Surprisingly, the store owner chuckled before the turrets disappeared back into the ceiling, "I'm just joking. Chill lady. I know you aren't friends with them since I saw what happened at the door. Come on in then, you looking to get yourself a new piece? Ah… But if would just wait a moment and let me clean this up."

He went out from the counter and started cleaning the floor of the blood stains while a robot floated out through a side door to pick up the bodies and dragging them away.

The store owner cleaned up the mess casually before beckoning us into the store.

"Come in then. What are you looking for today? I have pistols, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, whatever you want."

"We're looking for personal shields."

"Ah, looking for defence instead of offence I see. I have those too."

He went back behind the counter and the three of us approached him.

Amber still kept his eye on him and her hand was resting against the holster on her waist while Lea was looking at the spot that those two thugs got shot.

"So. What kind of shield are you looking for?"

"What do you have?"

He tapped on his counter and a screen appeared in front of me, "There's a few depending on what you will be using it for."

I looked through the long list of personal shields, some of them seemed to be specialised for specific purposes like protection against high heat or cold environments.

There's, of course, general purpose ones among the list as well.

I gestured to Lea, "We're Mercenaries you see. I'm looking for a shield that can serve her well in situations where we might find ourselves in a firefight."

"Mercs huh? Should have guessed with what you're packing," He mused, eyeing the shotgun I had slung on my back.

He then tapped on the counter and the screen in front of me changed to filter out several of the personal shields that specialised in environmental protection.

"I personally recommend the ones made by Aegis Corp. They're made primarily for Mercs with a good balance of recharge rate and capacity. I see you're using one from Apex Defense Systems though. That's a surprise."

Oh right… Bang mentioned that this was a common personal shield for miners right? Perhaps I should change mine too.

As though reading my mind, the store owner grinned at me, "I can offer you a discount if you want to trade that in."

"Alright… What specific models do you recommend?"

The screen in front of me changed again to show three different personal shields.

He gestured to the screen, "I would suggest these three in particular. The S-seventeen 'Survival', the G-five 'Guardian' and the R-nine 'Rapid'."

I raised an eyebrow, "And what's the difference between them?"

He pointed to the one on the left, "The 'Survival' series are more of an all rounder so they're pretty much average across all their stats. They're not the best at anything but that means they aren't bad at anything either so they're able to take hits from both ballistic and energy rounds without compromising on its integrity."

Ok, so that's a jack of all trades kind of shield. Kind of sounds neat to me.

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He then pointed to the middle, "The 'Guardian' series are very durable and able to take a lot of hits before going down, but they also take quite a long time to charge back up again when they are depleted. Also, they are susceptible to EMP attacks."

So there's the tank type of shield. I feel that these are only good for very specific situations and detrimental in others.

He then pointed at the last one, "And the 'Rapid' series have the lowest capacity but regenerate the fastest. Aside from that, it does its job well."

I turned to Amber, "What kind of shield did you get?"

"Oh, I actually got the Rapid. It's not like I intend to get hit in the first place so it's more of an insurance for myself."

Well… I guess from how she usually fights, I could see that.

"What about you, Lea? Which one would you like?"

She seemed surprised at my question, "E… Eh? Captain is letting me choose?"

"Well yeah? You'll be the one using it, right? In fact, I think we should get you a weapon too since we'll most likely be thrown into shootouts. Can you use a gun?"

She nodded quickly, "I'm a sharpshooter actually. I am proficient with sniper rifles."

Oh, that's a surprise. But it's definitely a welcome one for sure.

"In that case, let's get a rifle for you as well," I decided.

Lea's eyes widened, "Eh? Wait… That's too much, Captain!"

I waved my hand, "It's fine. I'm not going to expect you to join us with your bare fists. And with how we hunt pirates, there's a possibility that we might be boarded and have to defend the ship from them so I'd rather you be armed and ready."

"Ah. In that case, please allow me to arm myself, Captain."

Odd way of wording it but ok?

I then pointed to the screen in front of me, "Anyway, which shield do you want?"

"If… If I may be so bold… Could I ask for the Guardian shield? It would allow me to maintain my position even while under fire to take a shot before I need to move."

"Hmm… Sounds reasonable enough. Then I'll take the Survival one," I told the store owner.

"Right then. Will you be trading that in?" He asked, nodding at the shield that was on my belt.

I nodded and deactivated it before taking it off to hand it over to him, "Yeah. I would also like to get a rifle for her too. Could you recommend a few?"

He took the shield belt from me and grinned, "Sure thing. Are we talking long ranged or medium ranged? Ballistic or energy based?"

Lea hesitated and I nodded at her.

She turned back to the owner, "Do you have an EE-seven Coil Hawk?"

The store owner frowned, "That coil rifle? That was voted as the worst sniper rifle of the year three years in a row."

"But do you have it?"

"Yeah, I do."

He reached towards the side and tapped on another terminal before returning back to us.

A moment passed and the door on his side of the counter slid open and a drone came floating in while carrying a gun with a distinctly thick and long barrel. There were also coils surrounding the barrel which I guessed must be where it got its name from.

The store owner received the gun from it before placing it on the counter.

"Here it is. I don't even know why you want this… The weight distribution is bad, the charge up time for this gun is a full second longer than the next coil gun in the same category and the bolt action type loading mechanism is hard to operate. The only good things about it are its penetration power and its range. Only collectors or hobbyists use this gun."

Amber raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised you have this gun in stock then."

The owner rolled his eyes, "Gangs mount these as anti power armour weapons. Though they would use them more as a deterrent than an actual weapon with how unwieldy it is."

I looked at Lea, "You're sure you want this gun?"

She nodded, "I am familiar with it, Captain. Do not worry, I can use it."

Well… Since she's the one who asked for the weapon directly, I guess she must have used it before so I let her have it.

I turned back to the store owner, "I'll take that and the two shields, wrap them up for me please. Ah, no… Leave the shields, we'll be putting them on right now."

He shrugged, "Very well. Fifty thousand Credits for the Guardian, forty thousand Credits for the Survival and eighty thousand Credits for the Coil Hawk. I'll drop it down to a hundred and sixty thousand Credits for you."

That's… Err… I was about to say cheap but no… That is definitely quite expensive isn't it?

This was almost a third of the amount of money we received from selling off the pile of weapons from the pirates and there were definitely way more guns there as compared to these three pieces of equipment.

"Are you sure that's the best price you can give?" I asked.

He gave me a look, "Yes, actually. Any lower and I would be making a loss. I only offered these to you because I believed you could afford it by the way and they are worth every Credit. Those are all top shelf stuff."

I turned to Amber and she gave me a nod. Guess the guy's telling the truth.

Alright then.

I paid him and also bought some ammo for Lea's gun before we left the shop, the store owner thanking us as we stepped outside.

I'll admit, seeing Lea strap the rifle that was almost as long as she was tall was quite a sight.

An Alv wielding a sniper rifle… There should be a joke in there somewhere…

Anyway! It's back to clothes shopping!