บท 44: It's A Search And Rescue Hustle
I frowned at the warehouse that the Marauders were using as their base.
It was quite a distance away from the residential part of the station and out in what looks like the industrial part of the station with the factories and stuff.
What they were actually making here, I have no idea. Especially when this gang was occupying an abandoned part of the industrial area.
Amber and I had set up on the street across the warehouse to scope out the place when it had changed to 'night' in the station.
"I didn't think there would be places like this in the station too," I muttered.
"Some businessmen tried to start some kind of factory here but it ended up failing so they're just left like this. Gangs like them then moved in and made it their base."
"Where do these gangs even come from?"
Amber grimaced, "Some of them were the workers that were laid off when these factories shut down."
Ah… I see.
"Still… Not that I know how all this works in the first place but I'm kind of surprised we could just grab such a high paying job off the mission board and come here to do it without the client screening us first. Couldn't the thugs themselves have some inside men grab the mission off the board and prevent other Mercs from taking it?"
"Oh, that was an open job board hustle, almost like Roaming Hustles except they're listed on the job board and remain on the board until someone completes it. That means it isn't limited to one team to complete it so other Mercs might be planning to assault them as we speak. Client must be really desperate to get her back or else they would not have done this."
"Wait, what? Doesn't that just tip these guys off that there's going to be Mercs after their asses?"
"Yep, that's why I'm expecting them to be on high alert. They're most likely complaining to the guy who hired them to kidnap the daughter in the first place to get them a safer location to move to. I'd bet they fucked up somewhere during the kidnapping which revealed who they were or else we might have needed to search for who was responsible to start with."
"Oh damn. What happens if we run into other Mercs?"
Amber smirked at me, "Well, it's honestly a free for all in these kinds of hustles. We won't get into open conflict with them, but they'll definitely try to steal the daughter away from us if they see that we have her."
"Err… Isn't that like… Counterproductive? Why can't we just work together?"
"Pfft, try and see if they would listen then. Nah, unless circumstances become really bad, expect every Merc to be looking out only for themselves."
"And what if the daughter ends up getting hurt in the process?"
"Then the two Mercenary parties who cause her to get hurt will have to pay the penalty. Don't worry, only the really fucked up Mercs would do something as drastic as that. We just need to focus on getting the girl out of here and to the drop off, ideally without being seen."
If you say so… And considering we're surrounded by abandoned factories and the drop off point was an inn two kilometres away… That's going to be a little tough if we're being chased…
"So what's our plan?" I asked, turning back to look at the warehouse across the street.
Amber also turned back to the warehouse, "Hmm… The security seems to be as expected. They have a few lookouts at the front entrance, two at the roof and a few more within the compound. The rest should be scattered inside the warehouse itself."
"And the girl?"
"Not sure, we'll need to either get her location from one of the thugs or find something that tells us where she is."
"Right… So where's our entry point?"
Amber looked around and pointed at the front gate, "We could go in through the front gate and shoot our way in I suppose."
"And if we don't want to go in through the front door?"
She narrowed her eyes and pointed at one part of the roof, "Looks like there's an emergency ladder that goes all the way up to the roof there. We could probably grab some of the stuff laying around to climb up to it and access the factory through the roof entrance."
"Right… Let's do that then. I'd say it's better to make as little noise as possible until we get to the daughter or at least find out where she is first."
Amber agreed with me so we made our way to the ladder in question that hung about ten feet above the ground.
There were a few discarded crates at the side so we moved them under the ladder to make an impromptu platform to climb up.
The ladder creaked a little as Amber started to climb it but it held her weight.
I ascended after her and though the creaking increased, it still managed to hold.
I looked up and was treated to the sight of Amber's ass in her tight pants, bringing up the memory of what happened last night.
Ugh… Now isn't the time to be horny…
I shook my head out of the gutter and ascended the ladder after Amber, stealthily reaching the edge of the roof and climbing over it.
Amber waited for me to step onto the roof before pointing in a certain direction.
I directed my gaze at where she was pointing and found two thugs standing guard there, their backs turned to us and watching over the front gate while they chatted.
The roof entrance was just past them in the form of a door, which meant we'd need to sneak past these two if we wanted to get to it.
"I don't get it… Why did boss ask for double the number of guards today?"
The other guy shrugged, "Dunno, he never tells us anything. But I heard he looked quite pissed when he returned in the morning. I'm guessing someone fucked up and we're expecting a raid or something."
"Who the fuck did we even piss off? I don't remember us hitting anywhere the last few days."
"Oh, you didn't hear? Boss took some guys out the night before and then returned in the morning. Must have been during that time."
"Fucking hell, and they told us nothing? Sounds like they're just keeping the good stuff for themselves."
"Meh, I don't care. As long as I get some Credits and have a roof over my head, I'm good."
Fuck… Guess there's no point in asking these thugs where the girl was being held if the boss has a habit of keeping these kinds of jobs on a need to know basis… We'll have to find some other way to find where the girl is held then.
We just managed to pass those two when a shout came from somewhere.
I froze and reached for my blaster, pulling it out in preparation to shoot at whoever spotted us.
Then I realised that the shout was not directed at us when the roar of an engine came from the front gates.
Something exploded and that was followed by the sound of gunshots and screams from below. We couldn't see what was happening from our angle but it definitely sounded like a fight had broken out down there.
The two thugs that we had been sneaking past also reached for their guns and started moving towards the edge, only to quickly be shot dead when Amber popped up and fired both her guns once and popping the back of their heads.
She then moved towards the roof's edge to peek over the cover and I did the same, finding the compound of the warehouse had been turned into a warzone.
Someone had driven a car and crashed through the front gates, smashing through at least three thugs before stopping in the middle for the occupants to get out and start shooting at the rest of the thugs.
I thought that it might be another gang picking a fight with these guys but Amber cursed beside me.
"Fucking bastards, way to ruin everything. Looks like we already have competition, Tera… At least they're getting most of the attention now so maybe we can use that to our advantage while they have their attention."
Ah, looks like they're another Mercenary group that came to rescue the daughter of the rich guy… They really went through the front entrance I see…
We moved towards the roof entrance just as the door opened, allowing two more thugs to step out with their weapons drawn.
They were just as surprised to see us as we were to see them but both Amber and I recovered faster than they did.
I raised my blaster and shot the one on the left just as Amber fired a round into the throat of the guy on the right, both thugs dropping dead even before they could raise their weapons.
With the intense firefight happening in the compound, no one even noticed the shots that were being fired on the roof, allowing us to sneak into the warehouse unnoticed.
The inside of the warehouse had come alive as more thugs rushed towards the entrance to fight off the Mercs that had appeared at their front door, none of them even noticing we were there.
With how many thugs were rushing there, I would think that those Mercs might even be mowed down before they entered the warehouse itself.
Oh well, it's not like they're our allies anyway so let's just focus on finding the girl for now…
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
Draekai
Draekai Captain's Log:
Seems like even amongst Mercs, you can't count on other Mercs as your friend aside from your own party. I guess if given the choice, I wouldn't want to share the Credits if I could help it either.
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