The armored roof hatch above the Celestial-Crown executive tower shrieked as four hydraulic clamps snapped back into their recesses.
A black-and-crimson Blood-Tax Assault Corvette roared upward through the open dome, its twin warp-nacelles spitting violet plasma across the upper docking ring of Nebula Hub #1!
Inside the corvette’s reinforced cockpit, fired Shipyard Director Vane (Goodness: 7/100) and Port Harbor Master Drax (Goodness: 11/100) strapped themselves into the crash couches behind twenty heavy Star-Alloy bullion crates. Those crates held 8 Billion Astral Merit Coins in unregistered bearer bonds that Vane had secretly skimmed from the shipyard workers’ retirement and widow pensions over the past ten years!
At the helm sat Mercenary Captain Vorg (Goodness: 42/100), a scarred sellsword whom Vane had just wired a 50-Million-AMC emergency bonus to fly them through the station’s orbital traffic perimeter.
“Full throttle, Captain Vorg!” Vane laughed wildly, his bloodshot eyes glued to the rearview camera showing the executive tower receding below. “Let that idiot Lin Mo keep the empty shipyard! I hid eight billion Astral Merit Coins of bearer bonds in this roof vault! Once we jump out of Sector #1 to the Blood-Tax Regional Headquarters, we’ll live like kings!”
Harbor Master Drax wiped cold sweat from his bald head and grinned viciously at the viewport. “Look at those country bumpkins standing out on the observation deck! Do they think they can throw rocks at a military-grade Blood-Tax corvette? Our hull is plated in six inches of meteor-proof Star-Alloy! No mortal sword or port security…
