Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary
Chapter 204 204 Hostile Encounter

The day after the major pirate attack, Avery and his team were back out in space patrolling around the planet that the Jallla's had made their nest on.

There were other mercenaries lurking about, waiting for some of the giant space monsters to show themselves.

"Things were pretty wild yesterday, but this is how it normally is. Everyone waits for a swarm of Jallla's to appear and then it's a mad rush to tag and kill as many as you can. Normally everyone keeps to the agreed upon implied rule of first come first served. However, as you found out yesterday, there are some bad actors around that don't care about typically mercenary etiquette." Ezra explained over comms.

It was simple enough to understand, but unknown variables were always prone to showing up. Yesterday more Jallla's than normal came out at once, and then the pirates had staged their attack on the cargo vessels while most of the mercenaries were busy.

Then you throw in a group like the one that had harassed Avery the day before, and things become chaotic quickly.

Also, there were some mercenaries that got impatient and would fly down to the planet and start combing through the icy tunnels the Jalllas had made. Looking to flush their prey out rather than waiting for them to appear naturally.

Of course, this was incredibly risky, as it was much harder to mauver in a confined space within a planet's gravitational influence. Quite a few mercenaries had already perished looking to make it big by luring out a large group of Jalllas.

"Oh, looks like the first wave of the day is coming."

After waiting around an hour and a half, what at first looked like parts of the surface of the world undulating was actually hundreds of Jalllas rising up at once and heading towards space to hunt after having been frozen for a long time.

Nevertheless, they were not the only ones looking for prey. To the mercenaries here to hunt them, each Jallla was just a big payday of three hundred thousand Krenin.

"Okay, let's claim as many as we can. I've got a nearly thirty million Krenin hole in bank account that needs filling." Avery said jokingly as he led the way.

To beginning with, all of the mercenaries would fire of small disks that would mark specific Jalllas as their targets.

Naturally, this meant groups with more personnel had an advantage. Still, Avery's team was composed of fast, quality vessels, and they were able to swiftly carve out a decent share for themselves.

"We managed to get thirty-eight. Not as many as I would have liked, but I suppose it will have to do for now."

While Avery was looking to quickly recover his funds, in all honesty this was probably close to as many Jallla's as his team could handle.

They were still only a small group composed of four ships, so they nearly had ten giant space monsters to eliminate between each of them.

Pickings may have been first come first served, but if a Jallla got to far out and became a threat to the system, then the mercenaries that had claimed it were looking at some trouble. Therefore, it was best to not get overzealous and target more than could be handled.

With their prey chosen, Avery, Ezra, Kaiden, and Olivia flew into action and started their own hunts.

After having hunted four of them the day before, Avery was more accustomed to taking on these enormous space monsters.

He had found that the best way to eliminate them was to focus his multicannons on their tendrils to rip through them, then fly incredibly close to their main bodies and rain down balls of plasma and fire the Dauntless' rear scatter guns as he raced over their heads.

There was no doubt that this was a bit dangerous as it put him within extremely close proximity to the monster and at risk of being fried by its bioelectric attacks.

Still, he had found that he could do enough damage quickly enough to prevent them from releasing any major discharges, and smaller ones could be avoided easily enough thanks to Kasandra and Jasmine keeping a close eye on the sensors and predicting when those types of attacks were coming.

"That's one." Avery said, his lips turning up into a large grin as the life signs for his first target disappeared.

Immediately he moved on to the next, and continued killing the Jallla's his team had tagged until there were not any left.

Once the battle was over and all of the Jalllas were defeated, the large cargo vessels waiting on standby flew from their relatively safe positions away from the actions and began collecting the Jallla's bodies.

During this time, the mercenaries that had participated in the hunt remained on standby as guards. Just in case there was another unexpected surge of space monsters, or more pirates showed up hoping to take advantage of the situation.

Eventually, all of the corpses had been collected, and the cargo vessels headed off towards the designated stations where they would drop the bodies off before coming back to get more.

Some of the mercenaries went with them as guards, but plenty more remained to continue hunting. Waiting for the next group of Jallla's to make an appearance and turn into money for them.

Though, there was no telling when that might be. There had been a few times when it took several days for more to show up, while other times it happened so quickly that it was difficult for the mercenaries to keep up.

Fortunately, the wait this time was not too long. Around four hours later, more gigantic Jalllas started to rise from the surface of the frozen planet that was slowly thawing.

Over the next day and a half, Avery's team stuck around and killed a total of one hundred forty-six Jalllas.

Truthfully, it was a great boon for them, and they had gotten lucky with how often the swarms of space monsters had appeared.

Still, they were reaching their limits of their stamina and ammunition, and things were starting to slow down. Each subsequent group of Jalllas had contained less than the one before it, and the rush to claim their prey had become more intense.

Seeing as how they had done pretty well for themselves, Avery's team set a course for Etania II, a colony on the other side of the system, but a bit nicer of a place than the much closer Etania IV they had been to before.

"There's a pretty nice establishment there that we've been going to in order to unwind." Ezra said over comms.

It was apparently a large bar and restaurant that marketed itself as a place for higher ranking mercenaries to hang out and get some good food and drink.

Of course, looking over the menu, Avery could tell that the place was pricey, but considering that his team had just made nearly forty-four million Krenin, even ordering the most expensive items on offer would hardly put a dent in their earnings.

When they arrived at the station, they found that they were not the only ones with this plan. Several other mercenaries that had successfully hunted some Jalllas were floating within the vicinity of the colony and waiting for their turns to dock.

Luckily, being the highest-ranking mercenaries around meant that Avery's team received priority. Within just a couple minutes of arrival all four of their vessels were docked and all of them were on their way to the place Ezra had told Avery about.

Upon arrival, Avery's team was brought to a set of booths and tables that had been reserved in advance.

"This looks good, and so does that. Hm, maybe I'll have some of these too."

Jasmine looked over the menu excitedly. Ever since receiving physical augmentations, her appetite had increased by quite a bit. Though, it was the same for Avery and Kasandra.

After everyone had made their orders, Avery got up from his seat and started making the rounds. As the leader of his group, he needed to be sociable and not seem distant from everyone else. He already spent most of his time with Kasandra and Jasmine, so it was fine to leave them to themselves during times like this.

Yet, as Avery was talking with Rorson and Havanna, his heightened hearing picked up a commotion towards the front of the establishment.

Turning around to see what was going on, he found a large group of gruff-looking mercenaries pushing their way in.

Immediately he recognized one of the men at the front of the group. Naturally after being harassed by some of the members of the man's company, Avery had looked him up.

"What could they be doing here?" Avery grumbled displeased by the turn of events.

However, the reason soon became apparent. The instant that the man, Doyle Sarkur, locked eyes with Avery, his expression became one of extreme hostility.

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