Thousands of years after Earth became uninhabitable, humanity colonized other planets and moons around the solar system. Amid rising crime rate, the Galactic Space Force (GSF) set up a legal contract where registered bounty hunters (known as Coyotes...
Space News:Ms. Shoelaces stole shoelaces from another cargo ship. This time it was heading to Callisto. She has issued a reply to Mr. Shoelaces' last comment, stating, "I was born a heartbreaker, babe."
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J went to Mother's Clock—a city south of New Age—to deliver Monica's body to her grandparents. He wanted to honor Oli's word after she had promised them to do so, leaving Dennis and Esma at the Parking Lot in the State of The Founding Fathers. It stood at the center of the state's five cities.
The Lovey-Dovey District oozed with life. People in colorful clothes flooded the sidewalks, music played from establishments with uniformed doormen assisting patrons in and out of the properties, and holo-signs on buildings advertised businesses and products.
The multi-lane traffic came to a sudden halt. Horns honked while people swore and yelled. Two mechas—orange and violet colors—appeared with a whoosh in front of them, trading punches like trained boxers from Goldhand. Five large drones surrounded them, recording the battle from a safe distance.
Hyenas operated the giant, humanoid robots when hunting down bounties. They only fought each other when they were after the same one. The winner got the bragging rights and their face on the front page of The Executioners' website.
People stepped out of their vehicles, taking pictures and videos of the fight. The orange mecha punched the violet's head through a glass building. No one seemed bothered, even though they stood directly under the falling pieces. The drones stood in a circle and released a conjoined force field, stopping the glass from harming anyone below before destroying them with laser beams.
The violet mecha flew away, and the orange one chased after it—the drones not far behind.
Traffic resumed.
If The Kingdom wasn't so greedy, every law enforcement and bounty hunting organization would have that type of drone to help limit destruction and casualties.
After leaving Su's Cloning Station, J perused the first pages of HOW TO BE A DAD—an e-book he bought from Sahara.com. He learned that one way for a father to get close to their child was by getting invested in their child's interests. He connected his wristtab to the surround sound and put on the Andy and Andina Podcast, choosing their latest episode. Their voices boomed through the skimmer's speakers.
"Welcome to episode 2,746, dear listeners. I'm your host, Andy," he said, sounding like a talking frog. J hated frogs.
"And I'm the one and only, Andina," she said in a sultry tone. If birds could talk, they would sound like her. And if birds did speak, J would punch them in the face. "In our last episode, we spoke about the return of the explorers from The Universal Authority. They were sent to other galaxies to look for habitable planets. Do you guys remember that?"
"I remember," Andy said before the two laughed.
Argh! They're annoying. J knew little about the explorers' missions. Samson and Syla hadn't told him anything when he asked. He always wondered about the true aim of the mission. What would they do after they found habitable planets? Were they supposed to set a colony and return? What if they found natives on those planets? Were they given the go-ahead to kill them, or...?
