"...I think that's enough dress up for today."
'Finally', thought Six, nearing the edge of consciousness. Now the humiliation could end and she could go off and hand in the vents. Sleep was looking really good right now. Then she could try making a hive. Preferably somewhere that her...companion could not reach. This was not for the sake of the girl, though - Six was more worried that-
"BUT, before I let you off the hook, we're going shopping. Okay?"
Instantly roused from her dazed state, the Xenomorph Queen-turned-human stared at the young Random Omnipotent Being, eyes full of shock and anger. The alien could not believe this girl - after subjecting her to such humiliation (and yes, Cassidy seemed to be aware that she, Six, emphatically did not like being dressed up), she, her tormentor, still expected her 'dress up doll' to follow her? Really?
All this look got out of Cassidy was a returning face full of surprise...then her eyes started to widen.
"...Please?"
Six continued to stare, anger on her face versus what the humans called 'puppy dog eyes' on the juvenile ROB's. Somehow, those eyes just seemed to get bigger and bigger. At first, the alien didn't react. Then, slowly, her expression began to crumble. Finally, she signed and responded.
"...Alright, I'll go."
"YAY!"
Damn it, how could that girl wrap her around her finger with that look? How did that even work on her kind? Even the girl's mother was not sure, though apparently, no forms of mind control were involved.
As Cassidy darted around her room, getting her things readied, Six's attention was turned to a large head mounted on the wall. The fact there was a head mounted up here was unsurprising - the girl, despite being only a few months old, had taking a passion to hunting dangerous beasts, something she seemed to share with her mother. What was worrisome was what the skull belonged to. It was one of her kind, specifically a Praetorian. Oddly enough, the girl had had no intention of killing it when she had entered the hive, unlike her mother, who had entered that hive to behead a queen.
No, she had entered the hive because she had wanted to see what was taking her mom so long to get her trophy. Along the way, she had gotten lost, and, predictably, attacked, face hugged, and implanted with a xenomorph-embryo...which was liquefied the moment it hit her stomach. The girl had then recovered consciousness and swallowed the facehugger whole. Apparently she had liked the taste, as she had begun smashing open the remaining ovomorphs to eat the facehuggers within. Fifty eggs later, four warriors, three drones, and two runners had tried to attack her for defiling the nest. They never returned. Then, a Praetorian had shown up, just as the girl was beginning to dig into a piece of non-alien meat. Jerky derived from a bovid, if she was correct. She noticed the oncoming alien giant, only to go back to eating her snack. Incensed, the alien knocked her over, then prepared to kill her with its tail...after first eating the rest of the jerky. The little ROB promptly grabbed its inner jaw with her hands.
When her mother found her, Cassidy was trying to cook the headless Praetorian's body. The two ended up having its body for dinner, along with that of the queen. They then spent the next day stuck on a pair of toilets, because alien meat did not agree with their stomachs. Six didn't even know what it did to them, only that after the girls were finally able to regain control of the bowels, the rooms had to be cleaned by people wearing either radiation suits or Explosive Ordinance Disposal armor. She was not entirely sure she wanted to know what had happened.
Finally, Cassidy retrieved the last of her things. She quickly opened up a portal, and in a flash, the two left the room.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The city was slightly different form the last time the xenomorph had been there, but she attributed it to tireless work by its inhabitants to make their home better. It reminded her of the drones in her old hive.
In many ways, though, it was like the colony the humans had set up on her homeworld, before she and the rest of her siblings had harvested them all for usage as hosts for newborns. Children played in the streets, while merchants tried to hawk their wares. While most of those present were humans, many members of Lady Melissa's species were also present, as were a variety of other aliens. On a computer screen, a group of green skinned brutes were busy fighting a collection of giant, humanoid mantises. A trio of bug-eyed, carapaced aliens were at a fish-monger's stall, where a gigantic alien was selling the catch of the day. The alien had a head resembling what humans would call an eurypterid (sea scorpion), and for some reason, always made Six want to find a nice big rock to hide under, lest he find her and do ancestors-know-what to her.
If she was being honest, though, Six would have liked to find a good place to hind anyway. She didn't like being seen by others. Part of its was natural dislike of other races, whom she normally only saw as food, hosts for her siblings, or enemies that needed to die. Now, she needed to deal with creatures that were none of those. Additionally, a fair amount of those beings were more than capable of snapping her in two like a twig, and she could not do the same to them. It made her really uneasy, to say the least. Why did she have to live with them? Couldn't she just live in some remote place where only Lady Melissa and Cassidy could find her? That would be something she could enjoy.
Six was interrupted from her thoughts, though, when Cassidy grabbed her by the arm and dragged her forward, much to the xenomorph's surprise and discomfort. Once again on the move, the female alien watched as her surroundings slowly changed, as they moved around the city that Melissa's protectorates had built. Though still in the commercial district, she was able to get a glimpse at the industrial areas, where some of the strangest of Melissa's charges were hard at work. Great cyborgs of brass were busy hammering a factory together, occasionally teleporting between parts of the building's skeleton to strengthen some part of the structure before returning to their main task. Nearby, one of the larger machines, which resembled a centipede, was busy giving raw ore pieces to some kind of weird blob creature, which swallowed the rock chunks and excreted only the pure ore, which was swiftly taken away to be smelted.
Finally, though, the duo arrived where Cassidy wanted to go shopping. Once more, Six sighed. What would she have to do now?
"Since you're wondering, just follow me around and carry all the stuff I buy."
Oh, joy. And was she going to get any reward for this?
