Chapter 116 Two Avenues of Investigation

After discussing it amongst themselves, Avery’s group eventually decided to leave interrogating their prisoner to Kaiden, while the rest of them would follow Grito to where he had been held in the colony’s warehouse district.

’I don’t think my power armor will be all that useful for this mission. Plus, it definitely needs to be repaired before I use it again. I put far too much pressure on it this time.’ Avery thought while collecting his gear.

Certainly, his Sterkur MK VIII was strong, but it was completely lacking subtlety. In the best-case scenario, they would sneak into the facility and retrieve the information they were after without being noticed.

"You’re sure you remember the way?" Avery asked Grito as they exited the Dauntless.

"Yes, Baccigan’s have impeccable memory, and to escape, my mind was racing and fully focused. So long as we return to the street where you helped me, I can easily retrace the path."

Grito was undoubtably confident, and now that they were finally getting around to going after his uncle, he was practically buzzing with anticipation. He had been through a lot, but now there was finally a bit of hope that things would turn around.

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As their group moved down the streets of the colony, the devastation left in the wake of the terrorist attacks made itself abundantly clear.


Hundreds of emergency vehicles could be seen flying around, several roads were closed off, and large construction equipment was already getting to work clearing away the rubble.

Since the founding of this colony, there had never been a disaster anywhere close to this one, and it would likely later be listed as one of the worst attacks on a colony in the history of the Dramid Alliance outside of war time.

With a heavy police presence outside and several routes cut off, it proved time consuming for Avery and his team to reach their first destination.

Multiple times it had been necessary to take long detours around zones of destruction, and towards the end, they had been forced to sneak through a restricted area to get where they wanted to be.

Nevertheless, they made it to the now deserted street where Avery and his group had saved Grito from the two fake Alliance Police officers.

"It should be this way." Girto said, leading them into the warehouse district.

The five of them moved cautiously despite the fact that no one seemed to be around.

While the area had particularly low foot traffic as mostly drones gathered and delivered goods, the possibility of running into more people affiliated with those after Grito was not nonexistent.

"Stop, I can hear heartbeats ahead." Kasandra said as they neared the place Grito had been held prisoner.

Everyone came to a halt at her warning, and a moment later Kasandra pulled out what looked like a small metal sphere.

From her terminal she activated the tiny surveillance drone, and had it slowly roll around the corner so that she could have a visual on their target.

"Looks like there are just two of them."

Avery, Ezra, Jasmine, and Grito crowded around Kasandra and peered down at the display on her terminal. Outside of the warehouse were two guards equipped with laser rifles and body armor.

Normally, security in this area was left up to drones, but sometimes people had things stored away that they absolutely wanted some personnel around to protect. In this case though, it was not any sort of goods, but actually a secret base set up to detain Grito.

"Was the entrance guarded when you escaped from here?" Avery asked.

"I don’t know, but probably. I crawled through an airduct to get out."

Taking a good look at how small Grito was compared to him or most of the other species resigning within the Alliance, Avery could see a Baccigan being able to do something like that.

However, that would hardly be a viable method for the rest of them. Especially Ezra, considering he was well over two meters tall and extremely broad with bulging muscles.

If Avery was comfortable sending Grito in alone, it would be easily enough for their small client to slip back through the way he came out before, but that would be far too risky.

Should something happened to Grito inside, Avery and his team would either have to abandon him or break into the place by force. Neither of which were particularly appealing prospects.

Yet, even as Kasandra scanned the entire outside with her small surveillance drone, no other way in was found. It was the guarded front door or an air vent.

"If we take them down quickly and silently, we might be able to get in withou-"

"Avery, I have a suggestion." Kasandra suddenly said, interrupting him.

Turning towards her, Avery saw the confident gleam in her eyes and nodded his head for her to continue.

"I believe I can fit through the vent as well. Being a Felis Therianthrope, my body is far more flexible than a human’s. I should be able to crawl through the largest vent without too much trouble. Also with my heightened hearing, I can help Grito avoid anyone on the inside and we can collect the information that we’re after. You can trust me to do this."

Seeing how determined she was, Avery wanted to give his permission, but a part of him was still skeptical.

Kasandra had two very noticeable features that protruding out of her chest. While the rest of her body might not be a problem, Avery was worried that her breasts might be a tad too large to fit.

Naturally, Kasandra noticed where his gaze was going. Had anyone else been looking at her like that, she would have glared at and hit them.

"I know that we’re young, but I don’t really think now is a good time to do something like that. Maybe once we finish up with his job though." Kasandra said teasingly.

Hearing this caused Avery’s cheeks to grow red, and for some reason, Jasmine stepped into view and stood next to Kasandra while holding her arms under her own chest to emphasize her bust. As if she had suddenly felt competitive.

"You are a lucky man indeed." Ezra said, a smirk on his face.

For some reason Avery’s team had decided to poke fun at him in this moment.

Nevertheless, despite how embarrassed he was feeling, he just went along with it. This was obviously a means to bring some levity to the situation after all they had been through today.

"Okay, I’ll believe in you. Escort Grito inside and find out where his uncle is being kept. But at the first sign of trouble, call us for backup and get out of there."

With their plan set, Kasandra and Grito stealthy moved towards the vent on the far side of the building away from the two guards posted out front.

This left Avery, Ezra, and Jasmine waiting on standby, but sometimes only the right people for a job could be involved.

"I’m surprised that you were able to climb down from up there." Kasandra whispered when they reached the backside of the warehouse.

The air vent Grito had escaped from was over five meters up the wall. For most people that was already quite high, but for a Baccigan it would seem like an even greater distance. A fall from there likely would have killed Grito.

"Well, it just so happens that our species happens to be exceptionally good climbers. Most don’t know this though, since with technological advancements, there is hardly a need for us to be scaling things anymore like our ancestors of old did on our home world."

With his six arms, Grito grabbed onto the wall and started climbing up it as if gravity had no hold on him. Similar to certain lizards, his fingers had cling pads that allowed him to affix to most surfaces.

Once Grito had opened the vent and entered inside of it, Kasandra followed after him.

Unlike her little companion, she did not climb up the wall but instead bent down low and used her legs like springs to jump.

Thanks to her enhanced physique and the natural agility of her species, she was able to clear the five-meter jump with ease.

As she reached the full height of her leap, she grabbed the edge of the open vent and pulled herself inside.

Immediately she felt how tight it was, but forcing her joints to compress to the absolute limit, she was able to wedge herself inside and slowly crawl through it like a worm.

’I know I told Avery it wouldn’t be a problem, but this really is uncomfortable.’ Kasandra thought, feeling her chest being forcefully compressed against her body.

Thankfully it was not to the point of being unbearable and she continued to crawl through the vent.

Eventually she caught up with Grito, who had stopped and was messing with some wires he had pulled out of a panel. Unlike Kasandra, he was hardly cramped in this confined space and was able to move about with hardly any restriction.

"There we go. I’ve managed to get into the building’s security network and looped the cameras to continue playing old footage. I’ve also deactivated a few alarms. Thankfully there weren’t any in here."

Of course, since Grito had escaped this place before, he was already intimate with its security measures. This second time around, with some proper tools he had received from Kaiden’s ship, it was shockingly easy for him to disable core systems of the facility meant to keep it safe.