Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 67 Arrival at the Award Ceremony and New Member

Over the next three days, Avery and Kasandra mostly lazed about inside of the Dauntless.

After getting through two harrowing battles without much time for rest, they decided it was a good time for a break.

During this time, the only thing they did that could be considered work was allowing Ardesen and his team onboard to scan the entire vessel.

Fortunately, this only took a few hours, and then they were back to lounging around.

Eventually, it was time for them to leave their slothful life behind and get back to business.

The day of the award ceremony was upon them, and it would not do to miss it without a good reason. The last thing they wanted was to offend the Alliance Police who were trying to honor them.

"Yep, it looks good on you."

Coming out of his room, Avery was dressed up in more formal wear than he normally wore. It was still clothing marketed towards mercenaries, but it was closer to a military style uniform compared to the casual shirt, jacket, and pants he wore.

As for Kasandra, since she was not receiving any accolades, she was dressed normally. Avery had tried to get her to put on a dress, but she did not want to draw attention to herself when she was not even receiving an award.

"If you want, I’d be more than happy to wear a dress for you tonight."

Avery blushed when he heard this. It was easy to understand what Kasandra was insinuating.

Still, he was certainly interested, and after just a moment of contemplation, he told her that he would be happy if she did so.

After the two of them flirted with each other a bit more, they headed to the cockpit and started up the Dauntless.

The site of the award ceremony was not located on Yuson II, but at the primary Alliance Police base on Yuson Prime.

Thankfully, it was just a quick fifteen-minute flight using the light speed drive. The two most prominent stations in the system were not all that far from each other.

"Is this really going to be you’re first time there?" Kasandra asked when Avery mentioned how excited he was to visit the colony for the first time.

"Well, I’ve seen it before when I was still flying my other vessel as a scavenger, but I never landed. Didn’t want to have to pay the costs."

Back then Avery had been hurting for every Krenin. It made no sense to pay a docking fee just to tour a station he had no business at.

"Hm, Yuson Prime is a bit bigger than Yuson II, and it has more luxury goods and services for sale, but otherwise its about the same." Kasandra said, relaying her own experience there.

Naturally, when she and her brother first arrived in this system, they based themselves at the largest and most prominent station. Still, it was a bit more expensive, so once they spent a good deal of their money to upgrade their ships, they had moved to Yuson II instead to cut costs.

When they came out of light speed, the most prominent colony in the system was sitting there right before their eyes.

It was shaped like an upside-down top and constantly rotating as a means to generate artificial gravity.

"We’ve been given approval to dock in hangar thirty-seven."

"Got it. Activating the autodocking function."

With permission to land, Avery let the Dauntless’ onboard computer pull them in. When there was no need for complicated maneuvers and quick decisions, it was best to let the ship handle the flying.

Once they had touched down in the hangar, the two of them promptly exited the vessel and followed the route that their terminals determined would be the fastest.

As they walked, Avery looked around excitedly. This was his first time visiting another station. He had spent his entire life either on Yuson II or living on his ship.

However, his excitement only lasted only for a short while. Just as Kasandra had said, Yuson Prime was incredibly similar to Yuson II.

"Guess I shouldn’t have expected any real difference considering how close they are to each other." Avery muttered dejectedly.

"I mean, it’s mostly the same, but there are some differences. How about after the award ceremony, we stop by an import market. They typically have rare items you can’t get in normal stores. Perhaps we could pick up some fruits and vegetables from a habitable world. Maybe even some farm raised meat."

Kasandra’s suggestion helped to perk Avery up.

Typically, most people ate food that came from food capsules, since it was generally both cheap and fast.

With all the nutrition one needed carefully calculated and a decent to impeccable taste depending on the quality of one’s autochef, it honestly fairly rare to splurge on raw cultivated foods.

Still, there was something special about doing so. The carefully constructed meals from an autochef could look like the real thing, but it could never quite get it perfectly right.

Avery walked with a bit more pep in his step, and the two of them discussed what they might want to buy as they approached the Alliance Police Headquarters.

Like most of the other buildings on the station, it was constructed out of efficient materials and was only really designable from its interior.

Upon entering, Avery and Kasandra were asked to hand over their weapons and were sent through a scanner to make sure they were not in possession of any hidden or cybernetic weapons.

