Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"Those really are some impressive numbers." Kasandra whistled as she looked at the display on the Dauntless' viewscreen.

Ninety-three ships that belonged to Burke's and Doyle's mercenary company were flying in a loose formation in front of Avery's team.

This made their group that possessed a mere four vessels seem almost insignificant in comparison.

Still, while numbers were important, so was quality. The majority of the ships that composed Burke's followers were at a level around what a competent two star mercenary would be flying. Everything about the vessels were balanced and average. Weapons, thrusters, shields, and armor, none of these aspects were the best but neither were they the worst either.

At a glance Avery estimated the bulk of the Burke's forces were flying ships that would cost anywhere between seven hundred to around a million Krenin each. Not cheap but not expensive either.

As for Burke and his squad leaders, they possessed more impressive medium size vessels.

The closest comparison Avery could make to them was Kaiden's ship. A fast heavily armed craft meant to quickly rush down opponents and overwhelm them with immense firepower.

'I'd say that the squad leaders' ships fall short of Kaiden's, but Burke's vessel is probably around the same level if not better.' Avery thought, analyzing what data he could without directly scanning any of the vessels.

Fortunately, they all used common frames from Artifex Dynamics, another one of the top ten ship building corporations that operated within the Dramid Alliance. This made it easy enough for Avery to pull up the base specs of the vessels and figure out relatively how powerful they were. Though, he could not be certain of every modification that had been made to them.

'My Dauntless and Ezra's Specter definitely outclass anything they have. As for Olivia's corvette, it's a larger craft than anything Burke's company has, and while old, it still was a warship used by a galactic power at one point in time. Plus, I know that Grito and Vi'ivando have been upgrading it periodically. In fact, I'm not even certain of everything it's currently capable of.'

Though they might have been working together for the moment, Avery could not help but look for weaknesses in Burke's forces. Thanks to Doyle and his faction, Avery's initial assessment of the entire company was as a potential enemy, so he could not quite turn off the part of his brain telling him to be ready for a fight if it broke out.

Nevertheless, there was no reason for Avery to be on guard. Every member of Burke's company was well-behaved and showed no signs of hostility. It really had just been Doyle's faction that was bad actors.

It did not take like for the two mercenary groups to find a good spot and get into position as they waited for a swarm of Jalllas to leave the planet.

Unlike before, Avery's team was wholly leaving tagging the space monsters up to their new allies. Everything had been set up so that they would reap the maximum benefits.

'I guess our less than friendly encounter with Doyle and his goons was not all bad. There's no way we could have hoped to continue hunting the dwindling Jalllas with our numbers. Perhaps it's time that I think about recruiting more members.' Avery thought.

Of course, having more personnel was not all positive. Right now, Avery's team was a pretty tightknit group, but if they expanded, then it would open up opportunities for people like Doyle to join their ranks.

Obviously, Burke was already suffering from having too many members and two different factions growing within the mercenary company he had founded with his longtime friend.

'Well, that will be a problem for later, though it's something I really will need to address. Right now, we're doing fine, but if I want to build a truly great band of mercenaries known throughout the entire Dramid Alliance, I'll certainly need more than just four ships at my command.'

As Avery was ruminating on the future, the surface of the world below suddenly looked as if it was shifting.

This was a familiar sight for Avery and his team by this point and indicated that a swarm of Jalllas was trying to leave the planet to hunt for prey after their long, frozen sleep.

Just as expected, there were fewer than there had been in previous days. Without a doubt the space monster infestation of this once errant world was close to being eliminated.

A mad dash to claim prey commenced not much later, but Avery sat back comfortably and waited. With eighty-five members of Burke's company doing the work of marking prey for them, there was no reason for any of them to get involved at this stage.

"And you're certain that your team can handle this many of them?" Burke asked Avery over comms.

Unlike the usual forty he and his group tried to aim for, Avery had requested that Burke's company tag sixty Jalllas for them.

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem. We've gotten used to hunting them at this point, and not having to mark them ourselves gives us more leeway to attack sooner. We should be able to take out sixty with just the four of us before they breach the acceptable distance from the planet." Avery replied confidently.

