Corpo Age

Chapter 226: Mission Search and Rescue

Thorne and I made our way to the meeting immediately upon learning about it. It had caught us both off guard as we had gotten used to our position of power within our own company. Few ever hid details from us. We were usually the ones who released information as we saw fit. It had been a while since we had been on the other end of the information loop.

Thankfully, the meeting place was nearby. It must’ve been scheduled as we received the request, so it took into account where we were.

Perhaps due to how late it was, the venue chosen was a rave. Donning our disguises, Thorne and I walked into the crowded, high-energy floor with dozens of flashing lights coming at us from every angle. I stuck close to Thorne’s large frame and managed to trek through the sea of people until we reached the stairs off to the side.

We raced to the meeting place, a private room on the second floor. Once the door closed behind us, we shared a look that conveyed our acknowledgment that these sorts of places weren’t for us. However, business was business, and we had to wait here for the other party.

The waiting lasted for over half an hour before a group of three strolled into our room. They were led by a big muscular man with short blonde hair and cybernetics legs. Other than that, he was mostly organic. The only other noticeable characteristic about him was his small but round eyes.

His two companions were both ladies who seemed to fit in with the party crowd downstairs. They wore skimpy, skin-tight dresses that barely covered the necessary parts. One had long pink hair and a curvy figure, while the other was tall and slender, with long black hair.

“Nice to meet you, gentlemen! How are you both doing tonight?” the blonde-haired man cheerfully greeted.

We had arrived early due to our proximity, so we couldn’t fault the other party for arriving just on time. For all we knew, they could’ve been on the other side of town or were asleep. Still, we didn’t want to be here for one second longer than we had to.

We politely stood up and offered to shake their hands.

“I’m Shake, and this is Echo. We just accepted this gig, so please brief us on what you have so far.”

“Woah, what’s the rush now, boys?” he said as he slammed down a bottle on the table. “I’m Mil, by the way, and this is Upty and Ella.”

The pink-haired girl bowed while the dark-haired girl scoffed at us.

“Don’t mind Ella. It’s her way of being friendly. Anyway, we should take the time to get to know each other if we’ll be depending on each other for this quest. Here, have some of this first.”

Mil pulled out some glasses from somewhere and began pouring drinks for us. Both Thorne and I knew it wasn’t so easy working with this type of people, but we didn’t have a choice. Mercenaries had to deal with the hand they were dealt, and we didn’t have time to waste.

We wanted to get this job done, start spreading rumors of our company, and leave before any nefarious parties caught wind of our presence here in Soluna.

Still, it didn’t mean I wouldn’t try to keep our conversations on topic.

“Thank you, but we’ve had quite a bit to drink tonight already. We just finished up another job, so if you don’t mind, we would like to get this done quickly so we can retire for the night.”

“Oh! Why didn’t you say so? If you’re tired, then we should reschedule for tomorrow. After all, fatigue is the enemy of productivity!”

I took a moment to breathe in deeply while resisting my urge to openly sigh. Even under all that holographic projection and power armor, I could tell Thorne was holding back his laughter as well. I needed to get myself under control.

“No need,” I retorted. “We’re not that tired. We just want to put together a rough plan tonight so we can make preparations tomorrow.”

“In that case, I know just the thing to lift you guys up. I know because I always—”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Enough!” Upty, the pink-haired girl, interrupted him with an elbow to the ribs. “Sorry about that. Mil is pretty exhausting to listen to and isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But at the very least, he means well. It’s his only redeeming quality. Anyway, as you were saying, we have gathered some info for the job.”

The full-figured woman proceeded to place a small circular device down on the tablet, which then projected some images into the air. It was a space chart with various routes drawn on it.

We started studying the map, realizing its significance in helping us complete the job.

The gig we had taken was a search and rescue mission and the homework they did obviously indicated they got a head start with the search part. Still, for this gig to require working with another team likely meant this job was originally theirs, but they realized they couldn’t accomplish it alone.

“How accurate are these routes of the supposed pirates we’re tracking?” I asked.

Before Upty could answer, the other girl beside her, Ella, clicked her tongue.

“Of course they’re accurate. We spent an entire week following them around!”

“Then what’s the catch here? How come your team called for reinforcement instead of completing the job? Usually, the search part is the hardest, right? What makes the rescue part impossible for the three of you?”

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“It’s not impossible for us!”

“Ella, calm down,” Upty urged before turning to face us. “As you said, we did finish the hard part with the searching. However, our scouting informed us that the other party is more well-armed than we’re comfortable dealing with. They have over fifty crew members aboard their ship. While the job didn’t tell us exactly how many people they’ve kidnapped, we estimate at least two dozen. It’s not something we can handle with confidence between the three of us.”

“The job said the rescuing part is optional! We just need to capture at least two members of the enemy crew to complete it!” The black-haired girl argued.

“Ella!” Mil shouted. “I told you it isn’t cool to complete the gig at the cost of lives. Neither is denying the fact we need help. The top mercs always complete perfectly, no matter what they have to endure!”

I clapped my hands to draw everyone’s attention before we got sidetracked by their drama. They could continue their dispute during their own time.

