While he was busy eating dinner in his office and going over the mountain of reports on his desk, courtesy of the terrorist attack earlier that, Deputy Chief Bryrid Wendon, the top officer in charge of the Alliance Police stationed in the Phregon System, received an emergency call from one of his subordinates.
"What could it possibly be this time lieutenant? I'm already up to my nose in reading and writing reports." Deputy Chief Bryrid said with a tired sigh.
"Sorry sir, but we just got a transmission from some mercenaries that-"
"Just stop. I don't care about a couple of money grubbing mercs. Tell them that whatever payment they are trying to get will be sent to their accounts when this mess is contained. Just because their job is over once the fighting stops doesn't mean that everyone else's is. They can wait a few days for their payment." Deputy Chief Byrid said, interrupting his subordinate with an exasperated huff.
Hundreds of mercenaries had joined the battle against the terrorists both in the station, and against the ones that had attacked outside with foreign warships and a swarm of pirates.
A lot of them were already trying to get their rewards for any bounties or emergency requests from the Alliance Police that they had taken.
It was pretty obvious that they just wanted to get their money and go. The whole system and Phregon III especially were massive messes right now and there was no telling what else might occur. Those that did not want to get caught up in anything else had no desire to stick around.
Of course, Deputy Chief Byrid and the rest of the officers under his command had far more important matters to deal with. But the mercenaries did not seem to care and were only whining about getting their money.
However, even after Byrid cut off the call in frustration, the captain in charge of the lieutenant that just contacted him sent another emergency transmission.
"Seriously, if these mercenaries are making that much of a nuisance of themselves, just arrest them. With all that is going on, I doubt that there will be much pushback."
"Sir! This has nothing to do with money. The mercenaries that contacted us have discovered the one behind the terrorist attack." The Alliance police captain said frantically.
Byrid went wide eyes and silent when he heard this.
The ones that had been behind the recent incident were a group of well-known environmental extremists, but they hardly had the resources to obtain the weapons and vessels they had used on their own.
It was obvious that someone must have been backing them, but everyone that they had managed to capture alive did not know anything and there was no concrete evidence to be found.
'I've already started to receive criticism from the media for not being able to stop the attack before it happened, and if the benefactor behind the terrorists went unfound, there's a good chance I would be transferred to a remote region or possibly even demoted. But if I have someone big that I can turn in, that changes things. I should be able to save at least a bit of face.'
Deputy Chief Byrid immediately looked over the materials the captain sent him, but he soon wished that he had not.
The mercenaries had sent them serval files detailing the crimes of one of the most powerful men currently in the system and large investor in the planet undergoing terraforming.
Being the important public figure that he was, Byrid had met with Iniquus on several occasions, and even thanked the man for his support at a major event.
However, should everything he just read come out, it could see his reputation tarnished, along with anyone else that had associated with Iniquus.
"Sir, the mercenaries are asking to speak directly to you now. Also, they want us to send a ship over to assist with transporting victims. Apparently, there are several dozens of presumed lost mercenaries that had been forced into servitude with an illegal implant."
Byrid felt a headache coming on, but he told the captain to send a relief vessel and accepted the call with the mercenaries. He wanted to figure out exactly what had happened and learn what the mercenaries were after.
"Ah, finally. I was wondering if we were ever going to get in contact with the person in charge."
Once the call had been connected Byrid saw a young man with blonde hair sitting in the cockpit of a clearly high-end military style vessel.
Beside him on one side was a behemoth of a man with red skin and horns protruding his head, and on the other was a light brown-haired woman with feline ears sticking up out of the top of her head.
"I'm assuming that you're the group of mercenaries that wanted to speak with me." Byrid said, trying to exude an air of authority.
"That correct. I'm the leader of our team, four star mercenary and recipient of the Alliance Silver Cross of Heroism, Avery Asteria. Now how about we get down to business. There is a lot for us to discuss regarding this matter."
At first, Byrid thought that the mercenaries he would be dealing with would be easy to manipulate. He would pay them off with a bit of Krenin and take all of the glory for successfully sniffing out the culprit behind the terrorist attack that had shaken the system.
Yet, the moment that Avery introduced himself, Byrid knew that these people were going to take him for all he was worth.
Having received a Silver Cross, Avery held a certain degree of influence since he was considered a champion of the Dramid Alliance.
Byrid could not afford to try and push them around with his as a Deputy Chief since it could easily backfire on him.
As for trying to use Avery's youth and inexperience against him, this failed as well.
The two veteran mercenaries next to Avery helped to guide him whenever he was about to agree to something that would only serve to benefit Byrid. And another woman that knew the laws and regulations of the Alliance Police far too well would chime in whenever he tried to cite codes that most mercenaries were ignorant of.
In the end, Deputy Chief Byrid was forced to agree to every demand the mercenaries made of him. And in return, he would at least be able to take some of the credit for uncovering Iniquus' crimes and putting a stop to the man.