Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Avery could feel the tension in the air as Delia brazenly and without remorse admitted to betraying the Odium Syndicate.

This was very much not a part of the plan, and he almost wanted to scream at Delia asking her if she had gone insane.

Of course, he knew that this was just how she was.

She was clearly enjoying the confusion and anger spreading through the rest of the Odium Syndicate executives while she pretended to be disinterested.

'I wish I could just shoot her right now, but that would undoubtably start a fight before we're ready. Nothing was supposed to happen until Liesel and Burke had control over the station's security systems.' Avery thought, his mind racing with how to deal with rapidly changing circumstances.

Luckily, the calls for Delia to be executed on the spot were silenced by the man in charge of the proceedings.

Had that happened, Avery knew that he and his team would have to spring into action as they were bound to become targets as well. Already he could feel hostile gazes being sent their way.

"I had truly hoped that we were mistaken, but for you admit to your misdoings so remorselessly. It truly does sadden me. You proved yourself to be an invaluable member of are organization. Yet after all you did to spread out purpose, why did you decide to throw it all away?"

Delia scoffed at the man's words and started loudly laughing.

"You make it sound like we're some tightknit group that's working towards a greater cause. The Odium Syndicate is a fifthly drug peddling criminal enterprise with the express purpose of making people's lives worse. I mean, you're all planning on spreading a mutagenic agent through the populous of the Dramid Alliance.

"Maybe some of you think this is for the noble goal of spreading the Zatis Consortium's influence, but at the end of the day, none of you are doing anything special. Honestly, any of you deluded enough to think you're actually working towards some lofty ideal are more demented than I am." Delia said, sneering at her former colleagues.

If what she had said before set many of them off, this was enough to cause unrestrained outrage.

Not even the man who had maintained order so far tried to step in to stop the growing chaos.

Truthfully, he looked like his own fury was boiling up inside of him and he was just a moment away from leaping from his chair to strangle Delia.

While everyone was busy shouting and there were arguments going around about what they should do to Delia, she simply got up from her chair and gracefully, though with some haste, made her way back towards where Avery, Kasandra, Ezra, Olivia, and Kaiden were waiting.

"Well, I suppose that if we're done here, I'll be taking my leave. I can't say it was particularly fun working with you all, but it paid well at least. Don't worry, I'll collect my final payment for my services at a later time. I wish you all the best."

Naturally, Delia's dismissive words did nothing to diffuse the situation. It just focused everyone's attention back on her and Avery's team.

He very nearly blasted a hole into her head, but he had far more pressing matters to deal with.

"Shut her up already. All combat personnel, kill her guards and capture her. Delia's death will not be an easy one."

There were soon dozens of guns pointed at Avery and his companion.

"Ezra, focus on defense. Olivia make us an exit. Kasandra and Kaiden, lay down suppression fire with me." Avery swiftly ordered.

Immediately, the five of them moved into their respective positions, with Ezra taking the front and pulling out his hardlight shield.

He got it activated just in time, as it spread out as wide as it could just as the first blasts reached them.

To keep their attackers from closing in on them unopposed, Avery, Kasandra, and Kaiden began firing back.

Most of the Odium Syndicate executives began scrambling to get to safety now that a fight had broken out, but Avery and the others had no leeway to focus on them.

'Luckily we were able to position ourselves up against a wall, otherwise we would have been in for a hell of a lot harder time.' Avery thought while firing at the other guards bearing down on them.

Behind him, Olivia had pulled out her hardlight spear and had jammed it into the wall behind them.

With expert precision she cut through the material that was thankfully not too thick and kicked it out to create an opening for them to rush through into the next room.

Infuriatingly, Delia stuck with them, but wasting the time to get rid of her would have been more trouble than it was worth at this point. Plus, she could still be useful as she was the only one that could access any of the station's systems.

"I know what you're thinking, but I didn't betray you. When it became clear that they were basically going to put me on a sham trial, I knew that the plan had to change. So, I figured making them enraged would be better for us. Now they'll respond sloppily due to their uncontrolled emotions. You guys have already proven that you can handle a bit of fighting against them." Delia said as they rushed through the empty room they had escaped into.

Obviously, the guards for the higherups of the Odium Syndicate tried to follow, but the hole in the wall was not very big so they could only go one at a time, and Avery, Kasandra, and Kaiden were firing a constant barrage of lasers into the entrance that made it suicidal for anyone to charge through.

"Well, figure out what to do with you later. Just make yourself useful so that I don't use you as a meat shield to block lasers."

"Fine, I'll start locking some doors and restricting access to internal transport systems. They'll figure out what I'm doing sooner or later and someone with higher status will revoke my access codes eventually, but I should be able to slow them down." Delia replied with an expression that showed she did not have a care in the world despite hundreds of people hunting her down.

With a terminal she had been given specifically for this mission, she gained control of some of the station's systems and began making herself a nuisance. Something she was very good at.

For several minutes, they cut their way through the station until they reached a corridor several hundreds of meters from the meeting room.

There were a few guards running around, but they were surprised by the sudden intrusion and easily dealt with.

Part of what Delia had been doing was creating sensor ghosts that made it difficult for the Odium Syndicate to track them. Otherwise, there would have been a lot more people waiting for them.

However, their luck did not last too much longer, when several assault drones began flying through the hallways towards them.

"Aim to take down their shields. I'll handle them after that." Avery said.

Systematically they fought against the drone and any guards that came by.

Avery made sure use his psionic abilities to great effect, cutting off the flow of energy to every drone he could and any of the enemy combatants' equipment.

His powers gave the group the edge they needed, and for a while they kept ahead of everything trying to kill them. Eventually though the enemy numbers were growing too large to handle, and their own gear and weaponry were starting to run low on power and needed to be recharged.

As they were looking for a new escape route, the entrance to one of the station's lifts opened up in front of them.

At first Avery was expecting a new horde of enemies to come rushing out, but it was empty.

Before he could offer any more attention to the randomly opening doors, he had to turn his focus on taking out some drones whose shields had just gone down.

In that moment, Delia suddenly broke free from their group and rushed into the open lift.

"Sorry, but this is where we'll have to part ways. Please don't chase after me. You already rejected me, so don't give me any false hope." She said dramatically when she locked eyes with Avery. There were fake tears in her eyes, and she was acting like they were star-crossed lovers not meant to be.

Avery tried to whip his laser pistol around and shoot her, but the doors to the lift closed before the first blast reached. Delia had successfully managed to slip away from them in the confusion.

He almost sprinted after her in pursuit, but Kasandra's words brought him back to his senses.

"Not now! We'll deal with her later! But we have to get through this fight first."

Avery gritted his teeth in frustration, but he knew that Kasandra was right.

Luckily, their fortunes soon took a turn for the better, as all of the station's defense drones suddenly turned on their allies and started blasting them.

That was when Avery received a call from Liesel.

"We've just finished taking control over the station's security systems. We'll have everything locked down soon."

"Good job, we ended up in a bit of a situation, and this definitely helps." Avery responded, his mood lifting now that the tide of battle was going in their favor.

"Yeah, we've been monitoring what's going on from here. Truthfully, the commotion you all are causing made our job easier."

After that, Liesel told Avery that she and Burke would be leading the majority of their team to help. Now that they had control over the majority of the station, it was time to take over and wipe out the Odium Syndicate for good.