SOS CH 14 (Patreon)

The pirates had loosely scattered around throughout the icy hell of a terrain, entering a battle formation, as they waited for the intruders to reach them.

They were waiting and observing the intruders’ every action using their equipment. After all, despite their recklessness, the pirates could not live long if they did not learn how to assess danger and adequately counter every single one of them.

It didn't take long for them to see who the pair of intruders were exactly and they were quite surprised by what registered in their vision through the glass screens of their hefty armor suit.

They had expected to see Morgiana in the flesh, coupled with another individual that they had no idea of but that was not the point here. They might look down on her now, but when she was in her prime all those years ago, Morgiana was more than a bit renowned throughout the Sea of Stars. She was a powerhouse and a beacon of awe and respect and that only amplified for the Forty Thieves.

However – instead of Morigiana in her armor, ready to fight them with her life on the line – what they saw was a young man entirely covered in fur from head to toe, running with an expression of panic and desperation on his childish face as he held onto a motionless Morgiana on his back. He seemed to be running from something or someone, running for his life.

The cold sweat running along his forehead, immediately crystalizing into icy droplets due to the effects of the weather, and the look of exhaustion and desperation that was marring his youthful face along with the blood splattered all over his body were telltales signs of the situation at hand.

｢Prepare for fire.｣

Discretely, Omid sent the order through the intercom. The situation was quite complicated and he didn’t have enough information on him to get a complete grasp of everything.

However, the words that followed from the boy ahead made him lower his guard somewhat…

Warning signs immediately blared on their visors as the female cyclops inputted the numbers on her computer.

“Boss! Something monstrously big is coming our way!”

She shouted out loud and Omid couldn’t help but scoff to himself. Indeed, his instincts had warned him of incoming danger from long ago. It seemed like this beast or whatever it may be was the cause for the feeling of danger that he had been experiencing.

Soon, they were able to see the silhouette of a giant monster slithering through the icy terrain as it chased after the young man and the motionless Morgiana tightly bound to his back.

The fact that such a young boy was able to run with Morgiana in full armor on his back was impressive in itself, definitely worth a second look, but the kid was reaching his limit already. His face was practically screaming the state of exhaustion he was currently under; it was quite clear that he would not be able to run for very long.

“It’s… It’s a fucking Abyss Beast! What the fuck!!”

The indifference in Omid's eyes immediately vanished and all the other soldiers exploded in a chorus of chaos and ruckus. There was a vast difference between beasts made of blood and bones, even mechanical beasts that were fully automated, compared to beasts from the Deep Abyss.

Those were real monsters. Fucking dangerous monsters that were notoriously hard to kill. However, at the same time, they were the telltale signs of the single most important thing to the people in their line of work — Wealth.

“Save them! Save them at any cost!”

Omid was very decisive. Capturing Morgiana was more of a goal for Cassim, the leader of their organization, than anyone else in the entirety of the Forty Thieves. But getting rich was a completely different matter altogether. Otherwise, why would he even become a pirate in the first place? Wealth was the calling in life for all pirates and they could sell anything and everything for wealth, even their souls.

Abyssal beasts were incredibly rare creatures. Their presence in space could be observed once in a blue moon at most. And their presence on a planet delivered many implications— implications that they were about to become crazy rich or die trying.

He could not let the boy die now. He had to squeeze out as much information as possible for the greatest value and he needed to be decisive about it.

The pirates were hesitant inwardly but outwardly, they immediately jumped into action the moment they received the order from their captain. Omid had always been very strict when it came to rules and the enforcement of said rules and they knew very well that those who broke or even thought of breaking his orders didn’t have a good ending in general.

Some of them entered the spacecraft and activated the canons to start aiming at the beast while others took out swords and guns from their armors, rushing toward the beast at supersonic speeds.

Swords may seem like outdated weapons at first glance but they were in fact very important when it came to facing the abyssal beasts and other beasts of similar nature.

After all, their defense was very hard to break with modern energy weapons. The swords they were holding were of good craftsmanship as they were weapons stolen from a cargo destined for the Imperial Soldiers fighting at the very borders of space, guarding the Milky Way.

This attack was one of the reasons why the bounty of their group climbed abnormally high despite their relatively low rank and individual general bounties.

The fight that broke out when they faced the abyssal beast, mirroring the image of a snake, was intense, to say the least.

The cannon shells could hardly penetrate the hardened scales of the snake and the swords, while efficient in combatting the beast, could not go deep enough as they neither had the power to fully activate those weapons nor the strength to push deeper in one go in the flesh of those gigantic monstrosities.

Furthermore, the snake was not a pushover. Being an abyssal beast already made it at the very top of the monster hierarchy. It was not letting itself simply get beaten passively. The snake was quite a bit powerful. Perhaps not enough to have fully mutated into a true abyssal beast but the physical body of this monster alone was enough for them to swear like sailors at having to face it.

