After the hostages and pirates' leaders had been secured, Avery broke his combined forces up into smaller squads and sent them out to crush the rest of the remaining pirates.

Since the base had multiple levels and there were dozens of places where the pirates had barricaded themselves in, the cleanup took over a day, but eventually nearly the entire base was under Avery's team's control.

"You doing okay. That's quite the scowl you're wearing."

Seeing Avery working at one of the bases' consoles with a large stack of data drives next to him, Kasandra approached him to offer her help now that she was finished with her own assignment.

From one look at him however, she could tell that what he had found was likely disconcerting.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. There's just a lot of disturbing stuff that these pirates had. But what I was really looking for was how they managed to get this big. And I think I've found the answer." Avery said, showing Kasandra the documents he had open.

When she started reading them, she frowned herself. This information meant that it was going to be more difficult to wrap this situation up than expected.

They were currently in a sparsely populated system relatively close to the edge of the Dramid Alliance. This meant that there was not an abundance of resources for policing the area.

Still, there were apparently thirty-six Alliance Police vessels currently in use to monitor and protect the entire system.

It had seemed strange that with a pirate group as large as the one that Avery's team had fought had not received more attention.

Even if the Alliance Police forces here were concerned that they were lacking in manpower, they could have sent in a request for additional ships to eliminate the pirates, and given a lucrative request to the Mercenary Association that was sure to draw people in.

"So, the police here were colluding with the pirates. That's pretty rare, but I guess it happens sometimes." Kasandra said once she had finished reading what Avery had shown her.

The commander in charge of this system had been taking bribes from the pirates, and most of his top subordinates were in on it as well.

Fortunately, in case they ever needed to use it as blackmail, the pirates had saved detailed records and prepared evidence of the misdeeds of their partners in the Alliance Police.

"I won't say that they're incredibly smart since we beat them without a single casualty, but these pirates had some cunning ideas. To make it look good for the Alliance Police, they would send out some of their people and ships as sacrifices. Then pull back on their operations for a little while before resurging again. Still, it looks like they lost their edge since they got to comfortable here."

For the number of pirates they had taken down, the fighting had not been particularly difficult. They had gotten fat and happy from the easy prey and lack of pressure from the Alliance Police.

This had no doubt lowered their skills and dulled the ferocious and wild nature that a lot of pirates had.

None of them had tried any kamikaze attacks like the pirates Avery first fought with after obtaining the Dauntless, and more had surrendered than expected.

"So, what are we going to do with all of this? Obviously, we can't bring it to the commander in charge of the Alliance Police here. She'll try to cover everything up and might even aim to kill us to keep us silent." Kasandra said, her expression filled with concern.

"I've already been thinking about that, and I think that out best bet is to send out a call for help. Fortunately, we just made a pretty valuable connection in the capital system. Considering her personality, I bet we can expect a pretty spectacular response when she finds out about one of her peers working with pirates."

Of course, while Avery figured that Cerise would provide the most immediate response since she was the closest contact they knew from their current location, he was not going to only count on this single method.

He also crafted messages to other upper ranking Alliance Police officers he had made connections with and felt were trustworthy.

"What are you two working on?"

While Avery and Kasandra were preparing their countermeasures against the corrupt police commander, Jasmine came in after having just woken up from a nap.

They were currently working in shifts due to the sheer volume of work needed to go through all of the pirates' data and move their valuables over to the rented cargo vessel, and Jasmine had come to relieve Avery so that he could get some rest.

"Ah, good timing Jasmine. You just reminded me that we can call on your mother for support as well. I'll catch you up on what we're doing and then go sleep. Though I don't think you're going to like what's going on." Avery said, beckoning her over.

Naturally, Jasmine was irate when she found out what the Alliance Police in this system were doing.

Having been someone that had once joined the organization to uphold the ideals of justice, seeing such blatant criminal activity from those meant to uphold the law truly enraged her.

"I can't believe they thought that they could get away with this. Don't worry, I'll use every contact I have to see those involved in this matter brought to justice."

Fired up, Jasmine began cataloging the evidence in the same format that the Alliance Police would so that it would be more concise and easier for those they were contacting to present it.

"Okay, I'll leave this to you two and go and get some sle-"

Before Avery could finish his sentence, he received a priority message from Liesel and Olivia.

Both of them had been assigned to break into the most secure part of the base where the pirates were stored their most valuable and illegal goods.

"Looks like the secure storage has been opened up. I guess I'll go attend to that first." Avery said with a tired sigh.

Nevertheless, he was excited to see what the pirates were keeping so closely guarded.

Even the records that they had found only had coded lists that did not reveal the actual details of what was inside. And unfortunately, all of the top pirates that they had captured were still in a daze from potent drug they had inhaled and could not be interrogated. Though it was unlikely that they would have divulged their secrets easily anyway.

When he arrived, he found that the team led by Olivia had just finished wiping out the security drones meant to protect the storage.

"No one got hurt I assume." Avery said as he approached.

Hearing his voice, Olivia quickly turned around to address him.

"Nope, not a single injury. There were just forty, older type five security bots. Nothing we couldn't handle with ease." Olivia replied with a satisfied smile.

There were scattered remains of the meter tall quadrupedal robots that had a pair of laser emitters equipped to their main bodies.

They were not particularly strong, but they were fast and agile.

No doubt their purpose had been to eliminate any traitorous pirates trying to steal from the secure storage or snooping clientele that had gone somewhere they shouldn't have.

Against a fully geared and well-trained team of mercenaries though, these security robots had not been able to put up much of a fight.

"Now, let's see what they were hiding in here."

Avery took the lead, his laser rifle at the ready just in case there were other security measures waiting for them.

Fortunately, it seemed that everything was clear now, and they were able to collect the most valuable items that pirates had gotten their hands on.

The first thing that they found was what had once been a large shipment of high-quality autochefs. Almost certainly these had been stolen from the merchants that had been delivering them to their destination.

Each one would have been sold for about forty-five thousand Krenin on average and there were over five hundred units.

Yet, these valuable appliances were only the first items to be found at the front of the storage. Meaning that they were probably the least valuable merchandise here.

As the search continued, Avery's team found high-end mining equipment, automatic base constructors for planetary exploration, a few smaller personal vehicles, and all manner of luxury goods.

Everything in here was worth tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Krenin when sold normally through legal retailers.

'Pirates wouldn't be able to get the full value for any of this stuff, but they've probably made deals with certain traders to receive other goods they want in exchange.' Avery thought as he closed a crate he had just finished inspecting.

He was now closer to the far end of the storage area, and a door in the distance caught his eye.

It seemed that the pirates had sealed something else away even more securely.

Except, what was found inside after disabling the internal security and cutting through the door was not more luxury goods or valuable electronics. No, it was something much more disturbing.

There were people sealed in suspended animation. More individuals that had been abducted by these pirates.

But the ones here were nothing like those that Avery's team had already rescued.

Those people had been more recently captured, while the ones here had already been processed to the tastes of the pirates' clients.

What was on display was sickening to say the least, and truthfully, Avery wished that he could erase what he was witnessing from his mind.

Most people knew about or at least were vaguely aware of what priates would do to others for their own profits. But seeing it in person was another matter entirely.

It almost had Avery ordering that every pirate that they had captured be executed on the spot in a fit of righteous fury. That was how appalling what had been done to those trapped here was.