Rozd: Diversionary Maneuver.

The once-green, rolling plains were now shrouded in darkness, resembling ink, and only two moons and thousands of stars watched over the lonely planet. Its inhabitants were just beginning to move away from a tribal way of life. Although there were traces of civilization present, they probably had no idea about it. Perhaps the natives were well acquainted with the guests who had set up their base here, or maybe they were completely unaware.

Bright floodlights beamed from a hastily constructed fence made of piles of garbage, seemingly glued together. This barricade was clearly meant to repel a direct attack, as a sabotage squad could easily climb over it. Near the makeshift gates stood two sleeping sentries. Discipline among pirates seemed to be nonexistent. These sentries weren't bothered by such a mundane task, preferring action over contemplation. In their place, clones would at least maintain vigilance, sharing stories and front-line anecdotes, while droids wouldn't complain about such a menial job at all.

So, it could be said that the four adventurers who had positioned themselves on a nearby hill were lucky that their target was pirates. The only woman in their group was studying the pirate base through binoculars on her helmet. It wasn't very comfortable, but she couldn't take off her helmet. At the very least, Olg and Rune would be surprised to see a Wookiee in front of them, and at most, they would have to be killed.

The other three simply lay in the grass, observing the pirate base from above. On the left lay a burly individual of an unknown race, on the right, an unlucky Rodian who had somehow smiled upon luck this time, and in the middle, two partners. Sev'rance had positioned everyone in a way that she could neutralize Rune if needed, while Raphael could handle Olg. In theory, the teacher could easily obliterate the pirate base without their help.

But no, that wouldn't work. She needed to maintain the act and pretend to be a dim-witted mercenary. Nevertheless, Tann continued to survey the enemy territory. Apparently, the criminals hadn't bothered much with constructing their hideout, as they had set up camp in what looked like a low-lying area. Either that, or this was the smallest stash of them all. That was Sev'rance' take on it, at least. Consequently, there wouldn't be much to loot there.

Did they need a big haul? No, not at all! They were only here to help this thick-headed Rodian, who made her nauseous every time she looked at him. Olg and Rune had infiltrated her psyche to the point that she would have turned them into a bloody mess long ago if the teacher weren't around. The anger and hatred that she had been taught to nurture and give free rein to now had to be carefully controlled to avoid incurring the wrath of the same teacher.

"I have a plan, but it's very risky," the Wookiee finally spoke.

"Oh, let's hear it," Raphael immediately perked up.

Olg and Rune also looked at the girl with interest. Unlike her partner, they hadn't dared to open their mouths, fearing they might provoke the fiery girl in more ways than one. The burly individual was still nursing his sore nose, while Olg was terrified of losing his big eyes. Were those the very real consequences of xenophobia?

"Over there," she pointed in the right direction, "is their landing pad with two ships. They've stashed the third one in the hangar. So here's the plan: Rune and I," Sev'rance removed her binoculars from her helmet, "take our can of canned lightning and shoot up their two ships from the outside. The pirates will be distracted by us, leaving the hangar specifically for you two," she waved her hand toward Raphael and Olg. "While we keep them distracted, you load up everything you can onto their ship, and then we retreat. Clear?"

Considering the resources they had, the makeshift plan wasn't too bad. Pirates weren't professional fighters, but they could still pose a threat if they were attacked head-on. So, Sev'rance logically divided the team into a striking and diversionary force. While the striking team absorbed all the blaster shots, the second squad quietly infiltrated from behind and stole their contraband. In the best-case scenario, they would not only get their hands on the cargo but also leave the planet on two ships!

"Stop, stop!" Olg raised his hands in a stopping gesture. "I've already told you I won't..."

"You. Will. Bug-eye," Tann slowly turned her head towards the speaker, her entire body trembling with anger.

"But... I..." the Rodian stammered, frightened by the woman's bloodthirsty tone. Even Rune lowered his head in submission.

"Listen, Olg, right now you should be more afraid of Cheesecake than the pirates," Raphael chimed in, seemingly uncomfortable as well. "Besides, we're risking our necks for you. Help us out. It's in your best interest."

