When Amir arrived at the port, he spotted the Mandalorian spacecraft Razor Crest, a Razor Crest-class vessel whose exterior resembled a majestic cricket.
"Nice ship," Amir complimented. Indeed, the spacecraft was beautiful, though it would become outdated within a decade.
The Mandalorian didn't miss the chance to boast about his ship. It was clear he was very fond of it.
"Want to race?" Amir asked.
A strange competitive spirit suddenly arose.
"Where to?"
"To the target planet. It's close. No need to enter hyperspace."
"You go first," the Mandalorian said, stepping into his ship.
Amir smiled. When it came to speed, the Traveler wouldn't lose.
The Mandalorian started his ship and waited for Amir's to take off. He already knew that the Traveler was a YT-series ship. How fast could a YT freighter go? he thought disdainfully.
Soon, a disc-shaped ship took off from the port. The moment the Traveler appeared in his field of vision, the Mandalorian immediately activated the thrust system.
However, the YT-series cargo ship suddenly demonstrated extreme acceleration, diving toward the atmosphere. In the blink of an eye, it shrank into a tiny speck.
"Damn it, a YT cargo ship," the Mandalorian cursed, immediately maxing out the power. The Razor Crest swayed precariously as it hovered in midair, accelerating toward the atmosphere at high speed.
Amir, watching through the radar, saw the Razor Crest struggling to catch up, but unable to do so. He couldn't help but laugh.
This was a taste of the harsh realities of the world for the young bounty hunter, Amir thought, forgetting that he was only sixteen himself.
The outcome was inevitable—Amir had won. Though he wanted to see the Mandalorian humiliated, he refrained from provoking him further.
. . .
After bypassing the planet's monitoring system, the two ships landed on a high plateau.
After walking a short distance, they could see the entire mining site from the edge. This was the position from which the Mandalorian had planned to ambush them. In critical moments, they could call in reinforcements by ship.
Amir and the Mandalorian lay down together to observe the terrain and the distribution of personnel inside the mine shaft.
"The data ports for this mine are all inside the caves," said the Mandalorian.
The mine's surface resembled a massive pit, with the outer area excavated into a flat, circular plaza. The plaza was filled with mined ore, and several mining spacecraft were parked nearby.
Numerous openings had been carved into the stone walls surrounding the pit, extending deep into the ground—these were the mine shafts.
At the entrances, slave miners chained together pushed mine carts back and forth while brutal overseers with whips kept a close eye on them.
"Instead of sneaking in, why don't we kill all the guards and shout your friend's name?" the Mandalorian suggested.
"And get blown to pieces by reinforcements?" Amir pointed to the nearby military base.
They didn't linger on the idea. Amir continued observing.
The original plan was for him to sneak in alone. As long as he hid well, he believed he wouldn't be detected.
By maintaining his connection to the Force, he could sense people nearby. With the spider robot scouting ahead, infiltrating most places was possible.
However, when he saw the structure of the mine, he suddenly became unsure.
The circular, flat plaza and narrow mine shafts were a classic example of "the brave win in narrow places." Riding the necks of the guards to infiltrate was risky.
Amir's only target here was the mine's data port. Once he retrieved information about the newly added slaves from the past two days, he would know if Lango was on this planet and which mine he was working in.
There was no need to make a big fuss.
Once he confirmed Lango's location, deciding whether to steal or snatch would be easy, and he could call for support from Gerita.
Amir realized he was losing touch with how civilized people think.
"What about secretly swapping out a guard and sneaking in?" He noticed the guards on the perimeter weren't very vigilant.
"It might work."
"That's enough." Amir stood up and crept toward a guard stationed in a secluded area.
The area was covered in barren, yellow land with no vegetation, which made it difficult to move quietly. However, there were plenty of large rocks nearby that he could use to get closer.
Once he got close, though, he looked at the open space in front of him and realized there was no way to proceed further. Although there were no other guards in sight, firing a gun would definitely alert them.
"Damn, I really don't want to use this method, but I have no choice."
Amir peeked out from behind the rock and extended his right hand.
The guard immediately covered his neck. His face turned red and swelled from the blood rushing to it, and his body slowly lifted off the ground and floated in midair.
Amir slowly approached the guard and struck his temple with a punch, knocking him unconscious.
Amir dragged the guard behind the rock, removed his jacket, and put it on himself.
According to Gerita, the mine guards were not disciplined, and only had a leader in command. They didn't know each other well and often disobeyed the leader's orders.
Although there was a military base nearby, the soldiers wouldn't come specifically to guard the mine. They only provided assistance in emergencies.
The mine had to hire its own guards. With military protection nearby, the mine simply hired cheap thugs who were hanging around the area.
Once he had changed his clothes, confidence was key.
Amir walked through the main gate with a confident stride. As expected, no one stopped him.
. . .
Once inside the mine, he quietly observed his surroundings.
It was even more unbearable than he had imagined. The miners were all emaciated and exhausted, their bodies covered in scars.
They had dedicated overseers. Not far away, a Nikto with a hard, yellowish-brown shell was wielding an electrified whip and lashing a Snivvian.
The slave, with his thick eyebrows and large nostrils, let out a low, agonized scream.
Amir averted his gaze and walked toward the cave entrance.
Having grown up under the red flag for over a decade, Amir had always harbored a seed of kindness in his heart, and he found such behavior unbearable.
Though he felt intense disgust and anger, Amir knew he had a mission to fulfill and couldn't let his emotions control him.
Besides, such things were happening in every corner of the galaxy, and he couldn't change anything on his own.
After entering the cave, he released the spider robot.
Without a map, finding anything in the mine would be extremely difficult. While waiting for the spider robot to finish scanning, Amir pretended to be an ordinary guard and slowly patrolled the cave.
. . .
On the platform outside, the Mandalorian was boredly observing the positions of the guards inside the mine through their scopes when they suddenly heard a sound behind them.
One of them got up, knelt on the ground, and turned his head to look.
A large number of troop transport vehicles and fighter jets were flying in from the horizon, approaching the other side of the planet. A Star Destroyer hung in the distance.
"Bad news."
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