Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"If only he wasn't in the Alliance Police's custody. I could have made him tell us everything." Kaiden grumbled as he grounded his teeth together in frustration.

They had attempted to force Fahad to give them more detailed intel about how Kasandra and Kaiden's home planet had changed since their departure, but he had only given them vague information when he either wanted to brag or irritate them.

With a bit of coaxing they had learned that Daxton was focusing on building up his military power for a possible confirmation with the Dramid Alliance.

Obviously, they had no chance of winning a true war against such a massive power when they barely controlled one system, but the goal was to either keep scouts from ever finding them in the first place, or make it too much trouble to try and push in.

They were apparently setting up minefields around certain hyperplane exits to prepare for this, and while he had not made more than a single boasting mention of it, evidently Daxton had found some sort of group with a grudge against the Dramid Alliance that was trading weapons for goods.

Of course, the only reason he had mentioned this in the first place was to infuriate Kasandra and Kaiden.

Deplorably, the majority of the "goods" that were being given to Daxton's new allies were the now enslaved members of the Woest Clan.

The bravado with which Fahad had spoken and the way he was taunting Kasandra and Kaiden had nearly been enough to make even Avery snap.

Despite the fact that they had managed to get some useful information, he somewhat wished that they had killed Fahad when they had the chance during his botched ambush.

With only a single glance, Avery could tell how unsettled both Kasandra and Kaiden were.

Fahad had taken every chance that he could to rattle them with horrid information about the treatment of their clan.

"That was certainly an interesting conversation that you had there. Nothing in our databases have anything about the planet that you're talking about, or this Daxton character that rules it." The Alliance Police sergeant in charge of this case said inquisitively.

This kind of information was quite important, as new habitable planets were always highly in demand anywhere.

They were few and far between and always worth an immense amount.

If the sergeant were to relay more detailed information about it to his superiors, he could be looking at a possible promotion.

"And that's perfectly fine. It's not like the Dramid Alliance is in control of every part of space. It's natural that not everything is known."

Kasandra tone and guarded body language told the Alliance Police sergeant that she was not willing to disclose anything on the planet she grew up on.

As for Kaiden, he was even less inclined to respond at all and was merely glaring at anyone that met his eyes.

He was still pissed off and really wanted to tear something apart.

"Don't look at me. I've no idea where exactly the planet is or how to get there. Plus, being a mercenary, I'd never give up such information for free." Avery said when the sergeant turned towards him.

Truthfully, he did know which system the planet was located in, but that was hardly the difficult part.

Getting there would require going through unmapped hyper lanes that the Dramid Alliance knew nothing about.

The only people with that information were those that lived there and had spent tireless years traveling through unexplored space in search of a new home.

Now their reluctance here to say anything did not mean that Kasandra and Kaiden were against their home joining the Alliance.

It would just be better if it was on their own terms rather than essentially being taken over.

While not quite as expansionist as some of its neighbors, those in power within the Dramid Alliance were no strangers to using underhanded means to incorporate a system they had their eyes on into their sphere of control.

Violence was not their typical modius operandum. Instead, the powers at be favored using merchants to sell high quality luxury goods at cheap prices while spreading propaganda.

If that failed to work, there were times in history that could be pointed to as examples of the Alliance becoming more aggressive in their recruitment methods.

Sometimes blockading entire planets to prevent any goods other than those that had been approved from entering or leaving the planet.

With Kasandra and Kaiden's home planet currently being unclaimed by any major powers, and the closest one being the Dramid Alliance, it was likely that the two would meet sooner or later.

This was what had sparked the internal conflict between the major clans in the first place.

While Kasandra's and Kaiden's father wanted to find a way to join on amicable terms, Daxton and his followers could not accept being a part of the same governance as the therianthrope home world that had exiled their ancestors.

"Thank you for allowing us access to your prisoner. Now that we've asked our questions, we'll get going now."

Not wanting to deal with more questions, Avery hastily left the building with Kasandra and Kaiden.

The three of them boarded their respective ships and exited the prison station.

"What do you two want to do?" Avery asked over comms as they floated in space.

"I'd like to go and rip Daxton to pieces right this instance." Kaiden spat in reply.

Kasandra was not quite so violent in her words, but the gist was the same.

Though they had suspected that their clan members who had lost the war would be being treated poorly, finding out just how bad it was made their blood boil.

These were the people that they had lived with for most of their lives.

They still had friends and distant relatives that were trapped there, forced to either toil away at deadly work, or being sold off to the partner that Daxton was purchasing weapons from.

"But I know that we're not ready yet. Even if we brought in everyone that has joined the team, it wouldn't be enough. We're going to have to wait until Avery's carrier vessel is finished before we can even consider making a move."

Kasandra's words showed that she was still keeping a level head despite how infuriated she was right now.

Forget having enough forces to take over an entire planet, with their current ships, Avery's team was heavily lacking in cargo space, making long-term missions in undeveloped space practically impossible.

They relied on stopping at stations to refuel and resupply fairly frequently.

Without anything resembling even a basic outpost on the way to Kasandra's and Kaiden's home, they would run out of necessities before arriving.

"I've got to wait for my new ship as well. I feel so worthless trapped on Olivia's ship right now." Kaiden groaned.

He was learning how to be a captain of a crew on a larger vessel than he was used to, but it was true that there was not much Kaiden could do with how things currently were.

However, this did spark an idea in Avery's head.

He recently obtained a new corvette class craft from the people that had attacked the competitors during the final event.

Currently it was still under Alliance Police inspection and would need some repairs since it had been caught up in the explosion of a phasic torpedo.

Once it was cleared for use though, Kaiden could take over as a temporary captain and bring over some of the members of Burke's team that were currently working on Olivia's ship to act as his crew.

"It's more geared towards stealth and communications interference than the heavy hitter that you ordered, but I think that it would be a good opportunity for you to gain some experience while your ship is being built." Avery said, suggesting his idea to Kaiden.

Before agreeing, he asked to look over the specs of the recently captured corvette from the Vanmir Republic.

Still, from the look on his face, Avery could already tell that Kaiden was onboard with the idea.

It made sense and would allow him to stop feeling like a freeloader on Olivia's vessel.

"There's also something else that I want to try, but it'll be up to the two of you to agree on."

Avery wore a serious expression as he gave the two Woest Siblings a suggestion.

They had been limited in what they could learn from Fahad, but they did know that he had other allies around that were searching for Kasandra and Kaiden.

If the two of them used themselves as bait, they could lure these people out and hopefully capture some of them.

Then there would not be any restriction on what methods they could use to extract information.

Naturally, this would mean putting the two of them at risk, since there was no telling what their pursuers might do.

"I'm not trying to force either of you, and honestly, I'd really rather not have to resort to this method. I just figured I'd bring it up, since I don't want you two getting the idea on your own and trying to execute it alone because you didn't think I would approve." Avery said, locking eyes with Kasandra as she glanced away guiltily.

It seemed that Kaiden had not thought of this yet, but his sister had.

Knowing that Avery would worry about her, she had planned to act alone. Except, it seemed that she had been seen through.

"Okay, we can set something up later together. For now, let's head back to the others and plan out our next more. After we meet with Nianni Taador, our business here in the capital system with be over and we can move on."