Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Once the two of them had finished expressing their love for each other and taking the first of what would likely be many showers together abord Kasandra's new vessel, Avery and Kasandra went through a tour of the rest of the craft.

It had a standard medical bay that was nearly identical to the one aboard the Dauntless.

The second bedroom and only guest room was quite small in comparison to the main bedroom. Being around a fifth of the size.

This made it obvious that Kasandra had no intention of hosting any long-term guests.

Naturally, Avery was an exception. Though if he was staying onboard, then he would end up sleeping with Kasandra in her room rather than staying in the guest room.

Considering how everything other than the main bedroom and cockpit had been small and minimalistic, the dining room and kitchen really stood out.

The room was big for a vessel of this size, and while it was barebones right now, Kasandra already had a long list of equipment she planned on buying to outfit the space with.

Kasandra may not have been at the level of a true food connoisseur, but she certainly had a bit of a passion for it. Even more so lately than before after receiving augmentations from Dr. Raiti that increased her appetite to maintain her strengthened body.

The final item on the agenda was the cargo hold, which turned out to be fairly small for a craft of this size.

Being filled with advanced systems and powerful weapons had taken up a great deal of the internal space, and obviously something had to be sacrificed to do so.

Despite being quite a bit larger than the Dauntless, this ship's cargo hold was only just a scant two percent bigger.

"It looks like our carrying capacity won't be going up by very much." Avery commented as he looked around the currently empty area.

"It's not like we're in the business of being couriers anyway. I figured that so long as it could store what I need, it would be enough. We'll have our new mobile base eventually. That'll give us far more room to take loot from pirates we take down or try our hands at delivering goods through dangerous systems if that's what you want."

"That's true, but it's still several months out in the future. And in the meantime, we're going to need to earn a lot more money so I can finish paying for my carrier vessel. Even with the down payment and everything else, I've only paid off around half the cost."

"There's nothing to worry about in that regard. You're basically going to be doubling your take thanks to me. Even though this is my ship, you're the one that bought it and owns it, so I'll only be getting thirty-five percent of the profits from my hard labor, while you take away the rest." Kasandra said, rubbing her eyes and pretending to cry.

She was exaggeratedly treating this like it was some sort of grave injustice, and that Avery was taking advantage of her.

Of course, that was far from the case. Since he was the sole owner of the vessel since he had fully paid for it, the rate that Kasandra was receiving as the captain was truthfully at the very high end.

Kasandra and Avery had also already made a deal for Kasandra to eventually pay off the cost of the vessel and make her own.

Even though they would be getting married sometime in the near future, matters of money between them as mercenaries still needed to be carefully dealt with.

It seemed unlikely for the two of them that they would ever split up, but the possibility of death was always a looming possibility in their line of work.

"Well, we've seen everything now, so how about a test flight. I want to really feel what this thing is capable of." Kasandra said, a look of excitement on her face rivaling her expression when they had entered the hangar and seen the ship in person for the first time.

Avery followed behind his enthusiastic lover and took the copilot's seat next to her once they reached cockpit.

After being given permission to launch, Kasandra carefully ripped the controls and slowly moved the ship forward.

At first, she only made small movements and kept from accelerating quickly, but once she had become more accustomed to flying the new vessel, she really let loose to see what it could do.

…

The next day went by almost entirely taken up by Kasandra testing out her new craft in an open part of space a few systems away from the capital.

During that time, Avery familiarized himself a bit with its controls as well, just in case he ever needed to pilot it himself.

However, what he did for most of the time was trading messages back and forth with the rest of his team.

Right now, they were all on break and relaxing as they saw fit since they had finished their investigation and handed over all of the relevant intel to Azade's Representative who would pass everything along to the chancellor.

Jasmine especially had been wanting to know when Avery would be returning.

The two of them had only seen each other a few times over the last few weeks, and those spare instances had all been in relation to work.

