“Did you see them?”

“Yes, I saw them.”

“And?”

“And I got a couple of good pictures. I think we got the next headline article. ‘Myriad, Legion, and the Bloodhound; MORE than just FRIENDS?’”

“Okay, quick, upload the pictures, I’ll get on writing. This is going to be so good! I knew coming here was worth it!”

- Overheard conversation between two reporters, shortly after Myriad, Legion, and Bloodhound left the house

The day was nice, the sun high up in the sky, no rain to be found, although even today there was some cloud cover. But we didn’t let that discourage us, today was too nice of a day for that.

It was hard to not jump around with happiness as Jenna, Chloe, and Us left the house. I did take the time to properly emerge from the chorus, as nice as it was to be able to be ourselves around them, we had stretched it, and now that we were in public, we thought it better to be more myself.

Of course I stuck close to Chloe, which did draw a lot of attention from the people watching the house. Not that that was too surprising, Jenna had six of her Sentinels standing guard, a few of Us popping up every so often, and there were three Samurai present.

That said, the three of us ignored the onlookers. They didn’t matter much to us, and with two of Jenna’s Sentinels, plus our Queen’s Guard and Myriad, not many came too close to bother us.

Myriad had begun thinking about a new name after this morning. There was some discussion in the chorus, but I left them to it, content to have her work things out herself.

“I think it’s best we get outside of town before I get the Corvette,” Jenna said as we arrived at the street, many eyes and cameras focused on us.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Chloe said, then started to lead the way.

The walk was a silent one, but I didn’t mind whatsoever. We had talked a lot today already, so most of the conversation we shared between us on our way outside of town was about inane things. The kind of normal that I had missed a little, truth be told.

We arrived at where the Legion Enforcer was stationed, a small battalion of Sentinels standing at the ready. There were three different types of various heights, although the most common was the smaller one, similar to the Sentinels Jenna had gotten at the inner city gates, just better equipped and definitely easier on the eyes. Not that they were hard on the eyes before, but the difference was still obvious.

The Najav stood close by, body lowered to the floor and limbs pulled close so as not to take up too much space. Next to her sat our Carrion Juggernaut, looking much less impressive despite being a bit longer than Tiny the Najav.

She had gotten her name from Kaysa, strangely enough, her being the only non-Hive member Tiny could actually converse with on the regular, considering that she wasn’t made to interact with squishy humans all that often. And because she was the only Hive member that couldn’t actually speak.

Snuffles was a bit iffy, but she could if she wanted to, Tiny entirely lacked any vocal organs. Or speakers for that matter. It made me wonder if I should get her some? It must be lonely to be so entirely cut off.

The rest of us were still busy in the forest, although at our approach they all appeared one by one, falling into a formation similar to Jenna’s Sentinels.

It did of course draw a whole lot of attention, and I was pretty sure we were featured at least on a dozen if not more live news feeds, but I didn’t care.

“Time to get us a base,” Jenna said, and a moment later a giant of a spaceship appeared a bit further away, falling a couple of centimeters before it touched down, rocking the ground a little.

I looked at it in awe. It was similar in shape to those capital ships from that old movie series about warring between the stars, but also different. It didn’t have a command bridge as such, instead it had two smaller ones. One looked to be what I would assume a plane cockpit to look like, if you gave the plane a proper Sci-Fi do over, and was placed roughly a third from the rear and on top of the huge thing.

The second was at the very front, giving you a good view down. Even from here I could see what was probably a captain's chair and seating for the bridge crew.

Since it had a slight wedge shape, even from the side, it was pretty obvious where the main entrance was supposed to be, towards the middle of the underside. That guess was confirmed when a massive ramp slowly lowered itself and allowed us entrance.

The Legion Enforcer had already started to move before the ramp had even reached the ground.

“Damn… And that’s only what, 30k points?” I asked, disbelief and awe saturating my voice.

