Shiu peeked in through the window of the door to the cargo hold. The two Kryterans were still in there, and had been for a while. Tethryn had gone to wake Sarydra early, and the hacker had then summoned him over to her apartment to carry a bunch of tools and equipment for her – tools which were now strewn about the cargo bay. He just hoped they were going to clean up when they were done. But it was better for her to do her analysis in the bay without having to move the cargo and risk attracting attention: attention was something this particular payload really did not need.

Most the crates were currently open and would be re-sealed later when they got picked up. He'd tried to listen in, but Sarydra's excited raving had mostly gone over his head, and even Tethryn's eyes had glazed over, so he had elected to go do some maintenance instead and get the summarized version later. He couldn't help but feel anxious, however; he'd carried plenty of contraband in his time, but nothing quite so illegal – if he got apprehended, he wouldn't be able to talk or bribe his way out of this one. The sooner the crates and their contents were shifted off to someone else, the better.

He left them to it and went into the engine room to check the coolant pipes, making sure there weren't any more leaks or cracks. The quick-sealant he'd slapped onto the leaking one was still holding, but it needed a proper replacement. Thankfully, pipes were easy to replace, and just needed time, which he had plenty of at the moment, so he reached for the shutoff valve.

Some time later, just as he was tightening the bolts on the replacement pipe, he heard voices from behind him. "Hey, Shiu!" Sarydra called out, "Come check this out!"

"Give me a moment," he grunted, not turning to face her, giving the wrench another good twist to ensure the bolt was held in place securely.

"Oh, and bring your pistol," Sarydra added, before leaving the room.

"Bring my-?" he began, but she was already gone. He frowned and climbed down the ladder to head for the cargo bay, his pistol already secure on the edge of his tool belt – there was no way he was going to let it get out of arm's reach while he was on Chiralan Station, even while on his ship.

He entered the cargo bay shortly thereafter, pistol drawn, unsure what to expect. But there didn't seem to be any danger, and instead, the two Kryterans were chatting merrily by one of the open crates.

"Oh, there he is," Sarydra observed cheerfully, stepping away from the crate and facing Shiu. She was wearing a skirt this time in addition to her hoodie, though Shiu had his doubts that she had anything else on under it. But more than that, she was wearing a strange metallic bandolier with a few small glowing lights on it, clearly made for someone bigger than her. Whatever it was made of was high quality, at least for what he assumed was a prototype, the two large metal bands crossing over her belly where a circular metal plate was fixed. A serial number was stamped on it, but there was no other identifying mark.

Holding her hands out to her sides, she stood before him. "Shoot me!" she called out.

Shiu's reply was flat from disbelief. "What."

"Shoot me!" Sarydra repeated.

"Why?"

"Because I want to show you something cool!"

Shiu frowned at her. "This isn't going to explode or anything like that, is it?"

"No, I already tested it out. Go on, shoot me."

He glanced over to Tethryn, who smiled and shrugged, so he raised the pistol and took aim at Sarydra's center of mass – not that he really needed to, since she was so close and wasn't moving. When he pulled the trigger, a bolt of green plasma struck Sarydra, producing a bright blue flash and a number of sparks, but she was still grinning afterwards, completely unharmed.

Shiu lowered the pistol. "A shield?"

"Yep!" she answered, doing a little dance in place. "The latest in miniaturization! Every other shield out there right now only works if it's fixed to a ship, building, or vehicle. Same design principle though, it produces a Darvelli Wave-Flux Field with a dissipation strength proportional to the wattage..." she trailed off as Shiu's eyes glazed over. Sighing and rolling her eyes, she continued, "So, it'll work on energy weapons and any projectiles with enough kinetic energy, just like others – it won't stop missiles, just like ship shields, but you'd be kind of fucked anyway even if it did. And of course, it's not as powerful as a bigger shield; you're still toast if you get hit by, like, a ship-to-ship plasma cannon, but it'll block basically any kind of hand weapons. Otherwise either the field will collapse on you, or the generator will overload, and either way, you go boom."

"I'll, uh, take your word for it," he muttered, holstering the gun. "All I know about shields is that you want the meter on the cockpit to be as full as possible for them. Or I would, if I could afford one."

Sarydra gave a deeper sigh and slumped forward a little. "My genius is unappreciated around here," she complained melodramatically, grabbing the bandolier and taking it off, setting it down next to Tethryn.

"How are you doing out here? Find anything else good?" he asked.

"I'm doing great, other than walking funny and having trouble sitting down," Sarydra replied jokingly.

"So you don't want another go later?" Shiu teased, grinning wide.

"Of course I do," she flirted back, wiggling her hips, but Tethryn cleared her throat. "Gotta finish up here first though to get her off my case."

"Business before pleasure," Shiu agreed, nodding towards Tethryn.

"Sure didn't seem like it yesterday," Tethryn grumbled.

"Hey, payment counts as a form of business," Shiu offered as a weak excuse.

"Anyway," Sarydra continued, "You've got some really nice stuff here. Plenty of high-end military gear, lots of prototypes. Unfortunately that one box with all the storage drives in it is totally fucked – I'm going to guess the cruiser crashing did it, they don't take too kindly to excessive vibrations, even in one of these crates. Grikk'll still take 'em though, they can be salvaged for parts and rare metals, and he knows a guy to sell them off to." She gestured around vaguely and continued, "Most of it is just incremental improvements, like, over there is a box of EMP grenades that have about a 20% bigger radius than the current most powerful model. I've got samples of new materials too, I'm sure there was some nice juicy ballistic test data on those drives before they got smashed up."

"So nothing world-ending, at least?"

"Yeah, no doomsday devices in here, and no war crimes, just a fortune in experimental tech." Tapping the bandolier, she added, "Some of it a decade or two ahead of what's out there now."

Shiu nodded, and then scowled after a moment of thought. "You know what?" he spat, suddenly angry, "That's even fucking worse. How many people have died for these crates? How much shit is going to go down when RanaTek gets exposed for this? And for what? Just fucking money! It's not even some ridiculous breakthrough, it's not some miracle cure or a galaxy-conquering weapon. Just a chance to profit! All this for some fucking credits!"