The mercenary had a point. Before the two of them had shown up at his home, Olg was ready to do whatever it took to scrape together enough credits for a ticket off Tatooine. He hadn't even thought about repaying his debt. In a way, they had been his salvation, but they were acting as if he hadn't helped them at all. Who found the ship? He did! Who gathered any kind of reconnaissance? He did! He did! HIM! So why were both of them treating him like this? The Rodian really wanted to express his dissatisfaction, but he was afraid. Not only of Cheesecake's wrath but also of Hutt's invisible hands.

"I understand," Olg barely squeezed out. "I get it..."

"Approach from the perimeter without being detected," Tann said, covering her helmeted face with her hand, trying to quell her raging emotions. Then she silently headed toward the can of canned lightning.

Grimly, the hulking figure followed, casting a mournful glance back at his friend. Rune looked so disheartened and disappointed, as if he were accompanying Hela on a journey to the land of the dead. If the diversionary team didn't hurry, the pirates might just shoot the can of canned lightning out of the air, and Cheesecake and Rune would be on their way to the other side for sure.

Olg and Raphael exchanged glances before heading to the fence on the other side of the hangar. The grass made no noise under their feet, and the light from the spotlights didn't extend outside, lazily staying focused on the same spot. The pirates had let their guard down and stopped expecting an attack, which played into the hands of the four adventurers. Never underestimate the element of surprise!

"Sigh..." the Rodian sighed, stroking the blaster on his belt.

In any case, he was going to die. What difference did it make how he met his end? At the hands of pirates or Hutts' assassins? The result would be the same—a hole in the chest from a blaster shot. Olg instinctively rubbed his chest, mentally pushing death away. He didn't want to die, but no matter how hard he tried, fear clung to his neck like a noose. Nevertheless, the suffocating embrace of death to some extent kept him alert.

"I've been meaning to ask," Raphael interrupted the silence. "Why did that guy give you a free ship?"

"I used to have a refueling station with a parking lot," Olg said sadly. "All the ships flocked to my station because they knew I had the best fuel without impurities! Everyone knew me! Everyone respected me! My name was synonymous with quality! But Tatooine is Tatooine," the chatterbox shrugged. "So, some of my frequent customers were pretty shady characters. They never bothered me or tried to harm me because they knew that if they fell out with me, their ships would never see my fuel again! Well, they remained customers, and the customer is always right, so I served them like anyone else. One of them was Dais, a human. He often came to me and begged on his knees for me to refuel his ships for test drives. At the time, he was barely making ends meet, so he couldn't pay. So what? I refueled his ships. Of course, he didn't always settle his accounts, but I turned a blind eye to it, thinking it wise to have a ship dealer as a friend. So, I visited him at his place yesterday evening. We drank, I told him what's what, and he promised to give me a ship... A ship... Damn Hutt..."

"Come on, it's not a big deal," Raphael said, sounding somewhat exhausted from the lengthy monologue. "The main thing is he gave it to you. It's hard to trust anyone on Tatooine. In the end, Dais didn't stab you in the back."

"That's true," the Rodian replied with a smack of his lips. "Maybe I yelled at him for nothing..."

"Forget about it," Raphael waved his hand dismissively. "He's a businessman, just like you. He won't pay much attention to it. Besides, you didn't really yell. Now, my partner, she can really scream."

Hiding by the enemy's fence, Olg looked at the mercenary in a completely different light. Truth be told, he had initially seemed like a slimeball who had been lucky enough not to end up in a grave, but in reality, Raphael turned out to be a decent guy. At the very least, he had patiently listened to Olg's monologue and even gave sound advice. He was nothing like his partner. If the first one was hardly any different from a krayt dragon in terms of temperament, the latter was her complete opposite. Perhaps that's why they managed to work together.

Now, the Rodian had newfound respect for the mercenary. Few people would be able to work in a team with such an unbearable woman. No, all female mercenaries were tough characters, but Cheesecake, it seemed, was more of a hysterical type. As if she was carrying a bag of stress on her back that she couldn't get rid of. What was so difficult about that? You could just visit a brothel, and Tatooine had plenty of those!