“Yeah. It can go a lot higher than that. It looks damn impressive, but it’s missing most of the high tier features. Space flight capabilities, hypersonic travel, capital ship weaponry, actually any useful weaponry for space use, or high altitude use for that matter. There is a lot more I can do with it, even the core internals. The reactors are pretty damn powerful, but they’re leagues behind what they could be. It’s enough, of course, since not having enough power would kind of render the thing useless, but it’s only got so much capacity at the moment. Thrusters are pretty basic, it doesn’t have any form of advanced navigation systems yet. I mean, they’re better than what you can find on earth, but it’s pretty basic. The only thing I really focused on was life support, just in case something went wrong.”

Jenna sounded quite proud, and I could imagine why. The Legion Corvette was a lot bigger than I had anticipated for that price point, but then again, as she said, it was pretty basic in terms of outfitting.

“Now, let’s go and have a look at the interior. We can look around while everything gets loaded up, then we can take a shuttle to the city for some shopping.”

“Mind if We load the rest of the Hive?” I asked her, as Chloe and I started to follow her.

“Be my guest. It should have more than enough room. I did design it to hold all our troops, after all.”

As one we began to move, Myriad in all her glory. Six hundred fifty odd bodies, excluding the Meerkats still in the redlight district. It was a damn awesome feeling and must have looked pretty damn impressive, and very likely completely terrifying, to all the onlookers.

Not that we gave much in terms of fucks. If they knew what we were capable of, less people would come around knocking with any trouble they might be planning on making. Especially once we publicly declare something under our protection.

By the time we arrived at the ramp the Legion Enforcer had already entered the Corvette and parked itself in one of the corners of the massive main… hangar? I didn’t know what else to call it.

The interior looked sleek and modern, but not as lifeless as typical construction or the interior of Sci-Fi ships tended to be. The colour scheme followed Jenna’s typical look, sandy browns, some more orange than most of her browns, purple, silver, and gold decorations on a dark grey base. It made the entire thing look majestic and powerful.

To my surprise there were also some other things livening up the place. Banners on the walls, some plants here and there, a few pictures that were obviously rendered by Cleopatra, a few chairs and tables. Not enough to be in the way, but they would allow some seating space. It was pretty apparent that they were meant for the rest of Us, and we appreciated it greatly.

Jenna motioned us to follow to a small door at the side of the hangar, and together we made our way over.

“The rear of the Corvette is mostly for storage and production and has most of the space meant for upgrades and stuff. The front is the leisure area, since we will most likely stay there for the majority of the time. Your Broodmothers are to the front of the main entrance,” she motioned to a set of huge doors, almost a gate, as we walked past.

It is sufficient to let anything the Broodmothers could produce through, I made sure of that.

I nodded at Kaysa’s comment, thankful for her help.

We walked through the door Jenna had indicated and into a long hallway that seemed to lead along the entire length of the Corvette, with something that probably served as fire hazard doors every ten meters or so.

“This hallway leads directly to the main cockpit, but it also has doors to the leisure area, personal storage, the gym, basically everything else that is not quite leisure, but also not storage or production. Outside of Chloe’s weapon range, I had to place that above the main hangar and crew quarters for the rest of you, behind the auxiliary cockpit.”

We walked past three doors, before Jenna opened the fourth, not far from where I was certain the cockpit entrance would be.

It led to a rather spacious open area, with a giant display screen for a ceiling and floor, as well as the walls. The ceiling screen was showing the outside of the Corvette, while the floor screen was doing the same, but with the addition of some rather real looking fake glass flooring with some metal supports, to not invoke any anxiety about falling. Considering how good protector grade displays were, that was probably for the best.

The walls were set to display the interior of a modern but relaxing home, the kind of place that invited you to sit down and relax. At first it was a bit odd, but very quickly it felt more than fitting.

In the center of the room was a table with six chairs. It looked modern, the kind of glass table you would imagine in any mid-level manager's office, and the chairs followed the same design. Probably a whole lot more comfortable than the cheap office chairs you would find in an actual mid-level manager’s office though.

