All five of them came out of the ship equipped with weapons and armor. Aside from Ezra, one of Trucker’s lackeys was also carrying power tools on his back for the salvaging mission. Thanks to the power suit they’re wearing, they could easily carry 20 times their weight.

“Hel, watch out of any incoming Empire ships and notify us for any abnormalities.”

[Will do, squad leader]

After receiving command from Trucker, Helen lifts up the ship and starts scouting the perimeter.

At the same time, all of them start walking towards the ruined ship with their weapons safety off.

They notice that for some reason, the surrounding is quiet.

“Crux, isn’t this place supposed to be infested with monsters or something? Isn’t it too quiet?”

“I suppose so, but don’t lower your guard. We don’t know what kind of beasts are lurking around. My suit’s not detecting anything, but I doubt this place is empty.”

Both Crux and Ezra were looking at the mini-map on the HUD of their visor. Only five blue dots could be seen. There are red dots, but they’re at the edge and barely pose any threat.

When they finally reached the part of the ship that was ripped open, they analyzed the damage of the armor.

Crux touched and examined the dented armor while Trucker was looking inside the opened hull.

“There’s no sign of any laser cutter used on the armor. Rather, this looks like it was hit with something sharp. I’ve never seen something like this before.”

“The hull is barely damaged and the interior doesn’t seem to be weathered down by the acidic atmosphere. Whatever opened the armor did this fairly recently and doesn’t seem to be what we usually meet during incursions or salvaging.”

After they gave each other their report, Trucker nodded at his men which made them raise their guard and start patrolling. On the other hand, Crux called Ezra over to his side who was frantically clicking on the monitor of his device that was an extension of his backpack.

“Are you done with your research?”

“This seems to be an old Empire light cruiser-class ship, specifically a science vessel named Gondola. Oddly enough, there’s not enough data about it in the Empire’s registered ship database.”

“Is this a remnant of a war?”

“No, it’s recorded here that this was decommissioned.”

After pulling out his head from inside the gaps of the ship’s armor, Trucker had a greedy smile on his face.

“There is no Empire ship that got decommissioned and abandoned. This ship might have a treasure’s worth of secrets inside.”

“Wait, Trucker. Let’s send a report to HQ for now.”

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“That can wait! Hel, come here and get the laser out! We’ve got a treasure to dig!”

[I agree with Crux, I’ll send a report to HQ first.]

“As squad leader, I order you to fucking start digging! The empire’s troops will be here sooner and we can’t afford to lose this money!”

[… Fine]

As their ship turns towards the ruined ship, Trucker looks at Crux and gives him a confident smug as if he one-upped him while Crux just ignores him and checked what Ezra was researching for.

Just when their ship was about to fire their laser cutter, they felt the ship shake and then a hatch suddenly bursts open with a weapon that looked like a giant speaker came out.

“Oh Fu—”

Before he could finish his words, the weapon fired at their ship with an energy pulse that knocked out their ship’s engines and starts losing power and starts crashing to the ground.

“Weapons hot! Ship is live! Weapons hot!”

The three of them immediately points their gun towards the pulse cannon and starts firing as they rush to cover.

“Hel! Are you alive?”

[Shields were reactivated before I hit the ground, the ship is in one piece but the engine is fried.]

While they were hiding behind a giant tree, the other two of Trucker’s men came over after they heard an explosion. Thanks to the cover provided by the giant trees, the Gondola’s cannons couldn’t fire at them.

“What the hell was that?”

“Leave him alone, Trucker.”

Trucker rushed to Ezra with a really angry expression. However, Crux went in between. Since he was about to point his gun towards Ezra, his lackeys grabbed his arms and pull him back.

“Why are you blaming me?”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us that the weapon’s system was online?”

“How should I know? There’s no data about this ship!”

“You’re such a useless hacker, why did you even come?”

“I’m the one who brought him with us. He didn’t come here as a hacker. Give it up, Trucker.”

While they were fighting, all of a sudden, a red dot suddenly appeared in their visor’s mini-map.

Immediately, they fell quiet and pointed their guns towards the direction of the red dot.

“What the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know! It was too fast to see!”

When the red dot suddenly moved, it moved so fast that whatever they saw in the trees shadows, it was fast and only a reddish glow was seen.

They keep pointing at the direction this unknown target was moving at. Thanks to their power-suits, they could react at the same speed too and not giving it chances to approach.

All of a sudden, they heard whistle in the air and something flew from one of the direction this unknown target went past from. This thing hit one of Trucker’s lackey’s hands and pierced his suit, making him drop his gun.

“Blast that shit!”

Immediately, every one of them pulled the trigger and rained lead towards the direction of where the red target is at.

They kept firing, but it didn’t seem like they hit the target as it was still moving in their mini-map.

Just when they noticed that they emptied a magazine, this target immediately switched from running from side-to-side to charging towards them while zigzagging through the trees.

And when it finally showed itself under the light, it was already too late for Trucker as this thing had one of its 6 arms was a claw going down towards him like a spear.

“Trucker, watch out!”

However, Crux was fast to react and pushed Trucker out of the way and got pierced on his back instead.

Seeing this sight, Ezra froze and quickly swapped his magazine with a fresh one. But just when all of them tried to shoot the unknown creature again, the other free arm extended and cut their weapons in half with its sharp claws that extended from its back. Luckily enough, they all were fast to react and pulled back before the creature’s claws could slice them in half.

However, Trucker did not hesitate to jump back and pull out his dagger and pistol from his waist holster while smiling like a madman.

But the unknown creature was faster and without wasting a second, one of its arms slides under him and pierces his ribcage and lungs.

It was so quick that his mind couldn’t even process it.

But just when Ezra and Trucker’s lackeys were about to pull out their own secondary weapons, they froze when the unknown creature opens its mouth.

“Stand down or I’ll rip these two into grinded meat.”

To their shock, they weren’t expecting that this monster-like creature could actually speak.

-End of Chapter-