"I’m sorry that I lost my composure during battle. I promise it won’t happen again."
Jasmine bowed her head deeply and profusely apologized to Avery and Kasandra.
She had frozen up during the fight with the extremists when she should have been doing her job as a supporter. Kasandra had made sure to cover the work she was supposed to be doing so that Avery would not be distracted, but that was no excuse for her failure.
"Go ahead and raise your head. It’s hardly a matter worth fretting over. I should have warned you about what I was planning on doing first. Since you used to be a mber of the police, I didn’t consider what it would be like for you to experience such a deadly battle for your first ti with ship-to-ship combat. That’s my fault. Having missiles and lasers large enough to engulf your whole ship flying at you isn’t sothing easy to get used to." Avery said to alleviate any guilt that Jasmine was feeling.
He rembered well the first ti Urs put him through a similar simulation. Except he had been all alone then with no backup.
And while simulations were not nearly as harrowing as the real deal, it had helped Avery to get used to the pressure. Especially when failure ant going a few rounds with his ntor in the combat practice rooms. Sothing that hardly ever went well for him and usually had him needing to pay a visit to the onsite dical station.
The recent pirate and energy lifeform battles had also helped him to build confidence. He knew his own capabilities as well as the Dauntless’. Only when he was positive it was sothing he could handle did he dive into battle.
"So don’t worry about it. Take your ti and get used to your new environnt. And while I can’t say that we won’t get into more fights of a similar level, sothing like that is pretty rare."
Thanks to Avery’s words of encouragent, Jasmine managed to calm down a bit more. She was still a bit used to her previous work environnt and expected a reprimand for her failure.
Of course, had she done sothing that really put their lives in danger, Avery might have been a bit upset, but there was no reason to be in this situation. Jasmine was still learning her role, and Kasandra was around to pick up the slack if necessary. Mistakes were bound to happen and Avery wanted her to know that that was okay.
"If I might ask. What happened aboard the enemy vessel?"
""You don’t want to know!"" Both Avery and Kasandra said forcefully in unison. The image of the blood and viscera splattered ss hall coming to the forefront of their minds.
Now they both looked paler than Jasmine was, and she began fretting over their deteriorating conditions.
…
In stark contrast to the deadly battle they had fought, the next four days of travel went by uneventfully.
The damaged Moonrise fleet and their remaining rcenary guards traveled with extra caution, but it was apparently unnecessary.
No other enemies tried to ambush them, and they reached their destination without further issue.
"Long range sensors aren’t picking up anything out of the ordinary. And no distress signals have been detected. Everything seems to be normal." Jasmine said, diligently relaying the information displayed on the console in front of her.
Ever since her slipup during the previous battle, she had been pushing herself as hard as she could to act as a sufficient supporter for Avery and Kasandra.
To make sure that the fleet avoided any additional unforeseen circumstances, Avery had exited the hyper lane first to make sure that there were not any threats lying in wait.
Fortunately, the Phregon System was free of imdiate danger. Likely thanks to the heavy Alliance Police presence due to the planet being terraford.
"Okay, go ahead and send the all clear ssage to Svantur."
Avery watched as Jasmine crafted a short ssage and transmitted it using the Dauntless’ hyperspace transmitter.
After that, all they needed to do was wait for three minutes and the other would arrive.
Except, during that brief window of ti, an Alliance Police vessel ca by on patrol.
"This is the Alliance Police, Phregon System unit seven patrol ship Helios. Identify yourself."
Receiving the sudden command was a bit surprising since the Alliance police were typically a bit more cordial, but Jasmine quickly responded and sent the requested information over.
"My apologies for the heavy handedness of our request. We’ve been having a lot of difficult people coming through thanks to the planet being terraford." The captain of the Alliance Police said after confirming Avery’s identity.
"It’s no problem. You’re just doing your job. But by "difficult people", do you an the ones flying around in old military vessels from the Reswen Theocracy and attacking rchants?"
Avery was naturally wondering if similar attacks had occurred, but his ntion of it ca as a complete surprise to the Alliance Police captain.
"No, nothing as serious as that. Just so protesters from environntal activities groups making a nuisance of themselves. Could you elaborate on what occurred?"
Before Avery could comply and send the data recorded on the Dauntless’ computer, the cargo ships of the Moonrise rchant company and rcenaries accompanying them ca out of hyperspace.
Obviously, this caused quite the shock for the Alliance Police captain, and he soon entered lengthy talks with Svantur.
At the very least, this kept Avery from having to explain everything, so he simply sat back and let the two leaders work things out amongst themselves.
It was not long before more Alliance ships showed up and hauled away the three Reswen Theocracy vessel that had been captured. Though not until Svantur negotiated a tidy sum for them.
With a police escort, the Moonrise fleet was brought to the largest trading colony within the system, Phregon III.
"That’s one hell of a station." Avery said as he let out an impressed whistle.
Compared to his ho of Yuson II, and even Yuson Pri, Phregon III was far larger. Capable of housing over six million people.
Currently there were hundreds of vessels docked to deliver goods for the budding world that was soon to be habitable.
Yet there were so individuals that were clearly not here to assist with or celebrate the addition of a new world within the Alliance.
"They’re certainly putting on quite the show." Kasandra comnted, looking towards a group of ships that had large glowing signs on their hulls.
These signs had things along the lines of "People weren’t ant to live on this planet" and "Don’t destroy lives for your own greed."
It was fairly obvious that these were so of the environntal activists that the Alliance Police captain had ntioned earlier.
"I wonder what they are even getting worked up about. Isn’t terraforming just taking a planet that wasn’t suitable for life and adapting its atmosphere and geography so people can live there. Do these people have a screw loose or sothing?" Avery said, visibly confused why anyone would protest the creation of a new habitable world.
"Avery, what you said is mostly true, but not in this case."
Jasmine explained that the planet currently being terraford in the Phregon System already had so forms of life on it.
The place was apparently a frozen wasteland that even in the tropical zone during sumr, it never rose above negative ten degrees. Still, life found a way, and there were a couple thousand unique species of flora and fauna that had been identified on the world.
"Still, as per Alliance law, several biodos will be established to protect a portion of the original habitats and the species that call the planet ho. Plus, at least one of each will need to be stored in an enclosure on an orbital colony to make sure that they never go extinct. There’s hardly much reason to protest." Jasmine said exasperatedly.
Habitable worlds, natural or terraford, were far too rare for people to simply give up on them for reasons like preserving a planet’s natural state.
Even within all of the Dramid Alliance’s vast territory, there were only sixteen worlds that were naturally habitable, and another fifty-seven that had been terraford. It was incredibly rare to et the necessary requirents for the majority of intelligent species to be able to survive on a planet.
While Avery, Kasandra, and Jasmine were busy discussing the ethics of terraforming a planet that already had living creatures on it, they received a communication for the Moonrise flagship.
"I want to thank all of the brave rcenaries that fought valiantly to protect the fleet under my command. I know many of you lost comrades during this journey, and while it is not much, offering fair compensation is all we can really do to repay all of you. Including a large bonus from the vessels we sold to the Alliance Police, all of you will be receiving an additional reward that takes your contributions into account." Svantur said over shared comms.
For so of the rcenaries this hardly made the sting of losing their friends better, but for Avery and his group, it was more than welco. Despite having taken a central role in the battle, none of them had been so much as injured. The extra money simply made this job sweeter for them.
With that, all of the rcenaries had completed their contracts to protect the Moonrise fleet on its journey from the Yuson System to Phregon System.
"Jasmine, send a docking request. We need to go pay the rcenary Association branch a visit and pick up our pay for a job completed."
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