Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Being exposed, Avery made a mad dash to try and get under another of the large transport vessels.

They had the least weapon systems there and it became nearly impossible for the other ships to fire on him without hitting their ally.

One could call it a dirty tactic, but it was the best way for a solo or small group of small vessels to fight against larger opponents.

In a straight firefight, the difference in weapon quantity was practically impossible to surmount.

Even though all of the Dauntless' weapon systems were of the highest quality, it could not compare to the raw firepower of dozens of lasers cannons, multicannons, and missile launchers that the weaponized transports had equipped.

"Oh sh*t!"

After losing around half of his shield's capacity, Avery did manage to position himself under another of the enemy vessels.

Except, this time, the officers that were playing the roles of pirates did not hold back on account of their compatriots.

Without mercy, they fired their weapons at the ship Avery had taken position under. Aiming to destroy him at the same time.

"They made the right choice, but it's really bad for us. I don't know how long we can continue to hold out." Kasandra said as she was forced to use their final shield cell.

"It's fine. We've played our role well. Now the others can get involved." Avery replied, wearing a composed expression as he gazed at the corner of his viewscreen.

A moment later, Avery's backup had arrived.

He had taken up the most dangerous role and gathered the faux pirates' attention towards himself. Giving the other three working with him the opportunity to get closer without having to brave a barrage of weapon fire.

The ship from Ravasz Dynamics was naturally the first to arrive. Using its impressive speed to close the gap swiftly, it began firing into the enemy vessels.

Its forward weapon systems consisted of four powerful pulse lasers. One equipped on each wing and another two located under the cockpit.

They had a lower rate of fire than laser blasters or laser cannons, but they seriously packed a punch. Especially capable of dealing heavy damage against large targets due to the longer exposure time.

There was no way for them to move out of the way before taking the entire brunt of the attack.

'Looks like they've also got a shard cannon equipped on the bottom of their hull. That's a pretty niche weapon, but for such a fast and maneuverable ship, it's certainly powerful.' Avery thought as he observed Ravasz Dynamics' vessel fighting.

Shard cannons were a type of weapon that fired a wide spread of typically strong crystalline materials that had shield piercing properties.

The high saturation rate of the impacts could punch through even high capacity shielding and tear into armored hull.

Of course, the weapon did have weaknesses.

Its ammo was expensive and the shards that were fired were only effective at super close range. If shot from too far, the spread of the projectiles would become too great, and they would bounce off shields without hardly doing any damage.

'It's good to know that they're packing something like that. If we have to fight at any point in this competition, I need to make sure to not let them get close. But at longer range, their pulse lasers are going to be superior to the Dauntless laser cannons. Yeah, it would be an uphill fight for sure.'

While Avery was analyzing his fellow competitor's abilities, he continued to zip around and cause chaos for the enemies.

Not long after the ship representing Ravasz Dynamics entered the fray, so too did Stifur's and Star Road Enterprises' vessels join in as well.

Avery had already seen Stifur's ship utilizing its laser blasters and missile pods, and they showed no signs of bringing out any other weapons.

'I'd been hoping to see what they have up their sleeve. Regrettably, it seems that they want to keep something hidden. Just like me.' Avery thought.

He could hardly fault them for holding back. Seeing as how he was doing the same. They needed to work together this time, but that was not always going to be the case.

None of them knew for sure if the nine of them would be forced to fight against each other at any point. The events in the competition could be anything after all.

Nevertheless, considering the main goal was to select a new elite small craft for the Alliance Police, and that the entire thing was being broadcast to the public as entertainment, it was nearly guaranteed that the organizers would have planned out at least one head-to-head fight between all of the competitors.

'Star Road's pilot is also just using their primary weaponry. A pair of multicannons and laser cannons. A pretty typical loadout for a small ship.'

Realizing that he was not going to be obtaining any more information on the other competitors ships, Avery focused fully on the battle at hand.

Since he was the one that had thrown everything into disarray and was responsible for two of their large vessels being taken out, the remaining three were concentrating a majority of their fire on him.

Perhaps this was the order they had received, or they were just venting their frustration this way. Avery had no idea.

"We're almost out of chaffs, flares, and decoy beacons. We're not going to be able to take their volleys once we do." Kasandra warned.

To avoid getting hit as much as possible, she had been constantly releasing these defensive items out of the Dauntless' outer compartments.

There was a limited capacity that they could hold, however, and this extended battle was draining their resources.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine. We just need to hold out for a bit longer." Avery said assuredly.

As if the captains onboard each of the reaming modified large transports could hear him, the three ships broke off and began heading towards the defenseless cargo vessels.

Their goal in this scenario was not to defeat the nine competitors that were acting as protectors, but to steal the loot from their targets.

"They figured out what I was trying to do, but it's already too late."

Having been stalling for time, Avery and the three that had been working with him had successfully delayed their remaining adversaries for long enough.

The five other competitors that had chased after the fleeing pirates had returned and added their strength to the counterattack.

Now up against nine top-of-the-line small ships, the large vessels playing the role of pirates were overwhelmed.

It was not long before the program monitoring the entire event deemed them to all have been destroyed, and the entire exercise was brought to an end.

"Whew. That was harder than I was expecting. They really got my blood pumping there." Kasandra said, stretching her hands above her head and exhaling deeply.

Letting the tension drain from his body, Avery slumped back in his chair and let out a sigh of relief. The second event had undoubtedly been more difficult than he was expecting, but he thought that he had gotten through it fairly well.