Towards the rear, which I mentally labelled the backside of the room, and in the center of the wall was a transparent door that led into a small hallway, and then into the pool area. It was quite the small pool, as Jenna had suggested, but I could already imagine how awesome it would be.

On the left side of the door, adjacent to the entrance we had come through, was a giant pile of even more giant pillows, all of which probably sinfully soft and comfortable.

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Next to the door on the opposite side was another seating area, although this one with a long bench, a smaller table, and a small array of bookcases behind it, to sit down, read and relax a little.

I hadn’t expected a bookcase, since books were a bit outdated, but it looked like this was mainly for Chloe, considering her love for reading, and a little quiet corner to relax in was never a bad idea.

Towards the front was another door, this one a whole lot wider, also transparent. It led to what was obviously the bedroom, and a quite roomy one at that. There were actually two beds, both big enough to easily fit all three of us and thensome, each on either side of the room. As with the hallway that led to the pool, the bedroom also had another door that led directly into the cockpit, although the door was not transparent. It did have a nice print on it though, which is how I knew where it led.

Next to the bedroom door on the left was a bar. A proper bar, with enough bar stools for six people, and a rather extensive selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, partly stored on shelves, partly in a giant fridge with a glass door.

Opposite the bar was another lounge area, although where the book corner was for relaxed reading, this one was obviously for proper lounging, with two giant sofas that I would bet my last dildo on could be extended.

What surprised and shocked me a little was a small cabinet next to it, doors closed and hiding the contents within. From the print on the door though, I was pretty certain I knew what was in there. ‘Seraphine’s Cabinet of Mysteries’ written in quite the provocative font with devil horns and love hearts all around it, didn’t leave much to the imagination.

Jenna noticed my shocked gaze and chuckled, with a slight blush. “That was my idea. Chloe and I talked about what we wanted for the place, but since you weren’t there, and you mentioned you enjoyed some fun times, I thought it would be appropriate for me to do something for you too. There is another, larger collection in the bedroom.”

That had me raise my eyebrows and my heart quicken in anticipation.

“Doors of the cabinet are actually also screens,” she continued a bit more sober, “I know you’re proud of being a joytoy, but I thought maybe it was a bit unfitting should we ever have guests present.”

“That makes sense,” I said, then took in the room again, “This is awesome.”

“Thank you,” she said with a small smile, “I did spend some time decorating the things like I wanted them to. The drinks are mostly what Kaysa told me you liked in terms of alcohol, and a healthy collection of everything else. There is also a small cabinet hidden under the counter for more… esoteric things, although I left that mostly up to Cleopatra. I don’t know what exactly she put in there, some came from your Medical Utilities Catalogues, some from a small catalogue I got specifically for it. It was only a couple of points, so I didn’t see the harm.”

“Thanks again. I already decided to be a bit more circumspect with the whole drugs thing, since to be honest my life is so much better now than it was even three days ago, but I would like to indulge myself a little once in a while. I know it sounds kind of awful to say, but I love getting completely fucked up on stuff,” I giggled at my own comment, “That said, with how happy I am just being with you, it’s not as urgent anymore.”

“Kaysa mentioned that that might be the case,” Jenna said, “Which is why it’s only a very small collection. For a fun evening, rather than a very unhealthy lifestyle.”

She turned to Chloe, “Atlas gave me some ideas on the books you like to read. I tried my best to put together something you’d enjoy, some he said that you already have read, and some you didn’t to the best of his knowledge. Getting books is pretty easy, so just let Evelyn know.”

She snapped her fingers in realisation, “Ah, talking about Evelyn.”

“Hello, Jenna, Chloe, Seraphine,” a voice came from all around us, “I am Evelyn, the ship’s personal AI. My abilities are limited at the moment, but if you have any wishes please just let me know. I will try to help you to the best of my abilities.”

The voice was soft, female, almost sensual, and very pleasing on the ears. It was the kind of voice you would imagine the pleasure yacht of some CEO to have, the kind of servant that was there to make sure you were as comfortable as you could be and to take away all your worries and concerns.

