[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 329: Booty

Ves half-expected some kind of surprise to spring in front of his face. Maybe a fleet of pirates would transition out of FTL nearby, or maybe the Vesians wanted to go for a second round.

Only until the entire fleet flew beyond the edge of the Glowing Zone and transitioned into FTL did he relax.

"It's really over now."

The motley Republican fleet had split up into smaller detachments that each flew in a different direction.

Most of the ships of the Mech Corps navigated towards Bentheim, including all of their transports that had been stuffed with high-value ores.

The Happy Jelly received the same navigational data and jumped with the diminished fleet along with many of the other outfits that chose to join in. Right now, none of them looked to be in a shape to fight.

Everyone was bone-tired and they used up too much of their mechs and supplies to defend their own valuable cargo.

After half a day of travel, Ves finally left the engineering bay and sought out Walter. He found him on the bridge, wearing a pensive face.

"Hi, Walter."

"Larkinson. What are you here for?"

"I wanted to ask how we are dealing with the cargo. We made it out with a lot of exotics."

Before they went on this expedition, Ves had negotiated a ten percent cut on the earnings. Naturally, as he offered his services as an individual, the money would flow in his personal accounts instead of his company accounts.

Walter nodded in response. "I just got off the line with the Mech Corps. They want me to sell my haul to them once we reach Bentheim."

"What kind of prices are they offering?"

"I had someone check the market prices. They're lower than the official prices and the black market prices. We'll be forced to sell the goods at a thirty percent discount if we take this deal."

Ves frowned at that. "That sounds scummy. What are they offering in return?"

"Nothing. Well, there's one thing. We can get rid of our hot potatoes. Don't forget that everyone already knows we've made it off with billions of credits worth of exotics. What do you think will happen if we want to wait for a better price and store it in some kind of warehouse in Bentheim or Cloudy Curtain? A whole bunch of untraceable mechs will descend on it and steal all our hard-earned valuables away!"

Too much wealth wasn't always a good thing if you didn't have the strength to protect your assets. With how prolific the campaign had been, a large number of vultures must have already gathered in and around Bentheim.

Any outfit that showed any carelessness would instantly be robbed of their possessions.

Walter's Whalers had never been anything more than a gang that ruled over a single rural planet. They lost a large portion of their men and mechs so their strength was at an all-time low just when they made it off with an enormous harvest.

Such a combination easily bred disaster.

"Isn't there any other party who will offer a better price for our goods?"

"They all shut me down when I called." Walter admitted with furrowed brows. "Even the black market is refusing to listen to my offers."

There was only one reason why no one else dared to engage in the trade. They'd been warned off by the Mech Corps.

Ves understood what went on as he listened to Walter. "The exotics we've harvested from the Glowing Planet are strategic materials. Even if the Mech Corps won't incorporate them into their own mechs, they can still make a handsome profit by selling them to the Friday Coalition or some cross-star sector trading company."