Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"After much deliberation, we have concluded that the main contract will go to Ravasz Dynamics."

Hearing the outcome was not surprising, but for the others that had still been hopeful that they might win, it certainly put a damper on their spirits.

'There goes my bonus.' Avery thought as he slumped back in his seat.

To keep him motivated, Storren Crop. had promised him an unspecified amount extra if he managed to win the competition.

He figured that they probably would have offered him a few million more Krenin or lowered the amount he owed them to finish building the carrier vessel he had ordered.

It was not the end of the world to lose out on this, but the effort he had put in didn't feel quite worth it now.

Of course, for all of those that were feeling down, there was a single person that could hardly contain their excitement.

The executive from Ravasz Dynamics had nearly jumped out of his seat and thrown his hands up in the air at the announcement.

Only as he was just starting to stand up and remembered where he was, did he promptly sit back down and composed himself. Though, there was still a massive grin on his face.

Cerise for her part, still did not seem to care at all. The outcome of the competition honestly had almost no bearing on her.

"Ahem, if everyone would calm down. I'm not finished yet." The Alliance Police vice chief said.

"In light of everything that occurred during the competition and the impeccable showing of all of those here, we have decided to award smaller contracts to the rest of the corporations that made it to the end."

The man then elaborated on what this would mean.

Initially, only a single company was supposed to provide one hundred percent of the ships the Alliance Police planned on ordering.

But since the competition came to a very unfortunate end with no true winner being able to be chosen, the judging panel, after receiving permission from the Alliance Police Chief, had decided to split the order.

While fifty percent of the vessels would come from Ravasz Dynamics, twenty-five percent would be sourced by Storren Corp., another fifteen percent from Star Road Enterprises, and the last ten percent from De Vlak.

"B-but that's not what the original agreement was supposed to be!" The executive from Ravasz Dynamics shouted in outrage and distress.

Obviously, he was the only one that felt that this new deal was unbeneficial for his corporation. After all, it was like the profits that he was expecting had just been cut in half.

"The competition came to a close without a true end. As much as the Alliance Police laments what occurred, we still need to move on. Our judging panel could not come to a conclusive decision on which companies' ship would be the best for us, so this was the compromise that we settled on. If it is not acceptable for Ravasz Dynamics, we can obtain the vessels that we need from elsewhere."

The vice chief then glanced over at Avery, making it abundantly clear which craft he had favored.

"Yes, If Ravasz Dynamics is unwilling to provide the requested number of ships, Storren Corp. is more than happy to step up." Dorris said, a smug smile on her face.

Right after her, the executives from Star Road Enterprises and De Vlak agreed that they would also be willing to build as many vessels as the Alliance Police required of them.

Seeing that trying to argue was only going to see Ravasz Dynamics lose out, the executive backpedaled and agreed that he found the new terms to be perfectly acceptable.

His corporation still was getting the lion's share of the contract, so pushing for more and losing everything was simply not worth the risk.

As for the other three, they were happy to be receiving an unexpected boon.

Certainly, it was not comparable to what had been expected if their ship won the competition, but considering everything that had occurred, the outcome was not bad for them.

All of the other companies were in far worse shape after all.

Four of them had their vessels stolen by an unknown criminal entity, and the other two of the original ten were caught up in criminal investigations of their own.

Needless to say, the four that had come out of this competition unscathed would be in far better positions for years to come just from their competition's misfortune.

"Now, that is all we had to discuss. If anyone has any questions, I will address them now, but if not, you are all free to go. The details and contracts will be sent to your respective organizations at a later time within the next few days."

Some of the executives had a for more issue they wanted to talk about, but the meeting ended only around ten minutes later.

Once everything was over, Dorris told Avery and Kasandra to follow her back to Storren Corp.'s headquarters to discuss their rewards for the job, the carrier ship under construction, and Kasandra's new vessel which had recently arrived from Storren Corp.'s shipyard.

Except, before they could leave, Liesel approached their group to pin Avery down for when they would be meeting to talk about her request.

"Okay, two days from now at noon. You better be there, or I'll have to chase you down." Liesel said in a joking tone, but a serious look in her eyes.

She really would come find him if he did not show up.

"You really are a magnet for trouble, aren't you. Do try not to get stabbed." Dorris said, wearing an exaggerated expression of pity on her face.

"Don't worry. He can even regenerate damaged organs. If he gets stabbed a few times, it won't kill him."

Avery turned towards Kasandra with a look of shock and terror when he heard her reply. It really made it sound like he really was going to get stabbed.

"Maybe we should not put that kind of notion out there. At this rate, I feel like you're actually going to manifest me getting stabbed." Avery said in protest.

"If you really don't want it to happen, you should stop catching the eyes of dangerous women and then humoring them."

After that, the three of them traveled in silence back to Storren Corp.'s headquarters.

Upon arrival, Dorris brought them directly to her office so that they could conclude their business.

"For the first order of business, let's talk about what your reward for the competition will be."

Avery was only supposed to be getting a bonus if he won, but since Storren Corp. was getting a contract, albeit a lesser one, he would still be receiving a bit of extra payment.

"Internally, we had agreed to either pay you an additional forty million Krenin or offer to give you sixty million in credit towards what you owe on the ship you ordered. Seeing as how Storren Corp. will be getting a fourth of the contract, that's what your bonus will be as well." Dorris said, now waiting for Avery's response.

He hardly needed to consider the two options.

With no immediate need for more money at the moment, and the largest expenditure he had being the payment for his carrier vessel, the choice was obvious.

"I'll take the fifteen million in credit. I've got plenty in savings right now to not need to worry about money. My only monetary concern is paying off my order, so naturally I'll be taking the higher amount."

Dorris nodded her head and entered Avery's choice into her computer.

He now owed fifteen million Krenin less towards his carrier ship.

"Okay, now let's address the matter of Kasandra's vessel. It's currently docked in this station's hangar and is ready for pickup. Of course, if you don't want to get it right now, we can keep holding onto it, we'll have to start charging you for its docking fees. Since you were busy with work for us that prevented you from taking it until now, we've been eating that cost for you, but with that contract over now, naturally the responsibility will fall on you now." Dorris said, showing why she was the Chief Financial Officer of Storren Corp.

"We'll be picking it up today!"

Before Avery could respond affirmatively, Kasandra enthusiastically made the call.

She had been holding off due to the competition, but now that it was over, she could finally receive her new ship.

"Understood, then we'll need to fill out the necessary paperwork, and I'll send some employees with you later to oversee the biometric transfer."

With that, Dorris figured that they had pretty much wrapped up their business and began getting things in order to finish.

Yet, there was one other thing that Avery wanted to discuss.

"Before we wrap things up, I actually do have something else that I think Storren Corp. might be interested in."