Galactic Forge: Nexus

"Sub-space portal NG Model-1, test 27."

"I already told you, you big dumb bastard, that energy core regulator isn't worth 3,000 Credits! It's not even close!" The young woman grumbled as she slammed her hands down on the clerk's table. Her eyes were set in a narrow, green glare and she scowled between loose strands of bright red hair that fell in front of her face.

Before her stood a towering being of a strange, reptilian countenance with craggy clusters of ruddy brown, overlapping scales. It's long, muscular limbs lead to big clawed hands that scraped against the surface of his counter while he waved a mechanical device in the air, stray cables swaying to and fro.

Taurus, the inhabitants of the planet Kakataka in the Aldebaran star system and the largest, most cantankerous of all the sentient species in the galaxy. And of course, they were notorious hoarders.

It erupted in a flurry of angry, guttural growls, its scales rapidly scraping and clattering against one another to create a series of accompanying clicks. As he made his odd noises at the girl, a mechanical device on his chest lit up and started to translate in a low, robotic voice.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Nexus. This a rare treasure! There is nothing else like it on Pantainos!"

"Zakka, you are so full of shit!" she said, as she reached into her lab-coat and withdrew a small pair of oval-shaped glasses. Slipping them over her nose, she peered past the huge, alien shopkeeper and to the staggering pile of discarded mechanical trinkets and components behind his kiosk. "I can see two more in the back from here!" she cried as she frantically removed her glasses and stuffed them back into her coat.

"3,000 credits or no regulator!" the salesman replied.

The young woman stood up as tall as she could and crossed her arms over her chest in her best attempt to look authoritative. She was short and scrawny by human standards, not to mention leaning on a cane, but absolutely minuscule compared to the seven foot monster before her. "Listen here, you idiot, you have no idea what that's worth to me and you're just going to eat it anyway! So hand it over for a fair price, and stop impeding scientific progress!"

Without warning, the shopkeeper opened his jaws for the first time, the lower portion of his face splitting into two and spreading into a slavering, triangular maw. Then, he chomped into the the device in his hand! His shredding teeth crunched and tore the metal apart with ease as he ripped off a chunk and swallowed it before hurling the remnants straight at the Nexus's head.

With only a moment of shock, she narrowly ducked under the incoming projectile. The move sent her stumbling and she barely managed to catch herself with her cane and avoided an untimely fall, face first into the cold steel ground.

If the yelling earlier hadn't drawn the attention of the other merchants and customers that populated the market, this certainly would.

Before she knew it, the merchant was scooping up more hand-fulls of junk parts and tossing them at her with abandon.

"Whoa, whoa whoa! Is this how you treat all your regulars!?" Head held low, she scurried away from the bellowing Taurus, dodging flying gears and batteries as she did so. "Lunatic!" she yelled as she departed the market square.

She looked back over her shoulder more than once on her way back to her apartment, just to make sure there wasn't an angry alien reptile behind her. It wasn't until she was nearly three blocks away that she stopped to catch her breath, leaning against the wall of a building and wiping her brow with the sleeve of her coat. Just from that short run, her muscles ached and her chest burned with exertion. "I left my apartment for that damn regulator and the dumbass took a bite right out of it!" she said between gasps.