I was directed to leave the wreckage at a specific place outside the station where it was meant to be used as a gathering spot for wrecks like these.

Saulo would then take a barge from the station to get there to sift through his wreckage later.

He would then send the payment over to us once he has secured his remaining belongings over his personal terminal.

Normally I would be sceptical of him actually paying us after leaving like that, but I believe we've already got our money's worth from the data chip alone.

We already know that it was most likely Pre AI Rebellion tech so this could sell for quite a fortune if we found the right buyer.

Not that we were planning to sell it of course, at least not before we figured out what these data chips contained.

We docked with the station once again and the plan was to drop off Saulo before making our way to the station's Mercenary guild to report our mission success and also sign Lea up as one of our crew members at the same time.

The mission would have already been reported as complete on its own so we don't actually have to go to the Guild itself but the registration required us to be there in person.

We completed our landing procedures and descended the ramp to enter the station itself, stopping at the bottom of the ramp to say our goodbyes.

"I cannot say this enough, but thank you all for saving my life. I would not be here if not for your aid."

Amber nodded at him, "Yeah, just pay us for the troubles and we're good."

"Ahahaha, of course, of course! You need not worry about that! I will make sure to pay you your dues! Foi um prazer conhecê-lo! It was nice meeting you!"

He gave us a final wave before he left, disappearing into the crowd.

Once he was out of sight, Amber turned to me, "So… Shall we go? I think we have--"

"There you are!" A voice interrupted her.

All of us turned to see a blonde haired young man with arguably handsome features jog towards us in a hurry.

It took me a moment to realise that this was the Merc that had been following us ever since we were at the wreck.

Oh gods… He actually did come and find us after we reached the station… How did he even get here so fast?

He didn't even wait for me to speak before he started, "What happened to your comms? Did someone attack you on your ship? Perhaps it was the owner of that wreck you were tasked to pull for? They definitely did something to you, didn't they?"

What the heck? Who the hell are you to even ask such questions?

In the first place, we literally just met, you know? These aren't things you ask someone you just met.

I furrowed my brows at him and was just about to tell him off when Amber spoke first.

"Dude, no one here is interested in you. Fuck off."

The guy looked confused for a moment before gesturing to himself, "Wait, don't you recognise me? I'm the one who saved you from those pirates! It's me, Andre!"

"We actually didn't need your help in the first place," Lea commented behind Amber, a stern look on her face. "We had convinced them to leave us alone and they had been turning their ships away to leave when you came along. In other words, you did something quite unnecessary."

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He blinked for a few seconds before pointing at himself, "But… But I saved you?"

I frowned at him, "Were you not listening at all? We had the thing handled the entire time and weren't in danger at all. In fact, your arrival made things more dangerous for us because they might have fired at us when they had no intentions of doing so before that."

This guy seemed to have a hard time comprehending what I said, as though he could not understand how he could have screwed up this badly.

Well, I guess I wouldn't even classify this as a screw up with the fact that it was just a misunderstanding anyway. All he needed to do was to admit he was being an idiot and leave us alone, that would have at least helped him in resolving some of the enmity between us.

But no, he was actually doubling down on his stance with his next words, "I definitely saved you though? I know you girls are just shy to admit it!"

Oh god, he's also delusional…

I sighed, "Alright, what do you actually want?"

He gasped, "Oh! So you agree I saved you?!"

"Definitely not, I'm just asking you to tell me what you want as payment so that you can leave us alone instead of running your mouth and irritating everyone around you."

The blonde idiot looked around, "But… I don't see any--"

Amber shushed him, "Oh shush, she was referring to our group, not the other idiots passing by that has nothing to do with us."

"Ah… Er… Well… Can't we all be friends?"

"No, fuck off," Amber threatened.

"But… Oh! Wait a minute! I'm actually a Gold ranked Merc, you know? I'm quite well respected in that field!"

I gave him a weird look, "Wait… You… Oh. I guess it's unreasonable to expect that you would actually know this… But we're also Mercs, by the way."

"Wha… What? You're Mercs?"

"Is that so surprising? Who else would be there to recover a Merc left behind in a territory where they know pirates, scavengers and other undesirables might be around to look for trouble? If we were civilians, we would have some kind of escort, wouldn't we?"

Amber also added, "And please. Did you even see how well armed our ship was? Even if it did come down to a fight between us and them, we would have definitely won."

"You were outnumbered though?"

Holy crap dude… I bet if you were to talk like this to any other Merc, they might have already punched you in the face for talking like that.

How have you not been punched in the face before?

This could be seen as you completely doubting their skills or even indirectly saying that they were just that bad and pathetic.

At this point, I'm even considering if it would be a good idea to just knock him out and dump him somewhere else just so that we wouldn't need to deal with him anymore.

It was Lea's turn to address him, "We are able to take down groups a few times our number, let alone just a few ships more."

"But…"

Amber didn't even wait for him to finish saying what he wanted to say before grabbing my hand and pulling me away while flipping him the bird.

The guy was left staring at us walking away with a stunned face, probably still failing to understand what had just happened in front of him.

"Are you sure this is ok?" I asked, feeling a little concerned.

I mean… He already knows my ship is there right? What's stopping him from stopping nearby and ambushing us either?

Ok granted, I wasn't sure whether he would actually do that but seeing that he actually cut us off while we were travelling to the station meant that he might do something just as drastic as well.

Amber scoffed, "Would you rather just stand there and hear him whine and cry for the next few hours? Because I'm pretty sure that's what he'll do. Or did you forget how you had to entertain him for so long back on the ship when he was still trying to get in your pants and thought he actually had a chance?"

"Alright… Point taken…"

Lea looked behind us and I followed her gaze, finding the guy still standing at where we had left him and staring after us still stunned by what happened.

"This is just my guess but I think that this might be the first time that someone has rejected him."

Amber scoffed, "Well then it's good that he has that experience then. Someone like him needs to learn how to understand what rejection looks like."

"That was not what I meant. I was pointing out that he might take this rejection more harshly than others and do something about it."

"He can try," Amber growled before turning to me. "Don't worry, I'll protect you, Tera~"

I wanted to tell her that I could protect myself just fine and she would be the one being in more danger considering the fact that she was especially attractive.

But I just decided to go along with it and smile at her, "I'll depend on you in that case."

Amber giggled, "Of course~ Now where is that guild branch…"

I pointed at a building right up ahead that had the Mercenary Guild symbol displayed on a neon sign near the door, "There, Amber."

"Ahahaha~ I can't believe I missed that! Let's go then! Getting more Credits and Lea becoming an official part of our crew is definitely something worth celebrating! So let's have a drink afterwards!"

Was that your goal all along?

Ah whatever, I need a drink after dealing with an idiot like that anyway…