Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

The sudden appearance of hundreds of mines caused the people closing in on Olivia's corvette to flinch momentarily.

They knew how dangerous such explosives could be and were forced to slow down or end up flying headfirst into their own ends.

Of course, typical mines did have some glaring weaknesses. They were mostly stationery, with only limited capacity for movement even if they were equipped with propulsion devices.

Normally they were used to secure or sabotage and area in advance, so laying them out as a battle was unfolding typically was not that effective.

However, that would be true of more normal mines. What Grito had whipped up for them was a bit special considering that their use was for a small mercenary group. It was not like they had any territory to defend, so typical mines were not particularly advantageous for them.

"Havanna, keep firing towards the marked locations. Don't let them try to go around the mines." Olivia ordered.

Considering the area of coverage that the hastily deployed mines could cover, it would have been easy enough to just slow down momentarily and fly around.

Fortunately, thanks to the density of the asteroid in the surroundings and Havanna's suppression fire, dealing with the mines became a more attractive way forward than anything else. Just as Olivia wanted.

"Hurry up and blow them away. There aren't that many mines so we can just clear them quickly and cover the distance we lost quickly."

At Doyle's command, his men started targeting the mines with their weapons.

A volley of bullets flew at them, and Doyle's followers expected them to go off and explode harmlessly.

Except, what happened instead was vastly different.

Some of the mines did in fact take too much damage and blew up easily, but most repelled the bullets away as their outer plating shifted around.

Then a moment later while the ones firing on them were confused by what was going on, all of the targeted mine shot forward with an extreme burst of speed.

"Their development and creation were certainly costly, but the results speak for themselves." Olivia said with a smile as she watched hundreds of explosions go off in the midst of Doyle's forces.

The nesting mines had been equipped with adaptive armor and shielding that would shift in response to the weapons aimed at them.

After that, the parent and child mines would all lock onto the same target and use the single burst of propellant contained within them to charge forward.

Naturally all of the specialized technology in each mine meant that they were costly to make and the yield of the explosives were reduced considering the limited space inside.

Nevertheless, their adaptive properties meant that the mines were almost always going to be useful. Their only real weaknesses were bombardments from an overwhelming force, or EMP weaponry that could disable their systems.

Once the dust had settled, the corvette's sensors began assessing the damage to the enemy.

Seven of Doyle's vessels, all unmanned ones, had been destroyed, while around a dozen more had taken heavy damage to their defenses and lost their shields or were teetering on the edge of losing them.

All and all, Olivia considered this a successful first use of the nesting mines. Honestly, she was impressed by their effectiveness.

'We don't have many more left though, and I doubt that they would work again even if we did. Their usefulness comes mostly from their surprise factor. Doyle and his followers might be idiots, but I doubt that they're stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice. Luckily, my ship still has a few more up its sleeve.'

When the initial shock of the nesting mines had worn off, Doyle's followers once again began closing in on Olivia's corvette.

Even having several of their unmannered vessels destroyed was not too great of loss. It freed up the focus of some of the pilots that had been controlling them remotely so that they could pay more attention to the situation at hand.

"I'm not going to be able to keep them at bay much longer with the stern pulse lasers." Havanna warned as Doyle's forces closed in.

"That's fine, just focus on slowing down as many as you can. Try to make it so that no more than eight reach us at first." Olivia said resolutely. "Rorson, switch to controlling the missile pods. Use the lower yield seeker missiles that prioritize speed over power. No point in using a stronger attack if it doesn't hit. Ah, and Langdon, I want you to manage our latest invention made by Vi'ivando. I'll leave which ones you target up to your discretion."

With their captain's orders relayed, the three crew members she had singled out got to work on fulfilling their duties. They had all been through hell together before, so they showed no signs of fear even as a far greater force closed in on them.

A few of Doyle's men finally having gotten in range opened fire on their target. A larger ship like a corvette was less agile and unable to avoid attacks as easily, especially considering they were currently in an asteroid field. So, all that Olivia could do was let the shields absorb the shots and fire back.

Fortunately, their shield generator was hefty enough to take some punishment, and they had two more shield cells onboard that could be used to fully replenish their main source of protection when necessary.

That was not all they had though.

Seeing as how the vessel Olivia commanded was geared more towards long-range combat, Vi'ivando had created something to help compensate for this weakness.

He had invented a type of device that no one else had seen before that had two very useful functions.

"I've locked onto five targets. Activating now."

The moment Langdon pressed down on the key on his console, five magenta beams shot out and attached themselves to an equal number of Doyle's followers.

At first they did not seem to do anything, but their effects soon became apparent.

"What the hell is this?! My shields are going down!"

"Is it some kind of saturation laser?!"

"No, it's not producing any heat! It just seems to be draining our shields somehow!"

Doyle's men started to panic due to coming under attack by something they could not understand.

Other than Vi'ivando and Grito, no one else aboard Olivia's vessel understood the science behind the device, but they at least knew how it functioned.

It emitted a specialized beam that would drain the energy of a target's shield and use this power to replenish their own.

Honestly it was an incredibly useful piece of equipment, though it did have some weaknesses.

The beams that it emitted could only work up to a certain range before losing their connection, and any object passing through would disrupt it.

Vi'ivando had also warned that if someone else figured out the properties behind it, they could send feedback that could damage the piece of equipment and the corvette's shields. However, that was not something that needed to be worried about during this battle. After all, this was the first time that the device that had been given the name Hydra Siphon was being used.