(It hasn’t been that long since I got sent to this God-forsaken world in the outer gxy to work as a guard in a new miner colony that was recently founded for the extraction of metals and yet.)


    Rex let out a deep sigh as he looked at the destroyed bar, where just hours before he was enjoying a cold drink after his shift had ended; it was now all in ruins, and he was lying down at one of the corners of the bar with a deep wound to his chest that was wide open.


    A few meters awayy the carcass of some unknown enemy, who looked just like those creatures that you could normally see only in horror movies. This one was just one meter long, with big wings, and his limbs resembled des. The creature had lost one of his des, which was in the hands of Rex.


    I don’t know how this could happen to me; a few weeks ago I was just an officer worker, another ve of one of the megacorporations out in the gxy. Maybe that is why I am here. Damn ve contracts. Next time you see a contract promising a well payout and good retention credits, never say yes to the possibility of travel. It could end up fucking up all your life.)


    (Just like it did to mine.)


    *World of Nakor Year 5600 of the imperial gctic system*


    "Hey Rex, have you seen thepany news?"


    Rex felt a strong pat on the back as his best friend, a bald guy that looked not more than 24 years old, approached him, making the usual chat in the train going to thepany.


    "Hey, Carlos, yes, I did; they said that thepany will redeploy workers to a newly established colony in a new mining world."


    It was amon thing forpanies to send workers to work on others. This was the era of exploration and conquest, where new worlds were discovered andpanies were fighting for the control of the new worlds, among which was thepany where Rex was working.


    Thepany he worked for was Duotherm Omega, one of the 6 megacorps in the gxy. As a megacorp, it was well-bnced in each of the mayor districts, be it the Militar Tech and Exploration Tech. All megacorps had an army of their own that was much stronger and greater than any empire, since they have massive assets around the gxy.


    If someone was so dumb to defy a megacorporation, his world would be destroyed by a massive and superpowerful fleet that could destroy an intergctic empire in weeks and a world in a matter of even seconds, like the human race, that was bold enough not to give up to the control of one megacorporation and got all itss conquered in hours, and all the people made ves and sold across the gxy.


    While Rex was lost in thought, remembering this stuff, Carlos told him his biggest concern.


    "Do you think they will send us to this new colony?"


    Rex could feel the panic in the voice of Carlos since he had a kid at home that he was responsible for, and if he was selected to go to the new mining colony, he would have to abandon his kid here and go to the new.


    "I don’t think so. We are just office workers; what will we do in a mining world? Count rocks?, just rx and be ready where almost at the office."


    Rex patted Carlos on the back to reassure him, just in time for the train to stop and all the workers came out and went to their works. Once at the office, Rex was doing the usual, just reading some documents and changing some stuff here and there. He did this for 10 hours till it was time to end this day shift.


    "Attetion to all the workers of rank 6 to 5, assemble at the conference hall."


    This announcement caught Rex somewhat off guard; he was somewhat surprised that they waited until the shift change to call for them, yet not really, since workers of rank 6 to 5 were just ves around the office, and nobody respected them. He went to the conference hall, where he could already see thousands of people.


    All sorts of races of conquereds worked in thepanies, and this one was not an exception. The human race here didn’t even add up to 0.1 percent of the workers present here. Seeing a human in the gxy who wasn’t a ve was just a miracle. Rex and Carlos were some of those few fortunate ones who could buy back their freedom.


    (That’s ironic. After working like a ve for 18 years, I could finally buy back my freedom from the one who bought me, just to stop being a ve for a megacorp. There is nothing only here; at least I can sleep 8 hours.)


    While Rex was lost in his thoughts, a big guy entered the conference hall and faced all the others. He was wearing an athmosperich suit; his body was humanoid-like, and he had the face of a fish, not the cute ones. On his chest he had the Rank 3 ID.


    Once he was satisfied that he was visible to all, he began his usual corporate boss talk of loyalty and so forth. Since thepanies had many races, it would be impossible to learn all thenguages in the gxy, so they all had a universal trantor device on their arms.


    It was a small hologram screen that came out once the button on the device was clicked to start it. Once that was done, it would listen to the voice and trante them into the selectednguage in text. Like this, everyone couldprehend the words of the other races.


    "And with that said, each and every one of you will be sent to the new mining colony; rank 6’s as miners, rank 5’s as guards. Be joyful, everyone of you! You will all be some of the first lucky people who get to enter this new world and colonize it."


    The fish guy said all of this with an energetic voice while raising his hands like some kind of messiah, making this sound like a once in a lifetime opportunity when in reality it was a death sentence, because it was well known that those who go to an unexplored always end up dying.


    It wasn’t long before the murmurs of discontent rose among the workers in the hall; the fish guy became annoyed, and bringing his fingers to his arm where his device was, he typed amand, and within seconds, everyone of rank 5 and 6 in the hall began screaming in pain, grabbing their heads.


    Once a few minutes of screams and dispeir, the fish guy was finally ced and back with his smile on his ugly fish face, and so he stopped themand he had just sent to the chips inside of the brain of the workers. This chip was developed years ago and was used to prevent the workers from doing corporation spionage and keep them controlled.


    It was a requirement in any kind of work; even the space pirates used them on their members to keep them under control, and forpanies this was a must if you wanted to work in one of them. Once the pain finally stopped, Rex could finally stop dancing like a worm on the floor of the hall, and with fury on his face, he was staring at the fish guy.


    "So, now I can tell that everyone here agreed with their own volition to go to the new mining colony, Marbellus; the transport ships are waiting for everyone outside of the building; be careful when going up, and don’t fall."


    Having said hisst mocking words, the fish guy left the hall, and soon after, armed guards came inside of the hall to make everyone start moving to the transport ships. Rex could see from afar how some of the workers were trying to run away, just to be shot down with tasers that knocked them out in seconds.


    Rex could also see how one of them was Carlos; he was already tased down by the guards and was being dragged to the transport ship. Rex could only tighten his fist in anger and shame of how weak he was while watching his best friend being dragged away.


    n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Without even the opportunity to tell his 5-year-old kid back at his house that he was going to leave the world and that kid will probably die of hunger if someone does not help him, Rex then got out after a few seconds from the line going to the transport ships and walked toward one of the guards.


    The guard, seeing that one of the workers that was supposed to go to the transportship wasing toward him so he pointed his gun toward the worker and got ready to shoot, his finger already on the trigger.