Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 255 Police Rescue (2)

Seeing as how he was a bit behind the others, Avery shot into the fray and began taking down the faux pirates attacking a convoy of cargo ships.

Since there were so many enemies, there were still plenty to go around despite him getting started a few seconds later.

Utilizing all of his weapon systems, Avery eliminated ship after ship.

Whenever one of the pirates was deemed to have been destroyed, the red lights that had been affixed to their hull would shut off and they would fly away from the battlefield.

Still, while there were nine competitors, there were hundreds of vessels acting as pirates in this scenario. Taking them all out was not going to be easy.

Especially since while the ships that were being used likely were originally pirate vessels that had been captured, the pilots flying them were well trained members of the Alliance Police.

No matter how hard they tried to keep their abilities within the range of a normal pirate, their maneuvers and combat skills were simply better than most pirates.

"Avery, one of the cargo ships is about to have its shields breached." Kasandra said, a slight bit of panic in her voice.

Immediately he pulled up the data coming in from a wider sensor range and found that things were not looking great for the targets that they were supposed to be protecting.

However, there was something else that caught Avery’s attention as well.

There were three of the cargo vessels that were better off than the rest.

Less pirates were around them, and their remaining shield capacity was higher.

"I should have been paying more attention to them. Now I feel like a fool." Avery muttered.

While everyone else had been hunting down the pirate swarm, believing that to be the best way to receive a higher score in this event, a single competitor had instead set up near some of the cargo ships and was focused wholly on protecting them.

This outlier just so happened to be the bulky craft that was representing Stifur. The same one that Avery and Kasandra were suspicious of because of their nearly unbelievable showing during the first event.

Now, it was possible that the pilot had decided on their current course of action merely due to the fact that their ship was the slowest and would not be able to keep up with the others in a fast and chaotic fight. This was a reasonable assumption.

Yet, Avery believed that there was a deeper meaning to their actions.

’This isn’t a pirate hunt. It’s a protection mission. For the Alliance Police, protecting civilians is more important than eliminating criminals.’

The details of this event flashed in Avery’s mind for a moment.

Their main goal was to protect the cargo ships from pirates. Nowhere did it state that they needed to eliminate as many outlaws as possible.

Doing so would naturally lessen the forces attacking the cargo vessels, but after assessing the current situation, some of the targets that they needed to be protecting would end up being destroyed before they eliminated enough pirates.

Realizing this, Avery hastily turned the Dauntless around and flew towards the most vulnerable area.

Instead of just trying to take out as many adversaries as possible, he focused on the ones that were currently the greatest threats to the cargo ships.

Quickly he noticed that when they took enough damage but had not been fully eliminated, the pirates would start to flee.

Rather than chasing after them to finish them off, Avery let them go. It would be a waste of time and effort to worry about them now that they were no longer threats.

With his intervention, he was able to stabilize the situation around another four of the cargo ships, but around half of them were at risk of falling. He simply could not protect them all on his own with just the Dauntless.

His ship was good, and he did not feel that his skills were lacking. It was merely the limited area that a single small craft could realistically cover.

As he was struggling to figure out how to do more than he already was, Avery came to another realization.

While this event was a competition, part of the criteria that they would be graded on was their ability to act as members of the Alliance Police.

That made him question whether he really was doing as such.

He had switched over to protecting the cargo vessels, but he was doing so alone. In an actual Alliance police squadron, they would be coordinating with each other and working together. It would never be nine ships all fighting by themselves in a race to see who could kill the most pirates.

’It’s portably not going to make that much of a difference in the scoring, since ultimately the Alliance Police are looking for a new small classification vessel to adopt into their fleet. Not situational awareness of each pilot. Still, I don’t think it will hurt.’

After hesitating for only a moment, Avery told Kasandra to send out a message to the other eight competitors. He wanted them to coordinate together and stop acting like independent agents.

"Are you sure? That’ll mean giving up the advantage that we probably have right now." Kasandra said, a doubtful look on her face.

"Yeah, I think that’s for the best. If it turns out that I messed up in doing so and we place lower than wanted, well, that’s just how it is. Anyway, you said that it would be fine if we got fifth or sixth place this time. Heck, even if we end up dead last, there’s still plenty of events left to make a come back."

"Well, if that’s what you want, then it shall be done."

Kasnadra briefly put aside her work deploying secondary defensive measures and operating subsystems to craft a short message to the rest of the competitors.

Half of them did not respond at all, while one of the four that did refused the offer to cooperate and told Kasandra not to contact them again.

Nevertheless, three of the others responded positively.

The first reply came from Stifur’s representative. Seeing as how they were already working to protect the cargo vessels even if they had to put their own ship in the way to take hits, they had no objects to a more coordinated effort.

Not long after, the pilot flying the craft built by Ravasz Dynamics sent their reply. Agreeing to Avery’s proposal to work together.

Finally, the last taker came from the ship representing Star Road Enterprises.

They had not done particularly well during the first event, and using their vessel’s impeccable sensors, they had been tracking how many pirates everyone had taken out, and they knew that they were behind during this event as well.

That meant that they were open to trying something new. If it did not work out, their placement likely would barely be affected. But if it did, they might be able to hope for a higher ranking.

With the addition of two more combatants focusing on protecting the cargo ships, Avery, and those working with him, were just able to keep any of the cargo ships from being breached and boarded.

Of course, standing in the way of the faux pirates meant that they were now the ones taking more fire.

Obviously if anything got between a real pirate and their prize, they would do everything that they could to eliminate the obstacle.

The Dauntless, Stifur’s ship, and Star Road’s vessel were doing fine and could keep going for a lot longer, but Ravasz Dynamic’s entry was struggling a bit more.

Their focus on speed had seen a bit of a reduction in shielding and armor.

They were still far above the average small craft, but of the four that were working together, they had the weakest defenses. At the current rate, they might not hold up until the end of the event. And should they be determined to have been destroyed, that would naturally be unfavorable towards their score.

"Kasandra, tell the others to switch positions as I’ve indicated here. Well, have the Dauntless, and Star Road’s vessel take up these sides, while Stifur’s defensive craft holds the middle. We’ll adapt to the attacks as needed and keep Ravasz Dynamic’s ship below one of us while they are moving around as a fast attacker. That should help alleviate some of the fire they’re taking." Avery ordered.

Fortunately, he already had a decent amount of experience commanding a four-vessel group, so this was nothing new for him.

Once they had taken up their new positions, things started to go more smoothly for them.

The cargo ships were now taking a bit more damage since Avery and the three that had agreed to listen to him were more spread out now, but it was still to an acceptable level. There was just no way for the vessels acting as pirates to get close enough.

’The others thinning them out is certainly helping as well. At this rate, we should be able to get through this without losing a single cargo vessel. If this was a real attack, they would probably end up with some hull damage and maybe some disabled systems, but the crews’ lives and their cargo would still be safe.’ Avery thought, feeling satisfied with what he had accomplished.

As time went by, the number of faux pirates continued to dwindle.

Soon there were too few to keep fighting and they began to retreat. freeweɓnøvel~com

Without letting up, the competitors that had ignored Avery and focused on hunting pirates pursued them.

Avery noticed that Ravasz Dynamics entry and Star Road’s vessel were preparing to go as well.

Except, Stifur did not show any signs of leaving.

"Kasandra, seen those two a message. The event hasn’t ended yet, so we need to keep our positions here. There’s no telling what else might be in store for us."

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