Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 33 - Operation’s Conclusion

"Lieutenant, casualty and damage reports." Deputy Chief Ikla said, sitting in the captain's seat of the Alliance Police flagship.

"Sir, thirty-one reported dead. Two heavy cruisers, five light cruisers, eight destroyers, and eleven frigates have sustained substantial damage. None of our ships have been lost, though."

With a heavy sigh, Deputy Chief Ikla looked down at the console in front of him that had the comprehensive data of the battle displayed on it.

Everything had been going well at the beginning, but the appearance of heavy reinforcements from outside of the system had caused the operation to be thrown into chaos.

Naturally, they had been wary of pirates not locked in the blockade and collaborators that had dealings with the pirates interfering, but the forces they had at their disposal exceeded every reasonable calculation.

"I'm only in charge of this sector. There's not much I can do now that they've fled. All I can do is collect information and send it up the chain of command. Hopefully someone can figure out what's going on." Deputy Chief Ikla murmured too quietly for any of his subordinates to hear.

He could practically taste something more sinister going on than just pirate activity. Thirty-five fully armed ships did not appear out of nowhere. And their tactics and abilities were far superior to what any pirate would usually be capable of.

Still, ruminating on it now would only eat away at him, so Ikla instead turned his attention to something else.

The situation had called for the Alliance Police to put a heavier burden on their mercenary forces than anticipated, and one had stood out among all of them.

"Lieutenant, I want all of the information you can give me on the two star mercenary, Avery Asteria."

...

With the battle having come to a sudden end, Avery found himself waiting on standby for orders from the Alliance Police.

Currently, he was sitting in the pilot's chair and waiting for Kasandra to return.

After being gone for around twenty minutes, he heard the cockpit's doors open, and turned around to find his temporary crewmember with a small bag slung over one of her shoulders.

"Okay, I've got my stuff from my cockpit. You can go ahead and eject it now."

"Are you sure? It's all that's left of your ship." Avery said, wearing a concerned expression.

"Yeah, it's taking up all the space in your cargo hold. And I'm certain that with all of the vessels you took out, there's plenty of valuable weapons and equipment you could put in there instead. I'd feel bad if you lost out on some Krenin for my sake."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

Avery could see a hint of sadness on Kasandra's face. Now that the exhilaration of the battle had faded, the cold reality of her loss was starting to sink in.

For a mercenary, their ship was pretty much their life. Without it, the jobs she could take and the money she could earn would be significantly reduced.

Normally, she would have to start working on other people's vessels, for only around three percent of the profits of any completed work. Or she could take on colony work, though those jobs paid significantly less than those geared to mercenaries with their own ships.

Fortunately, she still had her brother to rely on. His ship had escaped the riad mostly undamaged.

"Well, they'll have to work something out amongst themselves." Avery whispered to himself. Remembering Kasandra's reluctance to board Kaiden's vessel.

"Did you say something?"

Kasandra's feline ears twitched on top of her head, and she looked towards Avery expectantly.

"Just that it's about time that I show you around. Follow me and I'll take you to the room you'll be staying in."

Getting up quickly, Avery ushered Kasandra to the nearest crew room.

However, just before opening the door, he remembered that this was where he had stored the seven bodies that had been onboard when he found the Dauntless.

Since then, he had not gone in there once, and naturally, this meant it had not been cleaned.

He could not very well let the guest staying onboard his ship sleep in such a place. Especially Kasandra, since not only was she a young woman, but as a Felis Therianthrope, she had an acute sense of smell and might pick up on the lingering scent of death in the room.

"Ah, sorry, not this one actually. Here, I think you'll find this room a bit more accommodating." Avery said, walking a couple meters down the hallway and opening the door to the other crew quarters.

Inside were six small bunks and not much else than a bit of storage space for personal belongings.

"You weren't kidding when you said it would be cramped." Kasandra said, her words coming out a bit harsher than she intended.

Immediately, she realized her blunder and turned towards Avery with an apologetic expression.

For around a minute she did everything she could to convince him that she was not ungrateful for the aid he had given her.

"I understand. There's no need to get into such a tizzy about it. The room really is small, and most of the space is taken up by the six beds. I plan on converting it into something more usable in the future, but it was originally meant for military officers. I'm sure that they wanted to cram as large of a crew on here as they could without sacrificing functionality."

Once Avery had assured her that he was not upset or thought less of her for her comment, Kasandra calmed down.

Then, after she placed what remained of her possessions in the room that would be hers for at least a little while, Avery showed her to the rest of the ship.

"And here's the dining hall slash kitchen. The autochef is on that cabinet, and the food capsules are in that drawer. Feel free to help yourself whenever you get hungry."

At the mentioned food, a small growl could be heard coming from Kasandra's stomach.

Reflexively, she reached down to her stomach as if she could stop the noise with her hands and looked up at Avery with her cheeks tinged slightly pink from embarrassment.

"I suppose we might as well eat now. Who knows how long it will be until the Alliance Police finally decide to get back to us."