Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 50 - Monster Hunting (2)

Once the first round of missiles was loaded, Avery let loose and fired all of them off in quick succession.

"Target lock was successful." Kasandra said, reading the information from the console in front of her.

These missiles had been given to them by the Alliance Police and were specifically programmed to seek out energy lifeforms.

Their explosive yield was far weaker than a phasic torpedo, but that weapon was really overkill against anything except the queen. Avery had only used one last time because he was in a tight spot with nothing else available to him.

Some of the missiles failed to reach their targets because they were either shot down or impacted a small energy lifeform before reaching the medium ones, but the barrage Avery had fired still proved enough to bring two down and heavily damage a third.

With his EMP blaster, he fired a couple shots into the injured energy lifeform and brough an end to its resistance. While at the same time scoring another core to sell.

"How are the other's doing?" Avery asked as he performed a couple quick maneuvers to dodge some charging small energy lifeforms.

"Nobody has been taking out, but some of them seem to be having some trouble. We should probably go and assist them." Kasandra said, keeping an eye on the overall battlefield.

She swiftly directed Avery towards the mercenaries that were struggling, and he turned the Dauntless towards them.

Before taking action, he had Kasandra called out to them to make sure that his help was accepted. It was one of the taboos of mercenary work to take another's prey without permission. And even though they were in trouble, the energy lifeforms attacking were technically the targets of the already engaged mercenaries.

"Dauntless, I'd be more than happy for your help. I can't fight back with so many of these things on me."

Having received permission to engage, Avery plunged in and started taking out the energy lifeforms with his EMP blaster.

Of course, this saw a large portion of the hostile force changing their target to him, and he soon had a trail of them trying to encircle him.

A few times the dangerous creatures that used themselves like battering rams smashed into the Dauntless' shields, but it was nothing the powerful shield emitter onboard could not take.

"Shields are holding steady at ninety-four percent. Don't worry too much about avoiding them and focus on attacking." Kasandra said, assuring Avery that they were still perfectly safe.

Continuing his somewhat reckless assault, Avery blew away as many energy lifeforms as he could, practically turning the tide of the battle on his own.

Except, he was not the only exceptional fighter in squad one.

Before he could make it to help some of the other struggling mercenaries, another vessel had already beaten him to the punch.

"Now they're pretty impressive. Still, I don't remember seeing that ship during the pirate raid." Avery said, a bit of his attention drawn to the individual that was darting around the battlefield in a sleek black ship and taking out energy lifeforms nearly as quickly as he was.

Thanks to the battle having slowed down a bit, Kasandra pulled up the information on the unfamiliar mercenary she also could not recall seeing in the Yuson System before.

"Captain Ezra, call sign Specter. Seems he's... a four star mercenary!" Kasandra said, surprised.

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As far as she and Avery knew, there were not any currently active four star or higher mercenaries in the system. That meant that this guy must have only recently arrived and been around by chance to take part in this attack.

With the battle having slowed down a bit, Avery took a few moments to watch how the highest rank mercenary in their force fought.

'He's good. Really good. He's only got one EMP weapon that's really effective, but he's still taking them down with ease.'

As Avery watched, he felt like this, Ezra, had a similar piloting style to his own. Perhaps this was just how higher-ranking mercenaries naturally developed considering he had learned a lot of how to fly in battle from Urs.

"Can't let him show us up considering how many concessions the Alliance Police made for us."

Avery was feeling a bit competitive seeing some else fighting at a high level.

Putting the entirety of his focus back on the battle at hand, he plunged into the enemy and used every trick and weapon at his disposal.

Truthfully, he had allowed himself to get a bit heated and was trying to show off a bit, but no one could complain about his results.

However, Captain Ezra seemed to be the competitive type himself and joined Avery in mowing down the energy lifeforms as quickly as he could.

Thanks to their efforts, the first squad wrapped up their battle far faster than the others, who were still engaged with the bulk of their enemies.

"Good job Dauntless, Specter. I'm glad that my superiors specially reached out to the two of you to join this mission." Captain Ais said, commending both of them over the squad's communication.

Now that their own battle was won, all of the scattered mercenaries formed up, and followed their squadron leader to assist with the others.

Yet, it was around this time that the queen energy lifeform made its move.

"Fire! Fire!"

"What the hell is it doing?!"

"Stay calm and in formation. We're retreating to join up with another squad."

As the queen approached the fourth squad, which had been having the most trouble fighting the energy lifeforms, some of the more undisciplined mercenaries moved to run away and save their own hides.

The officer in charge tried to keep them together, but the moment the queen attacked, all semblance of control was immediately lost.

Her form began to shift and contract, and what looked like several large glowing needles became visible on the surface of her glowing shell of energy.

An instant later, these spikes shot out like tendrils towards the panicking mercenaries.

All of them attempted to avoid the sudden onslaught, but more than half failed to.

The needles made of energy punched through shields and hulls alike. With the only one surviving a direct hit being the Alliance Police Officer thanks to his vessel's better defenses.