"Yep," Tethryn said flatly and humorlessly. "I hear you, big guy. But just because it doesn't seem like big stakes to you doesn't mean they don't see it that way. Toss out a marketing campaign for a weapon that's 10% better than all the competition, and you'll be raking in cash from all over space. I've been marked for death over these fucking crates. I'll never be able to go home or see my family or live a normal life again, all because some executive wants a fifth mansion on a paradise planet."

"Fuck," Shiu swore, pacing around in a small circle before turning back to the two of them. Angrily, he clenched a fist and slammed it into the top of one crate, then exhaled, calming himself down. "Fine. Fuck. Whatever. What's the next step to getting these things out of here?"

Tethryn gestured vaguely towards the crates near her, "Even just for incremental product improvements, RanaTek or any of the other corps would still love to get their hands on all this. Any advantage they can get over their rivals makes them money, especially if they can reverse-engineer it and conveniently claim they independently developed it in their labs after they fabricate enough research reports. Sarydra's definitely downplaying this a little, though – one of these crates has some missiles that can punch right through just about any currently-used hull composition. But another one has a new material that can withstand one or two impacts of those same missiles and minimize the damage, and is light enough to use on anything bigger than a personal transport. Any corp that gets hold of both of those is going to rake in a fortune – sell a new weapon to give people the upper hand, and then ALSO sell a new type of plating to defend against it once there's widespread adoption. Everyone will have no choice but to start buying up both of them, or get out-gunned in no time. If you hold the patent and manufacturing rights, you can make an absolute killing while everyone else is playing catch-up to try and make their own designs."

Shiu frowned heavily. "You're thinking too much like a corporation. Remember where they got these from: a Federation blacksite. This is military tech more than it's corporate tech. New armor plating impenetrable to missiles? And a new type of hull-buster missile? Forget selling it – if you keep those for yourself and start outfitting fleets with that kind of tech, you'll be unstoppable until people catch up."

"The thought had occurred to me too," Tethryn answered, shaking her head. "I honestly can't decide if it was a good thing or not that this stuff got stolen by the corps."

Shiu exhaled slowly, raising a hand and running it through his mane. "So, what are you going to do with it? Destroy it?"

"Fuck no. If I do that, someone else will figure it out eventually and fuck over everyone anyway. Or the Federation will recover their work and we'll be right back at square one. So instead, I'm going to sell it off to as many black market contacts as Grikk can get interested. The more people that have it, the less the corps can squeeze everyone else." Gesturing to the crates, she continued, "I'll get all this stuff nice and widespread so that none of them have an advantage. Competition drives the price down too, when anyone else can undercut you. That way, everyone can afford the shiny new armor, and the expensive missiles lose their allure. All the big players vying for power and money lose out, and I take my share, get a new identity, and go retire in peace in some luxury haven somewhere. Maybe get a houseboat."

Shiu nodded, and glanced over at Sarydra, who spoke up. "If you want any of this," she told him, "you'd better pick it out before Grikk shows up to take it.

"No thanks," Shiu told her promptly, shaking one hand for emphasis. "I don't want any of this stuff being traced back to me. I just want my share of the money, and I want it on a fresh transfer stick, nothing that can be traced."

"Suit yourself," Tethryn told him. "I'm taking that shield, though. I might need it before all this is over."

"Yep, yep, I just wanted to show it off," Sarydra replied. Glancing over at Shiu, she added, "I'm nearly done here. I could use a break though, maybe you and I could-?"

"Nuh-uh," Tethryn interjected, "No sex until you finish your work."

"Yes, mom," Sarydra replied sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, if you actually want to help, could you tell Grikk to send his guys over? By the time they get here I'll be done and they can start with the crates I already finished with. I don't really want these things here any longer than necessary either."

"I can do that. Do you know where Grikk is?"

"He and his boys are around here somewhere," Sarydra answered. With a smirk, she added, "I don't know exactly where... but I think you know better than I do where to start looking, don't you?"

Shiu nodded, folding his arms. "Yeah, I have an idea."

--------------------

Shiu could hear the music coming from Euphoria long before he could see it. No haven of crime and larceny was truly complete without its own seedy club, and Euphoria filled that niche quite handily. The bouncers knew him – he'd brought the place at least one shipment of 'special ingredients' – but even that didn't get him out of having to slip them some credits to be allowed to bring his weapons inside.

The interior of the club was dark around the edges with a brightly lit center stage where an assortment of naked members of various oxygen-breathing species danced, any lack of talent or grace made up for by the size of what they were showing off. The bar at the back was also brightly lit, as a beacon to guide patrons back for more drinks – or narcotics. Deep pink lighting with slow strobe lights provided just enough illumination for him to see where he was going and avoid bumping into anyone bigger than he was, though he also gave a berth to the patrons in fetish gear, lest they attempt to beg him for something he didn't have the time for.

Some were more insistent than others, though. A short feathery figure in bondage gear blocked his path, getting as far as "Punish me, I've been-" before Shiu shoved him out of his way and continued on, ignoring the "Yes, just like that!" in his wake. Deeper into the crowd, as he waited briefly for an opportunity to slip between people, a topless cervine woman with brown hair looked over her shoulder shifted back, grinding against him and the bulge in his jumpsuit. "Hey there, stud," she crooned to him, twisting her upper body to bounce her oversized breasts from side to side, "Looking for some special service?"

Tempting as it was, he wasn't on his own time. "I'm here on business, sorry," he said with the best winning smile he could manage as he briefly grinded back against her, "Maybe next time."

"That's a pity," she said, separating from him to look for another potential customer. Advancing into the crowds, he continued on and looked around, but the poor lighting made it hard to see. 

"Shiu," he suddenly heard in a rumbling voice from his side, and he turned.

