Avery swiftly became an incarnation of death to the pirates trying to destroy him and is squad.
He flew around with unbelievable maneuvers to avoid attacks aimed at him, and whenever one of his weapons fired, an enemy ship went down.
Even medium class vessels with tougher armor and shielding could not survive his assaults for long. A single hit from his powerful plasma launchers was all it took to bring them down.
It was not long before the pirates started deliberately or unconsciously avoiding him. Instead, they focused on the other mercenaries, that while putting up a strong resistance, did not have quite the same level of destructive ability as Avery's Dauntless.
Eventually, the first of their squad fell.
A veteran three star mercenary that had survived many battles had his shields breached by an overwhelming barrage of attacks.
His plating only kept him alive for another dozen seconds, before a laser connected with his main thruster and practically brought his vessel to a halt. With no defenses or maneuverability, the pirates focused on the wounded mercenary and finished him off.
Avery ground his teeth together in anger and frustration as he watched the ally he had been fighting consumed by a violent explosion.
He was doing everything he could to fight back, but things were slowly falling apart.
Avery himself was still going strong thanks to the advanced weapons and defensive capabilities of his ship, but the others were being whittled down.
Only a minute later did the next mercenary vessel get taken out. Bringing the battle to thirteen versus well over two hundred, as more and more pirates flew towards the area to join the fight.
Over the comms, Avery heard Kaiden calling out to his sister as her ship was struck by two seeker missiles.
Normally, the medium sized craft would be able to take such a hit and keep going without any difficulties, but throughout the battle her shields had been constantly worn down by laser fire.
The two missiles were the final straw and the protective field around her ship collapsed.
She focused on evasive maneuvers to avoid taking another hit, but like predators that had caught the scent of blood, the pirates locked onto a weakened member of the mercenary squad.
Kaiden flew to her defense despite putting himself at risk.
He passed practically within a few centimeters of the pirates to keep them off her, and his weapons systems were firing at maximum rate to destroy those trying to harm the only family he had left.
Yet, it was not enough.
His efforts, while valiant, were still only the work of one person. He could not help to keep a swarm of bloodthirsty pirates at bay for long
A few dozen lasers connected with Kasandra's ship and punched through its hull after chipping away at her plating.
Smoke and flames erupted from the damaged part of the vessel, and it was only a matter of time until it lost structural integrity.
Just before she met the same fate as her ship, though. Kasandra's cockpit ejected from the rest of the craft, with her inside of it.
Not but a moment later, a large explosion consumed the vessel.
Miraculously, Kasandra's last-ditch effort had kept her alive a little longer. Except, all that protected her now from the pirates' weapons, and the vacuum of space, was a small, defenseless cockpit relying on backup power.
Naturally, Kaiden attempted to rush to his sister's aid, but the pirates he had been fighting would not let him go so easily. No matter how hard he tried, he would not reach her before she was finished off.
"Damn it!" Avery shouted as he shot towards her.
For just a single moment, he had hesitated to go to her aid, since it would expose him to a great deal of enemy fire and force him to eject all of his cargo.
Still, after watching two people he had been fighting alongside die, he did not want to let another. Especially one whose face he knew, and had talked to, however briefly.
As a couple of pirates took aim at Kasandra, Avery pulled in front of her and took the hits with his shields.
At the same time, he sent out his collection drones to grab her cockpit and drag her into his now vacant cargo hold.
As he waited, Avery was forced to maneuver the Dauntless into the path of every attack aimed at Kassandra.
His shields were quickly being depleted by the concentrated fire, and just before they went out, he was forced to use one of his ship's three emergency shield cells to instantly replenish the field around his ship.
After what felt like hours, despite being only around fifteen seconds, he had Kasandra's cockpit safely secured.
Not sticking around for another moment, Avery brought his thrusters back up to full power and flew directly towards the swarm of pirates that had encroached on him while he was immobile.
With weapons blazing, he took out over a dozen of them as he broke through.
A surprise transmission from Kaiden came in not long after, but Avery simply ignored it. He was far too busy handling the hostiles all around him to waste any bit of concentration on responding to a non-essential message. Although, it did make him wonder about Kaiden's priorities since he was just as embroiled in the hectic fight as Avery was.
Around a minute later, Avery heard the cockpit's door swish open. Without needing to turn around, he knew who had just arrived.
"Gratitude later! Take the copilot's chair next to me. I'm sure that you can handle communications, long-range sensors, rear weapons, and timing shield cell deployment." Avery said, cutting Kasandra off.
At first, she just stood there in a stupor from receiving the sudden commands, before nodding her head and giving Avery an affirmative response. Even if she was unfamiliar with the Dauntless, she was an experienced mercenary and could assist Avery by handling less important tasks that had been keeping his focus split.