The hivemind is conquering for me?

After the Sithrik ambush the rest of the flight was hassle free. Having been accepted as my ’concubine’ she also mellowed out and spent the rest of the trip in a calm resting state, though a part of her tail was always attached to me.

I felt so confused. I mean, I was not familiar with snake customs. This was happening very fast... Plus I am not attracted to snakes as things currently stand. But Sithrik was a very nice lady, so I decided to treat her as I would any of my friends for the time being.

Onyx was satisfied with this train of thought as I could feel her both finding the situation extremely humorous while also being jealous of the snake.

There was a joke about bugs vs snakes to be made somewhere, but I feared if I told it to Onyx, she being one of the few that actually would, will attack me over it. Like she has done on some of the occasions I have called her crazy.

I was lying in bed with two observers watching me. The plan to share with Nerissa went out the window with our snake companion joining us.

Whilst I was lying there, conserving energy, an alert suddenly went throughout the ship’s speakers.

”Warning. Exiting FTL travel in sixty seconds”

Hearing that. I stood up, walked over to my armour that was in standby mode, to help integrate the minigun faster, and climbed in.

I took a moment to loosen up before nodding. ”Alright, let’s go meet with the others.”

...

Shortly after jolting out of FTL, everyone was already at the viewport of the ship looking out into space.

As I joined them, my eyes went wide. ’Yes. Now this is what I am talking about.’

Hundreds, if not thousands of ships ranging from small frigates to large Syracusias. And they were all firing into a gap of space above the oval planet of Lleon T1 towards the enemy ship’s way off in the distance, the Drakoshi.

This was naval combat at its finest and other than the danger of being in this place, it was freaking awesome!

After admiring the view for a few moments, I turned to look for my friends and found them a bit off to the side. I walked over to them before blurting out upon seeing Tamara.

”Woah, Tammy. That armour is awesome!”

Tamara was wearing a silver and black suit of tight form fitting combat armour with spikes on the shoulders and greaves. There were slight traces of a pink glow in some of the less protected parts of the armour showing that it probably had some cybernetic augmentations to aid the wearer.

Her helmet that she was holding under her arm looked similar to a phalanx helm, just slightly modified with a larger visor and made out of the same material as her armour.

Tamara smiled at me hearing that, which was good to see, and replied. ”Oh, I thought you might like it, Apollo, but it still has nothing on your armour. It’s nowhere near as comfy. Honestly, Specialised environment suits are just a pain. If the armoured pieces were not on, every pervert on the ship could see my bits. And the only one that get’s to see those are...”

She paused, breaking her routine speech before she winced in grief before shaking her head and composing herself. ”Anyway, I just hope we get to drop soon, I can’t be fucked with waiting around and- Is that a snake?” She suddenly shifted her attention as a massive snake head appeared over my shoulder

”Hello Friends of Apollo, I am Sithrik. I am joining you in your war.” Sithrik announced herself as she slithered forward. Gabrielle looked at the snake, in recognition. ’This is the one that tried to make Apollo its consort?’ Her eyes then narrowed thinking about that. Another slut after her son...

Francesca, however, did not like the big ol’ snake and was actively hiding behind Tamara. ”It can talk? Apollo what is it? Is it venomous? I don’t like snakes.”

Before I had a chance to speak, Sithrik snapped back, ironically, with venom. ”It? How dare you call me it, boy. I am a lady, you will show me respect! And no, I am not venomous. I don’t need such methods to kill my enemies. My body and my Pyrokinesis is more than enough”

”I-I am a woman, not a boy!” Was all Francesca seemed to get out in response. Sithrik’s head pulled back seemingly in surprise as she asked.

”Really?” She then turned to me and I simply nodded prompting her to let out an involuntary. ”Yikesss.”

Francesca then let out a loud shocked gasp at that, but it was interrupted by Tamara speaking. ”Is it an alien?” She asked with a frown

Sithrik once more replied for herself. ”If you mean, was I hatched on another planet than the moon we were just on? Then yes. If you mean am I from outside of your empire’s borders? Then no. I am a native just like you.”

I then added for clarification. ”She is a Pyresnake. Just one with enough intelligence to understand and speak our language. She is Nerissa’s pet.”

”Oh, that’s fine then.” Tammy shrugged her shoulders.

It seems more was about to be said amongst the party, but Skaja ran into the room declaring.

”We got the green light instantly! Everyone to the drop pods. We are landing in a combat zone as reinforcements! Lambdason, Theron and Myself will be the vanguard out of their respective drop pods. Our armour can survive more damage than others. Everyone else, move to the pods now!”

Skaja then made her way to me. ”Nerissa and the snake will be going with you, so I am going to putin some of the weaker, but valuable, troops with you so you two can cover them better. The rest of you, with me. We are pushing the western flank. Let’s move!”

There was no debate, no discussion or disagreement, everyone around me were veterans and knew what to do.

I ran to the other side of the ship as fast as I could, Nerissa and Sithrik kept up, but it took a few moments for the rest of the troops to follow up and climb in the pod.

In the pod I was entering was Bubble, a tracker, Vine, another tracker, Greg, a healer, Kephissa, the glaive wielder from the hunt and a man I didn’t recognise but gave me an odd coy smile and a wink like he knew something I didn’t before getting into the pod. Sithrik slithered in then Nerissa then I got in behind her and sealed the door.

We then had to wait for a moment as the red light in the pod began to whirl. It was at this moment, I got a sense of Deja-vu. The world in which I fought the Ker’min also started with me going down in a drop pod, or a nest pod, only this time I knew my Jewel wouldn’t drop me somewhere safe. I was being dropped right into the thick of it.

I felt my adrenaline begin to spike. A mix of nerves and excitement. But I wanted to be alert when we got down there, so from my armour interior, I injected myself with my formula and my thoughts became alert, yet calm.

I took a deep breath before opening my gauntlet and holding up some vials in injection form.

”Does anyone want a combat stim?” I asked, no one spoke until Nerissa spoke. ”I will.”

At which point everyone asked for one, including Sithrik, but I had to deny her as I had not made it compatible with snakes yet and didn’t want to risk it.

Each one injected the stim and the shaky breathes from extreme nerves I was hearing a moment ago ceased. Just in time as the drop pod light turned green and we were shot out of the ship and began plummeting to the planet below.

Once I began to hear a roaring sound, I knew we hit the atmosphere so I manifested my helmet from within the armour and I could hear the rest behind me putting theirs on.

Thirty seconds later thudding began to pound the shell of the drop pod like rain against glass.

We were being shot at by a lot of ordinance. The shooting resumed for another three minutes. At one point bullets started getting through the metal, so I blocked the holes with my armour.

”Has anyone been hit?” I asked after the shooting stopped as we reached a low altitude.

”Negative.” Was heard from across the board.

”Good.” I spoke and as I did a mechanical voice began to speak.

”Ground Impact in ten.”

I took a deep breath.

”Impact in nine.”

”Impact in eight.”

I took a stance to initiate a sprint

”Impact in seven.”

”Impact in six.”

”Impact in five.

I readied my minigun and manifested Zircon

”Impact in four.”

”Impact in three.”

”Impact in two.”

I stared at the drop pod door for the moment it opened

”Impact imminent.”