Chapter 28: Schemes

27. Calculation

At that moment, in the outer space of the planet Rhun.

The YT-1000 starship *Lancer* jumped out of hyperspace and appeared there. Inside the ship, Tang Xiao opened his eyes, sat up, and asked, "Have we arrived?"

"That's right, this is the planet Rhun. But we don't see anyone to hand this thing over to," Munt said, weighing the storage device in his hand.

"Let's wait a moment. I have a feeling things might not be that simple," Tang Xiao said.

"Coincidentally, I was thinking the same thing. How are you feeling, Boss? If something goes wrong later, we'll have to rely on your strength," Munt said to Tang Xiao with a smile.

Tang Xiao looked at the stainless steel cup beside him, raised his hand, and concentrated. He saw the cup wobble slightly before it was lifted by an invisible force and floated over to him, landing with a *clink* at his feet.

"Seems alright. I can do quite a bit," Tang Xiao said, clenching his fist.

Just then, a communication suddenly came through the ship's public channel. Appearing on the holographic projection was none other than the Falin woman who had commissioned them back on Tatooine. She said with a cold sneer, "You did well; you got the item. Now, hand over that storage device, take your payment, and then you'll have no further business here."

"I think it would be better to hand this directly to Lord Blackgo," Munt said with a smile. How could such a petty trick possibly manipulate him?

The Falin woman's expression turned cold. "Don't be ungrateful! Come over and give it to me now, or I'll come and take it myself!"

"Radar signal incoming! Over by the asteroid belt!" Kunto suddenly shouted. He operated the console, and images of two starships appeared on the screen.

One was a 38-meter long ship that looked like a turtle, and the other was a larger, medium-sized ship with a trapezoidal hull, measuring 52.3 meters in length.

Seeing these two ships, Kunto's face turned pale. "It's a Ghtroc 720-class light freighter and a YV-865 Oro-class freighter!! What a load of junk! They could have clearly handled this mission themselves, yet they insisted on sending us!"

"Oh, looks like both of those ships are quite a bit larger than us. They'll probably be tough to deal with," Munt glanced back at the screen and gave a rather relaxed whistle.

"I reckon they just want to pick up the easy prize without getting bogged down in the mess at Makito," Tang Xiao snorted.

"I think it's more than just wanting the easy prize; they probably want to clean us up while they're at it," Munt added. "I'll bet 20 Wupi of Kunto's money that the second we hand over the storage device, a blaster bolt will blow our heads off."

"I'll bet 100 Wupi of Kunto's money that we'll get headshot the moment we step onto their ship," Tang Xiao laughed.

"Do we even have time for that?" Munt asked out of the blue.

"I think so." Tang Xiao's gaze, however, fell upon the T-850.

"I say! Do you people have no sense of self-awareness?!" Kunto felt like he was about to have a breakdown. "We are completely out of supplies! Unless we land at a port on Rhun to resupply, we won't be able to perform hyperspace jumps at all! And this!!"

He turned the screen around, revealing the two freighters that had been modified to look like porcupines. "These two ships are much larger than us! After those modifications, we are definitely no match for them! You should know, I'm just a smuggler at most; this ship hasn't had much modification done to it!"

"You might as well just admit you don't have the money for modifications. Because you don't dare take those high-risk, high-reward jobs," Munt pointed out pointedly. "And there's no way you earned this ship yourself; it was either a gift from someone else or an inheritance, wasn't it?"

"That doesn't matter at all!" Kunto shouted, pointing at the screen. "They're coming!"

"It seems you still want to struggle? Ha, no matter. I'll just come and take it myself. Don't worry, I'll try my best to leave your bodies intact," the Falin woman's malicious voice came through the public channel.

Munt and Tang Xiao exchanged a glance, then Munt feigned panic and shouted, "No! Please don't do that! We surrender! We'll give you the item immediately..."

"Hahaha! That's a good boy. Lower your shields, power down your weapon systems, and dock with my ship. Don't try any tricks! I have twenty people on my ship!" the Falin woman commanded sternly.

"Alright, alright, I'm doing it, I'm doing it," Munt said as he powered down the weapons and lowered the shields. The ship was now completely defenseless as he maneuvered it toward the YV-865 Oro-class freighter.

"Very well. I'm waiting for your goods," the Falin woman sneered and cut the communication.

"What do we do? Are we really going to give it to her? Once she gets it, she'll definitely kill us!" Kunto yelled, but before he could finish, he saw Tang Xiao toss something toward him.

He instinctively caught it, only to find it was much heavier than he expected. Looking down, he saw it was a black assault rifle!

"Is this... a gun? And a kinetic weapon at that? People still use these?" Kunto was stunned.

"A gun that can kill is a good gun, whether it's a blaster or kinetic," Tang Xiao said. "Do you think shield generators are something you can find on every street corner?"

Kunto fiddled with the gun before realizing the situation, and a bead of cold sweat rolled down his temple. "Wait, do you intend to fight them?"

"What else? We've practically crossed the galaxy to get here from Makito. We're low on fuel and low on ammo. Do you really think we're going to engage in a cannon battle with two modified freighters?" Tang Xiao said while helping Kunto pull the bolt and disengage the safety.

The YT-1000 light freighter slowly approached the Oro-class freighter and opened its docking bay. On the freighter, the Falin woman commanded over twenty fully armed mercenaries to surround the entrance. "Fire immediately once the door opens! I want that storage device, not those mud-dwellers! Fiss! You pilot that 720-class; keep a close eye on things. If they try anything, destroy their ship immediately!"

"No problem, boss."

A vibration ran through the ship; it seemed the two vessels had begun docking. The Falin woman stepped back, pulled out a sniper rifle, and stood behind the mercenaries, staring intently at the door.

The hatch slowly opened, but a large amount of disinfectant mist suddenly sprayed into the corridor, obscuring the view. Munt's panicked voice came from behind the mist, "Wait! Don't shoot! Otherwise, I'll destroy the storage device immediately!"

"Kill him, take the storage device, and let's go," the Falin woman whispered from the back.

As the hatch opened fully and before the disinfectant mist had completely dissipated, the mercenaries' fingers were already on their triggers. Suddenly! A massive black shadow came crashing down toward them!

It was the wreckage of a hovercar!

Why on earth would there be something like that on a starship?!

[Easter Egg Chapter Attachment 1: The Falin]

(End of Chapter)