Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Crossing over the border back into the Dramid Alliance turned out to not be as easy as Avery had been hoping for.

When they were halfway through Zatis Consortium space on their return, a patrol stopped them for suspicious behavior.

Avery had the right credentials, but just originating from the Dramid Alliance was enough for the authorities to initiate a search of the ship.

With a war going on, normal rules were out the window. The Zatis Consortium's authorities did not even really need a reason to search whatever vessels they wanted to.

Naturally, Avery could not let them onboard the Intrepid. It would be basically impossible to hide that his ship was in fact not a cargo vessel if subjected to a thorough search.

Instead, he ordered that they open fire.

What ensued was a harsh battle where they were forced to destroy seven Zatis Consortium patrol ships.

Fortunately, they were not particularly heavily armed as the strongest vessels had already been sent to the frontlines. It had not been much of a right and the Intrepid handily won.

Of course, that was only the beginning of their problems.

After such a blatant act of hostility, plenty more Zatis Consortium military ships were sent after them.

This led into a several days chase, where Avery and his company hid behind moons, in large nebulas, and even skirted a bit too close to a star in an effort to have its gravity drag in their pursuers.

It worked, but the Intrepid nearly got roasted as well. And they now had several melted armor plates that would need to be replaced.

Thankfully, they were eventually able to slip by and reach the border, but their troubles did not end there.

An armada of over five hundred craft led by an enormous cpatial ship twice the size of the Intrepid was waiting for them. And it would not be possible to turn around and run away as there were dozens of pursuers that were on their trail.

"We might truly be f*cked this time." Kasandra said as the swarm of enemies were displayed on the Intrepid's viewscreen.

Avery did not voice his agreement, but he was certainly thinking along similar lines.

The Zatis Consortium had figured them out, and they were not going to let them get away after causing so much trouble for them.

Without Avery and his crew's intervention, their plan to distribute a mutagenetic substance among the population already hooked on Paradise likely would have been successful.

The chaos that would have been caused by such incidents would have served as a perfect distraction for them to nab some of the border systems without the Dramid Alliance being able to field a proper response.

However, now they were in a full-scale war, and Avery's mercenary company was certainly partially to blame.

Delia, whose name they now knew was actually Delilah, might have been the one to push things over the edge with her scheming in the background. But Avery and his team had played no small part in conflict's outbreak.

"They've just sent us a message asking for our surrender. They say that we'll be treated properly under their laws concerning war prisoners." Jasmine said, reading the transmission that had just come in from the lead vessel.

Avery snorted at this, knowing that whatever proper treatment they would receive would undoubtably be hell.

He had already seen what the Zatis Consortium was capable of through the Odium Syndicate.

The criminal organization had basically been developed so that powers at be within the Consortium could use them for their own ends while denying being involved and pretending to condemn the Odium Syndicate's actions.

There was a good chance that most of Avery's crew would be executed, shipped off to some lab to be experimented on, put on penial colonies to live out the rest of their lives as essentially slaves, or turned into playthings for the ruling corporation's executives. And these were likely the better outcomes.

No, Avery knew that surrender was not an option here. He and everyone else would fight to the end if that's what it came to.

Fortunately, there was still a little bit of hope.

They were close to the border, and the support that Cerise had promised should hopefully be arriving soon.

Obviously, she had no desire to be captured either. If they would do horrible things to Avery and his company, then there was no telling what the Zatis Consortium would do to her.

She had been a thorn in their side for decades now.

"Keep out distance and try to stall them for as long as possible. We won't be able to win an engagement against them right now, but maybe we can get some of them out of formation for when our reinforcements arrive."

Avery told Jasmine to write long and superfluous responses to the request for surrender.

She went ahead with this, making sure to ask very specific questions about what the terms would be.

This worked for a few minutes, but it was obvious that the admiral of the Zatis Consortium Armada soon became fed-up with the runaround they were giving him.

A hundred and twenty ships broke off and started spreading out to surround the Intrepid.

Avery gave the command to back up and keep out of their enemies' effective weapon's range, but they were not able to go far before the vessels that were pursing them arrived and blocked off all avenues of escape.

"All hands, prepare for battle. We're not going out without taking as many of them with us as possible."

Avery voice echoed through the Intrepid, and the majority of his crew wore resigned expression as they readied themselves for what very well could be their last fight.

Some grew panicked and left their posts, but most stayed. Ready to resist to the very end.

Soon the first beams of light streaked through space and headed towards the Intrepid.

The helmsman initiated the best evasive maneuvers that he could, but the Intrepid was a large vessel. It was difficult to avoid most of the blasts aimed at them. All they could do was let the shields absorb the hits and hope that they could hold out.

Of course, the Asteria Mercenary company did not just sit back and take the blows without reprisal.

All of the Intrepid's weapons were firing at their maximum rate and the ships in the hangars rushed out to attack the group that had been pursuing them this entire time.

It would be impossible for the smaller craft to hold up in a direct conflict with much larger ships in a field of battle without any cover, but they could still try and take down the smaller group that had come up from behind to block their escape.

Avery had even given Cerise permission to take the Intrepid and join the fight.

He wanted to do so himself, but his place was on the bridge of the intrepid giving out orders. Seeing that their leader was still there with them gave the others the strength to keep fighting as well.

And fight they did.

For nearly half an hour, they held up and fought back. Even taking down nineteen of the Zatis Consortium's warships.

Unfortunately, the Intrepid's shields had taken a beating and would not last much longer.

Avery had even desperately tried to create a protective bubble with his psionic abilities, but he had only been able to do so much.

He could not block every attack, and using his powers on such a scale quickly wore him down.

It was right when it seemed like there was no more hope when their sensors picked up the signs of ships dropping out of light speed.

"Finally." Avery cheered, seeing the Dramid Alliance vessels appearing.

In the leader were members of Cerise's fleet, but they were not the only one's present. In total there were a little more than three hundred Alliance Police vessels.

Yet, they did not even make up the largest part of the force. That designation instead went to the mercenaries.

Avery recognized some of them as having been part of Zefield's expedition.

The man himself was not present, but the six star mercenary Quokka and the team she led was.

Except, as powerful as her group was, they only held second place among the mercenaries.

Avery had seen recordings of their flagship, so he knew the Kiazer Fleet when he saw them.

It was not the entire mercenary group, but their core members were present. With the Kaizer fleet having brought nearly two hundred and fifty of their vessels to this battle.

The numbers were now one the Dramid Alliance's side, and the sudden arrival of such powerful reinforcements buoyed Avery and his crew's spirits.

"All ships, focus fully on defense and return to the Intrepid. We're going to break through and join our allies on the other side of the border. We will not be falling here."

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