Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"Five hundred ten million for the modified Ontembaar model cargo ship, and forty-six million for the corvette. That's my final offer."

Dorris was practically grinding her teeth by the end of the negotiations.

Trying to oversell their prices was a futile endeavor with Kasandra around to sniff out any lies. All she could do was give her best estimates, as Avery and his team argued for lower costs and discounts on account of the most minor things.

In the end, the carrier vessel Avery wanted should have cost just shy of six hundred million Krenin considering he only wanted the absolutely best equipment and facilities, while Kaiden's corvette should have cost around fifty-eight million.

However, considering that they were making two large purchases at the same time, a slight discount had been applied.

That was not quite enough for Avery, Kasandra, and Kaiden though, so they negotiated another reduction in price by offering up some media rights and promising to do a few promotional videos for Storren Corp. after the upcoming competition.

Avery might have still been relatively new to the world of mercenaries, but he was rising up the ranks quickly and was now a five star mercenary that had received the Alliance Silver Cross of Heroism.

Giving his endorsement to Storren Corp.'s products would almost certainly assist with their marketing and cause more young and hopeful mercenaries to buy vessels from them. All of them wishing to recreate Avery's success.

Of course, there was another matter that needed to be addressed before either Avery's or Kaiden's vessel could be built.

"Now, we can get started on everything else, but the high-end military grade weaponry you both chose is not something we can sell you without express permission from the Alliance Police or the Department of Alliance Security. On smaller ships it is not as much of a problem since there is a limit to the output of the weapons due to size. But what you two are after are clearly larger warships in line with or better than what the Alliance Police currently have. Obviously, they don't just want anyone get ahold of such dangerous weapons." Dorris said, informing Avery and Kaiden of a problem with their orders.

Naturally, they could easily lower their expectations a bit and purchase the best civilian approved weaponry instead. This would still make their ships quite powerful and typically more than enough to deal with pirates.

Nevertheless, Avery knew that he and his team had a penchant for getting into trouble. Their enemies were not always ragtag pirates with cobbled together ships that lacked good shielding and armor.

If he was going to be arming his new craft that was to be the new base of his team, then he wanted it to have the best.

"Well, save the weapons system for later. I've got some connections in the Alliance Police and few that owe me some favors. I'm sure I can get at least a couple deputy chiefs and commanders to vouch for me. And if that's not enough, we do have a world leader as well who I'm sure would give us her approval." Avery replied confidently.

Dorris was honestly surprised to hear that Avery was acquainted with such high-ranking individuals. For every major incident he got thrown into though, someone important had been forced to get involved. Bringing their paths together.

With most of the matters settled, it was now time to deal with the payment of these two advanced ships that Avery and Kaiden wanted to purchase.

Firstly, Kaiden paid for his in full. He had plenty of money saved up and had more than enough to cover the forty-six million Krenin price tag on his corvette.

Avery on the other hand, was a bit shy of half of the total price of his modified cargo ship turned carrier.

Fortunately, it was not necessary to pay the entire five hundred ten million Krenin all at once. It would take some time for Storren Corp. to finish the construction, and a down payment of two hundred million was more than enough to get started. Avery would just need to send in the rest in smaller increments during the building process until he reached the entire amount. Worst-case scenario, he had to ask the other members of his team to chip in like they already offered.

Once the process of signing documents and approving payments had been completed, the overall length of their meeting had exceeded six hours and was closing in on seven.

It had been a lengthy process, but such was the necessity of such a major deal.

Dorris, while not particularly happy about how things had gone, was still content. This contract was going to be worth a great deal and see Storren Corp. bringing in a decent profit even if it was not astronomical.

As for Ardesen, well, he was ecstatic to say the least. He now had two big projects to let loose on and large budget for both of them. He was looking forward to conferring with the engineers at their main shipyard where the creation of Avery' and Kaiden's vessels would be.

"If that's all of the business that you have here, I need to be getting back to my regular work. Since Ardesen invited you all in, he can be the one to handle the formalities of the competition you're participating in." Dorris said, ready to leave now that the sale had been completed.

Except, Avery had one other issue he wanted to address before she left. She was undoubtably shrewder than her fellow executive, and Avery figured she would be better to bring this matter to.

"Actually, there is one more thing. I've recently been warned that there's a faction within Storren Corp. that wants to get rid of me and reclaim the Dauntless. I believe that it's being headed by a guy named Strozen, who you told me about when we first made our current arrangements."

Grimacing, Dorris clearly did not want to talk about this issue, but considering that it had already reached Avery's ears, there was not much she could do about it.

"Yes, he's very much opposed to a random mercenary owning our experimental craft meant to win us a major Alliance Police contract. He's been trying to get others onboard to leverage the corporation's authority to force you to give it up. He and his cronies are in the minority though. Ardesen and I have made sure to wield our own influence to elevate your reputation."

"I figured as much. But I would like as few enemies here as possible." Avery said, wearing a plotting expression. "So, to curry a bit more favor within Storren Corp., I'd like you to leak the details of the deal we just made. I'm sure that there are plenty of members of the upper management that would rather not see a contract worth several hundred million vanishing because someone did something stupid."

Understanding what Avery wanted, Dorris nodded her head in agreement. The company now had far more to lose than gain if Avery severed their relationship for one reason or another. The executives that cared about profit margins would definitely take his side over Storzen's. No doubt there would soon be fewer people lending him their ears and considering his outlandish proposals.