Chapter 72 : Settle Down

Axion slowly opens her eyes. Her mind told her to get up, but her body begs to differ. She musters her strength to at least look at her surroundings.

"She's awake! Guys, she's awake!" Rum Exclaimed.

Axion slightly moves her head to see Rum standing by her bedside. A band-aid still sticks on her forehead.

"Oh, good morning," said Ramenman as he walked closer near Rum.

Ramenman's condition is no better. It looks like he broke his left arm. His left arm is covered with bandages and hangs on his chest.

Albi followed with a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

Axion braces herself and forces her body to slightly get up. Stinging pain begins to stroke her body like hundreds of needles. She caught a glimpse of Kaizo, leaning on a wall not far from her bed and Lahap sitting on a sofa.

"Ah, you shouldn't force yourself," said Rum.

Axion looked at her surroundings. The only bed in the room is Axion's bed. It's a medical room for one person.

"Shouldn't you both rest too? I can't believe the doctor let you spend time in someone else's medbay," said Axion.

"Nah, we're good. We were told to stay off duty for a while but we don't need to stay in bed," said Ramenman.

"I see. That's good to hear," Axion replied.

Shortly later, Admiral Maskmana comes in.

Both Rum and Ramenman give a salute. "Admiral!" they greet.

Admiral Maskmana waves his hand. "There's no need for such formalities with this condition. I need to have some words with Axion." He turns at Albi. "My apologies, Captain."

"It's quite alright. It is just right for an Admiral to tend to his crew. I'll come again later on," said Albi before he walks out.

Kaizo's team looked at each other with a strain on their faces for a moment before they decided to leave the room.

Admiral Maskmana calmly pulls a chair and sits beside Axion. "How's your feeling?" he asks.

"I need time to fully recover. But overall, I feel fine," said Axion.

"I see...."

The Admiral fell silent for a moment.

"Why did you do that?" Admiral Maskmana asked.

Axion looked at him in silence. Waiting for him to give more detail on his question.

"Back then at Circus Maxima. You could've used your darkness instead of your ice magic. Wouldn't it be much easier to kill them with your darkness power instead of freezing yourselves to capture them alive?"

Axion softly smiled. She looked down at her frostbitten hands. The bandage that covered her hand is thick, but she can still see cold air seeping out.

"It's not like me, isn't it? To put myself at risk in order to reduce death casualty," said Axion.

"...you're right. It's not like you to take the efforts of capturing criminals alive instead of putting them on death sentence without proper trial," Admiral Maskmana replied.

"Honestly, I'm not sure," said Axion. "...it was based on an impulse." She sighed. "I don't know what drove me to make such a decision. It was an option that came to my mind at that time," she continues.

"...I see," said The Admiral.

Axion looked at the Admiral. "The raid."

"I thought you would ask about it so I sent the raid report to your mail along with your medical report. You can access it with your special account," said Admiral.

"How's the situation now? Planet Circus might be small but it's highly populated. Even if you have combined power from several different stations, it would still take time to fully put things under control,"

"You're right. It took us roughly 3 hours to take control of the planet's borders. Stopping the people who protest around there took much longer," said Admiral Maskmana.

Axion chuckled. "They must be mad having us ruining their happy vacation. Traveling to Planet Circus is not cheap."

"Things have quite settled now. But there are still criminals hiding in the Planet's corners. It will take time to sweep the streets and thoroughly check the planet. The intergalactic police will do the rest." said Admiral Maskmana. "We're going back to Astraeus station as soon as I'm done with the formalities."

Admiral Maskmana gets up. "You should rest. Lay off work for a while. I'll inform you when we're ready to leave," he said before walking out of the room.

Axion tried to move her fingers. Her hand felt numb. She couldn't feel anything.

Axion sighed. "System command!" she exclaimed.

Two little drones flew towards her and showed a holographic screen. With voice command, she opened her mail.

Temporary Raid report.

With the combined help of Intergalactic Police, Rubrum army, TAPOPS, Tempur-A, and Astraeus station, Planet Circus is now sealed. The raiding party closed all exits, preventing people from going in or out. Chaos was unavoidable.

More than 1000 criminals have been caught and over 200 criminals have been shot on the spot. The leader of Circus Maxima, Diabolos, is now held in prison and will be examined for future investigation.

Details of raiding sequences are listed as follows.

-Taking over Planet Circus main borders. Stopping people from both entering or exiting.

-Crowd control around the borders.

-The raid and capture of Circus Maxima.

-Crowd control within Planet Circus.

-Sweeping for remaining criminals around the planets.

Planet Circus Current Status

- All civilians who have a proper identity card go through a quick interview before they're allowed to enter or exit Planet Circus.

-Planet sweeping led by Intergalactic police to apprehend the remaining fugitives.

-The Guruhan Army is in charge of detaining criminals and providing detention cells.