Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 479 Solidified Strategy

"Ze, you can’t be serious!"

Much like Kasandra, Jasmine, and Liesel’s reactions to when Avery first stated his plan, Tuuali voiced her dissent when her husband volunteered for the most dangerous role.

Normally she would put her complete faith in his abilities. He was an amazing mercenary that always seemed invincible on the battlefield.

The hunting squad that he had been leading was the only one that never called in any assistance from Avery’s company or the others that had been left in reserve.

As usual, he had also designated the most difficult type of space monster to fight as his squad’s target.

The giant spike ball creature that had been given the name Dorumin, were tricky opponents.

They could fire enormous spines at high speed and when they were killed was when they became their most dangerous since their muscles that were loaded like springs would release all at once and launch every spine on their body.

What Zefield wanted to do now though, was far too reckless.

When Avery had suggested offering himself up as what sounded like a sacrifice, Tuuali did not say anything.

She did not want him to die as she had gotten well acquainted with him and thought he was an upright and decent person. Certainly, the type of mercenaries that she and Zefield could count on for future missions where their team was not enough.

Still, if he was making the choice himself, Tuuali had kept herself from voicing any opposition. Logically she knew what he had planned was the best option.

Even if it were to completely fail, they could just fall back on what Nali had suggested and bombard the monsters guarding the hyperspace entrance with their most powerful explosives and hope that they did not destabilize

Obviously, it would be better to take a gamble than wait around for a surefire death.

However, now that her partner, the only person she had truly come to love, was trying to take on a suicidal mission, she could not remain quiet and let it just pass.

With Zefield and Tuuali now arguing with each other, the bickering of the other mercenaries picked up again.

There were more ideas being tossed around, such as trying to lure the monsters away from the hyperlane entrance by sacrificing some ships that would be controlled remotely. Or to attempt a full-scale assault on the main monster horde and trying to quickly kill the commanders.

The deadliness of the situation they had all found themselves in had wound up a lot of their nerves and made it more difficult to make any actual headway in creating a solid plan.

Eventually, one voice rose above the rest and brought some order to the chaos.

"That’s enough! Bickering like this is not going to get us anywhere. We are all safe at the moment and have plenty of time to discuss what moves we should make to get ourselves out of this mess. Each and everyone of us are high-ranking mercenaries that have fought through our share of desperate battles. If this is enough to have all of you devolve into whining children, then perhaps you ought to rethink your carriers when we get out of here."

With Zefield preoccupied trying to convince his wife, Quokka took it upon herself to take over the meeting.

Things had gotten far off track as fear was creeping into some of the mercenaries’ minds.

Naturally, there was no guarantee that they would be able to get out of the mess that they had all found themselves in. But if they wanted any chance of escaping alive, they all needed to work together.

Once everyone was silent, and all eyes were on her, Quokka began by locking her gaze on Zefield and Avery.

"Neither of you two are going to take on such a stupid role as bait alone. That hardly makes sense. Either of you would be bound to die if you did something like that even if the rest of the plan went off without a hitch."

Quokka still thought that Avery’s idea was the most likely to succeed out of anything suggested so far, but she had some amendments to it that would make it less dangerous.

First, the stealth probe that she had used to learn the hyperlane route was still just floating around in the system.

It was certainly an expensive piece of equipment, but retrieving it would have bene impractical, so she had just been planning on leaving it.

Now though, it could be used as a test run.

There was still some question as to whether the commander type monsters would be able to detect Avery’s cloaked ship.

By using the probe first, they would be able to find out.

The technology the probe used was a bit different from Avery’s stealth corvette, but it was undoubtably better than going in and just hoping for the best.

If the probe got by completely unnoticed and returned, they could even use it in the main plan.

Thanks to the facilities on the Intrepid and Grito’s expertise, it would be possible to take out all unnecessary system and put a warhead inside of the probe.

The yield probably would not be too great due to size constraints, but it would allow them to strike another one of the commander types.

"As for a lure, I think that having multiple people take up and alternating the role will be for the best. Of course, since I’m suggesting this, I’ll take one of the spots." Quokka said, grinning fearlessly.

Seeing as how Avery and Zefield had already volunteered themselves to take on this role by themselves, she looked to them to see if they were still willing to go along with what she was suggesting.

"I still think that it would be best if I did it alone, but if other people want to join me, I won’t stop them."

Avery knew he had an advantage over everyone else because of his extrasensory perception, but while more people would be at risk if they followed Quokka’s suggestion, it would relieve some of the burden on him.

While might have been callous, at the end of the day, the people he was responsible for were the members of his company. So long as they all made it out alive, that was what mattered most to him.

"I will do it as well. Tuuali, surely you can understand that this is something that I must do." Zefield said, fixing a pleading gaze towards his wife.

Knowing that her objections were only emotional, Tuuali eventually gave in and agreed not to fight Zefield on his participation as one of the lures.

It hurt her to do so, but this was part of their job. As the leader of this fleet, if Zefield was not willing to take on the most perilous tasks, then who would be.

"You can count me in as well. This sounds like fun and where I’ll be most useful."

Without any hesitation, Nali volunteered herself to join as a member of the bait team.

Out of everyone here, she had the longest mercenary carrier and a very fast ship. Leading hordes of space monsters around by the nose was something she uniquely capable of and had plenty of experience doing.

To Avery’s dismay, Kasandra and Liesel offered to join as members of the squad as well.

"You did just say that ’if other people want to join me, I won’t stop them.’" Kasandra said, lowering her tone to mimic Avery’s voice.

"The two of us are some of the company’s best pilots. Our ships are also quick and tough. This will be the best use of our talents."

In this moment, Avery believed the two of them were trying to pay him back for earlier.

At least now he understood exactly how they felt.

It was as if someone had jabbed a dagger in his heart when he thought about what sort of risk the two of them would be in.

Despite what he had said, Avery tried to put his foot down and prevent Kasandra and Liesel from joining the lure team.

He came up with all manner of excuses to keep them out of it. Though, neither of them were having it and continued to remain obstinate.

After a few minutes of back and forth that was somewhat reminiscent of earlier, just in reverse. Jasmine locked eyes with Kasandra and Liesel.

Without saying anything, just by making a few gestures, she was able to somehow convey her thoughts to the two of them.

Avery did not know how they did it. As far as he knew, none of them had telepathy or anything like that.

"Fine, Liesel and I won’t participate using our own ships. Instead, the three of us will be joining you on the Dauntless." Kasandra said definitively

"That will allow you to focus solely on flying. The three of us can handle weapons, communications, and other system." Liesel said, smiling mischievously as if she had just pulled off some sort of prank.

Avery turned towards Jasmine who was the one that seemed to have set this all up.

He had been hoping to convince her otherwise, but she just leaned in and whispered in his ear.

"This way, if we go out, it will be all together. None of us will have to survive in sorrow without each other. But you won’t let that happen will you. With all four of us on one ship, I know you’ll do whatever it takes to survive."

Jasmine had come up with this idea to make sure that there was no chance that Avery would think about sacrificing himself.

She was fairly certain he would be willing to throw away everything else for his three partners if it came down to it.