AN: 10 Advanced Chapters on my Patreon. You can look me up as Crimson_Reapr. I will be uploading two more chapters to Patreon today.
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Mark stared at the women who were in the Pirate ship's cargo hold for a while through the drone's camera. Out of all the women tied up, there was one who drew his attention the most. Back on Earth, and even in this life as well, there wasn't a single memory of him ever having a relationship with a woman that went beyond friends or just casual sex partners. But the woman he was currently looking at, there was something about her that intrigued him.
He couldn't tell if it was her hair color, her face, or the way her eyes analyzed the drones that buzzed around. It was as if she were trying to decipher them, break them down in her mind. Mark stared at her for far longer than he would admit. The cuts across her cheek and above her eye accentuated her beauty, and though he wouldn't admit it, he was mesmerized by her.
It took some time before he finally snapped out of the trance he had fallen into, shaking his head in an attempt to focus on his next course of action. He knew that he couldn't just leave these women out here, stranded in the middle of nowhere on the edge of mapped human space.
"Well, I guess there's not really a point in thinking about what to do," he said to himself as he stood for his captain's chair. He cracked his neck and stretched his arms, arching his back until he heard a comforting pop. "Question is, what sort of first impression do I wanna leave on these people. After all, this is my first interaction with other humans in over a year."
With that in mind, Mark made his way to the captain's quarters and took a quick 10-minute shower. He dried himself off while thinking of what he would like to wear. "Dressing like an admiral? Nah, too dickish. Dressing casually? It would probably come off as either predatory or someone crazy. Maybe I should just stick to the EVA suit?" He thought about it for a minute before shaking his head. "Nah, that wouldn't really give off much of an impression. Just another traveler who just happened to save them. Hmm... decisions, decisions..."
Mark made his way to the corridor that attached the two ships together, his bare feet shaping softly against the cold metal floor, still completely naked. He was about to reach the door to enter the downed pirate ship when he remembered the fact that he had the system inventory. In there, he also had a K-272 Energy Rifle, the weapon of a soldier or a mercenary.
"Well, I don't really want to associate myself with any faction as of now, but I guess cool mercenary is the way to go," Mark told himself as he started to envision what he would wear. He thought back to a game he used to play back on Earth, one where war ruled the universe and soldiers piloted heavily armored mechs. He thought of how those pilots looked, and truth be told, they were badass. "Yeah, let me just take that inspiration and change a few things."
As Mark finalized envisioning the suit he would want to wear, it materialized over him. It was imposing. Black layers of composite plating that seamlessly fit into the next were adorned with red details. What appeared to be comfortable cotton fabric was, in fact, made up of hardened polymers and metal alloys that were etched with faintly glowing seams.
The armor wasn't bulky, far from it, as every curve and angle was shaped for deflection and intimidation. From the right shoulder draped a torn cape that hung heavy and scorched at the edges. A material that resembled thick fur of the same crimson color adorned Mark's nape and wrists.
His face was covered by a full face helmet that had a narrow faceplate that was angular and almost predatory, with two blazing red slits of light where eyes should be. The mouthpiece had reinforced filters that hummed faintly. Most of his helmet, except for the front, was covered by a black hood that had the same red patterns as the rest of the suit.
At his back was the life support unit, an internal oxygen tank that was capable of providing oxygen to the wearer for up to twenty-four hours. The seals of the suit also made it possible for exposure to the vacuum of space. On his lower back sat a compact dual thruster array that was capable of sending out sharp bursts of compressed air, making it possible to break a descent from serious heights or send the wearer surging forward in a sudden, inhuman leap. There were also the boots, a pair of broad and angular shoes that were magnetized to hell and back as long as the wearer chose to engage them.
Mark was at a loss for words when looking over himself, feeling like the pendant had done much more than he had envisioned, much more than when he had envisioned the EVA suit, and he wasn't wrong. Beneath the plates of armor, the undersuit was a marvel of engineering, unlike anything humanity had ever seen before.
He thought about equipping the K-272 Energy Rifle, and it materialized in his hands. It too matched the colors of his new suit, and unlike what the image of the rifle showed while in the inventory, it looked more like a Marksman rifle than a normal rifle. A long red scope was attached to it with multiple zoom options that varied from 2x to 30x. The only thing he was missing was his sidearm, but he had lost that pistol during his fall over a year ago.
He proceeded to move through the dimly lit corridors of the pirate ship, his rifle half raised, unsure if there were any other pirates left alive on the ship he'd have to put down. He was uneasy and unsure about how he felt about taking a life from such a close distance. Sure, he had shot a major hole through the bridges of all four pirate ships, but those weren't deaths one would really process. On the contrary, killing someone from such a close range was something that would stick with you. And Mark had yet to kill someone in this manner, in both his previous life and this one.
