Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Kaiden burst right into the heart of the enemies' formation with all of his weapons firing at their maximum rate.

He had noticed quickly that the vessels chasing after him were mostly automated and being led by just a small handful of real pilots.

To him, this was a bit insulting considering the number of men that Doyle had under his command. Clearly far less than a fourth of the actual personnel had been sent after him even if there were twenty-four ships acting as his opponents.

With focused fire he managed to bring down five of the unmanned spacecraft before a warning flashed on the screen in front of him indicating that his shields had lost more than thirty percent of their capacity.

Pulling up on his controls, Kaiden shot directly upwards and zipped around some asteroids for cover as a storm of bullets flew after him.

"They aren't going to let me get them that easily are they." Kaiden growled as his hands darted across the control panel in front of him.

Naturally, he had targeted the six vessels that had real pilots in them, but he had been impeded from destroying them.

Whenever one of them came under fire, they would position one of their remotely controlled ships in the way to absorb his attacks.

It was a costly but effective strategy. Kaiden had managed to destroy several of his foes, turning the unmanned vessels into scrap metal.

Yet, his aggressive assault was a gamble. Had he continued, he might have taken down all of the enemies, but there was a good chance he would have been crushed in the process.

This whole situation was frustrating for Kaiden. He had felt it for a while now. He was the weakest of the captains in their group. His ship and skills both fell flat compared to the others.

Avery and Ezra were both especially immersive. Kaiden had seen quite a number of talented mercenaries during his time in the profession. Though nothing like the two of them.

There was some sort of tenacity to them that drove them to grow stronger and never give up.

Kaiden had been trying to keep pace with them, but the distance between his two rivals seemed to be continuing to grow.

Before he could at least be considered better than Avery in close combat. Yet now that he had received physical augmentations that cost more than Kaiden's vessel did, that would no longer be the case. In every aspect he was being left behind.

It made him feel disgusted with himself, and this situation where he felt he was being looked down on did not help.

Of course, Kaiden had tried to rush in and take everyone down quickly, but these were not amateurs he was dealing with.

These were competent mercenaries with decent weapons and equipment. Taking them down alone was not going to be easy.

"I can't just run with my tail tucked between my legs though."

Turning back around, Kaiden charged back into the midst of the enemies pursuing him.

He was not like Avery and Ezra who had picked up dozens of sneaky tricks from Urs' teachings. All Kaiden was good at was piloting his ship well and hitting hard with its array of weapons. He was not cut out for anything more complicated.

The battle devolved into a chaotic mess as Kaiden threw himself repeatedly at his opponents.

Everything he did was by instinct and reflexes, no longer giving himself time to think or doubt anything.

Whenever he felt he was taking too much fire, he would dash around asteroids, and should an opportunity present itself, he took it and hammered into his targets.

A mass of debris started to pile up as Kaiden took out more and more of his opponents' ships. Except he had still yet to eliminate a single person.

The six pilots fought with a level of caution that almost bordered on cowardice. They obviously did not want to die and were focusing hard on their own survival.

Having already seen several of their compatriots die during the opening ambush by Avery, Ezra, and Kaiden, they were not going to leave anything up to chance.

Eventually Kaiden wiped out all of the unmanned vessels, leaving only the ones that had Doyle's followers in them remaining.

However, in the process of taking down so many vessels, Kaiden's shields had nearly run out. He had fought vigorously and with only the minimal precautions and was now close to being in real danger.

Of course, backing off was not an option here. Judging by his adversaries' wariness, showing weakness now would only embolden them.

What Kaiden needed to do was capitalize on their self-preservation that was keeping them from truly fighting with their all.

"What is with this guy. His shields are about to fail but he's not slowing down at all."

"Does he not even care if he lives or dies?"

"Someone help get him off me already!"

"Sh*t! My thrusters have been hit! I can't kee-"

The first of Kaiden's attackers finally fell as their ship burst into a violent explosion.

The others that had been shouting moments before went silent and froze up for a single instant.

Kaiden took this chance to go after the next closest person and showed no mercy as he blasted away at them.

Another of Doyle's followers found their ship bursting into a ball of flames.

That was two down, but Kaiden was reaching his limits.

