What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

Chapter 785: Contract And Refined Crystals

The contract was sent to me after we returned to the hotel room and aside from quite a generous sum of Credits that they would pay each of the test pilots at the end of the contract period... They are also offering to make a customised Exo-Knight for each of us, no questions asked.

The only requirement was that if we did want that offer, they would deduct the cost of the materials from our pay but we will get to customise it however we wanted. Additionally, we have to agree that we cannot take the customised Exo-Knights to any other company for any servicing or modification.

We would basically only engage with Crusaders Inc. for any service related to these customised Exo-Knights.

In return for agreeing to that, they also promised that we would be elevated to their VIP customer base and as long as our Exo-Knights don’t sustain damages that require replacing an entire limb, they would fix our these custom Exo-Knights and even upgrade them if needed for free.

Honestly, the terms were really good for us for a couple of reasons outside of the obvious monetary and custom Exo-Knights they were offering us.

First, the terms does not prevent us from modifying it personally so Ries will be able to modify the Exo-Knights however she likes without violating the contract.

Additionally, even though they did require us to advertise the Exo-Knights as their products by having the logo of the company painted on the machine, we are also allowed to have our own logo painted beside them as well.

That was a pretty big deal because it means that we are a Mercenary Company that is officially recognised by them as well.

That in turn means that if we were to go around purchasing from other Exo-Knight companies, they would also treat us like VIPs because of it as I fully intend to get some standard models which Renata would be piloting alongside us as well.

The reason why I’m not getting the standard models from Crusaders Inc. is the fact that I’m expecting them to be used as meat shields and would thus have a high casualty rate. And if we get them primarily from Crusaders Inc., it would be hard to replace them if we do end up having casualties.

So it would be more convenient if we just stock the standard models from companies that are more easily accessible in the Outer Colonies instead.

On the topic of Outer Colonies, they did offer the Inner Colonies permit for us but with just one caveat...

Apparently they are only able to get me a ’temporary’ permit instead of a permanent one.

I didn’t know about this but even the permit has two different types. There’s the permanent one which is what you might expect where it basically marks you as a resident of the Inner Colonies and you can go wherever you want.

The temporary permit is more restricted in the sense that you are only allowed to visit specific systems within the Inner Colonies depending on your reason for getting one and also the fact that it needs to be renewed every five years.

Your renewal isn’t even guaranteed as they will evaluate your work and contributions to decide if they should accept your renewal request.

Most people from the Outer Colonies would seek to gain a temporary permit as the permanent permit has a much higher threshold to obtain.

So if you didn’t have the good luck of being born in the Inner Colonies, you’re going to need to grind your ass off to be able to qualify for one.

Yeah... If it wasn’t obvious already, the Inner Colonies is basically just a really exclusive club to the Outer Colonists.

And even if you did have the luck of being born as an Inner Colonist, you also have to make sure you don’t break any rules because you can still get kicked out by this exclusive club as well, as we already know...

Yeah... With all those rules and stuff in place, I don’t even know if it’s even worth trying to get that permit to enter the Inner Colonies anymore...

But well... If I still want to search for Earth, I’m afraid I would need to go there.

On another note, the ironic thing about the permit is that it’s actually not racist. People from the other civilisations are also filtered through the exact same metric they use for humans so they actually don’t discriminate against applicants based on race.

Then again... Humanity did form the USC with the other races and we did fight a war together on the same side before so everyone likes each other I guess?

Seeing that there wasn’t any problems with the contract, I signed it alongside my girls and sent it back to Theresa who immediately responded with a message telling me that we should prepare to leave the station tomorrow.

I sent a message to Eleanor to tell her that I was leaving tomorrow and she immediately called me up and started bombarding me with questions about where I was going and what my plans were.

It certainly felt like I was talking to a long distance girlfriend at that point and Mara even pointed out that she’s never seen Eleanor acting this clingy before.

Eleanor then made me promise to visit her in the future before I ended the call.

Right after that, we had a knock on the door and Renata went to answer it, revealing that Eleanor had sent over a package to us which we opened up to reveal three Psionic Crystals inside it.

I was just thinking that they were just normal Psionic Crystals when Amber and Mara immediately gathered around me to gasp at the contents of the box.

”Are those refined Psionic Crystals?!” Amber gasped.

”Oh my, Captain... It seems like my cousin really, really took a liking to you... As expected of you I suppose.”

I blinked at them before gesturing towards Renata, ”Isn’t this the same thing that Renata can produce?”

Mara shook her head, ”These... Are Psionic Crystals that have been personally refined by a Psionic...”

I blinked at her, ”What’s the difference?”

”Captain... You know that a Psionic can absorb the Psionic energy present inside a Psionic Crystal to grow their own power, right?”

I nodded, ”I did watch you two do that ritual and everything and we also established the fact that it’s apparently not a good idea for me to do it, right?”

She nodded, ”The energy in the Psionic Crystal is... I suppose one way to put it, raw Psionic energy. A Psionic is able to pour their own Psionic energy into a Psionic Crystal to refine it and replace the raw energy with their own. Does that make sense?”

”Err... Somewhat, I guess? What’s the benefit of doing so?”

”The energy of the Psionic Crystal would become attuned to yours so the effects of absorbing the Psionic energy in a refined Psionic Crystal would be several times more effective. The more time a Psionic spends refining the Crystal, the better it is.”

I blinked at them, ”But... I don’t see the both of you doing it?”

Amber giggled, ”Ehehehe~ Well... We actually each have one, Tera.”

”We have one specific Crystal that we are refining on our own but... There’s not really much point for us to do so actually,” Mara added.

”Why not? This sounds like a good thing, right? And why don’t I have one of my own either?”

Mara pursed her lips at me, ”Yes, it would be a good thing... If one does not have a way of procuring intact Psionic Crystals on a daily basis. And since the one who makes them is literally on you, we didn’t think you needed one.”

Ah...

I get it now...

Other Psionics would literally have to hunt and barter for intact Psionic Crystals which are already pretty rare to begin with... So if they actually get their hands on one, they would want to maximise their returns with it as much as possible.

Thus, it would make sense for them to refine it and absorb it after they have basically obtained a satisfactory return from it.

But for us... Renata is basically producing a handful of them every single day for us and we could just make use of them without worrying about running out.

The only thing needed for her to produce more of it was that... Umm... I supply her with my honey...

I’m pretty sure she wasn’t actually turning my honey into Psionic Crystals but I’m not going to point that out to her anyway.

Mara then picked up one of the Crystals in the box, ”These... I believe... Have been refined by Cousin Eleanor for at least five years... I... Don’t even dare to imagine what would happen if one were to absorb this... Or even the value of one of these Crystals for that matter... And she gave you three of them, Captain...”

”They are worth a lot I take it?”

”Probably enough to buy an entire fleet, Captain. This is priceless... I don’t recommend selling it though...”

I never intended to to begin with anyway.

Well... I guess she really did give me something worth my time?