Fozz's hand gripped hard on the transport's grimy, rusted outer wall. The ship's descent was slow, but steady. He hated that this poorly maintained craft would be the first one down into the prison, but his options were few. Inside, most of the seats were poorly secured. It was still better than the smaller options. The floor of those transports each gave off a rattle where not-so-subtle dump doors were installed.

  Nobody was going to get dropped today. Today was about justice, and righting wrongs.

  The content of Thad's interview was alarming and insightful, but it wasn't dire. The conditions of the prisoners was an emergency, for certain. And Fozz had been working his way through putting together a proper emergency response. Getting backup to the planet, even for an emergency, was a timely process.

  The warning about vicipods and a hive mother took the situation from emergency to truly immediate and dire danger. It was as good an excuse as any to make sure he saved as many lives as possible. So, even without the additional CCEs, and lacking some of his normal crowd processing equipment, Fozz assembled local assistance in the form of a few of the better local enforcers, along with some of the members of the local chapter of radiant light.

  None of them seemed like bad apples. It was possible that a few of the enforcers were somehow involved in illicit dealings, but they weren't obviously malicious. It was with this smattering of personnel that he commandeered the craft and started his descent. He'd checked three times to ensure he was recording video from all sensors.

  It would be a minor piece of the larger DenWu trial, but Fozz needed to capture all of the offenses he could, in detail. There were, technically, legitimate situations where 'working debt' was allowed - much to Fozz's chagrin. Those were old laws, kept in place because it would be too difficult to strike them down, or because doing so would violate treaties they had with powerful entities. Breaking a treaty - any treaty - was something that gave even his highest superiors pause.

  So working debt existed. The act of putting someone into a working facility where they would pay off debts was technically legal. Often, their debt would be calculated with ill intent, and the debtors would be strung along with 'fees' for basic necessities. In the light of scrutiny, Fozz often found that the original cases to put people into working debt facilities had gaps and holes that were obvious attempts to manipulate punishments.

  In the few documents he'd collected so far, Fozz saw multiple instances of 'enhanced' sentencing. That, plus the fact that the people were sent into dangerous working conditions made for an open-and-shut case against DenWu for these infractions. The fact that the man had knowingly left a mole den intact was terrible on its own. Now, the poor prisoners were dealing with something much worse. He just hoped he'd make it in time to save them.

  You didn't work as an enforcer as long as Fozz had without encountering your fair share of horrific scenes.

  A group of people in G grade fighting against moles might end badly. But a group of people, suppressed to G grade, fighting against an insect horde? Fozz expected the blood would rise above his ankles. He had a series of rapidgel healing canisters at the ready. The grey bubbling things were highly expensive, but good at stabilizing critically wounded individuals in a wide area. He recited the chant in his head as he readied himself to throw barriers up to separate beasts from people.

  When they finally started to near the end of the mineshaft, Fozz jumped.

  Pinkish-red thrusters flared as he slowed his descent to a reasonable level. Not for his own sake - but because landing at such an accelerated speed with his armor's weight would doubtless result in a mass of injuries for the people below. Slower descent was the safer way down.

  At the end of the shaft, Fozz was met with a large cavern. A sloped net in poor repair stood ready to catch new prisoners. A few buildings, hovels, and shanties spread out from there. He whipped his head around the space and set his suit to complete a full-range scan. There was no visible fighting, but that didn't mean things were alright.

  His suit detected a massive group of insectoid creatures charging their way up from a point nearly at the edge of the advanced sensors' range. They were mere hours away from reaching and overwhelming the victims in this cave. Fozz threw a barrier up on the tunnel they were swarming, and admired the others. These people had somehow managed to collapse the rest of the ways into this cavern. Maybe that was what had saved them.

  One of the buildings was obviously set up for medical response, and Fozz popped some of the rapidgel canisters at the thing. People screamed and panicked in response.

  He could understand screaming at the unexpected expanding substance. That made sense.

  It was the rest of what he saw in the cavern that didn't make sense. There were only small piles of the dead - and no mass graves. No area churned with chopped limbs and blood.

  Instead, the puddles and piles he saw were entirely vicipod remains. The biggest one rose higher than the buildings, and that was with a group of people actively chucking dead bodies into a processing chute.

  As he activated an infused speaker on his armor and told everyone to be calm, Fozz managed to keep the question out of his voice.

  How in all the cosmos had these suppressed prisoners fared so well?

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  + Reid +

  As soon as the words 'cross-cosmic-enforcer' were out of the man's mouth, Win practically dragged Lycra and Reid over to the canteen machines. She bought rations and water as fast as the things would allow, and pressed both of them to do the same.

  Lycra was concerned. "Win, why are we spending all our credits? We are being rescued."

  Her face was stoic. "You need food, and water. Keep buying. Store it in your rings as we go."

  Lycra's head tilted. "But being rescued is good, right?"

  Win paused for a moment and her mouth twitched. "After the water and food, we're going to take showers. We'll talk there. For now, just buy."

  Reid wanted to ask questions - and he could tell Lycra did, too. But Win was focused and tense, she knew more about the universe than they did, and he trusted her judgement.

  So they held off curiosity and followed Win's lead.

  #

  Reid let the water fall over him. He'd soaped up and rinsed off more than five minutes ago, and Win was still acting more than a bit strange. She went through every motion like she didn't think the world was quite... real. Like everything she touched was going to fracture if she held it too tightly.