Above their heads, a canned grenade with the deafening roar of an almost-dead engine shot into the sky, ready to go to the heavens in every sense of the word! On the other side of the fence, the pirates' frightened cries as they reached for their weapons echoed, along with the sound of their hurried footsteps retreating from this side of the yard. Raphael and Olg exchanged glances once more, and then Raphael gestured for Olg to follow him as he climbed onto the fence.

Both young adventurers easily cleared the barrier and landed on the enemy's territory. On their side of the yard, discarded trash like bottles, food remnants, broken steel crates, scrap metal, and other debris were scattered here and there. It appeared they had actively used this area for relaxation. On the other side of the hangar, blaster shots of various calibers could already be heard, followed by the thunderous explosions of ships. The most noise seemed to be coming from the gun attached to the bottom of their own ship, held together by bolts.

Raphael drew his blaster from its holster and approached the entrance to the hangar. In Olg's ears, not only the blaster shots but also the pounding of his own heart echoed. He too armed himself with his favorite blaster and instinctively positioned himself on the opposite side of the door, as one should. Sometimes, it was useful to have watched various action holofilms!

Raf nodded, his slippery hand reaching for the button on the control panel, pushing the metal door aside. His partner immediately jumped into the doorway, aiming his blaster straight ahead. Thankfully, all the pirates were preoccupied with the strike team. Raf pointed forward with his fingers, then moved into the hangar, while Olg timidly... tactically covered him, moving back to back. The poor boltun even jumped in place when someone put a hand on his shoulder. If it weren't for the subsequent words of a familiar voice, he would have started shooting right there!

"Down," the mercenary whispered quietly, pulling him toward the floor.

Both of them crouched down for good reason—the other part of the hangar, through which ships entered, was wide open. They had a good view of the spectacle taking place there, where a huge pile of flying metal literally showered foot soldiers with fire, skillfully maneuvering between their return shots. It was unlikely that Run would be able to pilot a ship so expertly, which meant Cheesecake was at the controls.

While the pirates were engaged in battle with the decoy, the divers set about their dark business. Olg approached the crates on grav-pallets. With a magical movement of his finger, the crate lifted a few centimeters into the air, and then his smooth, scaly hands pushed it toward the pirate cargo ship. Pirates didn't have their own ship brands, so no one would ever know that this ship was once owned by pirates. In a way, they were stealing the ship that the pirate had previously stolen from its real owner, so everything was quite fair.

"By the way, I have a question I've been meaning to ask you," the Rodian decided to break the monotony of the loaders' work with a conversation.

"What is it?" Raf looked questioningly at the buttons on the cargo pallet.

"How did you meet Cheesec... Um..."

"Cheesecake," he chuckled. "What's the matter? Did you like her?" His words dripped with sarcasm.

"Like her?" All the threats from the girl flashed before the boltun's large eyes. "No. Definitely not," his tone left no room for doubt. "I don't understand how you can even get along with each other."

"Well, let's just say we found common ground."

"Common ground?"

Olg pondered some thoughts. If you thought about it, Cheesecake had never really berated her partner. Her partner, on the other hand, never spoke back to her, always playing the second fiddle. But for some reason, when Cheesecake almost turned Run's head into smithereens, he stopped her, and she, quite importantly, listened to him. In their conversations, he was the one who led, while the mercenary just remained silent. Perhaps they both divided their roles, just like him and Run. Raphael was the tongue, Cheesecake was the brain and muscles. It all made sense.

One by one, crates of contraband were loaded onto the vacant ship. Raphael also helped him with the not-so-easy work of a loader. Olg noticed that his partner was pushing the cargo somewhat timidly, as if he were seeing grav-pallets for the first time. However, he didn't have time for further reflection because when Raf activated the last closed crate, a drowsy pirate suddenly rose up behind him.

The enemy barely opened his eyes, clearly in a miserable state and dressed in dirty clothes, stained with fresh vomit. Raphael, noticing something amiss, finally tore his gaze away from the blinking buttons controlling the lifting height and looked at the problem before him. Letting out a loud groan, he frantically fumbled with his blaster in his hands, and when the barrel was about to aim at the pirate's face, the latter threw his whole weight onto the mountain of a mercenary, managing to knock him to the ground!

"Hutt!" Olg cried out in panic, rushing toward the struggling amateurs.

The pirate clung to Raf's blaster and wouldn't let go, while the mercenary desperately tried to wrest the weapon from his grip. They wrestled frantically on the ground, losing their dominant position in the drunken brawl each time. However, it was only half-drunken, as the pirate reeked of cheap alcohol from a mile away.

The Rodian grabbed his blaster with both hands and tried to aim at the pirate who was rolling between his legs. Hutt damn it, they never stopped for a moment, gathering all the dirt on the ground while blaster barrels menacingly followed them from different directions. Olg's finger trembled in anticipation of pulling the trigger, fearing he might hit his partner, so he couldn't bring himself to shoot. One wrong sigh, one unnecessary gust of wind, and his fairly pleasant conversation partner would be nothing more than a cold corpse.

"Shoot!" Raphael exclaimed with a strained voice.

"Oops," the drunk pirate seemed to belch in response.

"Hatt!" Olg exclaimed nervously, squeezing the trigger.

The boltun's voice and the slight *pew* sound the blaster made were drowned out by the barrage of shots echoing through the street. The red dot quickly zoomed in on the struggling amateurs, and the shot ended up hitting the ground right next to Raphael's body, leaving a noticeable black mark just millimeters away from his torso.

"Are you crazy?!" the mercenary shouted much louder. "Shoot at him, not me!"

"I'm trying!" Olg's hands trembled even more from the tension. "Don't move! I'm trying to aim!"

"I can't!" Raphael's blaster was about to reach his helmet. "Help!"

"Hutt with you!"

The Rodian quickly hung his blaster on his belt and then lunged at the drunk pirate, who was almost aiming the weapon at the mercenary with his own blaster! His bumpy hands grabbed the enemy by the shoulders and pulled him backward, away from his partner. The pirate was clearly out of it, stumbling on his own feet, losing his balance, and falling right onto Olg. The enemy's head hit him squarely in the eye, and the poor Rodian screamed in pain, releasing the pirate, who immediately spun in the air and landed on top of him, effectively pinning him to the ground.

Of course, dazed, blinded, and wounded, the businessman plummeted downward, hitting his head hard against the hard floor. The poor guy was completely disoriented, and his head throbbed with a dull pain. Meanwhile, the astute pirate took advantage of the situation, crawling on top of the intruder, sitting on his abdomen, and starting to punch him in the defenseless face.

"Ow, ow, ow! Help! Help!" the Rodian managed to cover himself from the barrage of feeble but chaotic blows from the drunkard. "Raphael! Save me!"

The mercenary sat down on his fifth point, observing the feeble drunken brawl. One of the red lenses cracked, not from the pirate's blows, but from an invisible force, one that wasn't written with a capital letter this time. A hand in a leather glove partially shielded part of the helmet, covering only one broken lens with the palm, while the other, intact one, closely watched them. It seemed that Raphael should rush to his partner's aid, but he hesitated because of the words of his closer... friends?

"Maybe it's time?" Raphael whispered quietly.

"Not yet," Raphael murmured in a slightly different tone. "Count to ten, then knock out the pirate with a blast to the temple. Pretend you've been seriously roughed up. Olg needs to be convinced that you don't pose a threat to anyone."

"But I really am not dangerous. Besides, your plan is quite convoluted..."

"That's right, we've already decided that it's better to play the long game than to act immediately. We got lucky with the outbreak of war. Sidious is playing on two fronts, and on one of them, he has little power. One wrong move, and the Jedi will come after him. They'll die, but in that case, we'll kill him. He knows nothing about us. Five seconds have passed. Keep calm; you're doing well. Keep it up, and our happy future is guaranteed."

