Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Once Avery had found the assailant's personal shield generator, he pulled it off and handed it over to Dr. Raiti.

In a situation like this, going without one was an easy way to get killed.

No matter how fast someone could move or the impressiveness of their reflexes, it was impossible to avoid a wide spray of laser fire. Even people like Olivia who had trained to deflect blasts with hard light weaponry could only handle a few people shooting at them at most.

"Damn! It's got biometric security. We can't use it." Avery groaned as he tried to fire the laser rifle the man that had attacked them had been using.

Unfortunately, this was a pretty common feature that most modern weapons possessed.

No one wanted their own guns taken and used against them, so measures had been taken to make sure only authorized users could activate them.

For a brief moment, Avery considered cutting the guy's hand off but passed up on this idea quickly.

It would be incredibly cumbersome to aim and fire a weapon while using a severed hand to pull the trigger. Plus, there was a chance it would not even work depending on the sophistication of the biometric lock. Some were designed to sense pulses, and if there was not one, the gun would prevent any use.

"The shield generator works at least, right?" Avery asked once he had finished searching through their assailant's equipment.

"Yeah, it's functioning properly. I doubt there are many that come with the same security functions as a laser rifle." Kasandra responded.

Considering that it was a defensive tool, typically attached to the person body securely, and needed to be no larger than a certain size to avoid getting in the way of movement, personal shield generators did not usually have any protections to prevent them from being used by other people.

"Okay, we should move from here and figure out how we want to deal with this. I just checked my terminal, and our signal to the outside has been cut off. We're dealing with a pretty organized group here if they planned for this. And one that's dangerous and dedicated if they're willing to try a stunt like this in the capital system." Avery said, a hint of tension in his expression.

Fortunately, this did not seem to be the worst-case scenario for him.

Whoever these people were, their goal was not him or Kasandra. Otherwise, they would have encountered more than one person coming after them.

'I guess that it's finally time to test out what Grito made for us.'

Avery reached behind him to the pack he was wearing on his back and pressed a hidden button located on it's right side.

This connected the device currently strapped to his chest with the powerful energy source inside the bag.

Immediately the item came to life and began spreading around Avery's body. Creating a thin exoskeleton suit with a pair of gauntlets.

Grito had based the design off of the equipment that Iniquus had used during his fight with Avery.

Obviously, the functions were a bit different, since Avery's gauntlets lacked laser emitters to avoid being detected as a weapon.

Still, it was capable of creating a large energy shield and served to enhance Avery's already impeccable physical abilities.

As for Kasandra, she had been provided with something different.

She pulled out what looked like an electric toothbrush and a normal hairbrush.

However, these two items had far wider handles than would usually be expected, since their appearances were only a disguise.

Kasandra swiftly removed the brush parts of each of the tools and flipped a hidden switch on the bottoms of each one.

Within less than a second, each of the handles extended into meter long batons. With both of them being composed of ultra dense metal that would not bend or break easily.

For the final touch, Kasandra pressed a button on each of her weapons and the ends sparked with electricity.

"They aren't the best weapon, but this is better than nothing. And thankfully, they'll pass through most security checkpoints undetected." Avery said reassuringly to Dr. Raiti.

Except, he did the response he received from her was not what he had been expecting.

"I see, you must be incredibly paranoid to feel the need to carry around such items. It makes me wonder if there aren't a bunch of women out there whose hearts you've broken that want to stab you."

She glanced over at Kasandra and nodded her head assuredly. As if she had hit the nail on the head.

Instead of refuting the claim, Kasandra merely started snickering at the notion.

"That's not true! I've only ever been in a relationship with Kasandra and Jasmine. I don't know why people are starting to get this weird impression of me." Avery protested.

He tried to explain that they had a lot of enemies, but Mercedes merely responded by saying, "Must be a lot of women."

Still, as foolish as this was, it brought a bit of levity to the situation and helped relieve some tension.

Soon the three of them headed away from the area. Moving towards the area where the other competitors and their crews should have been waiting.

Yet, the closer they got, the more armored and masked individuals they found patrolling the hallways.

…

"Boss, we just got word from Kaliya's group. Seems that one of his men was ambushed and taken out. They haven't found the ones responsible yet."

Katarina grimaced at the unpleasant news and contacted her conspirator for an update on what was going on.

While her team's job was to collect the target, Kaliya was supposed to have secured their escape route.

He had been hired by the same client as Katrina, and while they had different jobs, the two groups were supposed to work together.

"I hate that insufferable prick! He thinks that he's above us just because he's masquerading as some rich executive. I wish we didn't have to rely on someone like him." Katarina grumbled.

She had not even been able to reach the man, and his lieutenant had merely told her that they would have everything under control soon. Not giving her any details on the situation.

"It's too late to back out now, though." Katarina muttered as she glanced at the dead members of Nianni Taador's security detail.

While the star had been resting after her long performance before meeting with competitors backstage, Katarina and her team had pushed their way through to her location.

As a last act of defiance, the famous singer had locked herself in her dressing room, but that would not keep Katarina's team from reaching her.

Already one of Katrina's personnel was cutting through the door.

It would only be a couple more seconds before they were in and could retrieve Nianni.

The moment that the door was opened, a beautiful singing voice spread through the area.

Hearing it, some of Katarina's team stopped in their tracks and looked forward with stupefied expressions on their faces.

"I'm afraid that's not going to work on me." Katarina said, rushing into the room and punching Nianni in the stomach.

The singing stopped as Nianni collapsed to the ground and started gasping for air. The pain she was feeling was overwhelming and worse than anything she had ever experienced in her life before.

Katarina pulled out a collar stored in her bag and attached it around Nianni's neck.

This would prevent the singer from making so much as a sound.

"Restrain her and put her in the sack we need to get out of here fast before the authorities realize what's going on."

At their boss's order, the members of Katarina's team got to work and prepared their target for transport.

If things went well, they would be onboard their escape ship in just five minutes and on their way out of the system.

Yet, the plan that should have been going smoothly already had cracks forming in it.

More of Kaliya's team had been taken out while Katarina's team had been capturing Nianni.

Apparently, there was a group of three individuals going around and picking off the people that had been set up as sentries along the primary escape route.

"His lieutenant keeps assuring us that they'll have everything under control, but what do you want to do boss?" Krissy asked.

Katarina mulled over the issue for just a couple moments before coming to a decision.

"We'll head towards the secondary extraction site instead. I don't know exactly what's going on, but my instincts are telling me its trouble. I'm not going to put my fate in the hands of someone else. Especially when they're doing such an incompetent job."

Directing her team, Katarina led them in a different direction from where they were originally supposed to be heading.

Her partner in this job was proving himself to be incapable, and she would rather take the risk of losing a bit more time than get caught up in whatever mess was happening along the main escape route.