Chapter 50: Pitch Black and Confusion

Chapter 50: Pandemonium

The invading Bossans were ferocious and highly disciplined. Armed with Model 21 assault rifles, they leveraged the powerful suppression capability of their fully automatic fire to pin down the Nikto guards, leaving them unable to raise their heads.

The Bossan leader had a prominent scar across his face. Entering the spaceport, he raised his weapon and mowed down a guard who had just lifted a heavy blaster cannon, turning him into a sieve. Then, he tossed two grenades that exploded with pinpoint accuracy inside the two buildings where other guards were hiding.

In no time, the spaceport guards were either eliminated or pinned down, utterly unable to rise, before being systematically picked off by the Bossan flanking forces.

Seeing the resistance collapse, Scar gave a wave of his hand and shouted, "Move it! Take everything of value! Fast!"

The Bossans filed in eagerly, blasted a warehouse door open with a burst of fire, and began hauling out the cargo inside. Two of them had been killed in the firefight, and their companions tossed their bodies onto a repulsor-lift cargo cart to take them along.

A Nikto mercenary with a gaping hole blasted through his abdomen raised a hand with great difficulty and muttered with his remaining strength, "You... have a death wish! This is... the spaceport of Lord... Jabba the Hutt!"

"I am well aware of that," Scar sneered, walking straight over to locate the hidden elevator entrance. After a couple of presses, the elevator doors slid open.

The mercenary's eyes widened in horror. "You... you're targeting Jabba!"

"Spot on. Your reward is—a grenade." Scar pulled the pin of a grenade and jammed it directly into the wound on the mercenary's stomach.

"No one... dares to mess with the Hutts... in Hutt Space... except... the Hutts themselves..." The mercenary finally breathed his last.

By the time the grenade detonated, Scar and several accomplices had already taken the elevator down to the subterranean level. Alarms and the sound of guards' footsteps were already echoing from the far end of the underground corridor. Scar strode over, sealed three blast doors, and turned back to bark, "Hurry up! The good stuff is in here!"

"You got it!" shouted another accomplice as they began shifting the loot outward.

At that moment, Scar's gaze landed on a pair of three-meter-long cylindrical containers nearby. A cruel smile curved the corners of his mouth. "Take these along as well. They should fetch enough to settle some accounts."

***

Inside an inn within Mos Eisley, Cunto was carousing and indulging in unbridled debauchery with two Twi'lek women in his room.

Enticing lingerie, food, and empty liquor bottles were strewn all over the place, and the air was thick with the scents of alcohol, perfume, and various unnameable odors.

Taya, the Twi'lek woman Cunto had previously hooked up with, had brought along her sister Suya, and the three of them had been drinking through the entire night. Naturally, aside from drinking, there were plenty of other activities that required no elaboration.

Taya clung tightly to Cunto, while Suya showed no intention of falling behind, prompting the two sisters to openly vie for his attention.

Judging that the timing was ripe, Cunto capitalized on the alcoholic haze to ask, "Say, Suya. Didn't you used to go with a certain navigator?"

"Don't even mention that banta-brained fool," Suya said, shaking her liquor bottle. "Things were decent for the first few months after I got with him, but later I found out he'd made a huge score following Boss Kooken. After that, even Kooken fell on hard times, and he became even more tight-fisted. Tch, what a bore."

"What's the matter? Is their Hammerhead-class cruiser no good?"

"What's good about it? A battered old ship from several millennia ago is still garbage no matter how much you refit it. When chasing prey, it can't even catch up, and they have to constantly walk on eggshells to avoid running into the Republic Judicial Fleet, or they won't even be able to run. How is anyone supposed to work like that?" Suya took a heavy swig from her bottle. "You're much better, my dear! You go out on a single trip and rake in 100,000 credits! That's practically the price of a whole—"

Cunto pulled Suya into his embrace, blew a gentle breath against her ear, and murmured, "Do you know why I make money so easily? I happen to know a big-shot Muun boss, you see."

Suya gasped softly, then let out a coy giggle. "No wonder my dear is so capable! So you have connections with the Muun! Could that big boss be from the InterGalactic—"

She clapped a hand over her mouth, cutting herself off mid-sentence, intimidated by the sheer weight of that name.

"That's right. This big boss is currently working on a starship venture and is planning to invest in building a space dock. However, because he lacks sufficient reference data, he wants to obtain the parameters of a large starship for comparison. Just think, where on short notice are you going to find a large starship... Because of this, he offered me a hefty sum of 50,000 credits," Cunto said, feigning a troubled expression.

Suya's eyes lit up. She hurried to say, "I can do it! My dear, if I go find that fool of a navigator right now, couldn't I get him to acquire the parameters for Kooken's ship? Kooken's ship is a cruiser, after all! That's bound to work, right?"

Cunto shook his head. "No, that Hammerhead-class cruiser is far too old. The Muun certainly won't accept those parameters." With that, he pretended to be overcome by drink and collapsed onto the bed. "It's hopeless... 50,000 credits just slipped away..."

Suya frantically signaled Taya with her eyes. Understanding immediately, the two sisters flanked Cunto, pressing close to sandwich him in the middle. Surrounded by warmth and softness, they showered him with spoiled pleadings.

"We can do it, my dear... Aren't you friends with that Muun? Just talk to him..."

"That's right! Kooken's ship has been modernly retrofitted; the parameters will definitely be usable. Please, my dear... let us make this money, won't you?"

Cunto affectionately stroked the tender bodies pressed against him. "Even so, that ship doesn't belong to either of you. Saying all this is useless."

"Who says so? I haven't let that fool touch me for two months now. Right now, I just have to crook a finger and he'd crawl over to lick my boots. Besides, Kooken and the others usually use that ship as a casino and bar anyway, with people coming and going all the time. I can slip inside easily," Suya volunteered.

Cunto smiled faintly and whispered, "Then could you sneak me aboard? I'd love to tour that cruiser myself!"

"Of course we can, my dear." Taya and Suya both planted heavy kisses on Cunto's cheeks simultaneously, plunging the room back into an atmosphere of seductive ambiguity.

***

[Note 1] Hutt Space is a profoundly chaotic sector in the Outer Rim of the galaxy, encompassing several thousand star systems primarily under the control of the Hutts. After the Hutt Empire was defeated by the Galactic Republic in ancient times, its remote location allowed it to retain a high degree of autonomy, even maintaining a sizable fleet. Consequently, within this sector, the Hutts reign undisputed as local tyrants.