Barely fitting into a booth was an absolute mountain of a man, mostly covered in large gray scales with a yellow underside, numerous large gray plates running down the back of his bald head. Four huge arms covered in muscle protruded from the sleeveless vest he wore, the top left one bearing a tattoo indicating a previous incarceration. Two legs each as thick as both of Shiu's combined were wedged under the table, barely fitting in a pair of faux leather pants, and the end of the barrel of a large weapon secured to his back protruded over one shoulder. His left eye bore a scar over it, an obvious augmented replacement staring at Shiu over the man's short muzzle, and a thick tail with two ridges of spikes stuck through the gap in the booth between the seat and back cushions. He held a bubbling drink in one hand, his palm the size of Shiu's entire head, and was in the middle of setting the drink down.

"Grikk," Shiu acknowledged, coming over to the table. There was nowhere for him to sit, as Grikk's three bodyguards were in the other seats, dressed in heavy combat gear, so he simply stood by the table and leaned over it. Even while he was standing and the Rapturath was sitting, he was still shorter than Grikk.

"Been a while since we got to talk face-to-face," Grikk remarked in his gravelly voice, raising it to be heard over the thumping music.

Shiu nodded. "Would've been sooner, but your last request went on a bit longer than I expected."

"I appreciate you going the extra distance on this one. Saves me some trouble when I can take the goods off the hands of someone I can trust."

"Speaking of, you can send your men over to pick it up," Shiu informed him. "They said they're nearly done and you can start moving the cargo, and sent me here to play messenger. I've got an extra case of hull plates in there too you can have for whatever the going rate is these days."

Grikk nodded to Shiu, then pointed at one of his guards, and then to the club exit. "Get on it," Grikk ordered, "And get every loader we have to assist. I want those crates in our hold as soon as possible." The armored bodyguard nodded back and got up, leaving his seat vacant for Shiu to take. "Much appreciated," Grikk rumbled, "This'll be a real motherlode of a haul."

"You knew what it was all about since the beginning, didn't you?" Shiu inquired. Grikk only gave him a gap-toothed grin in response. "I do believe you owe me a favor."

"That I do," Grikk acknowledged. "What're you looking to get replaced? Tell me and I'll make sure I've got brand new parts for you by the time you can make it to my yard, save you some waiting."

"It's going to be the thrusters. They've been losing power with age. I'll send you the part numbers later. I want to wrap this job up first."

"You never did like to multitask," Grikk grumbled before taking a big swig from his drink, draining nearly half of the glass. "But a deal's a deal. I'll get you some good thrusters, and even have my guys install them for you, free of charge. You've earned it on this one."

"By the way, what kind of business do you and Sarydra do?" Shiu asked. "You two seem already acquainted."

"Sarydra? She helps me find good salvage. Intercepts reports and passes them my way so I can get there first. You don't want to be late to the party in the scrapping business." Leaning forward, Grikk growled, "Speaking of, if you could tell me exactly WHERE you got all those goodies in your hold, I'd be willing to pay well for the info. Crashes are better salvage than combat wrecks, and an entire cruiser would be a very juicy prize indeed."

It was a tempting offer, but Shiu shook his head. "Ask our mutual customer," he replied, "she, mm, 'politely requested' that I not share the coordinates or write them down."

A smirk crossed Grikk's scarred face. "She threatened your manhood, didn't she?"

"A few times," Shiu admitted.

Grikk gave a short, deep laugh that would be easily heard anywhere in the club. "She's feisty. Well, I can't fault you for that, she's as vindictive as I am. She told you that I sent someone else to pick her up before you, right?" Shiu nodded, and Grikk continued, "He betrayed us and sold her out to CorpSec. So she shot him in the face. I like her style."

"It's certainly effective," Shiu agreed with a raised eyebrow.

Picking his drink up, Grikk tipped back the glass and downed the remaining half of its contents. Looking at the empty glass after, he continued, "Enough business for now. I'm heading to a back room. Come join me. We've got the time to kill while my boys move those boxes."

"Sure," Shiu agreed, "I don't have enough of an education to be any help with what they're doing on the ship. Might as well enjoy myself. I even have an idea of who to bring along..."

--------------------

The back room was a welcome sight to Shiu, provided for the club's more affluent guests who wanted a quiet location to partake in something more than just alcohol. Mildly better lit, it was thinly decorated with a big, black faux-leather sofa, a trashcan, and a shelf with a few disposable supplies for various forms of degeneracy, be they sexual or narcotic.

The cervine prostitute he had met earlier hadn't been too hard to find, and she seemed quite enamored when he flashed her some credits, squeezed her ass and told her he had changed his mind. By the time Shiu got to the back room, Grikk was already sitting on the sofa with his pants dropped and his legs spread. One upper hand stroked along his enormous cock, covered in soft yellow scales but for the bare gray tip, and both his lower hands each hefted and rubbed one of this immensely hefty balls in their yellow-scaled sack.

Shiu didn't mind that he was dwarfed by Grikk in more than just height; the prostitute had looked noticeably concerned at the sight of the Rapturath's massive dick, but Shiu and pulled her a little closer, grinding against her ass as he reassured her, "Don't worry, babe. You're here to ride me; my associate here is more of a breast man." Although she relaxed, he couldn't say for sure what was more convincing to her: his words, or Grikk waving another pair of credit sticks at her with his one free hand.

The prostitute slipped away from Shiu and over towards Grikk, putting her hands under her sizeable breasts, hefting them both as they spilled out of her grip. "Oh? You like these, big guy?" she asked teasingly, leaning in, as Grikk gave a low rumble of appreciation and reached over to tuck the credits into a strap of her stockings. It also gave Shiu an ample opportunity to check her out; aside from some heeled shoes and a belt holding up her crotchless stockings, she was naked, giving him a view that made his jumpsuit tighter. Much like Kora back in North Varaven, she had unopened condoms tucked into the top of the stockings for her 'clients' to use, and Shiu reached over and plucked one of them free with two fingers. Her thighs were already wet, and a few tied-off used condoms hung from the sides of the stockings, indicating she'd already been busy that night.

