Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Naturally, Avery knew that he had ruffled some feathers as he journeyed across the galaxy.

There were plenty of pirate bands he had helped bring to ruin, terrorists whose plots he had crushed, and corrupt public figures he had exposed, just to give a few examples.

Of course, Avery highly doubted that Sarkych had called him in here just to list off people and organizations that he already knew had it out for him. There was no doubt he had some more concrete information.

"So, is there anything really pressing that I should worry about?" Avery asked.

Sarkych leaned back against the couch he was sitting on and seemed to seriously contemplate Avery's question.

"Well, I don't know if I would consider anything a particular emergency, but there are certainly a few pieces of intel that are concerning. I'm sure that you already know that the Association sent out an investigative team to look into your fight with Doyle and his men. Well, we found that in the days leading up to your confrontation someone had been provoking Doyle to attack you."

This came as a shock to Avery. He had thought that Doyle was simply impulsive and had acted on his own feelings. Yet it turned out that someone had been flaming the negativity growing inside of him.

"There were also traces of a highly addictive drug that had been diluted but was still present in his food and water supply. Considering your past with the organization that is the sole manufacturer and distributor of it, I'm sure you already know about it."

It seemed that Doyle had been unwittingly taking the illegal drug produced by the Odium Syndicate that was known as Paradise Dew.

From what Avery knew, it was incredibly addictive and in higher quantities it induced a state of hypnotic bliss. Muddling people's minds and making them essentially unable to do much of anything.

However, in lower doses, it was said to make people more irritable and less cognitive. A function meant to make them take more and get hooked faster.

Of course, just being exposed to small amounts of the drug and egged on by someone else would not have been enough to create the hostility Doyle had towards Avery. This would have merely amplified it.

"So, what your saying is that the Odium Syndicate tried to sick Doyle on me as a sort of revenge."

"Yes, that's the conclusion that can be drawn from what the squad sent to investigate found. They tried to track down the person within the Odium Syndicate responsible, but they disappeared without a trace. Meaning that they'll probably try again in the future." Sarkych said.

He then warned Avery to be particularly careful about any food or liquids he consumed. At some point the Odium Syndicate might try to do the same thing that they did with Doyle and get him slowly addicted to their illicit drug by spiking what he ate and drank with it.

"Got it, we'll be careful, but there's not much we can do about it other than stay vigilante. Going on the offensive won't get us anywhere considering how large the organization is." Avery replied, shrugging his shoulders.

There had been little doubt that the Odium Syndicate would try and get revenge against them. The fact that they were responsible for inciting Doyle was a surprise, but it just went to show that the criminal organization could be cunning when it wanted to be.

Still, Avery had gotten through the attack with strategy and skill. Now that they were in the capital system, it seemed unlikely that the Odium Syndicate would be able to do anything else for the time being considering how well policed the area was.

Sarkych continued to warn Avery about whispers of retaliation that the Mercenary Association had picked up concerning Iniquus' family and Snyder Heavy Industries.

Even after the head of the household's fall from grace, Iniquus' family still held quite a bit of power considering that they were an upper ranking member of the gentry of a planet and ruled over a vast amount of territory.

Avery had embarrassed them to say the least, and it made sense that they would be looking to get back at him despite the fact that it was Iniquus who was most certainly in the wrong.

As for Snyder Heavy Industries, they had learned of Avery and his team's involvement of their plot to change the migration pattern of a pod of strexnoids being uncovered by the Alliance Police.

Thanks to this the company had incurred hefty fines and some of their senior members were facing jail sentences.

This resulted in a heavy loss of business, and the corporation had been forced to pull out of the upcoming competition for the Alliance Police contract for a new fleet of smaller vessels.

Honestly, the entire debacle was a major blow to them, and no doubt they wanted someone to direct their anger at. Considering there was no way that they could go up against the Alliance Police, the natural choices were the two employees that had betrayed them, and Avery's team.

"Well, I figured that stuff like this was bound to happen. Still, just knowing about it doesn't really help." Avery said, looking a bit disinterested. These were already enemies he knew about, and while having some confirmation from the Mercenary Association was nice, it was not really all that useful.

"Naturally, I understand this. That is why I've already warned both parties personally to stay away from you. A major part of the Association's job is to protect our members from outside forces. Especially less physical ones that mercenaries would have a harder time dealing with. Snyder Heavy Industries and Iniquus' family now know that we are aware of them, and that if anything happens to you, that the Mercenary Association will not be idle in their response."

Since Snyder heavy Industries and Iniquus' family were both wanted to at least appear to be following the law to avoid more trouble than they were already in, it was far easier for the Mercenary Association to pressure them than a completely lawless organization like the Odium Syndicate.

"Now, there is also one other concerning party I want to warn you about. This one is probably the trickiest of them all right now." Sarkych said, pulling out a tablet and pulling up some security footage from their headquarters' main lobby from several months ago.

It showed a lanky man with a large entourage in tow strolling into the building and getting into a screaming match with some of the staff.

At first Avery was wondering what the relevance of this incident was to him. Until he saw Storren Corp's company logo on the man's clothes.

"When it came to light that your ship is an experimental protype that they lost, a Storren Corp. executive by the name of Strozen stormed in here and started demanding that the Mercenary Association do something to facilitate it's return to them."

"Obviously we refused, but he's continued to make complaints to us, and from what I know, he is still trying to find away to take the vessel back even at this point. I know that you've accepted an official job from Storren Corp. but be careful. They are not a monolith, and there are still those that would be happy to see you taken out of the equation."