The only problem now was the presence of moles into the personnel that surrendered to them. James knew how true any mercenary was in his words, so when the second fleet battle ended, and many of the fleet surrendered to him, he gave the final order regarding the fate of the mercenaries:

"Kill them all."

Rigo wasn't kind hearted, but the sacrifice of all this number of workers and soldiers wasn't a good thing. They weren't planning to just win a battle, they were planning to start an army.

"Can we use other means to control them?" Rigo suggested.

"No," James shook his head, "a scum will always be a scum. They will find a way to get away from our surveillance, selling us at the highest possible price to our deadliest enemies. I don't want this risk, as they won't change no matter what. Just get rid of them," he explained further, while repeating the decision he just said.

"Affirmative," Rigo replied as he complied to his leader's request, after all James already had a point here.

James' decision was final, and so Rigo relayed his orders to his small army. the droids killed every single person of those mercenaries, and this was indeed the right decision. Almost half of them worked as spies to other forces, and they intended to alarm the others once they reached a safe place.

If James had a soft heart here, he would have lost it big. However, sometimes cruelty would be the safest answer to all troubles.

As the massacre ended, and the ten cruisers were added to the small fleet, the other force just approached the asteroid belt. Rigo hurried to organize the fleet, and make them lay wait, while they used the newly acquired ships to be in the forefront.

This time, they had the disguise of these ships belonging to the first force of mercenaries. As James and Rigo and Islinda expected, when the second force spotted the other force in the place, they knew the tip was right, especially when they noticed the state of fight these ships were at.

They first tried to negotiate their way into the place, and the droids complied, after faking refusal for a while. if the enemy wanted to enter the trap and be surrounded, then it couldn't be helped, right?

The battle was shorter than the first. The number of ships increased by ten, and the enemy was fool enough to be surrounded. After the battle ended, there were another fifteen ships being surrendered to James' forces, and their fate was no different than the other ones.

After clearing the battle, James let the forces move to another place. they didn't leave any clue behind, even the ruined ships after the battle were moved to another place, where no one could see them.

After wrapping everything, they sent to Islinda a message to move to another planet, where she gladly complied. While the two battles were undergoing away from her, she started to gather info about this place and other planets here.

What she found shocked her, as this place wasn't just a random place on the route of the black trade, it was in the heart of it. a place that was so vital that if anything happened here, almost every single black trade force would come to aid this place.

This seemed scary at first, but when she gathered more info later, she realized this place didn't follow the rules of any force for long. The dispute for strength here was always a common thing, and what other dark trade forces interested in were the continuity of the trade, no matter who ruled, or what was happening here.

That meant the approach they were taking right now to establish their reign over this area wouldn't cause them any severe problems in the future. She knew some would set their gaze here and try to snatch this place from them, but it wasn't a major problem in her estimation.

The rate of traffic here was really enormous, and the income that any force would gain from here was unimaginable. The most shocking thing here wasn't just the trade traffic, or the importance of this place, but the nature of trade ongoing here.

This area was famous for the three kinds of trade, species traffic, weapon trades, and finally the ores trade. The first traffic was an awful one, but when she gathered a detailed info about the nature of the three kinds of trades, her mouth opened agape.

The species traffic here wasn't just based on any species, but the military ones. Ex-military species, those captured in any war, would be gathered here and fetched at high price. She knew this was great news as what James lacked was his army, and being here meant he could build a large army, as large as his pocket could reach.

As for the weapons, she saw with her own eyes some large cruisers being offered for sale at prices that made her wonder if they were selling cabbage. The prices were down, so low that seemed suspicious, and when she investigated, she knew the reason behind it.

All these cruisers were stolen, hijacked from their rightful owners, and that meant if they went into any known regime, they would be taken at once by force or being attacked and destroyed.

That was a problem to most of those who came here, as having a fleet that couldn't set sail to any known place in the galaxy with an order was a headache. But for her, she knew this was nothing. James didn't intend to return to any known regimen here, and planned to leave the whole grand sector.

It was good news that communications between grand sectors were extremely limited, and thus if they moved with all those stolen goods, nothing would happen to them.

She marveled her eyes with the three large cruisers and hundreds of small and intermediate cruisers landing on the planet she just left. She knew James would seek to gather them all, regardless of anything else.

As for ore, she wasn't that interested in it, but ores were important in making weapons, ammo, and repairing cruisers. So, the presence of ore here was a bonus that she was glad to have.

When she went to the next planet, she did a fast round of investigation before spotting the place of the guarding mercenaries here. she did like before, sent the naive out, Alex, to tell them about the false rumor.

As before, the news travelled, and this time three forces left the planet in a hurry, with a time gap between each other. Islinda didn't need to inform Rigo and James about this, as the two were closely observing the planet.

"Tell the boys to let the newly surrendered ships in the forefront, and let's hope more would surrender," James said, as he saw around a hundred ship of different kinds moving in three waves, each with around half an hour difference than the other.

He knew, if he won this battle, then he had undermined at least one fourth of the guarding forces stationed here. He also knew after the end of these battles, the ships he would acquire would make his fleet be double in size at the least.

So, he waited, patiently waited, for the news. He was sure of his boys ability to reign supreme here, but he was waiting for the spoils of war news.

Just as he was waiting, the first battle just finished. It didn't take five minutes to end, and literally half of the ships, around fifteen ships, surrendered.

"They ask for your decision regarding prisoners," Rigo asked, as he was excited, as well, by the new addition to the fleet.

"Kill them all, tell them no prisoners from now on," James said, as he was so glad by this new addition. His fleet now had gained thirty five cruisers, mostly small ones, and that made his fleet enlarged by more than fifty percent of its original power.

The droids executed all the prisoners, and then they cleaned the battlefield in a hurry, used the newly acquired ships as bait, alongside the ships they already captured from the other forces, while they waited on the rear for the upcoming force to come.

The second force didn't struggle much, as nearly more than half surrendered, making James gain more that twenty five ships in one go.

The third battle was surprising, as once the mercenary fleet noticed the large number of James' forces, they surrendered, all surrendered without even putting a single fight with them. forty six ships were added in this round, and that exceeded the hopeful expectations of James.

"The size of our new fleet has expanded to reach one hundred and sixty three ships, mixed of small and intermediate cruisers," Rigo finally run the numbers and said in a beaming smile and much pride, "we also gained a huge number of fighters, as it seemed these forces depended entirely on them in battle.