“A native ant wants to swipe a card on an Astral Chamber terminal?!”
Star-Envoy Varkos’s laughter echoed across the Kunlun summit like grinding tectonic plates. He threw his horned helmet back, his spiked armored gauntlets slapping against his heavy thighs. Behind him, the thousand astral shock troopers chuckled in unison, their weapon muzzles shaking with amusement.
“Star-Baron Kael!” Varkos roared, his visor flashing with mocking crimson light. “Bring out the Star-Road Sovereign Payment Monolith! Let us watch this primitive merchant swipe his little toy until his bank account bounces into orbit!”
Kael waved his hand toward the landing shuttle’s cargo bay.
Four heavy anti-gravity transport cranes floated out of the cargo hold, carrying a colossal block of polished violet star-crystal. The cranes hissed as they disengaged, dropping the ten-ton monolith straight onto the obsidian tarmac.
THUD!
The Star-Road Sovereign Payment Monolith stood twenty feet high.
Its crystal surface was carved with hundreds of interlocking astral bank runes, connected via tachyon relay directly to the financial clearinghouse of the 100-Planet Astral Trade Road. In the center of the monolith was a glowing golden scanner slot, flanked by two heavy rune-plates designed for sovereign palm-verification.
