"You’re Fiend Hunter Zefield, I presu?"
"That I am. Though I would prefer you just use my na. I didn’t choose that epithet." Zefield said, scratching his cheek with a hint of embarrassnt on his face.
Had a girl made that gesture, it certainly would have been cute. But, when a bunny eared man with a chiseled face and bulging muscles did, Avery felt that it ca off kind of creepy.
’Is he doing that on purpose, or is it just reflexive?’
After their first conversation, the impression of the stoic powerful Zefield was already starting to wane in Avery’s mind. From what he could tell, the man was just a bit awkward in social situations. Perhaps he did not go out of his way to avoid the dia for any serious reason. Maybe he was just a bit shy.
Still, Zefield was a top-ranking rcenary. While he might not have been the most socially adept individual, he knew how to conduct business deals well enough.
"I want to hire your company to assist with a job. Are you interested?"
Zefield got right to the point, not wanting to waste anyone’s ti.
He had not even introduced his companions, or the businesswoman sitting across from him.
Avery did not mind though. This eting had been sothing thrust upon him as soon as he got back from pirate hunting, so finishing it quickly would allow him to return to the Intrepid to deal with matters that required his attention.
"Well, a seven star rcenary ca looking for personally, so I’d have to say that I am. But I’m sure that you know that I’m no space monster specialist. In fact, my team and I have been focusing solely on pirates recently."
"That doesn’t matter. We need soone with a ship like yours. There aren’t many choices." Zefield said, giving a very brief explanation as to why he had sought out Avery specifically.
Although he had not said much, Avery gathered that what Zefield was really after was the Intrepid. Avery just happened to be the owner of the vessel. His skill and reputation had little if anything to do with this offer.
This hurt Avery’s pride a bit, since he thought that he was being recognized by a seven star rcenary for his ability.
’I guess my unique carrier ship is an important asset of mine. Cerise only hired for a lucrative job because of it as well.’
Avery nodded his head in understanding, and the man sitting next to Zefield activated a holoprojector in the middle of the table.
All it did was display a few numbers. So very impressive ones at that.
"Two hundred thirty million for twenty-five days. One and a half million for each day of travel to the site. With the possibility of extending the contract for eleven million a day up to two months after arrival at the job’s location."
Zefield explained what each of the numbers represented and Avery realized that these were the terms of paynt.
They were honestly pretty good. Not quite so much as for the mission Cerise wanted them to accomplish, but her request would see them crossing over enemy lines into the Zatis Consortium where one wrong move could get them all killed.
Nevertheless, starting with paynt was not the way negotiations with rcenaries typically went. What types of jobs that they took mattered more to most of them than the pay. Zefield or anyone else could offer any amount that they wanted, but Avery was not going to accept an obvious suicide mission.
"The pay looks good, but I don’t know what it is that you want from my company. Before I can agree, I obviously need to know more about the job. Surely as a seven star rcenary, you know that it’s necessary to look after my crew." Avery replied, letting a hint of agitation through in his voice.
No one seed to mind or acknowledge this though. Zefield simply looked towards the unknown businesswoman sitting across from him who had been silent up until now.
"I suppose that it’s my turn. I’m Abigail Barra. I’m representing the client that hired mister Zefield. Before we can continue, I need you and your companion to sign a confidentiality agreent. Don’t worry, this does not make either of you legally liable to accept the job. It’s simply to encourage you not to disclose the information you are about to learn to anyone else."
Abigail handed a tablet over to Avery and Kasandra that had the relevant docunt pulled up.
Obviously, before signing anything they read through the entire thing.
It was a standard confidentiality agreent that would bind both parties from leaking any of the listed information.
In Avery’s case, this specified the systems and capabilities of the vessels that belonged to his company. For whatever this job was, they were going to need to hand over detailed information about the Intrepid for certain. This agreent made it so that if either Zefield or his employer leaked any nonpublic information, that they would be monetarily liable.
On the other hand, If Avery or Kasandra spread the information pertaining to the mission, they would be the ones who owed a substantial sum in restitution.
’Whatever this is, it must be pretty important. To think if we break the agreent, we’ll have to pay them two billon Krenin. That’s an absurd amount. I could buy three more Intrepids with that much money. Though, I probably couldn’t get more queen energy lifeforms. But that’s beside the point.’ Avery thought, finding the penalty of breaking the confidentiality agreent to be sowhat harrowing.
They were being offered a lot of money, that was true. However, in so ways the proposed paynt made this job seem more ominous. If a reputable seven star rcenary was not attached, Avery would have declined the deal at this point instead of signing the agreent.
Still, since it was truthfully Zefield who was the one higher Avery, he figured that this mission was probably legitimate. It was unlikely that soone that had reached the pinnacle of the rcenary Association was going to be taking dirty jobs. There was no reason to.
"Before we go any further, I just want to ask if we should be expecting this assignnt to be dangerous?"
Knowing that he had Kasandra beside him, Avery figured that this question would let them know at least a bit of what was going on. And if either Zefield or Abigail tried to lie to them, they would know now and could back out.
"I an, as with any rcenary work, there are bound to be threats invol-"
"Yes, it is. We’ve already turned back once before." Zefield said bluntly, interrupting Abigail who was trying to answer Avery’s question tactfully.
For a few monts, the signal Kasandra was supposed to give Avery for whether this was a lie or the truth was delayed. That was just how shocking it was to hear a seven star rcenary admit to having failed a job.
Eventually though, she rembered one of her reasons for being here and inford Avery that Zefield was telling the truth. The was no reason to really care about what Abigail had been trying to say anyway.
"Just one more question. Do you think that with my company’s assistance, you’ll be able to complete this mission?"
Zefield nodded his head confidently. Whatever it was that had stopped him last ti, he at least believed that bringing Avery’s team along would solve the issue.
"Okay. Then we’ll both sign the agreent and listen to the details of the job." Avery said, satisfied with Zefield’s honest and to the point answers.
He quickly scrolled down to the place to sign their nas, and once he was finished, Avery passed the tablet over to Kasandra.
Abigail confird that they had signed the docunt and then got up to leave. It seed that this was the only part that she was here for. Zefield was the one that would be hiring Avery and his team. The representative of his client was rely there to make sure that information was not shared until the confidentiality agreent was signed.
"So, what is it that were up against?"
Looking pleased by how Avery had handled the eting so far, Zefield explained what the mission entailed.
As it turned out, his employer had a team that had been exploring space beyond the current borders of the Dramid Alliance.
Mapping out new hyperlanes into uncharted space ca with certain dangers, but it could be very lucrative. And it seed that this exploration team had co across sothing incredibly rare and valuable.
"The newly discovered system has a habitable world with ruins of an unknown civilization. There are five types of dangerous and previously unidentified space monsters that reside in the system preventing landing on the world though. My team alone isn’t enough to clear them out."
What Zefield told them was the real probably was lack of a place to repair and conduct maintenance on his group’s ships.
There were a large number of space monsters that needed to be fought off, and over ti wear and damage built up on their vessels.
They had tried bringing in a large craft with the necessary facilities and chanics, but it had ended up under attack several tis. In the end, they were forced to retreat or start suffering losses.
That was why they needed a sizable carrier ship that had a hangar with advanced equipnt for repairing and maintaining spacecraft but could also defend itself from swarms of space monsters. And Avery’s Intrepid just happened to fit the bill.
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