Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

When the Dauntless dropped out of hyperspace, Avery immediately started receiving emergency signals.

"It looks like we've arrived to find a real mess." Kasandra said, quickly glancing over the sensor data coming in.

They were still somewhat far away from the actions, but flashes of light from laser fire and explosions were visible in the distance.

Contrary to their initial belief, the space monsters that were supposed to be the main issue to deal with were only secondary in the current pandemonium.

The real problem was a large band of space pirates that were attacking the cargo ships that had been hired to carry any Jallla bodies to the nearest trade colony for storage and sale.

Unfortunately, whenever a profitable venture was discovered and security was even somewhat lacking, pirates that did not want to obey the laws of the Dramid Alliance would descend like a plague of insects.

Hijacking the cargo ships and stealing the Jallla corpses was a very profitable prospect for these space pirates. There were always those willing to buy illicitly obtained items for cheaper than the usual market price. That was part of the reason that such heinous criminals were able to stay in business and continue propagating no matter how many were eliminated by mercenaries and the Alliance Police.

"Kasandra, focus on the battles our side is losing and figure out where we'll be most needed."

"Jasmine, I want you to locate and figure out the status of the rest of our team. Get in contact with them and get an update on what's going on if you can."

Once Avery had given his orders, his two crew members hastily went to work. Both of them moving faster and processing data quicker than they ever had before. Curtsey of their recently acquired augmentations.

'Well, I asked for dire straits, and Kasandra certainly delivered.' Avery thought as he followed Kasandra's directions to where the most intense fighting was.

Currently, four basically defenseless cargo ships were being attacked by over fifty pirates. Their shields were already down, and it was clear that the hull plating was not going to last long. The only reason that the pirates had not boarded yet was because of three mercenaries fighting for their lives and a Jallla that had detected the commotion and come looking for easy prey being tangled in the mix.

It was an exceptionally chaotic fight, with multiple sides all vying for their own goals.

"This is the five star mercenary, captain Avery, call sign Dauntless. I'm here to provide assistance."

After Avery introduced himself to the cargo ships and other mercenaries over comms, all of them were momentarily hopeful.

Five star mercenaries were considered the first of the upper ranks, and their skills were always impressive. The mercenary association was not going to award such a prestigious rank to those without the ability to back it up.

Nevertheless, realizing that their reinforcements were just a single small vessel, their spirits quickly began to fall again. They could not imagine even a five star mercenary turning this mess around by themselves.

"Mark all the pirates and set the auto turret to attack them by remaining shield capacity. We need to pick some of them off quickly to give our allies a bit of relief." Avery said as he flew into the thick of things.

The soreness he was still feeling faded into the back of his mind. Time seemed to slow down as his focus sharpened, and his increased cognitive functions allowed him to easily assess the entire battle. Something he would have had to strain himself to do before.

'I kind of wish that I still had all three of my laser cannons, but the Dauntless should still have more than enough firepower for these guys.'

These pirates were fairly well equipped and their formations while not perfect, showed a resemblance to Alliance Police tactics.

This was only speculation, but it was possible a disgraced officer was the one leading this group. That was often how stronger bands of pirates formed.

Still, this meant little to Avery, and he began hunting them.

With a few hits from his single laser cannon, and a quick spray from his currently equipped multicannons, Avery brought down the first pirate vessel. Expertly killing the pilot but disabling the ship without destroying it.

This was one advantage of the less powerful multicannons that he had brought along to deal with the laser resistant Jalllas. he would be able to far more easily take down ships and leave them mostly intact.

"Since they want to get in the way of our monster hunt, we'll just have to make our money off of them instead." Avery said, his lips turned up into a vicious grin.

His hands moved faster than they ever had before, and he expertly maneuvered the Dauntless around and systematically began wiping out the pirates.

Never before had he been so quick, and the ease at which he was able to do so made him realize just how hard he had been pushing himself before receiving augmentations.

