Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"I talked a big game. Now it’s time to back it up."

As Kaiden maneuvered his vessel closer to the Dauntless, Avery prepared for his midflight jump.

He was certain that his power suit could handle the hostile environment of open space for at least a few minutes. So long as he did not miss the timing, he was confident he could make it aboard his own ship.

Still, this was the first time he was doing something like this, and it was during a chaotic battle. The chances that something might go wrong were high.

’I’m the leader though, so I’ve got to be the one to take on the biggest burdens. Always at the front and proving I can handle anything.’ Avery thought, steeling his nerves.

Ever since he started recruiting members into his group, he had begun to make it a habit to push himself to his limits. With such amazing people following him, he felt that it was necessary to constantly prove his worth.

That meant he had to be bold. Sometimes bordering on reckless. And this time, he had certainly gone over that line.

Nevertheless, Avery felt that this was something he had to do, and when Kaiden depressurized the cargo hold and opened the doors, he jumped out without a second thought.

For just a moment, Jasmine had fully stopped the Dauntless. This allowed Avery a straight shot to it, and he quickly activated his thrusters and flew through open space.

Projectiles flew all around him, and if the wrong one landed a direct hit, his Sterkur MK VIII would bust open like a tin can.

Thankfully, Ezra and Kaiden were providing fierce cover fire and doing everything that they could to protect Avery and the Dauntless while he made his perilous journey.

Everything seemed to be going well, Avery was only a mere ten meters away and he would reach his destination.

Yet just before he could safely enter the cargo bay, a stray blast clipped the edge of his suit and sent him veering off course.

By some miracle his shields held up, otherwise he would have died right then and there.

Due to having matched the same frequency as the Dauntless’ shields, he was able to slip through them as he passed by. And in a last desperate attempt to stop him, he scraped his hands against the vessels plating.

Just before being flung out into space, Avery managed to take ahold of the slightly protruding plasma cannon on the right side of the cockpit.

From there, he gripped it like his life depended on it. For it most certainly did.

""AVERY!""

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Two shouts overlapped from his comms as both Kasandra and Jasmine called out to him with more panic in their voices than he had ever heard.

"I’m still fine. Jasmine, send out the collection drones to pull me in. I’m not sure how much longer I can hang on here." Avery replied, doing his best to keep his tone steady so everyone else remained calm

However, a bit of fear had crept into his voice. There were few in the galaxy that would not experience some amount of terror in the same circumstances Avery found himself in.

Fortunately, Jasmine worked quickly, and the Dauntless’ collection drones flew out and brought him into the cargo bay.

Once the doors had finally shut, Avery allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

’It’s not over yet though. The real battle is still going on.’

Having no time to waste, Avery disengaged his power armor and exited it.

With haste, he ran into the cockpit and found Jasmine frantically flying around as lasers and missiles chased them around.

"I’ll be taking over now. You did well to keep things together while I was gone." Avery said, sitting down in the copilot’s seat since Jamine was where he normally sat.

Being the registered owner of the Dauntless, Avery seamlessly transferred control over the vessel to the console in front of him.

While he could not see it, there was a visible expression of relief on Jasmine’s face now that she no longer needed to pilot the ship.

For all of the people chasing after the Dauntless, to them it seemed like the pilot had suddenly undergone a massive shift in skill. The difference between Avery’s and Jasmine’s abilities was vast, and he was about to prove that he had made this prized vessel his own.

"I’m sure that you’ve all had a grand time bullying my newest crew member, but let’s see how you fare now that I’m here." Avery said vindictively over wideband communications.

Instantly he went to work on culling the smaller pirate ships chasing after him. Now that the Dauntless was firing back, the once confident hunters found themselves being blow away left and right.

Eventually, Avery set his sights on the Reswen Theocracy warships. Normally it would be impossible to retrieve them even if they ended up disabled, but this close to a large trading colony, it would be possible to take out engines and weapons, then sell the vessels afterwards.

Certainly, this was greedy and required quite a bit more effort than just destroying them, but Avery wanted to make sure that he received a lot out of this battle considering how much trouble it had already caused him already.

Despite so many people after him, Avery used his enemies’ numbers to his advantage.

He would often fly close to one of the ships and force their allies to either risk hitting them or stop attacking the Dauntless.

Had it just been him, Ezra, and Kaiden, the three of them likely would have been overwhelmed at some point by the sheer numbers, but they had plenty of help in the form of other mercenaries and the Alliance Police.

In fact, the longer the conflict went on, the more the invaders’ forces dwindled, and a greater number of Alliance Police vessels joined the fray from Phregon III.

Before long, the first of the attackers began to retreat.

Sensing the change in the tide of battle, the large and medium transports that were still in working order hastily fled.

They were different from the greedy pirates or the environmental extremists using Reswen Theocracy Ships.

This battle was not their own, and they had only come to assist on their leader’s orders.

Except, they had also been told to prioritize their own survival if it looked like things were taking a turn for the worse.

With the loss of such a powerful force, the opportunistic outlaws that had come to raid the ships waiting outside the colony turned and ran as well. Scoring a bunch of loot meant nothing if they ended up dying in the process.

Of course, most of the mercenaries that had been taking part in the battle chased down the pirates that were essentially flying piggybanks waiting to be cracked open for them.

At the end of it all, the only attackers that stayed to fight to the bitter end were the extremists. Their zealousness for their cause could nearly be considered insanity, and they were willing to die for it.

Even if their defiance here did not stop the terraforming process that they were so against, it would certainly delay the project by several months or even years.

So many companies involved had lost personnel and equipment, and many investors would pull out in fear of a similar event occurring in the future.

Still, the final bit of resistance was soon put to an end. The Alliance Police had surrounded the heavy cruiser warship that was all that remained of the environmental extremists’ fighters and a concentrated bombardment brought it down. Bringing the attack to an end.@@novelbin@@