Chapter 446 - 446 An Intriguing Offer (4)

Avery was more interested in the mission now that the details of it had been divulged to him and Kasandra.Discovery of a habitable planet with unknown ancient ruins on it was not something that happened often. Honestly, if a seven star mercenary had not been the one to bring this job to him, Avery would have thought that it was a hoax.

Still, he knew that there was plenty of unexplored space out there that the Dramid Alliance had not reached yet.

Naturally, there were advanced technologies for looking at collecting data on far away areas, but they could only discern so much.

With light and radiation being the main sources of information, the further away something was, the older the information that was being recorded and analyzed. A lot could change in a system even over just a couple millennia depending on certain conditions, so what might have been picked up by instrument could be vastly different when people actually arrived.

In this case, the habitable planet was expected, but there had been no signs of space monsters or civilization from the long-range imaging that had been taken several dozen years ago.

The system in question was around three thousand light years from the current border of the Dramid Alliance, making it pretty far away.

Still, the prospect of a habitable world had plenty of companies funding explorer groups, and even the central government had been trying to map out hyperlane routes to reach the place.

Space was certainly not forgiving, and planets that could naturally support life were rare to say the least. Even planets capable of being terraformed were quite uncommon. Certain conditions had to be met, or it was impossible or at least highly impractical for a planet to sustain life.

"I can see why you were having trouble. The nearest outpost is almost three weeks away, and a station with proper facilities for full repair and maintenance would take over a month to reach." Avery said as he fiddled with holomap display showing their destination.

Whatever company Zefield was working for had done an excellent job mapping the hyperlane routes from the edge of the Dramid Alliance to the system in question considering that it would only take three weeks to get there.

However, when the explorers had first arrived in the system, the multitude of space monsters had forced them to retreat.

They had apparently tried to clear the creatures out themselves but eventually gave up and hired Zefield. His team was known to be the best space monster hunting specialists in the entire Mercenary Association.

"And your employer wishes to remain anonymous to my company, correct?"

"Apologies, but yes. They wish to avoid potential complications. There is a great deal of money and prestige wrapped up in all this." Zefield replied curtly.

While the people that were employing him were the first to have reached the system, the competition to establish ownership over the system's resources was still hotly contested.

Until a proper base was created in the system and the company in question had laid a solid foundation of exploration, they would not be able to claim any rights over habitable planet.

Fortunately, none of their competition seemed to be too close to reaching the system, but that could change if there was an information leak.

While Avery and Kasandra were being told some information, the entire data on the hyperlanes was not being shared with them. Only a broad overview to give them some idea about what the job would entail.

When they reached the edge of the Dramid Alliance, the Intrepid's navigation would be handed over to Zefield's team and their logs would be periodically erased along the way so that they would not be able to retrace the route.

There was a great amount of secrecy involved here, but that was just how valuable the operation was.

'Well, it's not like we've been told explicitly not to record the path through hyperspace. They may be keeping the Intrepid from recoding the data, but there are other ways to figure out where the hyper lane entrances and exits are.'

It was not that Avery did not trust Zefield. Simply put, on the off chance everyone that knew the route back home were killed, then Avery and his team would be stranded. Potentially for the rest of their lives.

So, he was already planning on a way to make sure that they could get back to the Dramid Alliance even if he had to be a bit sneaky about it.

"From everything you've told us, I'm willing to accept. If you give me the formal contract, I'll sign it so long as there aren't any discrepancies."

Avery certainly found this job to be attractive. Not only was the money good, but it would give him the chance to work alongside a seven star mercenary team and survey a previously unexplored system.

This would count as quite the achievement and increasing his standing with the Mercenary Association and potential clients in the future. Along with completing Cerise's job in the future and receiving her recommendation, Avery might really have a shot at becoming a six star mercenary within a year.

Once Avery had finished looking over the documents and added his signature, he handed the tablet back over to Zefield.

"Good. We'll be expecting you in the Ainelou System within a month." Zefield said upon confirming the signed contract.

Due to Avery's team just having returned from a job, the start day of the mission allowed for a few days of leeway. That way they could rest and gather supplies.

Before Zefield and his companions left though, there was one other thing that Avery wanted to know.

"Since we will be working together, would you mind introducing your companions to us? If its not too much trouble?"

Throughout the entire meeting, the man and woman sitting next to Zefield had not said a word.

At first, Avery wondered why they were even here, but he now figured that it might be for a similar reason that he had brought Kasandra along. The two of them might have specialties that allowed them to be useful during negotiations.