND ENGAGING AIR COOLING.]

Having completed the initial setup of the railgun, the drones now readied themself for combat as their reactors went into overdrive. Purging armour covers on their backs, multiple metal fans like the one in Dax had extended from their backs.

[AIR COOLING ONLINE, WAR LEVEL OUTPUT CONFIRMED.]

As each of the drones cooling arrays started glowing bright red, they all gathered around the railgun.

[CONTACT ESTIMATED IN 5 MINUTES, RO4 SELF CHARGE READY IN 10. TASKING UNIT 04 AND 05 FOR OVERLOAD.]

While two of the drones grabbed conductive surfaces to speed up the charging, Alice and Terra arrived, Terra, having heard when the R04 was put in place.

"What the hell is that?"

"You're the one with sight, please tell me"

"Looks like some sort of… cannon? I think it's something Dax brought along, judging by his drones guarding it."

"Miss Ranger do you have any idea what this is?"

Curious about Alice's apparent knowledge about the strange golems and machine, the wall guards gathered around.

"Most likely some sort of weapon. it's probably our best chance at beating that flying lizard or scaring it off."

"Oooh! But I've never seen this kind of weaponry before, is it some sort of new thing from the capital?"

"Not quite.. Anyone saw a large demonkin like man around?"

"No, only the strange golems."

["I have a name you know, by the way why are you kids here?"]

"Kyaa! Please stop that disgusting habit already!"

While Alice and Terra had talked with the guards a single drone had walked up behind Terra and spoke right into her ear.

["Nah I'm good, why are you girls here?"]

"We-"

"We're not kids! We're here to help in any way we can!"

In response to Terra's outburst, the drone looked like it was smiling.

["I'll be sure to hold you to that then"]

"By the way where are you right now Dax?"

["Over at Alex's workshop having a beer while the drones do the footwork"]

"Wha-!"

["That was a joke, you really have no sense of humour Terra, so pathetic. I'm in route, be there in a minute."]

"Get here now, the dragon is almost here!"

["Okay okay, then take a step back or you'll be crushed~"]

"What the hell are you-"

"Watch out!"

Not getting to finish her sentence, Alice pulled Terra backwards, right as Dax landed with a bang.

["Here I am~ Now I assume you girls are here to help?"]

"Are you insane!"

["you already know the answer to that question Terra~ "]

As Dax answered Terra's rhetorical question he handed two large rectangular shields over to the drones.

["Now any of you guards know how to kill a green scaled dragon?.. no, no one? Well, I have a pretty good idea how, but I'll need help from all of you."]

"C-can you really kill it?"

["You see that cannon behind me?"]

"Is that a cannon? It doesn't really look like one?"

["That's because it's a railgun, while I have no idea how tough that dragons scales are, this railgun can punch right through it. Problem is the charge time, the railgun is ready to fire in about 5 minutes, the dragon will be here in 3."]

"T-then what are we gonna do?"

["It's simple, we piss it off"]

"I knew it... So can we help out somehow?"

["Of course my dear Alice~ Grab a gauss rifle, what about you Terra?"]

"S-sure I'll help out!"

["Good~ Alice teach her how to use a gauss rifle, you both have 3 minutes"]

Handing Terra his reaper mask, Dax shooed them off to the side and then addressed the guards.

["Now I'll also need the help from you guys, keep any other bystanders and guards away from here. I know there are some more… problematic elements among the guards and I don't want them messing up my attempt at killing the dragon, so block them off and keep them from interfering"]

""""""Yes sir!""""""

While flashing his black guild tag, Dax firmly established himself as the de facto commander over the guards present, and somehow each one of them swore loyalty to him internally.

["Good. Then let's get to killing this flying pest~ Split up into 2 man cells and block the entry points to my area of operations!"]