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“Hey! Let it go!”

I call out in the hope they’ll listen You can’t catch drones As soon as it runs out of loaded ammunition, it will…

KAPOW!

The drone explodes, taking everything in its immediate radius out with it A half dozen people are instantly killed, their bodies shredded and torn

I hate this place I hate the korabi for s like this I hate Krush for letting it happen

I scout around the perimeter and pick up a few pieces of drone that were thrown clear of the explosion before they could detonate There’s no sense letting it go to waste People died for this, their brains dashed out and fried onto the tarmac The problem with explosions is that they're so messy There’re always bits left behind I have approxiather what I can before the sweepers coanic debris and take it away for processing They use it to generate food for the elites Elites would be horrified if they knew Sotheir kind, a bunch of mad cows in human bodies

I’ too much I never used to muse I never had the time I don't know that I really have the time now either, but…

A drone core! I don’t kno that escaped the explosion Must have been shielded This glowing bauble is worth ed ites can power an entire encampment for more than six months They can be traded for a year’s worth of provisions And they can buy the favors of any sensual female provider the holder chooses This was a stroke of fortune for eneral area

Life in Megaris is brutal Do I like it that way? Was I in some way bored while in Krush’s palace? No That would make me some kind of -opath Psycho,

I pocket the core and carry on my way Soon it won’tin a free human paradise

Mybid for freedom I did not start this This was started by someone else Someone who came to me when I was at the lowest I had ever been

A year ago…

I have never been so scared in ained our lie on Rath, and in the process, killed a fuzkin’ king We were supposed to choose death, or be absorbed into the aug in a little shack in a poor, even poorer than usual, region of Megaris I live in a perpetual disguise I cut all my hair off, down to the scalp And I wear a hat all the time I took what tech remained from our den and set up a very s This is the closest I can sort h the shanty is barely held together, and of course, like everything else scum have and do, is subject to removal the very second they realize it is not supposed to be there

Fortunately, this region is absolutely filled with shacks and shanties Between every official concrete and steel construction, there are hand- tiiance-free zone It is where scum who have no tribe, family, or home come to survive

I haveon it in the back corner of the shack when he findsis when the door to ht is actually helping Then the light goes away, and there is a more complete darkness than before If it weren’t for the , I would be cast into perfect oblivion

“Jax”

My narowled in a deep and intense voice I look up fro in front of hter of our family The one we tried to kill and failed

I can see where he has been augmented in order to return hih of himent Last I saw of him, he appeared to be in two separate pieces, and he was bleeding everywhere

I should be furious at hi seen a ether with nanobots crawling all over his skin, that makes me feel somewhat mollified We’ve all tried to kill each other once That may, in some way, make us even