Chapter 596 - 596 The Kaizer Fleet Flagship

"I'm starting to see why you wanted to get away from your family now." Avery sighed after receiving more details on what went on with Konrad.

Brunhilda had tracked down the individual that had drugged her son.

It turned out to be a close confidant of his who had been bribed to cause Konrad to make a fool of himself and weaken his position within the fleet.

Now that the Kaizer Fleet had come together again and was fighting in a war, all of Liesel's cousins wanted to prove themselves worthy of taking over the position of head of the fleet.

However, it seemed that some were willing to drag others down rather than build themselves up.

"Things weren't anywhere near this bad before. I heard about some pranks like my cousins slipping each other laxatives, but nothing like this. Hopefully things don't get too out of hand. I don't want this succession tearing my family apart."

Avery could tell that Liesel was upset, so he reached out his hand and gripped ahold of hers to comfort her.

"Well, we're about to go and meet with your great grandfather. Maybe we can bring some of this up to him and he can address it." Avery suggested.

Liesel nodded and smiled at him, but she did not say anything else.

From what Avery could tell, she seemed to be deep in thought.

Soon the Dauntless had flown through the large fleet of ships and made their way to the center of the formation.

There they found the Kaizer Fleet's flagship.

Avery had seen holo-photos of it before considering it was such a famous vessel, but it truly was impressive in person.

It was a bit larger than even the Intrepid, being around eighteen hundred meters long.

The ship's design was sleeker as well since it was not using the frame of a cargo ship.

'I wonder how much different it is now compared to the old records and its depictions in holonovels. It's been around three hundred years since the first Kaizer stole the experimental carrier craft from the Zatis Consortium, so there are bound to be all manner of upgrades to the ship beyond its base model.'

Stories about space mercenaries and their adventures were fairly popular in the Dramid Alliance, but none were more so than the exploits of the first Kaizer.

They had always been some of Avery's favorites and were a part of what had inspired him to pursue the path of becoming a mercenary when the opportunity presented itself.

Avery had wanted a ship like the Intrepid as a sort of homage to the very vessel he was about to dock with.

He had always enjoyed the idea of a powerful warship that could act as a mobile base and deploy dozens of other ships at a moment's notice to turn the tide of battle.

Of course, reality and the works of fiction he had read did not exactly correlate as he had found out plenty of times since he had embarked on his journey as a mercenary.

Still, Avery was proud of how far he had come and even if given the opportunity to go back in time, he would not change any of the major decisions he had made. The only real regrets he had were the members of his crew that had lost their lives.

Within a couple of minutes of arriving within the vicinity of the Kaizer Fleet's flagship, Avery received permission to dock in the hangar.

With excited eyes, he watched as a large opening in the top of the ship opened up to reveal the vessel's main hangar.

"You know that you look like a kid who just walked into a candy shop right now." Liesel pointed out. Wearing a big grin on her face.

"Of course I do. I grew up on stories about this vessel. I'm sure that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the Dramid Alliance who hadn't had at least some exposure to tales about the Kaizer Mercenaries. Your family is pretty famous Liesel."

"Don't I know it." Liesel huffed. "But at least half of the things out there about what my great great great grandfather did are massive exaggerations from what really happened, or just straight up fabrications."

"That means that the other half are all true then. I'd say that's already plenty impressive."

Liesel just shrugged her shoulders and moved the conversation along to the other vessels in the hangar.

She was not an expert, but she knew who most of the pilots for the ships were and told Avery a bit about them as they maneuvered to the spot that had been opened up for the Dauntless.

Once they had touched down and were secured in place, Avery and Liesel exited the ship and were greeted by a member of the flagship's crew.

"Judithe!"

Liesel recognized the dark-haired woman and ran up and gave her a hug.

"It's good to see you as well Liesel. I think it's been about five years now. You've certainly grown up into a fine young woman." Judithe said.

Avery stood back and let the two have their moment before approaching and introducing himself.

"A pleasure to meet you, Avery. I'm glad that little Liesel here has someone to look after her."

"Hey! I'm not a child anymore, and I'm taller than you now!" Liesel said indignantly.

"That may be true, but you'll always still be that little girl running around and getting into trouble to me."

Being out of the loop, Avery asked Judithe about her past with Liesel.

As it turned out, Judithe was the head of the team that looked after children aboard the ship.

Whenever the entire fleet would come together, all of the children would be gathered on the flagship to socialize with each other and engage in joint training. This helped to strengthen the bond among the youth of the fleet.

"I'd love to spend some time reminiscing about all of Liesel's antics, but we shouldn't keep the captain waiting. He's been eager to meet with both of you."