As she leaned in and attempted to wrap her huge breasts around Grikk's enormous cock, Shiu got to work stripping down as he admired the prostitute's bared rump. He left his jumpsuit around his ankles, his belt with his knives and pistol included, the spear left resting on the wall; he could do without it, but he wasn't going to risk not having SOME kind of weapon close at hand.

Her short tail was raised up high, and he had no doubt that she was no stranger to taking dicks in either hole. Yet while stray lubricant and pussy juices dotted the fur around her snatch, her ass seemed unused so far for the night, and he grinned widely, tearing open the condom wrapper. Not getting sloppy seconds was an unexpected bonus.

With Grikk's thick pillar of meat between her tits, the cervine woman squeezed them from the sides and began lifting and lowering her upper body, eliciting another deep rumble from Grikk. The moment Shiu had finished rolling the condom down his hard shaft, he gripped her ass with one hand, thumb under her tail to keep it up and used his other hand to guide his cock to her rear entrance, pressing his wrapped cockhead up against it immediately. As he suspected, he was able to penetrate her without much difficulty, though she still shuddered and groaned from his girth spreading her ring out. While he couldn't possibly compare to Grikk, he was definitely much bigger than the average guy, and even her experienced ass was tight around him as he sank into her depths, hilting on the first stroke.

Grikk was content to lean back and spread out all four arms to the sides, letting the cervine take the lead, stroking her breasts along his shaft as she planted kisses and licks along the immense length in front of her. Shiu, however, grabbed onto her hips tightly and began thrusting steadily, closing his eyes to revel in the simple pleasure of the tightness of her walls around his cock. Too much had been happening recently. This whole ordeal would be over soon, but soon wasn't now, and until it was, he needed to take care of the stress it was causing him.

Every smack of his hips against her rump and plap of his balls against her pussy helped ease some of his tension. She gasped and groaned out, playing it up for the both of them as she put all her effort into giving Grikk a titjob, letting Shiu take the lead on her ass. Grikk's low rumbles of pleasure were background noise just like the muted club music as far as Shiu was concerned, and he gradually increased his pace. Focusing just on moving his hips back and forth, driving his thick cock in and out of the prostitute's anal tunnels, hilting hard every time just to hear her moan out from it.

No longer satisfied with merely being passive, Grikk reached out and grabbed the prostitute's upper body with all four hands, straightening her up as he shifted to the edge of his seat. She gasped out as he gripped her shoulders with his upper hands and moved the lower ones to her breasts, taking over on squeezing them around his shaft, and she moved her hands down to his balls as he began pulling her up and down his length, thick gouts of precum liberally spurting across her front. Shiu shuffled closer to sandwich her between the two of them, ramming his hips against her ass over and over as he plowed her deeply, the fingers of both hands sinking into her hips as he gripped firmly.

Fucking her harder, Shiu took a heavy breath. He had no interest in taking his time for numerous reasons, but not least of which was that he could hear Grikk's breaths getting heavier as he pulled the cervine up and down, sliding her precum-covered breasts over his cock again and again. He didn't want to be in the line of fire when the Rapturath finally went off. So instead he went hard and deep, pulling almost his entire length out from her ass before slamming all the way back in, his balls bouncing off her wet pussy.

Even when he felt the tingling of his impending climax, Shiu didn't slow down for a moment, hammering away at her as hard as he could, burying his cock into her ass all the way to the hilt on every stroke. Tensing up, right as his climax hit he started giving rapid short thrusts and groaned out loudly, his cock throbbing against her tight hole as he blew his load into the condom. Hilting inside and staying there halfway through his orgasm, he shuddered and groaned out, his tail waving in the air behind him as he rode out the rest of his peak, his balls pressed against her wet pussy as they unloaded into her other hole.

But in the haze of his own orgasm, he hadn't noticed Grikk approaching his. The Rapturath's deep grunts and groans suddenly shifted to a long, shuddering groan, his balls pulling up and out of the prostitute's hands as he started to cum. Shiu could hear the thick, wet sound of Grikk's blasts of cum erupting from the end of his cock and splattering across the cervine's front, making a complete mess of her breasts and chest, with Grikk groaning as he kept tugging her upper body up and down to draw out his climax as long as he could. Thick globs of cum dripped off from her breasts and onto the floor between them, and Shiu stayed where he was to use her as a shield until Grikk's climax came to an end.

For a time they stayed as they were, until a buzzing sound from Grikk's jacket snapped them all out of their stupor. "Always at the worst fuckin' times..." Grikk grumbled, reaching into his jacket with one hand and fishing out a phone. He gave it a glance with the look of a man on the hunt for an excuse to ignore the problem entirely, but with a grimace he tapped on the screen and held it to the side of his head. "Grikk here. This better be fuckin' good."

But after a moment, he raised an eye-ridge and looked up at Shiu. "It's the Kryterans," he explained, tapping the screen again and holding out the phone, screen-up. "You're on speaker," he announced.

From the phone's speaker came the sound of Tethryn yelling at the top of her lungs: "SHIU, PULL YOUR DICK OUT OF THAT WHORE'S ASS AND GET OVER TO CLICK'S PLACE, NOW!"

"What the fuck-" Shiu muttered, glancing around the room, ignoring the smirk on Grikk's face and the prostitute who was still panting and dripping. There weren't supposed to be any cameras in the backrooms.

"IT'S CORPSEC!" Tethryn added, wiping the smirk off Grikk's face while Shiu's eyes widened in shock. "THEY'RE RAIDING THE PLACE!"

"On my way!" he announced gruffly, pulling out from the prostitute and making her groan as he tugged out the cum-filled condom as well. Ripping it off and tossing it aside in his haste, he reached down to his ankles to pull his jumpsuit back up, brushing his hands against it – he'd have time to wash it later. But every moment was of the essence now.

"What about the goods?" Grikk asked gruffly, standing and grabbing a towel off a side shelf. He gave his cock a single quick wipe before throwing the towel aside, then began stuffing his junk back into his pants with his lower hands.

"Ask your guys!" Tethryn snapped. "I have bigger problems right now!"

