Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Clarien watched on a monitor from his command seat as Avery and Liesel took over the hangar of his ship.

He had thought that something was finally going his way when the youngest brat of the Kaizer group had surrendered herself, but it was obvious now that it had all just been a ploy to infiltrate his light cruiser.

"I was honestly going to return her to her family since we don't want any trouble from them. I suppose that's not going to be a possibility now." Clarien said with a sigh, not showing any distress at the current development.

Certainly, it was far from ideal.

Several of his subordinates had just been killed and his ship had taken some internal damage, but the losses we of little consequences.

In a way, Avery forcing himself into the hangar was a boon for Clarien. He now had two of the advanced vessels within his grasps and they were no longer causing trouble outside.

This would allow his forces to more easily capture the remaining four competitors and their ships.

The two dedicated test pilots were already struggling immensely and were soon to be caught, and though they were putting up fierce resistance, Cerise and the retired police ace would not be able to keep up the fight for too much longer.

Soon, the two of them would have their vessels disabled, and they would be dragged into the hangars of his subordinates' ships.

"Send in a squad with the assault vehicles we have. Make sure that their shield generators are the best we have. Also, contact Atlas and Jack, we'll have them enter the hangar with their vessels and suppress the two that are inside. I don't know what harebrained plan they have, but we'll crush it before they can get started." Clarien ordered to his subordinates on the bridge with him.

His general carefreeness and calm head allowed him to assess the situation quickly and make clearheaded decisions.

Although having his craft being infiltrated was not something that had been considered even in the wildest simulations of this job, Clarien simply moved towards the best solution he could come up with.

Of course, since things had already deviated from prior projections, solving the current issues was not going to be accomplished easily.

"Sir, the hangar doors are not responding. It seems that the internal mechanisms have been destroyed."

For a moment a look of surprise came over Clarien's face, but it quickly faded as the neutral expression her normally wore returned.

Surely it was a decent move to prevent anyone else from entering the hangar. Except, it had also trapped the two of them in there.

To get out now, they would have to blow through the hangar doors, which was easier said than done.

The amount of force needed to do so was likely to cause major damage to their ships in the considering the confined space that they were in.

Neither of them was equipped with a weapon that did not cause wide range damage. So, they were efficiently stuck unless they wanted to risk destroying themselves.

"Give Atlas and Jack new orders. Tell them to focus on disabling Cerise's craft. We've already been here longer than anticipated, and I don't know for how much longer Rook can keep the Alliance Police in this system distracted."

"But what about the intruders, sir?" One of Clarien's subordinates asked.

"Still send in a squad to apprehend them but inform them to avoid unnecessary risks. Whether they are secured or not, those two are stuck aboard this vessel. Once we have the others in our possession, we'll immediately head towards our escape route."

Avery and Liesel may have been causing some problems now, however, they could be dealt with at a later time in a more secure location.

Clarien was even willing to sacrifice his own command ship if it proved necessary.

It would be a heavy loss, but worth it in the long run.

Each of the representative vessels created by the top corporations in the Dramid Alliance were packed full of advanced technology unique to each of them,

There was no doubt that analyzing and replicating them would lead to the creation of even more power ships.

"I am glad that I'm the one in charge of this part of the mission. If Rook were here instead, no doubt he would have done something rash by now." Clarien muttered under his breath

He knew that his partner had quite the grudge against Avery and his team. They had recently humiliated him after all.

If Rook was in Clarien's position, it was likely that he personally would have led an assault squad to attempt to kill Avery and his copilot.

Yet, dead people were not worth far less than the living, so Clarien still planned on capturing everyone alive.

Whether he would attempt to ransom them off, just sell them to pirates, or subordinate them was still up in the air. Still, he would find a way to obtain the greatest gain from their capture.

Naturally, Avery and Liesel were not just content sitting around in the hangar of an enemy vessel.

All of the cameras in the area had already been disabled by them, so the next visual conformation of what they were up to came from inside one of the corridors that led to the hangar.

Clarien watched as a suit of heavy power armor tore through the thick door and forced itself through.

None of his soldiers were around the area since most of them were preparing to breach through the hangar's main internal entrance with the assault vehicles they had onboard.

"The one in there is probably Avery. That is his Sterkur power armor."

Thanks to the intel that Delilah had given him and Rook just the day before, he already had foreknowledge of most of the weapons that Avery possessed.

He had shown them off during the terrorist incident on Phregon III that had been incited by Iniquus.

Once Delilah became interested in someone, she had an uncanny ability to learn almost everything about them.

With that information now in his possession, Clarien had a far better read on Avery than he would have otherwise.

"Send a unit to stop him. The are he's in doesn't have any critical systems, but if he keeps going in that direction, he'll eventually reach communications jammers." Clarien commanded.

While the majority of his forces capable of combat were focused on retaking the hangar, bringing down a single person in a suit of power armor would not be too difficult with a single well-equipped team.

There were no other signs of infiltration anywhere else, so using the power armor must have been their only real move.

Even for augmented individuals, it would be foolhardy to say the least to try and take control of a vessel of this size with only four people.

"I can see through your plans already." Clarien said as he leaned back in his chair.

Things may have taken several turns for the unexpected, but he was still in control.

Good news had just arrived as well.

One of the advanced small ships had finally been captured.

It was the one belonging to the test pilot currently in eighth place in the competition.

Clearly, they were the easiest to catch, but with one down, the others would soon follow.

Had they just been trying to destroy the vessels and kill their pilots, this mission would have been far easier.

However, disabling and capturing a bunch of high-quality small ships that were fast was a difficult prospect when all they were focused on was running away.

"Atlas and Jack have nearly cornered Cerise, and the other two are barely holding on. It should not be but another few minutes before we've obtained everything and can leave."

Having received that a report that the squad sent to stop Avery and his power armor were in position, Clarien turned his attention to the soon to unfold battle.

There were a dozen of his soldiers equipped with their own suits of light power armor, and powerful laser weapons.

The location may not have been the best since it was a confined corridor, but they would be able to overpower Avery and his Sterkur power armor.

Once the battle began, flashes of red light and bight explosions engulfed the screen that Clarien was watching the fight with.

Several of the surveillance cameras were destroyed as the conflict ensued, and the view with which he had to watch everything changed multiple times.

Honestly, the damage ended up being far worse than Clarien had initially anticipated.

Avery's power armor had not given a millimeter and stood its ground with all of its destructive weapons being wielded without restraint.

In such an enclosed space, this was a reckless way to fight as he was damaging himself with some of his attacks.

Nine of the people that composed the unit sent to apprehend Avery ended up dead by the end of the battle. But eventually the Sterkur power armor was too damaged to continue.

It appeared that Clarien had won, when something far beyond his expectations occurred.

The suit of power armor began to glow red hot for a few moments, before its generator overheated and exploded.