He was on edge as he made his way through the corridors. His drones had mapped the path, but one could never be too cautious. Thankfully, his walk through the pirate ship was uneventful, and he finally arrived at the cargo hold's corridor, lowering his rifle.
He examined himself in the reflection of one of the polished walls, clearly new in comparison to the rest of the ship. He nodded with a smirk growing beneath his helmet. "Talk about Tacticool, this shit is totally badass," he said as he examined himself, his smirk slowly fading. "Yeah, now that I think about it, this might not be the greatest of first impressions. But who cares, when someone sees the devil himself rushing in to save them, they see an angel. Plus, it would make sense that the person who piloted a ship by himself and took out 4 enemy ships would be intimidating."
With that final reassurance, Mark continued his slow walk through the corridor before finally approaching the cavernous opening of the Cargo hold. After walking through the opening, he stopped and looked around the cargo hold, quietly counting how many women were there. Once he confirmed that there were a total of twenty-four women, all tied up and bound to cargo.
"Is that red fur?" He heard one of the women ask lowly, his helmet's augmented allowing him to hear her question.
He turned his head in her direction, his eyes locking onto hers through his helmet. She was the same girl who had caught his eye earlier. He decided that it wouldn't hurt to answer her and spoke, his voice transmitting clearly through the helmet. "No, it's some synthetic material."
The woman before him nodded slowly as she spoke, "Yeah, makes sense. Not everyone can afford real fur."
Mark smiled under his helmet. 'I like this chick,' he thought to himself as he placed his rifle on top of one of the crates and moved to undo her bindings, an action that sent murmurs across the rest of the women. He could hear them all. They were thanking their lucky stars they were being saved, some even wondering if he was a mercenary or a spec ops soldier from the IUC, but none of them recognized his uniform. Others had more rational questions and thought processes, wondering why he was the only one there and where the rest of his team was, while others considered the possibility that they were clearing the rest of the ship.
Once the woman was freed of her restraints, Mark helped her up, lifting her with an ease that surprised the woman. "Thanks- whoa! You're much taller than you looked from down there."
Mark let out a soft chuckle as he looked down at her and nodded. She was deceptively tall, maybe six foot three if he had to take a guess. "Yeah, I guess I am. You're also much taller than you appeared when you were sitting down. Mind helping me free the rest of your friends?"
The woman who sat next to the one he had helped spoke up as soon as he finished speaking. "Yeah, Marie, mind helping the rest of us instead of flirting with our faceless savior?"
The response from Marie was almost immediate, "Esther! I- I'm not flirting with anyone. I was just being thankful."
Esther just laughed louder, "Yeah, right, just take a look at how red your cheeks got. Blushing like crazy right now."
Mark looked at Marie, who went from standing next to him to helping untie Esther, and smiled beneath his helmet. "Mary, huh? That's a beautiful name."
The blush on Marie's cheeks turned even redder, and Esther wasn't being of any help to her either. "Yeah, and it's spelled with an I and an E."
Mark chuckled beneath his helmet, "Ah, a fancy name. If I must guess, Miss Marie over here even has a middle name, and from her first name, I'm willing to bet that it's Anne."
Marie blushed even more, something Mark didn't think was possible, and she said something under her breath.
"What was that?" Mark asked her.
Marie was flustered at this point, struggling to untie Esther from her bounds as embarrassment ate at her. "I said yes, that's my middle name."
Mark and Esther both laughed while one of the other women called out to him, "Hey, sorry to interrupt your lovely conversation, but do you mind undying us as well?"
Mark nodded and swiftly moved to undo their bindings. He had thought that since he hadn't interacted with another human in over a year, his social skills would have degraded, but they clearly hadn't, and he had just casually let words roll off his tongue. About 5 minutes later, all the girls in the cargo hold had been freed from their bindings and all stood around Mark, who clearly towered over them.
Esther was the first one to speak directly to him. "So, our faceless and currently nameless savior, you mind introducing yourself to us?"
Mark let out an audible sigh and dropped his head, shaking it, something that made the women chuckle. "That's right, I forgot to introduce myself, what an idiot. Well, my name is Mark Shephard, I'm the captain and owner of the vessel Strathos' Shepherd. You all can just call me Mark."
Esther let out a whistle, and Mark noticed how Marie's eyes widened. "Well, would you look at that? He's tall and has deep pockets. Only question is, are you just as attractive under that intimidating helmet of yours?"