The background noise stopped – either the signal was cut or she had hung up. Shiu hastily zipped up the front of his suit, pulling his pistol from his belt after fastening his spear to its back strap again. "You coming?" he asked Grikk. The cum-covered prostitute was simply cowering on the floor, not that he blamed her. She was lucky she'd been paid in advance.

Grikk reached over his shoulder and retrieved the heavy plasma shotgun he had brought with him, following Shiu as he headed for the door with heavy thumping footsteps. "Let's go," he growled deeply, ducking down on his way out through the door frame.

Grikk's remaining bodyguards had been standing outside of the backroom and were surprised when their boss burst out of it and began barking orders and shouting questions at them. "Did we finish the cargo transfer?" Grikk demanded.

"Almost, the last set of crates is on the way to your ship," one of them answered as they followed along. Grikk's huge frame easily cleared a path through the club patrons, shoving anyone out of the way if they were too slow to move in time, while Shiu and the guards made use of the wake Grikk left in the crowd.

"Good," Grikk growled, "Order everyone to escort those crates, then get back to their ships and prepare to take off. We're leaving at the first opportunity, right after I collect some trophies."

Their exit made quite a commotion, but the guards at the entrance had the good sense to let them leave – they were only paid to keep trouble OUT, not in, and if the trouble wanted to leave the premises and go somewhere else, that was fine with them. "Will do," Grikk's guard answered before breaking off from them, holding a hand near the side of his helmet to use its communicator.

"How the fuck did they find out they were here, let alone get on the station?" Grikk wondered aloud as he charged down the corridors, his heavy footsteps on the metal floors alerting everyone ahead of him to stand aside. Chiralan Station was a rough place, but nobody was going to challenge someone Grikk's size holding a massive gun running at them at full tilt.

"They must have had a spy on the station, it's the only possibility," Shiu grumbled as he followed behind, pistol held in both hands. If he'd known he'd have to duke it out with CorpSec he would have brought something beefier. "No one on this place would willingly cooperate with them, even for the bounty they've posted."

"If I find who their rat is, he's going on a one-way trip out the airlock," Grikk snarled.

Even had Shiu not known the route to Sarydra's apartment, it would have been easy enough to find with all of the commotion going on outside of it, to say nothing of the trail of bodies; nobody on Chiralan Station liked CorpSec and a few of its denizens had decided to pick a fight with them. Though they had clearly lost, there were a few dead corporate goons too, decked out in bulky standard CorpSec armor: clean white with the RanaTek logo plastered all over it

The moment Shiu got to the residential part of the station he could hear the enforcer with a megaphone, presumably demanding that the Kryterans surrender, punctuated by heavy slams against a solid metal surface. It meant they hadn't gotten inside the apartment yet at least, but it would only be a matter of time, no matter how heavily the women had barricaded the door. But as he got close enough to clearly make out the demands for the Kryterans to come out with their hands up, he grimaced. What the fuck was he even doing, risking his life like this? This was exactly why he traveled alone! Those damn crates! He never should have taken the job. But it was too late now. All he could hope for was to get out alive and with a relatively low bounty...

"We have a plan, right?" Shiu called out to Grikk.

"Of course!" Grikk roared, "The plan is to kill all those corporate cocksuckers!"

It wasn't an elegant plan, but it would have to do: they came to the narrow access corridor leading to Sarydra's place, with the CorpSec breaching team crammed in close together. Just like the bodies before, they were all wearing bulky ballistic armor, with a few holding ballistic tower shields. It looked intimidating to anyone who wasn't aware what lousy shots CorpSec usually were, but annoyingly for Shiu, it was very resistant to small-arms fire if you didn't hit them in the right spots.

Grikk's heavy plasma shotgun, on the other hand...

Before they could even turn to see what the noise was approaching them, Grikk snarled and opened fire. Green plasma bolts punched straight through the closest enforcer, dropping him dead on the spot, and taking out the one behind him too. Both of Grikk's left hands pulled the forestock back, ejecting a smoking plasma cell from the side of the gun, and the one enforcer who wasn't quick enough to get into cover by ducking around the corner joined his comrades on the floor a moment later with several smoldering holes in his armor.

"Come on out, you pussies!" Grikk roared, pumping the gun and sending another spent cell clattering to the ground. "I brought enough for everyone!"

But the first one to emerge had a heavy ballistic shield, reinforced well enough that it took the brunt of another blast of plasma with nothing worse than scorch marks on the front. Shiu ducked for cover in a doorway as Grikk pulled out from the corridor entirely, a free arm shoving his bodyguard out of the line of fire too just before the enforcer opened up on them, a hail of mag rifle rounds flying past and striking the far wall.

Either from panic, rage, or just poor training, the shield-bearer emptied his entire magazine as he charged forward. When Shiu heard the telltale 'click', he made his move, pulling the spear off his back and lunging out from cover. The enforcer pointed his gun at Shiu and tried to fire in reflex, producing only another click of an empty magazine for his efforts. Turning to keep the shield covering his body, there wasn't a chance Shiu would be able to hit him from the front.

So instead, Shiu rammed his shoulder into the shield as high as he could, sending the enforcer staggering, putting one foot back to remain upright. It did nothing to open up an angle for Shiu to thrust at him, but by raising his shield and tilting it back to absorb the impact, the shield-bearer had left himself exposed further down. Shiu hooked his spear around behind the shield as he crouched down and swept the enforcer's legs out from under him, sending him sprawling on his back with a cacophony of plating hitting the metal floor, dazing the man under the armor.

"Coming through!" Grikk roared, and Shiu flattened himself against the wall just in time to avoid getting knocked down by the Rapturath's rampage, one of his huge feet stomping on the shield and flattening the enforcer underneath it, who gave an agonized cry audible over the snap of an arm bone. Unstoppable, Grikk continued on and fired down the even smaller access corridor to Sarydra's apartment once, twice, then a third time, snarling and sweeping the gun back and forth briefly before raising it, the end of the barrel trailing smoke.

