Patching Amber Up

I had to take a moment to catch my breath before the groan from Amber reminded me that she was not in perfect shape.

"Amber! Are you alright?!" I cried out, going to her side quickly.

"Nnghh… I'll live. Bastard just took me by surprise… Or else… Ughh… Fuck… That hurts like a bitch…"

"Ok, you definitely do not look alright. There must be a medical bay on this ship right? Let's get you fixed up there!"

For a large ship like this where the crew are expected to stay on board for long periods of time, it should make sense that there would be at least one medical facility on board.

Amber was just groaning while clutching her side in my arms so I doubt I could depend on her to point me to a direction right now.

I picked her up once more in a princess carry and tried to look for signs that would point me towards the infirmary.

Since I came from the back of the ship and didn't see any medical facilities or even signs pointing to one… It should be deeper inside the freighter right?

I started running to the other side of the loading bay, weaving through what's left of the interior after venting all that stuff out into space.

It seems like fate was on my side because I spotted a sign near the door and one of them had the words 'Medical Bay' with an arrow pointing upwards beside it.

I rushed through the door and out into a corridor before eventually finding the mentioned room easily enough.

It was just a simple white room with three beds in one corner and what I assume to be the doctor's desk on the other side with some cabinets behind it.

Right as I placed her on the bed, I stopped to realise that I was not a doctor. What the fuck was I supposed to do even after bringing her here?

It's not like they have healing items like in the game right? I can't just use some medpack and expect her health bar to recover!

Err… Ok… Calm down… I suppose the first thing I should do is to inspect the wound…

I took off her jacket and lifted her top to expose her side, revealing a rather large gash across her waist.

Ah, at least it wasn't a bullet wound because I most definitely don't have the skill to operate on her to extract a bullet out of her body.

I'm guessing that Voidshade guy only started shooting his minigun at her after she had found cover behind the container.

"How… How bad is it?" She asked.

"Well… You were telling the truth. It's not that serious but you certainly lost quite a bit of blood so hold still."

Alright, I can at least deal with this…

I went towards the cabinet behind the desk since that was where I guessed the medical supplies were. Sure enough, I found several bottles there and started rummaging through it to find something to clean the wound with.

It took me a while since I literally had to read every single label on those bottles to find a bottle of disinfectant before moving to get the rest of the materials I needed including some gauze and bandages.

Running back to Amber, I cleaned up the wound as best as I could and then started dressing it with the bandages.

I had to make her sit up for that but it seems like she still had enough strength to do that.

"There… That should do it. Though I would still ask you to visit a doctor once we get back to the station."

Amber turned to face me, "You… Did not leave me behind…"

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Did you want me to?"

"Not really… But I would think that any other Merc… In your position would have done exactly that… Nnghh… Who would even try to… Fight a power armour on their own?"

I shrugged, "I dunno, someone crazy I guess?"

She giggled but groaned from the pain of doing so almost immediately.

"Ouch… Hehe… Tera, you are a treasure, do you know that?"

I grinned at her, "Feel free to worship me, I don't mind."

"Ha… Haha… You saved my life… You came back for me… You know what? I think I just might do that…"

"Even with a wound like that, you can still make jokes huh. I think it's a little late to ask this but is the ship clear? I found two more guys on the way to you so do you think there's more hiding around the ship?"

Amber winced as she reached her hand towards her jacket and pulled out a small device that she activated.

"The freighter has an inbuilt… Life signs scanning system… They sometimes transport live animals so they use that to… Ugh… Track them in case of a breakout…"

The device then showed a two dimensional map of the ship and two dots appeared and started blinking on the screen. One of them must be Amber while the other must be me.

"Looks like we cleared out the ship," I concluded, prompting Amber to deactivate the device and let out a sigh.

"Seems like it… That means we did it… Yay…"

I chuckled, "So do we report in or what?"

"Yeah… I just sent the client a message that their ship is ready for pickup… They should be sending someone to retrieve it…"

"Do we need to stay here then?"

"Unn… Until they come, yeah… Shouldn't need more than a day or two…"

I looked at her, "You definitely don't look like you're in any shape to fly your ship that's for sure."

"Just let me rest for a day… And I'll be ok. Don't you worry your tits about it… Hehehe…"

Well, the fact that she still had her sense of humour was a good sign I suppose.

"Do you want to rest here or should I carry you back to the ship?"

She looked at me, "Oh~ Are you going to carry me again? I certainly wouldn't mind… Being carried back to your ship~"

I rolled my eyes, "I meant back to yours."

She pouted, "But I'm an injured lady… Shouldn't I rest in a comfortable bed? And you know… I think I need to be nursed too…"

"Hmm… Since you can talk that much, I suppose you're well enough to go back to the ship on your own right? In that case, I'll just wait for you back on the ship~"

I was expecting her to bite back with another remark when she suddenly grabbed my shirt and pulled me into her embrace.

She hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear, "I am truly… Truly thankful, Tera… I… I owe you my life… Thank you. Please… Please don't leave…"

Ah, so she's actually just embarrassed?

No… Her hands are actually trembling…

I see… She was actually quite frightened and thought she was actually going to die during the encounter with Voidshade.

I hugged her back and patted her head, "There, there. It's ok now, you don't need to worry anymore. I'm not going to abandon you, ok?"

A soft sob escaped from her lips and she held me even tighter.

"You… You only know me for a while… How… Why are you willing to do all that for me?"

"Hey, hey… You guided me around the city and even taught me the basics of being a Merc when you didn't have to as well. Besides, you made me your partner right? I'm not going to just abandon you after that."

"Thank you… Thank you…"

I continued to console her while she sobbed quietly into my shoulder.

I guess despite her appearance, she still has a vulnerable side huh?

She did tell me about her past partnerships which I assume played a part in this, but well… I certainly wouldn't abandon her after she had placed her trust in me.

I stayed with her until she fell asleep, the exhaustion must have caught up with her and she drifted off to dreamworld.

Since there weren't any other gang members on board, I suppose that it was safe for us to spend the night on the freighter instead of the ship so I left her there.

Now, I have something else important to do…

It's time to start looting those bodies!

There were so many gang members that Amber defeated on the way here! Though it was a shame that I couldn't loot that power armour from that Voidshade guy, I could still loot everyone else that was on the freighter!

Actually… I could also fly out on my ship later and pick apart the wreckage of his ship to see if there is anything valuable there too.

Maybe I'll get lucky and find his corpse floating in space and loot that too!

I was thinking of also looting the containers that had been vented out into space but something tells me the client wouldn't be happy to hear that I helped myself to the things they were transporting on the freighter.

I'm already hoping that they don't mind that I sent half of their things in the loading bay out into space so let's just not push my luck.

I guess I'll just be satisfied with the loot from the gang members instead.

Now… Let's start the looting!