Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 478 Avery’s Perilous Plan

"Since it has come to this, I'm going to have to put all of my cards on the table." Avery muttered to himself.

Some of the keener eared mercenaries in the call noticed what he had said, and they turned their attention towards him.

There were still some bickering with each other about what their next move should be that had not noticed, but Zefield quickly got them under control since he understood that Avery had come up with something.

"Some of you will probably get mad at me for this, but I have a stealth ship in my group that has been following us around unseen and outside of sensor range. It was meant to be a precaution on my part in case everyone with the hyperspace map back to Alliance space were killed. However, this vessel gives us the chance to do something that would otherwise be nearly impossible. Which I why I'm brining it up now since things are desperate."

When Avery revealed this, the first reactions that he received were of confusion and silence.

It did not take most of the mercenaries present long to catch on to what he was getting at.

Several of their faces twisted into anger, and a few actually yelled at Avery.

What he had done was not strictly a breach of contract due to the language within it. Still, what he had done was certainly against the spirit of it and broke the trust he had with the other mercenaries. Especially Zefield.

The man's expression hardly changed, but Avery could see anger and disappointment in his eyes.

"If we're coming clean right now, I did something similar."

Everyone's attention that had been on Avery was suddenly drawn towards the soft voice that had just spoken up.

Among all of the mercenaries here, she was undoubtedly the second most respected after Zefield.

"What do you mean, Quokka?" Zefield said, a look of betrayal on his face.

While Avery was just someone that he had hired for this one job, she had been a trusted friend of his for many years. The two of them had grown up together in the same colony and had known each other since before becoming mercenaries.

"Well, I didn't have an entire stealth ship prepared, but I used a similar trick to make a map of the hyperlanes we took."

Quokka explained that one of the ships in her team had dropped off camouflaged beacons as they traveled.

Each one was very expensive since they needed to avoid high-end sensors. They were not something to be used frivolously

After Quokka left a system, a cloaked probe she had prepared would trace the beacon's signal. Following along right behind them.

Finally, once they had reached their destination, the probe entered the current system they were in and transmitted all of the data it had collected directly to Quokka.

"I couldn't take the risk of my team being stranded here in the case of something catastrophic happened. If it helps any, I never planned on divulging this information to anyone. It was merely meant as insurance." Quokka said, shrugging her shoulder while wearing an unapologetic expression.

Unlike when Avery divulged his hidden stealth ship, no one lashed out in anger at Quokka.

She was a well-respected six star mercenary and had worked with everyone present in the call before.

Now that they had calmed down, they could understand the logic in what she and Avery had done.

The hyperlane routes had been concealed from them as a precaution against the information leaking out to rivals of the company that had hired Zefield.

Still, anyone that thought about it would understand that this could prove to be a major risk in the case that Zefield's entire team ended up wiped out. Or if he was the type to do so, he could have abandoned them all in this system.

Fortunately, that had not happened, but they were now facing a crisis of another kind.

Now that things had quieted down for the moment, Avery took this opportunity to get back to what he was trying to explain in the first place.

He had not brought up the stealth corvette that was being commanded by Victoria Werta just to throw it in the other mercenaries' faces. The vessel would serve as an integral part of his plan.

"I'd like to get us back on track. You can all admonish me later, but we've got a true emergency on our hands. And my company's stealth ship is going to be key in getting us out of here alive."

Avery told everyone here that he had already confirmed that none of the five main types could detect the corvette unless they were right on top of it.

He had made sure that Victoria had tested this out so he knew what she would be able to do while waiting around unseen.

Had the creatures been able to detect the corvette, he would have had her go wait at the outer edge of the system where the space monsters rarely appeared.

Thankfully, its cloaking technology kept it hidden from them. Allowing Victoria to take her ship around unseen and collect data on the habitable planet. All at Avery's direction of course.

Once he had finished telling the other mercenaries about these findings, he explained what his plan was going to be.

"I have a surefire method to garner the new sixth type that commands the other space monster's attention towards me. I'll offer myself up as bait and lead their forces around while my team's stealth ship makes its way towards the leaders.

"I've already confirmed that when they lose control over their designated type of creature, those monsters no longer show comradery towards the other species. If we can kill one and ideally two of the commanders, that should create enough disorder for us to break through the horde around the hyperspace entrance and escape."

What Avery was getting at was a fairly simple strategy.

Kill the leaders to cause chaos in the ranks.

Except, executing this plan would be far from easy.

Avery's role sounded suicidal to the rest of the mercenaries present.

He planned to use himself as a lure for hundreds of thousands of monsters. That was not brave, it was foolish.

Still, he did not think that the stealth corvette would be able to make it to one of the commanders and deliver a devastating attack unless the horde and their masters were distracted.

There was uncertainty as to whether the sixth type could detect the cloaked vessel, and even if they could not, just a single stray monster bumping into it would reveal its location.

That was why Avery decided that he needed to serve as a distraction to lead as many monsters away from the commanders as possible.

In his mind, he was the only one that could do it and possibly come out alive.

The Dauntless was fast and had good maneuverability.

But the most important factor was his extrasensory perception. It would allow him to keep from being encircled and avoid the attacks that would be constantly coming his way.

Naturally, there were three individuals that heavily opposed to Avery putting himself in such danger.

"No way you're doing something like that!"

"Avery, this is far beyond just being reckless! This is worse than anything else you've done by light years!" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"We both saw how many of those things there are! You're going to get yourself killed!"

Kasandra, Jasmine, and Liesel immediately voiced their protest once Avery had finished divulging his plan.

They would sooner forcibly lock him up in the Intrepid's brig before letting him go off on a suicide mission like this.

"Surely there's a better method than what you suggested. We could have the entire fleet attack instead. If we play things safe, we could keep ahead of the monsters and take some of them out with hit and run tactics. That should work even better than having you go in alone." Kasandra said obstinately.

There was some agreement from the other mercenaries in the call. Their pride would not allow them to sit back and let Avery do everything.

Yet Avery just shook his head in response.

"No, that won't work. The moment that we take out one of the commanders, everyone else needs to attack the monsters surrounding the hyperspace entrance. There is no telling how long our window of opportunity might be. If the fleet is busy fighting the main forces, we might not be able to break through the army blocking out escape before they can rally."

Avery brought up a valid point, but that was not going to change Kasandra's, Jasmine's, and Liesel's minds.

For nearly a minute, the three of them argued with Avery to change his mind. In the end though, it was not them that put a stop to his plan.

"Your willingness to do something so dangerous is admirable. But I cannot allow it. As the person in charge, I'll be the one to take that role."

Zefield's interjection came as a shock to everyone.

He had not made any suggestions of his own as of yet and had been taking in the strategies others had suggested.

Out of all of them, he felt that Avery's had the highest odds of being successful.

However, it put far too much of a burden on Avery. Which was something Zefield could not accept.

As the one that had gathered all of the mercenaries here, it was his duty to take on the most difficult tasks. Even if it meant he would end up sacrificing himself.