Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 169 Multiple Decisions

After the battle against the spiderlike assassin drones attack, Avery, Kasandra, Jasmine, Ezra, Kaiden, Grito, and Vi'ivando found themselves waiting in the largest office on the base.

They had been brought in immediately to speak with the base's commander about the situation that had just occurred. And Avery was finished with being cordial.

"Your negligence almost got one of the members of my team killed! How does something like this happen on an Alliance Police installation? Are you just that incompetent? Has the lackadaisical feel of this place turned all of your officers' minds to mush?"

Avery was understandably furious considering what had just occurred. They had been promised protection here, yet only a few hours into their stay were they already being attacked.

To make matters worse, Avery and his team members had been asked to leave their weapons aboard their vessels since it was against regulations for guests to be armed. Had the base commander made an exception, which he should have in hindsight, things would not have been so desperate. The killer robots would have been far less of a threat if Avery's team had been armed.

"Calm yourself. This is not the time to let your anger cloud your judgment. We need to have a constructive discussion about the incident and Grito's status going forward."

The leader of the base, Commander Traustur, attempted to pacify Avery.

He was a shorter man with a bald head and blue gray skin and yellow eyes.

His species was called Breolese, and they were one of the original four races that made the Dramid Alliance.

Due to their planet being ninety percent covered in water; their species had evolved to be amphibious.

"No, we're not moving on until my demands are addressed." Avery said unwaveringly.

Since the enemy already knew where they were an had the ability to sneak threats onto the base, he was tempted to storm out and say that there was no point in staying if the Alliance Police could not even keep a single witness out of harm's way. Fearing attempts on his life like this was the reason that Grito had run away in the first place.

Commander Traustur had half a mind to remove Avery and his team from the base while taking Grito into his custody fully. He did not like his authority and competency challenged.

Still, to act on this desire would only be self-serving. There was no telling what sort of consequences might come up should he do so.

Avery would undoubtedly push back, and he had enough pull with the mercenary association to cause no small number of headaches thanks to his rank and the Silver Cross of Heroism he had been awarded.

Then there was Grito. The young Baccigan was already scared out of his mind. If the people he had come to trust were forced away, he might refuse to testify. A less-than-ideal outcome considering things concern the Odium Syndicate had already been pushed back due to his first disappearance.

"And what is it that you might want from me?"

Not a hint of a smile on his face, Avery listed out his demands.

"My team and I are going to be allowed to carry our weapons on this base. The only one allowed to give us any orders is you. I don't want a repeat of what happened today. Your subordinates will not have the authority to put the members of my team in danger again. As for security, I don't trust anyone on this base now. Clearly there is a spy somewhere among their ranks. Officers from Commander Berk's squad will be the ones to solely serve as Grito's protectors. We've at least built up some comradery with them on our journey here."

There were my concerns that Avery addressed, but these three were what he felt were the most important. He was not going to accept anything less.

Commander Traustur considered Avery's demands for nearly a minute, before he let out a deep sigh in resignation.

"Very well. I shall agree to your requests. This matter is more important than creating petty squabbles between us. And I cannot deny my fault in the attack that occurred today."

Having received what he wanted, Avery finally sat down in his chair and allowed things to move forward.

Traustur began by asking them a series of questions, wanting to discover any clues they might have seen but did not know the importance of.

"Hm, now that I think about it, one of the kitchen staff's heart rate became noticeably faster when we arrived. I believe that they might have contacted someone after we collected our food, but I can't be entirely sure." Kasandra said, her acute hearing possibly having picked up on something no one else had.

Normally she would have simply forgotten about this mildly odd behavior by the end of the day. Yet, when asked to think of anything suspicious she had seen, this was the first thing that came to mind.

Of course, there were some obviously suspect individuals that everyone could recall.

The three Alliance Police members that had brought them to where the assassination took place, and the captain that was supposedly behind them.

Normally, Grito and the other members of Avery's team never would have gone anywhere near that storage building. And had the spiderlike drone simply left the building and tried to hunt Grito down, it would have been destroyed long before it reached him. The only reason the attempt on his life had been close to succeeding was because of the surprise nature of the attack.

Once Kasandra had given the description of the kitchen staff member she thought was suspicious, Commander Traustur addressed the officers that had led them into a trap.

"I've put the three of them on administrative leave and confined them to their quarters while this matter is investigated. However, I do not believe that they were directly involved in this plot. I can speak highly of their combat abilities, but those three don't have the sharpest of wits among my subordinates. As for their captain, it seems that he received a forged order from me. I don't know how they obtained my seal and access codes, but I've already had them changed so that will not happen again."

This was certainly distressing news. Some outside force had been able to masquerade as the base commander and order one of his senior officers around.

Fortunately, they had not ordered something more drastic, though doing so likely would have revealed the fraud.

While loyal to the hierarchy of the system they served, Alliance Police officers were not just going to follow clearly illogical commands without first confirming it with their superiors.

Had the captain been ordered to bring Grito to some second location off of the base, he likely would have contacted Commander Traustur directly for confirmation.

This would have revealed the deception and brought an end to any devious plot before it could come to fruition.

On the other hand, merely ordering him to meet with the recently arrived guests in one of the base's offices was a mundane enough request. The captain probably never even thought twice about it before sending his subordinates to bring Grito.

"That's certainly disconcerting, but what I really want to know about is how and assassin drone made it onto this base. If the people after Grito can do something like that, what's to keep them from simply sending in a bomb and killing everyone here?" Avery said, reasonably concerned.

His hypothetical escalation was a bit over-the-top, but he was right to be worried about something else being snuck onto the base, or perhaps already lying in wait for the right moment.

"Rest assured that we are looking into the matter. As for something as dangerous as a high yield explosive, that will never make it onto this base without being caught. The only reason that spiderlike robot avoided detection was because it lacked any discernible weapon systems and had been disguised as a shield generator. And now that we know how it made it past our security, measures are already being taken to make sure it does not happen again."

Their discussion went on for a bit longer, but most of the important matters had already been covered. As he still had a great deal of work to do considering the breach of security on the base he oversaw, Commander Traustur soon brought the meeting to a close.

After that, Avery and his team were escorted by Lieutenant Laletta and her subordinates back to their ships. They would be staying onboard for the foreseeable future since they could no longer trust the security of the base.

"Kasandra, Jasmine, I have something important to talk about with the two of you." Avery said once he was alone with them on the Dauntless.

The three of them moved to the dining room and sat down to talk.

"This battle and the one against Iniquus have made me realize something. I need to get physical augmentations sooner rather than later. There's only so much I can do with training and equipment, and this latest fight showed me how little I can do on my own without anything but my own body to work with. Another situation where we can't have our weapons on us is bound to happen eventually. I don't want to feel useless again then and regret putting this off. This system one of the most populous in the Dramid Alliance. I'm certain that there's an exceptional augmentation specialist somewhere. Kasandra, Jasmine, I want the two of you to help me pick out the best place and enhancements for me."