Chapter 471 - 471 Days of Endless Battles (2)

At a near endless pace, the space monsters of the system continued to roll in and attack.In some ways this was great, as it was not necessary for them to go out and search for the creatures. But it also meant that the extermination force rarely had a chance to catch their breaths.

The monsters just kept coming to them. Honestly, the fact that so many were making the journey from places far away was impressive.

Somehow it seemed that every single space monster in the system had learned about the arrival of the fleet Zefield had put together.

Most of them would not get anywhere near the giant dark purple asteroid though.

The only two types that would approach were the Fluem and the pests. For some reason, the other three always kept their distance no matter how aggressive they became.

It had also become very clear that all of the monsters were very careful to avoid interacting with the asteroid whenever they did get close.

Having observed this, Avery wanted to send a team to investigate the rock more thoroughly beyond just scanning it, but there was never enough time or manpower.

The constant attacks had everyone busy basically at all times. What short moments of reprieves that they did manage to get were always used preparing for the next fight.

These circumstances were far from what everyone had been led to expect.

They should have been able to set up a solid base by the safe zone as Zefield and his team had done during their past attempt.

Yet, the space monsters that lived here had become far more aggressive than previously observed.

On the fifth day since arriving, the squad assigned to deal with the Hinvieners incurred the first casualties.

Three small ships had been destroyed, and along with them, five lives were lost.

This news left a bitter pill in everyone's mouths, but everyone continued to push through.

While they were all high-ranking mercenaries, death was something that was not uncommon in their line of work. All of them knew that it could come for them at any moment. Especially on a high paying, high risk mission like this one.

Two days later, when they had been there for a week, was by far their worst day.

The monster came in a massive swarm and attacked them with a ferocity they had not yet displayed.

"We're ready to launch." Jasmine said next to Avery in the Dauntless' cockpit.

Without hesitation and moving as quickly as was safely possible in the Intrepid's hangar, Avery shot his ship forward and rushed out into open space with several other vessels trailing behind him.

There was already a swarm of Fluem accompanied by hundreds of pests outside, but Avery completely ignored them and turned the Dauntless in another direction.

He would trust Ezra, Kaiden, and Burke to hold things down here.

Everyone else he was leading into battle to help the third squad that was assigned to hunt down the Fluem.

They were having trouble right now due to how many of the creatures had appeared, which was how several had slipped through to attack the Intrepid.

Rather than allow the lines to continue to crumble and deal with an ever-increasing number of monsters coming for his carrier ship, Avery had made the decision to go on the offensive.

It took them around twenty minutes to reach where the main battle was occurring.

Along the way they had hunted down some Fluem that had slipped by, and it became clear immediately why the squad being led by one of Zefield's Lieutenants Trisrora was being pushed back.

They were outnumbered by about five to one. That was how many Fluem were attacking.

To make matters worse though, there were a few of the other types mixed in as well that had strayed from their own species.

There were three Volmargars and nearly eighty Hinvieners fighting alongside the hundreds of Fluem. With a number of pests flying around to scramble communications and sensors.

This may not have been a lot considering that there were several times the number of Fluem, but just adding a few extra variables into the fight made it that much harder.

"Kasandra, Liesel, stick with me and keep up. We're going to target one at a time and take them down swiftly. Use every bit of firepower you have. Olivia, do your best to support the main squad and keep anything that tries to target us away if you can."

After giving out his orders, Avery zipped towards the nearest monster and opened fire on it.

For this occasion, he had reinstalled the auto turret in place of the EMP blaster he typically preferred.

The Dauntless' main laser cannons were practically going to be useless against the Fluem, so he had traded two of them out for the multicannons that he had used to hunt Jalllas in the past.

This would make him a bit less effective against the other types of monsters, but that was just something he would have to deal with.

Most of the enemies right now were Fluem anyway, so it was a tradeoff he was willing to make.

With three high powered vessels firing into it, the first monster went down in seconds.

Avery was leading Kasandra and Liesel along with him on dangerous close-range attacks, but he knew that this was what would have the most impact.

Also, with Jasmine beside him and his other two lovers flying their ships right next to his, he felt that he could respond to any threat to them if he needed to.

Systematically, the three of them maneuvered along the edge of the monster swarm and hunted down the Fluem one at a time.

By prioritizing all of their attacks into one enemy, they could bring them down swiftly.

Of course, after eliminating their fourth creature, the other Fluem took notice of the small team hunting down their brethren.

More balls of light began flying towards Avery, Kasandra, and Liesel.

Thankfully, these space monsters did not possess any advanced targeting systems, so their only real strategy was to attack rapidly and hope they scored a hit.

Each one was firing off dozens of attacks every second though. So, their quantity of blasts certainly was impressive and difficult to fully dodge.

I wanted to save this trick for a little later. But I probably should use it now.'

Avery had Jasmine send Liesel and Kasandra a message telling them to keep in close formation with him and follow his movements.

After that, he took a deep breath and focused inwardly.

It took him a couple of moments, but he soon felt something rising up within him.

Soon his perception became enhanced, and the flow of energy became visible to him.

As soon as he activated his ability however, Avery was struck by a sudden wave of intense nausea.

This was something he had never experienced before, and it was not because he had overexerted himself or done something wrong.

No, the energy coming off of the Fluem was sickening to look at.

'What the hell is that?! It's wrong. I don't know why but it shouldn't exist!'

Avery had never seen anything like this before.

Whenever he had used his extrasensory perception before, the flow of energy had always appeared as strands of light that he could instinctively perceive.

Except, there was something inside of the Fluem that looked twisted and unnatural.

The only thing he had ever encountered that was anywhere close to this was the drug that had been injected into Jasmine. But even that had not felt as vile as this.

"Avery! Snap out of it, what's wrong?!"

It was only when Jasmine called out to him that Avery realized that he had completely stopped moving.

She had taken over the controls from him and focused on evasion, but obviously his sudden stillness had concerned her.

"Sorry, I got lost in thought for a moment. I promise I'm fine and am not pushing myself." Avery said as he took over the Dauntless again.

Every time he looked at a Fluem it made him feel sick, but he forced the feeling down and focused his attention more on their attacks than the creatures themselves.

With more precise movements, he weaved through the balls of light flying their way following the most optimal paths.

Being as skilled as they were, Kasandra and Liesel kept up with him and the three of them continued on their rampage through the lines of space monsters.

This took a bit of the pressure off of the main hunting squad and gave someone else the room to start going on a rampage.

Not wanting to let a bunch of kids show her up, Nail broke off from the rest of the fleet and began attack Fluem by herself with her fully customized medium sized craft.

The frame of the vessel came from a popular model developed by Ravasz Dynamics. The same company that had created the ship that Cerise had used during the competition in the capital system.

However, it had been highly modified from the base model to the point that it was almost unrecognizable.

Still, it followed the company's general design style. Which meant that it was fast.

Its main thrusters were more than a third of the entire ship's body length. For a medium sized craft, it was capable of incredible burst of speed. More so than even Kassandra's ship which was one of Storren Corp.'s finest works.

With two deadly forces rapidly killing them, the Fluem were beginning to see a sharp decrease in their numbers. The tide of the battle was beginning to finally turn.