Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 151 Mimic

Following behind Commander Berk's vessel, the Dauntless sped by the seemingly never-ending group of strexnoids.

"How many of these things are there?" Avery grumbled.

For as far as the eye could see and his ship's sensors could detect, there we simply more strexnoids.

Even though they had been flying at high speed for over forty minutes, they still were nowhere near the front of the collective.

Had they activated their light speed drives, it would have been easy enough to clear the distance quickly, but it was necessary to scan the entire group for any signs of a malfunctioning or disabled tracker.

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"It certainly is boring. And we can't even relax since we constantly have to be watching the sensor readings in case we pick something up." Kasandra said, her ears lying down flat and her expression bored.

"Well, this isn't the deadly fast paced battles we normally get into, but I think it's fine to have some slow and uninteresting work once in a while. This is better than some of the duties I had while I was part of the Alliance Police. At least we can still talk to each other. I once had to keep watch on a building for a target for seventy-eight hours. I wasn't allowed to do much of anything to make sure I didn't give myself away."

As Jasmine continued to regal Avery and Kasandra of some of the worst jobs she had endured as a member of the Alliance Police, it definitely made their current situation seem far better in comparison.

"Beep. Beep."

Eventually Avery noticed an alert coming from the Dauntless' sensors and pulled up the details what had caught the system's attention.

It was not one of the tags that they were searching for, but a different anomalous reading.

"That one is nearly four degrees colder than any of the others."

After checking the findings the sensors had flagged, Avery found that a single strexnoid that was near the center of the collective was slightly colder than all of the rest.

Naturally, there were some variations in body temperature between each induvial, but not at such a high level of discrepancy.

Normally such a temperature fluctuation from normal in a living creature that had a constant body temperature would mean either sickness or some other dangerous disorder.

While the cause of the discrepancy was likely just that one strexnoid had picked up some sort of disease or possibly was really old and soon to die, Avery still wanted to check it out since the situation was so unusual.

"You want to stop and investigate one of the strexnoids just because it's a bit colder than the others?" Berk asked, an exasperated look on his face when Avery told him about the reason he had called.

"Yeah, if we're looking for any anomalies, this is the only one we've come across so far. Maybe there's some sort of plague that's just starting to go around and that's the cause of the change in their migration pattern. I think that it's worth looking into."

At this, Berk sighed but ultimately gave Avery permission. He figured that the lower temperature of one individual was likely just because of how cold space was. It was near absolute zero outside, and since they were currently far away from any stars, it was even colder than it would be in a solar system.

Nevertheless, strexnoids did typically maintain a constant body temperature, so even if nothing really came of it, Berk figured that some scientist somewhere would be happy to have the data.

"There's too much interference from all the other ones around it. We're going to need to get closer if we want to get more detailed information on it." Jasmine said after trying to focus the sensors on the single colder individual.

They were only about ten kilometers away from this target which would usually be more than closer enough for an in-depth sensor reading, but there was simply too much mass in between them acting as interference.

"Do you think that we can get one of our collection drones through?" Avery asked hopefully.

Unfortunately, Jasmine merely shook her head, and Kasandra patted Avery on the shoulder to console him.

"You've got this. We believe in you." Kasandra said with his lips turned up into a wry grin.

Obviously, it was not going to be either of their problems. Avery was the one that needed to fly in between the small gaps between the strexnoids to reach the anomalous one in the center.

"Both of you understand that if something goes wrong, you're in here too. Don't act like this isn't a problem for you two as well."

However, despite Avery's warning, neither Kasandra nor Jasmine were particularly worried and continued to joke around with Avery.

While it would be difficult to maneuver through the strexnoids, it was not like there was any particular danger involved.

The Dauntless' shields would easily protect them even if they bumped into the creatures a few times, and on the off-chance Avery somehow earned their ire, there was no reason for them to stick around. The ship they were on was far faster than any strexnoid, and it would be more than easy enough to run away if the situation called for it.

"Fine, I'll show what I'm capable of. This is nothing compared to some of the simulations Urs put me through. I had to maneuver through asteroids that moved erratically and barely had enough space for the Dauntless to pass through. This will be easy." Avery said defiantly.

Of course, he was truthfully a bit worried about what he was about to do. While the strexnoids typically stayed in a set place and moved rhythmically, sometimes they became erratic and would charge positions at random.

Once he was ready and had plotted what should be the path that had the most room to maneuver, Avery dove into the mass of giant space beasts.

Some of the strexnoids seemed slightly startled by his appearance, but most of them paid him no mind.

In terms of size, the Dauntless was not even a sixth as large as the smallest strexnoids. As far as they were concerned, the 'creature' that had just flown into their midst did not appear to be any sort of threat. And so long as it did not prove otherwise, they all mostly ignored Avery's vessel.

At first, Avery found it easy to cut in between the strexnoids. There was ample room to fly and none of them were doing anything other than moving forward.

Yet, as he got closer to the target, the density of strexnoids increased and they were switching places with each other more often and the gaps between them were constantly changing.

"This is weird. It's like they all want to gather around the cold one for some reason." Avery muttered as he tried to get closer.

He had not really thought about it when he was still outside of the group, but now that he had gone in, it was apparent that there was something else going on.

Too many of the strexnoids had crowded around, and most of them were the larger individuals of the group.

"Maybe the colder one is a female in heat or something. Though, I guess for strexnoids, it would be in cold. You know, since this one's body temperature has dropped." Kasandra said jokingly to ease Avery's tension.

Except, that explanation hardly made sense since there was a pretty even ratio of male and females around it.

Perhaps if they had a specialist in the species, it would be possible to figure out this behavior, but for Avery, Kasandra, and Jasmine, none of them had no clue.

"Looks like there's finally an opening. It's not much, but I'm taking it."

After waiting around for a couple of minutes, a few of the larger strexnoids moved apart and Avery was able to plunge the Dauntless in.

His fast movements and direct path towards the colder strexnoid seemed to catch the attention of the others.

While Avery was not certain, he felt like their demeanors became more defensive, and he could tell from the view screen that more of them had their eyes locked on the Dauntless.

Thankfully, they did not become immediately aggressive, but it was possible that one wrong move could set them off.

"Well, we're finally close enough to actually see the one we're after." Avery said, locking the view screen on the anomalous strexnoid and zooming in.

At once it became apparent that this was the smallest of any of the beasts in this collective.

While it was still much larger than the Dauntless, it was only around a hundred thirty meters long. While the previous smallest they had recorded was slightly above one hundred seventy meters in length.

"Do it's movements look a little strange to you too?"

Kasandra, with her keen eyesight, noticed something that Avery and Jasmine did not.

When it was pointed out to them though, it became clear. While the strexnoid was moving its tendril-like fins the same as the others, it was a bit stiffer and their was never any variation.

"Your right, it's uncanny. If we hadn't been watching these things for so long already it might not have been easy to distinguish, but there's undoubtedly a difference."

The strangeness of the colder individual only became more pronounced as the Dauntless scanned it.

The reading came back jumbled, with completely incoherent information.

"Send out one of the collection drones. There's something fishy about it."

Nodding her head, Jasmine did as Avery asked, and a small spherical drone popped out of a compartment on the Dauntless' side.

It took only a few seconds for it to fly over towards the suspicious strexnoid, and at Avery's command, it punctured its skin and took a sample.

The data that it quickly sent back was shocking to say the least.

The material that had been collected was not organic, but a synthetic compound meant to imitate the appearance of a strexnoids' skin.