Mark raised an eyebrow at Esther's words and chuckled, "Ah, sorry about the helmet. Kind of forgot about it." After he finished speaking, he took off the hood and thought about his helmet retracting to just show his head. The sight of the helmet slowly retracting into the neck of his suit was something that left all of the girls at a loss for words.
Mark's eyes narrowed as murmurs started to spread across the crowd of girls, quickly growing into loud talking amongst themselves.
He was at a loss for what to do, but thankfully, Esther came to his rescue. "Ladies, ladies, now I know it's not every day that we happen to have a rather handsome, tall, and deep-pocketed mercenary on our hands." The women quieted down, allowing Esther to continue speaking. "Not only that, but he is the captain of his ship as well, and he and his crew came to our rescue. As for the thing we just bore witness to, something we can all agree appears to be extremely advanced nanotechnology, let's just keep it a secret between us. A survivor's pact, if you will?"
Murmurs spread across the crowd of women again as Esther spoke. The woman had a charm, which was something that couldn't be denied.
Mark's brows furrowed even more as he realized that he had just shown something in front of them that he shouldn't have. But there was something else that bothered him, and he knew he had to address it. "Um, hey everyone." The girls quieted down once again, allowing Mark to speak. "So, the whole Mercenary thing... I'm not exactly a mercenary. I also don't have a crew, it's just me and my ship-"
Those words made them go wild.
"What do you mean you're not exactly a mercenary?"
"You're flying across space in a ship capable of putting four pirate ships out of order by yourself?"
"Are you on some sort of spec ops assignment?"
"Where did you get that nanotechnology suit from?"
The girls bombarded Mark with questions until Esther, the only voice of reason, finally spoke up again. "Girls! Let's stop with the questions. I'm sure that our savior has his reasons and explanations, some of which he may not want to give to us. Let's just be thankful for him saving us and keep it at that."
Mark felt someone tug at his right arm, and he turned to look at Marie, who asked him a question. "Who are you, really?"
Mark opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it. He then shrugged and tilted his head while raising his eyebrows, chuckling as he spoke, "I-I'm just a Starship Engineer."
Marie tilted her head, her eyes almost shining as she asked him another question. "And the ship, your ship, I'm guessing you made it? You also somehow redirected all systems to a single console without managing to overload anything. That's some excellent coding."
Mark nodded to her and spoke, "Yeah, something like that."
Marie's eyes widened as she looked at him, "Do you have any idea of what you've accomplished? This could change the galaxy, hell, it could change the universe."
Mark scratched the back of his head as he gave her a nervous chuckle, "Yeah, I guess it can. But I didn't do the coding; that was done by my friend."
Marie's eyes sparkled with burning curiosity as she looked Mark in the eyes, "Your friend! Is there any way that I could meet them? I'm sure it would be a major opportunity for me."
Marie didn't notice how Mark's demeanor shifted before he spoke. "I don't think that's going to be possible."
Marie's sparkle dwindled as she spoke, "Oh come on, don't be like that. Just send him a message with my contact information, tell him I'm an engineer, and want to become a Starship Engineer as well. If he needs my resume or anything else, I can send him that too!"
By now, the rest of the girls had calmed down and were spectating the interaction between the two engineers. Marie was clearly over the top with enthusiasm while Mark was more hesitant, and clearly downcast by teh mention of his friend.
"Marie," Esther said as she touched Marie's arm, drawing her attention. "I think that's enough with the questions and requests."
Marie looked at Esther and furrowed her brows, "What? Why? I'm just trying to find a mentor because after this, I'm most definitely done with the Navy."
Esther shook her head softly as she looked up at Marie, "Marie, I'm not trying to-"
Mark interrupted Esther as he raised his hand for her to stop, "Thank you, Esther, but that won't be necessary." His eyes then shifted to Marie's, and he continued to speak, his voice almost breaking. "As I was telling you, it's not possible to contact my friend since he... he..." Mark let out an audible sigh as his eyes reddened, unable to bring himself to say that Anahrin had passed. "I'm sorry, it's just not going to be possible."
Esther understood what Mark meant, and she gave him an apathetic smile. "I'm sorry about my friend here. She's clearly really excited over such feats of engineering, the ones you've displayed and the ones you've implied."
Mark nodded, swallowing his grief as his helmet started to cover his head again. "It's alright, no need to apologize. That's just the circle of life. Now, how about you all follow me and we get you situated on my ship. From then on, we can set a course of action."
Without another word, Mark turned around, grabbed his rifle from where he had left it, and led the way through the corridors back to his ship.