I should’ve stayed in bed.

That’s what I kept thinking while sprinting through the floating market of Scrap Sector 9 with a half-eaten burrito in one hand and three bounty drones in hot pursuit.

“STOP! UNAUTHORIZED LUNCH ACQUISITION!” one of the drones screeched in its wonderfully obnoxious corporate voice.

I flipped it off mid-run.

“IT WAS HALF-OFF!” I yelled. “I THOUGHT THAT MEANT HALF-FREE!”

The drone’s plasma cannons charged in response. Great. My sense of humor was gonna get me vaporized. Again.

I dove under a stall selling illegal toaster mods, rolled over a stack of plasma batteries (that may or may not have exploded on contact), and finally threw myself into an open trash chute that read: