"So, I believe that I understand your position. Storren. Corp wishes to show off their best product in the coming competition to receive a major contract from the Alliance Police. However, after the SCXD-011 prototype was stolen, you lost the data and the main personnel in charge of creating it. Now it’s ended up in my possession, and even if you analyze it now, you won’t have time to create another one in time." Avery said, summarizing the main points of the discussion they had.
Dorris and Ardesen nodded their heads in agreement. Naturally, there was a bit more nuisance than just this, but it certainly covered Storren Corp.’s main concerns.
Seeing that they were all on the right page, Avery’s lips turned up into a smile that would give even a greedy merchant a run for their money.
"There really is a simple solution to your problems. All you need to do is hire me to be the test pilot during the competition. That way I still get to retain ownership of the Dauntless, and Storren. Corp still gets to show it off when the time comes. Should you win the contract, you’ll have plenty of time to reproduce the craft by the time you need to fulfill the Alliance Police’s order."
Avery’s suggestion left the two Storren Corp. executives baffled for a few moments, before they aggressively began discussing it amongst each other, and even getting their assistants involved to give them certain bits of information.
From the parts of the conversation Avery could make out, it seemed that they were checking all of the requirements set by the Alliance Assembly for the competition.
"It looks like it will be possible."
"Yes, but we’ll have to go through a few loopholes. And some of the other executives won’t be happy that we didn’t get the ship back."
"We can worry about that later. This honestly might have some unintended benefits as well."
As Dorris and Ardesen continued to chat away, Avery and Kasandra waited silently. Still, it seemed that they would be able to come to an agreement.
"We’ve concluded that your proposal is likely to be acceptable. We’ll use our authority to push it through at Storren Corp." Ardesen said, wearing a relived expression.
Dorris on the other hand had put on her best negotiating face again and began discussing compensation with Avery.
Obviously if they were going to be hiring him, he would be expecting to receive some sort of reward for his time and effort.
Then there was also the price they would have to pay to analyze the Dauntless, and a necessary contract with Avery to prevent him from allowing any of their competitors access to the vessel. Plus, they would obviously prefer that he only receive maintenance and repairs at their facilities whenever possible.
All of these measures would somewhat restrict Avery’s freedoms, meaning that they were naturally going to be costly.
Still, Storren Corp. had been willing to drop twenty million Krenin at the start of the negations, and thirty million in credit. That showed just how important this endeavor was to them.
Fortunately, their Chief Financial Officer was present, so there was no need to wait for any higherups’ approval.
Dorris got right to work calculating what she believed everything was worth and swiftly pushed the tablet device she was working on over to Avery.
"That’s quite the amount." Avery said, having to force down his excitement when he saw the numbers.
For everything, including his services piloting the SCXD-011 during the competition to win the Alliance Police contract, Dorris was offering him eight million Krenin. This was honestly a staggering payday. More than most people would make in a lifetime.
Yet, Avery had honestly been considering another means of payment since the option of credit to purchase another ship from Storren Cop. had been brought up.
There was only so much he could do as a solo mercenary with only a single ship.
A lot of the top mercenaries formed squadrons around themselves and grew strong enough to take on bigger and more profitable jobs. They could serve as transports, haul cargo, protect large fleets of merchant ships, even sometimes be contracted to serve as extra security around colonies or especially high traffic hyperplanes.
Plus, while Kasandra was an amazing copilot, she was more suitable to flying her own craft. That’s what she had been doing for the last six years of her life after all. It was simply a truly awful bout of misfortune that had seen her losing her own vessel.
"This is certainly an acceptable amount of money, but I was wondering if there was something else that we might be able to get as payment instead?"
Avery then laid out his idea. Having a custom, top of the line ship made for Kasandra.
Naturally, this came as a surprise to her. They had not discussed such a thing beforehand, and she had no clue that Avery had been thinking as such.
"There’s really no need to do that! I’m perfectly happy being a member of your crew. That’s far too much money to spend on me." Kasandra said, the cool and collected demeanor she had been displaying falling apart in an instant.
She was obviously flustered by the proposal. Avery had just offered to purchase her something worth at least eight million Krenin after all. That was not the kind of money that even successful mercenaries could casually spend.
"I don’t see a problem. You’re more than a capable enough pilot, and of course I’d want you to have the best ship possible, so there’s no point in cheeping out. Also, think of it as an investment. With two vessels, we could make twice as much money, if not more."
Avery slowly won Kasandra over as he chipped away at her reservations. At this point, he could never see himself letting her go. So, it only made sense to put her talents to use and make her the first member of the mercenary force he planned on growing.