Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Nearly a week went by as the battle raged on.

There was an ebb and flow to it, with both sides occasionally retreating to regroup and then striking back harder.

Several times during the conflict reinforcements joined in from both sides. With their numbers eventually reaching close to four thousand total ships.

It was a battle on a scale Avery had never seen before, and it honestly made him feel a bit small and insignificant.

His company was only fielding the Intrepid and their three corvettes. The smaller vessels were just at too great of a risk of being destroyed. This was not the kind of fight that they could participate in.

Still, despite his team only making up a small fraction of the Dramid Alliance's forces, they were not inconsequential.

The Intrepid was one of the strongest ships on their side, and despite how much damage it had taken on the first day, it had no problems hitting back after being fixed up a bit.

"Fire."

At Avery's command, the Intrepid's Supreme Electromagnetic Cannon launched a giant sphere of glowing energy that quickly expanded as it flew towards its target.

The enemy flagship had taken the lead as the Zatis Consortium pressed the attack against the Dramid Alliance forces as they feigned retreat.

This was the culmination of days of effort, where they would always maneuver the exact same way whenever they backed off to recover.

Obviously, the admiral in charge of the Consortium armada had picked up on this pattern and finally had decided to try and capitalize on what he believed to be an opening to strike a heavy blow against the Alliance Police and their hired mercenaries.

Except, just as planned, Avery had the Intrepid positioned so that it could use one of its most powerful weapons on the enemy flagship.

So far, he had not revealed the electromagnetic cannon, so the Zatis Consortium forces had no idea his carrier vessel was equipped with such a weapon.

Of course, it was going to take more than a single hit to disable such a large and impressive vessel as the armada's flagship.

It was a truly monstrous craft, being nearly three kilometers long.

"Again." Avery ordered.

He knew that firing the electromagnetic cannon in quick succession would damage the weapon, but it was a sacrifice that needed to be made.

If the first hit had only momentarily stunned the enemy vessel, the second caused some of its main systems to start malfunctioning.

Still, it was not enough.

The Zatis Consortium might have sometimes cheaped out on certain safety features and redundancies only used during the worst emergencies, but they had not done so for one of their premier warships.

It had backups that kicked in as the main systems were shut down for maintenance after suffering damage from two powerful electromatic pulse attacks.

"One more shot. I don't care if the cannon breaks. We need to do as much damage as we can."

Avery's command was a bit reckless, but this was their chance to make a major move towards winning this battle.

Despite the drain on the main reactor and the fact that the electromatic cannon was already overheated, his team initiated the sequence to fire another blast.

Alerts came in that several capacitors had burst and that there were now fires breaking out in certain parts of the ship.

Using the Supreme Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon in such quick succession without allowing for any time to cooldown had caused too much heat to build up.

Nevertheless, they got the third shot off, and this time it did enough damage to Zatis Consortium Flagship's electronic systems to partially disable the vessel.

It was not fully out of the fight, but many of its weapon systems were inoperable, and its main thrusters were down.

Naturally, the rest of the enemy ships had not remained idle and were fast approaching. With eighteen already targeting the Intrepid and firing on it.

"Move us to the back of the formation as planned. We've played our part already. Let's have the others finish things off for us." Avery said, keeping his attention on the vessels attacking them.

Fortunately, it was not long before the Alliance Police and mercenary fleet had turned around from their faux retreat and were throwing themselves back into the battle.

The ships that had been targeting the Intrepid were forced to back off and deal with their new opponents.

"It's almost like scavengers flocking to a dying animal." Kasandra commented while she watched over a hundred vessels descended on the disabled Consortium flagship.

The commanders leading the Dramid Alliance forces knew that they could not allow their enemy to recover this time.

Taking out the enemy flagship would help their morale while damage the enemy's. Though, more importantly, they would be able to remove the biggest threat from the battle.

With how powerful its main cannons were, the Zatis Consortium Flagship could take down anything smaller than a light cruiser in a single hit.

Only the fleet's largest vessels could fight against it, and even then, they were outgunned. Typically, they needed to devote four or five of their best ships to combating it at all times.

Now though, the monstrous ship was finally going down as it was torn apart from heavy fire that even its shields and armor could not take.

When the enormous vessel finally exploded after having its main reactor breached, Avery heard cheers from his bridge crew and across the comms connecting him to other notable captains within the fleet.

The reaction from the enemy was notable as well.

At first, they attacked more fiercely than before. Most likely trying to rally behind their lost flagship as some sort of martyr.

This did not last long though, as the Alliance Police and mercenaries fought back with even greater fervor. Now that the strongest enemy had fallen, they could all taste victory approaching.

After working on repairs for around seven hours, Avery gave the order for the Intrepid to rejoin the battle.

He was not under the same contract as the rest of the mercenaries, but he figured that there was still likely a bonus in his future for every Consortium ship his company took down.

It was another two days until the fighting ceased, with the Zatis Consortium armada in full retreat.

There were a bit under three hundred of them left now. Only about a fifth of the total number of vessels that they had fielded.

Of course, the forces from the Dramid Alliance had not achieved victory without incurring their own losses.

Hundreds of Alliance Police and mercenary ships had been destroyed. With thousands of lives being lost.

This was the true price of war, and it left a sobering feeling over those that were still alive.

Yes, they might have won, but it came at a heavy cost.

Avery had never seen a debris field so thick before. Even when his team had destroyed the Odium Syndicate bases, it had not created this much wreckage.

Now orders came in once the remains of the enemy armada had moved past sensor range.

As much as everyone could have used a break, there was no time for that.

The area needed to be quickly scoured for usable salvage, and then most of them would need to move on.

This place was not the only location where fighting had broken out.

There were hundreds of other locations where the Dramid Alliance and Zatis Consortium clashed.

Almost every one of them could use reinforcements, so those that could continue and were not staying to defend the area were expected to head to another front to continue fighting.

However, Avery had no intention of getting his company involved any further.

He had stuck around for this one battle, since it had originated from the allies Cerise had called in to save them from the Zatis Consortium's forces.

But there was no reason for him to continue fighting. He had not signed any contract obligating him to, and so far, as he was concerned, the Odium Syndicate was gone now, and his contract with Cerise was completed.

Fortunately, when he contacted her to inform her of his company's plans, she agreed without any resistance and did not try to rope him into anything else. He would not be expected to join the war if he did not want to. Mercenaries were allowed to choose for themselves whether they would get involved or not.

"Go ahead and continue with things as we already planned. It might be a month or two, but when I can get the time, I'll meet you in the cpatial system. You can expect to receive your payment and awards. No matter what, I'll make sure that you receive what you deserve." Cerise said.

She then cut off the call and busied herself with sending orders to the captains of her fleet.

While the war might have been over for Avery, it certainly was not for her.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!