Hey guess what this thing hasn't died despite not being updated in a year I am so sorry please forgive me.

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The planet was larger than Siragos, but less verdant. Its three giant land masses were splotched with browns and greys even viewed from orbit, creating a strange contrast to the rich blue of its oceans. From the captain's chair, Marvelous eyed the screen where the planet was displayed and then glanced at Joe, who sat on the couch. "So you were stationed here?"

"For a while, before the attack on Novissimum." Joe stood, crossing to the console to eye the display. "It's called Galus, only became part of the empire a few years ago, before the Galusians had even achieved space travel themselves." He tapped a few buttons, bringing up the planet's mineral makeup. "They didn't have the technology to access the raw materials under the planet's crust, so Zangyack moved in and provided it. Now it's a hot spot for drilling up and refining minerals to make fuel. That saved the economy, so it wasn't hard for Zangyack to take leadership afterward."

Joe glanced back at Marvelous and found the captain frowning. "So no one even put up a fight."

The former soldier shrugged, cynicism sneaking into his voice. "Anyone that wanted to couldn't afford it. Zangyack created cheap jobs that didn't close the wealth gap any, but even the majority of the poor don't want to fight it. It's better than where they were before."

Marvelous stood, his arms crossing as he looked at the screen for a moment and then back at Joe. "Is that why we're here? Lighten the purses at the top a little?"

"That's the idea." Joe nodded, using the console to scan the surface, highlighting several zones on the continents. "Things won't have changed much since I was here, so I know where to go, but..."

"We can't let them find the Galleon!" Navi chimed in as she flew past Marvelous and landed on the console next to Joe's hand. "Is there a good place to hide it?"

He frowned, eyed the planet's surface. "There's lots of areas that are suitable, but it'd mean a long walk to any of the cities."

"Nah, it's fine. We can get off closer to a city." Marvelous bopped Navi on the head. "And then you can take the ship somewhere they won't find it, Bird."

"I'm not a bird!"

Joe ignored the rebuttal he'd heard at least two dozen times and looked at Navi. "But you can fly the ship, right?"

"No problem!" She flew up to his eye level and raised her right wing in salute. "I can keep it safe while you guys are gone."

Joe leaned back from her sudden proximity, but he smiled a bit. For a robot, she was pretty reliable. "Okay, then we'll head here." He highlighted a small chunk of the largest continent. "Vikdos is the capital of the Empire on Galus. That's where the imperial bank will be."

He saw Marvelous nod, but the captain was frowning. "You sure this is okay? People down there are gonna recognize you."

Joe shrugged. It wasn't like that hadn't occurred to him already. "By now every corner of the empire knows that a traitor escaped; they'll recognize me anywhere." After a second's brooding on that thought, he smiled. "Anyway, we're pirates. We're not supposed to expect warm welcomes, right?"

That got a short laugh from his captain. "That's true. Well, let's go then." He tapped at the console, and the constant, subtle vibrations of the ship's engines shifted ever so slightly. They were heading in to land on Galus.

Navi knew what she was doing; the Galleon was out of sight among the clouds before Joe and Marvelous had even reached the wide road leading into the city. Giant transport vehicles, both passenger and industrial, passed by every few minutes. Joe doubted anyone in them even noticed the two of them.

Once they got into the industrial sector of Vikdos' outskirts, that started to change. Workers in the yards eyed them through the fence. Dozens of eyes, young and old, peered from the gaps in ramshackle huts crammed together in between the larger factories and refineries. Joe said nothing, though he wondered if his own face matched the stony expression he saw on Marvelous'.

After a while the factories gave way to storage buildings and manufacturers, and then to proper, clean shops and houses as they made their way into a commercial area. Here, too, they were watched, but these weren't fleeting glances from the cautious. Rather, these were hard, lingering stares from suspicious eyes that knew the two men didn't belong.

They didn't alter their pace, but Joe caught Marvelous' eye just as the captain chortled slightly. "Bit of a change from Siragos, huh?"

Joe shrugged. "It's what I expected. Come on, it's this way." He turned down one of the busier streets. It was strange, walking down the streets without a small cadre of fellow cadets around him, alongside their squad leader and whatever Gormin were assigned that day. The healthy respect Galusians showed Zangyack was different from the suspicion shown to him now: people seemed more worried about him now that he was an unknown.

