STRIKE TEAM ETA 10 SECONDS.

Lissa read the message, then calmly walked to the Overseer's office door. She tucked her plasma rifle back into its sheath and pressed a button. The door opened. Yvian could hear the metallic stomps of running feet in powered armor. Lissa chucked a pair of grenades through the doorway. She pressed the button again. The door closed.

Yvian had seen ion weapons, especially grenades, used repeatedly since she started working with Mims. It had been something of a shock to learn the Confederation didn't have them. Nor did they have the technology to shield their equipment. She heard the dim thwump as the grenades burst, releasing a pulse of concentrated ions. A series of thuds and crashes followed. The ionic pulse released by the grenades would knock out all tech within ten meters. Her voidarmor and sheathed weapons were human tech, and shielded. The strike team wasn't.

Lissa drew her rifle again. Mims and Yvian followed suit. Normally, Captain Mims would take charge during combat, but today was about showing the power of Pixa. As Pixa's main representative, it was up to Lissa to lead the fight. Neither the human nor Yvian had spoken since they entered Fico Station. The Guild would be monitoring and recording, and Lissa didn't want them to hear anything that could be used against her later. Taking orders or even banter from a human or a motherless would torpedo any chance Lissa would be trusted by her species.

"Shields up," Lissa gave the command. A forcefield shimmered into view around her. More tech the Confed didn't have. Mims and Yvian activated their own shields, and Lissa pressed the button to open the officer door one more time.

Twenty two hulking suits of power armor were face down on the deck. Confed powered armor relied on mechanically assisted movement, being far too heavy for a person to move on their own. Without power, the people wearing them were trapped and helpless. Lissa ignored them. The other eight Guild Strike Team members had escaped the ion. They leveled their weapons the second Lissa came into view.

Lissa fired first. Confed power armors were heavily... well. Armored. They had been known to withstand hits from some ship mounted weapons, and were considered immune to small arms entirely. Unfortunately, Lissa's rifle, a BR24 Plasma Assault Rifle, was of human make, and had been designed specifically to overwhelm human voidarmor. Voidarmor which was far superior to anything the Confederation had built. Low recoil and a high rate of fire allowed Lissa to pump twenty bolts of plasma into the nearest Guildman in less than a second. The repeated strikes bored through the armor and flashfried the man inside.

Yvian and Mims waited until Lissa had killed the first man, then opened fire themselves. The Guild troops fired back with surprising discipline and accuracy. Their weapons splashed harmlessly against terran shields. The fight was over in just under six seconds.

Mims leveled his rifle at one of the helpless Guildmen, still trapped in his nonfunctioning suit. He spoke for the first time. "These too?"

Lissa gave a quick nod. "Do it." Yvian took a breath. She had no problem killing during combat, but helpless people? The thought made her queasy.

On the other hand, the Pleasure Guilds exclusively used slaves for their Strike Teams. Each of these poor men and women had an implant that trapped them in their bodies. The implants controlled them completely, following their owner's orders and accessing the victim's knowledge and skills to complete tasks. They caused terrible pain, denied the ability to express it, and were currently impossible to remove. Killing these people was a mercy. Yvian let her breath out and got to work. With Lissa and Mims helping, it didn't take long.

When the last Guildsman was dead, Lissa tapped a quick message into her wrist console. A general broadcast was sent to all the pixens on Fico station. It read:

"THIS IS LISSA KIVER. ANY AND ALL PIXENS WHO WISH TO TRAVEL TO NEW PIXA SHOULD MEET ME AT THE PROMENADE NEAR DOCKING BAY FIVE. WE WILL ESCORT YOU TO SAFETY. THOSE WHO WISH TO STAY HERE SHOULD REMAIN IN THEIR QUARTERS. MAY FORTUNE FIND YOU ON THE CUSP OF THE CRUNCH."

Yvian thought writing the whole thing in capital letters was a bit much, but it was still a simpler and more effective message than she would have come up with herself. There was a reason Lissa was in charge of public relations and not her. Yvian mostly focused on the important things, like computers and blowing stuff up. Oh, and mind-melding with crystal aliens, but she considered that mostly a side-gig.

Lissa sheathed her weapons and started down the corridor. Yvian and Mims fell into step behind her. As they passed the Guild Headquarters, Yvian saw Station Security piling furniture against the entrance in a desperate barricade. She allowed herself a small smile under her helmet. As a pixen, she'd spent most of her life in constant fear. It was nice to be the scary one for once. Lissa led them past the entrance without so much as a glance in their direction, but the terrified guardsmen never stopped building their makeshift barricade.

