Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"So, if you knew something like this was going to happen, then shouldn't some reinforcements have arrived by now to put an end to this?"

"Yes, that was the initial plan. A small fleet of fifty Alliance Police vessels led by one of our battleships is waiting on the surface of a planet around twenty-five minutes away by light speed. The moment any large group of ships traveling together and heading towards this planet were detected, they should have headed out to intercept. However, we had not anticipated that our enemies would be in possession of such sophisticated cloaking technology and would evade being picked up by sensors." Cerise said, a hint of distress in her voice.

By now the fleet had almost certainly noticed that something was wrong, but it would still take them some time to arrive.

In the worst-case scenario, they might not be coming at all.

No distress signals could leave the area right now because of the communications jamming, and it was possible that their enemies had sent out another group of ships to serve as a distraction. That's what Avery would have done if he were planning this attack and knew that the Alliance Police were staging an ambush.

"Then there's a good chance that we won't be seeing any backup for a while." Avery mussed out loud.

At the very least it was going to be another twenty minutes, and that time could be longer depending on what other move their enemies had made.

It was best to assume that they would need to get through this by themselves.

Of course, that was easier said than done.

With the betrayal of Jack Huxley and Atlas, there were only six other competitors capable of fighting back.

The competition staff and security that had been in the area were also fighting back as well, but most of them had been suppressed already.

Only thanks to the impeccable specs of their ships and their skills as pilots had none of the competitors been caught yet. But they could not just keep running away forever.

Their fast an nimble vessels were allowing them to reaming ahead of their pursuers, but they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned.

The enemy had brought mostly larger ships with them, with their lead vessel being around five hundred meters long. Putting it squarely within the size range of a light cruiser.

"Cerise, you wouldn't happen to recognize the design of those vessels, would you? I know the general sensibility of most of the shipbuilders in the Alliance, but I don't have a clue where those are from."

At Avery's inquiry, Cerise informed him that the ships that their attackers were using had almost certainly come from the Vanmir Republic.

It was a large power that shared a border with the Dramid Alliance.

When taking the capital system as the center point of reference, it would be considered to be on the far northern border.

Unlike the Zatis Consortium and the Reswen Theocracy, the Alliance had never had any hostile relationships with the Vanmir Republic and the two had signed many nonaggression treaties and trade agreements over the centuries.

It would be hard to call the two of them allies, but they certainly were not enemies.

Avery asked for whatever information that Cerise could give him on the ships while the two of them were forced to dodge a bombardment of laser fire from another group of enemies trying to cut them off.

Keeping ahead of them was becoming increasingly more difficult every minute that went by.

The fact that Avery was flying alongside Cerise was also not making things any easier.

Certainly, it helped split their adversaries' attacks between them, but there were simply more ships coming after them. It would not be long before they were completely surrounded and forced into a very unfavorable battle.

"Well, I've come up with somewhat of a plan, so I think this is where we should split-up. If you would not mind causing as much chaos as you can, that would be helpful."

Avery then took a sharp turn and headed towards where the weakest force closing in on them was.

Cerise tried asking him what he had in mind, but he did not want her talking him out of it so he cut off the call and focused on what was in front of him.

"You're going to explain what you have in mind to me at least, right?" Kasandra asked, a clear tension showing in her expression.

"Yeah, once we get past these guys. And don't worry, it's not like we haven't gotten out of our fair share of bad situations before. We'll pull through this time just like the rest." Avery said reassuringly as he charged towards the enemies chasing them.

He and Cerise had managed to attract fifteen of the enemy vessels, which was more than a third of their forces. That just went to show how much of a threat the two of them were considered.

To get through the encirclement that had been closing in around them, Avery had aimed to fight his way through an area being blocked by three ships.

One was a corvette class, while the other two were small vessels similar in size to the Dauntless.

Naturally, some of the other forces chasing him were moving to intercept him from behind, but Avery would reach his three targets before their allies could catch up.

'Huh, I can see it again!'

As he got close, Avery felt like he could visualize the flow of energy within his opponents' vessels. Just as he had done at the end of his battle against Atlas.

He had not been expecting this to occur, and he had no idea what had triggered it, but Avery was not going to complain.

This practically allowed him foresight into what his foes were doing at all times.

He could tell which weapons were about to fire, when they were going to send more power to which thrusters, and where critical infrastructure was located.

Avery's maneuvering had already been at a high-level, and he had been avoiding most of the attacks coming his way, but now not even a single one could hit the Dauntless.

"I've got somewhere else to be, so I don't have time to finish all of you off, but I'll at least leave some parting gifts." Avery transmitted to the three ships he was closing in one.

Expertly he flew past them as they attempted to get in his way.

And as he went by, he fired a shot from each of his plasma launchers at the corvette and sent projectiles from his scatterguns at the two smaller vessels.

The first ball of burning plasma punched a hole in the corvette's shielding, and the second melted through it hull and into the room where the main generator was located.

Needless to say, it was only a couple of seconds later that the ship exploded spectacularly as its generator was breached and became unstable.

A single hit from the Dauntless' scatterguns was not enough to finish off the two smaller vessels, but it certainly reduced their shield capacity greatly, and having watched the larger corvette they were with just blow up certainly caused them to hesitate to continue chasing after Avery.

Now that he had broken free of the enemy encirclement, Avery set in a course for the ally he needed to recruit.

He needed someone else to assist him with the plan he was scheming, and while he could have asked Cerise, he doubted that she would go along with it. Plus, the person he had in mind would be better for the role anyway.

"I've sent the signal out to her, but are you sure that you want to do this? It sounds crazy, and I won't do what you're asking if I was in her position." Kasandra said, a mix of emotions on her face as she glanced over at Avery.

"Don't worry, I think that she'll go along with it. This will be in her best interest as well." Avery responded.

A couple of moments later, a secure transmission using the unique frequency Liesel could use for communications came in.

Avery immediately answered the call, and in the corner of the Dauntless' viewscreen, a display of Liesel sitting in the pilot's seat of her own ship was displayed.

"You know, now's not really the best time for a chat. I've got five as*holes chasing me around right now and trying to disable my thrusters. So, this better be good."

Getting right to it, Avery explained what his plan was to Liesel and the part he wanted her to play in it.

"You're crazy, you know that. Do you really think that I'd just surrender myself over to them!"

"Yes, it's our best bet to strike back against them. Considering your position, they'll find you trying to negotiate and give your ship up the most believable. I need them to let their guard down for a few seconds, and that's where you come in. Otherwise, all we can do is keep flying around like this until we get worn down and caught. It's going to take to long to wait for help to arrive."

"Now, what do you say. Are you in or not?"