You Need A Good Boss To Counter Lousy Subordinates
As we had agreed to do, the first thing we did when we reached the station was to head to the guild and inform them of what we had found outside.
I thought that it would just be a simple thing of telling them about what we saw and that was it… But apparently it was not as easy as I thought it would be.
"Are you absolutely sure about this?" The guild receptionist asked.
Samson scowled at him, "Were the images and videos I showed you not sure enough? Do you want to go to the hangar and check the burn marks that were left by the pirates on my ship while I was running away from them?"
"With all due respect, sir… These may be doctored."
Amber leaned forward on the counter and scowled at the receptionist, "You think that we would fake a pirate sighting? For what?!"
"I don't know… Perhaps the both of you are actually spies for the pirates and you're stirring up trouble so that the station would be less defended if we were to believe there's a pirate fleet out there?"
Samson slammed the table, "Are you out of your bloody mind?! There's already proof right in front of you!"
"As I said, these could be faked."
Amber wrung her hands at him before looking around, "Can we get someone else over here please? We want to switch please!"
The receptionist frowned, "Even if you get someone else, they would be just as doubtful as I am about this. Who would believe that there's such a big pirate group just outside our station?"
"Are the kills recorded on our ship also not good enough to serve as proof?" Samson asked, clearly irritated by the receptionist.
"The records show that you only shot down a few of them, this can't prove anything."
"Watch the damn recording! You will see that it matches up with the kills!"
"As I have said before, this could have been edited."
"You son of a--"
I placed my hand on Samson's shoulder to calm him down while I addressed the receptionist.
"Could we see your manager or something?"
The receptionist tapped on his screen a few times and his lips curled into a frown before standing up, "Hold on a moment."
He then went towards the door at the back where he tapped a card against a scanner at the side of the door to open it before disappearing inside.
I turned and made a face at them, "Why is it so hard for him to believe us?"
Samson shrugged, "Beats me… I would understand if we came to him with no proof… But we have recordings of the pirate fleet and he refuses to even look at it… I was already afraid that there might be people who wouldn't believe me so I recorded the sighting down but I certainly wasn't expecting someone that stubborn."
"Don't tell me that he is the real spy for the pirates or something?" I suggested.
Amber frowned at the door that the receptionist had gone through, "I would like to say that he probably wasn't but… I think there's actually a small possibility that might be the case…"
"What should we do if they don't believe us?" I asked.
Samson grimaced, "If that's the case, we might need to go directly to find someone from the military and tell them about it… Hopefully they might trust us more than this guy does."
The door slid open again and angry shouting was heard coming from behind it which got everyone's attention.
"You blasted idiot!! Do you even realise how stupid you actually are?! Come over here!"
A rather tall woman with shoulder length hair and dressed in a suit was dragging out the same receptionist by the ear who was crying out in pain.
"Where are they?!" She asked.
The receptionist pointed towards us.
The woman then dragged him over to us before grabbing the back of the receptionist's head and slamming him down on the table to make him bow towards us.
"I am this idiot's supervisor and I sincerely apologise for his idiocy. He just transferred here from one of the inner colonies where having pirates are rare so he's not used to this place yet," The woman explained.
Amber rolled her eyes before leaning against the counter, "That would explain… Hey, idiot! This is the fucking Cietai System! If you head out and aren't attacked by pirates, you're either really lucky or your escorts are so big that they're afraid to attack you!"
"I… I sincerely apologise…"
The supervisor then pulled him up and pointed at the counter, "Do your fucking job properly this time!! You want to accuse them of giving you false evidence, at least show me proof of it! And it's not your job to decide whether it's fake or not! Do you even remember the procedures for this?!"
The receptionist moved to sit down at the counter only to get his ear pulled again by the woman.
"Did I tell you to sit?! Stay standing!!"
Damn, I'm feeling embarrassed for him.
The poor guy turned to us with a solemn face, "My apologies… Could you explain what happened again?"
Samson looked him in the eye, "Pirate fleet. Pirate battlecruiser. Pirate lord. Is that simple enough for you?"
"Ye… Yes… Umm… And the proof?"
Samson tapped on his personal terminal and spun it to show the recording that he got from his ship's external cameras where we were fighting to break free from the pirate fleet.
I didn't really think about it back then because I was so focused on getting us out of there but now that I see it… That's a lot of pirates huh?"
"I… I have received the report. The guild will take action in regards to this pirate sighting…"
The woman turned to us, "What this idiot means is that we will report this to the military and we will most likely verify this sighting within the day. If what you have reported is indeed true, we'll most likely be mobilising Mercs with the military to deal with this threat."
Amber frowned at that, "Was what we showed you still not enough? You do realise that we almost died just to bring this back to you guys, right?"
"And we definitely appreciate it. However, the military people might not think so and they would definitely want to verify this for themselves. Do not worry, they will not dismiss something like this lightly."
"And what if they can't find those pirates and say that we're lying? You do realise what kind of obstruction is out there, right?"
"Yes, we are aware of it. But I'm afraid they will not take action until they have confirmation themselves. And they could also argue that because of the fact that you found them, the pirates might have chosen to leave instead which would have made it pointless for us to chase them and jeopardise the station because of that."
I suppose that makes sense… We were basically asking them to leave this station defenceless to chase after those pirates after all. If it turns out that the pirates have already escaped and other pirates start attacking the station while we were gone, we would have not only mobilised the military for no reason but put everyone else in danger as well.
Samson waved his hand, "That's fine, as long as it's being investigated at least. In fact, it would be great if those pirates chose to go elsewhere instead so we don't need to fight them."
The supervisor inclined her head, "We thank you for your understanding. If the pirates are still around, we will definitely be posting an emergency mobilisation for the Mercs to combat this threat."
He nodded, "That's all we ask for."
"Please, it's what is expected of us. Don't worry, we will give all of you the suitable compensation for risking your lives in bringing back this news to us."
The receptionist also bowed his head as we turned to leave.
I suppose he wasn't just a stubborn idiot but just someone who wasn't used to the area yet. At least he looks redeemable and his supervisor has a good head on her shoulders.
Stepping outside the guild, I let out a sigh before turning to the other two, "At least that went well?"
Amber grinned, "As well as it could go I would say. But now we have something more important to do!"
"Grocery shopping?" I asked.
"That's right! Let's go, let's go!! I already can't wait, Tera!"
Samson grimaced, "Why do I feel like I would actually regret this?"
"Ahahaha! Too late! You already promised! But I can assure you that once you get a taste of Tera's food, you will definitely not regret it!"
"Hmm… Fine then… Let's go. The place is down this way."
You know, if you told me before I came here that I would be this excited to do grocery shopping I would have called you crazy… But here I am getting excited about going grocery shopping with them.
Let's get some good stuff for lunch today~