Starbound [Winter Update!]

I haven't come across any guns at all so far

I found a "Stim Spawner" item that dropped from an Apex Soldier, I put it down on my ship and teleported down to the surface, and when I came back to my ship, I found an Apex Merchant, selling stim packs! Not sure if he is here for good or not, but yeah, awesome.

 Spoiler

I'm wondering if this is how you get NPC's.

EDIT: He's still there after I have teleported back and forth, and he stayed on the ship even when I travelled to another planet. Looks like he is definitely here to stay, my journey just got slightly less lonely.