They had to be careful in each and every single one of their steps. They needed to take measures to not get swallowed by it while facing the beast. This was not easy by any means as many of them were not used to fighting on slippery surfaces or any ground at all for that matter. Space battles were their usual flair and fighting in Mechas were the norm for the pirates in Omid’s crew.

Sadly, using Mechas in this atmosphere while under normal or high gravity was simply asking to be beaten by Mother Nature herself. It was also normal for them to not even touch the ground for months or even years while traveling through the endless sea of deep space.

Thankfully for them, they were still experienced fighters, and while one was put out of commission after making a mistake and getting his arm bitten off and then torn apart brutally by the abyssal monster snake, the others did not even hesitate to use him as bait to put an end to this fight once and for all; pushing through for a decisive final strike.

[Super Charge ready in 3… 2… 1]

“Wait!”

[… 0!]

Immediately, all but one of them moved away in complete synchronization and watched as the laser blast of one of the main ships tore apart the Snake from the head up to the middle of its body. The one who had been caught in its maws did not even have the chance to cry further as he was destroyed alongside the monster, leaving the other pirate who had been saved by him completely silent.

They did not gloat about the misfortune of the man who had died. They knew very well that this could have been any one of them here. This was the way of their crew, their creed. If the sacrifice of one was necessary to save the majority then that member had to be sacrificed for the greater cause. No questions asked.

The only reason this barbaric system did not create fissures in the crew was because their captain kept himself to the same standard as the others. More than just once… he even used himself as bait when he deemed it to be necessary to decisively maneuver through their circumstance.

If even the captain was not exempt then what ground did they have to complain? Even so, watching a companion die was never a pleasant feeling, much worse was having to put him up on the pedestal of a sacrifice.

Dark blood exploded like a fountain, slightly corroding all the armor it fell on. This was one of the properties of abyssal beasts. Their very blood was poisonous by nature. However, once processed properly, it could become an extremely effective tonic that would boost the metabolism and other innate abilities of the user.

“Shit! Why is there such a tough abyssal beast on this god-forsaken planet!? Fucking shit, fuck!!”

One of the pirates kicked the corpse devoid of life of the abyssal beast in frustration and agony. The one who died had been his friend and he nearly got devoured by the beast a few moments ago as well if not for being helped out of that situation by said friend. As if all of that shit wasn’t enough, the energy reserves of his armor were falling dangerously low in numbers and the cost of resupplying it was not something he could easily afford without going into some debt.

Unlike the few higher-ups of his crew, he was part of the vast majority of people who could not harness Dark Matter and subsequently Dark Matter Energy directly through their bodies and had to use special weapons and armor to channel and extract them from the surroundings.

Thanks to being part of the forty thieves, he had good equipment but the maintenance cost was no joke by any means. This was the way of management to keep them always thirsty for battle and riches but there was nothing he could do about it. It was his way of life, the way of life of all pirates in the Forty Thieves.

Watching the rain of blood fall on his body, he could already see the floating credits flying away from his coffers.

｢Did he have any family?｣

“A daughter and a few lovers that I know of. Not much else.”

｢Very well, the rule is the same. Everyone will pitch 2% of their revenue for the incoming mission and I will prepare the rewards for the family of the bereaved. Prepare his assets as well. If there is no family then the full reward will be given to the closest friend.｣

This was another reason why no one complained.

— Money.

Most pirates did not have any family to care about. So when one of them died, their friend had a high chance of receiving a small bonus.

As disgusting as it was, this rule made the pirates in Omid’s crew very friendly to each other. After all— you never knew when your friend could die and leave you a beautiful heritage to splurge.

In fact, sometimes it was hard to say whether one died by accident or because of said friend.

Once Omid brought back order in the crew wrought in chaos, he finally gazed at the true prize and the cause of all this fiasco.

“So, boy… Why don’t you tell me more about you?”

Omid had to admit— the fear that the young boy was showing him was completely to his taste. He loved that feeling of power as he watched people filled with terror bowing to him.

“Why don’t we start simply? What is your name?”

“My name is… Noah…”

“Noah, heh… I feel like we are going to share a wonderful adventure ahead.”

Noah gave a trembling smile as he nodded his head,

“I feel the same. Hahah…”

Omid had to say. It was only for an instant but— that laugh had given him a very unpleasant and sickening feeling. His instincts were firing some minor alarms but it was nothing special.

He dismissed this feeling. It seemed like he had been too high-strung lately.

Now, it was time to question this new guest of theirs.

He needed to suck him dry of every bit of value he would be able to provide them.

He needed to cover their losses after all.