Polaris

Mars

It was honestly crazy to think of... How far Humanity has come. I never paid attention to the politics of things that happened off-planet, but at this point I wish I had. Especially now left to roam a place that was alien to me, but familiar to the people of my planet for ages... They had claimed the stars, and their solar system. Not much of it had gone untouched. Terraforming the land into what they needed for planets that were once inhospitable... There was no such thing as an, "Earthling," anymore. They took Mars, Venus... So many places. Moons of uninhabitable gas planets, moons that were once volatile dangerous places for Humankind, but now casually strolled about as if this had always been theirs.

Ships were as common as cars, flying off to different planets just to see a friend. Or spending an afternoon on Ganymede. However, one thing remained the same about Humans.

Their greed.

The greed of Humans was something well known, everybody knew something as if it was fact. A charitable Human was to be suspicious, or it was automatically assumed that they were doing it for personal gain. Something truly charitable was unheard of, even back home.

As one could imagine, with new technology came new weapons, new drugs, and with them the problems they caused. The police - Or as they called it the Inter-Solar System Police or simply the ISSP - was spread thin enough. Naturally the people take things into their own hands.

Bounty Hunter became a livable profession, if you could survive sticking your neck out to put food on your plate. To be honest I thought of becoming one myself. I didn't like the idea of stealing from Humans, not to mention the unfair abilities of a Phantom, but it had to be done.

A man's gotta eat.

And with my... Condition, skipping out on a few meals wasn't something I could do. If I went without eating, I would end up comatose for a couple days. Missing out on a number of high value bounties or assassination targets. Which, assassinations and Bounty Hunting went hand in hand. One, killing was okay. Which did cut back on the cost of food. It was a lawful way of getting blood, but at times those even went sour. I knew I had something of a bounty myself, something I really didn't like thinking about. I'd just end up looking over my shoulder all the goddamn time it got higher...

Which is why assassinations were taken when I was really hurting for some coin. When I didn't mind adding to that bounty of mine.

A Bounty Hunter with a bounty... The irony.

But enough about me. Back to cold, harsh reality. I couldn't help but giggle to myself, watching as they stood back-to-back. A ring of cowards. Such was the thing with Humans, they feared what they didn't understand. Shot first and asked questions later.

Which, Humankind knew of our existence. As long as they ventured outside their solar system. And even those who dared to venture outside of their galaxy. But it seemed that we really didn't come up on their home turf. Only for trading and things of the like. But it seemed the solar system was ignorant and uninformed about ... Home.

Although a quick web search would tell you everything about each species. Save for Phantoms. Guess they were just. That. Rare.

It made me feel... special.

However, the more time I spent on my way to Earth, the more memories resurfaced. I guess I had been a part of the upper crust. That 1%. Which, before you started charging at me with your pitchforks and torches, I had accumulated that wealth on my own. Such was the tradition in the Walkr home.

And think of the irony, when I was a part of the living, I was a wealthy bastard. And now here I was risking my second try life just to put some food on my plate. Looking back on the life that once was and the life that was being, "lived," Bounty Hunter was never a profession I could never see myself as. Doing the law's dirty work only to be paid. It was a dirty job that only those who didn't have a will to live did. Or, desperately wanted to protect and serve, but couldn't quite cut it to actually be a police officer. Plus, I had my own dirty work to deal with. That is if memory serves me right. It made me wish that I could talk to Manic and Quill sometimes.