"And you say I'm direct." Rowana replied as she repositioned herself to a more comfortable position in the chair.
"Perhaps, but the viewers like someone who asks the hard questions." Malgath replied and the audience cheered in agreement.
"And I suppose it has nothing to do with the fact that it involves Royal Entertainment? An entertainment company owned by the race we all know you dislike, the Terran's?" Rowana asked in repose but continued without waiting for a reply.
"Regardless I am happy to tell you all that Lorelie is safe and well and is not being mistreated in any way by the Terran military who I am personally very grateful towards for helping and protecting her."
"How can you be so sure of that? Malgath asked before adding, "I'm sure you will claim that you have spoken to her, but how can we know she isn't under duress from the Terran's as we speak and was in fact forced to tell you that she was fine."
"What possible benefit would the Terran's have for doing that?" Rowana asked with an annoyed expression.
"Having Diva Lorelie sign with Royal Entertainment would be a great boon for both the company and their race."
"You can't be serious?" Becky said in exasperation as she, Tessa and Lorelie watched The MMM Show as Rowana retorted to Malgath's accusation.
"I knew something would happen when Rowana told me she had been invited onto the show." Lorelie sighed.
"That Solarian will use any excuse to shame we Terran's." Tessa said with a sad frown.
"Why did she even agree to go on then? Surely she knew as you did that this would happen." Becky asked.
"Of course, but if she didn't go on then Malgath would have no one to challenge his views as he talked about this topic. at least this way Rowana is showing that not every celebrity and Diva believes those stories." Lorelie explained.
"So Diva Rowana is defending us?" Tessa asked in surprise.
"Yes, this is her way of showing you her gratitude for saving me, or so she claims."
"You don't believe her?"
"I do, but there must also be another reason for her doing this, she rarely does things for such a simple reason as showing thanks."
"Does anybody believe that we are holding you against your will and forcing you to do things? I mean you can simply clear it up when you next hold an in person press conference." Becky asked in disbelief.
"Unfortunately I expect many individuals do." Tessa replied with a sigh before continuing, "we are not a popular race to begin with, especially with Solarian's like Malgath who is a very popular celebrity himself. His talk show is the perfect platform to discredit us as it will reach billions who will believe him."
"Also it doesn't matter if they believe it, the damage will have been done by the time I manage to clear up the misunderstanding. People will remember what Malgath insinuated." Lorelie added with a sigh.
"Is there anything we can do?" Becky asked.
"Not really, at least in the short term." Lorelie replied.
"I noticed that he didn't mention how the streamer rescued you." Tessa remarked.
"It's probably because he's a streamer, Solarian's dislike streamers after all, just look at how he treated Prime." "Lorelie explained.
"Yeah that's the only good thing that's happened so far on the show." Becky replied.
Once Admiral Dexter was sure there were no more pirates hiding nearby he ordered the pirate elimination fleet back to Palaxia before thanking everyone for a job well done.
Adam ended the stream as he returned to Palaxia, but instead of rushing to the Mercenary Hall like most of the mercs were talking about doing on the private channel he decided to get some much needed rest after landed at the spaceport as the battle had tired him out, especially after all the evasive manoeuvres he had Spector make while avoiding the Revenge's attacks.
Adam fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow and didn't wake up for a good ten hours.
After he got up he had a shower and got himself some breakfast in the mess hall before finally deciding to head to the Mercenary Hall to find out what his final reward payment was and to collect it.
Adam entered the Mercenary Hall to find all the mercs who had got back before him chatting and celebrating about the credits they had earned while he walked towards Lizzie who stood behind one of the counters while smiling at him.
"So the hero finally returns." Lizzie said jokingly.
"Hero?" Adam asked in puzzlement.
"Well you are the reason Bonnie failed to escape and was eliminated." Lizzie replied to which Adam just smiled before she continued.
"I'm guessing you want to see how much you earned in total, I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised" she said as she accessed her console causing a holographic screen to appear before Adam.
[[Pirate Elimination Special Mission Rewards]]
[[Mercenary Name: Adam Spencer]]
[[Mercenary Rank: E]]
[[Reward Earned: 32,000 Credits]]
"Holy fuck." Adam swore as he saw the amount he had just earned before he turned to Lizzie and asked.
"Are you sure there isn't a mistake? I know the defence force said they would double the amount but isn't this too much?"
"It would be if you didn't get credit for taking down Bonnie's ship." Lizzie replied with a giggle.
"Admiral Dexter decided that because of your work distracting her and then using a seismic charge to severely damage her ship you did most of the work. Because of this ninety percent of the ten thousand credit reward for taking her down went to you, while the remaining ten percent was split among the other mercs who helped finish her off."
"Wow, ok." Adam replied still in disbelief.
"You will also notice that per your agreement with my idiot husband your mercenary rank has increased to E."
"Oh and lastly Greg said that you deserve something extra for all you did in the special mission and to go see him."
"Got it." Adam said before tapping his uniband against a pad on the counter.
After giving his thanks to Lizzie he moved away so she could serve the next merc and he proceeded towards Greg before taking a seat on one of the bar stools.
"Here." Greg said while placing a glass of ocean blue liquid in front of him.
"Is this!" Adam asked in excitement to which Greg just smirked before he went to serve the other mercs while Adam enjoyed his God's embrace.
Adam enjoyed his drink for a while before Andrew came over and slid onto the stool next to his before saying, "You have an invitation."
"An invitation. I just got off a call with Admiral Dexter. Apparently after reporting everything that happened to Terran Defence Force HQ back on the capital planet Terrana five, after receiving the report and hearing how it was you that saved Diva Lorelie the first prince decided to invite you to the imperial palace to offer his personal thanks."
Greg and some of the nearby mercs heard this and couldn't help but comment.
"Damn an invite from the first prince, that's second only to the emperor himself."
"It's not surprising that an invitation from the Imperial family is coming from the first prince since he governs all Terran's planet defence force's and anything related to them is reported directly to him."
"Still, why would the rookie receive an invite just for participating in the pirate elimination special mission? I mean none of us received one."
"You idiot, don't you remember Lizzie telling Frank that we would be getting a decent pay day soon because of the rookie? He must have been responsible for finding something that made the defence force act."
As the mercs continued to discuss the matter Greg walked over with a drink that he placed before Andrew before speaking to Adam.
"An invite from the imperial family is a huge honour, even if it's just the first prince and not the emperor. Are you going to accept?"
"Pass." Adam said to everyone's surprise after he finished God's Embrace and set the glass down.
"What but this is a huge honour to any Terran, getting in with the imperial family will leave you set for life." One of the mercs said.
"Except I'm not a Terran so your imperial family means little to me." Adam replied as the rest of the mercs in the hall started to pay attention.
The mercs stared in shock for a moment before one of them angrily said, "watch your mouth rookie, you can refuse the invitation if you wish but don't insult the imperial family."
"He's right, the imperial family has led our race for generations to the point that we can stand alongside the other races as part of the universal senate."
"Except from what I hear most of the other races dislike you." Adam replied calmly causing the entire Mercenary Hall to go quiet.
"Ungrateful fucking bastard." One merc said as he stood up before walking towards Adam.