Chapter 61: The Assault of Iron-Teeth (Part 6)

Chapter 61: The Iron Fang Strikes (Part 6)

Meanwhile, near the planet Dawn, a flash of white light illuminated the void, and a disc-shaped starship abruptly materialized. It was a Corellian YT-1000 light freighter!

"It's the *Pravda*! It's the *Pravda*, which we lost contact with earlier!!" Qi Jian blurted out, overwhelmed with excitement at the sight of the vessel.

Yuri Orlov’s booming laughter erupted over the comms channel: "Ahahahahaha!! Brothers, I’m here!! Hahaha!! I am now fully, locked, and, loaded!! Ahahahahaha!!"

Bathed in the starlight, a proton torpedo mounted on the side of the YT-1000 freighter gleamed with a brilliant, golden reflection!

"Yuri! Why are you here?!" Darth Tang asked, his voice filled with profound surprise.

"Don't ask questions, Administrator!! There's a proton torpedo on this ship right now! You know what comes next! Hahahaha!!" Yuri laughed so hard he was gasping for breath, sounding almost unhinged. "I'm leaving this ship to you lot! I don't know how to fly this thing!"

A sharp glint flashed across Darth Tang’s eyes. He immediately spoke into the communicator in a booming voice: "All fighter squadrons, listen up! Provide full cover for the *Pravda* to return to the mothership! Inform Gloria Judith to prepare the hangar! I will pilot the *Pravda* alongside her!!"

"Administrator, are you planning to..." Qi Jian asked, bewildered.

"A forced boarding using the *Auro*-class freighter is too risky. I want to try something before that. I have a plan." Darth Tang's gaze burned like a torch as he stared fixedly at the *Hammerhead*-class cruiser in the distance.

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

"Judith here! I've been waiting for this!"

Darth Tang immediately banked his Blade-class fighter and turned back toward the mothership. The remaining fighters shifted course as well; leaving only two squadrons to continue harassing the cruiser *Iron Fang*, all other fighters converged on the *Pravda*.

The *Pravda* had emerged from hyperspace at an unfavorable location, right in the path of the *Iron Fang*. Spotting another incoming vessel, the pirates aboard the *Iron Fang* did not hesitate to unleash their full firepower upon it!

Inside the YT-1000 freighter *Pravda*, old man Truda was struggling to pilot the ship with clumsy movements, yet he steered with all his might toward the mothership. Vitaly Orlov assisted from the co-pilot's seat, an open spacecraft operation manual spread across his lap.

"Old man! Our lives are in your hands right now!! Fly us into that big ship! I'll give you whatever you want!" Though still laughing loudly over the comms, Yuri stared ahead with a tense, pale face.

"I told you I'm doing my best!" Truda roared as he wrestled with the controls.

"We can't let the *Pravda* get hit!! Charge!!" A fighter squadron leader shouted over the comms, bravely surging forward to disrupt the *Iron Fang*'s firing arc.

The main bow gun of the *Iron Fang* fired without hesitation, instantly blasting the fighter into floating fragments!

Yet more fighters pressed the attack. Since the *Pravda* struggled with evasive maneuvers due to its inexperienced pilot, they used their own hulls to shield the freighter from enemy fire!

The Blade-class fighter glided into the mothership's hangar. Before it had even come to a complete halt, Darth Tang popped the canopy and leaped out. Gloria Judith, a 1.9-meter-tall black female pilot, was already waiting there.

Clashing sharply with her pleasant name, Judith possessed a rugged, muscular physique and features that made her look nearly twice the size of Darth Tang.

The elite pilot flashed an awkward grin, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth. "It's an honor to fly with you, Administrator!"

"Sink that cruiser. Show everyone eyeing this place that our Fourth Republic is not to be trifled with!" Darth Tang raised his fist and slammed it heavily against Judith's.

...

The wobbly silhouette of the *Pravda* appeared outside the mothership's hangar bay, touching down with a thoroughly unorthodox landing. Billowing smoke poured from the hull, the result of taking hits from the *Iron Fang*'s secondary batteries during its desperate run.

To cover the freighter's approach, the fighter squadron had paid the price of four fighters destroyed—all sacrificed to intercept enemy fire for the *Pravda*!

The moment the boarding ramp lowered, Darth Tang and Judith rushed into the ship. Yuri Orlov, his brother Vitaly, old man Truda, and the two T-850 units were all inside.

Seeing Darth Tang enter, Yuri looked utterly drained. He was still chuckling to himself, a nervous release born of surviving a brush with death. "Ahahaha... hahaha... Admin..."

Without wasting time on questions, Darth Tang stepped forward and pulled Yuri into a firm embrace. "It's over. Thank you. You've given us a chance to sink that cruiser!"

Only then did he feel that Yuri was drenched in cold sweat, making it unimaginable what they had just endured.

Ordering the T-850s to escort the others out of the ship to rest, Darth Tang strode straight to the pilot's seat, buckled himself in, and instructed one of the T-850s to man the turret.

Earlier, Judith had thoroughly studied the controls of both the *Auro*-class freighter and the YT-1000, while Darth Tang had also gained some familiarity with them—certainly far better than Vitaly Orlov.

Even so, by all logic, he shouldn't be the one piloting!

Judith's face drained of color in panic. "Administrator, what are you..."

"I'll fly. We only have one proton torpedo, and we only get one shot. Besides, the rescue team just reported that Tunt is still aboard the cruiser. Trust me, you'll copilot," Darth Tang said earnestly. Only he understood that an affinity for the Force made him the greatest pilot in the universe!

"Understood." Judith nodded grimly.

The freighter's engines remained engaged. The moment Yuri and the others disembarked, Darth Tang immediately guided the vessel out of the mothership's hangar platform.

"Administrator, you only have eight minutes to try this. That cruiser keeps altering its heading; although its straight-line speed is slower than the mothership, our mothership's turning rate can't keep up. In roughly thirty-eight minutes, they'll clear the mothership's gravitational boundary! So, after eight minutes, we execute the original plan and force a landing with the *Auro*-class freighter!" Qi Jian's urgent voice crackled through the comms.

"Understood. Eight minutes, got it." A sharp gleam flashed in Darth Tang's eyes.

He took a deep breath and began reaching out to sense the surrounding Force.

No one had ever taught him how to wield the Force, leaving him to rely on the most rudimentary method: expanding his consciousness outward and perceiving everything through the ethereal currents.

He believed he possessed some natural talent; at the very least, whenever he did this, absolute focus settled over him.

"Main computer, based on the technical specifications of the *Hammerhead*-class cruiser sent by Tunt, calculate the exact entry vector for this proton torpedo so it neutralizes the ship without triggering a secondary detonation." Darth Tang spoke aloud as he adjusted the flight parameters of the *Pravda* according to his own habits.