Experiencing it firsthand, Avery now understood why Urs had been so insistent that he at the very least receive enhancements to his agility and cognitive abilities. Despite not having fully recovered yet and having just recently installed new weapons he was unfamiliar with, Avery was piloting better than he ever had before.

Of course, his newfound performance could not be solely attributed to his own increase in ability. Jasmine and Kasandra were right there with him. Both of them were able to assist with the support systems onboard with expert precision. They were so good now that their abilities practically bordered on foresight.

The information that they could process at once was astounding, and whenever one of the pirates showed any signs of attacking, they noticed it immediately and actually determined what sort of weapon was going to be used by the sensor data coming in.

"Somebody stop that guy already!"

"What kind of craft even is that?! It moves too fast and with unpredictable movements. We haven't hit it a single time."

"Missiles! Everyone target lock and bombard him. We're not treating that guy like normal mercenary anymore. That thing is a monster."

By the time Avery had downed his eleventh pirate, the others were beginning to panic.

However, their leader had some command ability and hurriedly got the rest of the pirates to focus their attention on Avery.

This led to a couple of them being distracted and falling victim to the Jallla that was muscling in on the fight, but these were acceptable losses for them.

'Pirates sure do love their missiles. Cheap but deadly. Unfortunately for them, those things are not going to be hitting me.' Avery thought, already calculating his response.

Before he even needed to ask, Jasmine deployed flares and chaffs to disrupt the missiles' targeting systems.

Then with his three primary weapons, Avery systematically shot down the barrage of powerful explosives coming towards him.

Without slowing down, he weaved through the blasts and flew directly into the heart of the enemy formation.

The auto turret being directed by Kasandra fired mercilessly at the weakest pirate craft, while Avery focused his plasma launchers on the most heavily shielded and armored medium vessels.

It was an unbelievably savage assault, and one that the pirates could not hope to keep up with. The difference in skill and equipment was too great for them to overcome.

A few of their shots did manage to connect with the Dauntless, but it's powerful shields hardly went down from the weak hits. It was going to take a lot more pirates, or ships with military grade weapons, to break through Avery's defenses.

"Retreat! We're taking too many losses! This job is no longer profitable!" The leader of this group of pirates screeched.

Yet, as Avery made the decision to let them get away since he needed to turn his attention towards the Jallla that was quickly approaching the four damaged cargo ships, a new group of mercenaries swooped in and started attacking.

There were twenty of them in total, and they rained down multicannons fire mercilessly upon the pirates trying to run away from Avery.

Considering that he was already engaged with these pirates, they should have been considered Avery's prey. The other mercenaries joining in should have at least sent him a quick transmission as a courtesy.

Except not only did they fail to contact him, but their fire had also been indiscriminate and had not taken the Dauntless into account.

Several multicannons rounds stuck the Dauntless' shields and whittled away at their capacity.

"Hey! Didn't anyone ever tell you to watch out for friendly fire! We're on the same side, don't go shooting at us!" Kasandra yelled over the commons. The veins on her forehead visibly throbbing from how angry she was.

Avoiding hitting other mercenaries in the heat of battle was something that everyone was supposed to learn from the beginning. The only ones that typically made this mistake were fresh rookies, and inconsiderate as*holes that simply did not care.

Judging by their ships and weapons, the mercenary group that had come in to score some easy kills off of the pirates fleeing from Avery were likely to be the latter.

"If you don't want to get hit, then stay out of our line of fire. It's as simple as that." One of the other mercenaries jeered. Showing no remorse whatsoever.

After that brief and rude response, none of the twenty said anything else and focused on destroying the remaining pirates. They did not seem to have any care for the plight of the cargo vessels.

Avery was grinding his teeth in frustration but now was not the time to be worrying about some massive jerks.

Instead, he turned his attention towards the Jallla that was moments away from wrapping its tendrils around the disabled cargo ships.