Debauchery Worlds 12 (Patreon)

A/N: Merry Christmas!

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 12

-VB-

Tuka Luna Marceau

2980.10.20

She looked up at Alan in surprise.

“You…?”

It came as a surprise.

“If you are willing to give me a chance, then yes,” he replied.

Just a second ago, he had asked her out on a date.

She didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, she felt incredibly good knowing that someone like Alan was interested in her. On the other hand, Alan wasn’t exactly one person but one mind in more than a hundred bodies. A veritable god who can and did shake the earth, rain thunder down on his enemies, and scorched an entire valley. And now, from what she knew through working for him, he built ships that would sail the stars.

So yes, a god had just asked her out on a date.

It made her wonder if she had a choice in the matter.

He must have seen it on her face because he smiled. “If you don’t feel like it, then that’s okay. If me asking you this made you uncomfortable, then don’t be. I already got you citizenship for the Federated Suns so you can leave whenever you want to.”

She remembered getting something like that. An envelope with a piece of paper that said she, Tuka Luna Marceau, was a citizen of a “Federated Suns.” Did he do that for her?

She fidgeted.

Tuka did think that Alan was easy on the eyes. He was also kind and gentle. He was strong and powerful. So why did he choose her? Why not a dozen other women he took to bed?

“Why me?” she asked quietly.

He pondered on her question while leaning back into the railing. “Well, you are beautiful.” Even though she narrowed her eyes at his casual and frankly generic response, her stomach fluttered regardless. He saw her glare and chuckled. “I enjoy sharing meals with you. I enjoy talking with you. I simply enjoy having you by my side. Are those not reasons enough?”

And then he pushed off of the railing and advanced on her. She jolted in surprise and didn’t react in time before she found herself with her back to her apartment door and with Alan looming over her with an arm planted above her head.

“Personally, I think those reasons are good enough to ask you out on a date,” he hummed. No, rumbled above her while he looked down at her with eyes that were … dangerous.

Her heart pounded in her chest and she felt a creeping heat running up her neck and face.

And then he just grinned and pushed himself off of the wall. “So,” he asked while extending a hand. “Wanna give me a try?”

She looked at him and then down at his hand.

… She took him up on his offer.

-VB-

Major Michael Armstrong

2980.11.19

“This is ridiculous,” he muttered as he watched one of the dropships blasting its six thrusters on its way down to land in the private spaceport the Marrisians called their dirt lot. The spaceport was quickly being constructed, though. The road between it and the Marrisian Compound was already complete, and the dirt-paved spaceport probably only needed two weeks to be completed. How? Something about a secret concrete mix that set in within an hour. Supposedly, it was the same thing they used to build their compound’s inner buildings.

Honestly, he was tired of being surprised, shocked, and awed by the Marris Mercenaries. At this point, he was just running an ever-escalating threat assessment.

For one, it was already too late to stop the Marrisians. If the Federated Suns deemed them a threat and wanted them gone, then they should have done it before a factory-fortress got built to completion on their recently conquered planet.

Two, those dropships brought down metal ores by the thousands of tons - or scrap metal as they were collecting right now from the broken hulls of the invader’s dropships - that they used to supply not only themselves but also the AFFS. Already, the AFFS purchased mech parts ranging from Centurions to Battlemasters. They sold it for cheap as well, which meant the AFFS divisions here might even have a surplus budget for rare luxuries… that the Marrisian Mercenaries also provided.

This was the reason why he was here today because the Marrisians were selling a product that the AFFS medics and doctors have described as potentially addictive, narcotic, and dangerous.

That and alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol. No one knew where they were getting it, and while the grunts were happily getting smashed, the higher-ups felt a little bit concerned about the source. After all, if the Marrisians set up an unsafe distillery, then they might one day wake up to half of the division with methanol blindness.

So the general instructed him once more to approach the Marrisians and get some answers out of them as he was their liaison to the mercs and because most other inspectors and even colonels could not get the Marrisians to open up.

But he could.

Because he was a “friend” of the company.

“So mind telling me what you guys are selling to the grunts?” Michael asked the mercenary rep walking next to him as they let him tour their new factory. It seemed like every month the Marrissians put up a new factory or facility or infrastructure or something else that would have taken others years to plan, fund, build, and open.

The mercenary glanced at him, which was only conveyed by a slight movement of his helmet, before looking forward again.

“It’s taurine.”

“Taurine?” He never heard of that before.

“Yup. It’s a chemical that helps your body produce more energy. Add that with sugar and caffeine and you get a pretty good energy drink.”

Michael blinked. Energy drinks were popular in highly developed worlds like Terra but not in the border worlds. Everyone heard about tea and coffee, sure, but taurine wasn’t he was familiar with.

“If it makes you feel better about it, then you should know that Earth in the 21st century used it a lot before it fell out of favor for other, more experimental chemicals.”

He nodded along. He’ll have to ask about it later.

“And what other … older know-hows are you using?”

Michael saw the soldier get a bit more upbeat. It wasn’t in his face; Michael couldn’t see the face because of the helmet. It was in the soldier’s body language. There was … excitement? It made Michael wonder what kind of people Commander Marris hired, because as he began to listen to this soldier, he quickly realized that this “soldier” seemed to have knowledge of gastrochemistry on par with some of the best eggheads he met during college.

‘There’s always something more to this merc company,’ he thought as he continued to listen to the merc soldier. ‘At least, I know that there’s nothing too weird going on.’