  After they panic-bought as much food and water as they could for minutes straight, Win had ignored the lines that started to form for people to get themselves seen by healers, or processed by some of the volunteers in power armor. She ignored the transports offering to take people above ground for processing at a facility there - and she'd ignored the other miners that tried to get her attention. She simply walked herself to the showers, and expected them both to follow.

  Reid put a hand on her shoulder. The rest of the shower facility - at least the space they were in - was completely empty. Everyone was outside, taking in the new arrivals or waiting not-so-patiently for their turn to get to the front of the line - and hopefully to freedom.

  He remembered how convinced his friend had seemed that she would never get out of this place - and tried to reassure her. "Win, whatever you're worried about, we're here, and we're together. I know you thought you'd be down in the Warrens forever. This must all feel... odd, but that doesn't make it bad."

  She blinked a few times, then shook her head. "You both... Whatever happens from here on out, thank you. You two might've been the best things that ever came down that damn shaft. And Reid, thank Nyx for me whenever she gets back."

  Reid frowned. "Win, you're going to need to explain what you mean by that. The three of us are together, and we're going to stick together now that we can get out of this place all at once."

  Win's eyes were glassy. She was smiling - really smiling - but there was a sense of pain in her expression. Reid realized a shower was a great place to hide tears.

  "Do you trust me?"

  Reid opened his mouth to respond, but Win held up a hand.

  "Not 'do you trust me as a friend'. Do you trust me with your lives? Your futures? Do you trust who I am, no matter what else you might hear about me?"

  Reid and Lycra exchanged concern glances. "Win, what the fuck are you talking about?"

  She closed her eyes.

  "You're both G grade. Nyx confirmed it when she talked about getting you into a tutorial. Even if you rank up, you're still only F grades. That might seem powerful to you right now. But it isn't." Her eyes slowly opened. "As soon as I'm out of here, I'm probably going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble. Maybe that trouble won't catch up to me right away, but I'll be dealing with things you two shouldn't even consider getting involved with until you hit... I'm not sure, maybe D grade?" She smiled at Reid and Lycra both. "So we can't get out of here together. Not without me putting you directly in danger, and I don't want that. I have another idea - but for me to do it, you need to trust me. Implicitly."

  Lycra nodded with fierce determination. "We trust."

  Win looked to Reid, and he gave a slow tilt of his head.

  She smiled. "Okay. I had you both store rations because food and water are necessities. We're in the showers partly to talk, but also partly because life is a mess and you never know when the next time you'll see proper plumbing is going to be. And I asked you to trust me because I need us to enter a familial avouchment as soon as we get to the front of the line."

  Lycra tilted his head. "What is that?"

  Win wiggled her hand. "It's a private document that inexorably links us together. It'll do some things like make it so we can use system resources to contact or find each other. It would let me do things like share a bank account with you two, without needing to put your names on the actual paperwork. That'll be important for the things from the mole den... and it would also let me be a representative on your behalf without filing paperwork for it. Kind of like how next of kin can make medical decisions for someone. It's the best way to link ourselves, while also keeping both of your names away from the same eyes that might be watching me. It's a good way for you two to stay safe. And anything system-originated or system-regulated - whether that's beacons or organizations themselves - will recognize us as immediate family to one another."

  The only noise for several seconds was the drone of the water washing over them.

  Lycra's eyes were capable of getting... very wide. They had a glassy sheen as he stared at Win, and the single word he spoke was a wellspring of hope.

  "Family?"

  Win nodded, and Lycra slammed into her with a hug.

  Reid had a family, on Earth. People he hadn't seen in a thousand years. A daughter he desperately wanted to see again. He also had Lycra. Reid had already promised that the two of them would get out of this prison together, and that they'd journey together to Reid's home. That they were family now. Win - Reid admired her. He cherished her. He'd already promised to fight through a whole planet to come back and get her free of this place. They still had secrets from one another - but nothing Reid had learned of her and nothing that she'd learned of him had caused any sort of divide. If anything, they'd grown closer with every truth revealed.

  Reid hated the idea of separating their trio - but if Win was right about the level of enemy she was facing, Lycra and Reid would be dead weight to her. The same way he was dead weight to Sara and Susan if he went off to see them right now. But she already had a plan - something in mind to keep them connected even while they had to be apart. Something that would exist while Reid grew strong enough to stand beside his friend again.

  So, did Reid trust Win? Absolutely and implicitly.

  Reid put on an overenthusiastic shrug. "Lycra's already stuck with me. I guess you can be, too."

  Win smiled. Lycra beamed. He waved Reid to come over and join them. Reid donned a flat smile.

  "Yeah, no. Lycra, Win - we're family. But I'm not joining the naked shower hug. Let's do that when we're dry and dressed."

  Win faked disappointment. "Reid, we're having a moment. Come on."

  Lycra's disappointment was real. "Reid, celebrate family. Family is weird together. They love no matter what. Join the hug." His yellow eyes pleaded.

  Reid pinched his nose, sighed, and joined them. "You're both ridiculous."

  They stayed that way, as the water poured over them. Reid held his friends - his newest family - as the droplets streamed down the channels he'd formed in his skull. They fell off his now-hairless eyebrows, and dripped down his face.

  It was a moment. Probably the last one they'd have alone as a trio for... a long while. A goodbye and a thank-you and a promise - as weird and ridiculous as they each were themselves.

  ...

  Showers were a good place to hide tears.

  Character Cheat Sheet: