Just as Nie Yun and Kloros traded moves across the void, elsewhere among the stars...
"Did you bring the goods?"
"Yes! Did you bring the money?"
"No!"
"Good! Then let's... uh! What did you just say?" Leon Assad looked bewildered.
That wasn't... how this was supposed to go!
Clatter! The fully armed Special Operations Team members behind Leon immediately raised their weapons, nervously scanning their surroundings.
"Black Steward, what are you trying to do?" Leon immediately grew tense.
These guys weren't planning to double-cross us at a time like this, were they? That made no sense!
Yet the docking compartment linking the two spacecraft remained unusually quiet. The ambushers they had imagined never appeared, and Black Steward was still the only person on the other side of the deal.
"Easy! Easy!" The Mechanical Insect Clone shrouded in black robes raised his hands. "We have no intention of breaking our agreement."
"But we clearly agreed to exchange the Vector Engine for twenty thousand tons of energy crystals, payment on delivery. Now you haven't even brought the money. Are you trying to make fools of us?"
Leon remained on guard, his hand already resting on the alarm.
The moment he sent a signal, the fleet of nearly a hundred escort ships waiting in the distance would scatter at the first sign of trouble, carrying the Vector Engine hidden among them straight back to the Twin Stars!
Even Leon had absolutely no idea which ship held the Vector Engine.
This was the Twin Stars' contingency plan in case the All Things Unity Society turned hostile.
Yes, this was the site of Nie Yun's shady little deal with the Twin Stars.
After completing his "sanctions" against the Locke Conglomerate, forcing it to withdraw its troops from the Twin Stars, and helping reclaim control of