We returned to the site of the derelict ship and found it just as we had left it.

I thought that we would need to don our spacesuits to go back inside the ship again but apparently the Merc only intended to board the ship once it was back at the station and being repaired.

He would then reward us for the rescue and I intend to ask him about the Data Chip I 'obtained' during his rescue then.

I did notice that the other two girls seemed to avoid him as much as they could, almost like they were upset with him or something?

I chalked it up to just something about girls or whatever it was. Even with the body of one, I still find it difficult to understand other women.

I'm not sure if the Merc himself noticed that but he didn't really interact much with anyone else during the journey anyway aside from asking a few questions about my ship which I answered.

As I was preparing to manoeuvre my ship in position to anchor his ship to mine, I received a warning about high energy objects approaching us at high speeds.

I checked the map and found four markers flying straight towards us from the side and I turned my gaze in that direction to see four ships making a beeline towards us.

"Might want to power up those shields and weapons, Tera," Amber suggested.

I did just that while also turning my ship to face them, Lea taking over the controls of my railgun and taking aim at them as well.

The four ships, which consisted of three A Class Fighters and a B Class Heavy Bomber, stopped a short distance away from us.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that they seem to be customised with some type of equipment that I've never seen before.

If I had to put it in words, it kind of looked like fishing equipment with the B Class ship even sporting a turret that looked like a harpoon.

I then received a hail from one of them and I tapped on my screen to bring up the call.

A masked man with a cybernetic left eye appeared and he was already scowling at me the moment the screen came up.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing here?! That's our salvage!"

"Your salvage?" I asked.

"Yeah! We found it a few hours ago and we're here to salvage it! Get gone!"

I shook my head at the screen, "That's unfortunate for you but I have the ship's original owner with me and we're taking this ship back to be repaired."

"Repaired?! Haha!! That's complete bullshit! In this state, it's only good for scrap now! You're just bullshitting us!"

"It's true though, do you want us to provide proof of ownership for the ship?"

"Fuck off! You think that matters around here?! We found this first and claimed it! Who cares if you're the original owner?! You weren't here when we found it so it's ours now!!"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "So you're all just bandits huh?"

"Ha! So what if we are?! What are you gonna do about it?! We outnumber ya four to one!"

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I checked the scans of their ships and, unsurprisingly, they were all inferior to my Verlandi.

In other words, I can take them.

I turned back to see Amber and Lea giving me confident looks while the Merc wasn't that sure of the situation.

I turned back to them, "I'll be nice and give you one warning to leave here with your lives or else you don't leave here at all."

The guy laughed, "Bahahaha! In case you're blind, we outnumber you right now!"

"Uh huh, I'll just let you know that you're all inside my firing range at this moment and the first one I'm targeting would be you. I doubt your shields are strong enough to hold against a hit from a photon laser and a railgun so you're pretty much screwed."

I gave the guy a pointed look, giving him a second to comprehend my words before continuing.

"Then for the rest, you would most likely split up to flank me but that wouldn't matter much since I have a turret which means I'll be able to take two of you out before you can get close. And unless the last guy remaining has some really big trick up their sleeve, they aren't going to be able to do much against my ship. So I'll ask you again… Do you want to leave?"

The man on the screen hesitated, as though trying to rationalise whether what I said was true.

Obviously I wouldn't know if they had an actual trick like some kind of EMP bomb that could disable my ship completely so I was planning to put full power to my reverse thrusters if they choose to engage, putting distance between us first.

Fortunately, it seems like my worries were unfounded as the guy bit back a curse and turned his ship away, "Let's go boys! This salvage ain't worth it!"

Oh, that worked?

I was honestly expecting him to laugh in my face and claim that I was bluffing before starting an attack.

I watched as all of them started to turn their ships around when I received another warning about a high energy object approaching us.

I checked my map for which direction it was coming from before turning my gaze in that direction, finding a single ship boosting towards us.

The newcomer swerved towards the scavengers and, before anyone else could react, shot two beams from his ship's guns at them.

Two of the A Class fighters got pierced from below and immediately exploded in balls of flames.

The scrapper that had called me had not cut the connection yet so I saw the look of panic and fear on his face as he saw two of his comrades get blown apart before he could do anything about it.

He didn't even notice that I was still on the call with him as he tried to turn his ship away, right as the last fighter got blown up beside him.

"Aaaahhhhh!!! You bastard!! Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuuuck!!!" He screamed, firing his ship's weapons at the newcomer.

His shots went wide as his target deftly spun away, turning around to fly out of his firing arc and ending up behind him.

I could see the look of absolute fear on his face as he realised he was going to die.

The newcomer fired his lasers and pierced a hole through the hull of the ship and its engines.

The screen showed the interior of the cockpit being consumed by fire before the feed cut off abruptly.

I got ready to defend myself as well when Amber laughed from behind me, "You don't need to do that, Tera."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "What do you mean?"

Before I could get an answer from her, I received a hail presumably from the new ship.

Tapping on my screen to answer it, a video feed of a man with slick back blonde hair and piercing blue eyes appeared. The moment he saw me, he immediately grinned to flash his pearly white teeth.

"Hey there! No need to worry, beautiful! All the bad guys are gone! You're pretty lucky I received your distress signal! There's nothing out here for miles!"

Oh… The Merc's distress beacon was still online and he mistakenly thought that I was the one who called for help.

He most likely saw four ships on one side and a single ship on the other side, leading him to conclude that I was being threatened by them and that's why I sent the distress beacon.

While I was indeed being threatened, it wouldn't make sense if you think about it.

A distress beacon would be broadcasting across all frequencies so even the ones threatening us would receive that signal. So it wouldn't make sense for this situation because the distress beacon would have either prompted them to engage me in combat or to run away at that point.

In other words, this guy is an idiot.

But well, I wasn't going to antagonise him since he did respond to a distress call and opted to help someone he deemed was in trouble so he at least has a bit of conscience.

I waved at him, "Thanks for the help. Sorry for the trouble."

"Oh to rescue a beautiful lady like you, any time! So where are you headed? It's pretty dangerous around these parts so I think you could use an escort! I'll be happy to volunteer myself as one for the small price of a drink with you later."

I shuddered, "It's ok, I wouldn't want to trouble you anymore than I already have."

"Oh but I insist! Don't worry about it! You can leave your safety to me! So… Where are you headed to?"

God damnit… I'd rather you bring back the thugs from earlier and let me kill them myself so that I don't have to deal with this guy…