Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Now that he understood what was going on, Avery was more willing to cooperate with Commander Berk.

Still, the situation really had nothing to do with him or his team, so he decided to request a compelling reason for them to go along.

"You want the Alliance Police to pay you for joining us on this investigation?" Commander Berk said, an incredulous look on his face.

He had already explained the severity of the situation. Figuring that this would be enough compromise already. Yet, here Avery was asking for compensation as well.

"Yes, I do tend to want to be paid for my work. Since Grito is part of my group, it was in our best interest to clear up his legal responsibilities, so obviously we weren't going to charge the Alliance Police for us delivering him to the Cocarro System. This is another matter, however. If you want us to come along and lend our strength to your investigation, then it only makes sense that we receive some sort of reward."

Berk was utterly astonished by how shameless he thought Avery was being. Here was a possible crisis in the waiting right in front of them, and he cared more about money than getting to the bottom of it.

Of course, this simply came down to a difference in perspective and priorities.

From Berk's point of view, the discover of an unmonitored collective of strexnoids was something that required immediate attention. As a member of the Alliance Police, it was simply something he could not overlook.

As for Avery though, this was trouble he would rather not get involved with. He was not heartless and would help people out if he saw them in trouble, but he was not going to go out of his way to prevent a possible future problem when there was no incentive too. Right now, the strexnoids were merely flying through space harmlessly. They might have caused a bit of trouble by blocking the route they were supposed to be taking, but this was only a minor inconvenience that would resolve itself eventually.

"Do you not understand the gravity of the situation?" Berk said, his tone harsh.

"Afraid not. This might be urgent for the Alliance Police, but not for me. But seeing as how your boss, Deputy Chief Byrid, helped us out a bit, I'd be willing to give you a discount on our fee."

Avery then transmitted the price it would cost to retain his team for day.

When Berk saw the number being displayed, his eyes went wide in shock.

Avery was asking for three hundred thousand Krenin for every day they assisted with the investigation.

This was more than Berk made in a year despite his rank within the Alliance Police.

There were naturally some major differences between his position and Avery's though.

While Berk may have been the one leading a squad of Alliance Police vessels, he did not have any ownership of them. He was merely using the equipment provided to him by the Dramid Alliance to fulfill his job.

On the other hand, Avery and the members of his team collectively possessed four ships between them. With Avery, Ezra, and Kaiden each being the sole owners of their own vessels, while the corvette that Olivia was captaining was equally owned between the three of them since they collectively captured it as a team.

"That's honestly a pretty fair deal I'm offering. We were getting paid two hundred seventy-five thousand a day by the Moonrise merchant company before we added our new corvette and its crew of expert mercenaries to our retinue. Honestly, three hundred thousand a day for our services is a good price considering that this is technically an emergency request." Avery said with all seriousness.

Truthfully, Berk wished that he could simply tell Avery off and be done with the man, but that was not a possibility considering his orders. If they continued to bicker, it would only waste more time. It was imperative that Berk figure out soon if this group of strexnoids were coming from somewhere else, or if they were native to the Dramid Alliance's territory and why the monitoring tags that should have been transmitting signals were not.

Taking the man's silence as he thought to be a sign of hesitancy, Avery offered up another suggestion that he figured would be viable.

"It's only about a ten-hour trip from Phregon III to here. Why not send a hyperspace message back and ask for another team to be sent out to take over investigation the strexnoids? Then we can continue on and leave this for someone else to deal with."

Avery figured that this idea had some merit, but Berk had already thought of this and merely shook his head.

The Phregon System was still reeling from the terrorist attack and the other major problems that Iniquus had instigated. Berk's squad that had been sent as escorts to see Grito to the Cocarro System were the only ones that could currently move freely. All the other Alliance Police personnel were too busy maintaining order and resorting the Phregon System. Sending out any other officers and ships would put the system's stability at risk.

Obviously, Berk could try requesting aid from other nearby systems, but that would probably take several days to arrange, if not longer. At that point he would just be better off conducting the investigation himself.

"Very well, I shall acquiesce to your demands since it seems that I have no other choice. I will have one of my officers write up a quick contract and send it over. Read it over and sign it quickly so that we can get on with the investigation. I fear that things will only get worse the longer we wait." Berk said, the expression on his face less than enthused about the situation.

Nevertheless, within just a few minutes, a simple contract detailing the request and compensation came through.

Being the most familiar with Alliance Police procedure, Jasmine read through it just to make sure that it was on the up and up.

"It looks good to me. We simply have to assist the Alliance Police squadron under Commander Berk's command with his investigation of the strexnoids. For ever day the investigation continues, our group will receive three hundred thousand Krenin."

With Jasmine's seal of approval, Avery signed the contract and transmitted it back to Berk's command ship.

Seeing how this was work for the Alliance Police, the contract was sure to be upheld. The only thing that Avery found a bit disconcerting was the lack of time limit. Technically. if Berk wanted, he could continue this investigation indefinitely, and Avery's team would have to follow.

Fortunately, he doubted that this would be an issue considering Berk eventually needed to see Grito delivered to the court located in the Cocarro System. There was also the possibility of breaking the agreement, but that was a last resort.

"Now that we are on the same page and have things settled, we're going to need to split up into smaller teams and search the strexnoid collective. There should be some individuals that had tags on them, and even if they've been disabled or destroyed, we should be able to find signs of their existence. If none are found, then we can assume that this is an entirely new group that has wandered into the Alliance from elsewhere."

After that, Berk started creating search parties, but Avery had to object.

The Alliance Police commander had wanted the Reswen Theocracy corvette that Grito was on to go with his vessel, while the rest of Avery's team would make their own group.

"That's not going to work. I'm sticking with our latest members. They've only just joined my team, and it is my duty as a leader to look out for them. I'm sure you can understand." Avery said somewhat forcefully.

Seeing as he was unwilling to budge, Commander Berk agreed that Avery's Dauntless could accompany his light cruiser along with the vessel that Grito was on and Olivia was in charge of.

Ezra had some complaints of his own, since he wanted to stick with Olivia, if at all possible, but Avery convinced him that he would make sure to take care of things.

Finally, the make-up of four different groups had been decided.

As already decided, the ships Avery and Oliva captained would be accompanying Commander Berk's light cruiser.

Ezra and Kaiden would be going along with one of the Alliance Police corvettes, while the remaining five would split into a group of two and three.

Each of the teams were then assigned a different section of the strexnoid collective to search, and they went their separate ways.

"I figured that we would be heading towards the front." Avery said as he followed behind the Alliance Police light cruiser.

"Well, it's where an anomaly is most likely to exist if there is one. I'm sure that Berk doesn't want to leave it to anyone else." Kasandra replied.

It was difficult to tell if this was because of a sense of duty or if he only wanted the glory. But there was little use in speculating now. All Avery could do was follow along and trust in his skills if something happened.