Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 149 An Amazing but Unsettling Sight

Avery and his crew were stunned by what they were seeing in front of them. In fact, even the Alliance Police escorting them were astonished and lost for words.

"Neither of you released a hallucinogenic substance or messed with the viewscreen display, right?" Avery eventually asked, unsure if what he was witnessing was even real.

"I certainly didn't."

"Neither did I. Though, I'm starting to wonder."

With it being highly unlikely what their eyes were seeing was some sort of illusion, Avery, Kasandra, and Jasmine could on continue to stare in disbelief.

In front of them was a seemingly unending wave of giant space beasts.

All of the creatures looked relatively the same, being of the same species.

They had long, thin bodies that were mostly dark green in coloration with hints of dark purple.

Protruding out of their sides at eight points were tendril like flippers that rhythmically flapped to allow the beasts to propel themselves forward.

The end of their body ended in a tail that had fins that extend up and down and appeared to be used for steering.

However, the most distinct part of these creatures' bodies was their heads. It was wider than the rest of their bodies and opened up like a large funnel. As if always being open to draw things in like certain types of filter feeding fauna that lived underwater.

"Truthfully, I never thought that I see something like this." Avery murmured as he watched the scene in front of him in awe.

Each of the creatures were slightly glowing, and with even the smallest being around one hundred seventy meters long, the tens of thousands floating through space in a tight formation was a sight to behold.

Still, amazing as it was, these creatures were blocking the way forward. The gaps between them were too small for their groups larger vessels to fit through, and Avery had no intention of trying to maneuver the Dauntless through them even if it was theoretically possible.

And while they were certainly impressive to look at, Avery was uncertain if whatever species these beasts were tended to be hostile. If the whole group suddenly turned and attacked, he knew for a fact that it would be impossible to fight them off. The sheer number of them was far too great to handle. Avery imagined that it would take a fleet of hundreds of warships to confidently take them on.

"Do either of you know what those things are?" Avery asked now that he was starting to come out of his daze.

"Oh, you don't know. They're pretty famous."

Kasandra's response made Avery more aware that he had been living out in what was essentially the sticks of the Alliance. When he looked towards Jasmine, she also nodded and divulged that she knew about these beasts as well.

"They are called strexnoids. Typically benign creatures that mostly live mostly live out in space, but can sometimes be found on certain planets that have the right atmosphere. From what I know, they're capable of surviving off the gases in most types of nebulas and can store what they needed for to last for up to several years inside their bodies. If I had to wager a guess, we've run into a sizable collective that's currently migrating." Jasmine said.

This bit of information as certainly interesting, but that did not change the fact that the strexnoids were currently in their way.

For as far as they could see in any direction in front of them, there was a wall of the creatures that they could not hope to get through.

"Could we force our way through? If they're harmless, lasers set to low output shouldn't cause in major harm but should be enough to scare them away." Avery suggested.

"What Jasmine said about them being usually benign is true, but there are plenty of records of ships antagonizing them and being ripped apart. Their large bodies aren't for show, and as a species, they are very protective of each other. Attacking one of them means angering all of them."

With his suggestion immediately shot down, Avery raised his hands in defeat. The only option seemed to be to wait until the beasts went on their merry way and left the area.

However, as time continued to pass, Avery found the lack of communication from the Alliance Police to be unusual.

From what he had figured out, he figured that Commander Berk was the kind of guy that loved barking orders at people. The fact that so far he had remained silent was suspect.

"Those things aren't interfering with communication, right?"

A puzzled looked on her face, Jasmine did not think she had heard about strexnoids having such an ability. Swiftly she checked the Dauntless' communications system, but there did not seem to be any problems. The Alliance Police's silence appeared to be intentional.

Just to make sure, Avery had Jasmine contact Ezra, Kaiden, and Oliva, but the three of them responded promptly and had likewise not heard anything from their escorts.

Just before he was about to call the leader Alliance Police escort, a transmission came in from Commander Berk. As if the man was physic and sensed that Avery was about to call.

"I was wondering when you were going to contact us. Is something wrong?" Avery asked, clearly able to see the look of distress on Berk's face.

"Yes, there is. I'm afraid that we're going to have to put the current mission on hold until we investigate what is going on here. Please stick with us and refrain from sending any further transmissions."

Berk' curt and far from informative reply left Avery frustrated. It was obvious the man had no intention of sharing what was going on.

"Sorry, but that's not going to cut it. I've got to think about the safety of my team and myself. Just following you because that's what you said we need to do is not good enough for me. Right now, my priority is brining Grito to the Cocarro System. Whatever Alliance Police secret that is bothering you has nothing to do with me. If you want to part ways with us, that's fine by me. I'll just make sure to tell the officer in charge of the Cocarro System that you abandoned your duty." Avery said, threateningly.

He was already sick of Berk's attitude and was not going to stand for being ordered around unreasonably. His team were not soldiers under the man's command, and currently they did not even have a formal contract to be working under him. It was more of a loose agreement made with Deputy Chief Byrid. Berk's direct superior.

When Avery brought this up, Berk insisted that his orders were to keep their group with him at all times. While something more pressing had come up that took presence, that did not mean he was going to abandon his other mission.

Of course, Avery hardly cared about whatever matter was more important and insisted that he be told what was going on, or he was going to leave.

"Do you just think that I'll let you go? Remember, I've been authorized to use force to secure the witness if necessary."

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"Do what you think you have to. I'll do the same. But I'm not leading my team into danger if I don't know what it is. If you want to try and stop us, I can guarantee it won't work out for you." Avery said without a hint of uncertainty in his expression.

Commander Berk growled in anger since a mercenary he looked down on was disobeying him, but he knew that getting into an actual fight would be a waste of time. He believed that the forces under his command would win, but he could not risk the possibility of Grito being killed.

As for Avery, if it came to blows, he had no intention of standing his ground. He would order his team to flee and make as big of a mess as necessary to get away.

"Very well. The information I'm about to divulge is not overly classified and plenty know about it anyway."

Having given into Avery's demands, Berk explained the situation and why it was of such importance.

The authorities of the Dramid Alliance tracked the migration patterns of every known group of strexnoids within their territory.

As massive creatures that traveled in large groups through space, it was important that any major trade route avoided them, less they run into the same problem that Avery's and Berk's teams had today.

However, this was not main reason that Alliance tracked these beasts' movements.

Apparently, the waste that they produced when ingesting certain gases could be used as a material in synthesizing a potent fuel source. This made it an invaluable resource for the Alliance.

"When my subordinates scanned this group, we found that it is not one that is currently being tracked. Meaning that its either a new group that had migrated to this area from somewhere outside of the Alliance, or its one that was already here but has been divert from its normal path and had all of the trackers that should have been monitoring them destroyed."