Chapter 99: Lapse of Judgement
Downstairs, Sophia was awaiting me by the bar. "Do you have everything you need my sweet?" "Yes thank you. Where is Keyla by the way? I wanna say goodbye to the ray of sunshine." Sophia smiled at that comment. Although she did not need to keep it a secret, the fact that Keyla's 'cutesy' act had worked on her sweet amused her and would keep the psychopaths charade up for now.
"Keyla has gone on a special mission for me. Samantha will be awake tomorrow so I will still have an assistant to help me." Sophia said with a smile. It was a shame I would not be here when Samantha awakened. It would be such an intense phenomenon as I feel her become one with the hive truly.
"Go my sweet, best not keep the driver waiting." Sophia said shoeing me along. At the door to her club, I gave her a kiss that lasted 30 seconds before pulling away to walk across the street. This caused Sophia to have to balance herself on the frame of the door as she watched me get inside the vehicle and watched it fly away.
The vehicle was much faster than a standard air cab and despite heading north enough to start only seeing snow, the flight took only 2 hours. " I don't care If I have my Thermokinesis, I am not standing outside in this shit." I muttered.
Using telepathy to open my suit was not as efficient as using my hive link a sit took an excessive amount more due to the suits desire to consume all the ambient energy around it. However, after a short while the suit managed to open.
Considering the vehicle was tall enough for me to comfortable stand in, the suit also was able to fit inside. Clambering into my power armour, The issue I had outside was no longer the case as it immediately connected with my Mindspace.
As the Armour closed up, I began to roll my shoulders to re familiarise myself with the feeling. Sending another command into my Mindspace, Zircon, flew out of the pack that now only contained my minigun and floated in front of me, scabbard attached.
I mounted Zircon to my waist and sat down again, making sure she was not in the way and proceeded to wait until the ship began its descent.
In front of a 250 meter long ship, a man was freezing his balls off as he began pacing back and forth. He was 6ft with black hair with flecks of grey indicating his mid life. His eyes were brown and looked ready to cause trouble. He wore and over the top custom made Spartari military coat with a fur trimming around the neck.
"Your man is late." He said with a Schoch more hostility than he should have towards his employer. Kathrine was not having the same problem as the man in front of her. Besides not having any balls, Kathrine was wearing a thermal skinsuit underneath her massive coat. "Quit your whining Caleb, Apollo is a good man I'm sure it is my drivers fault.
Why don't you go inside and I will bring him to you once he is on?"
Caleb scoffed at the question before flicking his hair back and taking on a 'cool' pose. "No one boards the Thanatos before I vet them. I Don't care if you're the one keeping the thermal regulators on hot stuff, I'm the captain and that is my rule."
Kathrine rolled her eyes and thought. "You are 42, act your age you big baby." Fortunately for the poor mans balls, A vehicle was seen descending only a couple minutes later. "Finally! I am going to tear this royal pansy a new one." Caleb said, making Kathrine snort this time. "Of course you are..."
Caleb took a stance that in his eyes radiated authority and manliness he even took a small, tactical rock out of his pocket and placed it on the floor to stand on with one foot for extra effect.
Kathrine did her best to distance herself from the man child and unconsciously began to fix her hair as she watched the driver, who was not dressed for frozen tundra, get out and open the door for her nieces future husband.
What she did not expect however, was the driver to open the door and stumble backwards in fear. "AHHHH!" the man shouted before running in the direction of fellow humans.
Caleb placed a hand on his laser pistol at the reaction and drew defensively upon seeing what exited the vehicle. A 7ft bipedal creature that was tan with purple accents. Its skin looked metallic and extremely sturdy. And its purple eyes and strange purple orbs on its chest seemed to radiate danger.
Gone was the man child and what replaced was a veteran of countless battles. "Stand down alien entity or I will engage in hostility!"
I was confused by the mans hostility, Kathrine said she would get the permits for my permission to use these. "Um. Am I in the wrong place? No there you are Kathrine You said my heirloom would not be a problem."
Kathrine hearing the familiar voice peaked from behind the cover she took. The gun in her hand that appeared from who knows where stopped aiming towards the towering creature. "Apollo?" Kathrine thought in bewilderment. Striding out of her cover towards the man she shouted "Apollo you idiot! Are you lacking common sense? You cant walk onto my base wearing that and not expect a hostile reaction."
I blinked my eyes in shock as the realisation came across me. 'Guess that three day romp took more out of me than I thought.' Shaking my head I started striding over to Kathrine, ignoring the man with the gun on me still.
"Sorry about that, a lapse of judgement on my part, it has been a busy few days. That aside, do you have my permits so I don't get shot by over zealous men with death wishes?" I said while purposely turning my helmet so my visor was facing the man who's gun was still aimed at me in confusion.
"You are really pushing the boundaries with this handsome, I was expecting a piece of shield tech like the Eradai have not whatever this thing is. That being said, your clearance for alien tech is now the highest there is so you will have permission for this and more."
Grasping her chin with my gauntlet glove I smiled, However she could not see that and so could Caleb. "Thank you for going the extra mile again for a random man you met not to long ago. Why don't I make it up to you at some point on this trip? Space travel can get rather boring."
Kathrine's face, already red from the cold wind, grew redder. She was glad she was wearing her skin suit otherwise an icicle would be attached to her lower cave right now. "S-Sure sounds-" "Hands off now or I shoot!" Ignoring the man completely I turned back to Kathrine calmly. "Seriously what is this guys deal?" Kathrine realising a gun was drawn on me still exploded at the man.
"Put the gun away you dumb cunt! I can give two shits about your 'vetting' process we are entering the ship now. And if you have a problem with that, you can shove it up your arse! I can always invest in another mercenary company and scrap MY ships that you reside in down for parts."
Kathrine was surprised by how angry she had gotten over such a trivial thing. She did not let that show however as she dragged the 7ft figure behind her into the ship.
Caleb ignored Kathrine and the new addition to the ship as they walked passed him. He placed a foot back on his tactical rock and stared out into the frozen tundra for a little while longer in an attempt to look stoic. Going over the event in his head Caleb was thoroughly impressed at how the mystery man in the alien armour handled the situation.
With the two guns he knew were aimed at him that he knew about, even with the armour, the man should have reacted defensively. Instead he remained calm and to the point and identified an ally in the midst of tenseness.
He also passed Caleb's next test. He was not as blind as he faked to be, the redness upon his boss' face indicated they had or Kathrine wanted to bone this man. Keeping his cool while next to someone potentially close to him as well was impressive.
Caleb chuckled at himself. "Hah! Still did not expect The red head to be capable of such vulgar words, oh boy that will keep me happy for a while." Caleb continued to smile a moment as he looked out over the tundra surrounding the base before he raised his fist in the air and performed some tactical hand signals.
From nearby hiding spots men armed with snipers and a couple with anti material rifles emerged and made their way back towards the ship.
once they were all close enough a man asked. "So boss, what did you think of the man-robot-alien thing? Did he pass the test?"
Caleb smiled at his underling. "Although we have yet to meet the man underneath the mysterious armour. His character expels out of it. We have a new ally joining the Thanatos!"