Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 341

Chapter 341: Chapter 341 Attack on the Pirates’ Bases (3)
Having finished the strategy meeting with his team, Avery pushed down on the Dauntless’ controls and shot forward at full speed.

He knew that he would need to take the lead in this battle that was certain to be far larger in scale compared to their previous skirmishes with these pirates.

Victory was not going to come nearly as easily this time, and if he did not fight at the forefront and make himself a target, there was a good chance that the weaker members of his team would fall.

Since this was their first major pirate extermination together, that was something he wished to avoid at all costs. He had already told everyone that he would not accept a single loss, and that if at any time someone felt that they were in danger, that they should retreat or request aid.

“I’m assuming your ready for this Jasmine. You haven’t had much to do yet, but I’m really going to be counting on you this time.” Avery said seconds before coming into the pirates’ weapons range.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this. We’ve both practiced in the simulator for over two hundred hours during the last month, and I had Kasandra give me some advice. I’ll pull this off flawlessly.”

As Jasmine gave her response, she released chaffs around the Dauntless at the exact moment the pirates’ long-range laser weaponry locked onto them.

It almost looked like the entire main viewscreen was lit up as beams of light streaked through the space between the Dauntless and the large civilian vessels that had been modified with heavy weaponry.

Still, compared to the attack during the last day of the competition, Avery did not feel any pressure from the pirates.

With practiced hands he adjusted the Dauntless’ position only as much was needed and shifted out of the way of any attacks that would hit.

At this point, he had become an expert at weaving through laser fire and took the brunt of the pirates’ opening attack as he led the charge against them.

Once Avery had gotten closer, dozens of smaller ships broke away from the pirates’ formation and aimed to take him down.

While they had not been able to gather all that much information on the group of mercenaries that had been systematically eliminating them, they did know how their leader was.

Targeting and destroying Avery would be the quickest way to lower the rest of his team’s morale.

Also, he was someone that they could target with their fury as the reason for their losses.

“Looks like they sent out their best from the start. Their shields didn’t go down in a single hit.” Avery commented with a smirk as he finally returned fire.

The small vessels the pirates were using to attack him were almost certainly captured from mercenaries or belonged to those that had gotten in trouble with the law and fled to escape imprisonment.

In fact, it turned out that there were some familiar faces among those attacking him.

“Damn it, why are we having to fight this guy again?!”

“I thought we had gone far enough away from the Etania System. Did they chase us all the way here?”

“F*ck, it doesn’t matter! Just kill him!”

Using the pirates’ communication frequency that Avery and his team had already gotten ahold of, the former member of Burke’s company that had once followed Doyle shouted at each other.

There was obvious fear in the voices now that they were fighting Avery again.

Last time they fought, he had crushed Doyle’s far larger force with just four vessels.

Now Avery’s team had grown by leaps and bounds compared to back then.

The former mercenaries knew that this fight was against them even though the pirates that they had joined had far superior numbers.

“I hope that you don’t mind me cutting in, but I have to punish some traitors.” Burke transmitted to Avery as he made a beeline towards Doyle’s former followers that had at one time been a part of his mercenary company.

“Sure, this time, I won’t say anything about you breaking formation. I get that you need to be the one to do this, so I’ll leave it to you.”

Avery broke away from the former mercenaries attacking him and instead focused his fire on the other pirates as he led them away.

Of course, the traitorous members of Burke’s company tried to chase after him, but a ship they were very familiar with cut them off.

“It was my mistake to let Doyle do as he pleased and recruit scum like you. I realize now what unforgivable mistakes I made back then, so I will be doing what I can to correct them now.” Burke said, his tone cold and sharp.

The men that his anger was being directed at flinched from the sense of menace they were feeling.

In all the time they had been members of Burke’s and Doyle’s mercenary company, they had never heard him so wrathful before.

Knowing they were outmatched, fear gripped half of them, and they turned around and fled.

After having worked under him in the past, they knew that Burke’s ship and skills outpaced theirs.

His fighting style was not as vicious and aggressive as Doyle’s, but he fought methodically and with a clear vision to win.

The fact that he was facing them straightforwardly meant that he had already found the path to near certain victory.

“Hmph! You won’t be getting away this time!” Burke shouted as he chased after them.

…

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Avery had just finished mopping up the other “elite” pirate strike team that had gone after him.

Their ships may have been better than average, but they were still only around the level of a two star mercenary, and the pilots’ skills were a step below that.

It was obvious that these pirates operated by muscling their targets with sheer numbers rather than any truly skilled fighters.

“Oh, I guess that’s the only move that they have left.”

Avery turned his attention to the large transports and cargo vessels that had been modified with numerous weapons.

Up until now they had remained stationary around the base and while periodically firing off their longer-range weaponry, but now they were moving to intercept Avery.

If they could not beat him with numbers, overwhelming force was all they had left.

“Looks like it’s finally time to take on the big guns. We’ve got you back so let’s take them down.” Kasandra said, as her ship raced across the area to join Avery.

At the same time, Ezra was making his way over as well.

Out of all of Avery’s forces the three of them were the most well equipped to fight against large class vessels.

Ezra’s railgun, Kasandra’s pulse lasers more powerful than normal for the size of her ship, and Avery’s plasma launchers could inflict immense damage on vessels outside of their weight class.

“Fine, I’ll take on the three biggest ones, and the two of you can divide the remaining four however you want.”

“Hm, what might you be talking about. It would be disgraceful to let our leader take on the burnt of the work. I’ll handle five of them, each of you can take on one of the reaming two.” Ezra responded calmly.

“No, I’m going to need to face all seven of them to truly test out the limits of my new ship. Why don’t the two of you just sit back and watch. I’ll take care of all of them.”

As their boasts became grander and grander, the three of them entered battle with what could be considered the pirates’ most powerful force.

Each of them picked a different target and fired on it while moving in closer.

Lasers, missiles, and bullets chased after them as they closed in, but the few hits that they did take were not enough to breach their shields.

“And that’s one.” Avery said as he pulled the trigger on his plasma launchers.

Having used the enemies’ size against them, he had gotten under one of the modified large transports where it had fewer weapons and its allies could not attack him without destroying the large vessel first.

With the first hit from the Dauntless’ plasma launchers, he blasted through the ship’s shields and most of its armor plating. Then with the second, he burned a hole all the way through to the main generator and caused it to explode.

It was the tried-and-true method he had used plenty of times, and it worked just as well now as before.

Only a moment after the first ship exploded, another followed suit.

Ezra’s railgun had just pierced through the craft he had been targeting and had torn apart several critical systems.

“I won’t fall behind so easily.”

Kasandra fired a spread of missiles that saturated the weaponized transport she was fighting and then finished it off with her Sundrast M6 A4 heavy pulse lasers.

Fueled by their competitive spirits, the three of them trounced the remaining for large vessels.

Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive.

Each of them eliminated two of the ships before destroying the last remaining one together.

This left the pirates in a panic, as their only remaining change seemed to be reduced to scrap metal.

The battle had already not been going in the favor, with their numbers having been already more than cut in half without their opponents having lost a single ship so far.

Several of the pirates turned tail and ran away at this point.

They had stayed to fight because they did not want to lose what they had here, but the prospect of death being so close broke their will to continue. Even if it would be difficult for them to reestablish themselves, survival beat falling here.

“We’ve got them on the ropes. Don’t let a single one of them escape. Kasandra, Ezra, Liesel, Olivia, and Kaiden, follow me. We’re taking their base now.”