Read Novel Full Chapter 984: Throw Your Life Away For This Much Credits
Chapter 984: Throw Your Life Away For This Much Credits
We were brought to something like a briefing room where several other Mercenaries were already seated and waiting for whatever was going on.
They had the air of veterans about them and I couldn’t help but feel a little out of place being there since I’m pretty sure most of these people have been Mercs for far longer than I have, even though I might be the same rank or even higher than some of them.
Several of those Mercs turned to eye me and my party, giving us appraising looks before turning away.
Those looks were more like they were trying to assess if we’re a threat or not and not whether we were good looking or not at least.
Well... Some of them were but I ignored them of course.
We found a spot in the corner of the room where we could all sit together, waiting for this meeting to start alongside the rest of the Mercs that were gathered here.
Interestingly, we seemed to be the biggest group here as most of the other Mercs seemed to be operating solo or in pairs at most, until Amber told me that they most likely only sent one or two representatives here since... Well... They might also be after the bug nest extermination info and had to camp the Mercenary Guild as well.
And since our group didn’t need any of that, we could afford to send everyone here, especially since there’s nothing much for us to do anyway. Even Freyja and Nerissa should be well taken care of as I have prepared enough food for them which Renata just needed to heat up in the cold storage of the ship.
The room was quite packed with people which was quite a surprise since that meant everyone in this room right now was at least a Gold ranked Merc and that usually meant that the Merc was quite experienced.
It kind of showed too since most of the people gathered here looked like scarred veterans and were older. Even most of the female Mercs looked like they were a decade older than we were and that’s not considering that they had lots of cyware mods implanted on their bodies which may or may not have made them look older.
Yep... I really feel a little out of place here...
We only had to wait for a while more before several armed guards came in, all of them wearing full body armour which was then followed by some guy who was also wearing the same armour just without the helmet, his face half covered by a rather impressive looking beard.
He took his spot on the podium and gave us a nod in greeting.
"Thank you all for coming. I am the Chief of Security for this station and as much as I would like to say that there is no problem... I’m afraid we have a pretty big one."
He turned and tapped on his personal terminal, prompting a large screen to appear behind him.
The screen displayed a still image of what looked like a giant rock with... Tentacles? I’m pretty sure those were tentacles appearing from the crevice of the rock...
The guy turned back to us with a grim face, "A Leviathan, spotted two days ago by other Mercenaries who had been on route here. At its current rate of travel..."
He tapped on his personal terminal again, showing a map of the area with the station and the Leviathan represented on the map.
There was a line going through the station that ran from the left side of the screen to the right and I realised this was probably the orbit that the station was revolving around.
And below was the supposed Leviathan and a line indicating its direction of travel, which would intersect with the station’s arc of travel further in front of it.
The security guy tapped on his personal terminal again and the graphics began to move, the icon representing the station revolving along the line while the Leviathan travelled along its own path.
Everyone in the room watched in silence as the moment the Leviathan reached the station’s arc, the station would also be at the same exact location.
The security guy turned to give us a serious look, "We had hoped that it would be a peaceful Leviathan, but scouts that had been sent out yesterday reported that it reacted to life signs and it would spit out these little things."
The screen changed to show an image of some tentacled blob in the middle of shooting a green beam from its centre mass which narrowly missed whoever had taken the picture.
"Some kind of drones that are capable of shooting concentrated energy beams that are equivalent to medium ranged energy cannons, albeit with a longer charge up time. The Leviathan itself is also capable of shooting these beams that are on par with battleship laser cannons."
Murmurs spread throughout the room as we finally realised why we were called here.
Someone in the audience decided to speak up, "You want us to kill that thing?"
The security guy sucked in a breath, "That would be the best outcome... But we would also settle for slowing it down such that the station can get out of its flight path... Or change its course so that it’s no longer colliding with the station."
"How big is that thing?"
"Slightly bigger than the size of a F Class Carrier..."
Ok, that means it’s huge... Like... Probably bigger than this station itself...
The other Mercs started muttering amongst themselves, some of them clearly not thinking it was a good idea for them to go against the Leviathan.
I even heard a pair of Mercs next to us start whispering about leaving this place before the Leviathan reached the station.
"Why not call the Navy?" Someone else asked, his voice gruff and raspy like it was spoken through a modulator.
"They won’t make it in time... At its current speed, we’re expecting the Leviathan to reach us in about three days’ time. For the UTSN to form up a navy big enough to deal with a Leviathan and get here would take at least a week... We do not have the luxury of time."
"So you want us Mercs to take care of it for you? What’s the pay?"
There was a pause and I could see the Chief of Security pursing his lips as though he was considering whether or not he should answer the question.
Eventually, he dipped his head down and let out a sigh, "Unfortunately... I’m afraid that our station does not have much in terms of Credits... So we are not able to offer much..."
The Merc who asked that question growled at him, "I asked how much is the pay?"
There was another pause.
"We are prepared to offer each Mercenary team ten thousand Credits for joining the operation to deal with the Leviathan."
Even before he spoke the last word, the moment he said the words ’ten thousand’, a couple of Mercenaries already stood up and started to leave.
The moment he finished speaking, about a quarter of the room were on their way out.
The armoured guards did not try to stop them as the Mercs walked out of the room, not even looking back.
Honestly, I don’t blame them... They were basically paying us a thousand dollars per group to take up what could potentially be a death mission.
And this money was not paid per person but per team, meaning for my group in particular, we would be splitting that ten thousand Credits nine ways. We’ll be barely getting more than a thousand Credits each.
Yeah... Obviously there’s no way people are willing to throw their lives away for just a measly ten thousand Credits.
Especially when, ironically, there’s a hustle where you can throw your lives away for a billion Credits right next door.
It truly was ironic.
I turned to my girls, cocking an eyebrow at them even while the Chief of Security was trying to convince the Mercs to stay as more of them got up to leave.
"So? What do you girls think?"
Amber shrugged, "The rewards definitely aren’t worth the risk for normal Mercs. But well... We’re not normal right?"
Yumiko eyed the armoured guards stationed around the room, "Besides... The station would definitely send these guards out to fight the Leviathan whether the Mercs joined in or not... Which means..."
She did not finish and let her words trail off but I knew exactly what she wanted to say.
Realistically... Unless this station had a bunch of other Psionics hanging around... My crew has the highest chance of dealing with a Leviathan right now.
If we do not participate, the guards sent out to fight will die. The station itself will probably be destroyed too...
We could just leave, of course... And maybe I would have but...
My thoughts went back to Valiea and Ragbar.
They helped us quite a bit and even opened their home to us... Guess we’ll at least help them protect it.
I suppose we might as well just take this job eh?