It was a twenty minute walk to the Promenade. Twice groups of terrified Station Security tried to stop them. They were gunned down with mercy. Stunshots only. The guards weren't slaves. They didn't have armor, and their blaster pistols and compliance clubs were hardly a threat. Yvian hoped the Guild would see their choice as a gesture of contempt instead of the reluctance it was.

The Promenade was chaos. Two dozen pixen bullyboys shouted and waved their blasters around, trying to chase off ten times their number of unarmed but very upset emigrants. Another twenty Station Security Officers blocked the corridor leading to Docking Bay 5. Their blasters were holstered, but they had riot shields. Compliance clubs blasted jolts of electricity at any pixen that got too close.

"Mims, deal with Security," Lissa ordered. "Yvian, the bullyboys."

The human split off without a word, making a beeline for the guards. Yvian activated AIMASSIST and drew her stunshot. With her armor correcting any mistakes, she rapidly mowed down the armed pixens. Two of the bullyboys reacted fast enough to point blasters at her, but she put them down before they could fire. She turned to see if Mims needed help with Security, but they were already down. The human was casually picking up unconscious bodies and tossing them to the side, clearing the way to the docking bay.

The rapid gunfire had drawn screams and panic from the crowd. It took them about half a minute to realize the weapons hadn't been aimed at them. Lissa waited until they started milling around in confusion, then stepped forward. She activated a voice projector in her helmet.

"MY FELLOW PIXENS!" she boomed. The crowd fell silent, turning to look. Lissa pressed a button on her wrist console. Her voidarmor changed. The black armor turned yellow. Her silver mirrored visor became a blue mirrored visor. A white square with a stylized blue star appeared on her chest, the symbol of the Pixen Technocracy. A smaller version of the symbol appeared on her right arm, just below the shoulder.

"MY NAME IS LISSA KIVER," Lissa's voice echoed through the promenade. "I REPRESENT THE PIXEN TECHNOCRACY. OUR OWN NATION, OF WHICH YOU ARE ALL A PART. A NEW HOMESTAR HAS BEEN FOUND. NEW PIXA IS READY TO EMBRACE ALL OF YOU."

She pressed another button on her wrist. A massive hologram appeared above her. New Pixa, the planet Yvian had helped win from the Xill.

"I KNOW NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO LEAVE," Lissa continued. "THAT'S OK. YOU ARE STILL CITIZENS. YOU ARE STILL PART OF PIXA. WE WILL DO WHAT WE CAN TO HELP YOU. TO KEEP YOU SAFE. NO LONGER WILL YOU BE FORCED TO RELY ON THE MERCY OF THE GUILDS. SPREAD THE WORD. IF ANY OF YOU HAVE NEED, CALL ON US. WE ARE HERE FOR YOU." She raised her right fist straight up, then brought it down and pressed it to the center of the star on her chest, right above her heart. "WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!"

Yvian had kind of expected the crowd to burst into applause, or roar with approval. Or something. They just stared. If Lissa was disappointed she didn't show it. She finished the salute. "EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO GO TO NEW PIXA, STEP FORWARD."

A mass of people descended on the Pixen Representative. Yvian realized she had underestimated her previous headcount. There were over two hundred and fifty adult pixens, but there were nearly five hundred children mixed in. Yvian wasn't sure the Random Encounter had the space for that many people.

Speech over, Lissa turned the volume way down, speaking to the refugees as they reached her. Yvian belatedly realized she was supposed to change her armor scheme, and activated PALLETESWAP. Now she too was wearing the proud Yellow and Blue of Pixa. Mims didn't bother changing his. He was technically a citizen, but it had been decided the infamous human would be more intimidating in his highly recognizable regular garb.

Lissa turned her attention from the crowd, scanning he corridor behind her. Mims was in charge of securing their way to the docking bay. Satisfied that no guards or Strike Teams were coming, she was just about to change position when a young pixen ran towards her. Yvian's hand dipped towards her stunshot, but she relaxed as she saw it was an unarmed teenager.

Yvian grimaced in annoyance as the girl grabbed her arm. "Are you with the Technocracy?" The teen all but shouted at her. Yvian forgot her annoyance once she saw the panic on her face. She almost removed her helmet to try to calm the kid down, before she remembered she was famous. Yvian's face had been plastered all over the news, and it was well known she was a motherless outcast. The girl might refuse to talk to her if she new who Yvian was.

"What is it?" she asked, trying for calm confidence.

"It's my parents!" the girl yelled. "They're trapped!"

Yvian considered asking for more details, but settled on giving a brisk nod. "Come with me." She marched towards Lissa. This sounded like a job for the Head Pixen In Charge.