"You can come out now, ladies!" Grikk called out to the Kryterans, stepping away from the three smoking canisters lying on the ground, pulling spares off the rack on the side of the gun to reload it with. "They're all taken care of."

Catching movement from the corner of his eye, Shiu put one foot on the right arm of the enforcer sprawled in front of him, pinning it to the floor and shaking his head firmly. From around the corner he heard a heavy thump, a clatter, and the sound of something heavy scraping on the floor as Tethryn and Sarydra un-barricaded the door.

"What do you want to do with this one?" Shiu asked.

"He's coming back with me," Grikk growled, returning the smoking shotgun to his back. Shiu stepped off of the enforcer as Grikk reached down, grabbing onto the edge of a back plate and hauling the CorpSec soldier up off the ground, who dropped his empty gun and shield onto the floor to try and futilely shove Grikk's hand off of him. Pointedly, Grikk leaned in and growled, "He probably doesn't know shit, but if he does, he might be able to save himself from being spaced."

There was another crash from around the corner, and Shiu peeked around it at the carnage Grikk had wrought: CorpSec soldiers were piled up on the ground, many still smoldering, and the plasma blasts had burnt holes in the wall, exposing the maintenance space beyond. Next to the door lay a pneumatic ram that the breaching team had been trying to break through the door with, its surface heavily dented. As Shiu looked over, the damaged apartment door opened and Tethryn tumbled out as though she had climbed over something, holding her pistol in her right hand. She was also wearing the shield bandolier, which she had secured to her smaller body with some hastily-added straps. "Shiu, we have to get the fuck out of here!" she shouted.

"You're welcome," Grikk grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"I noticed," Shiu replied equally curtly. "But we need a plan."

Stepping towards Tethryn, Shiu peeked through the open door and saw Sarydra climbing out as well, holding a machine pistol. "CorpSec has troop carriers in section C, bays 4, 13, 21, and 29," she announced, and Shiu noticed she had an AR visor fastened to her head that held colored lenses in front of her eyes, which were darting back and forth to read something only she could see. "I don't know how they got in – they must have had inside help. At LEAST one spy."

"Fuck, I'm in bay C-14," Shiu swore aloud. "They'll have it secured already."

"And they'll know we took out their hit squad," Grikk muttered, kicking one of the bodies near him, which went flying down the corridor and landed in a crumpled heap.

"My ship's over in A-106," Sarydra told them. "If I can get to it, I can get access to the station's systems and help the rest of you out while I bail out of here."

Effortlessly keeping his prisoner restrained, Grikk growled, "And my crew's in the first few D bays. We'd better split up in case they try to pursue us."

"Wait, what about me?" Tethryn protested, "I don't have a ship!"

"Then I guess you're with me," Shiu told her. "Grikk'll have enough heat on him already since he has those fucking crates."

"No shit," Grikk agreed. Turning, he hurled his captive towards his bodyguard, and pulled his plasma shotgun off his back. "I'll make some noise and see if that doesn't get their attention off you. I wouldn't mind getting one of their ships for scrap."

Tethryn gave a nod. "Thanks, Grikk."

"Don't thank me yet, you owe me for this," he told her, pointing at her and Sarydra with the first two fingers on his upper left hand. "And don't get yourselves killed. I need you alive to sell those things!"

He began stomping off, leaving Shiu with the two Kryterans. "Okay," Tethryn said, "What about us?" They'll be looking for me. We need to get out of sight."

Looking over to the damaged wall thoughtfully, Shiu raised his spear and jammed the tip into one of the holes burnt into the metal panel, using the spear as a lever to rip the entire panel off the wall. The resulting hole only came up to his thighs, but it would be big enough for the Kryterans.

"Sweet. I'm outta here," Sarydra declared, immediately ducking into the hole and squeezing under a horizontal support beam.

"What-! Click!" Tethryn protested.

"I'll call you!" Sarydra shouted back, turning and vanishing into the darkness.

Shiu nudged her towards the hole. "You'd better get in there too. Do you know how to get to the C bays?"

"Nope. I sure hope Click does," she said, shaking her head. With a sigh, she grumbled, "At least I have this thing," tapping the shield bandolier as she approached the hole in the wall and ducked down. Just as she got inside, she turned back and peeked her head out towards Shiu. "What about you? How are you going to get there?"

Putting his spear on his back, Shiu took a submachine gun from one of the dead CorpSec soldiers and grabbed the ballistic shield that had been dropped by the captive. "I'll manage," he told her firmly, banging the bottom of the shield on the floor for emphasis.

--------------------

Despite his outward confidence, Shiu was less sure of the situation than he had let on; once Tethryn slipped out of sight, he hurried back towards the docking bays. The corridors had partly cleared out from all the commotion and firefights, and those that remained were scavengers looking to loot the bodies who had no interest in fighting him as long as he left them to their pilfering.

He had no idea how the others were doing; for all he knew they were all dead and it was in his best interests to save his own scales. At one point he heard alarms go off behind him, but whatever that was about, he was able to keep ahead of it.

The C-section bays were for ships like his: small commercial vessels, too big for the personal transports in sections A and B, but not the size of industrial ships in D, or anything bigger than that, which would only be able to dock via umbilicals rather than entering a bay. At least he knew the way, after hauling tools for Sarydra – not to mention the walk of shame back to his ship the previous day. Tethryn had chased him out after 'fucking everything up' with his 'fat fucking dick', or so she had told him vehemently.

Those fucking crates...!

His heart sank as he caught sight of bay 14, and immediately ducked back around the corner into cover. Bay 14 was unguarded, but bay 13 right next to it had a group of CorpSec enforcers on standby outside of it in a defensive position. There was no way he'd be able to make it into the bay without being spotted, and the last thing he needed was people shooting at his ship.

As he considered his options, his phone buzzed, and he passed his SMG to his left hand, holding it awkwardly due to the ballistic shield strapped to his forearm. The phone number wasn't just unfamiliar, it was unrecognizable: 'u85-v3!t7#7zX' was most definitely not a valid number in any part of the galaxy. But he had a good idea what that meant, so he answered the call and raised it to his head, speaking quietly. "Sarydra?"

