Chapter 512: Chapter 512 Joining a Criminal Organization

After a few days of travel, the Intrepid came out of hyperspace into an area of space practically devoid of anything.

They currently were not within the bounds of a star system, but in the middle of nowhere in interstellar space.

Typically, people would have no reason to venture into such areas as there was nothing of value or interest.

The place Avery’s team found themselves at was especially barren, without even any stray rocks floating around. All that was present was the usual radiation and cosmic dust.

Well, except for one very conspicuous structure.

A single station around only around a third the size of the Intrepid was floating by itself. With only the distant lights of stars and other celestial bodies serving as proof that anything else in the universe existed besides it.

There were obviously very few reasons to have constructed a station in this place. With the most common being for people engaged in unscrupulous activities.

"Seeing this makes me wonder how many bases like these are spread out through the Dramid Alliance? It really is the perfect place to hide something you don’t want anyone else finding out about." Avery said, a contemplative look on his face.

He had not really been looking for a response for his mussing, but Jasmine stated what she had learned during her time as a member of the Alliance Police.

"Not as many as you might think. It’s not easy to map out the hyperlanes, and all those resources are essentially being used to go nowhere. Plus, food, water, people, and basically everything has to be brough in from outside sources since there’s nothing around. If you’re up to suspicious activities, which people building these bases usually are, there’s a good chance someone will get tracked back to the location and all of the effort in creating a secret base will be for nothing."

They were also around seventy years via light speed travel from the nearest system, so traveling that way was basically out of the question.

If someone wanted to reach this place, they had to use hyperlanes that had been privately mapped out.

However, entering and exiting hyperspace left noticeable traces, and one never knew when some busybody might notice hyperspace fluctuations in a place where there was no entrance labeled on any of the public maps.

Naturally, Avery had been given the coordinates and hyperlane information for this place from the medical goods supplier they had worked with on their last job.

If there had been any doubt about what his intentions were, they were gone now. This was clearly not a place for those doing legitimate business to meet.

"We’re not the only ones here. The team handling the main sensor array picked up twenty-three autonomous attack drones and one medium sized warship waiting around twice the distance outside of a standard Ontembaar cargo ship’s sensor range." Liesel said, reading a report that had just come in.

It seemed that if negotiations did not go as their host planned, they were ready to dispose of Avery and his crew.

Against a normal cargo ship that was lacking in offensive capabilities, their forces would be more than enough to destroy the vessel.

But if things did come to blows, the Intrepid would easily be able to fight back and win. Without even needing to deploy any of the ships stationed in its two hangars.

Though, doing so would likely mean the end of the mission. The Odium Syndicate was unlikely to want to work with them if they ended up destroying one of their outposts.

"Well, we’re here to do some business, not cause any trouble. Our goal is to become smugglers for them. Whatever the terms are don’t really matter. I don’t foresee things devolving into hostilities."

While he was having this discussion with Jasmine and Liesel, a message came in from the base.

They had been given permission to dock with a shuttle, though the instructions were clear that Avery was not to bring more than two other people with him.

"I’ll be heading to the hangar now. I’m leaving the bridge to the two of you." Avery said as he headed out.

On most cargo ships or a certain size or larger, it was common to have a small shuttle bay for transporting people to places that were difficult to dock at.

The Intrepid was nearly three times the size of the station they were visiting, so there were obvious reasons why their host would not want a giant cargo ship docking.

When Avery arrived at the cheap looking shuttle that had been prepared, eh found Kasandra and Ezra already waiting for him.

Both of them were in their disguise already, with Kasandra appearing to be a fierce looking bald woman, whole Ezra looked mostly the same other than his facial structure having been changed.

’I’m glad that I got him to drop his original idea and just be a normal bahnen guard. Him being some kind exiled bahnen prince or whatever in disguise was just asking for trouble.’

There had apparently been a lot more nuance to the original identity he wanted to assume, but the cultural differences of everything were beyond Avery.

He already had enough information to memorize about the Zatis Consortium, he did not feel like learning about the power structure and culture of the bahnen home world.

With his two "guards" accompanying him, Avery entered the shuttle and headed off to the base.

Docking procedures were quick and easy considering that there was no one else around, and this place had no reason to comply with strand Dramid Alliance guidelines.

Once onboard, a group of gruff looking men in combat clothing with large laser rifles on their backs came to escort Avery and his two companions.

All of them seemed to have some training in combat, but Avery did not feel particularly threatened by any of them.

’The wary looks that they keep giving Ezra also tells me that they’re not confident in doing their jobs if it becomes necessary. And the fact that they’ve completely disregarded Kasandra because they can’t tell how strong she is shows a massive failing on their part.’ Avery thought, analyzing the station’s combatants.

Luckily for them, Avery had no intention of turning this into a violent encounter.

It was honestly a good thing that they were not at a level where they could properly assess another person’s strength.

If they were it was possible that they might have become suspicious of Avery.

He was doing his best to seem harmless and unthreatening, but someone with sharp senses and instincts honed through years of experience might have been able to see through him.

A few more minutes went by before they were brought to a large room that had a large circular table with several chairs around it. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Already sitting at the table was the shady medical goods supplier that had recommended Avery, and presumably the person connected to the Odium Syndicate that they had come here to meet.

’We’ve finally made it to the start line. Now I just need to ingratiate myself to these people and we’ll be on our way to getting into the Odium Syndicate.’