Avery initiated evasive maneuvers as lasers, missiles, and bullets came flying at him from the pirate vessels.
Naturally some of the attacks hit, but he carefully avoided the more dangerous ones and mostly soaked up weak laser fire with his shields. The Dauntless was plenty durable enough to take hundreds of blasts from such weak weapons that were hardly better than what his old ship had equipped.
"Don't think I'll just be taking it." Avery said, locking onto three ships and opening fire.
With a bright red flash, his three heavy laser cannons fired and scored direct hits.
The three small spacecraft he had aimed at instantly lost their shields and were heavily damaged. To the point that they no longer functioned, and their pilots were dead.
As Avery continued his approach, he one-sidedly blasted down the lead pirates before slipping into their sloppy formation.
"K-kill him already!"
"What the hell! He's a monster!"
The usual wideband communications the pirates used to taunt their victims instead rang out with cries of terror. Avery had easily plunged into them and already destroyed thirteen of their small civilian ships that they had turned into hodgepodge light fighters.
However, Avery's true targets were at the back of the pack. Five medium sized transports that had been equipped with missile pods. They were not only the biggest threats of the group, but also worth the most.
Once Avery got into range, the five vessels unloaded with everything they had. Their crews had already seen that Avery's ship and his skills were undoubtedly a cut above the average mercenary's. He had done something as crazy as flying directly into the path of dozens of enemies without waiting for backup after all.
"Deploy flares." Avery ordered the Dauntless' computer.
Even he would be in trouble if he took more than a couple direct hits from seeker missiles. They possessed quite a bit more power than the weak laser weaponry that most of the pirates had.
Fortunately, they were relatively slow compared to most armaments and easily avoided or diverted with proper measure.
Putting all of the skills he had cultivated under Urs to use, Avery passed through the hail of missiles with only taking one glancing blow to his shields.
With a few quick maneuvers, Avery had two of the medium sized ships lined up with his plasma launchers.
Using his primary laser cannons would have taken a couple volleys to break through their shields and plating, but that was not going to be an issue for the plasma launchers.
The instant Avery pulled the trigger, two white hot balls of plasma fired out from either side of his ship and went flying towards the pirates.
Obviously, they attempted to dodge, but the heavier medium sized ships loaded up with missiles lacked the necessary maneuverability to get out of the way in time.
Their shields practically evaporated the moment the plasma hit, and their hull hardly lasted any longer.
Two enormous explosions followed, as the stores of missiles onboard detonated when they were consumed by plasma.
After taking the first two out, Avery set his sights on the last three.
With a bit of effort, he brought two more down in short order, but the final remaining one had turned around and was flying away from him as fast as possible.
It was when he was about to go after it, that two ships shot by in pursuit.
Kaiden and Kassandra had locked onto the last remaining medium sized pirate ship and were intent on taking it out.
Avery decided to forgo contesting them and instead intently watched while absentmindedly taking shots at a few of the remining pirates flying smaller crafts.
The two of them flew in a tight formation and unloaded on the vessel with autocannons and pulse lasers.
Just as Avery had suspected from casually observing them earlier, they fought with a quick and heavy hitting attack style.
"For medium sized fighters, they've got some pretty good maneuverability. I wonder about their shields, armor, and cargo space though." Avery mused.
For every spacecraft, some compromises had to be made. More powerful thrusters required a better and typically larger generator. With all of the high-powered weapons and above average speed and maneuverability, some sort of sacrifice to other parts of their ships had to have been made.
Avery's own Dauntless had a small cargo hold for its size to make room for its weapons and advanced systems. Also, every facility except the captain's quarters and cockpit were small and utilitarian. They weren't designed with comfort in mind. It was truly a military style vessel meant for hardened soldiers.
Soon, the last of the pirates in the first wave had been eliminated. Thanks in part to Avery's charge, not a single mercenary ship had been destroyed or damaged to the point of having to drop out of the battle.
A few minutes later, a transmission was sent out to all of the mercenaries.
"Looks like the others cleaned up as well. All that's left is hunting down and exterminating the ones trying to hide out."
Every squad had successfully wiped out the pirates that had attempted to flee, and the few that had taken more dangerous routes through the moons that were not being covered by mercenaries, had ended up crashing or being wiped out by the Alliance Police's blockade.
While waiting for their next set of orders, Avery and the other mercenaries set about collecting the loot from the vessels they had taken out.
"The four missile ships I took out exploded pretty spectacularly, but most of the smaller ones are still intact." Avery murmured as he plotted out the ideal course to collect his loot.
In total he had managed to take out twenty-two pirate vessels. That was by far the most out of anyone in his group of mercenaries.
Unfortunately, while this left him with the most to collect, his aforementioned small cargo hold filled up quickly. Forcing him to leave valuable weapons and intact systems behind for others to take.