"Okay, you are both free to enter. Please follow the data on your terminal to the venue." The officer that had assisted them through security said.

Heading deeper inside, they made their way towards the main assembly hall, which had been repurposed for today’s award ceremony.

However, leaning against a wall along the path was a certain individual that had been waiting for Kasandra and Avery to show up. When he noticed them, he immediately walked over.

’At least he doesn’t look so hostile this time.’ Avery thought as he watched Kaiden approach them.

Kasandra’s brother still had a harsh expression on his face, but there was a defeated air about him. Perhaps being away from his younger sister for so long had taken a bigger toll than he was expecting.

"Sorry." Kaiden said once he was at a comfortable distance to start a conversation.

Except, Avery had no idea what was going on and wore a puzzled look on his face.

"Hey, I’m trying to apologize here. Don’t look at me like you have no idea what I’m talking about." Kaiden said in an aggressive tone.

For a moment, he had gotten mad when Avery only stared at him in confusion when he was trying to be sincere.

Yet a harsh look from Kasandra was all it took to cool him down again and get rid of any fierceness he had been displaying.

"Do you really think I’ll forgive you that easily just because you said ’sorry.’"

While Avery did not want to be at odds with Kasandra’s brother, the man had tried to kill him.

Avery had let it go then since Kasandra beat Kaiden pretty badly when she defended him. But that did not mean he was just going to pardon his actions.

"Gah, I’m not any good at this!" Kaiden said, ruffling his hair in frustration. He was clearly the brash type without any good interpersonal skills. Likely, he had left such things to Kasandra, or she had felt compelled to do so after seeing how bad her brother was at it.

Still, she would not help him out in this moment. She probably could have convinced Avery to go easy on her brother, but she felt that it was important that he genuinely showed his regret this time.

Unable to get the right words out, Kaiden could only think to show how apologetic he was through actions.

Unable to hide the grimace on his face, he nonetheless got down on his knees and lowered his head to Avery.

"I’m accepting you offer." Kaiden said brusquely

Again, his blunt choice of words left Avery baffled and unable to decipher what Kaiden meant.

"You said that you wouldn’t follow me, but that you’d accept me as your subordinate. Well, I’m submitting."

This caught Avery off guard more than anything else Kaiden had said so far.

From their few brief interactions, Avery knew that Kasandra’s brother was a proud man. To suck up his pride and choose to work under someone else was likely unbelievably difficult for him.

’I originally said that as a joke, but if he’s really willing to go this far.’ Avery thought, seriously considering the idea.

Kaiden was a talented three star mercenary that owned a powerful medium class ship. Adding him as a member would bolster Avery’s forces and allow access to certain jobs that required larger vessels.

Glancing towards Kasandra, Avery tried to read her expression, but she was wearing a completely blank face. Still, her silence spoke volumes. If she was really against her brother joining up with them, then she certainly would have said something. Surely, she wanted all of them to get along. Kaiden was her brother after all.

"Okay, I’ll let you join us as my subordinate. Now, get off the floor. You’re causing a bit of a scene." Avery said, nodding his head towards the people passing by that were giving them strange looks.

Hastily, Kaiden got back up onto his feet and ground his teeth together. Likely as a display of frustration from the embarrassment he was feeling.

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"Now, shouldn’t you say you’re sorry to Kasandra as well." Avery said sternly.

When Kaiden had tried to attack him, he had not only slighted Avery, but his sister as well. He had essentially gone on a rampage because he could not accept her choice to be with Avery.

"I’ve already apologized to her." Kaiden responded somewhat meekly.

Apparently, he had already sent a slew of messages to his sister expressive his remorsefulness and attempted to make up with her.

"That’s true, but I’d like to hear you say some of the things that you wrote in person. It really pissed me off the way you acted. Did you really think I would be with someone I didn’t like. And don’t forget the messages you sent me first disparaging Avery."

Kasandra’s voice was cold and offered no escape for Kaiden. He was forced to recite several of the apologetic messages he had sent and even more. It was probably the most humbled he had ever been in his life. Something only his irate sister could accomplish.

Of course, the two of them could not keep Kaiden groveling forever. They had an award ceremony to attend, and it would not do to be late.