“Right here, girl,” Diamond’s deep voice carried over behind the guards and they parted to let him through. “You guys are just full of surprises. Last time you came in a small shuttle and now a ship? What’s it gonna be next time, a dreadnaught? I’m afraid our small parking lot won’t be able to accommodate you much longer.” He looked pointedly at the crushed cars. “Not without additional vehicular casualties, that is.”

Lana chuckled. “Good one. No, we brought you more ammo. It’s only a thousand rounds, but we’re working on getting more.”

“That’s good news.” The beefy black man nodded approvingly. “I’ll see what I can do about clearing up some more space for you to land next time.”

“I’d appreciate it,” Nori said, handing the crate to one of the other familiar guards. The poor man’s eyes nearly popped as the full weight of the crate suddenly dropped into his arms. He fumbled but managed to steady himself.

A second guard smacked his shoulder. “You’re letting yourself go, Nicolas, if it takes you two arms to lift something a skinny girl does with one.”

“That skinny girl has an exoskeleton that boosts her strength,” the man responded in a huff. He saw Nori’s astonished look and smirked at her. “I used to read and watch plenty of sci-fi, so I recognize an exoskeleton harness when I see one.”

“That’s a handy tool,” Diamond stepped forward to take a closer look. “Any chance we can get a few of those? Would be a big help in organizing everything around here.”

“It’s possible,” Nori said. “But we’ll need piTec. Have you collected some more?”

He shook his head. “You left us with less than twenty rounds, so I didn’t think it was prudent to go out hunting. No Warped approached us since your last visit either.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” one of the women guards grunted. “They used to claw at our walls at least twice a day, but in the last few days we barely caught a glimpse of them.”

Diamond shot Nori a warning look before shrugging at the woman. “I guess we got lucky.”

“About time luck starts working in our favor,” a third man grunted.

“Now that we have Nori’s gift box, we can take some of the boys hunting.” Noah grinned. “What do you say, boss?”

“I’ll think about it,” Diamond replied shortly.

“We can use all the piTec you can give us,” Lana said. “The ammo doesn’t cost much to make, but it does cost. Every little bit helps.”

Diamond nodded slowly. “I’ll see what I can do. You two want to come inside?”

Nori exchanged a look with Lana. “I guess we can come in for a bit, but we can’t stay for long. Gotta drop by the moon soon.”