The hivemind is conquering for me?

’Or maybe not.’ I thought to myself,

as I began chewing the bland brick of whatever I had just placed in my mouth. Orchid didn’t seem to care though. Food was food as she shovelled everything into her mouth.

Keyla was looking around curiously and upon realising that I had noticed her, she blushed and looked away. ”What’s with the cute reaction?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Keyla didn’t keep secrets from Apollo anymore, so she replied. ”It’s nothing really. I have just been in a lot of checkpoints like this. Both before and after my parents died. I’m just absorbing in the nostalgia.”

My curiosity for the human part of my short stack began to swell. ”Tell me about your parents, do you remember much about them?” I asked, wanting my curiosity sated.

Keyla leaned backing her chair, like the posturing aided in recollection, as she began. ”I don’t really remember what they look like that much, but I know what they did for work as its what got them murdered in front of me. They ran a private border consultant agency. Going from planet to planet offering their services, telling local forces how to reduce contraband, how to prevent and fix flaws in their borders etcetera. I actually picked up a lot as a kid, which is what ultimately helped me as I began my murder spree... Good Times...”

Now, I’d like to think that if any other serial killer was in front of me, I wouldn’t do this, but I reached out to Keyla and stroked her cheek. ”Tell me more about your time as this ’Sanguine Butcher’ period. Tell me about how you operated.”

Keyla became wet as Apollo’s hand reached out and spoke to her in that low, sensual tone. The fact that he wanted her to talk about her favourite hobby? That practically left her a gushing reservoir as she began with a smile on her face.

...

Centurion Milanna was making rounds, still adjusting to the quiet life. She smiled to herself as this was supposed to be her only job in the military. A quick in and out to resume her lavish lifestyle as the daughter of an Archon. But she fell in love at first sight to a beautiful woman named Hailey Athena and followed her footsteps into the optional courses of Spartari training, and developed quite the aptitude for leading warships. Ultimately leading to her current position.

As she looked outside towards the dome, Milanna spotted a ship with a large influx of her troops moving in and out. Milanna found this strange as the ship in question could not have been stopped for by law, as she had just overseen an inspection mere hours ago and this was a very slow lane.

Making her way outside, she noticed her deputy shouting orders to the troops. She managed to get right behind the man, her stylish boots clearly Making noise and yet the deputy was none the wiser.

”Deputy! How do you let a woman in heeled boots sneak up on you?” The deputy span around in reflex and readied his fist. Realising who he almost punched, his face drained of colour. ”C-Centurion! Forgive me I didn’t mean to react so hostile, I was just in the zone.”

Milanna looked the man up and down, leaving him incredibly self conscious as the new Centurion was beautiful after all, before asking. ”So what’s happening in there?

Milanna used her head to point in the direction of the ship causing the deputy to reply. ”We have an Archon on location wanting to refuel, which has been done. He however, also wanted his goods authenticating and now the quartermaster has gone mad checking every single one as he just cannot believe not a single one so far isn’t counterfeit.”

Milanna left the deputy and entered the VIP class ship. She didn’t have to enter far before her eyes went wide in surprise. She could recognise the metal immediately; She had an abundance of Jewellery made from it after all. ”How is there so much? What idiot carries around this much wealth without protection?”

”Hah! Tell me about it! Still can’t believe it’s all real. Now stop gawking and take this sample to- Oh Centurion! My mistake, I thought you were another of the riff raff, coming to look at the platinum with envy.”

As he said this,

a phalanx entered the room, saluting the Centurion before passing the quartermaster a result. ”And another one.” He murmured before stamping on top of another pile of platinum another certificate of authenticity.

”Quartermaster, why are you checking every single one?” Milanna couldn’t help but ask. ”Ah, legal reasoning. The Archon didn’t have a credit chip with him so he paid with one of the ingots. Instead of change he said he would donate the rest. To prevent it from being a bribe, i have to check every one even though I do trust the man.

”Oh you know this Archon personally quartermaster?” Milanna said, not meaning to sound amused by the notion. ”Archon Apollo? Not personally, but he’s been here a fair share of times and considering every time he has come, our previous Centurion mellowed out significantly so we are all sort of appreciative of him in a way haha!”

The quartermaster stopped laughing very quickly as the face of the current Centurion became scarier than anything Hailey had ever shown. ”Archon Apollo Lambdason?” She growled through clenched teeth. The quartermaster could only nod his head. A looming presence surrounded him and he felt like he would piss himself if he did anything else.

Milanna looked around the Archon’s ship. Sure enough the fucker came to see her Hailey. He was probably on his way to find her and she promised her future lover that she would inform her if Apollo came and left. But if he couldn’t leave for a time...

”Quartermaster!” She yelled causing the man to come to attention. ” I am ordering this ship to be temporarily ceased. I have suspicions about the legality of these goods. No one in or out of this ship until I say otherwise. Understand?”

’Not in the slightest.’ He thought to himself, but saluted all the same before walking away to give the order. Milanna smiled evily to herself as she.Oops. knocked over a large stack of platinum. ’I can’t wait to see the look on your face when I tell you, you aren’t going anywhere near my Hailey anytime soon!’

...

As Keyla began going into the tensile strength of human intestines, I was glad I had an excuse to stop her from talking as someone approached.

The woman approaching was roughly 5ft7, but with her heels and the way she held herself in such an authoritative way that radiated a confident power, she appeared much taller. I was able to identify her position as the armour she wore was regal and sophisticated like Haileys was.

Unlike Haileys however, her armour featured a more prominent blackness to it with the red being an accent colour alongside the gold. As the woman approached, I could confidently say from my experience that Spartari made some genuinely beautiful Centurions.

The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, but could be significantly older as I could sense psionic energy about her being. She has blonde wavy hair that was currently down to just below her shoulders. Her eyes were a golden colour that really popped with the golden accents on her armour. The eyes despite their bright appearance felt as though they had a slight darkness to them as she approached. She has narrow eyebrows, a small, streamline nose and a set of plumped lips.

All in all she was a genuinely attractive individual and as I stood up to greet her, she put out her hand to stop me from speaking. ”Archon Apollo, I have ceased your vehicle on the grounds of the contents within. Until I can verify the legitimacy of your goods and make sure they are not

stolen, your ship will remain here.”

Orchid stood up slowly, her hostility oozing out of herself towards the female in front of her. Millanna felt a chill go throughout her body at the gaze, but held firm. It would be a death sentence to attack her after all.

Grabbing Orchid by the shoulder, I put her back down in her seat before looking the Centurion up and down.

This was it! Milanna wanted to see her rival beg, degrade himself before her so she could prove to Hailey that she was superior to this barely attractive man before her.

I eyed the woman for a moment, trying to figure out her angle, once I think I had it, I replied. ”OK, thanks for letting us know. We can wait.” I then sat down and picked up my drink, ignoring the gazes of everyone.

The Centurion seemed puzzled by my response and lingered or a moment as though I was going to say something else. Bu perhaps it wa because she grew impatient, or Keyla and Orchids death stares, but she eventually walked away. Once she did so, my two lovelies looked at me confused. ”What? Violence isn’t the answer to everything. I have connections to ’powerful’ people here remember? Now excuse me a moment.”

Keyla and Orchid looked at each other before watching me walk across the room towards the on base communicator.

Picking it up, I called the only number I remembered, as the woman made me sing it to her once at the club while she was doting on me.