Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 451 At the Edge of the Dramid Alliance
It had been nearly a month since Avery signed a contract with Fiend Hunter Zefield and had his eventful examination with Doctor Raiti.
During that time, his team had worked on their coordination more in preparation for battles against hordes of space monsters in a system where they would be unable to dock at any stations or outposts for resupplying and repairs.
Of course, Avery and the other leaders of his company had made sure to stock up on all manner of goods before they left.
There were not going to be any shops or trades to purchase items from where they were going, so what they brought with them would be all that they had.
The cargo hold had quickly become full, so unused crew and guest rooms were filled with supplies rather than left empty. They certainly were not going to be picking up any passengers in an unexplored system that was swarming with space monsters after all.
Only a few spare rooms were left open on the off change that some of Zefield’s team members needed a place to rest while their ships were under maintenance inside the Intrepid’s hangar.
"We’re exiting hyperspace now."
The shimmering dark blue light of hyperspace vanished, and the Intrepid’s viewscreen displayed normal space again.
A moment later, dozens of other warp out signals followed, and Avery watched as seventy percent of his company’s vessels appeared around the Intrepid.
To avoid having to deal with priates as much as possible, Avery had deployed most of his forces to act as guards.
With Kaiden and Olivia’s corvettes serving as defenders on either side of the ship, and several small and medium-sized vessels swarming around, there had only been a couple of pirate groups stupid enough to attack during the journey from the Granvard System to the Ainelou System.
A notable absence came from the stealth corvette from the Vanmir Republic.
Avery had assigned Victoria Werta, the new captain of the craft, a special mission.
"There wasn’t hardly anything in the last few systems, but this one is quite lively." Jasmine said, glancing between all of the ships displayed on the viewscreen.
On there way here, as they got closer to the current border of the Dramid Alliance, the systems had become less and less populated.
The final ones they had entered had only had a few unmanned monitoring stations. They were pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
However, the Ainelou system had fourteen decently sized, though hastily constructed stations in it. Along with hundreds of vessels of all types.
This place had become the staging ground for reaching the uncharted space that would ultimately lead to an unclaimed system where a habitable planet was believed to exist.
Naturally, it was this very system that so many were still trying to reach that Avery’s company would be heading for.
’There are even some Alliance Police and some state funded explorers. Just like we heard from Zefield.’
Avery had homed in one group that was clearly better equipped than the others and had newer and fancier ships.
Having been given resources directly from the central government, they were clearly the most impressive group present.
Still, Avery was almost certain that they were not the ones that had already discovered a hyperspace route to the system and had hired Zefield.
If they had, then there was little chance that a seven star mercenary would have needed to seek out assistance from Avery’s company. The government would have easily been able to supply several carrier battleships from the Alliance Police.
It was also questionable whether they would have bothered hiring Zefield in the first place. Although it was plausible that they would since he was the foremost monster hunting mercenary in the Dramid Alliance.
"We’re being hailed by an Alliance Police light cruiser that’s approaching us."
The crew member leading the comms station informed Avery of the incoming transmissions and waited for his orders before accepting it.
Obviously, there was no way that he was going to ignore the Alliance Police though.
Doing so was bound to lead to trouble, and his team certainly were intriguing if not outright suspicious.
This was their first time here, and it appeared that a large group of mercenaries were protecting a cargo ship. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
However, with the sensors aboard an Alliance Police cruiser, they would have been able to tell that the Intrepid’s cargo data was false and that something was going on.
"This is Alliance Police Captain, Finral Knox. Your vessel is using false sensor data for its cargo. Halt your engines and prepare to be prepared to be boarded for an inspection."
The captain then sited some articles within Dramid Alliance law that gave the Alliance Police the right to search suspicious ships under certain conditions.
Fortunately, Avery already knew about this, and had his crew shut off the false sensor readings so that scans could pick up the Intrepid’s cargo now.
"I’ve had the device providing false readings disengaged, and I’m sending over my Mercenary Association license number and permits for my vessel’s equipment." Avery said in response.
Thanks to his connections with some high-ranking members in the Alliance Police and Jasmine’s mother, Avery had been able to get special permissions that allowed him to purchase heavy military grade weaponry, and highly specialized equipment that would not normally be available to most people.
His status as a five star mercenary and recipient of the Silver Cross of Heroism had help as well of course.
Five stars were considered upper ranks within the Mercenary Association and enjoyed more privileges than those that were ranked lower. If Avery’s rank was any lower, no amount of recommendations would have allowed him to purchase the Intrepid in its current form.
"Everything does appear to be in order, but I would still like to request a search of the vessel to ensure that you are not moving any contraband goods."
With the documents that Avery had transmitted over, Captain Finral no longer had grounds for a forcible search. However, he was still being overly insistent about it. Perhaps his intentions were less to find any potential illegal items, but to figure out why Avery was here and who he was working for.
While the captain may have been a member of the Alliance Police, he was also part of the state sponsored exploration unit. It would not be farfetched to believe that he was using his authority to try and gain a leg up on the others.
"We certainly don’t have anything to hide, and I don’t mind allowing a check of our cargo hold. But I do have a contract that I’ve been hired for that I need to keep, so I can’t linger for long." Avery said, giving the politest smile that he could while inwardly thinking that this was all a pain.
He had not outright denied the request to avoid rubbing the captain the wrong way.
Nevertheless, only allowing access to the cargo hold amounted to very little. Few criminals actually stored illegal goods in such an obvious place.
If someone wanted to hide something from the Alliance Police, it would be sealed away in an area that was difficult to find and unable to be scanned.
"Very well. I’ll prepare to send an inspection team over. Be ready to receive them."
Captain Finral ended the call with a slight bit of annoyance in his tone.
Except, before the Alliance Police could send out their inspection ship, someone else came along and put a stop to what was going on.
"Oh, if I’m not mistaken, that’s Zefield main ship. It looks just as impressive as the data we were able to collect." Kasandra said.
Zefield’s ship was small in comparison to the Intrepid, but he was still commanding a destroyer class vessel that was around three hundred meters long and used the same frame as the majority commissioned by the Alliance Police.
Yet, his was clearly heavily modified, with stronger and more numerous thrusters, and multiple modular hardpoints for switching out equipment based on what sort of opponent he would be going up against.
Just from a glance, it was fairly clear that this was a craft meant for hunting space monsters. Though it was likely that someone as experienced as Zefield was more than ready for fighting other spacecraft as well.
Avery was not quite certain what was going on, but from what he could tell, Zefield and Captain Finral were likely have a conversation.
Eventually, a transmission from Zefield came in. Naturally, Avery accepted it without delay.
"There won’t be an inspection. Follow me."
That was all Zefield said before it looked like he was going to cut the communication.
But right before he did, a woman pushed him out of frame and took his place.
"Ze, that’s clearly not enough information. You need to explain things to them properly. How many times have I told you this before. We’re going to be working with them going forward, you need to get over your shyness."
