Chapter 557: Chapter 557 The Completion of Another Successful Mission
Several hours went by as Avery and his team swept through the production faciality.
They rounded up all of the people onboard, and other than some slight resistance that was easily put down, there were no more threats to deal with.
Once all of the Odium Syndicate members had been rounded up and information from their databanks had been downloaded, Avery’s mercenary company began stripping the base of its most valuable equipment and goods.
While the machines in the production facility were used to manufacture the drug Paradise, they could easily be repurposed for other, more reputable industries.
Under normal circumstances, Avery would have been ecstatic about all of the valuable loot, but right now he was not in a particularly good mood.
After searching through the secret lab where the mutated monsters had originated, he had discovered that any pertinent information on the experiment had been destroyed, and most of the equipment had been sabotaged to disguise how the process of turning people into those grotesque creatures was accomplished.
That, along with a final tally of their losses reaching twenty-two, had left a very bitter taste in Avery’s mouth.
There was nothing he could do to brining back his people that had died. In cases where they had family’s he could send them some money and the remains of their lost loved one, but for the ones that had no one else, all he could do was honor their sacrifices.
This was the part of his work that Avery could really do without.
He loved the adventure and money that came with being a mercenary, but having to deal with the deaths of those that followed him was never easy.
It hurt him every time, and he doubted that it would ever be any better.
A part of him wished he could be so callous that he could get over it without batting an eye.
Still, he knew that was not who he was, and letting himself not be emotionally affected by his people being killed would lead him down a dangerous road.
There were plenty of stories of those that used their subordinates as disposable pawns.
So long as the objective was completed, any number of losses was acceptable.
Space was vast and there were always more people to recruit after all.
Of course, Avery had no intention of becoming such a person.
Even as he was being handed lists detailing the people that had been captured and the valuable goods they had obtained, his thoughts were on planning the memorial service for the twenty-two people that had fallen during this mission.
Unfortunately, with his thoughts elsewhere, he was not really paying attention to the list of prisoners.
Had he been, he might have caught the name of one Layton Sarelett, who had surrendered himself to Ezra and Olivia not long after the last of the monsters had perished.
Avery may have only heard the man’s name once in the past, but it had been during quite the important conversation between his mother and Dr. Raiti.
If only he had been paying attention at the time, he could have singled Dr. Sarelett out instead of allowing him to slip into the masses of other prisoners.
...
After having finished up with everything inside the Odium Syndicate base, Avery and his troops returned to their ships and prepared to leave.
They had nearly completed their mission, but there was still one last thing to do before they could leave.
At Avery’s command, every vessel in his company took aim at the now empty station and began firing.
A swell of light lit up the space as a barrage of lasers pummeled into the production faciality.
With its defenses already having been disabled the enormous structure stood no chance against the attacks hammering into it.
Chucks of metal were blown off of its outer plating, and soon the lasers were eating away at the interior of the station.
Over the next half hour, Avery’s company continuously blasted away at the place until it was wholly recognizable.
All that was left was floating bits of space debris. With no single pieces being larger than a few hundred meters in any dimension.
Whenever the next group of vessels arrived to pick up shipments of paradise, all they would find was a bunch of junk, and no evidence as to who destroyed the base.
"Let’s get out of here and return to the Dramid Alliance. I want to report to Cerise as soon as possible, and dump everything we got from this place on to her." Avery said, a hint of exhaustion creeping into his tone.
Quickly, all of the ships returned to the Intrepid’s hangars, and when at last Victoria’s stealth corvette was docked after retrieving the isolation beacons, Avery gave the order to head out.
For a couple of minutes, they traveled at light speed until they reached the hyperspace entrance that would take them away from now lifeless system.
There was still a bit of tension in the air, as if everyone was expecting something else to go wrong.
Yet, as soon as the Intrepid slipped into hyperspace without issue, a relaxed but somber atmosphere spread throughout the crew.
...
The return trip back to the Dramid Alliance was completely uneventful.
Avery had been ready for some random check from the forces of the Zatis Consortium, or maybe a large-scale pirate attack. Something that would cause them problems and potentially expose their true nature.
Except, nothing like that occurred.
With their credentials and history as a cargo ship doing legitimate business between the Zatis Consortium and Dramid Alliance, no one bothered them.
It almost felt too easy, but Avery was not going to complain. He was not hoping for trouble, just expecting it.
Once they had moved far enough away from the border checkpoint that no one would be close enough to potentially intercept their commutations, Avery headed to his office and then sent a transmission to Cerise.
The wait was not long before she picked up, and Avery could see that she was relieved to be hearing from.
"Good to see that you made it back in one piece. Considering that you were not being chased across the border by the Odium Syndicate or the Zatis Consortium, am I safe to assume that the mission was a success?"
"Yes, we completed all of our objectives." Avery said, his tone a bit darker than he was expecting.
Naturally, Cerise noticed this and asked him about what was wrong.
Avery told her that he had lost some members of his company during the raid on the base.
And while Cerise did offer her sympathies, Avery could tell that she did not consider the losses to be too big of a deal.
Having been in the Alliance Police for decades now and having spent a large portion of that time fighting against hostile powers, she was no stranger to losing people.
Avery could tell that while she was not entirely apathetic, she had certainly grown numb to such situations.
’I can only imagine how many casualty reports she had to read throughout her service. It can’t be easy on her.’ Avery thought, trying to get his own emotions under control.
He still had plenty more to report to her, and letting his mind wander would only slow him down.
By the time he was finished, Cerise’s expression had darkened quite a bit.
The manufacturing of an illegal drug was expected, but learning about the genetic experiments going on in secret had some as a surprise to Cerise. And certainly not a welcome one.
Despite all of her investigations into the Odium Syndicate, she had not heard any rumors, or even wild conspiracy theories about something like this.
Creating and distributing illegal drugs was one thing, but learning that people were somehow being mutated into monsters was something else entirely.
Cerise knew that was going to vastly change due to the information that Avery had uncovered.
She knew that this type of information would need to be passed up to the very top of the Dramid Alliance, and it very well could spark another all-out war against the Zatis Consortium.
With such an immense threat being directed at the Dramid Alliance, they would not be able to just brush it off and hope things got better.
Such horrid genetic experiments were outlawed for a reason. No one wanted people being turned into mutated monsters.
Normally it would be unthinkable even for an enemy state to devise such tactics, but this just went to show how strong the enmity between the Dramid Alliance and Zatis Consortium was.
"I understand the difficulties that you and your team must have went through to obtain this information but know that you’ve done a great service for the Dramid Alliance. I’ll make sure that you’re adequately rewarded once all of this is over. Beyond just the payment we’ve already agreed upon."
"For now, though, we need to meet up. I’ll be taking custody of the prisoners that you have captured, and all of the information you gathered. And while I don’t think I need to say this, I must insist that you not allow anything about what you found to leak. There’s no telling what kind of panic that might cause, and I don’t want our enemies to know that we’re on to them just yet. Ugh, why couldn’t this case just have stayed simple drug peddling?"
Cerise looked like she was already overwhelmed by the new intelligence Avery had brought.
Still, she remained professional for the most part other than a few complaints here and there.
Eventually, the two of them had decided on when and where to meet. After that, Avery ended the call and sent the coordinates of their next destination to the bridge.
With his immediate work done, he reached down and opened a hidden compartment in his desk.
Inside were a couple of glasses, and a few bottles filled with several types of expensive alcohol.
After everything he had been through during the latest mission, he needed a drink or two.
