“Then volunteering time is over. Time for the mandatory draft. Who was the racist asshole that fired on our shuttle?”

Nori put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re going at it the wrong way,” she said softly. “They’re scared and need reassurance, not more violence.”

“We can’t have people refuse to fight when they are offered a chance,” he said loudly, staring coldly at the fidgeting guards. “In case you haven't noticed, Earth’s gone to shit. I refuse to believe only the cowards survived. It was bad enough when they allowed the gangs to push them around, but now they won’t fight even when faced with annihilation?” He spat. “Why are we risking our neck for them again?”

“What do you mean ‘faced with annihilation’?” One of the women stepped forward. “We’re safe as long as we stay inside the shelter.”

Bulco snorted and looked at Diamond. The older man shot him a warning look.

Nori moved smoothly to face the other woman. “I’ll show you why. Open the gate.”

The guards looked at each other, but none of them moved.

“Do as she says,” Diamond ordered.

Reluctantly the guards moved to the gate. They lifted the heavy meal beam and slowly swung the gate open. Nori stepped outside and looked around, searching. She put her hands to her face and shouted: “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

As if answering her wishes, a single Warped rose between the parked cars and howled to the air.

Warped, level 3

The guards behind her stirred in panic. “Close the gate! Hurry, before it gets inside.”

Three men jumped and started pushing it closed. Bulco moved to intercept and easily held it open with one hand.

“What are you doing?” the woman who spoke earlier shrieked at him. “You’ll get us all killed!”

“Just shut up and watch,” he replied gruffly.

The Warped, a mostly human-looking one that walked on all fours, charged Nori. It jumped from car to car until it reached the last one, then it leaped, covering the distance between itself and Nori with a single jump.

Nori waited until the last possible second. When the monster was almost on top of her, she raised her arm nonchalantly and launched a single dart from her bracer. It caught the Warped midair and the mutated creature exploded into chunks of meat and metal. She kicked the remains once, extracting its Tec, then she turned around and calmly stepped back through the gate.

She looked at the awe-struck guards. “Why risk fighting, you ask? I’ll tell you why. The Warped aren’t the ones who are in control. It’s us humans who stand on top of the food chain, and it's time to teach those ugly fuckers that lesson the hard way!”

10 - Space Trade