"Yep," her voice answered. "Had to get a secured line going. Congrats on not dying."

He hadn't given her his phone number, but now wasn't the time to ask about her methods. "What's the situation?"

"Tethryn got lost, but I've got her on the right track now. Grikk's been raising hell, but CorpSec isn't taking the bait."

Shiu frowned, his whiskers drooping. "Then what are they doing?"

"Hunting for us. They raided my apartment."

"Shit. Did they find anything?"

"Sure did," Sarydra remarked blithely, "They found the tripwire I left for them, feet first. I'm surprised you didn't hear the explosion."

"Oh. Damn, I hope you didn't lose anything."

He heard her snort derisively over the call. "I have, like, five offsite backups," she remarked offhandedly. "And everything important I took with me on an emergency ejection drive. I'm already all hooked up on my portable rig and good to go." He heard tapping in the background. "What about you? Looks like you've got a party waiting for you around the corner."

Raising his gaze, Shiu tried to spot whatever camera she was observing from, but couldn't find it. "That's putting it lightly. Can you do anything to help?"

"Maybe..." she mused, and he heard more tapping. "Hold up, let me patch in Tethryn."

There was a brief pause as she did whatever hacker stuff that entailed, and Shiu carefully peeked around the corner. It was, unsurprisingly, still guarded. Six enforcers in total, two with shields and SMGs, the rest with plasma rifles. He inhaled slowly, trying to focus, steadying his breathing. He couldn't stay where he was forever, but panicking would do him no good. After a few more moments he heard a burst of static, followed by Tethryn's voice. "Shiu?"

"Affirmative," he answered. The tension was getting to him; he was slipping into his old military mannerisms.

"I'm pretty close to you. There's an access hatch but it doesn't go into the bay itself, it's just outside."

"Hold your position," he warned. "They've got the area locked down."

"What does the hatch say?" Sarydra asked.

Another pause, and a thump in the background, followed by something that sounded like a muffled curse in the Kryteran language. "C 1 dash C 4," Tethryn read off of something.

"That's on the other side of them from where you are, Shiu," Sarydra informed him.

"Outnumbered, outgunned, and outarmored," Shiu grumbled. Not to mention that they were separated. But that meant they were flanking the enemy position...

"Tethryn, are you still wearing that... shield thing?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I need a distraction."

"I'm working on it-" Sarydra began.

"No," Shiu interrupted, "You don't understand. I need Tethryn to BE a distraction."

--------------------

"Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," Tethryn gasped under her breath as she ran headlong towards the docking bay entrance.

Her loud footsteps had the intended effect; some of the CorpSec enforcers heard them and turned around. "There she is! Get her!" one with a shield called out, raising his arm to point, and the others nearby all turned to open fire on her as she dived for cover from instinct.

And more importantly, they turned away from Shiu.

He was glad he hadn't decided to steal their armor; his rubber-soled boots weren't exactly quiet, but they weren't louder than the storm of gunfire up ahead of him. Whether Tethryn had actually been hit or not, Shiu wasn't sure, but from the way she was shouting insults and returning fire, she was very clearly still in the fight. Adrenaline surged through Shiu as he charged with the ballistic shield up and held up the SMG, taking aim.

The first one had already fallen by the time they noticed they were being attacked from behind, and the second, one of the shield-bearers, was still turning around when Shiu's hail of mag rounds punched through his helmet visor. Shiu dumped the rest of the magazine without striking any weak points in the third enforcer's armor, and slammed shield-first into him instead, knocking him down from sheer momentum.

Dropping the empty gun, Shiu pulled one of the knives off his belt and held it in a back grip, swinging his arm upwards to knock away the arm of the fourth enforcer who was trying to point his gun at him, having difficulty aiming the long-barreled gun at melee range. Stomping onto the knocked-over enforcer as he rammed the other shield-bearer in the back, staggering him, Shiu jammed the point of the knife into a gap in the third enforcer's armor plates in front of his neck, sending him gurgling to the floor.

Tethryn opened fire with her laser pistol, striking the stumbling shield-bearer's armor; she didn't get through but she did distract him, giving Shiu more time. The final enforcer managed to face Shiu and raised his weapon to shoot, but not faster than Shiu hid behind the ballistic shield, plasma bolts uselessly striking its surface. Immediately, Shiu bashed the shield against the enforcer's gun, making him spray plasma into the ceiling, but he remained standing.

Tethryn advanced towards the shield-bearer, and the enforcer turned away from Shiu as he stepped back. The Kryteran was standing right out in the open with no cover at all, holding the pistol in both hands. An easy target for the enforcer's rifle, and a shot he immediately took...

But the burst of plasma bolts was stopped with bright flashes as each bolt struck the shield protecting her. Being shot at still made her flinch and recoil, yet she was very clearly unharmed. "What-" was as far as he got before Shiu rammed into him again, knocking him onto his side and stunning him.

Only the second shield-bearer remained as a threat, raising his shield as he managed to clamber back to his feet. The delay gave Shiu the time he needed to pull his spear from his back, and though it wasn't nearly as effective when used one-handed, it would do. Tethryn began shooting, forcing the shield-bearer to turn towards her, her laser pistol shots scorching the shield but accomplishing little else. However, it left him open for Shiu to pull his arm back and thrust as hard as he could. The spear's tip was sufficiently hard and sharp to punch straight through the side of the bulky CorpSec armor; it was made for stopping ballistic impacts and low-yield plasma rounds, not piercing weapons, and the material splintered from all the force concentrated at the tip of the spear. The spearhead sank into the flesh of the man under the armor – or woman, for all Shiu knew – and hit something vital, dropping them on the spot.

Wasting no time, Tethryn stepped forward, finishing off the two CorpSec guards who had been knocked down but weren't dead with well-placed pistol shots through their visors. Only then did she look up at Shiu with a mixture of astonishment and disbelief as he pulled his spear free and retrieved his knife. "What in the actual fuck, Shiu?"

