I looked out into the void of space while my comms connected to Amber's as we initiated our ship's engines to start our travel drives.
As the stars streaked past my windshield, I looked to the side to see the screen showing the door that was connected to Amber's ship open up, letting the blonde haired Merc step into my ship.
I waited for her to join me in the cockpit and the doors behind me soon slid open, right before I felt a pair of arms wrap around me.
"Ahhh~ It feels like it's been awhile since we've been out in space, hasn't it?" She asked, nuzzling her face against my cheek."
"It's only been a few days hasn't it? I'm still surprised that you ripped that guy off like that."
She rolled her eyes, "Oh please. I would have settled for two million Credits total if he didn't try to undersell us from the start. Five hundred thousand credits for a hustle like this? That's like telling Mara that you will only pay her a million Credits for your custom mod."
"Umm… I guess I can understand that… But isn't he already in trouble?"
"Ahahaha! That guy dug the hole himself and now he's crying that he has to lay in it! Nah, he brought this entire situation on himself."
"Eh? Why?"
"Well, how do you think he ended up in that situation in the first place?"
I shrugged, "I dunno? I thought it was just bad luck or something? Considering that it's pirates that took the ship right?"
She giggled, "Hehehe~ He said that the transport ship contained something pretty important, right?"
I nodded, wondering what she was getting at.
She then gestured to the both of us, "Don't you think such an important thing should be guarded by some people to ensure its safety?"
"I… Suppose?"
"And don't you think that the people he's working for would have wanted the important thing to reach its destination safely and thus, gave the person in charge enough money to ensure that it actually has enough protection to reach its destination?"
Ah…
"I'm guessing he took that money for himself since he believes the likelihood of the transport being attacked by pirates is low enough?"
"Ding ding~ Bingo! And I highly doubt this would be the first time he's doing it too. He definitely embezzled a whole ton of Credits from his employers well past four million Credits. So the fact that he thought he could try to scrimp us too just pissed me off. The fact that he agreed to it so quickly must mean that this has been going on for quite a while and four million is just a small cut of what he has already embezzled."
"Ah… I'm guessing Mara also knows that he was embezzling money?"
"That woman knows a lot of things and till today, I still don't know how she knows half the stuff she tells me and I don;t even want to think about what she knows and hasn't told me."
Right… Now I don't feel that bad for that guy anymore.
I mean… Those pirates probably attacked that transport ship because it was completely unguarded so you can't be surprised that it had such a fate.
"What are the odds that the ship was destroyed by the pirates already?" I asked.
She shrugged, "Beats me. It's quite possible but it's also possible that they boarded the ship and took control of it. Either way, we just need to find what he wants and then we can get paid."
"You don't think the pirates could have taken it too?"
"Unless the 'important thing' that he was referring to was a whole entire crate's worth of Credit Chips, I doubt that pirates would be interested in whatever those Corp people think is important to them."
Well… I still hope that I don't need to scavenge through a ship's derelict to find it though, especially when neither of us really knew what that thing was.
I guess we'll find out when we get there.
Just as I was thinking of asking what Amber planned to do in the meantime, I felt her hand pull me towards her and her lips met mine in a kiss.
Ah… I suppose we could do that.
*
A few hours later, we dropped out of travel speeds and Amber's ship detached from mine, both of us powering up our shields and weapon systems as we neared the place that the ship was supposedly last seen at.
I was expecting to find nothing there but surprisingly, there was a ship there and not only that, it was still intact. Going by the image that guy sent us, this was our transport ship that we were looking for.
A quick scan on it showed that its engines were blown out which prevented it from moving, although its weapons and shield systems were still online.
There was, however, a large amount of debris around it, which I'm guessing were the remains of pirate ships?
As we flew closer to the ship, I received a hail from the intact ship almost immediately.
I opened the comm link with the ship and the image of a bespectacled and frizzled haired young man appeared on my screen.
"Thank the Gods! You're Mercs right? About time someone showed up! I sent that distress signal hours ago!"
Eh? Distress signal?
We definitely did not receive any but that could just be due to us being at travel speeds.
Amber answered him from her own ship, "We did not receive any distress signals though? We got asked to find and secure a supposedly important object from a transport ship that lost connection here."
"What?!" The captain of that transport ship shrieked. "No distress signals?! Then… Does that mean you're both alone here?!"
"Yeah, we are. What about it?"
"There's a whole bunch of pirates that's coming here! You two will be slaughtered alive!"
"Yeah about that… How are you still alive? I see you've even managed to destroy several ships of your own."
That guy started to curse through our intercom, "That's because that fucking piece of shit retard always neglected to hire any escorts for me! So I went ahead to outfit this transport ship with weapons and systems to defend myself with! Good thing I did because this time I was really attacked by pirates and I had something to fight back with instead of being completely helpless!"
I raised an eyebrow, "Ok… But what about those pirates you said were coming just now?"
"That's because I didn't manage to defeat all of them but they disabled my engines! They're definitely going to try and gather more people to take me down damn it!"
"Hmm… You said you sent a distress signal so maybe some others received it?" I suggested.
Amber disagreed, "I'm pretty sure there's a jamming beacon somewhere that's stopping any signals from being sent out. Especially considering that guy said the ship disappeared from his tracker here. That means your distress signal did not reach anyone at all."
The transport ship captain cursed, "Shit! Can you tow me out of here before those pirates get here? There were four of them and I only managed to shoot down three before the other one escaped!"
"Umm… Are you sure the last one was bringing more guys here? They could have just decided you weren't worth it and left."
"Yes! Because he said so before he sped off!! He was also cursing at me the entire time for killing those three other pirates! Like as if they weren't trying to kill me!"
Amber interjected, "I don't suppose you know which pirate group those guys are from?"
"Do I look like some kind of pirate connoisseur to you?! Of course I don't know which pirate group they belonged to!! Now are you getting me out of here or--"
Before he could finish his words, my sensors started blaring out alarms that multiple energy signatures were approaching.
Several ships then appeared a distance away, still far enough that they appear to be specks in the distance but close enough to be in weapons range.
My scanners also told me that the ship's affiliation was also listed as pirates so there was no question as to who they were.
They seemed pretty surprised to see us and merely hovered at where they were, giving me the opportunity to count eight ships in total, six A Class fighters and two B Class heavy fighters.
"Hey, your weapons are still working right?" I asked.
"Ye… Yes?"
"Good, keep them online."
"You're… You're planning to fight them?!"
"If you would prefer that we just leave you here and fly away ourselves, that's an option too."
"No, no, no… Please don't leave me here with them…"
Amber let out a chuckle, "Not even backing down with odds like this eh? Hahaha! This is why I love you, Tera!"
I mean… This was a two million Credits payout we're talking about here. And besides… I think we can take them.
Yeah, let's do this.