“So you just need help boarding this ship? Is there anything else we should know about?”

“Yes,” Upty answered. “We’ll need to come up with a plan to even approach their ship. I don’t know how they did it, but they got their hands on some pretty advanced energy shields. It allows them to have it active at all times, so flying near them in our ship is a no-go.”

“Pirates with advanced tech? Any idea which corp sponsors them?”

The pink-haired woman shook her head.

“We don’t even know for sure if they have a sponsor. They could’ve stolen the tech from somewhere or salvaged experimental stuff that corporations threw out. The employer only cares to capture some of them alive to interrogate.”

Well, this isn’t much of a search and rescue as it is a search and capture, then.

“Hmm, I guess that isn’t something to be worrying about right now. We should be able to finish the job for you. How does departing tomorrow afternoon sound?”

“What?” Mil cried as he stood up from his seat. “I thought you guys were tired and will be using tomorrow to plan things out while you recuperate. You want to make a move so soon after hearing what Upty had to say?”

“That was the case if we didn’t know where the target was. Since you already found them, we obviously are going to hit them and finish the gig.”

Various emotions flashed across his face as he tried to formulate a response. In the end, he didn’t manage to squeeze out anything.

“So, is that everything?” I asked. “If it is, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

The trio before me closed their eyes, and either nodded with a sigh or turned away.

---

Mil - Mercenary

“What do you guys think about our new partners?” Mil asked as soon as the two strange men walked out of the private booth.

“They’re all talk. I say we keep our distance and watch. Otherwise, they’d get us killed,” Ella answered without hiding her dismissive tone about the two men in question.

They had come out of nowhere, with no one knowing a single thing about them despite all the reaching out they had done during the entire meeting. None of their contacts could comment on their name or faces.

It wasn’t exactly rare in the mercenary business where one sometimes had to get a change of identity, but that didn’t make Ella feel any better. In her eyes, those who were forced to hide and pretend had limited capabilities in the first place.

“Now, now. We can’t exactly abandon our allies like that. It’s part of the job to be able to work with whoever we’re paired with. I don’t want to be known as the incompetent who can’t work with others.”

“In that case, we should just take the lead! They could be our decoy, fodder, or something. Why are you letting these nobodies decide how the mission goes?”

Mil wistfully smiled as he shook his head upon being confronted by his teammate. He even turned to Upty, with a look asking for help.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not getting involved in you two’s daily squabbles. I’ll listen to whatever you guys decide, as long as it isn’t something stupid.”

The predictable answer made Mil breathe in deeply as he mentally prepared himself to face off against Ella in another day of arguing.

“Look, we should let them do their thing. Even if they failed, they would’ve tested the pirate’s defenses for us, and we wouldn’t have to take responsibility if anyone went wrong. Just make sure we have a backup plan in case things go wrong.”

“Things always go wrong!” Ella quipped.

The two continued their argument all the way until morning. It wore them out so much that their two new partners, Shake and Echo, were staring at them the entire time during their debrief prior to setting off.

Thankfully, it didn’t hinder their progress, and a plan was quickly decided. It was decided that Mil and Ella would accompany their allies on their ship while Upty flew their ship alone. Their role was to help secure the kidnapped workers while Shake and Echo took care of the crew.

It took Mil everything he had to shut Ella up from questioning the plan during the meeting. Which was why it was inevitable that the first words coming from her mouth upon leaving Soluna were full of complaints.

“Are you seriously going to believe these guys have a ship with the capabilities of approaching our target undetected? Just look at this place. I doubt they have ever encountered a proper energy shield.”

“Hey, that’s something we’ll have to wait and see. Their ship model doesn’t come up in any searches, so we may be in for a surprise. Besides, despite having energy shields, the rest of the pirate ship isn’t anything to talk about. We should be able to get away if they fail, so it’s no loss for us.”

Ella scoffed and turned away, refusing to continue the conversation. Instead, she opened up a call to Upty.

“Upty, make sure you’re ready to retrieve us when things go wrong!”

“Shh!” Mil jumped in and covered his mouth. “They might hear you! Don’t be so loud.”

The rest of the flight continued like this, with Mil trying to placate his companion while he inspected his equipment.

Traversing through space was boring most of the time, but everyone onboard could feel the tension building as they approached their target.

The pirates had a few routes they regularly took. They would alternate hiding within multiple asteroids to escape the scans of various patrols. For some reason, they always stayed close to the moon, so it was the only way they could remain undetected.

Having learned of their routes, it was only a matter of time before their group encountered the pirates. A few hours after they departed from Soluna, alarms began to sound throughout their ships.

Mil and Ella immediately barged into the cockpit to see what was going on. They entered just in time for the screen to zoom in on a ship in the distance. It was noticeably surrounded by blue, shimmering light.

“That’s them! Their energy shield is still up like last time. Is this large, bulky thing really going to be able to slip past it?” Ella immediately questioned.

“Calm down,” Shake replied without looking back from his seat. “We said we could do it, so just leave it to us. In the worst-case scenario, we have weapons on this thing that can blast their shield apart. It’d just make the rescue a little more hectic.”

“What?! The cannons on this piece of junk works?!”