Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 97 Some Answers but More Questions

The sight before him nearly made Avery lose the contents of his stomach. And he was not the only one. Veteran mercenaries they may have been, but even Kasandra, Kaiden, and Ezra looked sick after just a single glance into the enemy cruiser’s mess hall.

Everything was covered in viscera, and a thin pool of blood had formed on the floor.

It was obvious that the people that had been here blew themselves up. Instead of being captured, they had taken their own lives and erased almost any means of identifying them.

Unless some of them had their DNA stored in some database, no one would be able to figure out who they once were. And even that would be a massive undertaking considering the carnage.

Once his power suit’s sensors had confirmed that there were not any life signs in the room, Avery closed the door and looked away. He had seen some pretty gruesome stuff before, but this took the cake by far. At the moment, he felt like he would never be able to eat anything again.

"W-we should probably search the rest of the ship before concluding it’s empty. The leaders may have done this to try and trick people into believing that there are no survivors." Ezra said, being the first to regain his wherewithal. Though he was clearly still shaken by what they had seen.

To try and put the horrid scene out of their minds, Avery, Kasandra, Kaiden, and Ezra, fully focused on exploring the cruiser. It was a large vessel with tons of rooms and required an extensive amount of time for them to go through the entire thing.

Nevertheless, by the time they had finished scouring the last area, not a single soul had been found.

The data logs had also been erased, leaving practically nothing aboard to tell them who the people that had attacked them were.

"So, were they part of the Reswen Theocracy’s military?" Avery muttered to himself. More pondering out loud rather than expecting an answer.

Except, Ezra merely shook his head doubtfully.

"I don’t think so. It wouldn’t make sese for them to deploy vessels this old on a mission in enemy territory. Plus, we’re pretty far into the Alliance, and a merchant fleet headed towards a planet being terraformed is hardly a high priority target for an enemy military. Then there’s that mass suicide we saw. True believers within the Theocracy live to serve their nine gods. Taking their own lives is considered taboo."

"You certainly seem to know a lot about these guys." Kaiden growled accusatorially

"A few years ago, for around nine months, I did some work culling space monsters near the border between the Dramid Alliance and Reswen Theocracy. I met all sorts of people back then. Some were devotees to their religion and were willing to spout off their teachings to anyone."

Ezra told them what else he knew about the Theocracy and his reasons why he did not think that anyone from their military had been involved in this attack.

What he said made sense, though, people were not always logical, so it was really only his supposition for now. The incident needed to be investigated further, and people needed to warned. There were still some of the fanatics that had attacked them out there.

Fortunately, recent navigation data was able to be downloaded from one of the other seized vessels.

Their crew as well had committed mass suicide, but the recovery of at least something would help the authorities identify and track down these people.

"Still, what could they have set up this attack for? We’re in the middle of interstellar space without anything notable around. The only thing of note in the area is a couple of hyper lanes?" Kasandra said, having pulled up the galaxy map on her terminal.

If they had been pirates, their goals would have been obvious. A fleet transporting refined metals was basically a jackpot for them since it was difficult for people with bounties to exchange Krenin for services or items. They most bartered using valuable goods.

Except the ones that had gone after the Moonrise fleet were clearly just trying to destroy the cargo vessels.

"I mean we can speculate, but the most likely option is that this was a targeted attack on our employer. For what reason though, I can only guess." Ezra said, tapping into his years of experience.

He had seen quite a few scuffles during his time working as a mercenary, but nothing quite like this.

"Well, we aren’t world class investigators. Let’s just do our job, get paid, and keep a watchful eye out for more of these types."

Avery brought an end to their hypothesizing and led his team back to their ships. They had completed the search of the enemy craft and could leave the rest Svantur and his subordinates.

In the end, it was decided that they would tow the three disabled vessels with them to the Phregon System. There they could sell the vessels to the authorities and let them deal with it.

"I suppose that they’re merchants to the end." Kasandra commented.

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"Yeah, but at least we’ll be getting a big bonus since we played a large role in bringing them down. How much do you think those ships are worth anyway?"

Kasandra pulled up the captured vessels’ specs and did her best to estimate their value. Had they been of Alliance make, she would have had an easier time, but since they came from a foreign power, all she could do was guess.

"They’re old and damaged, but they’re still military craft. I’d say that the three of them together will go for somewhere around twenty million. Maybe." Kasandra said uncertainly.

It would really depend on how much the Alliance Police valued the fact that they for from a foreign military and held some clues to a group that attacked Alliance citizens.

As Avery and Kasandra were discussing what sort of reward they could be expecting, in large part to distract themselves from the ghastly scene they had witnessed, Jasmine returned to the cockpit.

She still looked a bit distressed from the earlier battle, but she had managed to collect herself enough to return to her post as the Dauntless’ supporter.