Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"I see. So, you two are just run of the mil employees that were following orders." Avery said in an exaggerated manner to emphasize his disbelief.

Dustin and Sasha naturally picked up on what Avery was insinuating and tried to convince him otherwise.

"Fine, I'll believe you. But I'll need to know exactly who it is that you're working for. What you two were doing is far worse than you know. Otherwise, the Alliance Police would not have sent out seven vessels and hired my mercenary team to investigate the matter."

Finally getting to the crux of the matter, Avery thought that he had Dustin and Sasha on the hook.

Yet now that he was trying to get them to expose their employer, the two had become silent once again.

'Is it loyalty or fear that's keeping them quiet. Well, it's probably a little of both. Still, I don't think I'm going to be getting anything else out of them easily.' Avery thought, reading the two captives' expressions and body language.

With a sigh, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

Avery had done what he could to get Dustin and Sasha to talk, but his act following the tips that Jasmine had given him was not likely to work any more now that he had lost his momentum.

He had gotten into both of their heads and kept them talking by constantly making inaccurate claims and pretending not to believe them. This brought about a natural response to defend themselves, but it seemed that this was as far as he could go with it.

Had he tried to ease into the big question he wanted an answer to, he might have continued to obtain more intel on the two. Unfortunately, Avery was inexperienced at interrogation and had gotten this far simply off of confidence and Jasmine's advice.

However, while Avery had given up on getting the information himself, he still had another plan to fall back on.

Since he had hit a wall, it was time to pass things over to the expert that had coached him before this meeting in the first place.

"I get it. You don't want to rat out your coworkers and bosses. That's fine. I'll just let my associate here deal with the rest." Avery said, taking a step back and indicating for Jasmine to come forward and crush them.

With a professional smile on her face that was devoid of any actual emotion, Jasmine stepped up and swiftly typed onto her tablet as she pulled up some information.

"In pursuant with the Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 113B section 2332…"

Without any warning or build up, Jasmine started spouting legal jargon about Dramid Alliance law.

Most of this went over Dustin's and Sasha's heads, but Jasmine made sure to mention penalties and potential charges every now and then to let the two know exactly how much trouble they could be in.

Of course, a lot of what Jasmine was mentioning would be difficult if not impossible to get to stick. Some of the potential charges were wildly outlandish. Like claiming that Dustin and Sasha were in some way connected to the terrorists that had recently attacked the Phregon System.

Obviously, Avery, Jasmine, and Kasandra knew that these two did not have any involvement in that mess, but the more serious the charges stacked against them, the more terrified Dustin and Sasha became.

'Jasmine's really selling it.' Avery thought as he watched her work.

At a certain point he felt that the two prisoners, and Jasmine herself, had forgotten that she was not actually a member of the Alliance Police.

Eventually, one of the two broke. Being told that there was a possibility of life in prison on one of the high security prison colonies where only the worst of the worst were sent was too much to handle. Especially when Jasmine and Avery before her had stressed that cooperation would bring leniency. There was no point in throwing the book at grunts if you could bring in their bosses who were the real perpetrators.

"Please wait! We really were just following orders from our superiors. We had no idea this was such a big deal." Dustin said frantically.

For a moment, Jasmine paused and raised one of her eyebrows to indicate that she was listening and waiting for more.

Yet, Dustin still seemed a bit hesitant, and when he did not keep speaking immediately, Jasmine continued quoting the Dramid Alliance's criminal code.

"Okay, just stop. We are working for-"

Before Dustin could give up the company that they worked for, Sasha lunged at him and covered his mouth with her hands.

"Are you stupid! We'll be in a lot more trouble than just being fired if they find out we talked. If we just wait, I'm sure that an advocate will be sent to help us. Everything they've said sounds bad, but we won't be charged with anything until we've had our chance to defend ourselves in court."

"Yes, that's true. But the two of you are clearly scapegoats. I wouldn't expect any support from the people you work for. Considering your crimes and how unwilling to cooperate you've both been, I would not be surprised if the maximum penalty was given to both of you. I was not exaggerating when I said how serious this matter is. If you don't give us something to work with, then I can assure you that your futures will not be bright. You may never see the light of the stars again." Jasmine said with an intense seriousness.

Both Dustin and Sasha gulped loudly at this, but they did not become immediately forthcoming.

"A pity. I did not want it to come to this, but I suppose we can only make a deal with one of you."

Seeing that Sasha was the problem, Jasmine decided to separate the two of them and only speak with Dustin. He seemed ready to spill his secrets.

Avery and Kasandra were taken aback when Jasmine told them what they were doing, since they would need to deactivate the forcefield and retract the cell's bars to move Sasha. Something that they could not do without the access code.

Fortunately, it appeared that Commander Berk was still willing to let them take the lead here, and the officer that had escorted them swiftly reentered the room and disengaged the cell's restraints.

Once Sasha had been moved to another cell, Jasmine turned her full attention back towards Dustin.

"Now, you were about to tell me who you work for when you were so rudely interrupted. Please, continue."

Dustin was a bit more hesitant now after what had just happened with Sasha. He did understand the merit of her actions, and he felt conflicted trying to save himself and abandon her.

"W-what exactly will I get for helping you?"

Before he talked, Dustin wanted some guarantees about his treatment afterwards. If he was hardly going to receive any benefits for giving up his place of work, then it would be better to count on them helping him out in court.

"Well, that depends on what you can give us. However, if you have concrete evidence of your superiors' wrong doings and will testify against them, then I can assure you that you won't serve any prison time. You'll merely need to pay the appropriate fine and be put on probation. A light punishment considering the immense harm what you've been doing had on the Dramid Alliance." Jasmine said without any hesitancy.

Avery wondered how she could make such a promise when allowing a deal like that was completely up to Commander Berk. Nevertheless, as no one came in to interrupt them, the only thing that could mean was that Berk accepted Jasmine's proposal. Perhaps this was just standard Alliance Police practice that Avery was unaware of.

Dustin looked just about ready to cough everything up, but there was still a hint of worry in his eyes. Not for himself, but for his cousin. He did not want to abandon Sasha.

"There are transmission records on our ship that will serve as evidence. But they're encoded and set to be erased if accessed without authorization. Before I give those over to you though, please let me try and convince Sasha. She can receive the same deal too, right?"

"Yes, it is not too late quite yet. Having both of your cooperation would help, so, please try and bring her onboard quickly. A deal that will allow you both to escape seeing the inside of a prison is fleeting."

Once again, the Alliance Police officer came in and Sasha was brought back into the cell with Dustin.

For several minutes, the two of them had a heated argument, but eventually it seemed that Dustin was able to wear his cousin down. If he was going to talk, there was really no point in her keeping her silence.

"Before we do this, what assurances do we have that this amazing deal will actually be kept? Right now, all we have is your word, and if I recall correctly, none of you are even Alliance Police, but mercenaries they've employed." Sasha said skeptically.

"Personally, we can't give you any guarantees. However, while I am a mercenary now, I used to be a member of the Alliance Police and was entreated with making this deal. I'm sure that we can have an official document detailing the deal you'll be making and the leniency you'll be receiving because of it."

Jasmine then glanced towards the camera monitoring the room. It was now up to Commander Berk to decide whether he would accept or not.