Reprieve

"Why do you look so upset, Ves?"

"We're about to hire mercenaries."

There was no way that Ves could remain calm when he learned of this plan. While he understood the necessity of temporarily bolstering their protection, he still had a very bad impression of mercenaries in general.

This was actually a bit unfair towards the mercenary community. There were plenty of reliable mercenary corps in human space. Many of them possessed clean and stellar records.

Yet there was a reason why few people liked to hire mercenaries in general.

The cheaper and weaker ones were unreliable. They were more than willing to stand their ground when faced with a weaker opponent, but were prone to running and saving their own hides as long as they encountered a stronger foe!

The stronger ones charged a different price for their services. Their reputation was much more important to them so they always abided by their contracts.