Outside Station #1000, ten thousand thirty-foot giants sat cross-legged along the shoulder of the newly rolled space-highway, wearing their bright neon-yellow Size XXXXL Debtor vests.
Each giant held an iron washbasin the size of a rowboat filled with Old Guo’s steaming braised star-ox pork stew, nebula-rice, and four pillow-sized white buns. The sound of ten thousand giants slurping hot broth and chewing tender meat echoed across the stars like a happy thunderstorm.
“Delicious! Too delicious!” Vanguard General Gu Shan wiped a tear from the corner of his eye as he bit into a juicy chunk of braised pork belly that melted on his tongue. “For eight hundred years in the Titan-Bone Dynasty, I thought meat was supposed to be as hard as granite and taste like rusty iron! Who knew pork could be stewed until it’s softer than clouds?!”
“General, try dipping the white bun into the brown gravy at the bottom of the basin!” Centurion Ba Tu shouted with grease shining all over his chin. “My tongue almost jumped down my throat!”
However, as soon as the giants finished eating and tried to stand up to wash their iron basins, a chorus of sharp, dry CRACK-POP-SNAP noises echoed from their thirty-foot bodies.