“I couldn’t get a higher class AI because of how point intensive they are. It’s one of the things that is on the list to upgrade in the future. At the moment she basically lets me know when something needs restocking, or my attention. Apart from that she oversees production of the Sentinels, but she can’t really micromanage it. She keeps things going and organises when and when not to build any given model based on what I need and the materials I have available, but other than that she simply keeps an eye on things and pulls the plug if things go badly.”

That made sense. 30k points yes or no, this thing was massive and probably a lot bigger than someone on our level should have.

“This is a lot more than I expected,” Chloe said, looking around the room in wonder, “And it’s only one room. Hell, I helped plan the damn thing, but this is far beyond my expectations.”

While they talked I wandered around, inspected the bar a little more closely, then the sofas that made up the main lounge area. Opening my Mystery cabinet I found a selection of my most used toys, all brand spanking new and probably a whole lot better than what I had in the brothel.

“How did you get all this?” I asked Jenna, not looking away from the interior of the cabinet and picking up a dildo that was very similar to the one that I used most often.

“Well… I was already planning on getting the Vi’xan Catalogue, and to complement it was only a couple more points. It’s all basic stuff, so each thing in there is only 2 points, at most, it wasn’t exactly out of my way. It also helped that there were some package deals, pulling down point costs.”

“Still… I didn’t expect this,” I said, then put the dildo back, ignoring the slight feeling of excitement and anticipation at the thought of breaking them all in.

“It’s supposed to be our home base, right?” Jenna asked, a slight blush on her face when I turned to face her.

“This is more than a home base,” Chloe said, inspecting some books in her own corner, “It’s a damn home in and of itself. I’m halfway tempted to sell the house and move in.”

Jenna chuckled, “I did plan on living here full time. You can join me, of course. I had some idea that you might like it, which is why I took the time to properly plan it out for the three of us, in case you decided to follow through.”

“Oh, I will,” I said, “This is leagues better than my old apartment.”

I stopped, thinking, before I continued, “I will probably make sure Tina and Sharon have a proper place though. It’s already basically impossible to pay for it on their income, now that Sarah is gone…”

Sadness welled up in me once more, threatening to overtake me. I tried to stand fast, gently pushing it down, but it was hard.

“And since I planned to move out anyways,” I continued, trying to keep my voice level and calm, “I should at least do that much for them.”

Chloe came over and gave me a hug. I eagerly reciprocated it, losing myself in her warmth for a moment. It did wonders to help me get out of my funk.

“I would offer that they could crash at my place, especially if we’re going to live here, but it’s a bit far from the redlight district,” Chloe said gently.

I shook my head, “Thanks, but we’ll figure something out.”

“Anyways,” Jenna said in an obvious attempt to change the subject and brighten the mood, “Wanna see the pool?”

We took some time to check the pool, which was as small as I expected, but still awesome, especially because the walls, ceiling, and the floor around and in the pool were display screens that could show the outside view. It made for an experience of swimming in the sky.

I say that the pool was small, but that is only compared to what Samurai could probably put together if they wanted to, with enough room for a dozen people if you didn’t mind some cuddling. For just the three of us it was very roomy, and I could already imagine spending some time in it after a hard day of work, either at the brothel or killing xenos.

Jenna did mention that the pool was self-cleaning and quite thoroughly so. Her plan had been to have it be the first place of relaxation after work, and considering my job and the fact that any xeno squashing could easily end with us being covered in gore, she made sure that it would be able to deal with any sort of uncleanliness.

The mechanism by which it worked actually came from my Nanite Catalogue, with a little help from her Legion Auxiliaries and my Hexclaw Catalogue to deal with more biological or hazardous materials.

Not far away, in the small hallway leading to the pool, were the showers. They were roomy enough for all three of us to shower together comfortably if we wanted, but there were two of them, which was nice if we weren’t in the mood for more close company while cleaning up.

Next to the showers were also the toilets. Compared to the showers they were quite small, but they were still much more roomy than what I was used to, and much nicer as well. While Jenna didn’t say it, I would bet that the entire area was laced with nanite tech and decontamination gizmos to keep it clean and hygienic. It wasn’t expensive to make it that way and it would help drastically.

