“And another thing, like, what’s the family situation going to be like? I never really wanted kids, and I doubt she does, but who knows, maybe when we get older we might both change our minds.”

Kamak and Corey had been patrolling the upper sections of the Empyrean Absolutist for a while now, and, just as they had planned, Corey had filled the time by ranting about his and Tooley’s complicated emotional dynamic. He was starting to run out of material, but otherwise the plan was working. Kamak had spent more time thinking about killing Corey than about killing Morrakesh.

“I know there’s always adoption, but that feels really complicated,” Corey said. “I’m not sure I want to adopt an alien. Oh, wait, god, is it racist of me to say I don’t want an alien kid?”

“Little bit.”

“I just think it’d be a cultural challenge, you know, like there’s a lot of things I don’t know about raising a kid in space,” Corey said. “It’d just be-”

“Shut the fuck up,” Kamak said. He’d been waiting ten drops to say that, and now he finally had a good reason. Farsus was messaging him. “Apparently they’re getting the slaves out. Found Morrakesh’s housekeeper too.”

“Nice. They get anything useful out of him?”

“Some advice on the Horuk, and a map,” Kamak said, as he forwarded both to Corey. “Now we finally know where we’re going.”

“Looks like we’ve got more places to go than we thought,” Corey noted. Farsus had marked out their targets -all seven of them. That was more than anyone had been expecting.

“Yeah, that’s a pain in the ass,” Kamak said. “Guess we’re splitting up again.”

“Really? You sure about that?”

“We have to get this done,” Kamak said. He sounded unusually determined. “I’m not worried. You’re a fucking psychopath, you won’t die until you’ve avenged your mom.”

“That was almost a compliment.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Kamak said. “Get your gun up and get moving. I’ll take those two up top, you head towards the ship’s center.”

“Got it. Good luck, Kamak.”

“Same to you. Stay alive, Corey,” Kamak said. To avoid belaboring the point any further, Kamak turned sharply and started stomping off towards the upper decks of the ship. Corey followed suit, descending deeper into the bowels of the vessel.

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Kamak managed to make it a full two drops before a Horuk rushed him. Thankfully it was one of the conventional varieties, and not one of the borderline indestructible high ranking ones. Kamak blasted a few of its limbs off and then put a shot dead-center in its circular core, for good measure.

“Really looking forward to you fuckers not being around anymore,” Kamak sighed. He waited for the corpse to stop twitching before he walked past it. That momentary delay proved prudent in more ways than one.

A few steps ahead of Kamak, a chunk of the ship’s hull concaved and collapsed downwards, slamming down with a cacophonous metal crash. Kamak jumped back and readied his gun again, but didn’t fire yet. That was a breach-boarder, a more explosive variant of the same tech the Hermit used to carve a hole in the Empyrean Absolutist’s hull. Somebody else was boarding the ship.

“Hey, watch your explosives, you could’ve crushed me,” Kamak snapped.

The heavy thud of the boarding party descending made Kamak shut up. The wall of leather skin and massive limbs staring down at him with six eyes didn’t seem to be in the mood for banter.

“Oh. Khem.”

The massive bounty hunter’s mandibles parted as they let out a slight hiss of frustration.

“Play nice.”

The moment of tension was immediately defused by the arrival of Ghul. She had a stern look on her mostly synthetic face and a large gun in her hands -as did the small group of bounty hunters in matching uniforms behind her.

“Ghul. Nice to see you. Khem. You’re here. Why are you here?”

“Situation’s getting worse outside,” Ghul explained. “One of those big wheel ships came through the Bang Gate and flanked the fleet. It’s down, but odds are there’s more coming.”

“Sounds like it’s about time to pack up and leave, then,” Kamak said. “Help me kill Morrakesh and lets get out of here.”

‘That was the plan,” Ghul said.

Kamak lowered his gun for a moment and pointed to the group of matching bounty hunters who’d followed Ghul aboard.

“Hey, you in the red shirts, follow this map and track down my buddy Corey Vash,” Kamak said. “Wish you bastards had showed up a few drops ago, never would’ve split up with him in the first place.”

As the larger group of bounty hunters departed, Ghul and Khem stood their ground near Kamak. He had mixed feelings about that. He shared the info and the map with them as well. Ghul’s mismatched eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Why are there markings all over this map? Shouldn’t he be at the helm, or something?”

“Oh yeah, long story short, Morrakesh is a Hakkidian Worm. He’s spread through the ship’s whole substructure.”

“A Worm? How the fuck do you plan on killing something like that?”

“If I told you, the Worm would know too,” Kamak said. He pointed at the walls and ceiling. “Assume it can see and hear everything. Including what you’re thinking.”

“Fantastic,” Ghul said. “Anything else I should know?”

“Yeah, there’s a legion of little bug-looking bastards with like one hundred arms. Some of them are really hard to kill.”

“Shit like this is why I wanted to stay retired,” Ghul sighed.

“They will all fall,” Khem grunted. He readied two massive spears and started stomping down the halls towards the nearest node Kamak had marked on the map. Kamak himself made sure to stay a few steps behind, and stay quiet.

“Why’s he playing nice all of a sudden?”

“As the leading authority on this little excursion, I’ve temporarily reinstated you,” Ghul said. Khem glanced over his shoulder with a harsh glare in all of his many eyes, which would’ve normally sent a chill down Kamak’s spine, but not today. He was just glad to be a bounty hunter again. Protection from Khem was a nice bonus, though.