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Black market

From Halopedia, the Halo wiki

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 There is more information available on this subject at Black market on the English Wikipedia.
A Kig-Yar black market hosted on Ven III.

Eric Santiago: "How do you think Innies get UNSC explosives or weapons? Spare parts?"
Gage Yevgenny: "Black market?"
Eric Santiago: "Black market still has to get that stuff from somewhere."
— Eric Santiago and Gage Yevgenny, discussing UNSC traitors supplying black markets[1]

The black market refers to illegal trade outside the official economy. Both humans and several Covenant species are known to engage in black market activities. Black market bazaars are locations where illegal products can be handled on the black market by either pirates or Insurrectionists, who frequently attend these bazaars.

History

Prehistory

Before the human-Forerunner wars, black markets existed throughout the galaxy. When prehistoric humanity discovered that an unidentified powder, found on the outskirts of the galaxy, made Pheru, animals domesticated by humanity, have a more favorable behavior. Due to this behavioral alteration, the powder began to circulate on black markets across humanity's interstellar empire.[2]

Human-Covenant War

Among the Covenant before the war, the Kig-Yar were known to sell goods on the black market, including Forerunner relics, outside the Ministry of Tranquility's authority.[3]

Remote scanning outposts were intended to keep black market runners out of human space, as well as to watch for pirates and Covenant forces.[4] Around 2494, Levosia colonists were suspected of diverting elements used to manufacture Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engines to the black market. As a result, the United Nations Space Command's regional CENTCOM had the UNSC Navy blockade the planet's system, eventually leading to the Callisto Incident.[5] A black market bazaar was spotted in November of 2525 near the Roosevelt military base, which was taken down by Spartan-II Blue Team.[6] During the Human-Covenant War, Insurrectionists modified Covenant weaponry for human uses and sold them on the black market. Before the Cole Protocol was established, the black market was flooded with Covenant weapons and equipment.[7] Some UNSC Marines would occasionally return with Covenant weaponry from a battle to sell on a black market.[8]

By early 2525, the HMG-38 machine gun was considered obsolete by the UNSC, but was popular on the black market trade amongst Insurrectionists—particularly the United Rebel Front.[9]

During their service in the Covenant, numerous Unggoy participated in an active black market trade. Due to their interest in human culture, human transmissions—such as soap operas and sitcoms—were popular on these markets among Unggoy.[10]

Post-War

Following the Human-Covenant War the black market was inundated with small arms, including the MA5C assault rifle.[11] Directly following the war, weapons and ships were commonplace on the market, including B-65 Shortswords.[12][13] Huragok slaves would often be sold on the black market by pirates and were considered very valuable.[14] Around 2553, the mercenary organization known as the Banished was seeking nukes and were known to have traded with humans in the black market.[15] A massive black market was hosted by Kig-Yar pirates and smugglers below the surface of the desolate planet Ven III.[16]

List of appearances

Sources

  1. ^ Halo: Evolutions, "Dirt", page 112
  2. ^ Halo: Cryptum, pages 268-269
  3. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 94
  4. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 161 (2010)
  5. ^ Halo: Evolutions, "The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole", page 436
  6. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 103 (2003); page 125 (2010)
  7. ^ Halo: The Cole Protocol, page 100
  8. ^ Halo: The Cole Protocol, page 99
  9. ^ Halo Encyclopedia, page 325 (2010)
  10. ^ Halo Encyclopedia, page 150 (2010)
  11. ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 156
  12. ^ Halo: Mortal Dictata, page 12
  13. ^ Halo: Mortal Dictata, page 103
  14. ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 261
  15. ^ Halo: Retribution
  16. ^ Halo: Escalation, Issue #11
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