His shields had finally been breached and the rhythmic sound of multi-cannon fire bouncing off of his vessel's armor rang through the cockpit.

This was disconcerting to say the least, but he did not slow down. While his ship was built for speed, he was not going to be able to get away from four people flying nimble small craft. At least not when considering that they were in an asteroid field.

The only chance for victory was to remain aggressive, and Kaiden did just that.

"Just shut up already!" Kaiden yelled as he slammed down on his controls and shut off the emergency alarm blaring in his ears.

His ship's structural integrity was reaching its limits, and it would not be long until he was the one exploding.

Still, he did not hesitate for a moment. Continuing to fire his weapons with wild abandon at his foes.

Soon it was only Kaiden and one other man. Despite having bene heavily outnumbered, he had somehow made it to the very end.

Unfortunately, his vessel was smoking in several places and dozens of systems had shut down.

His sensors were damaged to the point of being inoperable, and all he could do was fly by sight at this point. A difficult task considering he had lost around half of the cameras located around certain points along the hull that allowed for a full view of his surroundings.

If there was a bright side, it was that most of his thrusters and weapons were still functioning. This allowed him to continue fighting.

"All I can do is one last charge. I'll have to bet it all on this."

Kaiden pushed his thrusters and shot directly towards the final reaming enemy.

His weapons were aimed as best as he could by sight alone, since his targeting systems had already been knocked out.

This made him a bit less accurate, but his keen eyesight and years of experience at least allowed him to get in some hits.

For a moment, the last of Doyle's strike force wavered. Hesitating on whether to attack back or run away.

It was no exaggeration to say that Kaiden was on his last legs. He had fought like a beast and gotten this far against all odds.

However, the man's own pride and fear of what Doyle might do to him should he return a failure forced him to face Kaiden head on.

In terms of specs, his vessel would not normally compare to what Kaiden was flying, but he had managed to avoid taking much damage by using his allies as shields. They may have been comrades, but he had not particularly cared for them. All that mattered in the end was his own survival.

As the two of them came at each other, the fast-paced battle quickly turned away from Kaiden's favor.

His adversary first targeted his weapons systems and destroyed them one at a time. Leaving Kaiden with no way to retaliate.

"Fu*k, that was the last one!"

No longer having the ability to strike back, Kaiden seemed to be out of luck. Though he had done a decent amount of damage and nearly knocked out his opponent's shields, this was seemingly the end. A few more good hits and his ship was toast.

"I'm no good at sh*t like this." Kaiden said as he ground his teeth.

Thinking was not his strong suit, but with his back up against the wall, the wheels in his mind started turning as death grew closer. It did not take him too long to come up with an idea, though, it was certainly going to be risky.

With essentially only his thrusters and life-support still working, Kaiden continued flying towards his final enemy on a collision course.

The man went wide-eyed when he realized what Kaiden was doing. The last desperate play of someone that had nothing else. To ram their ship into another in a bid to take their opponent with them.

Realizing he was not going to be able to get away in time, the last person of the squad sent after Kaiden opened fire in order to destroy his target before being taken out along side him in a suicide attack.

By some miracle, Kaiden's ship held up until the very end. It was on fire and parts of its plating was falling off. Nevertheless, he had closed the distance and there was nothing that was going to stop the burring hunk of metal his vessel now was from crashing into his enemy.

"Now."

At the last moment, Kaiden ejected the cockpit from the rest of the craft. The underside of it scarped against the enemy ship as he flew past.

A moment later, the rest of the vessel crashed, and an explosion consumed the two ships as their main generators were breached.

It had been an extremely harrowing battle for him, but Kaiden had managed to come out at the sole survivor. Even if it had cost him nearly everything.

His ship was all but completely destroyed, with only a damaged cockpit barely holding on remaining.

"Well, this sucks." Kaiden said with a deep sigh.

He had just lost his ship and home. It was a heavy blow even for him to take.

"I guess I was thinking about upgrading soon anyway. At least I've got plenty of money saved up."

With nothing else to do, Kaiden activated the emergency beacon aboard the cockpit. All he could do now was wait for someone to come and find him. Hopefully before his life-support system ran out of power.