Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"That's some serious fire power." Avery said with a long, impressed whistle.

The first thing he had pulled up was SCXD-011's weapons. It was a vessel meant for military use so naturally it had some powerful armaments onboard.

First were its three heavy laser cannons concentrated on the front of ship. Each one of them was unbelievably powerful and outclassed the single pulse laser mounted on his other ship by lightyears. Honestly, even a single glancing blow from one of these weapons would take out the shields and obliterate the hunk of junk he had been flying in.

On the upper side to the left and right of the cockpit were two high yield plasma launchers.

Avery found these to be a bit unusual for something that was supposed to be a military craft.

Plasma launchers were undoubtedly strong, capable of burning through even tough shields and sturdy plating, but they were incomparably slow compared to lasers and had a short effective range, making them unpopular. Still, if someone knew how to use them well, a small vessel like this could theoretically even bring down a battleship. That was simply how devasting getting hit by such high-end plasma weapons was.

"There's also an auto turret on top of the stern as well as two scatter guns near the back for suppressing pursuers that get too close. Finally, a single torpedo launcher on the bottom of the ship."

Looking at each of the weapons' specifications, Avery found that they were all top class. This was the kind of stuff that most people could never even dream of getting their hands on.

Once he had finished familiarizing himself with the weapons, he found the information on the shields and plating.

Both were as high spec as the weapons and comparable to what a far larger craft would usually have. The shields alone were strong enough to deflect most lower to mid-range weapons without taking hardly any damage.

The plating was also special in that it had jamming properties. Unless specific commands had been imputed to halt the dampening effect, most sensors would be able to figure out no more than the ship's dimensions and its signature, just as Avery first had when he uncovered the vessel.

There were several dozen more important aspects of the ship that Avery needed to familiarize himself with, but for now he stuck with finishing up with its propulsion systems. To truly come to know his new craft, he would likely need several days. Time he did not currently have.

For now, he needed to return back to the colony he was residing at and take care of a mountain of tasks.

"I've got to register the SCXD-011 as my own. Probably give it a new name as well since that's a mouthful to say all the time. Also, there's those pirates. I need to hand over what data I have on them and what happened to the mining operation to the authorities. They won't pay me much, but I should get some Krenin for the information." Avery mumbled, listing out everything he would need to do upon returning home.

It was going to be a pain for a while. Though, once things settled down, he would be able to fully utilize the state-of-the-art craft that had fallen into his hands.

However, as he was just about ready to sync up both of his ships and depart, the long-range sensors began to flash.

"Wonder what it is? I'm pretty far from just about everything of note in this sector."

With a couple quick inputs, Avery pulled up detailed information on what the SCXD-011's sensors had picked up.

On the display he saw four ships traveling directly towards his location at high-speed. The computer quickly calculated that these unknown vessels were almost assuredly coming to him.

"It's those bastards again." Avery spat.

He had already linked up his older ship's system with the SCXD-011, and it immediately recognized the four incoming vessels as the pirates that had nearly killed him the day before.

Avery was uncertain about what they could be doing out here. He had traveled a fair distance away from when they last encountered each other.

"Hey, look who it is. We finally found that slippery little vulture."

"Yep, and it looks like he's meeting up with a little buzzard friend of his. Except, they seem even less impressive. That thing doesn't even have any weapons systems."

"It's not too late for you to give up. If you get on all fours and oink for me, I'll let you live."

"Seriously dude. This is not the time. The boss already said if we didn't find and waste this guy, that were going to be working in the worst part of the processing plant for the next year. Let's just hurry up and blow these two away and get back into her good graces."

Like before, the four pirates were using a wideband frequency for their conversation so that any and everyone could hear them.

They certainly got a kick out of terrorizing people this way, but this time, Avery simply smirked. It was their turn to know what true horror is.

"You pirate scum could not have showed up at a better time. I was just thinking that I needed some good targets to test out my new ship's weapons. Try and make this a little bit interesting." Avery responded confidently.

Up till now he had avoided interacting with these pirates since he needed his full focus on escape. Yet while the four outlaws did not know it yet, their roles as hunters were about to be painfully reversed.

Thanks to the SCXD-011's plating helping to block sensor data on it, the unaware pirates had no idea that it was armed to the teeth. From what they could tell, it was just an unimpressive craft with no way to defend itself.

"Let's see what this baby can really do." Avery said, accessing the shields and weapons systems and powering them up.