The leader pulled the pin off the grenade before tossing it around the corner, the object bouncing off the wall and landing in the middle of the corridor.

A group of us were preparing to rush forward while the others remained behind to protect the client.

A few of the thugs gave a warning shout and dove behind the Mech for cover, probably thinking it was an explosive of some kind.

They were right to a certain extent as the top of the grenade popped off and smoke began billowing out of it to quickly cover the corridor.

At that moment, a few of us dashed out from the corner and rushed towards the mech, aiming to get out of its firing arc as fast as possible.

The mech pilot seemed to have expected us to do something like that and started firing his minigun wildly into the smoke cloud.

Thankfully, his aim was a little too high and the bullets flew over our heads without hitting anyone.

We managed to run through the smoke screen unharmed and the thugs that had been using the mech as a shield finally realised what our plan was.

All of us started firing at the thugs, our bullets peppering them with holes and dropping them left and right.

I ran straight for the leg of the mech and jumped on it, using it to climb further up the machine.

The others covered for me as they pushed the thugs back and distracted the mech pilot by taking several pot shots at it.

It tried to stomp down on a few Mercs and I had to hang on for dear life as the machine moved violently.

I placed my foot firmly against one of the leg struts before leaping out to grab at its arm.

Grabbing onto the arm firmly, I found my balance and ran along its arm towards the pod.

The pilot must have realised I was on top of it and tried to spin around to shake me off.

I leapt the rest of the way and grabbed onto a handle that was jutting out of the pod to avoid falling off of it.

Looking through the glass of the pod, I found the pilot of the Mech looking back at me with furrowed brows.

I then pulled out my shotgun and pointed the barrel down at him, his eyes widening the moment he realised what I was trying to do.

I pulled the trigger, shooting the slug round loaded in my shotgun at the pilot.

The shell pierced through the armoured glass and went straight towards the pilot, which should have pierced through his head but another layer of shield seemed to have been deployed that protected him from it.

I fired again, piercing another hole in the glass but the pilot leaned to the side to avoid it this time, pulling on one of the controls to the side of his seat at the same time.

Something popped out from on top of the pod and I realised I was looking at a small automated turret that had me as its target.

I tried to lift up my gun to destroy it but it shot a pellet at me before I could.

The pellet should have been deflected by my shield but when it touched it, an electrical spark shot out from the pellet and hit me in the chest instead, blasting me off the pod of the mech.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I found myself falling towards the ground and I braced myself for the impact, curling myself up into a ball midair.

Except I did not hit the ground but someone caught me instead.

"Gotcha! Are you alright, Tera?!" Amber asked, holding me in the princess carry position.

"Nggh… I'm fine. I didn't manage to kill the pilot thou--"

I was interrupted by the glass of the pod shattering completely followed by a scream coming from inside the pod.

Oh… Lea somehow managed to shoot through the smoke screen and hit the pilot of the mech accurately.

Heck, when I turned around, I couldn't even see her through the cloud of smoke that still hung in between us.

The original plan had been for me to jump on top of the mech and try to shoot the pilot from there while the smoke screen was still there.

Failing that, Lea would snipe him from the stairs once the smoke cleared so I was definitely not expecting her to take that shot while the smoke screen was still up.

The mech rumbled and slowly powered down with the death of its pilot.

Hmmm… I wonder if we could steal that too?

"Retreat! Retreat!" One of the thugs shouted, prompting the rest to start running as well.

This time, Amber did not shoot them in the back as they ran out through the busted doors, though I wonder if it was because she was still carrying me in her arms or because they were actually running away this time instead of regrouping.

She finally put me down and grinned at me, "So, did your heart beat a little faster from that?"

I didn't get to answer her since the Mercs escorting the client ran up to us.

"They're catching up! We need to go!"

That prompted the rest of us to start running out the door as well, finding ourselves on one of the lower decks of the hangar.

The leader grabbed the client before turning to the rest of us, "Get to your ships! I'll meet all of you outside! We'll contact you through the comms!"

Without waiting for a response, they took off towards the right.

The Mercs with us also broke off without a word, also heading to their own ships.

I turned to Amber and she pointed to the left, gesturing at a flight of stairs that led to the floor where our ships were.

We bolted for the stairs just as we heard shouts coming from behind us, which brought us to a rather familiar area.

We had to then split with Amber as she headed for her own ship while I headed for mine.

"Cap… Captain?" Lea called out, looking at the direction Amber had run off to in confusion.

Oh right, we never actually told her that Amber has a ship of her own, did we?

"Her ship's that way. We'll meet her with the rest," I explained.

She nodded and followed behind me as I ran for my ship, pushing through the crowd of people who were also on the hangar deck.

We boarded my ship and had Lea join me at the cockpit.

"Take that seat and strap yourself in, I'll run through the controls with you in a moment," I ordered while starting up my ship.

She did as I told and I had a moment to bemoan the fact that we found ourselves in such a situation once again since this was not how I expected this job to go.

I got the clearance for take off and started up my ship, engaging my forward thrusters to leave the station.

The moment my ship left the confines of the hangar, I powered up the weapons and turned to Lea who was giving me a concerned look from where she sat.

"The console there allows you to aim and shoot the railgun turret at the top of my ship. Are you familiar with them?"

She nodded, "I am, Captain. I have used them before. But I am afraid it might take some time for me to get used to these controls since I've not used them on Terran built ships before."

"I see. Don't worry, we should be fine anyway. I'll transfer controls over right now so you can familiarise yourself with it. Just don't shoot anyone for now."

I tapped on my controls and did just that, the console panel in front of her lighting up once I did so.

She turned her attention to it just as I got a notification beep from the console.

I tapped on it to answer the call from Amber, my lover beaming at me the moment she saw that the call connected.

"Hey~ I'm coming to you right now~ That was pretty crazy, wasn't it?"

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah sure… I was definitely not expecting to need to take down a Mech during this job for sure… We better get a bonus for that."

"Oh, I'll be sure to get that from them later~ If they don't, we'll just sell their details to that gang instead~"

Geez Amber, at least wait until they refuse to pay us before you come up with a plan to stab them in the back.

Just kidding, I love it.

Right then, I noticed a whole bunch of ships leaving the station including a rather large sized C Class Destroyer.

I'm guessing those were the Mercs and the client.

Sure enough, I received a notification ping on my Codex to let me know that we should follow the ship.

Alright, let's hope at least the space portion of this mission is less hectic…