The hivemind is conquering for me?-Chapter 396: Rich Or Broke?
"Um, Apollo, we have a small problem." Keyla said as she walked into the cockpit of the ship. She was doing the rounds, making sure everything was up to code before we left. Turning in the pilot seat with my lap Orchid, I asked. "What's up Keyla?"
Keyla looked at Orchid with a minor amount of jealousy for a moment before she replied. "Well, due to your, um, flight lessons. We do not have enough fuel to make it back to the Ecumenopolis."
"Can't we just stop somewhere to refuel? Why is this a problem?" Before answering me, Keyla placed one hand on her hip and flashed a cocky smile. "Well Apollo, while your girl here has millions in credits at home, I also left my cred chip at home as what good is it here? Although we are rich in love here, from Spartari's viewpoint, we are broke."
"Riiiiight~ I totally forgot money was a thing again." I admitted aloud before shouting to the air in the room. "Hey Jewel? Can you send up some jewels or something you have in your biomass vaults? Or maybe some gold? Something my species finds valuable?"
There was a slight pause before my lap Orchid spoke up. "We don't have much gold here, but there was an abundance of platinum here that we found when we devoured this world. Since we turned this world into a nest-world, we didn't need to move it so it's just been sitting underground for the past eighteen years. Will that work?"
In unison, Orchid and I looked towards Keyla for confirmation that platinum would indeed work. After her confirmation, Jewel got to work and placed a small portion of the platinum on the planet into a bio furnace to melt into ingots.
She didn't really use the furnaces much in the past, but she has found use for things since Apollo graced her with his existence such as creating the sword from her rival, his living armour and a few things here and there he asked for.
As Warriors began piling into the ship with stacking ingots of platinum everywhere, Keyla began salivating. She might be a hybrid, but that meant she was still part human and that human part, despite being rich, was wet at the sight of so much money!
"This is just a little bit?" She muttered to herself, causing my lap Orchid to reply. "Yes. We can only fit so much on the ship after all. This was roughly 0.02% of the resource we found. On top of all the natural gas that was inside of the planet when we arrived, this planet would have been incredibly profitable for whoever owned it if we did not come. Lucky for Orchid, we did come and found our mate in the process." She said, using the opportunity to get in a sneaky kiss.
Keyla ignored the two of them, she still had a few things to do. And she was still feeling Apollo's lack of mercy in her nether regions so she didn't want to cause anything that will turn his sights onto her. Even though she would agree in a heartbeat.
As she walked away, she looked towards another stack of platinum, larger than herself, and mumbled. 'Still though, if my Queen ever got tired of hunting, she could just buy planets outright.'
…
Hailey was looking out of her office window with a look of longing towards the endless cosmos. Today was her last day of duty at the military checkpoint and she hoped her friend and marriage candidate would turn up out of the blue. Fate had been kind, bringing them together so often, she hoped it would extend its hand out just one last time before her plan to take it into her own hands began.
As she was looking out, a voice spoke from behind her. "Hailey, no one wants to see my baby more than I do, but be realistic. He did not give you a specific date when he was coming back, only that he would be at the college during enrolment. Now, Stop moping and help me pack all your crap!"
Hailey frowned at Gabrielle's insult and turned around. "Crap! This is art. Apollo loved all of this. I mean I didn't tell him I decorated the place for his aesthetics from what I learnt about him, but he said it looked nice. Hey put that down!"
Hailey yelled and grabbed her throwing knife board from Gabrielle's hands and caressed one of the blade indents fondly. She remembered how her Apollo casually showed off his telekinesis in front of her. Not even having to concentrate on the target to pull them out.
Hailey had learnt how to do it herself shortly afterwards, wanting to simply prove that she could do it. It was tough and she did not know it was even possible before Apollo, but she had witnessed it with her own eyes and thanks to that, progressed her Psionic prowess.
"Should I give you and that piece of wood the room Hailey? You are looking at it like you want to fuck it." Hailey looked towards Gabrielle and flared up her power with malice. Gabrielle simply guffawed before pulsing her power for a moment, causing Hailey to gain imbalance, as she had not undergone training for Psionic nullification.
"You are strong love, but don't get ahead of yourself, I am leagues above you. And a counter to you at the same time." Gabrielle said smugly, causing Hailey to mumble. "No shit? Do you think you are the leader of my house guard just because you look pretty?"
Gabrielle let Hailey's rude mouth off for a moment as she looked at herself in the nearby mirror. 'Pretty?' In all honesty, Gabrielle had all together stopped caring about her appearance after her Psionic awakening. For 18 years she was grief struck. Her emotions constantly being empowered by her ability making her grief feel like it was just yesterday.
Just thinking about them made them begin to surface up again, but a warm radiance broke through the darkness. An image in her mind. Her darling baby boy. Happy, healthy. Alive. She was glad her Psionic essence had kept her body in good condition as she would be mortified if Apollo saw her looking like a shell of a human.
'I wonder if he will think I am pretty?' She thought to herself. Getting butterflies in her stomach just thinking about it. In the mirror, she spotted in the background, Hailey once again by her window looking outside. She was about to tell the princess to move her fat arse, when her facial expression shifted into elation as she yelled. "A ship!"
Hailey darted from the room, grabbing her Centurion coat as she left, not bothering to check if it was actually Apollo's ship or not. Gabrielle did however and shook her head at the headstrong princess. 'She is going to take her frustration out on the new centurion... Great.'
...
"Grrrrr." Hailey growled as she stood in the dome landing area. As her nearby troops began visibly shaking at the anger radiating from the centurion, she was getting more angry by the minute as she had duped herself and this was not Apollo like she hoped and now she had to try and keep her cool in front of a centurion that outranked her judging from the ship they had arrived in.
Just as her anger was turning into the fact that this centurion was taking their sweet ass time leaving their ship, the cargo doors suddenly opened and a Phalanx honour guard descended from within.
Just as her troops indicated they were elites of an Ecumenopolis 1 noble family with their blue cloaks, the light grey cloaks of this guard showed that these new guards were elites from Ecumenopolis 5. The Grave world as it is so lovingly nicknamed by noble society.
Hailey's own guard that was lined up on either side of her followed protocol and spread out, leaving enough space for the new Centurion's troops to fill the gaps, symbolising a mutually agreed upon exchange of leadership.
After the tedious ritual, the Centurion of slow entrances finally graced Hailey with her appearance as she slowly began walking down from her ship. As soon as Hailey saw the face of her replacement, the anger vanished from her face and was replaced with a sheer desire to no longer exist as she was now done with life.
'Oh not this fucker...' She thought to herself. Done with the exchange that had not even begun yet. Preemptively putting her fingers in her ears, she was just in time as the new Centurion-
"KIYAHHHHH!!! HAILEY! I knew it was you the moment I laid eyes on your gorgeous form once more!" The centurion of slowness forwent her usual act and suddenly sprinted over to Hailey as she screamed. "Hailey, give me a kiss as old friends! I have missed you so much!"
As Hailey was about to extend her hand to prevent the pervert from getting near her face, the woman in front of her suddenly stopped and glared up at Hailey with dead eyes. Before whispering.
"What is this I heard about you dancing a Carcer with some outer rim shithead? Tell me his name so I can castrate him for his arrogance!"