"Don't get me wrong my long term planning is shit but i'm not stupid enough not to seriously give the implications of my powers a good think over. The fact of the matter is that pacing myself is the best use of my powers even if it doesn't look like it." I said honestly.
"I can understand that now. It also makes me reconsider my own plans for potentially achieving immortality." she said thoughtfully.
After that things got rather boring as most of my days were spent going over paperwork and overseeing various business calls between different branches of Drake.-
I occasionally took days off to spend time with my friends or with Maya who recently turned sixteen. I naturally made her birthday a big embarrassing event where I announced to the entire planet of Athenas that she had turned sixteen before dropping the bombshell that I bought the planet and gave it to her. Yeah I went straight up cosmic sugar daddy on her and it was hilarious. The sheer amount of embarrassment she was feeling was priceless. Ironically her actually owning the planet worked wonders for her public image on it. -
If she wanted to she could turn the place into a barren lifeless rock and no one could say a damned thing about it as it was her property. The fact nothing changed after this announcement added that nice chunk of credibility that she really didn't intend to rule over them like a tyrant. Of course her turning sixteen wasn't all good news as she turned pushy about the sex issue. I had said I would wait for us to both reach that age but she was making it intentionally hard to say no. -
If I didn't know any better I'd have sworn she was taking classes on how to be as seductive as possible. Also fun fact, pirates existed. Space pirates to be specific. After her ownership of the planet was announced some of these not very bright individuals thought this meant she surely had a grand amount of money stashed on the planet and came a looking. As one might expect from such braincell challenged people just telling them that there was no treasure here didn't work. If anything it only made them start terrorizing the locals to give up the loot.-
I didn't personally go to deal with these pests but sent Atlas. Maya of course also helped but lets be honest here she couldn't keep up with the bot made with enough armament to reduce a small city to rubble in moments. She did complain that he was kinda terrifying though. He was methodical and apathetic to the droves of pirates he killed like they were mere bugs he was stepping on. Still the good news was that Maya now had a small fleet of ships at her disposal since their owners were no longer around. Galactic law was quite clear that "abandoned" objects on or in orbit of an owned planet belonged to that planets owner after all.-
Maya didn't waste this opportunity either and all but forced me to modify the ships into merchant vessels. Once that was done she started to export local products for sale at various goods ports in the borderlands for profit. Profit she then used to improve Athenas ability to create more products without destroying the planet. For example an area was cleared and turned into a field for growing the special blue leafed plants that were like high quality weed when dried and smoked.-
Growing such plants was something the monks already did as they used it for their incense and it really was a low maintenance plant so once it was planted it needed only a little effort to reach harvesting time. She also wanted to increase the production of the monks special high grade alcohol for sale but they rejected that idea. As it turned out the monks actually used Ratch as a main ingredient for these and increasing production meant a bigger flock of Ratch to care for and harvest when ready. For obvious reasons that was quite dangerous and not something they could really do.-
I was frankly stunned when I heard about it as I hadn't even realized the species could be used like that and set up experiments with them to see if they might have other uses as well. As it turned out they had a LOT of fucking uses. The livers held the properties of the things they consumed in a "clean" way that meant if they were carefully controlled in what they were fed these livers could be refined into potent medicines. This versatility gave me a new appreciation for this ridiculously invasive species.-
There was honestly not much else worth mentioning as everything moved smoothly for the next GT year. I turned fifteen, the league spread like a particularly nasty virus across the borderlands and both Drake and Hyperion were sitting pretty at the top of the corporate world like a pair of rivals. It all changed suddenly when Jack made his move finally. Thousand of robots along with the "vault hunters" he hired for the moon job minus Athena and the claptrap swarmed the surface of Pandora. The bandits took the biggest hit of course as dozens of clans were killed down to the last woman and child. -
It was slaughter, plain and simple. Brutal and efficient with no mercy to be found. Lil and my friends saw how bad things were looking and chose to take a stand at New Haven as Jack and his people marched on it. It didn't end well. They lost, HARD. Lil had to fake her death, Roland and the others fled with grievous wounds and New Haven was overrun and leveled. Anyone who fought back or got caught were killed or worse. Those that ran were chased and eventually found and killed as well even if they didn't resist.-
"This seems excessive." Atlas commented as we read the reports together.
"It is. He is not even trying to domesticate the locals, not really. This is bloodshed for no other purpose than that. I guess I'll secretly send my friends some help but I won't fight this war for them." I said with a sigh.
"From my analysis they are most in need of shelter and weaponry. The deserting remnants of the old Crimson lance still on the planet are gathering around the one known as Roland." Atlas says seriously.
"Reach out to Clay, get him to smuggle some Drake arms and a shield generator and core to Roland. That should at least give them some breathing room for a good while." I said and he nodded.
"Man I gotta say, that whole mess on Pandora is something else. Surprised you ain't plannin to get involved." Clay said when he eventually showed up to get the stuff.
"I promised I wouldn't get directly involved and I keep my word. It also helps I'd get nothing even if I did but trouble. In case it wasn't fucking obviously all of Jacks army is almost entirely robots, there's no lifeforce or traits to be had. I literally would lose more than I'd gain even trying to get involved." I said with a shrug.
"What about your pals?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Pfft! If this was enough to do them in I might step in but this is at most inconvenient for them. Besides they were complaining about being bored anyways, now they have a hopeless war to try and win, doesn't get much more interesting than that." I said with a chuckle.
https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 3,600,337
Integrated Traits: [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Supreme vitality-Legendary grade],[Lesser dragon breath-Epic grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade]X2, [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Rare grade],[Active camouflage-Legendary grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Biometallic bones-Legendary grade], [Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade]X3, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade], [Embodiment of destruction(partial)-Mythical grade], [Demi-god body-Mythical grade], [Martial savant-Legendary grade], [Tinkering instinct-Rare grade], [Phase-god(Incomplete)-Mythical grade], [Impenetrable hide-Legendary grade]
Stored traits: [Agelessness-Legendary grade],[Elemental lifeform-Epic grade], [Elemental embodiment(Fire)-Legendary grade], [Elemental embodiment(Cryo)-Legendary grade],