"You!" Joe turned to the voice to find a middle-aged man glaring at him, the exclamation having drawn several other people's attention. The man was standing next to a shop front, and pasted on the windows were wanted posters of Zangyack's enemies. Joe wasn't surprised to find himself and Marvelous in just a quick glance.

"Did you need something?" His voice was level, though he could already see their limited options for escape.

"You're the guy... The traitor! You turned against Zangyack!" And there it was. The crowd around them started murmuring, moving to close around them, and the initial accuser looked around until he saw a squad of Gormin and Sugormin round a corner. "Hey! Guards! Guards, over here!"

It only took a split second of eye contact for Joe to understand that Marvelous had the same idea he did. They turned and ran, bursting past the edge of the crowd with the angry shouts of civilians and Zangyack soldiers behind them. The element of surprise gave them a head start, and after a few seconds of running Joe felt a grab on his jacket as Marvelous pulled him sideways into an alley behind the shops. The captain's hand was hovering near the inside pockets of his jacket, but Joe frowned. "There's too many civilians."

"Yeah." Marvelous' hand dropped as the shouts of the Gormin and Sugormin got closer. "We can split up and lose them." He made to step out of the alley, but Joe's hand snapped out, catching Marvelous' wrist.

"What if one of us gets caught? How's the other supposed to help?" He wouldn't go through that again, running away with the sound of shots and screams behind him.

Marvelous stared at him, and then glanced down at his own ensnared wrist. They only had seconds before the squad caught up. "You have a better idea?"

Joe glanced around; there was a short fence, guarding the area behind the stores, next to them. "This way." He let Marvelous go and ran, vaulting over the fence and waiting only long enough to hear his captain land behind him before taking off.

The sound of splintering wood behind them told him their pursuers had taken the easier route, and Joe dodged around a supply truck with Marvelous on his heels. Buildings they'd passed at a crawl before now whipped past in a blur, and Joe chanced a look behind him. Only the Gormin were pursuing, and they weren't very efficient at navigating the obstacles. But if they were pursuing, the Sugormin were probably trying to cut them off at the next main road in their path.

Which meant they really underestimated how many ways there were to get around in the alleys. "This way." Joe made a sharp left into the even narrower space between two buildings, Marvelous following. He felt the sleeve of his jacket nearly snag on the edges of the building, but in seconds they'd broken through to a different street and dodged through a crowd to a new alley.

More Gormin were lost in the crowd of civilians, but of course further outcry at the obvious criminals added to their pursuers. They kept running, Joe guiding them through twists and turns with no destination in mind beyond the outer industrial area, where losing anyone would be easy.

Joe couldn't guess how many more seconds of sprinting had gone by when he saw a loose panel in one of the buildings they were running towards. "Marvelous!" He glanced at his captain to catch the acknowledging nod, and then he jumped sideways, pulling the panel away from the rest of the wall. Marvelous ducked into the resulting hole, and Joe followed before pulling the metal back into place.

Listening until the sound of their pursuers faded into the distance, the taller pirate sighed and leaned against the inside of the rickety, patched-up wall. "Well, it's not like we expected this to be easy."

Marvelous, who'd been leaned over to catch his breath, stood straight again and grinned. "More fun this way."

Any wry reply he might've made was put on hold when Joe took a moment to look at their surroundings. The storage house was small and disused, but several barrels and boxes had been deliberately positioned, each with smaller cans either stacked atop or scattered around them, in a line around the middle. Standing near those, and watching the two pirates with narrowed eyes, was a young woman in old but fairly well-kept clothes, a slingshot clutched in one hand. A stone was already loaded, trading targets between Joe and Marvelous as the captain also turned to look at her. "Who're you two? Zangyack?"

Joe almost laughed. "Hardly." He eyed the slingshot, aimed at him now that he'd spoken. "And you wouldn't do much damage with that if we were."

Her eyes likewise went to her weapon, and then she swung around to face the set-up behind her and let the stone fly. It struck the central can of a stack on top of a barrel, and the whole lot of them tumbled down with a great clattering. Pulling another rock from a small sack tied to her waist, she loaded it and turned back to them. "So who are you?"

A snicker from beside him led Joe's eyes to Marvelous, who was making a show of raising his hands in surrender. "I'm Marvelous, he's Joe. Hold your fire, we're not dangerous."

