Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"Well, I suppose that will do it."

Avery yawned widely and stretched his arms over his head after finishing negotiating with Deputy Chief Byrid.

Now that everything that immediately needed to be done regarding the day's events was over, the built op exhaustion of everything he and his team went through was crashing down on him.

They had been through several battles throughout the day, and the last one had seen Avery pretty heavily injured.

With nothing else pressing to address, it felt nearly impossible to keep his eyelids open any longer.

However, before Avery could get some rest, Kasandra and Jasmine insisted that he use the Dauntless' recovery pod. The emergency treatment he had administered had fixed his broken bones for the most part, but there was still a dull ache in his arm and leg.

There was a possibility that the medical nanomachines had not fully completed the job or that his bones were not put back quite in the right place. It was best that he received more extensive treatment just in case.

"I should probably do the same." Ezra said, standing up. His hand over his stomach where he had been impaled.

After saying this, he headed over to the Dauntless' airlock and opened the way to his vessel.

Currently all three of their ships were docked together so that they could move between them for anything that they might need.

This was normally pretty dangerous and something that they would avoid doing since it meant that they could not react to any incoming threats, but they were currently surrounded by Alliance Police and any enemies that they might have had in the system were already beaten.

With that, the five members of Avery's team went their separate ways to recover after the harrowing series of battles that had brought them to where they were.

As for Grtio, he refused to leave his uncle's side and was waiting in Avery's room where Vi'ivando was resting.

This left Avery going to sleep in Kasandra's room. With Jasmine joining in as well, making the bed a bit cramped, but comforting nonetheless. Having the warmth of his two lovers by his side helped to soothe Avery and he with both of them nuzzled up against him.

…

"Sorry to have to wake you. But it seems that there's something that we need to address."

Feeling a soft hand shaking his shoulder, Avery opened his eyes and saw Kasandra sitting over him.

She had her terminal in her other hand and was reading a message that she had just received. While Avery and Jasmine had slept through the noise of the notification, Kasandra's heightened hearing had picked it up.

"Is it that Alliance Police?" Avery asked rubbing his eyes and then checking his own terminal for the time.

It had been about two and a half hours since they all fell asleep. Not enough to have fully rested, but it would have to do for now.

"No, it's from Grtio. It seems that his uncle has woken up and wants to talk to us. Apparently, it's important."

Carefully, Avery got up so as to not wake Jasmine. He figured that it would be better for her to continue to sleep. She could be filled in on the situation later.

Once they entered Avery's room, they found Vi'ivando sitting up in bed with Grito by his side.

"Are you the leader of the mercenaries that rescued my nephew and I?"

"Yeah, that's me. And this is my crew member, Kasandra. So, what did you want to talk about?" Aver replied, pulling up chairs for him and Kasandra to sit down so that they were closer to eye level with Grito and Vi'ivando.

"Grtio was not completely sure, as you did not disclose this information to him, but what of the device I had been working on? I need to know if you have it and what sort of condition it's in."

Avery frowned when he heard this and tried to tell Vi'ivando not to worry about that right now and get some more rest, but the older Baccigan was stubborn and demanded an answer. He had to know.

"Fine, but I don't think what we have to tell you will help any. Whatever it is that Iniquus forced you to make was taken off the station by the old man that was acting as his aide. At the end, he betrayed Iniquus and tried to abscond with you and the device. Thanks to another member of my crew, we managed to rescue you, but that man got away with what you were working on and the data pertaining to it."

Vi'ivando clenched his six hands tightly and bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed after he heard Avery's explanation.

"Uncle!"

Noticing the blood dripping down his face, Grito was naturally concerned.

However, Vi'ivando was feeling more frustrated and ashamed than he ever had in his entire life. The heinous emitter he had helped to create was out there. In the hands of someone undoubtedly aiming to use it for less than virtuous reasons.

"It's not complete though, right? If it was, that man would not have worried about taking you with him and would have just killed you instead." Avery said, wanting to get back to discussing Vi'ivando's creation.

"Yes, it's as you surmised. I'd only finished building the shell and some of the components. It was still aways off from being operational, and there were plenty of tests that needed to be performed to make sure it would work as intended. Still, that thing is far too perilous. If they fine another engineer of a high caliber, it is possible that it could be completed."

Just having the incomplete emitter and Vi'ivando's research would be enough that whatever organization had the device might be able to find someone else capable of finishing it. Someone with less morals than Vi'ivando who only worked for Iniquus' because the only member left of his family was being threatened.

"From the way that you've talked about it, whatever you were making for Iniquus must be incredibly dangerous. But you have still not told us what exactly you were working on." Kasandra said, wanting to know what they were up against.

Vi'ivando lowered his head in shame and his expression grew darker as he answered.

"It's a solar flare emitter."

When they heard this, both Avery and Kasandra tilted their heads in confusion.

They naturally knew about solar flares, and while they had been a problem in the past, modern shielding was capable of blocking any of the adverse effects that used to occur.

Yet, when they brought this up, Vi'ivando merely grunted and shook his head.

"That' true for most solar flares, but there are some large enough to still take out a station's power grid for a little while. They're really rare, but they still happen every now and then. But with the device that I designed, it will be possible to artificially create solar flares that are completely unnatural in their size and magnitude. If the emitter works as designed, it could even knock out every electronic device on a planet. And it has a nasty side effect."

With a grave look on his face, Vi'ivando explained broadly how the device worked.

It would be launched into a star and would sit just below the surface where it was practically undetectable. From there it would disrupt the star and cause solar flares. Even being able to direct them to a certain degree.

Except, the more it was used, the less stable the star became. Eventually it might even cause it to fully collapse.

"I'm sure you can understand the true threat that something like that presents. Entire systems could be destroyed because of it. And I'm the one that perfected the design and helped to create it."

Knowing what they were up against now, Kasandra and Avery both gulped in unison.

What Vi'ivando had descried was not just a powerful weapon, but essential a doomsday device.

A system's star was its heart. They had both witnessed what happened when that heart collapsed.

The Prazan System where they had fought the energy lifeforms had lost its own star when it went supernova. And the completely barren area devoid of just about anything came to mind.

Should the emitter Vi'ivando had described ever become functional, it was possible that dozens of habited systems in the Alliance could end up the exact same way.

"The device is not operable yet, though. And there is no guarantee that anyone else will be able to complete it, correct?" Avery asked.

"Yes, it's still far from functioning. As for people that could finish it, I can think of a few peers of mine that might be able to. But there are not many, and I do not believe any of them would do so unless coerced like I was. Nevertheless, I don't know every expert in the field."

Vi'ivando's reply was of little comfort. Still, at least for now, they did not need to worry about some doomsday device going off. It would take time and resources to complete it.

That meant that there was time to prepare. Now that they knew what they were up against.

"Of course, we're just a small group of mercenaries. This is hardly a matter for us to be getting involved in." Kasandra said.

"Yeah, I'm in agreement with you. This is a bit too big for us. That means that it's best if we send it up the ladder and pass it on to someone whose job it is to worry about such things. Fortunately, we just finished talks with such a person not to long ago. I'm sure that he would be willing to hear us out again."

As Avery and Kasandra had this conversation, Deputy Chief Byrid felt a shiver up his spine. Soon he was about to receive even more headache inducing work courtesy of a certain band of mercenaries.