After that, he led the charge into the swarm of Jalllas. Even if he overestimated his team's abilities a bit and they were unable to defeat all of their prey quickly enough, he knew that Burke's squad was around to clean things up.

…

"Damn it this sucks!"

Doyle threw a mostly empty bottle of alcohol against the wall of his room, and it shattered spectacularly as it impacted the metal bulkhead.

Currently he was being forced to accompany an Alliance Police frigate and patrol the outer regions of the Etania System for any pirate activity.

Due to the recent attack, increased security was a necessity, and the Alliance Police were more than happy to put Doyle and his cohorts to work as a means to pay for the disturbance they had caused on Etania II.

"Are five star mercenaries really all that?!" Doyle shouted, this time crushing can of beer he had been drinking.

For years he and Burke had been taking on jobs and growing their company's strength little by little.

Now they were the most prominent group in the region and typically held sway over all of the association branches in areas that they frequented.

But one minor slight against a lucky punk that had somehow risen just a single rank had managed to turn compliant allies against him.

His usual intimidation tactics had not worked on Avery, and the kid's team had been strong enough to hold off Burke's followers even when outnumbered by more than three to one.

"It's got to be that red giant. That bahnen must be the one really pulling the strings behind the scenes and using that blonde brat as a front man."

To say the least, Ezra had made more of an impression on Doyle than Avery had. Though, he was mistaken about their relationship. The only reason Ezra had moved to the front and taken charge was because Avery had still been recovering from his physical enhancements.

It was not long before Doyle exhausted the alcohol supply in his room. Mostly because he kept smashing things in a rage before finishing drinking.

Right now, he had his second in command piloting his vessel for him and he had no intention of taking over himself. Having to be on this boring job where he was not even getting paid and any loot or bounties from pirates they killed automatically went to the Alliance Police infuriated him. Every time he got behind his ship's controls he could not keep focused at all.

"This is all Burke's fault. If he just backed me up or stayed out of it, I could have solved things then and there in that restaurant. But he took that punk's side and now here we are having to deal with this sh*t."

Drunk off his a*s, Doyle tried to stand up to go to cargo hold and grab more booze, but he started stumbling around as if he was on a boat at sea in rough waters.

When he finally caught himself against the chair he had been sitting in, he saw that his terminal had fallen out of his pocket and he was currently receiving a call from a private number.

Immediately he knew who it was likely to be and grimaced.

"I thought I told you I was done. So, stop calling me." Doyle said immediately upon grabbing his terminal and accepting the transmission.

"Oh, what's this. But you're the one that sent a message to me." The gargled voice on the other side that could neither be distinguished as male or female said in response.

Confused, Doyle checked his terminal and found that there was a record of him sending a message. He did not remember having done so, however, but chalked his forgetfulness up to his drunken state.

"You must have hit another low point if you're seeking me out again after saying you were quitting in such a grand fashion before. I'm guessing that alcohol and that low quality stuff isn't doing it for you."

Doyle started grinding his teeth in frustration but did not say anything. He had gotten hooked on a very strong drug a few years ago, and the person on the other end of the call was the dealer that he bought from.

"I actually heard a bit about what happened. Sounds like you got worked over by a better mercenary that you couldn't handle."

Hearing this, Doyle finally snapped and started shouting at the person that had called him. This was only the second time in his life that he had been this angry and frustrated, and the first was after the event that had led him into the downward spiral that was his life.

"Well, rumors are just rumors, but you know how people like to talk. Now should we get down to business?"

After spending several minutes goading Doyle, the dealer finally asked if Doyle was in the market for their product. As if selling their drugs was only a secondary objective that was an afterthought.

"Hell no! I'm not doing that stuff every again. I can't think properly when I'm on it. And you've pissed me off so much that I never want to hear from you again."

"Oh, is that so, what a sham-."

Before they said another word, Doyle ended the call and tossed his terminal away in fury.

…

"Hm, we'll see if that wasn't enough to provoke him. If I can get him to take out that band of mercenaries that ruined the Odium Syndicate's position in the Cocarro System, I'm sure my position within the organization will rise." An alluring blonde-haired woman said, a smirk on her face.