Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

At Avery's request, Burke had the members of his company step forward and introduce themselves. Starting with his closest adjutant.

"I'm Victoria Werta. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Avery looked Victoria over and could tell that she definitely had a serious personality.

She was wearing clothing similar to Burke's that made it seem like they had a standardized uniform. Which was not the case considering that the other members Burke had brought with him had on their own style of mercenary clothing.

Her short dark gray hair and sharp red eyes gave her an intimidating look, and it was obvious that she was a competent and strong mercenary.

'I can see why she's Burke's number two. No doubt she is quite competent.' Avery thought, happy to have her along.

The other members that had been brought along gave their names as well, and Avery welcomed all of them to his team. Though, the procedures that needed to go through the Mercenary Association to make their merger official had not been completed yet.

"Olivia, would you mind taking over for me while I deal with the details with Burke. They'll be joining your crew after all, and I'm sure you can explain what their duties will be better than I can."

After he had passed things off to her, Avery and Burke headed onto the Dauntless where they began working out the formalities of Burke's company integrating into Avery's group.

"That's quite generous of you. I figured you'd do something along these lines, but I never thought that you would give back all of the reparation money." Burke said, wearing a shocked expression.

Since Doyle had tried to kill them, his accounts and the accounts of his followers that had joined in on the attack had been seized.

The formalities of the transfer had not been completed yet, but a decent portion of the money that Doyle and his men possessed was going to be given to Avery's team a recompense for their losses and duress.

While not as severe, Burke was also obligated to pay them back considering it had been a portion of his company that had attacked them.

Except, Avery did not plan on keeping any of this. He would just transfer all of it back to Burke so that he could fix up the remaining vessels of his fleet and continue to pay the other mercenaries under his command.

This would prevent them from collapsing and allow them to get back into working shape as a new part of Avery's team. Though, they would be apart for some time while Avery dealt with his obligations in the capital system.

"I think that this is the best plan going forward. There's not that much mercenary work to do in the Dramid System considering how heavily protected it is. It would be a waste of time for you to follow along with us. Plus, I'm not sure that even if we fixed all of your ships that we currently have enough space for everyone."

With Doyle having lost around two-thirds of their entire fleet, the reaming personnel that followed Burke did not have enough vessels to go around. It would be cramped to say the least to pack them all onboard what was left and take as many as possible abord Olivia's corvette.

"Yes, that's all true, but don't you need the Krenin. To have built what you want is going to cost an astronomical sum. Unless another event like the Jallla outbreak we just dealt with occurs, I'm not sure where you'll obtain the rest of the money you need." Burke said, voicing his concern.

Avery merely waved him off though, telling him that there was no need to be concerned.

"I've got some ideas on that front, so don't worry. What I want you focusing on is recovering your team and recruitment."

For Avery's ultimate ambition, he was going to need a lot more crew members than even the number that joining up with Burke was going to provide.

"They don't need to be particularly skilled or anything, training can come later. What matters most is drive, trustworthiness, and loyalty."

Burke was a bit skeptical about Avery's conditions. It took quite a bit of time for unskilled newbies to learn the ropes of being a mercenary.

"Nah, it only takes a couple months if you really push yourself and have a good teacher. My mentor put me through the wringer, and I learned the bare minimum necessary quickly enough." Avery said proudly.

He then recounted the way that Urs had taught him. Causing Burke's expression to become more aghast as he listened to the hellish training Avery had endured.

"I'm not sure most people would be able to keep up with that type of regiment."

Avery merely waved off Burke's unease. Saying that if he could do it, then anyone else should be able to as well. After all, he was just a random colonist from some middle of nowhere station.

Not wanting to argue against his new boss, Burke held his tongue on any retorts that had come to mind. All he could do was pray for the future recruits that might join Avery's team in the future.

Once the two of them had set up the foundation for their merger, they contacted the Mercenary Association branch on Etania II to get the process going.

Naturally, Luca, the branch manager, was surprised to here that Burke and all of the remaining members of his company would be becoming Avery's subordinates and joining his group.

This was an unusual situation to say the least, but no rules were being broken and both parties were consenting.

"You understand that this won't erase the fines and penalties against Burke and his subordinates." Luca said.

"Yes, and that's fine. However, since they are no longer an independent company and work for me, they'll be using my name going forward. As such, I'd like the black mark on their reputation to not be divulged when accepting jobs. Since my team is the one that was attacked in the first place, it's not like this should be a problem."

Luca sighed and said that what Avery wanted was above his authority, but that he would send it to the higher-ups. Most likely they would accept since not doing so would now only serve to harm Avery's team instead of serving as a punishment for Burke and his followers.

Having wrapped up everything that they needed to do immediately, Burke left the Dauntless and returned to his own vessel that was waiting. He had a lot of work to do to restore his team that was now a part of Avery's group.

"We stayed here a lot longer than expected." Kasandra said, entering the cockpit and taking her place in the co-pilot chair.

Jasmine likewise sat down at her supporter station and sent a request to the station to disembark.

A couple of minutes later and Avery, Ezra, and Olivia's ships exited the hangar and flew out into open space.

It was somewhat strange that there were only three of them, but Kaiden was currently without a ship of his own. Instead, he was staying on Olivia's corvette.

"The path to our target hyper lane has been locked in. Activating light speed drive in three, two, one…"

At the end of Jasmine's countdown, the stars being displayed by the Dauntless' viewscreen started to elongate.

A moment later, they made the jump to light speed and were on their way out of the Etania System. It was finally time for them to head towards the Dramid System. Where expected and unexpected adventures awaited them.