Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 377

Chapter 377: Chapter 377 Escalation and Reunion
Clarien watched with gritted teeth as Urs slaughtered the power armor squad that had confronted him.

The image on the display was constantly flashing in and out as the cameras integrated into his subordinates’ suits were malfunctioning just like everything else after being hit by an EMP grenade.

“Well, I’ve figured out what he used. It’s a fairly niche item that isn’t very popular due to its size. But its more effective than most other models out there by sheer virtue of being bigger.”

Connected to him on a call was Delilah.

She was not personally involving herself, but she was still providing advice and intelligence.

The moment Urs displayed any sort of armaments or equipment, she quickly found what it was and passed along the information to Clarien. No matter how obscure the item was.

‘Damn it. Why does that bastard even have something like this on him? Sure the power armor we have isn’t specially protected against EMP weaponry, but a normal grenade wouldn’t have caused this level of distribution to them.’ Clarien thought, feeling the mounting frustration as their plan was falling apart in front of his eyes.

It did not take too long for Urs to finish eliminating the last of the power armor troops.

With the suits slow to respond they were far weaker than they would have been without the power armor on.

Each one of them had been taken out by a single close-range blast from Urs’ high-powered laser cannon. Either taking the hit to their heads or chest and going down instantly.

“They’ve lost, so I’m heading out. I should have just done this from the start. It would be over already if I had.”

On the monitor connected to his partner, Clarien watched Rook get up from the commander’s chair on the bridge of his ship and walk out of view.

He had felt confident that the power armor squad he had deployed would be enough, which is why he had made the deal with Rook to keep him from going.

Now though, he regretted that decision. Instead, he should have done whatever he could to stop his partner from joining the field.

Unfortunately, it was too late for that at this point. No matter what he said, Rook was not going to stop.

“We’ll just have to escalate as planned. After coming this far, we can’t leave emptyhanded.” Clarien mumbled.

He then ordered around half of the ships under his command to decloak and prepare to assault Yuson II.

It was too late to finish this mission without causing a scene.

The Alliance Police were already beginning to mobilize within the station and a few small skirmishes between hem and Clarien’s and Rook’s forces had already broken out.

Before long the internal battle would grown in size and eventually the Alliance Police would overwhelm them.

That was why Clarien was going to give them something else to worry about to divide their attention.

With the bulk of the combat capable ships already off fighting the pirate invasion set up courtesy of Adder, the Alliance Police would not be able to quickly respond to an external attack from multiple warships.

Yuson II might have a few smaller vessels left in the hangers capable of fighting, but nothing strong enough to push Clarien’s forces back.

‘They’ll have to devote more of their units to defending the outside. Otherwise, they risk the entire station being destroyed by a concentrated bombardment. That should at least keep the pressure off Rook and his squad long enough for them to eliminate Urs and retrieve the targets.’

Clarien was not happy with how things had developed, but all he could do was move on to the next step and continue heading forward.

They had a number of contingency plans for if something went wrong, and he was ready to implement all of them if it proved to be necessary.

…

“That’s the last one.” Urs said as the final adversary that had tried to ambush him fell to the ground. A large hole in their chest where he had blasted them with his laser cannon.

Although he had heavily limited their movements and disabled some of their weapons, the group equipped with power armor had still put up a bit of a fight.

Even with their suits malfunctioning, they had tried everything that they could to fight off Urs. With some of them even employing suicidal tactics to try and stop him.

Still, he was not so inexperienced as to fall for any of their tricks. It had just merely slowed him down a bit.

“Robert and Serena are probably growing more worried by the minute. I need to meet back up with them at the safehouse and plan out next move.”

With nothing in his way any longer, Urs dashed through the alleyways again, heading towards his destination.

Along the way he encountered a few more groups of Clarien’ and Rook’s forces, but he handily dealt with all of them.

Eventually, after taking a fairly roundabout way to obfuscate the location, he reached one of the entrance to his safehouse.

Where there was seemingly just a normal wall, an entrance suddenly opened up.

There was no light coming out, so it looked almost like a black portal to another dimension, but Urs did not hesitate and walked through.

On the other side he was greeted with a small room that led into a maze that would be difficult to navigate for any intruder.

Urs was the one to set the place up though, so he was able to reveal the correct path and head directly to the safehouse he had set up.

When he arrived, he found that Robert and Serena were in better shape than he was expecting.

The two of them had sat down at one of the couches and were eating pancakes that were covered in syrup.

“Sorry, that took so long. But I’m glad to see that you’ve both settled in well.” Urs said, as he walked into the room.

For a moment they were both startled by the sudden voice since neither of them had noticed him enter.

But they almost immediately calmed down when they saw that it was Urs.

“We believed that you’d be fine, but it’s good to see you made it. It looks like it was a bit rough on you though.”

Robert eyed the cuts and bruises on Urs’ face, but he just waved his hand and brushed it off.

“These don’t even count as injuries. I’ve had one of my armed twisted all the way around before and barely still attached to me. A few scrapes aren’t anything to be bothered by.”

“That’s good to hear. But I didn’t really need that visual put in my head while I’m eating.” Serena said, jokingly.

Seeing the way that she responded, and the smile on her face, came as a bit of shock to Urs.

He had expected her to still be reeling with having killed someone for the first time, but either she had gotten over it easier than he expected, or right now she was compartmentalizing well and was keeping her emotions under control.

‘It’s probably for the best. We should have at least a little while before this place is discovered. It will be ideal if we can recover and relax a bit. And if we’re lucky, the people after them won’t find us and they’ll get chased off by the Alliance Police.’

Of course, Urs was not betting on everything being over already. Mercenaries that grew lax when things were going well for them were the types to die early.

Their enemies were determined and had a great deal of resources at their disposal. He was ready to get moving again at a moment’s notice.

Nevertheless, for right now, they were safe.

Feeling a bit parched, Urs headed over to the autochef and had it make him a drink to restore his energy and rehydrate himself.

Once the giant cup he had chosen was filled to the brim, he headed back to where Robert and Serena were and sat down in the chair across from them.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you have a place like this here? Yuson II isn’t particularly dangerous, and this must be costly to maintain. You did not prepare it just for us?” Robert asked curiously.

“Well, it isn’t too expensive. A client that I did a lot of work for back in the day set it up for me as a favor. He owns the building and has a branch of his business here. The safehouse and the maze network leading to it are only a small part of the place. As for the why, it’s got nothing to do with what’s going on with you two. It’s similar to the situation your son is in right now. I made some enemies during my career that I figured might seek revenge against me. A few actually did, but I’ve already crushed them. At this point, the few that are left with a grudge have probably either given up or forgotten about me. But I’m always ready, just in case”

Urs’ explanation made sense, but it was also a glimpse into the far less glamorous part of mercenary life that was not told in dramatized stories that were popular in the Dramid Alliance.

It was not all just crushing space pirates and monsters and large celebrations after big wins.

“Let’s not worry about other things right now. We’ve got other issues to discuss. This place isn’t impenetrable, and it’s only a matter of time before they figure out that we’re hiding somewhere nearby. So, while we have the time, I’ll explain our escape route and where our next destination is.”