"Where are they all going?"

Liesel was the first to voice the question on everyone aboard the Dauntless’ mind.

One moment Avery had been running away from the two types of space monsters that had not been thrown into disarray, and the next they were all flying away in another direction.

It hardly made any sense considering how hostile the creatures had been up till now.

Against any of the mercenary fleet’s ships, every species of space monster would attack relentlessly with no regard for their lives.

Now though, the ones that were still being dominated by the two uninjured commander types were going off somewhere else.

This was baffling to say the least.

"I didn’t expect this kind of behavior at all. The three types that don’t have their leaders are rampaging about, but the other two just don’t seem to care." Avery said, wearing a confused expression.

In his curiosity, he calculated where they were going and found that the only thing in that direction was the unusual dark purple asteroid.

From all of the data gathered by Zefield’s team during their first expedition into the system, the space monster tried to avoid this asteroid whenever possible.

Certainly, it did not serve as an absolute deterrent, as the Fluem and pests would get close to attack the Intrepid and the forces of Avery’s company protecting the carrier vessels.

Yet not a single time had any of the other three species approached. Something that had made the area around the large asteroid an ideal location to set up their base of operations.

"Well, if they don’t want to keep fighting, I’d say that’s in our favor. It should make cleaning up the horde blocking out escape easier to deal with."

Kasandra was seeing all of this in a positive light. Two of the five space monster species were going to be taken out of the fight that would only benefit them.

Naturally, that made perfect sense.

Still, it was disconcerting that the space monsters were suddenly acting out of character.

’It’s not something that we should really worry about though. Our first priority is getting out of here. I’ll worry about other things once we’re all safe.’ Avery thought as he flew outside of the range of the frenzied space monsters that had lost their masters.

Once everything was clear, he active the Dauntless’ light speed drive and set in the coordinates for where everyone else was.

The battle against the army blocking the hyperspace entrance had likely already begun, and he planned on joining in. The quicker that they could clear out their opponents and leave the system, the better.

After exiting light speed, Avery was surprised to see that the mercenary fleet was not engaged in a harrowing battle but instead staying back.

Currently, the Volmargars and Hinvieners were fighting it out amongst each other, while the pests flew around helplessly as they were slaughtered.

As for the other two types, there were a few of their corpses scattered about, but clearly not enough to account for all of the ones that had been stationed here previously.

No, just as Avery had witnessed just a few minutes ago, the Fluem and Dorumin had retreated.

Since they were already out of sight Avery could not be certain of where all of them went.

Of course, he had an idea, and when he asked Ezra who had been waiting on standby, he had confirmed that the two types of space monsters that were still being controlled had flown off in the direction of the large, aberrant asteroid.

This was certainly suspicious behavior, but Avery put it out of his mind again.

Though they were not fighting right now, the mercenary fleet planned on jumping in once the space monsters that were now hostile towards each other had whittled down their numbers to a point where they would be easy to finish off.

However, as everyone was waiting, something else caught Avery’s attention.

He was the only one aboard the Dauntless that noticed it.

Nevertheless, Avery knew that this was not just some figment of his imagination.

Some sort of widespread psychic wave had just passed by as it was spreading out over the entire system.

Whatever this was felt different from the energy that the commander types released.

Curiously, he pulled up the stern view of the Dauntless in one corner of the view screen and activated his ability to see the flow of energy.

The moment he did, Avery was almost blinded by a bright golden light.

It was incurably intense and made him recoil as he glanced at it.

Obviously, Avery already knew where this sudden burst of energy was coming from.

The two commander types that were still able to operate had taken their subordinates with them to the giant, dark purple asteroid.

Typically, they tried to avoid the thing, but right now they were obviously up to something there.

And Avery was not the only one that had felt the psychic wave.

Zefield’s trusted adjutant Petris had also sensed it.

He was a Vensian with special psionic powers, so it made sense that he would be sensitive to such things.

There were others as well, though.

Some of the mercenaries that Zefield had hired were from species that could communicate telepathically with members of their race and other people that had similar abilities.

All of them had experienced the same phenomenon as well.

Except, some of the more sensitive ones swore that there was some sort of malevolent intent behind the psychic wave. Although they did not know what exactly. It was really just a gut feeling.

Had something like this occurred with just one or two people speaking out, it was likely to be dismissed as just a trick of the mind.

Yet with a little more than twenty people voicing their concerns, this was not something that could just be ignored.

"Do you mind if I take some members of my team and go to investigate? The remaining commander types might have some sort of failsafe plan to deal with us. We still don’t know what the deal with that asteroid is or why the space monster here try to avoid it."

"Our best guess was that the people that once lived here made it as a type of repellent, but that could be completely wrong. Perhaps it’s something else entirely and they’re attempting to sue it for something." Avery said during an emergency meeting with the other mercenary leaders.

His best guess was that it might have been some sort of psionic amplifier that was a double-edged sword.

Maybe the two commander types were willing to make a sacrifice to unleash a powerful psychic attack on them all.

Of course, this was all just supposition, but just in case it was true or something similarly dangerous was going on, Avery thought that it was paramount that they check out what was going on.

If it was necessary, the team Avery brought with him could disrupt the commander types and their thralls with some powerful explosives.

There was not any risk of disrupting the hyperspace entrance over there, so they could go as wild as they wanted.

In the best-case scenario, they might even be able to strike down the leaders of the Fluem and Dorumin.

Something that would certainly make any future expeditions into the system easier.

Almost immediately, Zefield gave his permission.

The asteroid was not too far away from their current location and would not take very long to reach when travelling at light speed.

If Avery found that there was too much trouble to be dealt with, he could always just escape.

Now that Zefield had given him the go-ahead, Avery assigned some members of his company to join him.

Firstly, he wanted Kaiden to come along since he boasted the strongest firepower after the Intrepid which would be staying with the rest of the fleet.

Usually, he would also ask for Kasandra and Liesel to join him in their ships, but they were both already in Dauntless’ cockpit.

It would take time to dock and have the two of them ready to head out with their vessels, so Avery did not bring it up.

Also, he believed that it would be better to keep both of them with him right now just on the off chance something did go really wrong. That way he could absolutely keep them safe.

To shore up his team, he requested that Burke and nine more pilots join him.

This would make them a squad of twelve ships that had some decent firepower but could also retreat at a moment’s notice.

Once everyone was ready, they set off at light speed to see what the space monsters were up to.

When they arrived, they were met with a truly baffling and mind-blowing sight.

Several thousands of Fluem had arranged themselves in a diamond shaped lattice around the asteroid.

There were visible beams of light connecting each one to each other, and to the asteroid.

Frankly it was a bit stunning to see, but Avery only let it captivate him for a couple of seconds before shaking his head to refocus his thoughts.

’If that is what the Fluem are doing, what might the spike balls be up to.’

The light was so bright that it was difficult to see at first.

However, as Avery followed one with his eyes, he saw it approach the giant asteroid and stab its spines into the rock.

What happened next was almost unavailable.

The creature’s body started to sink into the rock and was fully absorbed into it.