The hivemind is conquering for me?

I woke up and the rest of the morning went by in a blur. The Mercenaries did a thorough job overnight and the dig sight was now fully filled back in. Kathrine’s tent was being taken back into the ship by her staff while she sat on a sunchair drinking a tea to soothe her throat , something she had taken up doing relatively recently.

It was another hour before all ships were ready to take off to the next set of coordinates. I did not see Mindy before we set off and I just assumed she was still asleep to a hangover. The next set of coordinates were 3000 miles away and by exiting and re-entering the atmosphere, we were there in no time.

Exiting the Thanatos, I was immediately glad I decided to wear my armour. Sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Fortunately My armour is pressurised so no desert dust will be getting inside.

While the dig teams were busy setting up, I followed Kathrine into her tent that was priority 1 for the set up team and was done almost as soon as I left the ship. She wasted no time in getting into her hot tub to battle the heat as the water inside had yet to heat up.

Looking at me she groaned in disgust and whispered, for the sake of her throat. “Goodness Apollo, take that thing off. Its hotter than the sun in here and you are making me feel sick.” I laughed at her, before deciding that since there is no sand in here, I would remove my suit and join her.

The water was close to icy, but that did not affect me in the slightest. “Kathrine, my suit is pressurised and can survive in space. Not to mention heat regulated. If you want, You can get in it for a while and use it as a portable ac suit.”

Kathrine said no follow up, but her eyes shone brightly and she nodded her head vigorously. Kathrine and I stayed in the tub a while longer, until her excitement for getting out of the dreadful heat got the better of her.

Chuckling at her eagerness I got out of the water myself and opened the suit for her. As she got in and the suit closed around her, I immediately set the suit to keep her cool, yet not cold. An audible sigh escaped from the helm as Kathrine now had her shield against the dreaded desert heat.

The rest of the day went by in a blur as Kathrine and I stayed in the tent. When the next day rolled around, A commotion from the dig site convinced us to leave the tent. The digging went much faster in the sand as no rock and to be bored through.

Now in the middle of the desert, A staircase was visible leading down into a dark oblivion. Looking at Kathrine I said. “Kat, its time, get out of my suit.” Kathrine began to hug herself, afraid to take off the comfort she was feeling. “But its too hot out there handsome.” She said acting spoilt.

At this point it was not up for debate, I opened My suit and Kathrine fell out, I was glad she decided to at least get dressed this morning as she got back in, as I did not want to publicly humiliate her. Kathrine grumbled as she walked away, the heat already souring her mood.

As I got back into my armour, I noticed Paul nearby and walked over to him. “Hey Paul, are you leading the search force again?” “Hey Apollo, not not this time. Tuarox has decided to volunteer for the full exploration this time. Everyone else is obviously glad as they want to get back into the ships where its cooler.”

“Ha. I don’t blame them. Anyway I’m bored. Can you tell Dolan when he gets here I am going down as a vanguard? Thanks.” I waited not to see if Paul agreed or not and started descending the staircase. From behind he did affirm, but I was too excited for the prospect of more fighting.

The Dino’s from the other day awakened my fighting spirit once more and I wanted to see what the desert had in store for me.

30 minutes later, Dolan and his crew made their way to the staircase. The man in question was In a foul mood. His men had stolen something of extreme value to him and as punishment, they were being forced to work all day in the heat as no one would confess to stealing anything. It did not help that when asked what was stolen, He would not respond and instead yell at them even more.

Looking down the staircase, he was about to tell his men to move when He noticed a pair of purple eyes in the black coming closer. He raised his weapon in case the thing was dangerous, but as it grew closer, he recognised what it was. It was Kathrine’s walking tank, and from the posture he took, he looked sad.

At the top of the stairs, I grew surprised that there were people there. “Oh hey.” I spoke as I continued to move. “Hey, wait Apollo.” Dolan commented. “What’s got you down?” “Oh there was nothing to fight down there, I got my hopes up. Still, a good day for you, a lot of valuable stuff is down there, have fun.” I sulked to them before leaving for the tent once more.

My comment was an understatement. As Dolan and his men would soon found out. In these coordinates was a mercenaries dream. Literal tonnes of precious materials and gemstones. Dolan wanted to get greedy and horde as much as he could, but he was a man of honour and informed the other mercenaries of his findings.

The lowered moral of the dessert heat was swiftly blown away as for the next three days crates of rare goods were hauled out of the underground, forgotten vault of ancient Spartari and lined the mercenaries with the bonus of a lifetime.

On the evening of the third day, Kathrine invited the leaders of the companies for a meeting in her tent. “Good evening everyone, thank you for coming this evening.” Kathrine said from the head of the table. To her left Caleb spoke. “Hey, you’re the boss, boss. You call we come running.” Next to Caleb sat Dolan. “Oh lady Kathrine, before we begin.

I would just like to say thank you for not overtiming the crews on this haul. We may be behind schedule a little, but the reward is what they need to forget the heat.”

“Of course Dolan, I was not going to work your crew to death in this heat when I can barely stand it myself. But the reason I called this meeting is an issue regarding my leniency.” Kathrine began before being cut off. “Let me guess, you want want us to whip our men into maximum overdrive when we arrive at the next Location?” Jacob said two seats away from me on, on the right side of Kathrine.

“Precisely so. I know manual labour is not fun for you lot, but it is imperative we find the artifact in the time frame given. If we don’t find what we are looking for by this time next week, the retrieve part of the search and retrieve contract will be voided.” Talk of not receiving payment sent the two hired merc group leaders into steely silence.

Caleb’s smile widened, thankful he was not in the same boat as the other two groups.

“Fine. But we want a 10% bonus for working our crews to the bone.” Jacob demanded. Kathrine was about to retort, before I butted in. “1%, but for each day of hard work, that percentage goes up another percentage. Remember, this overwork is a just in case scenario. We may find what we are looking for straight away tomorrow, or in the midweek.

I think a variable bonus is fair for a variable worktime.”

Dolan nodded his head. “That sounds reasonable to me. Besides, the tough work will be a good punishment for my crew as they still haven’t returned something they stole from me.” Mindy who was sat next to me, curled her lips inward and looked down as she remembered what was stolen from him.

“Mindy what about you, does that seem fair?” I asked. Mindy snapped her head up and stared me in the eyes a moment, a light blush appeared on her face before she composed herself. “Yes more than fair, wouldn’t you say so Jacob?” She said turning to her right. Jacob grumbled to himself a moment before uttering “Fine.”

Upon agreement, Kathrine shot me a surprised and thankful look as she had not asked for my help in that matter. As a reward, as the group moved onto basic camp logistical reports, she kept my left leg company with her foot.

It was a pleasant distraction for a while, until another foot decided to keep my right leg company, coming from the opposite direction of where Kathrine sitting…