Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 254 Police Rescue

The next day, once they had cleaned themselves up, Avery and Kasandra took their seats in the Dauntless’ cockpit and headed for the site of the second event of the competition.

Despite only having gotten a few hours of sleep, the two of them looked invigorated. Both feeling quite refreshed after fulfilling their desires.

’I feel on top of the galaxy today. Whatever it is the organizers have in store for us, I’m ready.’ Avery thought, wearing a confident grin.

He was brimming with energy and felt like he would not be nervous even if the upcoming challenge was to charge into an enemy armada alone.

When they arrived at the designated destination, they found that five of the other competitors were already there.

Unlike the first event and the opening ceremony, the second part of the competition was going to include all of them acting together at the same time. Other than that, though, none of them had any information about what they were going to be doing. Or at least, they should not have.

"Do you think that it’s going to be a free-for-all?" Kasandra asked, her eyes glancing between the vessels as if she was trying to glean the weaknesses of prey she was going to be hunting.

"Possibly, but I doubt it. I think that if that’s something the organizers have planned, that it would be later down the line. A fight between all of us would be a pretty big spectacle for them to blow on only the second round. I’m sure the people in charge have planned things out to retain the greatest interest throughout the entire competition. They’ll want to get finished with some of the less flashy events at the start when retention is high and bring out the entertaining parts of the competition to maintain viewership."

Of course, this was all just speculation on Avery’s part. The nine competitors might be told to take up positions and fight until only one of them remained.

They might be broken up into three groups of three, or it could be something else entirely. There really was no telling.

Considering the vastness of space and everything that could occur that the Alliance Police might need to deal with, today’s event could be just about anything.

Eventually, the other representative ships showed up and the event staff nearby told them all to wait for a couple of minutes while things were set up.

Except, as far as Avery could tell, there was nothing here but empty space.

Even the Dauntless’ sensors could not detect anything else in the area. There were not even any camera drones around to record what was going to happen.

’Maybe Kasandra was right, and they plan on having us fight it out amongst each other.’ Avery thought, believing that to be about the only viable option if it was only the nine of them.

He doubted that they were going to be forced to race in open space to see which of them had the fastest cruising speed. That was the kind of data that could simply be obtained from a report sent by each of the corporations.

However, it was not long before the Dauntless altered Avery to a craft approaching at light speed. Its long-range sensors having picked up the disturbance in space created by a large mass moving at such a speed.

It was not much longer before an Alliance Police light cruiser appeared. Escorted by a few members of the competition staff ships.

A transmission then went out to all of the participants instructing them to enter the light cruiser’s hangar.

"I guess that we’re being taken to a second location for this event. Now I’m a bit excited for what they have in store for us."

Avery gripped the Dauntless’ controls and flew towards the light cruiser.

It was not a typical version considering that it had a fairly large hangar that could fit up to fourteen small vessels.

Once everyone was inside the hangar and locked in docking bays, the light cruiser began moving. Taking them all to the actual location of the second event.

While in transit, they all finally received the details of what the event would entail.

They would be responding to the distress signals of a "merchant convoy", that was under attack by a large group of "pirates".

Naturally, this was not a real attack, since something like that was impossible within the Dramid System due to the heavy security the capital demanded.

This would be another staged event. Though, it was certainly going to be a lot more chaotic than the first.

"There’s no clear grading scale for this one. It just says that our score will be determined by a judging committee awarding points based on our performance. And that we should endeavor to perform as if we’re members of the Alliance Police. That’s pretty vague." Kasandra said after she finished reading the message detailing the second event.

"Yeah, we have no idea what it is they are actually looking for. Will we get a high score for just beating the pirates, or are there other objectives we need to focus on?"

Having to endeavor to act like members of the Alliance Police was also an unusual addition to the instructions.

The organizers made sure to mention it clearly for a reason. Although Avery was not sure why exactly.

He wished that he had Jasmine with him to consult. Seeing as how she used to be a member of the Alliance Police, perhaps the phrase had some special meaning that she would understand.

"Well, all we can do is do our best. And since we managed to get second place during the first event, our position is pretty good. Even if we get fifth or sixth place this time, it shouldn’t put us behind too far." Kasandra said reassuringly.

Now that the two of them knew what this round of the competition would entail, they got to work preparing the Dauntless.

Avery set the power settings and controls configuration to the preset he had made for battle. At the very least, he knew that they were going to be fighting pirates, so having all of the vessel’s weapon system ready to go was a must.

"I’ve got flares, chaffs, and decoy beacons loaded into their compartments, with the reserves on standby in case we need them. Our shield cells are also good to go, and I’ve focused the sensors to track other ships."

With Kasandra supporting him, Avery felt reassured that they could handle whatever this competition was planning on throwing at them.

A few minutes later, the Alliance Police light cruiser dropped out of light speed at the destination of the mock attack. frёeωebɳovel.com

Immediately it transmitted the feed being displayed by its cameras and while still inside the hangar, Avery and Kasandra were able to view what was going on outside.

"We’ve got thirteen large cargo vessels and a whole swarm of pirates attacking them. They’re holding out for now, but it’s not looking great for them." Kasandra said, frowning as they received the data on the battle.

This was all just a simulation, but it was imitating what would really be happening in this scenario should it be real.

The pirates were close to disabling the cargo ships. Once that happened, they would either kidnap or kill everyone onboard and then loot the vessels.

"Seems that they’ve prepared some playmates to entertain our carrier." Avery said, noticing the five large transports that had been modified into gunships.

This was a pretty classic tactic pirates used.

Obtaining actually warships was not particularly easy for pirates. They could not just buy them on account of being wanted criminals, and trying to capture a well-armed mercenary or Alliance Police vessels usually ended poorly for any outlaws that tried.

Obviously to make this event feel as real as possible, the light cruiser acting as a carrier needed to be involved in the battle as well. So, the organizers had prepared some bigger enemies for the ship to fight.

"The cruiser’s captain has cleared us for launch. We’re to engage the small and medium class pirate vessels attacking the cargo ships. Protecting them and their crews is our priority." Kasandra said, reading out the orders that they had received.

A few seconds later and the hangar doors opened.

Avery was about to rush out when he noticed several signatures hastily shooting out of their own docking bays.

First, he watched a green streak shoot by, which was obviously the ship representing Ravasz Dynamics.

The others followed suit, and Avery watched as a few of them nearly crashed into each other on the way out because of their haste.

Of the nine participants, only Avery, who had instinctually stayed put to avoid ending up in an accident, and Stifur’s bulky vessel, which was the slowest out of all of them, were left in the hangar.

Now that the way was clear, Avery exited the hangar out into space. Finding that a chaotic battle had already erupted with the first seven all chasing after pirates in a mad dash to defeat as many as they could.

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)re𝒆web(n)ovel.com