Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"Okay, it's been ten minutes, time to go."

After a timer he had set ended, Ezra accessed the lock on the panel above his head and disengaged it.

A moment later there was a quite mechanical noise, and the panel slowly opened.

Peeking his head out, Ezra made sure the coast was clear and then beckoned to the others.

Kasandra, Jasmine, and Kaiden all crawled out of the cramped space and began stretching.

"Remind me to never agree to doing that again." Kaiden grumbled.

"I don't know why you're complaining now. You agreed to it, and this was your plan to begin with. Would you really have rather waited on your ship and sat things out?"

Kaiden frowned at his siter's rebuttal, but he had nothing else to say. It had been his idea to pretend to betray Grtio so that they could sneak aboard Iniquus' orbital station. He just had not thought about the logistics of cramming themselves into the Dauntless' smuggling compartment.

Of course, this had not been the intended purpose of the small room. Originally it was something akin to a final defense that the crew could use to hide in and plan a counterattack on the off chance the vessel was ever boarded.

Still, this meant that the area was impeccably well shielded from all manner of sensors and had allowed Kasandra, Jasmine, Ezra, and Kaiden to avoid being detected when Iniquus' men had scanned for lifeforms.

"Okay, enough sibling bickering, let's get ready quickly. If things have gone to plan, most of the station's guards will be focused on Avery and Grtio right now. We need to use this time to go and rescue Vi'ivando." Ezra said.

He was the one in charge of leading the rescue mission and was already needed to get the others to stay focused.

Fortunately, they were all competent professionals, and in under two minutes, they had equipped their gear and were ready to go.

Naturally, the airlock connecting the Dauntless to the station was locked, and Kasandra could hear two people on the other side that were likely guards.

If Grtio were with them, he easily could have accessed the doors and messed around with its circuitry until it opened, but no one present had such a skill set. Instead, they would be solving this issue in a more violent manner. As was normal for mercenaries.

"Kasandra, Kaiden, once I make and opening, jump through and deal with the guards. Jasmine, stay behind me and provide cover fire if necessary."

Once everyone had nodded at Ezra's commands, he pulled out his hard light halberd and visualized the shape he wanted to cut.

Then, in just a single second, he swung his weapon forward and cut a triangular pattern in the door of the airlock and kicked the now dislodged scrap metal out of the way.

Following up, Kaiden went in first followed by Kasandra.

The two of them viciously attacked the two stunned guards on the other side and easily incapacitated them.

"Wrrrr! Wrrrr! Wrrrr!"

Nearly immediately after Ezra cut through the door, an alarm signaling a breach in the station's integrity started blaring.

This naturally gave away Ezra, Kasandra, Jasmine's, and Kaiden's infiltration, but that was to be expected. Truthfully, the added chaos would be good for them in the long run. It was likely that Avery was already in the midst of springing the trap Grtio had prepared, and any extra confusion would help him out.

"Check every room quickly. We need to find our target as soon as possible."

The four of them rushed through the station, and every door they came to they opened up.

Most were unlocked, but those that were sealed were forcefully breached.

A few times they ran into guards that were either sleeping or eating, but these people were unprepared for intruders and were easily taken down.

Nevertheless, Ezra, Kasandra, Jasmine, and Kaiden were unable to avoid the station's defender's forever. As they had planned, most were with Iniquus to intimidate and suppress Avery, but the station had not been left undefended. A well-armed group of nine soon found the four intruders and opened fire on them.

Pinned down in a hallway intersection, Ezra's team was unable to break through simply because they had fewer weapons firing at once.

"Throw a concussion grenade and then cover me. I'll push my way through and break their formation." Ezra said, putting away his twin laser pistols and pulling out his hard light weapon.

It was certainly reckless, but since he had been given the position of commander, Kasandra, Kaiden, and Jasmine followed his orders.

Jasmine pulled out a concussion grenade that was one of many weapons she had on her person.

The moment she threw it; the trained soldiers that saw the object was flying towards recognized it instantly.

Still, in these cramped quarters, they found it impossible to get out of the way in time.

A bright flash and deafening roar followed as the device activated, and while they were wearing helmets that were meant to block out dangerous levels of light and sound, the grenade Jasmine had used was a high-end military grade product and still disoriented them for a few moments.

In that time, Ezra closed the distance while Kasandra and Kaiden fired with their laser rifle.

While they were holding off on using lethal attacks, that did not mean that they were going easy on their opponents.

Ezra swung his halberd around with precision and sliced through the soldiers' tendons in their arms and legs so that they could no longer move.

At the same time, Kasandra, Jasmine, and Kaiden fired lasers that were one step away from being fatal. Each shot severely burned the target and would require extensive medical care to heal.

They were up against former mercenaries though, and despite not truly wishing to work for Iniquus, they fought as hard as they could. To do otherwise would be seen as an act of resistance against their master and activate the implant in their heads.