“Look, we don’t care about the Council!” Yelled one of the bounty hunters. “Our mark is in that place, and I’ll be damned if I let another one of those damn, filthy immigrant freaks take what is mine!”

“Yours, boss?”

“Ahem… I mean, ours. Of course I intend to share the earnings from this prize with my trustworthy men.”

“Just men, boss?”

The leader sighed and facepalmed. “And you too, Denice.”

“It doesn’t matter what you want.” Replied one of the higher-leveled NPCs that opposed the hunters. “Orders from on high stated that this place is off-limits to any bounty hunting unless certain conditions are met.”

“And what would those be?”

“Council wants 85% of all bounties taken from individuals captured in places like these. You willing to cough it up?”

The lead bounty hunter stood in shock. “85%?! Are they mad?!”

“Maybe.” Stated another opposing NPC in a matter-of-fact tone, almost like he wasn’t paid nearly enough to care. “Doesn’t stop them from getting what they want, though.”

“Then why aren’t you trying to take him in?!”

The base defenders looked at each other, shrugged, and then looked back at the hunters.

“Not paid to. Unless they belong to another faction or are trying to deliberately damage this place, we’re paid much more than any measly bounty to just ignore those hiding out in here.”

“You’re paid more than a few hundred billion Creds?”

“After what the Council will take out of the bounty’s payment and what we’ll get after it is split between all other parties? Yeah.”

“Fuck! Just let us in!”

“Nope.”

As the two parties bickered, a big, dark-skinned Player with a bald head, lots of tats and scars, and a street sign resting on his shoulder like a battleax watched the show go down. Thomas had to admit, it was a bit like watching some kind of satirical sitcom. It was almost like he was watching two groups of elderly married people bickering over inconsequential minutia, and in a way, he was glad that the non-hunter NPCs were buying so much time. After all, he had only just managed to get through the dumbass unskippable tutorials that locked him from recording footage.

Now, all he had to do was wait for Axton to-.

The sound of the Hangar Bay doors behind him opening was enough to cause Thomas to turn around and it also attracted the attention of both the hunter and non-hunter NPCs. With that distraction, the bounty hunters decided to ignore the will of the Council of Admirals and charged into the ex-military compound, heedless to the damage and danger they would face. As they passed, those Players nearby saw the identification above the heads of each hunter, and the APC turn blood red.

The hunters were no longer untouchable. They were now fair game to anyone looking to get some cash, some favor, and some fun.

…

Axton sat inside the second-ever War Suit that he had made, not counting the upgrades and modifications he had made to Franken I. This machine was another Frankenstein Monster of parts and pieces, and by all accounts, the parts that made it up would be utterly unable to work with each other under normal circumstances. Thankfully, the knowledge Axton had acquired that had allowed him to build Franken I was enough to allow him to build this as well.

Franken II was a fair bit bigger than its younger brother had been. It was, unlike the Franken I, just a hair over the ‘Light’ category without any ammo and weighed just around 19 tons in total. Instead of the thick, tree trunk-like bipedal legs that held the Franken I aloft, this one had six thin legs, each tipped with a sinister-looking fully articulated claw. The range of motion of the legs was enough that it could scuttle across the ground at a decent clip, but the built-in hover system was what made it really fast. Add in the sub-maneuvering systems in each leg, and the new and improved Franken was altogether more nimble, more maneuverable, and, in some respects, more deadly with its legs.

Axton had taken inspiration from a very old game to make this version, and as such, Franken II had no arms, just modular weapons turrets on the sides of the torso and a torso that looked a bit like a mix between a KV-2’s turret and the Hulkbuster’s torso and head from the MCU, but with a lack of any paint. No weapons seemed to be fitted in the machine’s torso, save for what looked like a single, dinner plate sized cyclopean socket that was just above where the torso and leg aperture met. On the back was what looked to be a set of tubes, with a middle one seemingly designed to allow for movement into various angles via an electrical motor. These were obviously ATGMs and what looked to be some kind of improvised automatic mortar.

Axton checked through the systems, readying himself for what was to come. When all checks came back fully clear, he directed Franken II to crawl its way forward. As it reached the door that separated the hangar from the outside, the sound of gears shifting filled the bay. The door began to slide open, and even over this din, Axton could hear the sound of the bounty hunters drawing closer. He wasn’t sure of what would come of him defending himself, but like hell he was going to let them take him alive.

The sound of an air raid siren clued Axton in that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to wipe the threats out without incurring any penalty and switched Franken II from physical locomotion to hover mode. Positioning the legs perfectly, Axton and his twisted construct zoomed out of the hangar and drifted in a nearly 270-degree movement to arrive behind the advancing bounty hunters. Both sets of NPCs turned and looked in awe at the ungodly abomination of metal as it sped off, effectively doing multiple donuts around the hunters before stopping and facing the hunters dead on.

From the machine, Axton’s voice could be heard from the machine’s loudspeakers.

“Fuck around and find out.”