A large explosion breached an armored door and blasted a large hole in it.

This instant this occurred, the pirates on the other side opened fire to try and stop the people trying to take over their bases.

"I guess it's time for me to really get to work. I've been let the others do most of the fighting outside, so I need to show the newbies Burke recruited why I'm in charge."

Being the first through the breach, Avery rushed through the rain of laser fire with a powerful energy field around him created by the exosuit Grito had made for him.

With his laser rifle in one hand and laser cannon that looked to big for him to carry in the other, he returned fire with high precision as he closed in on the pirates that had not been able to escape the base before it was surrounded.

Despite having brought twenty-six heavily armed mercenaries along with him as additional fighters, not a single one of them had needed to step into the fray.

Avery crushed the remaining pirates by himself without so much as taking a scratch

It had been an awe inspiring and shocking display for the other mercenaries on his team.

For a lot of them, this was their first time seeing Avery in person.

They were all either members of Burke's company before it had been absorbed or new recruits he had picked up while Avery was busy in the capital system.

Some of them had been wondering why someone so young was their leader, and why Burke, an experienced and competent mercenary, was following him.

During the battles in space between ships, he had not participated heavily and mainly stood back and gave orders.

To those that had not seen him in action before, it had seemed like he was just a decent commander with some strong mercenaries that had been following him.

Kasandra, Liesel, and Ezra were all incredible pilots that were each more skilled than anyone most of the mercenaries had ever seen. And the corvettes under Kaiden's and Olivia's command both boasted powerful weapons and advanced equipment.

These five amazing people were all Avery's subordinates and followed him loyally. Something that those that were still unfamiliar with the intricacies of the group they had joined had been skeptical of.

In their eyes, Kasandra, Liesel, Ezra, Kaiden, and Olivia were all capable enough to create and lead powerful groups themselves. So why had they all decided to follow Avery.

Now those that had just watched what Avery was capable of had their answer.

He was an absolute monster.

Sure, the pirates he had just fought were not the best trained or equipped, but they had some decently strong weapons and were not lacking in drive.

They knew that they were dead if they lost, so all of them had fought with intense fervor.

Yet, the battle had ended in a one-sided massacre.

Avery defeated all thirty-nine of the pirates without looking like he had broken a sweat.

"I know that this is our first real raid on a pirate base, but don't just continue to stand there. We need to secure this place before the collection squad can gather everything. There might be more pirates hiding around. Comb through everything and make sure this place is secure."

Once Avery had given his orders, the forces he had brought with him snapped out of their stupors and hastily got to work.

They had been worthless in the opening fight, so they needed to at least prove themselves capable enough to search an already defeated base.

There were a few more pirates scattered throughout that had hoped to survive by remaining hidden, but they were soon discovered by the mercenaries under Avery's command.

Not willing to be taken, each of the pirates tried to fight their way out of the dire situation they found themselves in, but none of them stood a chance.

All of them were cowards to begin with since they had not joined the initial fight, and their skills were lackluster.

"We've confirmed that there aren't any other pirates here. Olivia, send in Grito and his team to strip the place." Avery ordered.

After everything inside of the base of value had been taken and loaded onto the rented cargo vessel, Avery's team once again bombarded the now empty base with laser fire. Swiftly reducing it to space debris.

"With what we're doing right now, it kind of feels like we're the bad guys." Avery said jokingly as they headed for the next pirate base.

"Yes, it does seem that way. We've been killing and plundering people. Just like pirates do. But we're really just taking back what they stole from others and eliminating a menace to society. This is pretty much the same thing that the Alliance Police would do, though often times, they won't go through the trouble of taking the bases and just destroy them." Jasmine said, not an ounce of mercy for the pirates they had killed in her voice.

…

Two more days went by as Avery's team busted up and looted pirate bases until only the last one remained.

They had saved the largest and main base for last for obvious reasons.

Attacking it first would have meant that reinforcements from the other bases could collapse on them, and even if they did successfully take the main base down, it would just see all of the other pirates scattering to escape before it was their turn.

Of course, many of the pirates had already run away, but more than half of them had stayed behind for a last stand. Either believing that they would not lose to just a group of mercenaries when backed by their fortress of a base, or too stubborn to leave even if they believed that they might die.

A lot of the pirates here had built up cushy lives for themselves.

This was their debauched kingdom where they ruled.

Abandoning it would mean either having to build up somewhere else from scratch or joining another pirate gang somewhere else as a grunt.

Neither of these options were appealing to the pirates that had stuck around. So, they would stay and fight.

"Avery, you really managed to pick out a big one. I didn't think we'd be taking on a pirate group of this size for our first go around. It's a good thing they didn't come at us all at once, otherwise we really might have been in trouble." Kasandra said over comms.

His team had finally arrived at the pirates' final base to crush it.

Already, they could see around two hundred vessels waiting outside to greet them.

Most of them were small ships that had been cobbled together from multiple different sources and were not particularly powerful.

But there were seven transport and cargo vessels that had been equipped with weapons at every possible spot that cut imposing figures.

They may not have been comparable to military craft, but they certainly were not lacking in fire power.

"Well, just think of it as a good chance to really test out what that new ship of yours is capable of. I'm not going to be able to stay back and give orders this time, so I'll be aiming for the top spot. I think I'll take down those seven heavy gunships of theirs first. That should secure me plenty of points."

"That sound like a pretty good challenge to me. I think I'll join you in that. I've only bested Kasandra once so far during our campaign against these pirates during one of the raids. I need to present a better showing so that people don't start questioning why I'm the second-in-command here." Ezra said, joining in on the conversation.

"I thought that we were supposed to be planning our strategy now that we've gotten a good look at what we're up against. Not posturing on who is going to do the most." Olivia said with an exasperated sigh.

"Hey, don't leave me out of this. I'm not taking second or third today. I'm taking that top spot bonus."

Disregarding what Olivia had said, Liesel threw more fuel onto the fire, and Avery, Kasandra, and Ezra all boasted about how they would outshine each other.

Burke and Kaiden, who were also connected to the call as leaders of the group, simply remained silent. Though for different reasons.

Kaiden was merely annoyed and holding in his temper. Since he was the captain of a ship that was crewed by more than himself now, he could not bring himself to state that he would jump into a fight rashly.

As for Burke, he was quiet because he knew that he could not compete with Avery, Kasandra, Liesel, and Ezra.

In terms of skill as a pilot of a small or medium craft, he was certainly ranked fifth within the group. However, he understood very well that he was a level or two below the top four.

The core team that Avery had put together were all just better than him. In both talent and the quality of their vessels.

'Good, seems like I've fired them up. But I can't neglect the others for much longer. Though I'm the one that got us off track, I should get back to strategizing. There's not going to be much room for error here. We're outnumbered and those pirates have a pretty heavily armed base behind them.' Avery thought, already picturing where each of his core members should be assigned to create the biggest impact on the battlefield.