The hivemind is conquering for me?

After watching over the cults revelries for an hour, I grew slightly bored of watching and decided to intermingle. Ushering Orchid off my lap, I head down the nearby steps and decide to start off easy and head to a group nearby that Ronnie was with.

"Hey Ronnie, Are you enjoying yourself?" Upon hearing my voice the whole group turned around and froze up in nervousness. Thankfully Ronnie was more than used to me at this point and was able to initiate conversation. "Oh, Hi Apollo, Yes I'm enjoying myself very much. As much as I enjoyed our voyage together, It feels good being back with my friends and family."

Ronnie mentioning family had me think about jewel for a second. "I hope she is doing ok." "What was that Apollo?" Ronnie asked. "Oh nothing to worry about. How about you introduce me to your silent friends here?"

Turning to face his friends, Ronnie realised they were all extremely nervous. Understanding how they felt as he himself was scared of upsetting Apollo at first, He introduced them. " Of course Apollo, these two are Maddy and Mandie, They are both 20 and as you can see from their eye mutations, They are not permitted to leave home and work exclusively here."

As I went to give them a handshake, I noticed how there eyes were black and glossy like a warriors. Each one of them squirmed in delight when I took there hand and followed up the introduction with a question. "So girls, Are your eyes a cosmetic mutation, purely a visual thing, or do you have improved eyesight?"

Both girls seemed still nervous but Mandie, the braver of the two, answered my question in an almost whisper. "y-yes our vision has improved considerably F-Father. We can see in near darkness and in higher contrast and when we work upstairs we wear glasses that block our eyes from the patrons."

"Ah so your eyes are similar to mine then." The girls looked confused for a moment so I continued. "I may look fully human, but I have been genetically mutating myself for years and one of my mutations was to give myself improved night vision. My eyes may still look human, but they function in the exact same way as your beautiful ones."

The two girls were unable to continue looking at me as they turned away in embarrassment. Like Sophia, a lot of Cultists despite taking great pride in their mutations, feel a sense of worry in their appearance that is garnered from the human part of there genetics. So to hear that their father thought them to be beautiful... It was a lot for the poor girls.

Feeling the conversation had ran its course Ronnie introduced the next of his friends. " Apollo this Is Captain Gregos of the planetary defence guard." The man was wearing a black and red military uniform and a hat was tucked underneath one of his arms. Ignoring his previous nervousness, his years of military service kicked in and saluted Apollo.

"A thou- Warm greeting to you Father I wish you a most welcome stay on our planet." Being called Father by a man on the cusp of his 40s felt extremely peculiar, but I did not let is show on my face. "Greetings to you as well Gregos, You can just call me Apollo and stop the salute we don't do that here."

Captain Gregos followed my instruction instantly and ceased his salute. "If that is your will, I shall call you by name from now on Apollo." Gregos was a good soldier, did not ask questions and followed the Words of his superiors to the letter. 'No wonder Sophia picked this one up.'

After some idle chatter and a promise to talk more about the state of the Spartari military in the future, Ronnie introduced me to the last member of his group. The last member still had his robe on and hood firmly covering his face which left me all the more curious about him.

"Finally, Apollo, This Is Letho." "A pleasure to meet you Fa-Father." he said the word Father like it was alien to him. "A pleasure to meet you as well Letho. Though could you remove your hood? If you wish not to that is ok as I'm not ordering you."

Letho seemed relieved by the large sigh he let out. However he still moved his gloved hands above his hood and proceed to pull it back. Before me stood a man of decent facial attractiveness, more so than Ronnie anyway. The man was 5ft 8 and looked quite normal , That is if you don't notice his blue skin and the horns sticking out of his head.

'An alien?' I thought internally. "Ronnie, I thought you made it pretty clear that the Spartari empire was extremely xenophobic?" I said as my gaze penetrated Letho like a prized experiment. "Ah I must have forgotten to tell you on the ship as many topics were discussed. Letho is a member of the Sepiida. The only non human species allowed to live in the Spartari empire."

My curiosity was peaked by this, Sophia mentioned Sepiida earlier when talking about the population of the planet but I just brushed it off.

Forgetting that Letho was a real creature for a moment I turned back to my walking Spartari encyclopaedia for more information. "So why are these aliens allowed into the empire and not others?" Ronnie took a moment to think of a satisfying response before he spoke.

" Around 300 years ago the Sepiida were exiled from the coalition because they were accused of political rigging." Ronnie paused to see if I had any questions. With a nod I signalled for him to continue.

"You see, Letho is actually a half Sepiida as only pureblood Sepiida are women. In fact the males of the Sepiida cannot reproduce with the females it is biologically impossible." "Wait, wait, Are you trying to tell me the females of the Sepiida can only reproduce with species other than their own?" I interrupted connecting the links together fast. "It is as you say Apollo.

When a Sepiida female mates with a being, One of two things happen. Either the babe inside inherits its mothers genes and becomes a female, or it takes its fathers genes and becomes essentially the fathers species except with blue skin and horns that are the only traits they still receive from their mother.."

"So let me guess. All these Female Sepiidas were looking for strong male species in power to attempt to breed with them. Then they were accused of attempting political rigging because every female was in a high position of power due to mate, making it look like a species wide plot or something?"

"Exactly as you summarised Apollo. After they were kicked out of the coalition, The Spartari found their fleets entering our system as they had nowhere else to go. There was a whole referendum through out the entire empire to decide there fate as they put up no fight.

The fact the females of the Sepiida are in general gorgeous and look humanoid, the conclusion was the Sepiida could live here but as second class citizens. The females were given their own planet to maintain their population and occasionally be given to well off people who excelled in military service or other excellences as a second wife which became a law.

Most of the female Sepiida were thrilled with this as they had a way to continue their species with no issues."

"What about the males?" I asked finding a missing link in the story. "Until 40 years ago, The males were treated as glorified slaves by the females and as a result, Spartari. That was until the military king at the time, Lysander, decided to pass a bill allowing the Well abled Sepiidan males to enrol into the military which drastically increased the military force of Spartari."

Having my history lesson I turned to Letho. "So Letho how did you become a member of the family as it must have been tough for you out there?"

"I was a servant to my mother at the time before I joined. Myself and my other 20 brothers. Mothers previous mate had been killed in combat with the Drakoshi and she requested re-assignment. On the way to this planet we were snatched by a group of unknowns and when we arrived at our destination, I found myself with my mother and brothers locked in a room.

We were there for some time before A woman walked in. She was beautiful and radiated power." Letho looked over my shoulder to Sophia before resuming his piece." She looked over us like goods before handing a cred chip over to a man who entered with her. After the man left the woman looked over us all hungrily."

Letho's eyes went to a distant past for a moment before his parasite fed him some good feelings that brought him back. "All my brothers were eaten down to and including the bone before me by the woman in a way that defied logic. All that was left was me and my mother. When the woman turned her attention to me, I did not freeze as my brothers had, Instead I shouted out of instinct.

'I will serve you!' And thats when the woman's bloody smile stretched as she spoke for the first time." "Is that so child? Prove yourself to me." Letho's bindings were cut off somehow. 'Kill your mother, Abandon her as your parent and devour her heart.' Is what she told me."

My eyebrows were raised high by Letho's story "I assume you did it since you're here now?" I asked

Letho's face morphed in a way that made me uncomfortable. "I did, and it was so delicious~"