CAW—ROOOOOOAAAR!
The ten-thousand-foot Golden-Crow Fire Projection tore across the starry void like a miniature runaway sun. Its three molten claws ripped long black scars through space, and its screech rattled the glass windows of every greenhouse on Planet One.
Standing atop his central Golden War-Chariot, Emissary Jin Huo threw his head back and laughed so hard his flaming red hair danced like wild snakes.
“Look closely, you filthy mud-diggers of the Frost-Rim!” Jin Huo’s arrogant voice boomed over every radio frequency in the solar system. “This is the Rank 8 Sacred Sun-Fire of my Golden-Crow Clan! No mortal iron or vulgar brass in the lower star-fields can withstand a single breath of my ancestor’s flame! Watch as I melt that ridiculous bathhouse knob into slag and roast your precious Mayor into charcoal!”
Behind his chariot, Captain Huo Lie and the three hundred Golden-Crow fire-guards raised their blazing lances and cheered savagely:
“Burn the thermostat! Melt their soup pots! Tenfold Sunlight Tax!”
Down on the ten planets below, billions of newly freed miners held their breath, clutching their bowls of mutton soup as they stared up at the giant projection screens in the town squares. For three hundred years, that flaming three-legged bird emblem had been their worst nightmare.
