Chapter 534 New Orders

Another week and a half went by as Avery and his team continued to pretend to be smugglers for the Odium Syndicate.

They had kept an eye out for any signs that their infiltration into the distribution center had been discovered, but no one they were working with showed even a hint of suspicion.

As such, Avery’s company had stayed on course and made all of the delivers of Paradise that was asked of them.

And while more information on the works of the Odium Syndicate within the Zatis Consortium did not reveal itself to them, they were slowly learning about the smuggling network set up within the Dramid Alliance.

Even now, if Cerise were to act on the intelligence that Avery had gathered, she would be able to heavily cripple the criminal organization’s operations.

Nevertheless, the ultimate goal was to bring down the Odium Syndicate almost entirely. To the point that it would take far too many resources and too much time for them to realistically recover.

"Hm, I wonder what this could be about. During our scheduled call two days ago, she didn’t have anything new for us."

Avery had just finished a few hundred laps in the Intrepid’s pool as part of his exercise routine and when he went to gather his stuff in the changing room, he noticed that Cerise had left him a message asking that he contact her as soon as he was available.

It obviously could not have been a major emergency at least, otherwise she would have contacted Ezra, Kasandra, Jasmine, or Liesel, and one of them would have sent someone to get him.

Still, something must have happened if she needed to contact him so suddenly.

’I know she’s been receiving pressure from above. I wonder if it’s about that. Maybe she’s being forced to terminate the contract after all. I mean, so long as we get paid for the time we’ve already committed, I won’t complain. This job has already made all of us plenty of money.’ Avery thought while he dried off and changed clothes.

Once he was ready, Avery exited the pool area and headed straight to his office.

He was technically still off duty right now and had planned on having some fun in one of the ship simulators with a new training program, but being in charge meant sometimes sacrificing free time to deal with important work.

When he arrived, he found that some reports he would need to review had been delivered, but he disregarded them for now.

They would not be anything too important, and at least half of them would be either from Grito’s team or Doctor Raiti trying to get more funding for their projects.

"Sometimes I miss being the leader of a small team of mercenaries. It was simpler back then. Being in charge of over three thousand people is a lot of work."

However, Avery still smiled even as he was sighing about his workload.

For all of the added difficulties, he did enjoy being the leader of a powerful mercenary company.

All of the obligations he had were ones that he had accepted himself. Otherwise, he was basically free to do as he liked. The perks of his job certainly outweighed any of the negatives.

"I’d say it’s been a while, but it has only been two days since our last meeting." Avery said the moment his call connected to Cerise.

"Yes, and I’d not been planning on getting in contact until our next scheduled time. Unfortunately, circumstances have forced my hand."

Cerise pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her weary eyes for a moment as she collected her thoughts.

"I truly tried my best to refuse, but the argument has been made by several upper ranking members within the Alliance Police that I am underutilizing a powerful asset by making you play smuggler and slowly collect intel. I’ve been told that it’s wasteful to pay mercenaries eighteen million Krenin a day, when I could have more easily hired a regular cargo vessel and its crew to do the same work."

"I see, so our contract is getting axed. Well, I don’t mind. We haven’t really learned much else since the last time we spoke, but I’ll have everything sent over to you. What you and the Alliance Police do with the information after that will be up to you all." Avery said, wearing a resigned expression.

Yet, Cerise merely cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

It seemed that the she was not trying to convey that their partnership was coming to an end.

"Unless you’re ready to call it a quits, that’s not what my or the Alliance Police’s intentions are. Instead, they want me to give you a new mission that utilizes your group’s offensive capabilities."

As it turned out, the location of the Paradise production plant that Avery’s team had uncovered was in an isolated area.

There was nothing else around it for several light years, which made sense considering that it was a place where a highly addictive and illegal drug was being manufactured.

The authorities of the Zatis Consortium still at least claimed that the Odium Syndicate was a criminal organization, and the disruption of their drug within their borders was basically nonexistent.

They were not trying to harm their own citizenry like they were in the Dramid Alliance.

So, they could not have such a place be anywhere where the general public might learn about it.

"That’s why it makes a good target. Still, we can’t just have Alliance Police ships breach the border and attack. Doing so might cause a true all-out war to start. And that is something we want to avoid if at all possible."

"Which is why you want to send in my company. We can slip past the border with ease thanks to our credentials and already established business dealings within the Consortium. And if worst comes to worst, we’ll just be seen as pirates unaffiliated with the Dramid Alliance. I’m sure that you’ve been told to deny any connection to us in case we’re captured." Avery said, certain of his assertion.

"You are correct. I’ve been told that for how much we’ve been paying you, your team should be doing more. Those idiots don’t seem to understand that I’d never seen an unarmed cargo vessel into enemy territory in the first place though. If you are found out, you’ve got firepower of a small fleet to protect yourselves. That’s why I entrusted this job to you in the first place and didn’t hire a much cheaper team to do it."

Cerise ranted about the lack of competence among some of the Alliance Police’s higherups.

She lambasted them for not knowing what it was like to operate in the field and being in charge of people’s lives.

To them, all of this was just numbers on a set of documents.

"I know that you said you would be willing to take more risks, but I’m not going to force this on to you. If you think that the danger is too great, the contract can be ended now, and you’ll receive the pay for the work you’ve already completed. I still hold all of the power there at least."

Avery wanted to give his agreement immediately, but he held himself back and carefully thought about the scenario instead.

Attacking the Odium production faciality might not have been a clear suicide mission, but it still would be dangerous.

There would no doubt be numerous defenses in place to protect the base. And the only thing that they had was its location. What they would find when they arrived was a complete mystery.

"Would you give me a few minutes. I’d like to consult with some of the other members of my crew first before making a decision."

"Sure, that’s fine. Just don’t keep me waiting too long."

Avery nodded his head before muting and minimizing the call.

He then contacted Ezra, Kasandra, Jasmine, Liesel, Olivia, Kaiden, and Burke.

They were the people he trusted the most, and he wanted their input on whether they should take the risk and directly assault one of the Odium Syndicate’s production facilities.

It took around half an hour of discussion, but a consensus was eventually made.

Most everyone had been on the same page from the start, and the two that were a bit hesitant had only needed a bit of convincing.

"So, what did you decided on?" Cerise asked once Avery had reconnected to their call.

"We’re in. It seems doable, and when talking to my most trusted officers, I found out that some of the crew has been itching for something more exciting. They’ve been bored just sitting around the ship for so long with no action. We are combat mercenaries to begin with after all."

Cerise smiled at Avery’s affirmation and began sending him the details of the request and what support the Alliance Police were able to offer.

"Looks good. We’ll start preparing. By the end of next week, the Odium Syndicate should be down one of their bases."