Chapter 166 166 Another Assassination Attempt

Kaiden growled when he saw the message from his sister telling him that she was not going to be getting off the Dauntless for a while.

They had just landed on the Alliance Police base on Azade, and like the others of the team he had joined, Kaiden had left his vessel.

He had been expecting to be able to meet up with his sister, but she was busy doing something. Something she would not elaborate on when Kaiden asked her about it.

'I should have just stayed on my own ship.'

There was a permanent scowl plastered on Kaiden's face as he was forced to mingle with everyone else.

As always, Ezra started to take charge since Avery was not around.

When Kaiden tried to slip away, he pulled him back into the group and told him that this was a good chance to build camaraderie with their newest members.

Kaiden had to hold back the desire to spit at this notion. He had no intention of making friends here.

They simply worked together, and while he did respect everyone's skills, that did not mean that he cared about being friendly with them.

Still, he ground his teeth and held his tongue as he was dragged along.

He had enough tact to know that being too prickly here would ruin the group dynamic.

For the first time in years, his sister was finally happy again. He did not want to be the cause of a problem that would only upset her.

Since they had left their home behind, Kasandra had been even more icy than Kaiden was. Other than necessary interactions for their work, she avoided contact with anyone other than Kaiden.

Yet, after Avery had saved his sister, her frozen heart had started to thaw. Now Kaiden could see the cheerful little girl he remembered from what seemed like so long ago remerging.

Fortunately, Kaiden did not have too many gripes about the current situation.

Acting buddy, buddy was not really his thing, but he was slowly getting closer to his own goal.

He had expected to be the leader of his own mercenary group at some point, though he realized now that he lacked the charisma to get people to follow him.

Nevertheless, considering Avery's personality, he was certain that the man his sister loved would come to their aid when the time was right.

As they were walking to the case's mess hall, with Lieutenant Laletta and some of her subordinates accompanying them as guards, Grito approached Kaiden.

"Since we've got some time, I figured I'd give you an update on the thing you asked me to make for you."

Kaiden looked down at Grito and nodded his head. Indicating for the group's new engineer to continue.

"I've finished the design and built a shell for it already, but I'll need to get some more parts and a specialized sound amplifier. Everything I need should be able to be obtained in this system. Sadly, I don't think I'm going to have the time to work on it for a while. I'd recommend that you gather these items yourself." Grito said.

Kaiden then received a message on his terminal. A list of what Grito needed to finish the device Kaiden wanted made.

Since this was a personal project, Kaiden was already paying Grito with his own funds. So, paying for a few things would be easy enough. He certainly had plenty of Krenin coming in since joining Avery.

"I'm just wondering why you want something like this? You're not going to be able to use it without harming yourself."

"Let's just say it's some insurance for the future." Kaiden responded curtly without offering up any other details.

Not long after his short conversation with Grito, their group arrived at the mess hall.

It was after the usual lunch time, so the place was pretty deserted.

The menu was surprisingly extensive, and many items on offer were local products from Azade.

There were unfamiliar fruits, vegetables, and meats that could be ordered, though the prices were quite high.

Kaiden could not help but be drawn to a dish that's main ingredient was fish. It might have been a bit of a stereotype for his race, but he could not help that he really liked the taste of fish.

It was typically a bit difficult to get a hold of fresh fish out in space, but on a large planet with several oceans, there were so many options that Kaiden was almost overwhelmed.

Once everyone had gotten their food, their large group sat down and began eating.

As for Kaiden, he sat at the edge of the table and only interacted with Grito who was next to him.

Ever since he had acted as a babysitter while they had been on Avery's ship, Grito had been keeping close to Kaiden.

Fortunately, he found the young Baccigan to not be particularly annoying. He was not trying to be overly friendly and only brought up topics both of them liked.

However, the day just kept getting worse from Kaiden's perspective.

First, his sister was not going to be meeting up with them anytime soon since she was going with Avery and Jasmine to explore the base.

Second, a group of Alliance Police officers from the base came by with an order for them to go somewhere and meet someone important.

Kaiden really did not listen to the details, but he found this group of Alliance Police to be unpleasant.

They acted haughty and overly important. Even to the members of Commander Berk's squad that were currently under the guise of shore leave to keep watch over Grito.

"Fine. We will come and meet with your captain." Lieutenant Laletta eventually said.

She was clearly unhappy with the rudeness of her fellow officers, but she could hardly refuse when the orders came from someone above her rank. They were guests here so it would be a problem to upset the members of the base.

Of course, no one from Avery's team was inclined to go. They were not members of the Alliance Police and had no reason to follow the orders of some captain they did not know.

'It's odd that they're trying to meet with us right now anyway. We just arrived and Berk should be dealing with internal matters right now. Plus, our leader is not with us, yet they don't seem to care about that. Normally someone important would want to see Avery rather than any of us.' Kaiden thought, finding this situation to be suspect.

Still, seeing as how they would be staying on this base, none of them wanted to strain their relationship with the officers.

A bit reluctantly, Ezra organized their team together and all of them followed after the officers escorting them.

'Why the hell is their captain all the way out here?'

As they walked deeper into the base, Kaiden kept an eye on their map.

Right now, they were amongst a bunch of buildings being used as storage for spare equipment.

Certainly, there was a small office building a bit farther beyond this area, but that hardly seemed like a place that a captain would be. It was too far from the center of the base.

Right as Kaiden was starting to get suspicious, it happened.

One of the walls of the storage building they were passing by suddenly exploded.

From out of it, a giant spiderlike robot emerged.

Needless to say, everyone was caught off guard by this development.

This was an Alliance police base on a secure planet. Things like this were not supposed to happen.

For a moment, the robot remained still as it scanned the group in front of it.

However, the instant it identified its target, the mechanical monster leapt forward with incredible agility.

Time appeared to slow for Kaiden as all of this happened.

Without a doubt, he could tell that this robot was after Grito. The trajectory of its leap and the way it had stopped on the Grito while scanning the group was a dead giveaway.

Pushing his body to its limit, Kaiden picked up Grito who was standing next to him with a dumbstruck look on his face and tossed him towards Ezra.

Before he could even see the results of his actions, Kaiden had to twist his body to avoid being crushed by the spiderlike robot about to land on him.

Just barely was he able to avoid being smashed into a grease spot on the side of the walkway.

Unfortunately, he had not gotten away unscathed.

The robot's eight legs were all tipped with extremely sharp blades, and it had taken a swipe at him as he dodged out of the way.

His personal shield generator had lighted the blow, but a gash still ran up his left leg and had blood pouring out of it.

To fight back, Kaiden's right hand instinctively went towards his belt. Except there was nothing there right now. His weapon was still on his ship.

He, along with everyone on Avery's team, had been asked not to carry their weapons around the base. There was supposed to be no need for them to fight in the middle of an Alliance Police base. This should have been one of the safest places on the planet. How laughable that seemed now.

Less than three hours after their arrival, they were already under attack again. The security of the Alliance Police had easily been breached.

'Screw trying to maintain a cordial relationship. I wish I had my gun.' Kaiden thought as he faced down the four-meter-tall monstrosity before him.