Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary
Chapter 208 208 Parley

After Avery finished the scan in the medical pod and sent it off to Dr. Raiti, he, along with Jasmine, headed to the ship's cockpit.

There they found Kasandra sitting in her usual copilot's seat keeping watching and corresponding with the other members of their team.

"Good to see that you're up and doing well. How's your body feel?"

"Honestly, impeccable. I guess that nearly twenty hours of sleep and that oatmeal you fed me did wonders. All the soreness is gone, and I think that I could run a hundred kilometers without getting tired." Avery replied with a confident expression.

"Well, that's good to hear, but don't push yourself and end up bedridden again. When you use the treadmill in the workout room, don't try and see if you can actually run that much."

Kasandra gave Avery a knowing grin, understanding that he had been exaggerating to begin with.

Smiling himself, he took his seat in the pilot's chair next to her and Kasandra filled him in on what had been going on.

"We still haven't heard anything about what happened to Burke and Doyle, but none of their ships have left Etania II yet. Olivia had Vi'ivando and Grito work up a probe to monitor the station so we can keep track of them."

It might have been a bit excessive, but if Doyle decided to escalate things further, there was a nonzero possibility that he might try to attack them out in space where the Dramid Alliance's authority was thinner.

If there were no Alliance Police around and no witnesses survived, then it was easy enough to cover up a crime.

"I suppose being prudent in this situation is important. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like we need to worry about any retaliation right at this moment, so what else came up while I was asleep?" Avery asked, already able to tell from her expression that Kasandra had more to say.

Nodding her head, Kasandra told him that the others were ready to get back to hunting Jalllas. This was a rare chance to make a lot of money hunting dangerous, but manageable space monsters.

However, every day that went by, more were eliminated and larger groups of mercenaries flocked to the system to reap the rewards. At three hundred thousand Krenin a pop, killing Jalllas was a very lucrative prospect for those that could handle it.

"Yeah, we've definitely gotten behind thanks to a certain unwelcome interruption and my extended rest. Go ahead and contact the others. We'll be moving out within the hour."

At Avery's order, his team quickly prepared to mobilize and soon began making the trip back to the planet infested by Jalllas.

When they arrived, they found that they were in luck. A large group of the enormous space monsters were leaving the planet's surface and heading out into space.

"There really a more mercenaries around than a couple days ago." Jasmine said after reading the sensor data coming in.

There had been an increase of almost ten percent since they had been here last. Too much longer and the place would be swarming with mercenaries looking to make a big payday. Of course, when that happened, the job would quickly become unprofitable as there would be far too many mercenaries vying for a dwindling number of Jalllas.

"Let's make the best of it while we can. This might be our last chance to make some real money before we head to the capital system. No doubt we'll find plenty of rare and valuable goods we want to buy there. Personally, I'm looking to update my wardrobe." Kasandra said, an eager gleam in her eyes.

She and Jasmine then began talking about clothing and accessories. Though naturally, the two of them did not slack off on their work while they did so. Their augmented cognitive abilities allowing them to hold a conversation while still focusing on the consoles in front of them.

Soon the Jalllas had begun breaching the atmosphere and all of the surrounding mercenaries rushed to claim as many as they could.

Again, Avery's team aimed to mark around forty Jalllas for themselves. That was about the most that they could take on comfortably without having to resort to using more expensive munitions that would make the hunt far less profitable.

'We only got thirty-four this time. Competition really is getting fiercer.'

Nevertheless, the job was still quite profitable, and so long as it remained so, Avery planned to stick around. At least for the remainder of time he had before needing to leave to fulfill the contract he had made with Storren Corp.'s executives.

Having already racked up plenty of experience fighting Jallla's, Avery' team went right to work on eliminating the giant nuisances.

…

Over three days passed like this, and in total they managed to kill four hundred ninety-three Jalllas. In large part thanks to a massive surge of activity on their second day that saw a wave of the creatures so large that it nearly overwhelmed the mercenary forces stationed around the planet.

After that though, things slowed down quite a bit. It felt as if that last big push was most of the remaining Jalllas and all that were left were stragglers.

It was around the time that Avery was about ready to call it quits, satisfied with what his team had earned, that a transmission from the probe set up to monitor Etania II came in.

Every single vessel that was a part of Burke and Doyle's mercenary company had left the colony at almost the same time.

Their total force came out to one hundred sixty-one. An impressive number for a mercenary company.

Most of their ships were small craft that were not even as big as the Dauntless, but they did have around a dozen medium size vessels as well.

'Yeah, we could be in trouble if they all come after us. I don't think that will happen considering how furious Burke was with Doyle, but there's still a chance that he might ultimately side with his partner.'

Avery had already been thinking that it was about time to leave, and this information was the last push he needed to make the decision.

Yet, just as he was about to call the others and confer with them, a transmission came in from Etania IV's Mercenary Association Branch.

It was a message directly from the branch manager, Luca, and the content was surprising to say the least.

Burke apparently wanted to meet with Avery to make amends for what Doyle and the members of his company had done.

"Do you think that this is a trap?" Avery asked Kasandra and Jasmine.

"Probably not."

"I don't think it would be."

Both of them responded at nearly the same time after thinking it over.

The meeting place was Etania IV's Mercenary Association Branch, and Burke had reached out to them through the proper channels.

They did not know the man very well, but from all appearances, he seemed to be an upright kind of guy. His only problem was that he could not choose his friends well.

Still, Avery considered that this could be a means of luring them out. Right now, they knew where Burke's and Doyle's forces were, but the same could not be said for them.

If Avery's team left now, it was unlikely that anyone would catch up to them before they could leave the system.

However, if they attended this meeting, nothing would probably happen around Etania IV since the Alliance Police protected the station, but once they left, it would be possible for the other group of mercenaries that clearly had a faction hostile to them to track them and attack once there were no eyes watching.

'Am I just being paranoid? Burke probably does just want to bury the hatchet and get on with his life. If we leave and let things fester, it could get worse in the future.'

Should Avery make the choice to leave the system without agreeing to the meeting being set up through the Mercenary Association, then it could turn Burke from a likely ally appalled by his friend's actions into a potential enemy.

He might switch to Doyle's side if he felt slighted and humiliated by Avery's refusal to meet with him.

Fortunately, in times like these when he was unsure what the best course of action was, he had plenty of more experienced mercenaries to reach out to for advice.

Kaiden's reply was merely, "Do what you want. You're the one in charge.", but Ezra, and Olivia gave him more helpful opinions on the matter.

"I consider this a stupid plan to lure us in if it is one. There's an official record of our altercation already, so if something happens to us after this, it's obvious who the authorities are going to look at first." Ezra said, having had his fair share of "disagreements" with other mercenaries in the past.

"It's also likely that as a means to make amends, Burke will try to offer us reparations somehow. Whether that be through money or offering us information we might be interested in. So long as Doyle is not involved in the conversation, I think that it's worth it to hear the man out. Our team does how two five star mercenaries in it that out rank him, and he's probably worried that we'll cause him and his company more trouble if he doesn't do anything." Olivia said, weighing in on the situation.

"Got it. I'll send Luca a response saying that I'll accept then."

With that Avery ended the call with the other captains of his team and sent a quick transmission back to Etania IV's Mercenary Association Branch.