Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 477 Unsuccessful Flight

After contemplating in silence for several minutes, Zefield sighed and shook his head.

"This is too much. No matter the strategy, our chances aren’t great. The only option is to retreat."

Zefield had carefully listened to what Avery had to say and looked over the data his and Liesel’s ship’s sensors had recorded.

He had been hired to hunt down the space monsters in this system, but it had proven to be a more monumental task than expected.

Had they been dealing with normal space monsters, even the numbers that Avery had just reported would not have been impossible to deal with.

Typically, space monsters acted almost entirely on instinct and did not fight with any semblance of an organized manner.

The only type that usually divulged from this were energy lifeforms that all acted at the behest of a queen that controlled them.

Yet, what they were dealing with here was several different species of deadly dangerous creatures being commanded by entities that used some level of tactics.

Had they been able to hunt down the hundreds of thousands of monsters being gathered in smaller groups as originally expected, it would not have been a problem.

But fighting such an army all at once would be overwhelming for the now only slightly more than five hundred ships left in the mercenary fleet.

Understanding this, Zefield knew that their only option at this point was to flee.

That would certainly end up costing him a great deal of money and lower his reputation since this would be the second time that he had needed to retreat.

Still, this had honestly become a job that was beyond what mercenaries could handle at this point.

Even Zefield, a seven star mercenary. had his limits.

Under his direct command as members of his team were only forty-eight vessels.

When it came to skills, they were some of the best. And their equipment was all high-end as well.

Nevertheless, there was something that even they could not overcome, and that was a vast difference in numbers.

Now that he knew exactly what this system had in store, he would honestly want at least twenty times the numbers he had brought.

That was the kind of force he figured would be necessary to overpower the space monsters here without risking too many casualties.

To hire that many skilled mercenaries would be an exorbitant cost.

As things stood, he planned to recommend to his employer that they sell their hyperspace maps to the Alliance Police and let them deal with this. Disregarding the negative impact it would have on him.

They were likely the only ones that could easily gather enough ships to take on the monstrosities in this system.

"I thank you for your diligence and brining this information to me. I’ll be ordering a retreat soon. Head back to your carrier vessel and prepare to leave." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

When the call was cut off, the last thing Avery saw was a look of regret on Zefield’s face.

No doubt it had been a difficult choice for him to make.

Thankfully, he weighed the lives of everyone here as greater than his reputation and pride.

There were plenty of hotheaded mercenaries out there that would have tried to stick things out, believing that they could still win.

Naturally, there were some of those types among the people that Zefield had contracted.

They questioned why it was necessary to run away.

In their minds, all that was necessary was to strike the monsters hard with some high yield weapons while they were still preparing.

Certainly, there might be some merit to this strategy, but it would be a huge gamble.

Should they fail to kill enough monsters with their opening strike, it would lead to them being overrun by an army they could not stand up to.

Zefield used his authority and rank to crush any complaints and opposition to his decision, but the arguments did slow their retreat by about an hour.

This may not have seemed like a lot of time, but it would prove to be detrimental to their escape.

When the fleet arrived at the entrance to the hyperlane that would take them out of the system, the area was already swarming with all five types of space monsters.

There were around eighty thousand of them. Which was only a fraction of the total army that Avery and Liesel had witnessed, but still a force powerful enough to represent a major threat.

It appeared that the commander space monsters controlling the rest were at least smart enough to cut off any chance of escape.

They would not allow the hostile intruders to escape and come back with greater numbers as they had already done once before.

The objective this time was to eliminate everyone and prevent future incursions.

This was far beyond what most space monsters with their normally low intelligence would be able to execute.

But the people that had created the commander type species had implanted the ability to implement basic strategies like many smarter beasts were capable of.

"Everyone prepare to create distance. We’ll head back towards our previous position with a one-minute light speed jump."

Zefield swiftly sent out a command to everyone and made the judgment that falling back was the best option.

Thankfully, none of the space monsters were capable of movement that could keep up with light speed, so the entire mercery fleet was able to get away before any fighting broke out.

This did not solve the problem that they were faced with though.

The only way currently known that would take them out of the system was the single hyperlane that was now being guarded by a horde of space monsters.

There were almost certainly other hyperspace entrances that could be used but mapping them would be difficult even in a safe location.

It would basically be impossible if they were being chased around by space monsters. Also, they lacked the necessary equipment and expertise.

Zefield had assembled an extermination squad, not explorers. No one had thought that their path of retreat would be blocked by what they thought were mindless space monsters.

"We should just blow through them. If we use all of the strongest torpedoes and missiles we collectively have, we can destroy those monsters in one go." Nali said, stating her vicious but direct plan as soon as all of the mercenary leaders were connected over a group call.

There were others that agreed with her, but there were certain risks involved.

Using so many powerful explosives could cause the hyperspace entrance to become destabilized for a while.

Plenty of tests were conducted on this matter when it was first discovered during a massive war over a thousand years ago.

The phenomenon was not common, and it took a great deal of explosive force in the vicinity of a hyperspace entrance to cause it to occur.

However, the possibility remained. And doing something so reckless could see them all trapping themselves here for their opponents to rally and set up an even larger army around the area while they were waiting.

Fighting normally ran the risk of taking heavy losses and more monsters attacking them from behind.

Obviously, using light speed travel, they could keep ahead of the creatures, but that would only be a temporary solution. Eventually, ships would start to run out of energy, and their food supplies would dwindle.

Avery listened to the arguing back and forth about what should be done.

Zefield and Tuuali were barely keeping things under control as some of the mercenaries were beginning to grow uneasy.

While they might have all been accomplished fighters, this kind of situation was not one that any of them had found themselves in before. It was only natural that some of them would be afraid.

"We could try sending a message to the Alliance Police in the Ainelou System asking for aid. If we hand over the data on the hyperlane routes, they’ll be able to come and help us."

This suggestion gained a bit of traction, but it had its own problems.

Signals moved faster than ships did, but it would still take a few days for the transmission to arrive.

Then if the Alliance Police actually did decide to respond to their plight, it would likely be several months before they could assemble the necessary forces to eradicate the monsters in this system.

That was only the best-case scenario with everything going perfectly. There was no telling what sort of bureaucratic nonsense might get in the way and slow things down.

’I really don’t even want to suggest this. But it might be our best option.’ Avery thought, his expression twisting into a grimace.

He had been mulling over an idea in his head since before the meeting had begun.

Except, it was something that would put him and one of his team’s vessels in grave danger.

If they pulled it off though, it could be their greatest chance at success.