A day passed by pretty quickly and we were nearing the location where the freighter's last known location was.

Our plan was to stop a distance away and Amber would approach it on her own to make it seem like she was working alone.

I would then follow in later and watch her from a distance for any signs of that Voidshade pirate showing up and then attack him if he does.

Speaking of Amber… She had nothing but praise when I met her in the morning.

Like seriously, she was telling me how great the shower, the bed and the food I made was, going so far as to say that she wouldn't mind living there forever.

I know she was just exaggerating it especially since breakfast was just me heating up the stew I made yesterday.

She even gave me a tortured look when she had to return to her ship just now.

I took my seat in the pilot's seat and checked the map.

We were reaching the part of space that we would start initiating our plan so I synchronised with Amber to slow down our ships out of travel speeds.

"Ready?" Amber's voice came from over the comms.

"Ready. Be careful."

"Don't worry, this isn't my first time."

She then initiated undocking protocols and her ship separated itself from mine.

I watched my external cameras to see her ship slowly pulling away from me before her engines fired up and her ship sped towards the asteroid field.

I then used the same trick where I powered down all my systems except for my shields before I directed my ship to follow behind Amber at a reduced speed.

This way, only Amber should show up on the scanners that detect energy signatures so I should be hidden from them.

It would be a long flight there since we need to make sure that we would not be picked up by scanners when we arrive so I settled in to wait.

The journey there took about an hour before I even reached the fringes of the asteroid field. I thought that we would need to spend time looking for the freighter, but surprisingly, it was right there.

It seems like the tracker was still working perfectly fine and the freighter simply stopped moving at the last place it was tracked.

Perhaps the freighter encountered some problems or did those guys decide to abandon the freighter here?

I could see that Amber had chosen to stop outside of the asteroid field, presumably to scan the freighter and decide her next course of action.

She seemed to have decided to move in as her ship slowly advanced towards the freighter.

Now that I think about it, she might have just been waiting for me to appear before deciding to move.

I used my thrusters to adjust my heading and corrected my drift towards the direction of our target.

I checked my scanners and aside from the freighter and Amber's ship, I did not detect any other ship in the vicinity.

Either that Voidshade guy wasn't here and they really abandoned the freighter… Or he's invisible and hiding somewhere.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I watched as Amber slowly got closer and closer to the freighter. She flew one round around the freighter before settling near its left side where the docking port was.

I hovered my hand over my console, ready to power up my weapons the moment I saw any ship appear.

Amber's ship attached itself to the freighter, the Merc most likely boarding the freighter as we speak.

I waited for a few more minutes but still nothing showed up.

Hmm… Did they really abandon the ship?

My ship continued drifting closer to it while I kept an eye out for any ships appearing.

Just as I was thinking that the pirate wouldn't show up, a part of the space shimmered and a ship appeared out of thin air.

I got a warning that the ship was powering up its weapons and I did the same, more specifically my railgun.

The pirate must have also received a warning on his ship because the ship jerked suddenly.

It tried to turn away but it was too late as my railgun fired off a shot that pierced through the side of the ship.

I was expecting it to explode but it surprisingly did not. In fact, it even managed to turn away to try and flee from me, using the freighter as a shield between us.

I fired up my engines and gave chase, fully powering up the rest of my ship's systems along the way.

There was quite a bit of distance between my ship and the freighter so it took me a while to reach it.

By the time I got to the other side of the freighter, I found the ship in the midst of spinning out of control.

There was a small figure in the space between the freighter and the out of control ship, floating his way towards the side of the freighter.

Damn it… That must be the pilot who managed to escape from the ship…

I tried to turn my ship around to target the figure but he managed to reach the freighter before I could.

If I were to shoot at him now, I would probably destroy part of the freighter with him.

Ok… I managed to get rid of his ship so that's one objective secured… Now I suppose I should join Amber on the freighter to clear out any enemies that are on board.

I flew my ship to dock on the other free docking port of the freighter, getting out of my seat once the ship started the docking procedures and our hatches lined up with each other.

I grabbed the rifle I had prepared and switched the safety off, double checking that I had my blaster on my hip and spare magazines for my rifle stored under my jacket.

The docking procedures were completed just as I reached the door, the locks cycling open and revealing an empty hallway beyond the doors.

I could hear the sound of gunfire coming from inside and I rushed in, hoping that Amber was alright.

She claimed that she could clear the entire ship on her own but I can't help but worry that something wrong might happen.

As I entered the freighter and into what I assume to be the cargo hold, I found dead bodies of who I assume must be the members of the Underdogs gang sprawled out on the deck, most of them with a bullet hole in the head or several in the chest.

There were also a few of them that seemed to have been crushed by the cargo containers and I wondered if some kind of explosion caused those containers to fall on top of them.

Putting my curiosity aside, I continued running to where the sounds of gunfire were coming from until it suddenly went silent.

I frowned but continued my pace, which wasn't very fast considering the fact that I was not that familiar with this place.

As I was nearing the door that led out of the cargo hold, something suddenly jumped at me from the shadows and I barely managed to turn in time to use my rifle as a shield to block them.

That something turned out to be one of the gang members who must have been hiding in the shadows and he tried to wrestle the gun away from me, the man snarling in my face.

"Fucking Mercs!! Why the fuck are you even here?! What have we even done?!"

I decided not to point out the fact that they literally stole a ship and kicked him in between the legs instead.

The man howled out in pain before I pulled back my gun and smashed the butt of my gun across his face, sending him sprawling on the ground.

I then pointed the barrel at him and fired three shots at the downed gang member, twice in the chest and one between his eyes.

Seeing him go limp, I relaxed and continued forward, only to furrow my brows when I realised the door was locked.

They must have initiated a lockdown of the ship after Amber stormed in.

No problem… I can deal with this…

I took out my Codex and connected it to the door controls, starting the hacking sequence that will unlock the door.

While I was in the midst of hacking the door, I heard something dragging along the floor and I quickly spun around and pulled out my blaster from my hip to point in the direction of the sound.

Another one of those gang members was there and he froze with his hands by his sides as though he was trying to try and grab me.

I fired a shot at him before he could react, the plasma bullet burning a hole through his head before he fell over on the ground.

I scanned the place for a moment more to check if there were any more surprises before going back to hacking the door.

The door opened and I felt a little concerned that the place was still silent.

Did something happen to Amber?