Joe could think of a few people who'd argue that point, but the girl lowered her weapon and Marvelous dropped his hands back to his sides, so he figured it best not to mention it. Instead, he addressed the girl. "And you are?"

"Bulma." She finally glanced behind them at the loose panel, seemed to take in their lack of breath. The suspicious glare eased into something like curiosity. "You guys aren't bringing trouble to my training area, are you?"

"Nah." Marvelous waved off the question and stepped past her to the cans scattered across the ground, crouching to pick one up. "Trouble's too stupid to figure out where we went."

Joe stayed by the wall, listening to be sure that 'trouble' didn't end up coming back for a second look around. Bulma had relaxed considerably, and snorted at Marvelous' words. "So you were running from Zangyack?"

"Smart girl." Rising back to his feet, Marvelous tossed the can back and forth between his hands. "So, what're you doing shooting tin cans with a sling shot anyway?"

She stuck out her bottom lip and threw her shoulders back. "It's target practice! I have to make sure I'm good enough for when I can get a gun."

Joe looked up. "Why do you need one of those?"

That seemed to catch her off guard, and she averted her eyes first to the ground and then to their surroundings, as if she could see through the rickety walls to the industrial slums beyond. "I'm not going to sit back and ignore it like everyone else on this rock."

Marvelous spun the can he was holding one more time before setting it down on one of the barrels and looking at Joe. "Anyone snooping around?"

Raising an eyebrow, Joe took a second to turn toward the wall and push aside the loose panel to see outside. With the exception of a few bugs picking over some roadkill Joe didn't care to linger on, the alley was deserted. Sounds were all coming from a distance, so he pulled the panel back into place and turned back to Marvelous. "No, it's clear."

Before Joe could ask why he wanted to know, Marvelous pulled out his gun and held it out, grip first, to Bulma. "Here. Give it a try." He nodded toward the can he'd set down.

Joe raised a brow, and Bulma openly stared at the weapon for a long ten seconds before reaching out to take it. She glanced at it, held uncertainly in her left hand, then back at Marvelous. "Why?"

He stepped around behind her. "Just try it."

Moving to stand next to Marvelous, Joe frowned as Bulma raised her arm, the gun held loosely and a bit crooked. He said nothing. If Marvelous wasn't correcting her, why should he? Bulma pulled the trigger, the gun jerked in recoil and nearly fell from her hand. She fumbled, managed to regain hold of it, and looked at her target. The can hadn't moved. Tucking the gun under her arm, she rubbed her wrist and flexed her fingers. "Ow..."

Marvelous stepped forward, held out his hand until she gave the gun back. "Pretty different from a slingshot, huh?" He tucked the gun inside his jacket, where Joe knew it would disappear. "To use a gun, you gotta practice with a gun."

Bulma whirled on him, so fast that Joe tensed despite knowing she wasn't a threat (and Marvelous could surely take care of himself). "Then I'll get one! I'll steal one if I have to!" Her fists clenched, shaking at her sides. "I'm not gonna let Zangyack do whatever they want! Working in their stupid factory got Dad sick! I'm gonna get a gun and protect him and my brothers!"

So her family was her motivation. He could understand that. Joe opened his mouth to speak, but was preempted by Marvelous as the captain let out a gusty sigh. "Okay, okay, I get it. Hey, how about a deal?" His lips twitched into a little smirk. "You let us hang out in your training area until nightfall, and we'll get you a proper gun."

Joe turned wide eyes on Marvelous. "What?"

Marvelous didn't even look at him, and Bulma stepped between them in order to squint up at GokaiRed. "You're gonna steal a gun for me? From Zangyack?"

The smirk became more obvious. "Been stealing from them all my life." He extended his hand. "Deal?"

She considered a bit long, and then she reached out and grasped his hand. "Deal."

It was Joe's turn to sigh as he eyed the glint in his companion's eye. Why did he get the feeling this was going to be more trouble than Marvelous made it seem?

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Character trivia: No cookie for guessing the reference made by Bulma's name. She uses the 'atashi' pronoun and speaks mostly informally. Lucky for her, Joe and Marvelous aren't the sort of people who care about that.

Whoo! Our adventure on Galus is gonna be split between this and chapter five. I'll do my best to have that chapter up before a year's out this time around.