Islinda moved away, and James couldn't just stay still after that. he wasn't trusting Islinda so far, so he asked Rigo:

"Can we trust her?"

"No," Rigo simply replied before he pressed a button over the control unit, where a picture appeared, a live broadcast from inside his old cruiser.

Great, great job Rig," James said, excited by the idea of monitoring Islinda all the time.

Islinda moved into the cruiser, where she planned to see the truth of this place, assess its true potential, and then decide if this place was worth the risk or not.

She wasn't sure if James was monitoring her, but she was pretty sure that Rigo was doing so, as she would do the same if she was him.

The journey to the first planet didn't take long, as in hours they reached the outer region of the planet.

"Moment of truth," she muttered, as if there was any tight, well organized security, then approaching the planet this close would irritate them, however nothing happened as she entered the first planet smoothly.

This confirmed James' guess from before, as everyone now was sure of the status of the defensive army, or mercenaries, on call status.

"That's a good start," Rigo muttered.

"Let's see what she will do inside," James wasn't surprised by this, as he based his guess on the facts he knew back from his planet.

Islinda once entered the planet, she scanned it, to find the planet was full of potentials, special mines, natural resources everywhere, but no one was interested in these, as this place was meant for trade, and trade only.

The planet had three main large cities, with over a hundred small cities. she knew if those scums were anywhere, then they would be at the three main cities.

So, she went to one of them. Each city was well designed, with many buildings rising to the sky. The level of security and organization here was literally zero, as anyone could do anything at anywhere, without being asked or questioned.

The only thing forbidden here was fighting in cities, wanted to fight? Go out there, in the great open world, and start killing yourselves.

James and Rigo were seeing what Islinda was receiving from her sensors, and thus they knew even inside the cities, the situation was chaotic.

"Let's move to the first trap," James said, as he was now sure Islinda couldn't betray them.

Rigo didn't say anything as he gave the orders to the other ships in the fleet to move out, and go ahead towards the first trap. As for his cruiser, its responsibility was to stay out of this, acting as the commanding flag ship, and the one responsible for coordination between Islinda and the trapping ships.

James stood there, away from the trap place, as he watched Islinda looking around until she found a place, where many strong looking ships were there. they were either their target or a hot shot coming here to buy important stuff, but when she noticed the place where these ships landed, she knew they were her target.

They were landing at a bar and brothel, a place famed for those criminals, not clients.

"Alex, listen up, it's your turn boy to prove your worth," Islinda suddenly turned to look at Alex, who was startled by her words at first, but then he nodded. He understood her meaning, as this was what he kept telling himself all over the way to here.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked, while looking outside the cruiser.

"I want you to go there, and ask those two over there if the main buyer of the asymisit ore is here or not."

Amysisit ore was the one good they decided to use to lure any mercenary out. The price of a gram of it was worth over a planet worth of money already, or even more.

"Once you ask the question, tell them he went to the coordinates, these coordinates, provided by the secret agent, and you managed to confirm the tip. Then you turn around and come here and never ever answer their questions."

"Ok," Alex replied, as he was readying himself like his whole life depended on this. He went outside the cruiser, headed towards two ill looking guys, with strange, messy outfits that even masked the characteristics of their species.

Islinda knew they were part of the main gang here, as the place couldn't have guardians when the whole city didn't have any.

Alex went there to the two, while feeling terrified, greatly terrified, especially when he found out these two weren't humans, but another species he never heard of. He at once said what Islinda told him to say, and did exactly as she told him, before returning rapidly towards the cruiser.

The two in the front, exchanged silent glances, before they hurriedly tried to capture Alex, but Islinda was faster, as she moved the cruiser closer to him, as he jumped, and then she left right away.

This move from the two gangsters made everyone have a long sigh of relief, as this meant they had taken the bait. Islinda left right away, but she lingered for a bit, as she focused her monitors towards the place of that brother and bar.

In minutes, all the large and strong looking cruisers moved from there, approximately twenty cruisers, heading straight out of the planet. Islinda sent a message to James, but he didn't need that, as he already was watching her.

"Send the message to the boys," James said, as he was now eager to see how this would end.

Rigo already sent the message, and now there were two screens in the commanding deck, one for Islinda, and the other was for the small fleet that took off from the planet. Islinda didn't wait for long in this city, as she moved out towards the next one, as there might be another group of ships moving from there.

They were dealing with mercenaries, the scums of the space, so it was natural to have spies in each group. News would travel fast, and thus she needed to see if there was any large fleet moving from this planet or not.

James and Rigo were monitoring the path from the eleven planets to the place of the trap, and so far there was no suspicious move coming from any of the eleven planets. Just as the bait was so near from the trap, another fleet kicked off from another city inside that planet.

"Here it starts," James muttered, as he let Rigo relay info to Islinda and his boys. The second patch of cruisers wasn't lesser than the first, around twenty ships were there.

Forty ships, separated by quite some time, against fifty ships of his fleet, the odds were in his favour, especially with the presence of the space bombers on his side.

The element of surprise was on his side too, but that would be for the first fleet, as the second would detect the ongoing battle, or the fight aftermath.

However, there was a way to make sure things wouldn't get out of their control, or to be suspected. James would send a warning broadcast to the ships of the two fleets, warning them from getting near this restricted zone, and return to the place they came from.

Logically the mercenaries would ask for further info, like the identity of their talker, but James would act like he was stressed, trying to curse them, and then threaten them. this would make their minds fixed on not believing the warning, plus the desire to teach this force, whatever it was, a lesson.

So, if a fight erupted, it would be logical to the second fleet, as it would also enter the fray without any suspicion.

The first fleet bit the bait, as they entered, with much arrogance, into the field of asteroids. The outcome wasn't surprising, but the speed of eliminating the ships, plus the surrender of around ten small cruisers and one medium sized one with their crew was a surprise.

James' forces didn't have time for that, but they sent a couple of droids to control each ship. The advantage of a droid was the ability for them to survive space, so if the cruiser crew tried to play any tricks, the droids had orders to explode the ship, and thus kill everyone in it.

The battle didn't take more than five minutes, and the cause of the surrender of all this number came from the fact their leader's flagship was destroyed in the first wave of attacks.

So, they were basically jobless, and they weren't that loyal type, which would prefer to avenge their leader, they were mercenaries, here only for money.

So, James was excited by the acceptance of these cruisers. The presence of the previous fleet cruisers among the fleet, made it appear like the place was under those mercenaries control, and that made the incoming fleet angry and full of expectations.