"Understood," Raphael removed his hand from the helmet, and the lens mysteriously repaired itself.

The young man stood up, twirled the blaster in his hand, approached the pirate from behind, and then smacked him in the temple with the blaster's grip. The pirate immediately fell to the ground, showing no signs of life. Maybe he just switched off, or perhaps his spirit had already merged with the flow of the Force. Either way, Raphael, ignoring lengthy reflections, reached out to the not-so-badly hurt Olg and said, "Phew, he was quite strong..."

"Yeah, it seems like he was their captain," the drunken and inaccurate blows from the pirate didn't do much harm to the Rodian. "That's what we'll tell the others." Of course, the most important thing was not to lose authority in the eyes of the crew!

Sealing their non-disclosure agreement with a firm handshake, the chatterbox got back on his feet with his partner's help. Without bothering to dust themselves off, they both grabbed the last crate and quickly hauled it onto the pirate ship. Olg immediately rushed to the pilot's cabin to start the engines, while Raphael closed the cargo hold.

The Rodian ran like a bat out of hell. The coveted loot was finally in his hands! All that was left was to get it off the planet, and then he would definitely be rid of this slimy guy! He practically leaped into the pilot's seat and began hurriedly pressing the necessary buttons. There was no time for a systems check or to worry about fuel—if the ship had made it here, it could certainly get away. With these thoughts in mind, he fired up the ship, took hold of the controls, and shifted all his attention to the front viewport.

The canned food can tactically veered to the side, and the pirates, hearing the roar of the engine behind them, turned in bewilderment to see their own ship detached from the ground, soaring out of the hangar a second later. The disoriented criminals didn't even know who to shoot at! Perhaps someone among them finally thought to use heavy weaponry, or maybe one of the raiders had stolen their ship right from under their noses! But by then, it was too late to think. The considerably battered canned food also turned around and left no trace of the successful mercenaries!

"YES! DAMN YOU ALL! WE DID IT!" Olg yelled with joy while simultaneously inputting the coordinates for the hyperspace jump to Tatooine. "TAKE THAT, YOU STINKING SUCKERS! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OLG TAKES MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS!" The ship began to shake as they exited the planet's atmosphere.

Like an icebreaker in the Arctic, the ship broke through the natural barrier and found itself in the vast, dark expanse of space. Bumpy fingers played a joyful symphony on the ship's computer, waking up the dormant stars around them and creating a tunnel of hyperspace. The most important rule for any thief—get away quickly with your ill-gotten gains!

"Phew..." the Rodian exhaled, leaning back in his seat.

In principle, he could sell the contraband to Hutt at a reduced price, and then let him resell it at an inflated one. The slimy Hutt would undoubtedly manage to hide the stolen goods from the pirates or even sell it back to them. Illegal goods were in high demand during wars, making smuggling a lucrative way to secure a comfortable retirement. Of course, it all worked out thanks to Olg, but he also couldn't forget the team. With such partners, it was very pleasant to do business. His bumpy fingers folded into a little house in tune with his thoughts.

Drunk on success, the Rodian had already begun to make new plans for profit. He had enough stolen goods to settle his debt with Hutt, but the entrepreneur needed more money to get back on his feet, move out of the anthill, and reopen the fuel station. This time he wouldn't let competitors ruin his fuel! This time he would be smarter! To achieve his goals, he needed to pull off a few more jobs.

He could definitely rely on Run, but what about Raphael and Cheesecake? Currently, they were working for him free of charge on Hutt's orders, but next time he would have to pay them. So, who from the duo should he approach with a business proposal? Definitely Raphael! Unlike his partner, he was just a simple mercenary, but judging from their last mission, he was a mediocre fighter. This meant that Cheesecake would carry the entire team. Run, of course, was strong, but the guy didn't excel in brains, while the girl was not only an excellent fighter but also a decent strategist. In contrast, Raphael was just a good guy by the standards of bounty hunters, who happened to latch onto such a strong lady.

But who else could he turn to?

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