After the pool we inspected the bedroom, which was, as expected, massive. The door to it could be turned solid, so if someone wanted some privacy they could have. Two massive beds that I’d seen from the other room already decorated either side, and as was the case with much of the rest of the giant ship, the walls, floor and ceiling were giant displays that could show a view of the outside.

What surprised me a little was that the entire room and the beds could be separated into a total of six. Considering that Jenna had mentioned her thoughtfulness about potentially having guests, giving each person their own separate space to sleep in made sense.

Of course the entire room as a whole, and when split up, was sound proof. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why, Jenna’s faint blush when she mentioned it was all that was needed to explain it.

The walls that the beds were pushed against had built-in wardrobes on either side of the bed. When split up the beds could be moved separately and freely, so there was no risk of blocking access to the storage areas, which was a nice touch.

One of the wardrobes was for clothing. It had quite a lot of room, easily enough for all three of us to store our clothes in one with a little room left over, and it would even clean and iron any clothing put in there, no matter if it was protector grade or not, then sort them all into their appropriate section. Quite the fascinating piece of tech.

The other was filled with a number and variety of sex toys that even I hadn’t seen before. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different things to play with, from dildos of various sizes, vibrators of various kinds, nipple clamps, sex machines, even a full layout of BDSM gear and other assorted items. All of it was neatly arrayed on many different racks and drawers which needed to be pulled out to even get to them.

Of course there was a method to the madness, it went without saying that anything that might be used more often was at the front and easily accessible, while things that would already require more time and effort to be used properly, were stored in the back.

While I inspected it all, having a much keener eye for these things, and frankly stunned by the quality and make of the items, Jenna and Chloe both watched me with differing levels of a blush decorating their faces. Both seemed interested though, obviously watching the collection closely.

When I was done and closed the door once more I turned to Jenna.

“I hope you didn’t just get them for me. This had to be worth at least a couple hundred points.”

She shrugged, a faint smile on her lips. “It’s a bit more than I would have gotten without you here, but you aren’t the only one who enjoys a nice evening from time to time. And considering the package deals that catalogue has, it was actually a lot cheaper to get them all than you would think.”

“How does that work? The package deals, I mean. So far I haven’t heard of anything like it,” Chloe asked her with curiosity.

“It is a bit of a unique feature with the type of catalogue I used to get it all,” Jenna explained, waving at me, “Just like Seraphine’s Hexclaw catalogue, they don’t operate by typical catalogue rules. Mainly, they can’t be upgraded and are only available at Class I. They are also limited entirely to earth grade items, so no fancy alien tech upgrades or anything. It’s meant for bulk purchases of common goods, in a way they are nothing more than a list of Class 0 items available for cheap. Generally they aren’t worth getting, since in most cases you can get better stuff at a reasonably higher point cost, but for this it made sense.”

That did make sense, and did explain how she could save points. With how big the Corvette was and all the things put into it, she probably tried to shave as many points down from the total cost as she could. And if she could get normal stuff for cheap, then it would make sense. Not everything had to be high tier alien stuff.

“Anyways,” Jenna continued, waving at the wardrobe once more, “The entire thing is self cleaning and self sorting, like the other one. Place everything used in the big drawer at the bottom and Evelyn will do the rest. Cleaning, disinfecting, she can even tell you if she finds traces of any illness or disease for you to get checked. That is of course handled with rather harsh privacy filters, and will be deleted from the logs after she informed you via mail.”

“Quite impressive for a wardrobe full of dildos,” I mused, “I like it.”

A small shudder ran through the entire ship. The floor in the room was currently set to display the outside with that same fake glass flooring, and through that we could see that the Corvette had started to move.

“The Legion Corvette has lifted off. I hope everyone on board has a pleasant stay. Destination: New Savannah Inner City,” came Evelyn’s sensual voice, announcing our departure.

“We have some time still,” Jenna said, “Want to see the rest?”