He had obviously been giving a bit too much attention to Kasandra lately, so he knew he would need to make it up to Jasmine.

In the type of relationship he had, it was paramount that he did his best to keep things as equal as possible.

Otherwise, he really might end up getting stabbed in the future.

Already he had promised that he would do whatever Jasmine wanted when he got back, and that he would bring her along to meet Nianni Taador when he went to collect the reward for saving the famous singer's life.

Still, before reuniting with the rest of his team, there was one last order of business to take care of.

Today was when he was supposed to meet with Liesel to discuss what she wanted from him.

Thanks to drawing her into his dangerous plan during the attack on the competition, he did owe it to her to at least hear her out.

The meeting location that she had chosen was one of the private rooms in the Mercenary Association that was often used to discuss the finer details of mission with perspective employers.

This at least meant that what Liesel wanted pertained to mercenary work. Avery had been a bit worried, but if it just turned out that she wanted some extra muscle for a job, that would be easy enough to accommodate.

Being upper ranking mercenaries, Avery and Kasandra were able to enter the association hangar easily and with only a short wait.

From there, a guide drone brought them to the room that Liesel and her copilot were already waiting in.

"No need to worry about any formalities. Just come on over and take a seat." Liesel said, waving Avery and Kasandra in like they were close friends.

When the two of them sat down, Liesel briefly looked over at the girl sitting next to her and her eyes went wide in realization.

"Now that I think about it, I don't think I've properly introduced my copilot and childhood friend. This is Casey. We've been together for pretty much forever."

Avery and Kasandra introduced themselves as well, even though Casey certainly knew who they were by this point.

The young woman with purple hair in a bob cut didn't say anything in response and merely nodded her head.

She seemed to be a person of few words and had an ever-present vigilant stare.

Despite being the same age as Liesel, Casey gave off a more mature aura. She was probably the one that helped keep her friend grounded.

"I'm sure that we're both busy, so let's get down to business. What is it that you want from me?" Avery said, bringing the conversation to the matter at hand.

"Right to the point I see. Well, that is one of the things that I like about you." Liesel replied, leaning a forward in her chair and smiling.

"Let me start by asking you how much you know about my family and the Kaizer fleet? That will help me gauge how much I need to explain myself."

Avery was momentarily taken aback by this sudden inquiry. Although, it did give him a clue as to what Liesel's interest was.

"Well, I don't know all that much. Just things that anyone could get ahold of with a little time and effort. I did research the other competitors, and that includes you."

Being a fan of the stories based off the first leader of the Kiazer fleet, Avery had already been somewhat familiar with them before meeting Liesel.

"I know that currently the fleet is composed of somewhere between one thousand and twelve hundred ships, and that it's the largest group of mercenaries active in the Dramid Alliance. However, the entire fleet rarely gets together and most often acts in smaller factions. Only for truly enormous jobs that require so many vessels does the entire fleet mobilize."

"Yes, that is about the gist of it. Since I was born, I've only seen everyone together six times. And half of them were just for the family meeting we have every five years. It's hard to find profitable work for such a large force."

Liesel then asked Avery if there was anything else he knew about those of the direct Kaizer lineage and their places within the fleet.

"That's something I didn't look to far into. I know that your grandfather is the current leader of the group. And that he's got several children with multiple wives, and in turn they have had children of their own. You've got a lot of cousins, but you're an only child so far as I was able to find out."

"Yep, that's all true. But, with so many Kaizers to go around, succession of the leader position has gotten somewhat tricky. My grandfather has stated that he won't be giving up his position to any of his children, and that he's only looking among the current generation. That means that it's between me and my cousins." Liesel said, a gloomy expression on her face.

Avery had to hold back from showing his distress on his face, an audibly gulped at this internal information he certainly was not supposed to know.

"Are you sure that you should be telling something like that to outsiders like us?"

"Sure. Afterall this is at the crux of my request. I want you to join the Kaizer fleet and help make me the successor."