NOVEL NEXT We're Going After The Underdogs
The place she led me to was a rather modest sized six story building beside the main street close to what I assume was a monorail station.
Apparently it was supposed to be an inn but I didn’t see any signboards at the front of the building so I don’t know if it even had a name or not.
In fact, there wasn’t even a counter or a front desk either and entering the building led directly to a staircase that led up to the rooms on the upper floors with the elevator at the side.
Instead of using the elevator, she went towards the stairs and started climbing them so I followed her along.
And since I was behind her… Well… I had a hard time not staring at the very attractive rear swaying in front of me.
Ahem… What were we doing again?
Oh right.
She continued to climb until we reached the fifth floor, going to the room located all the way at the end of the hall.
She placed her hand on the door handle and an audible click could be heard as the door unlocked itself.
I then followed her into the room and I realised that while the place was simple, it still felt rather comfy. There was even a living room at the front, though there did not seem to be a kitchen.
“Make yourself at home,” She gestured, unzipping and taking off her leather jacket to reveal a tank top that did nothing to hide her bust.
I must have been staring because she smirked and struck a pose, “Like what you see?”
I decided not to answer that and just switched topics instead.
“So what's the job?”
Her smile widened slightly before she plopped herself down on the couch, lifting her feet to rest them on the coffee table without bothering to take her boots off. She then gestured to the seat opposite her and I sat myself down as well.
Amber then looked at me seriously, “Before I tell you about the job, I need to have you promise me that if you decide not to help me, you don’t share any of the information I am about to tell you with someone else.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Not that I plan to do that but… Out of curiosity, how are you going to make sure I keep my word?”
The corner of her lips raised slightly, “Well… Let’s just say that I have already made some arrangements ahead of time and there are a few people who owe me favours that would happily hunt you down if you were to start spreading it around.”
“And those guys couldn't be called to help you with this job?”
“Yes and no. It’s complicated.”
“Then how do I know I can trust you? I literally just met you today.”
“Awww~ Was the ramen treat not enough to establish my trustworthiness?”
I blanched, “You mean the thing that can’t even be called food and made me hurl in an alley?”
“Touche. Alright then… I’ll just tell you the plan and you can decide if you want to trust me.”
“That doesn’t really sound like it would help your case but fine.”
She waved her hand in a certain motion and a screen popped up in front of me, showing me what looked like the details of a certain organisation.
More specifically, it was details of a gang.
“The Underdogs, a rather small gang in the city that usually do some small-time crimes to support themselves and its members are usually the absolute losers of society. Don’t ask me why they named themselves that but they are our target.”
I quickly glanced through the details where it showed that they have been doing things like petty theft, robbery and some vandalism.
They’re basically neighbourhood crooks I guess?
I blinked at her, “Ok… What? Do you need to go wipe them out or something?”
She shook her head and swiped her hand to the side, prompting the screen to change to a picture of a man that was staring at the viewer.
He had messy, blue spiky hair and his eyes were clearly metallic implants with one of them being red and the other being blue. He was also wearing a very striking red jacket and I would dare say that he had this cool air about him.
“This guy calls himself Voidshade, he’s a former Gold rank Merc that turned to piracy and for some reason, he chose to take the Underdogs under his wing. They managed to steal an entire freighter ship and flew off the station about a day or two ago. No one even knew they had stolen it until a day later.”
How the heck do you even steal an entire ship without tipping anyone off until a day later?
She continued, “So basically, I took the hustle to bring back the freighter in one piece. But I was only told that the Underdogs were the ones who stole it and found out about this guy’s involvement later on. I’m confident of taking the Underdogs on my own and securing the freighter, but this guy complicates matters.”
Amber then swiped her hand again and I was shown a ship.
More specifically, it was an A Class Interceptor and just by looking at the specs, I could see that it was built for speed and defence.
“That’s his ship,” Amber explained, her face turning sour like she had just eaten a lemon. “High speed, high defence and he even modified it to have an active cloaking device. In order to secure the freighter, I will need to board it and he could wait until I was on board to deactivate his cloak and destroy my ship, trapping me in the freighter. I need someone to keep watch in case he tries to do that.”
I nodded, “Right… I see now. So you’ll be quite literally putting your life in your partner’s hands, aren’t you?”
She smirked, “Yes. Does that show my sincerity enough for you?”
I looked at the screen that still showed his ship, “He can’t maintain his ship’s cloak when he wants to attack?”
“That’s right, his ship’s generators aren’t powerful enough to power his weapon and shield systems if he were to use the cloaking device. So he has to switch the power allotment which drops him out of cloak when he wants to shoot at someone.”
“I see… He’s wanted, right?”
She nodded, “Not as big of a bounty as Yirfa since he hasn’t really done much yet, but he has a hundred thousand Credit bounty on him that we’ll split. What’s more, we’re being paid one million credits to return the freighter and its contents intact.”
“One million just for that?”
“It’s the price they need to pay for hiring a Gold rank Merc for the job.”
“Hmm… And how will the split be?”
She smiled at me, “Can I count on you to help me clear the freighter as well?”
“Sure?”
“Then we can split this fifty-fifty. Otherwise, we’ll do it seventy-thirty for the job and fifty-fifty for Voidshade’s bounty. Sounds good?”
“Fair enough. Where is the freighter?”
She swiped her hand again and a map of the system showed up, zooming in on the asteroid belt that circled around the system’s star.
“The ship’s last known location was around here before it stopped moving. So either the ship encountered some problems and could not move or they managed to get rid of the tracker that the owner had placed on the ship. Either way, we’ll start our search there. It’ll take around a day or so to reach there via travel speeds.”
“What if the ship had already run off and got out of the system?”
“Then I’ll just report that and accept that as a failed mission. You don’t need to worry about it staining your records and I can just blame it on the fact that the client neglected on telling me about Voidshade. So you in?”
I nodded, “Alright, I’m in. When do we set off?”
“Right now of course. No time like the present right? Don’t want to give them more time to make their escape after all.”
“Ri… Right now? Hmm… Fine, let’s go.”
She then suddenly clasped her hands together and bowed her head, “I have just one tiny request…”
I raised an eyebrow, wondering just what else she could want.
“What is it?”
“Please let me sleep on your ship!! I’ll attach my ship with yours and we’ll travel there together, but I really, really don’t want to sleep on the pilot seat, please! I’ll even pay you for letting me stay there if you want!”
Oh geez, is that the real reason why she wanted me as a partner?
I mean… I guess sleeping on the pilot seat is really quite uncomfortable so it made sense that she would want to sleep on a bed if she had a choice.
Well, I have an extra room anyway so I guess that it isn’t a problem.
Alright, you can stop bowing now, I can see your cleavage from here and it’s quite distracting…