NOVEL NEXT Chapter 624: It's A 'Small' Mining Station
The first thing I noticed when stepping onto the station was that it certainly wasn't like the other stations we've been to so far.
The airlock opened up and we were greeted with a rather rundown corridor that stretched into the station itself.
Pretty much all the other stations we've been to had wide corridors that were properly covered with wall panellings but not this one.
This one had a relatively narrow corridor that was just wide enough to accommodate two people walking side by side though the small size was due to all the exposed wiring and pipes that stretched along both sides and the ceiling of the corridor.
Yeah… This is definitely not a place where people will come for vacations at least.
The corridor ended at a lift which we had to squeeze into that was just barely big enough to fit all of us.
The lift didn't even have proper walls and was literally just a metal cage that was being lifted up and lowered within a rectangular shaft.
And even on the ride down the elevator, the lift was shaking so much and making so much noise that I was surprised that it didn't just break down halfway.
When we reached the main floor of the station, it felt like I had stepped into another universe.
More specifically, it's like I stepped into a dieselpunk universe or something.
The main lobby of the station seemed to be a large floor that had various different metallic structures built all around to form a complex maze of streets with pipes, wires and steam lining up through said streets.
The people that were present there were all smudged with dirt and oil and wearing clothes that looked to have seen better days with patchwork done using cloths that were obviously different from the original clothing.
I also counted a majority of them wearing those overalls with suspenders over grubby shirts though they were clearly made with some kind of material that wasn't denim.
Instantly, it was obvious that we were not locals just at a glance from what we were wearing.
We stepped out of the lift and several of them turned to look at us. Most of them were shooting us odd looks as though wondering why we were even here but none of them said anything and simply continued about their business.
I turned back to my girls, "Alright… As I said, don't want to spend more time here than we have to. Do whatever we need to do and we get out of here. Watch for pickpockets, if you have to start any trouble, make sure you finish it. Got it?"
All of my girls nodded with wry smiles on their faces.
Hmm? Wait a moment…
The maid uniform that Renata was wearing had a shorter skirt that reached her thighs when we first left the ship… Did she change the length of the skirt down to her ankles while we were in the lift?
Hmm… I wonder why?
Well… Whatever, not that important anyway.
We split up to start on our respective tasks.
For my group in particular, Yumiko, Renata and I will be looking for the buyer of our loot.
Unfortunately, Yumiko would not be able to use her position as a Pirate Lord as leverage since no one was supposed to know who she really was. That's why the plan was to claim that we were acquainted with people from her pirate crew as an excuse on why we were selling it to them.
Yumiko led the way through the narrow streets of the station which was only 'crowded' because of how narrow they were.
Behind her was me and following right behind me was Renata.
The buildings we were passing by seemed to be a mix of restaurants and stores that were selling all kinds of knick knacks that I couldn't tell what they were.
It seems like we also arrived at a time when the miners had just got off work and were looking for places to eat for the night.
In fact, some of them seemed to have already gone through several drinks and were obviously drunk with how they were walking and slurring their speech while they were shouting out nonsense at everyone around them.
We had the unfortunate luck of passing by such a group as we squeezed past them while they were stumbling around drunkenly.
I heard a whistle from their group right before it was replaced with a pained yell.
I turned to see what was going on, only to realise Renata was grabbing onto the wrist of one of the drunken men that seemed to have been trying to reach for my ass.
"Ow, ow, ow!! Hey?! What's the big idea?!" The guy cried out, trying to pull his hand back only to realise that Renata was not budging.
Renata was glaring at the guy silently and she seemed to be squeezing even harder on the guy's wrist and his eyes widened when he realised what she was trying to do.
"Renata. Stop," I ordered quickly.
She turned to me, "But Daddy…"
"It's fine. You already stopped him, that's enough."
She didn't look happy but obeyed me nevertheless, releasing the guy and letting him stumble back into his group of friends.
I turned to continue walking but the guy did not take the chance I had offered him and shouted from behind us.
"Hey?! What… Hic… Where do you think you're going, huh?! Ya think… You can just walk off like that?! After what you did?!"
We ignored him and tried to just get out of there as fast as we could before this ended up escalating into a fight.
Fate seemed to be against us as it seemed like another group of drunken miners up ahead were their friends and took offense at us trying to run away and stood in our way to stop us.
"Hey, hey. Where do you girlies think yer going? Come on! MY good friend there is inviting you isn't he?"
Yumiko scowled at the guy in front of her, "Step away, right now."
"Woah ,woah! It's already so rare we're getting visitors here and it's a couple of hot chicks! At least have a drink on us before you leave!"
"Not interested. Get lost."
"Oh come on, we're even offering you free food already! Just take it!"
"I doubt anything you can offer on this station would even remotely interest us so step away."
He reached out his hand towards her, "Hey, don't say that! I'm sure we would all--"
He didn't get to say anything more before Yumiko grabbed the outstretched arm and twisted it to force him to spin around, holding his arm against his back.
The guy let out a cry of pain before she shoved him away to the side.
But the guys behind had caught up to us at this point and he tried to reach out to grab Renata.
She shifted herself out of the way, her movement looking so fluid she might have made herself liquid for a moment just to dodge the guy.
He looked surprised for a moment but I think his alcohol-addled brain wasn't able to comprehend what had happened and merely tried to grab her again.
Ok, I think I've given him enough chances. You asked for it.
I spun around and clenched my fist, punching the guy straight in the face and knocking him stumbling back to his friends who only just barely managed to reach out in time to catch him.
That seemed to stir up the people around us as they started to make room for all of us, creating a small circle.
"Fight! A fight!!"
"Wooooahhh! Pretty girl fight!"
"My money's on the white haired one!"
"Hahaha! What are you talking about? Those guys may be drunk but I bet they're going to take them all down!"
The group of drunk men seemed to be riled up by the crowd and they started to surround us, clearly intending to not let this go without a fight.
Uggghh… And here I was telling the girls not to get into any trouble if they can help it… Fine, I don't need to kill them so I'm not going to use my shotgun but I'll at least knock them--
Yumiko suddenly moved before anyone could react and kneed the first guy in the stomach.
While he was bent over, she struck her elbow against the side of his head to knock him flat on the floor.
She then jumped up and delivered a flying double kick that took out two more of those men before she landed in front of another to strike him in the gut.
One of them tried to rush at her and she did a spinning kick that sent him flying back to crash into the last two guys before she turned back to finish the guy she punched in the gut with a hammer fist to the back of his head.
In just a few seconds, all of them were already down on the ground.
Damn… I'm glad I recruited her.