"What?" he asked incredulously, quickly starting to hurry towards the docking bay entrance.

"You just took out six fucking guys without breaking a sweat!"

"I had help," he pointed out to her. He raised the shield just in case, but bay 14 itself was clear, and his ship seemed unharmed, the cargo bay doors still open after Grikk's men had finished unloading it. Running around to the back of the ship and up the ramp, he was immensely relieved to see that not a single one of those fucking crates remained inside of it. If he ever saw any of them again, it would be all too soon.

"Look, I know CorpSec's goons are vat-grown dumbasses who can barely shoot straight on a good day," Tethryn argued, running up the cargo ramp of Shiu's ship with him, "But that was insane! Six on one! Six on fucking one and you stomped them! Literally for that one guy!"

Slamming his hand into the control panel by the back door of the cargo bay, he heard the hydraulics come to life, slowly pulling the huge ramp upward to close the cargo bay. It was well past time to leave. "Grikk took out more guys outside Sarydra's apartment," he muttered dismissively, tapping in a code on the keypad beside the door to unlock it – there had been no way he was leaving the interior of his ship unlocked in a place like this.

"Grikk is built like a fucking tank!" she retorted.

Once the door opened, he ran down the corridor and into his bedroom, snapping "I trained in CQC, all right?" as he immediately stashed his knives and spear in his closet, stuffing the ballistic shield in there too. It might come in handy again some day, but more importantly, he didn't need it bouncing around the ship during take-off.

"Fuck. I'm just glad you're on my side," Tethryn groused, holstering her pistol. Shiu barged past her to get into the cockpit, almost vaulting over the armrest of his chair to get into the seat. "No wonder your people won six wars with the Feds and Reps if that's how you all fight."

"Quiet," he told her, reaching over to the controls. A blinking light and a beeping was alerting him to an incoming encrypted transmission, and it had to be Sarydra, so he turned on the radio with a flick of a switch.

"That was amazing!" Sarydra immediately declared over the comm link. "You fight as good as you fuck!"

Any other time, he would have reveled in the compliment. "How's Grikk?" he asked, getting to the point.

"Ready to leave, as am I," Sarydra answered. "But it's just as I expected, they locked down the bay doors to stop anyone leaving."

Tethryn stepped up to stand next to the pilot seat. "Then how are we getting out?"

"I'll take care of that. I'm in the system, I just didn't want to start fucking with things until we were ready in case they kick me out. Are you good for me to depressurize the bay?"

Shiu was already busy flicking switches and pressing buttons to fire up the engines. "Yeah. Ship's sealed. Do it." The cargo bay door was probably still closing, but it didn't matter, it was never pressurized anyway.

Red lights began flashing in the bay around them, and Shiu saw some wall vents open up moments after the doors leading into the bay slammed shut. "What's CorpSec doing?"

"Heading back to their ships to launch," Sarydra answered. "Only 4% done? Fuck, these bays take forever to cycle!"

"We need to get out of here. I can't outrun anyone in this piece of junk," Shiu told her.

"They've noticed my intrusion... okay, hold on to something, I'm going to do an emergency release!"

"Emergency rel-?" Tethryn began, but Shiu just leaned over and grabbed onto her with one arm.

Behind the ship, explosive bolts on the external door frames went off, blowing the doors away from the station entirely. The remaining air in the docking bay was sucked out violently, pulling Shiu's ship and various bits of detritus out into space. The ship pitched backwards in a spin, and Shiu frantically tried to work the controls with one hand as he clung to Tethryn, firing the engines and thrusters to try and regain control of the ship.

He'd pulled out of worse at higher speeds back when he'd been a fighter pilot. Recovering from the spin and straightening out, he managed to accelerate away from the station without hitting the 'emergency released' bay door that was floating off into space. Tethryn clung to the armrest of his chair and groaned from beside him, "I think I'm going to be sick," and he let go of her so he could use both hands on the controls.

"Please don't," he urged, "I haven't turned the artificial gravity on yet." He kept his focus on the controls, retracting the landing gear and turning on the Lidar scanners and external cameras. Another bay door was flying away from the station, and he saw others being blown open as Sarydra continued her 'emergency releases', venting several other bays. Shiu recognized the green and gray patterns on Grikk's ships, their much greater mass limiting how much the explosive decompression of the docking bays tossed them around. While they recovered from their spins one at a time, CorpSec's vessels remained in their uncontrolled trajectories, their operators likely dead or incapacitated – they hadn't known what was coming, after all.

"Fuuuuuuck," Sarydra groaned over the comm link, "No wonder those controls were locked down so tightly..."

"We made it," Shiu told her, turning on the artificial gravity so that Tethryn would stop floating in the air next to him. "How's Grikk?"

"I'll patch him through, just... gimme a sec," Sarydra replied. Checking the cameras, Shiu saw a tiny ship with nonetheless impressive communication antennas fixed to its sides accelerate away from the station and towards the general vicinity of Grikk's ships.

"Shiu?" Grikk's gravelly voice came through a few moments later.

"Still alive," Shiu answered flatly. "So's Tethryn."

"I knew you were too tough for some CorpSec shitheads to do you in," Grikk remarked smugly. "I'm bailing out with the goods, but my boys'll see if they can't get hold of those RanaTek transports and drag 'em with us. You get the fuck out of here, and when the heat's off, come meet me at my shipyard."

"Will do," Shiu confirmed.

"Yeah, I'm outta here," Sarydra told them, "I'm going to lay low at one of my hideouts. Stay safe."

She cut the comm link, and Shiu turned the engines up to full to accelerate away from the station. Next to him, Tethryn rose her head, still clinging to the armrest, holding her head with her other hand. At least the contents of her stomach had remained where they belonged. "I don't suppose you have a hideout?" she asked him in a daze.

He shook his head. "No, but I have the next best thing," Shiu told her, pointing ahead and out of the cockpit window. Ahead of them lay an enormous pinkish nebula that he was accelerating towards, and he began flicking switches and turning dials to set up the autopilot. "An old smuggler trick. We're going to hide where nobody can find us."