Chapter 967: Other Bug Extermination Teams
I reached the Guild building which was surprisingly big and located along a rather busy street.
There were quite a lot of people as well which was definitely a surprise too, since I’d think most Mercs would just do their business through the GalaNet instead of in person at the Guild.
I guess something interesting must be happening here.
The doors slid open with a soft pneumatic hiss and Freyja followed me in, her tail wagging behind her cutely.
Stepping inside, I found myself in a rather large lobby with several counters and a bunch of seats arranged to face said counters with most of them occupied by Mercs.
A rather ragged looking staff member was standing by the door, her tired looking eyes looking up at me when I entered.
I could tell she was really exhausted because she didn’t even notice Freyja beside me.
"Welcome... Are you here to sign up to join the eradication team at Xetarva?" She asked.
I raised an eyebrow at her, "Eradication team? What eradication team?"
She straightened slightly, "Ah... Are you unaware? The military has placed an open hustle on clearing bug nests at the planet Xetarva. There’s a few Mercs that are banding together to tackle them right now. Are you also heading there?"
"Err... I mean... I guess I would like to know more information about it?" I decided, my curiosity winning over since I didn’t expect to hear about an expedition team being formed for the bug extermination.
She let out a soft sigh, "If you aren’t aware... The UTSN is currently conducting an operation to clear out the bugs on the surface of planet Xetarva. They’re paying a bounty of a billion Credits for each nest that is cleared on the planet and any Mercenary can join in the extermination."
"Is that why there’s so many people here?"
She nodded, "Yes. The bigger Mercenary groups are recruiting for more members right now. A bug nest is not something a single Mercenary group can handle on their own. So if you have intention of joining this hustle, I would suggest not to attempt it on your own."
I should keep the fact that my Mercenary group did just that...
I gestured towards the interior of the Guild, "I’ll just take a look around if you don’t mind?"
She nodded, "Please go ahead."
I stepped past her, entering the Guild proper as I went to take a look at how this hustle was being handled.
Since the seats were all positioned in such a way that they were facing the counters with their backs to the entrance, no one saw me enter the Guild yet.
It was clear that everyone here was waiting for an open spot at the counters and I narrowed my eyes at it, only to realise that there were holographic screens with names of what I assume were the Mercenary groups each counter represented that were recruiting.
The Mercs that took up the waiting area were quite a diverse cast with some looking like they just crawled out from a dump to Mercs who look like they belonged in a ballroom instead of here.
I guess this job was big enough to attract even people from the far ends of the system to come here and do this job.
Honestly, I wanted to ask the Guild staff more questions but she really looked like she was ready to collapse so I decided not to bother with her and look for someone else instead.
I decided that someone else to be one of the Mercs who was seated at the very edge of the waiting lobby and I approached him from behind.
"Hey?" I called out to him.
He looked up to see me before turning back towards the counters, "Whaddaya want?"
"I’m kind of new around here and I heard there’s this hustle to exterminate some bug nests?"
He scowled visibly, "Can’t ya ask the girl at da’ door fer’ dat’? Why’re ya asking me fer’?"
"I just thought Mercs would have a better idea about this, you know?"
He scoffed, "Ya’re a stupid one, eh? Take my ’dvice then. Go home. Yer’ not cut out fer’ dis’."
"Oh come on, it’s not like you are doing anything anyway, just tell me what’s going on."
The guy huffed and ignored me.
Fortunately, there was another guy that was seated beside him who spoke up instead, "You also a Merc, miss?"
I turned to him and smiled, "Yeah. That’s why I’m here, aren’t I?"
He didn’t bother looking at me and kept his eyes locked on the counters in front, "Like what you already heard, there’s a hustle to clear out some bug nests. According to what information we have available, each nest probably has about a few million or so bugs. They aren’t strong individually but they have the numbers which is a problem. So even prominent Mercenary groups who have fifty members aren’t willing to tackle this on their own."
The other guy that I spoke to first huffed, "Why’re ya even bothering? Yer’ just giving yerself more competition!"
The other guy huffed, "I’d rather be alive with more competition than dead with less competition. We’re only getting a cut of the earnings here and I don’t want to go there with less people only to get eaten by bugs."
"So... What’s the sign up process like here?" I asked, bringing the topic back on track.
He gestured to the counters, "Right now there’s a few Mercenary groups that are recruiting for more manpower to clear a nest each. You can go on the GalaNet and get a queue number under one of the Mercenary groups and they will call out the queue number when it’s your turn to have an interview with them."
"That simple?" I muttered, bringing up my Codex to bring up the GalaNet and search for the page.
Sure enough, when I connected to the local net, there was a page that was asking for Mercs to sign up and join the Bug Extermination with quite a number of different Mercenary groups recruiting for members.
Some had quite impressive names like "Azure Raiders", "The Brotherhood of Prisma", "Third Street Mercs" and "Watchers of Death".
There were a bunch of others as well but when I looked at the counters in front of me, I realised not all of the Mercenary groups on the page were present here.
As though reading my mind, the second guy spoke up, "There’s more counters upstairs. There’s a lot of competitors. But thankfully, there’s also apparently a lot of bug nests so there’s one for everyone and there’s no need for everyone to fight over it."
I decided that this was the point that I revealed myself, "Oh, I know. I’ve been there and cleared two bug nests already. Can’t believe there’s still so many, nasty stuff there."
There was a moment of silence before several heads turned in my direction, revealing that there were actually a number of other Mercs who had been listening in on our conversation.
The two guys nearest to me stared up at me, the first guy clearly in doubt over my words.
"Ya cleared a nest?" He asked.
I nodded, "Two actually."
He scoffed, "Yea, right. Who’re ya? Do ya think we’re dumb or sumthin’? Do ya expect us ta’ believe ya cleared a nest all by yerself?"
"I never said that I cleared it on my own though. I am the captain of the Teran Mercenary Company. We were involved with the initial landing of the planet and we accompanied the first wave to clear the first nest. We also just came back from clearing a second nest and we stopped by here for some rest and relaxation. That’s why I wasn’t aware there was such a thing happening here."
The second guy turned to me, his face lit up with excitement, "How big is your group? Are you planning to go back again?"
"My group is big enough and yes, we do intend to go back and maybe clear a few more nests after we’ve taken a break here."
"Are you looking for more people?!"
"Sadly no. My company works alone."
Someone else in front scoffed, "Oh come on, you guys really believe her? She’s just talking shit. She looks like she belongs to a brothel instead."
A growl came from my side as Freyja stepped out from behind me to bare her fangs at the person who just spoke.
Everyone froze up as they saw my cute doggo appear.
I patted her on the head, "It’s ok girl~ Sit."
She sat down obediently and started panting while looking up at me, her tail wagging cutely.
So cute.
Welp~ I guess I’ve had my fun with these guys so I should go and see if there’s any other jobs that are--
A large sized man that looked like he had been completely cybernetically enhanced walked up to me, his height towering over mine.
"Can we have a chat?" He asked.
Err... What does mister terminator want from me?