"I'll get you a shark for dinner when we get home."
…...Maybe this wasn't such as bad thing.
XXXXXXXXXXX
"So," questioned Anyo, "you're sure these weapons will be able to harm our new foe?"
"I've tested them myself," replied Melissa, smiling all the while. "I can ensure that you will be able to bring injury unto our mutual opponent using these machines. A demonstration video has been sent, just for confirmation. You should be receiving it now."
"Let me see this...…impressive. How much do you want for them?"
"Is a million platinum a piece too much to ask?"
"That actually seems rather cheap for such weapons..."
"How about five million. And why do you care about how cheap they sound? I thought you swore an oath to act in self interest alone? Shouldn't you be glad my wares are so inexpensive?"
"True, but the void warns against those who offer their wares so freely. They are likely to cheat you out of hard earned wealth, using duplicitous tactics and deceit."
Pot, meet kettle.
"Well, I assure that I have no intention of cheating you out of your hard earned wealth. I wouold suggest you keep this transaction a secret, though - I've heard of two dangerous groups in this system besides the Tenno, who would just love to acquire or destroy these weapons."
"Who, exactly, are you referring to?"
"The Red Veil...And Solaris United."
"...I see. Well, do you have any other requests before the trade is finalized?"
"No. Let us finish this transaction now and be done with this."
"Of course. Sending payment now."
"I've received it. The weapons are yours."
"Good. May the void bring you great profit, strange woman."
With that, the conversation was terminated.
Immediately after the screen faded into nothingness, another one opened up, this one showing a woman. Oddly, her head had been replaced with a crude robotic equivalent, though that didn't seem to impair her in the slightest.
"So, where are they headed?"
"According to my trackers, the shipment will pass through Pluto, then head to Neptune for mass production and distribution. I'll tell you which fleets to attack, but you should probably attack another two as well, just to throw Nef off guard."
"Sensible. So, how much did you sell him those weapons for?"
"Five million platinum a piece. Nowhere near the amount I gave you those anti-ship mines for."
"I see. Thanks for the advice. Anything else you want from us?"
"No, but do keep an eye on my friend, please. I don't want him to bite the dust just yet. He promised to help me with some personal things."
"Sure, we'll keep your boyfriend alive"
"Thanks...Wait, what?! He's not my boyfriend."
"Just messing with you. Eudico out."
XXXX
"So, how'd the last mission go?" asked Lernea.
"Good enough, all things considered...are you playing World of Warships/" responded Hearth.
"Yes I am. What's next?"
"I have no idea. Probably something to do with the Vitruvian, but that's all I can tell right now."
"Okay. So, what do you want to do now?"
"Play Rainbow Six: Siege until I'm needed again."
"Good luck."
A moment later, Hearth sat down at a computer console and started logging in to Steam, while Lernea continued sinking enemy warships. On the other side of the room, Sigurd was busy playing World of Tanks, and was currently on a kill streak, whilst also watching Fury on a nearby television screen. Jegudiel was much the same as his friend/sibling, playing ace combat on one screen, HAWX on a second, and using the third to watch some kind of movie.
"...IS that The Sky Crawlers?"" asked Hearth, taking a moment while in the game lobby to see what her companion was doing.
"Yes, is that a problem?"
"No, not at all."
XXXXXXX
"So," asked Ismerina, "you think mom and dad will like what we've done with the family gallery?"
"We just cleaned it up, not like we did anything special enough to warrant a ton of praise."
"Spoilsport. So what do we do next?"
"...See what Commander Flame has been up to?"
"Okay. Pulling up a display now."
"Hmm, interesting...should we be worried he has a Vitruvian and some evidence that the Progenitors were active in multiple universes?"
"He already suspects that. We'll just steal it from him when...he..."
Confused, Ismerina looked at her brother, who was staring at part of the screen, showing an image from the Vitruvian. Focusing in on the part that her brother was looking at, Ismerina's eyes widened.
They were staring at a golden alien beast. One not unlike the statue their father had insisted in keeping in this gallery, in the part tradionally reserved for protraits and statues of their family. For good reason, too...…
"...Should we be worried about this?" her brother pondered aloud.
"...No. The Commander does not know exactly how relevant that statue is to us, nor is he likely to learn it without outside help. We should not do anything to rouse his suspicions.
somewhat,
"Understood. Hopefully, this won't be a major problem."
"Hopefully."
XXXXXXXXXXX
Eudico sighed. It looked like they would have a chance to deal Nef a big blow, and pretty soon, at that. All she had to do was hit this shipment of weapons, preferably with the mines her new contact had provided her with.
Assuming, of course, this wasn't a trap. That was always the risk you had to deal with, when you worked with unknowns. This time, though, Eudico was pretty sure it wasn't a trap. She got the feeling her newfound...acquaintance...was going to let her steal the weapons she had supplied to Nef, if for no other reason than to screw with him. That, she could understand. The man was a void obsessed despot and all around jackass. Humiliating him was rather fun, all things considered.
Turning her attention back toward the request Melissa had made, she wondered how she could help the Commander. Sure, he'd helped their operations, but only by proxy. Unlike the other major syndicates in the system, he'd ignored Solaris United and the rest of the colonial Syndicates, except for the Ostrons and Quills. Eudico got the feeling that he didn't even know they existed. She needed to do something to remedy this.
Well, maybe she could make him an offer. She'd already seen plenty of artifacts on Venus she could bribe him with. Also, she knew he had a Vitruvian...
And she knew where to find some symbols she was pretty sure was in that machine. Time to see what she could work out...
XXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!