Markets and Beyond.

As an auctioneer, I had always held intergalactic weapons in high standard. Weapons and ammo are littered everywhere but it felt fantastic to buy one of a greater quality with minimal wear.

As a bounty hunter, a gun is a gun. I will buy it if need be, if the price is high or not.

I've been searching for a certain gun; the XSerpt-200. It's maker's specie has been long extinct. The species had thousands of versions of this gun, but in the genocide, many of them were destroyed. About 500 exist, and only a fourth of them are in condition to fire. So getting a hold of this type of weapon would be the equivalent to a Stradivarius violin on earth. It's price would be quite... grand, to say the least. 16 million or so of certain currencies.

It does not help that the item I've been searching for stands right in front of me... With nothing but a price tag slapped on it.

It's black and purple exterior was something alien to... well the aliens selling this gun. It's pattern was beautifully asymmetric, and the purple lines that hugged it's warped, yet perfect, figure was something that any bounty would quiver in fear at the mere sight of it. To see it in a rundown dump such as this marketplace surprised me.

"Excuse me, sir." I walk up to the creature cleaning it. It merely growls at me. "ah... Madam. Where did you find that gun?" I ask them in their native language. They point to the price tag on the gun.

"23m Credits" It read.

"I know what this gun is and I knew someone like you would be looking for it, hunter." the alien says.

Seriously? Where in the entire area of space would a bounty hunter get 23 million credits?

"Well, I'd like to ask for a lower price." I look at them.

"No can do. I need the cash." the woman shakes her head.

I need that gun. To fire it has been a dream for me since my beginnings as a bounty hunter. I sigh and scroll through my BountySeeker and a face comes up. Must've been a job I took a long while back. Her face was something quite nice, like someone who legitimately took care of themselves in their... alien...teen years. Pretty for the race she was.

That's this vendor's face.

After completing this job, I'll have enough to pay for it!

Luckily, there was a discount. A 6 bullet discount.

The vendor was in a rather obscure corner of the marketplace, but it'd be... extremely suspicious to be hauling around a dead body in a marketplace. My ship is quite far away and I'm in an alleyway of sorts. I place the dead body of my bounty into a sack and tie it to me. Time to casually walk through a busy marketplace with a warm dead body constantly leaking blood.

Much easier said than done. So much more so.

As I took a few steps into the busy part of this marketplace, someone immediately let out a scream as they saw the blood leaking from the sack.

"Crap." I mutter and get ready to draw. Several guards with their own guns circle me. They wear titanium gear, but what freaks me out the most is their green, chitinous bodies. Hiveminds... Why'd it have to be The Hive.

"Drop the body!" They shout. Their bug-like eyes are all staring me down. I look into the view of one of them... An open window. I look around. Each of them have Sentinel LMGs; Slow, fires cover-negating rounds and takes a year to reload. I smile.

I drop a smoke grenade to the ground and shoot one right in the eyes. All immediately open fire on me as I grapple away into the open window. "Sorry! I'm taking this bounty!" I smile as I sail through the window. I land and...

There are three more standing in front of me. "Firing." they all say at once. I take cover behind a metal dresser from inside the house.

This thing won't last too long and I don't want to use my explosives...

Ah screw it.

I chuck a High-Power Plasma Bomb into the three and they are vaporized in the blast. I run out of the room and grab any ammunition for my hand cannon.

I dash out of the building and see more coming after me.

"let's see what this bad boy can do!" I shout as I hold the XSerpt-200 in my hands. It makes a whirring noise, the egg shaped center opens up into a beam receptacle. "Oh... now this is what I like to see..." I smile and it fires a large crescent blast of ancient energy.

Such energy when it makes contact with any organic matter not only bisects them, but causes the body to overload and explode.

Anyone on the receiving end of this gun is bound to be fighting a losing fight.

As the bisected bodies explode, it throws the sharp pieces of the chitin from the soldiers of The Hive all around the area. No one else seems to be coming for me... in fact the street I was in was cleared as the others witnessed the destructive potential of my new gun.

I make it into my ship with no more of The Hive chasing me.

I place the dead body on the floor, and hang my XSerpt-200 on my weapon rack.

I take out and flip open the notepad that was in my back pocket.

"alright... let's see... now wanted in the... LB-900 sector... for murder..." I click my pen. "There. Just a violent reminder of where I can go." I chuckle. My Fidros, a more advanced and built alien dog, comes up to me.

"Sorry Memento! I went into a fire fight without you... I won't do that again." I say as I pull out a femur from the dead body and hand it to him, he seems pleased for it.

Time to turn this garbage in for... "300 credits? Really? Are you kidding me? I thought it said 300 thousand Credits."

"it did say that. Read the fine print, hunter." the recipient says.

I check back the bounty and see this: "300k IF ALIVE."

"Honestly speaking, you should not have typed that so small." I take my 300 credits with a frown and head back to my ship.

"Welp. That wasn't a total waste of time." I say as I pick up my brand new weapon. "time to find a real challenge to test it out on." I smile and accept a higher-tier bounty. It's the homebase of a Warlord Platoon. A vicious species. Too bad for them! One of the deadliest guns known to alien history is in my hands... and I've got an itchy trigger finger that needs scratching.

They will learn to fear Mori, the hunter.

I bring death to any target I choose.

Memento Mori.