Within moments after the announcement was made, the ship was surrounded by countless others. The terrorists had a panicked expression on their faces and tried to rush back to their ships, only to realise their ships were overrun by Orion Security Force or OSF officers.
Since the terrorists were foolish enough to brand themselves with tattoos, there was no way they'd not get recognised by the officers. Ashton and the rest of the mercenaries were also interrogated where Ashton willingly accepted that he had killed quite a few terrorists.
Rather than being pleased by his actions, the officers were quite disgusted. Especially after what Richard confessed to them. However, since Ashton was a mercenary affiliated with the biggest mercenary network and was on duty, there was nothing they could do against him. He did what was necessary to ensure his client's safety.
All that coupled with Eula's and the captain's statements, the mercenaries got off easily, but Ashton was reprimanded a bit for his barbaric ways. However, all the warnings went in through one ear and out through the other.
At the same time, the private ship that had been captured by Metal Sharks was freed from their control and unlike what Qamnol had said previously, Eula's consorts weren't the ones to sell her out. It was all Qamnol's plan to cause as much chaos as he could to ensure Eula got captured.
In reality, it had been the other way around with Qamnol tipping the terrorists off about the change in plans. He had betrayed the mercenaries long before anyone could realise. Also, from the terrorists' confession, Qamnol was the one secretly providing the terrorists with information about Eula's whereabouts.
As for why or how OSF got there to help them, it was chalked up to be a coincidence. The captain admitted he wasn't sure the mercenaries would be able to handle them, so he blasted the radio for help. But thanks to Qamnol, the communication channels were blocked by the terrorists.
Even so, when the OSF fleet master noticed a silent cruiser making its way into their territory, he immediately took action thinking it was a terrorist group or someone illegal trying to get into the restricted zones. His suspicion wasn't correct, but he ended up saving hundreds of lives in the process.
As for Ashton, he wasn't interested in the logistics of how or why OSF 'saved' them. The only things he cared about were his client's safety and cashing in the bounties of all the terrorists he had killed. But he was a bit sour that he did not get to kill the rest of the terrorists, especially Drexan who would have had a high bounty on his head.
That's why the moment their ship landed on a nearby planet, Ashton immediately went to the local bounty collection office to get his money. These branches were spread throughout the galaxy, which helped mercenaries and warriors of any kind to get money as soon as they got their hands on a bounty.
The process of claiming a bounty was fairly easy. All one had to do was to present the person or the corpse of the person having a bounty over their heads or in most cases, a recognisable body part. Ashton did that, and after waiting for a couple of hours for verification, he ended up with quite a sum on himself.
<21,280 Yenos have been credited to your account. Total Balance: 24,280 Yenos.>
Ashton was pleased when he checked his account statement. With this money, he could even buy a small one-man cruiser for himself or rent a bigger one. But travelling around in space wasn't on his bucket list.
[Wise decision to save money. I'm proud of you.]
"Don't be. For all you know, I might end up spending it all in one go."
[It's a good thing I don't need you to feed me then...]
It took some time, but Ashton managed to find his way back to Eula's mansion. It was quite massive which made Ashton frown a bit. It wasn't because he found it to be wasteful to needlessly have such a mansion. But because he knew it would be a pain to monitor the entire mansion to keep an eye out for potential assailants.
"It's gonna be such a pain..." He sighed, "I think I should ask for a bonus from Mazton. There's no way in hell this job was meant for the 10-man company."
[You mean a 7-personnel team.]
Ashton nodded. He had genuinely forgotten about Avvo's and Qamnol's betrayal and about that mage's death. But now that he was reminded of them... he realised the rest of the team had been behaving distant from him ever since Raven chopped Qamnol in half.
Maybe because they no longer trust him. After all, he chopped up one of them without a shred of hesitation the moment he betrayed them. The rest of them would have done something similar as well, but they would have at least given Qamnol a chance to come clean.
Sadly, one thing Ashton hate more than the Xyrans was backstabbers. In hindsight, he was happy that Qamnol betrayed them when he did. After all, Ashton got the opportunity to show everyone what would happen should they decide to betray him.
On the other hand, Qamnol's betrayal also dealt quite a blow to the team's integrity. Also, Ashton was pretty sure Mazton would be getting grilled after not one but two of his selected people decided to betray the Association.
'Well, I do feel bad for him, but he should have been a bit more careful. Especially after what happened the last time.'
Ashton showed his mercenary card to the officers standing at the mansion gate and was allowed to enter. The mansion wasn't the only thing big, the planet known as Eva to the locals, was itself quite big. Roughly it was thrice the size of earth but everything else about it was the same as Ashton's homeworld.
The locals also resembled earthlings. Only they had four eyes instead of two along with a tail. In terms of technology, they were much more advanced than earth but that had a downside as well. There was little to no natural vegetation left on the planet. But the Evines were focused on making their world a better place, at least the continent Ashton was on seemed to be doing better.
"Hm... this place is not half bad." Ashton muttered, "Sadly, it's time to get back to work."