Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Large red hands flew across a control panel and deft fingers hit dozens of keys in swift succession.

"They're really coming after me, huh. I guess I must have made an impression."

Ezra had just finished his initial assault on Doyle's forces and was flying away through the asteroid field that was surviving as the site of the battle.

It did not take long for pursuers to come after him. Twenty-one vessels, all of which had pilots flying them directly were coming for him.

This was not quite a quarter of their numbers, but it was close to half of Doyle's personnel.

The fact that no unmanned ships were being sent after him meant that Ezra had certainly made a striking impression. His railgun was simply too dangerous to ignore. While it was easy enough to avoid or intercept in most situations, a pilot bogged down by controlling multiple vessels would have a much harder time dealing with the powerful weapon.

As for autonomously controlled ships that ran on assault programs, they were easy enough to deal with. All that needed to be done was create sensor readings for them to pick up on and understand the way the program would react to it. There were many ways to confuse something that did not actually think, and merely processed data presented to it. Which was why people were the ones that still primarily piloted spacecraft.

To prevent Ezra from doing just that, and landing devastating blows with his railgun, Doyle had sent some of his best men after him. In large part because he was under the impression that Ezra was likely the shadow leader of the group and Avery was merely a front man for him.

"This might even be a worse situation than that time in the Decinda System. No probably not quite that bad yet." Ezra thought, grimacing as he looked back on a past event in his mercenary career that had seen him pulled into some horrid trouble.

Still, this might have been taking second place.

Against twenty-one run of the mill pirates, Ezra would be pretty confident in his chances. Except, this time he was having to deal with competent mercenaries with decent equipment. He might have outclassed every one of them, but there was a great deal of strength in numbers. What one person could not handle alone became more trivial the larger the group of people assisting them became.

However, Ezra did not really have much of a choice here other than to fight and win. If he fled, he might be able to get away considering the speed and maneuverability of the Specter. Yet, all he would have then would be his life. Abandoning his companions to get away would see him losing almost everything important to him.

"Olivia would smack me senseless if she ever found out that such a cowardly thought went through my head. Everyone else is counting on me, so I'm going to get it done."

Ezra felt a resoluteness growing inside him that he never experienced when he was still a lone mercenary. He was typically a more logical person than not, but in this moment, he felt that he was stronger than usual because he had something other than himself to fight for.

Naturally, this did not mean he would dive in hotheaded without a plan. That was a surefire way to end up dying.

"They're all worried about my railgun. Yet they don't understand that there's more than one way to use it."

He was unlikely to hit any small ships with great maneuverability with his strongest weapon while they were on guard against it. Fortunately, there was no need to, the mere presence of a railgun could incite fear in those that had seen it in action before.

Slowing down and turning around, Ezra powered up his weapon system and initialized the launch sequence for his railgun.

Immediately the men Doyle had sent after him started scattering and heading for cover around the asteroids.

Of course, they were not just hiding but carefully moving towards Ezra to surround him. Though his weapons had some room to adjust their trajectory, they were all positioned to fire from the front. There was no risk of being attacked if they got behind him.

"Seems that they're still inexperienced. They should have rushed me as quickly as they could the moment I turned around to fight. That way they could have avoided what's going to happen now." Ezra said, targeting the leader of the squad that had come after him.

Currently they were behind an asteroid and using it for cover. In most cases this would be able to absorb the fire of a small or medium vessel.

In this scenario though, it was going to be serving as the man's grave.

Without hesitation, Ezra fired his railgun at the asteroid.

The large piece of metal used as the projectile accelerated quickly from the electromagnetic launcher within the railgun and sent it flying at several dozens of times the speed of sound.

In comparison to lasers that moved at the speed of light, this was incomparably slow. Nevertheless, the kinetic energy behind the railgun shot was immense. Enough that when it impacted the asteroid in front of Ezra's target that it sent the floating rock flying forward at a high speed.

The unexpected scenario surprised the squad leader hiding behind the asteroid. He had thought that he would be safe as the large space rock would absorb any blows that would come towards him. And while it did stop the railgun shot before it could pierce all the way through, it instead became Ezra's new projectile itself.

Unable to get away in time, the man found his ship pressed up against the asteroid.

His ship's shields and structural integrity started to rapidly deplete, and just as his thrusters fired at full power to escape, he was crushed in between another asteroid the first one crashed into.

With their leader being destroyed, the rest of Doyle's followers found themselves stunned for a moment. An opening that Ezra was more than happy to exploit.

Locating the closest enemy, Ezra rushed them down while they were still reeling from the death of their commander.

The single missile pod positioned on the top of his ship let loose and fired directly towards his target.

Hastily the pilot of the ship maneuvered around and started firing. Hitting the missile and causing it to explode before reaching him.

This merely served to give Ezra more cover though and made it so that none of his current opponent's allies could see him.

When he got into position, Ezra pressed down on the trigger and fired an unrestrained volley from his laser blasters and multi-cannons.

The storm of projectiles hammered his target, and it was not long before the man activated his boosters and tried to dash away before his shields failed.

However, waiting for him in his path was a missile Ezra had fired preemptively. Already knowing which direction his prey was likely to try to run away.

A powerful explosion consumed the ship and broke through its defenses. It did not end up instantly destroyed thanks to its decently sturdy armor, but as he passed by, Ezra merely fired his multi-cannons and ripped through the cockpit. Killing the pilot inside.

Once Ezra had finished his second target off, he turned around and darted through the asteroid field again.

He was not up against people that would be shaken by a couple of unexpected deaths for too long. Already some of the other members of the squad had recovered and were returning fire.

The Specter took a few hits, though, thankfully nothing particularly worrisome.

"Just three percent of my shields. A small price to pay for taking out two foes. Now, let's continue our game of cat and mouse. Where the roles can be reversed at any moment." Ezra muttered to himself, staying focused and not trying to rush things.

Being careful and methodical was the most surefire way for him to win this engagement. He did not need to press any grand assault where he took down a dozen ships at once. His plan was to stagger his opponents and take them on one or two at a time. At least until he was certain that he could handle the rest without worry.

"Damn it! Kill him already."

"Why can't we hit him! It's not like he's a ghost of something."

"Ellroy's been hit."

"No! No! No! I don't want to di-"

As Doyle's men shouted over their comms, Ezra systematically dismantled their squad.

He expertly weaved around the asteroids, leaving little room for openings to attack. And he seemed to be able to predict his adversaries' movements as if he had some precognition ability. Every move he made was perfect for the moment, and no one could hope to keep pace with him.

Ezra's skills and vessel were simply superior, and none of those trying to eliminate him had the capability to catch him.

It was not until their numbers had been reduced to only ten that Doyle's followers realized that they were utterly outmatched. Had they been able to surround Ezra at any point, they could have overwhelmed him with their superior numbers. However, he never fought them head-on. Always zipping around and expertly using his years of experience to separate someone from the group and take them out while the rest tried and failed to strike back.

By the time the survivors understood that they needed to retreat, it was already too late. With their numbers reduced by half, Ezra was able to take more aggressive actions against them without as much worry of reprisal.

Without showing any mercy, he in turn became the hunters and destroyed everyone that had come after him to take his life.