Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 339

Chapter 339: Chapter 339 Attack on the Pirates’ Bases
After Avery had collected all the intel that he wanted and some he had not even considered from the pirate named Raul, he went over to the cell where the other captive was and confirmed the information with him.

“Everything they said matched up pretty closely to the other, so I think it’s likely to be true. This gang is bigger than I first anticipated.” Avery murmured to himself as he left Kaiden’s corvette’s brig.

He was already mentally planning out what his team’s next steps would be and doing what he could to consider all of the variables.

However, when he glanced over at Jasmine who had been accompanying him to get her option on a certain matter, he noticed that she was wearing a sour look on her face.

“I’m guessing that you’re not happy I made deals with those pirates.”

Jasmine nodded her head, but she did not say anything.

She knew that this was a necessary measure, and it had been something that the Alliance Police practiced as well.

Sometimes it was necessary to receive cooperation from criminals to catch larger groups or more dangerous individuals.

Still, that did not mean that she had to like it.

The two men that they were going to be handing over as only lesser clients of pirates had undoubtably both been involved in heinous crimes that would make the average person wretch.

Most pirates indulged in the worst possible acts imaginable. Killing people was not even close to the top of the list.

What they enjoyed most was absolutely breaking individuals both physically and mentally. Jasmine had seen what sort of states their victims could be left in, and it was never pretty.

“If it really bothers you, it’s not like we have a binding agreement with them. We can still just turn them over to the Alliance Police as pirates.” Avery said, caring far more about Jasmine’s feelings than a deal he had made with scum.

“I’m happy that you’re willing to do that for me, but don’t. It’ll make future negotiations of this type more difficult if word gets out that we won’t keep up our end of the deal. I hate the idea of those two ever taking another breath of air as free men, but they’re just grunts. If letting them off easier than they deserve lets us bring down their leaders, then I’ll accept it.”

Jasmine may have wished that everything could operate in terms of black and white, but she knew that such an ideal would never work.

She had needed to work within gray areas several times already while working as a mercenary, and she had not regretted it yet. For whatever illegal activity they had gotten into, it had always been necessary to stop something far worse.

Once the two of them had returned to the Dauntless and exited the corvette’s hangar, Avery relayed all of the information he had obtained to the rest of his team.

From there, he planned out their next move with the other leaders of his group, and they set off to crush a few more pirates before returning to the nearest station and selling off their spoils.

…

Nearly a week went by as Avery employed the strategy of using a large, rundown-looking cargo ship as bait to lure out pirates.

It worked like a charm for the first few days, with pirates swarming towards it in mass as they thought that they had found some easy prey.

Their perceived fortune ran out though, when Avery and the rest of his forces quickly arrived and wiped them out.

Throughout the edges of this system, in areas around hyperspace entrances, the pirates had set themselves up with large squads ranging from around thirty to nearly two hundred depending on the average traffic each place saw.

This had given Avery and his team what seemed like a nearly unlimited supply of pirates to hunt.

So far, they had earned a total of nearly forty million Krenin off of bounties alone. While the amount from loot was still being calculated, but was likely to be even more than this.

Nevertheless, even pirates were not such big of fools as to fall for the same trick forever.

They started to wizen up to what Avery was doing on the fifth day, and less and less took the bait until there were not any left gullible enough to attack suspiciously easy targets anymore.

Of course, this was something that Avery and the other leaders of his group had already accounted for.

Now that they had thinned out their enemies’ numbers, it was time to strike their bases.

The first one they came across was fairly small and completely devoid of any activity.

An asteroid that was around a hundred meters in length, sixty meters in width, and fifty meters in depth had been carved out and a small refueling station had been established inside.

It clearly was not meant for long-term stays other than for the few people that would have been left to run the place.

As for defenses, it had two decently strong laser turrets mounted on the top and bottom, but thanks to the access codes that Avery had obtained from their captives, he was able to remotely shut them down.

With no one onboard the station to override this, they gained access to this small base without a fight.

“Looks like most of the consumable goods have already been taken. But nearly all of the equipment that’s integrated into the base is still there. Once we strip the place down, it should be worth a decent sum.” Jasmine said after finishing a though scan of the carved out asteroid.

Just to make sure that this was not some sort of trap, Avery had several scout drones sent to thoroughly search the place first.

The last thing he wanted was for this base to be rigged to explode the moment anyone set foot inside.

Luckily, it just seemed to have been abandoned without any sort of trap having been left behind.

Most likely, with the rapid loss of their forces, the pirates could no longer maintain this base and had simply pulled out.

It being the closest to the edge of the large asteroid field they were hiding in likely also played a factor in this decision.

Perhaps they were hoping that if it was discovered, anyone hunting them might believe that the pirates in this system had picked everything up and left.

Naturally, Avery knew better than this since he already knew where their main bases were and how heavily entrenched these pirates were. It would take a lot more to force them to truly abandon where they had set up shop.

“The base looks to be clean, so tell Grito to take a team over and strip the place for all it’s worth. Once that’s done, we’ll head on over to the next one.”

A slight grin formed on Avery’s lips because of how well things were going.

Before he would not have been able to accomplish something of this level when his team only consisted of a few vessels. All he would have been able to do then was hand over the information on the pirates to the Alliance Police for some money and then join the raid whenever it was set up.

Yet now, he had enough power to contend with an entire pirate group and obtain all of the rewards for his team.

Of course, with more people under his command, that meant that the money they earned would be split up between all of them. Which was why the jobs they took needed to be on grander scales and pay greater amounts.

When everything that was worth taking was loaded onto the rented cargo ship, Avery and every member of his team locked onto the base and opened fire.

A barrage of lasers impacted the place and tore it apart. To prevent any future pirates coming into the area from taking over the base like a hermit crab, it needed to be destroyed.

“That’s one down. Let’s move onto the next.” Avery ordered over comms.

His small fleet headed deeper into the asteroid field and around two hours later had another base in their sights.

This one was larger, having been carved out of an asteroid nearly four times as big as the last. And this time, there were still some pirates hanging around.

Almost immediately, the base’s multi-cannons and laser turrets opened fire while all of the pirates tried to flee on their ships.

They slightly outnumbered Avery’s team, but they were severely lacking in quality compared to them. There was no doubt that they would be obliterated in a confrontation.

“Kasandra, Liesel, Ezra, each of you take seven other ships and chase down those that are fleeing. Everyone else, concentrate your fire on the base and disable its weapons without damaging any vital systems if possible. But don’t hold back if you deem it necessary. I’d rather have some of the equipment destroyed than lose anyone.”

Avery’s commands were followed seamlessly.

While his three best pilots each led teams and chased after and eliminated the pirate vessels trying to get away, the base was swiftly crushed.

Its outer defenses were eliminated without anyone on Avery’s side even having their shields breached.

However, the hardest part was still left.

Not all of the pirates had gotten away on ships, and there were still dozens left onboard the station with no way out. It was obvious that they were going to fight back fiercely once Avery and his team started to commandeer the base.