Despite how sickening it was being in this room, Avery only faltered for a few seconds before pushing down his emotions and getting to work.

There were computer systems in this room isolated from the rest of the base that undoubtably held the information on the people here and the depraved individuals that had hired the pirates to do unspeakable things to them.

"They've got better security on these. I don't think I can get in with the devices I have on hand." Liesel said, her face pale as she worked.

"Okay, then we'll move them to Olivia's ship and have Grito look at them instead. I don't want to stay here any longer anyway."

Being in such a ghastly place was visibly affecting everyone here.

They were surrounded by people in statis pods that had undergone horrific procedures at the behest of those so immoral that the word monster did not even seem enough to describe them.

'I hope we can at least fix the physical alterations. But there's no telling what sort of state their minds will be in.' Avery thought as he exited the room and glanced at a young boy that was only thirteen years old sitting in the first pod.

He had had all of his joints removed and in their places were devices that would shoot out metal threads towards the ceiling and turn him into what was essentially a human marionette.

It infuriated Avery just thinking about what sort of twisted personality someone out there had that allowed them to enjoy doing something like this to a child. And the worst part was, this was one of the least horrifying bodily modifications inflicted on the people in this room.

"This is your first time raiding a pirate's base like this, I'm assuming." Olivia said, as she placed a comforting hand on Avery's shoulder.

As she touched him, he felt how wound up he was

He had been tensing his muscles to try and control his anger, and his clenched fingers had left indents in his hostile environment suit.

"Yeah. I've fought pirates out in space plenty of times, but I've never had the displeasure of infiltrating their hideouts. I knew that we might find things like this, but it's not easy to deal with."

"Well, take it from someone that's been doing this for a while. There are a lot of horrors out there in the galaxy. Some way worse than what we've seen today. But though you shouldn't stop feeling anything, don't let it eat away at you. If you want our group to continue making money by hunting pirates, there's going to be a lot more like what we just saw." Olivia said, her words conveying the experience she had in these matters.

Avery took a deep sigh as if to release some of the rage building up inside of him.

What Olivia had said to him helped him to sort out his thoughts and feelings.

He was the leader here and could not let his emotions start dictating his decisions.

'Olivia has been through her own hellish experience and is still moving forward. I can't let something like this shake me.' Avery thought, not letting go of his anger and disgust toward what these pirates had done, but turning his focus towards what they needed to do next rather than dwelling on what had already been done.

After giving out a few more orders and being remined by both Kasandra and Jasmine that he needed to take a break since he had already been up for nearly thirty hours, Avery headed back to the Dauntless.

The first thing he did was take a long, hot shower to relax himself, and the moment that he set his head down on his pillow, he began to drift off to sleep. More from the mental exhaustion he felt rather than being physically tired.

Unfortunately, his rest was short lived.

Only around three hours later did he receive a priority alert on his terminal from Ezra.

Now that they had near full control over the pirates' main base, he had gone out on patrol with a squad of other members of Avery's team.

There was no telling if there might be other pirates lurking around waiting for them to drop their guard, or perhaps the ones that had fled might come back to take advantage of the situation if they believed the mercenaries that had attacked them had dropped their guard after winning.

However, what Ezra had found instead was far more disconcerting than some measly pirates.

At the edge of the asteroid field the pirate base was located in, thirteen Alliance Police vessels had gathered and were patrolling the perimeter.

Normally, this would not have been much of an issue and would have actually saved Avery some trouble since he could have easily handed over the pirates to them.

Except, the police that were skulking around happened to be the commander and the captains under her that had been colluding with these pirates.

"Damn it. I was hoping that they wouldn't be so proactive." Avery grumbled as he forced himself up.

His team had been attacking the pirates for several days now and periodically heading to the stations in this system to sell off their loot whenever their cargo holds filled up.

No doubt that the Alliance Police in the area had known what they were doing for a while now.

'The commander in charge of this system had probably been hoping we would either leave before taking the main base or get destroyed doing so. Since we won though, they can't risk information about their dirty dealings getting out.'

Avery was almost certain that the Alliance Police commander and her lackies were here to kill all of them and destroy any records of their wrongdoings.

Thankfully, the asteroid field was keeping them at bay for now.

The group of Alliance Police ships were composed of one heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, five destroyers, three frigates, and only two corvettes.

Only the corvettes were small enough to maneuver easily through the asteroids, while the frigates could likely do so with only some difficulty.

As for the others, the destroyers might just barely be able to get through if they moved very slowly and carefully, but the cruisers had no shot of doing so without blasting a path through the asteroids for themselves.

When Avery reached Olivia's corvette, eh was brought onboard and led to the meeting room.

There he found the other leaders of his team other than Ezra already waiting to discuss their response.

"First, Kasandra, Jasmine, were the two of you able to get the messages sent off to our allies?" Avery asked.

"Yes, transmitted the details and evidence to our contacts in the Alliance Police." Kasandra said with an assured nod.

"And I got one off to my mother. I'm sure she'll use her influence to make sure that the appropriate action is taken. But the criminals that have encircled us are intercepting any other transmissions in or out. We aren't going to be able to receive a response or send anything else."

It was inconvenient that they were blocked off from further communications, but Avery was relieved that the initial messages had gotten through. Otherwise, the only way out would have been to fight.

"Fortunately, due to the size of their ships, our enemies can't reach us easily where we are. I'm guessing that their plan is to claim we're pirates and ambush us when we try to leave to sell our loot and claim bounties we collected. So for now, we'll just hole up here until they make a move, or our reinforcements arrive." Avery said, believing this to be their best course of action.

They had already nearly reached their limit on carrying cargo, but trying to leave now would put them at a disadvantage.

Their opponents this time were not pirates with cobbled together ships and stolen transports and cargo vessels that had been outfitted with weapons.

The Alliance Police they were up against were in command of ships that were equipped with some of the best gear and weapons in the Dramid Alliance.

Fighting would certainly mean that Avery's team would incur losses, even if they did manage to win.

"What should we do in the meantime then?" Kaiden asked gruffly.

"We'll continue to dismantle the base and prepare everything of value for easy loading once this whole debacle is over with. We're going to be behind schedule because of this, so I don't want to wase anytime."

Avery's levelheaded response convinced most of his leadership, but the newest addition was not fully convinced.

"Why are you all so relaxed about this?! We have Alliance Police waiting around to kill us all! Shouldn't we try and prepare more for this? There's no telling what they might do. They're not making any moves for now, but that could change at any moment." Liesel said, panic in her voice.

"We're relaxed because worrying about it won't make much of a difference. Plus, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we trust Avery's decisions."

The others all nodded, and Liesel could see just how much faith everyone here had in Avery.

"Okay, fine. But what are we actually going to do if they try to attack us here before the people you all contacted can respond?"

"If that happens, we'll run away if we can. They only have thirteen ships which aren't enough to set up a proper blockade of the entire asteroid field. They'll be gaps we can exploit."

Liesel seemed to be satisfied with Avery's answer and didn't say anything else.

"Good, with all of that settled, stay alert and continue with your assignments. We'll keep working as if nothing is wrong until a problem presents itself." Avery said, bringing the meeting to a close.