Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 353

Chapter 353: Chapter 353 (Spoiler, Title at the Bottom of the Chapter)
Streaks of light chased after Avery’s team into the asteroid field as they fled.

All around them the large floating rocks exploded into dust whenever they were struck, a fate that could easily happen to any of them should they allow themselves to be hit.

At first it was only the two destroyers that were firing, but soon the main force joined in, and the bombardment became more than eight times as fierce as before.

Fortunately, the number of weapons that could reach Avery and his team quickly diminished as they flew deeper into the asteroid field.

The density of the floating rocks absorbed more attacks and only the farthest-reaching lasers could even hope to hit them now.

Of course, there was one exception to this.

The commander’s heavy cruiser’s spinal mounted weapon. Which had already begun charging up for another shot.

“Get ready to scatter. Make sure you’re not within even three kilometers of someone else.”

Avery’s command reached the entirety of the forces under him and they hastily spread out to avoid giving the enemy an easy target to strike.

Around twenty seconds later, the spinal mounted laser cannon finally fired. Sending a bright green beam of destruction flying through the asteroid field.

Usurpingly, the attack ended up focused on the Dauntless.

At this point there was no doubt that Avery had been identified as the leader and he had already proven himself to be a major threat in battle.

Eliminating him would get rid of the biggest pest and demoralize the rest of the group.

Having been anticipating the strike against him, Avery pushed down on his ship’s controls just a half second before the deadly weapon fired.

With practiced movements he weaved through the asteroids around him as fast as he could in the mere moments he had before the blast reached him.

It was close, far too close, but Avery just barely managed to get the Dauntless out of the way in time.

The bright glow of green light overwhelmed the visual display from the exterior cameras, and the sensors were only able to pick up the massive energy signature only a few meters above them.

For just a second, Avery had to pilot completely blind from the memory of what he saw just before attack almost hit.

He could hear that Jasmine was holding her breath and even without looking he knew that she must have tensed up as she prepared for impact.

Thankfully, Avery’s attentiveness and decisive action had kept them alive and without having incurred any major damage.

The shields had lost a bit of their capacity due to being singed by the immense beam that had passed them by, but that had only drained it by a few percent.

“Honestly, I never thought that a weapon meant for use against the largest of vessels and space stations would be fired at me. That was certainly a special experience.” Avery said, turning towards Jasmine and grinning.

“Yes, I suppose that it was. Hehe… hehehehe.”

Having been a bundle of nerves there for a moment, Jasmine had nearly freaked out and started raving about how crazy all of this was, but instead, she decided to laugh it off.

It all just seemed like a joke that they were being hunted by the Alliance Police, and to not lose herself in panic, she needed to take this moment of levity that Avery had set up.

Seeing her starting to laugh, Avery felt the feeling rising up in him like it was contagious and could not hold back as well.

What had just happened to them would wear anyone down with stress, so they needed this moment when they were relatively safe to just get everything out.

This fight was far from over, but they could not remain completely wound up the entire time. It was important that they recollect themselves now when they had the chance.

Once Avery and Jasmine had calmed down a bit, they both connected with the rest of the team to make sure everyone was okay and begin their next course of action.

“Well just have to push past the frigates and corvettes and try to keep ahead of them. They can just keep cutting us off whenever we try to escape, so the only thing we can do is keep alive until Kaiden gets back.” Avery said after a consensus had been made on what their goal was.

By now the corrupt Alliance Police officers must have noticed that one of the two corvettes that were part of Avery’s team had disappeared.

However, they would not be able to catch up to Kaiden at this point, and even just trying to track where he went would be nearly impossible.

For a bit, Avery wondered if the commander and her complicit captains might try to make a break for it since it was possible that they could have already been exposed, but they stayed their course.

The larger ships kept to the edges of the asteroid field while the frigates and corvettes pursed Avery’s team.

Both fortunately, and unfortunately, they were in tighter groups to be able to assist each other now, making it difficult to be able to fight them one or two at a time.

Nevertheless, this gave Avery and his subordinates more leeway to maneuver and keep away since their enemies could not cover as much ground as before.

‘We’re not going to be able to win this game of cat and mouse though. Eventually there won’t be anywhere left to hide.’

The destroyers and cruisers were staying mobile and making sure to cover the edge of the asteroid field and adjust their positioning with Avery’s team to prevent them from escaping.

More annoyingly, they were constantly bombarding the asteroid field and reducing the giant rock cluster into dust. With the heavy cruiser firing off its spinal mounted weapon at every chance it could to carve out large paths.

This would not be a quick method, but in a war of attrition, it would prove to be a winning strategy even if it took several days.

Avery and his team were able to remain safe within the confines of the asteroid field by constantly staying on the move, but unless they wanted to split up and almost certainly incur some sacrifices, it would not be easy to get away thanks to their enemies’ skillful maneuvering.

“As deplorable as these guys are, I can’t deny their skills and decision making. The Alliance Pollice really are different from any foe we’ve fought before. Now I really know why pirates are so afraid of them.” Avery grumbled.

Currently he and his team were being corralled around by the frigates and corvettes.

The enemy ships were no longer trying to destroy them but merely keep them from getting away.

This had them chasing Avery’s group around the entire area while preventing them from leaving.

Of course, at any moment, Avery could decide to turn around and fight back. Yet, he really wanted to avoid a true head-on battle with so many Alliance Police vessels. And the looming threat of being attacked by the heavy cruiser’s main weapon at any time made it an even harder call to make.

They may have been dealing with overall less forces than before, but the enemy was no longer underestimating them and were making certain to have enough strength to respond to any aggression.

…

For nearly three days, Avery led his team around the asteroid field, not allowing them to get caught.

There had been some skirmishes during this time, but after fighting back for a bit and gaining some distance, Avery and those that followed him would dart through the asteroid field and keep away for a bit longer.

Needless to say, this was starting to wear down everyone’s stamina.

A lot of the ships that composed Avery’s team were small or medium size and only had one or two people onboard.

For those that were single pilots, they had been forced to stay awake and alert the entire time. Using stimulants most solo starfarers kept on hand for emergency situations where they had to stave off sleep for protracted amounts of time.

At this point, some of the less experienced members of the team and those without any augmentations were starting to show drops in performance. They were simply reaching their limits.

‘I’ll have to make the call soon. If we wait much longer our chances at successfully fighting back will go down significantly. Some of us are bound to die, but I’ll make sure that those bastards feel some pain too.’ Avery thought, getting ready to call for an assault on the vessels chasing them through the asteroid field despite not wanting to.

Except, as he was collecting his thoughts and devising a plan with Jasmine, the Dauntless’ long-range sensors picked up several signatures about to drop out of light speed.

“They’re more Alliance Police ships. No doubt about it.” Jasmine said with a grimace.

While all of the captains in cahoots with the commander were already here, she was still the highest-ranking officer in the system and had other vessels under her command.

It was possible that after three days, she had gotten fed up with waiting and had called in her other subordinates even if there were some risks involved in doing so since they were not in on the deal that had been made with the pirates that had once infested this system.

However, that did not seem to be the case, as the movements of the corrupt officers’ ships showed that they were surprised by what was going on.

“There’s another signal among the incoming Alliance Police that’s not one of their vessels. Wait… it’s Kaiden!”

There was a hint of hope in Jasmine’s voice as she relayed this information, and Avery could not help but smirk at the turn of good fortune.

“Seems like he managed to pull through. Waiting it out was the right call. We’ve won.”

Chapter 353 The Calvary Arrives