Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 442 Days of Adjustment
After introducing Mercedes as the ship’s doctor, some of the younger guys seemed to have grown infatuated with her.
She had an attractive appearance and probably looked to be about the same age as them, so it was only natural that some of the young men started to have a crush on her.
However, when they learned of her age, they all lost interest pretty quickly. None of them were "advanced" enough to try pinning after a woman that was old enough to be their grandmother.
Doctor Raiti left not long after she had arrived. She only gave a brief introduction and then told Avery to be prepared to come see her when she was ready. It was almost time for him to keep his end of their deal and let her give him a comprehensive examination.
Eventually, the welcome banquet wound down and the new crew members began making their way towards their rooms.
Some of them were a bit inebriated and needed to be escorted, but there were no major problems. Though, the next day, it was discovered that one individual that had really let loose ended up wandering into the main cargo hold and falling asleep on a stack of boxes.
Fortunately, there was no damage to the person in question or any of the items being stored. Though, they certainly had to deal with some embarrassment for a while afterwards.
For the first three days after the more than twenty-five hundred new crew members joined, everyone focused on get accustomed to their roles.
Throughout the days, there were several scheduled and a couple of impromptu drills.
There was no telling what might happen in space, and Avery wanted to make sure that his crew was prepared to react to even unlikely scenarios.
Naturally, one of the most important scenarios that they practiced was rapid deployment from the hangars.
While Avery’s new ship, that he had decided to dub the Intrepid, had the firepower of a battleship, it was also a carrier.
A lot of its strength came from the other vessels that it held inside of it, and being able to get everyone out into combat quickly could mean the difference between life and death. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
They ran dozens of drills, all under harsh conditions.
The three corvettes were easy enough to deploy since they had their own hangar and there were only three of them, but there were a lot more of the smaller and medium sized vessels.
There were two entrances and exits into the main hangar. The larger one that opened towards the front of the carrier, and a smaller one on the port side.
’Hm, our times are still a little slow. Maybe it’s time we go and get some real experience rath than just practicing simulations.’
On their fourth day, Avery informed everyone that they would be moving out now.
They had been staying in the mostly safe Granvard System to get the crew adjusted to their new environment, but it was time for the full crew’s first clash with priates.
Some of the younger members were obviously nervous about going into combat for the first time.
Still, they had joined the crew of a mercenary ship, so they had all been prepared for this. Violence was how mercenaries made their money. If everything was peaceful, they would be out of a job.
Following information gathered from the mercenary association, Avery’s team headed out five systems away to an area where pirate attack reports were on the rise.
It was a bit outside of the most prominent trade routes, but it was still an area that received a consistent amount of traffic while having only one permanent station and hardly any Alliance Police presence.
The system was mostly empty with only a small red dwarf as its stat and two barren rocky planets devoid of basically anything of value.
This made it the perfect place for pirates to set up shop for ambushing merchants and travelers that were lacking in protection.
"We’re receiving multiple distress signals from a group of traders under attack."
As soon as they exited hyperspace, the bridge crew member in charge of communications told Avery about an already in progress attack.
There were several hundred thousand kilometers between them, but the Intrepid’s main viewscreen was capable of zooming in and showing a crips display of what was going on.
A group of around sixty priates were currently terrorizing five medium sized cargo vessels and their escorts.
They were holding out well, but it was already obvious how the battle was going to end. Eventually the pirates’ numbers would wear down the mercenaries and merchants.
"Not exactly how I was expecting us to get started, but we can’t very well leave them like this. Set in a course for intercept and tell everyone on standby in their ships to be prepared to launch." Avery said, giving out commands as he had practiced.
It felt a bit odd for him to just be issuing orders, rather than actively fighting, but that was his role right now.
Certainly, he would get back into the Dauntless’ cockpit eventually. That was where he belonged.
For now though, it was best that their command structure stayed mostly stable while everyone was still getting used to the new ship.
When the priates saw another cargo ship coming right at them, they thought that some idiot was delivering themselves on a silver palter.
Except, when the Intrepid revealed its high-powered weapon systems and slightly more than two dozen warships flew out of it, how wrong they were.
What happened next could hardly be considered a fight. It was an extermination, plain and simple.
The priates that attempted to fight back were blown away by military grade heavy laser cannons and pulse lasers. While those that fled were chased down by the ships that had been deployed from the Intrepid’s hangar.
It was all over in less than three minutes with Avery’s company’s complete victory.
"Well, I’d say that was a successful first battle for the new crew."
Avery leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin. Everything was going the way that he wanted it to, and he could tell that the crew was already gaining more confidence.
