So, I've been watching The Mandalorian, and been playing Fallen Order. First, I'm fucking shocked that Disney has had the property for like six fucking years, yet only produced something as good as these two now. It's fucking wild.

Second, both are really, really good. I'm loving the Mandalorian – it's probably what Pulsar Company would have been had Kyra and Lexi not been characters, or simply disappeared after serving their purposes (or in Lexi's case, die. So glad I didn't go through with that, because I really like her). Also, Yeed is fucking adorable and I will protect him with my goddamn life.

Fallen Order is also shockingly good, and I say this as someone really not into Soulslikes. I beat the game, and it's absolutely phenomenal how well made the game is. It's like everything we've been asking for in terms of new games since the fucking buyout, holy shit. Aside from gushing over how good the game is, BD-1 is incredibly cute, objectively moreso than BB-8, and Merrin is incredibly pretty, holy shit.

Now that that's out of the way, something else;

I've updated all of the girls for Pulsar Company with what I hope are their more or less final looks. Here's their looks: imgur.c.o.m. (slash) a (slash) M42OUxE

Anyways, read and review.

A man stared at his completed work, a painting depicting combat between one of many insurgent cells in the Outer Rim territories, and the Empire. Naturally, as this was commissioned by an influential senator, it was from the Empire's perspective. TIE fighters soared triumphantly through the air as scout walkers patrolled through the streets of the small village, with Stormtroopers and Imperial Army troops breaching and clearing the buildings. In the corner, there was the burned-out hulk of a Dunelizard fighter, its pilot being escorted away by a non-commissioned officer and several Army troops.

Setting his brush aside, the man tapped his chin thoughtfully. "…Perfectly adequate. It'll fetch quite a handsome sum from the client, but…" he said, sounding increasingly droll and bored. He looked over to a small collection of datapads – unfinished novels and stories that he could not bring himself to complete. Harrowing tales of cosmic horrors beyond the comprehension of any sentient, stories of brave heroism from Imperial soldiers in the Rim fighting terrorists, and anthology collections about plucky smugglers, ruthless pirate captains, and daring bounty hunters. Yet not a single one of them had been published.

He was passionate about his work – ruthlessly so, yet the fact of the matter was that he was effectively a writer in name only. The only work the galaxy had ever known him for were his paintings and sculptures he produced under his alias. Many influential figures had commissioned him; Beleza and Lukan Moryne commissioned one some years ago to celebrate their thirtieth year of marriage, and tenth anniversary of House Moryne becoming a Great House of Alderaan, while Lant Ulgo, one of House Ulgo's up-and-comers, commissioned a piece for his betrothed, who had mysteriously disappeared not long after the painting had been delivered a few months ago. There was even one commission that stuck out to him as being very hush-hush and overtly secretive, even for his standards, but a few inquiries here, some bribes there, and he had enough evidence to suggest that either a Grand Admiral, or the Emperor himself, had commissioned the piece.

Money, however, was not his main concern with writing, or even painting. What he wanted, though, was recognition for his work, and he had received just that. He easily had enough money to purchase a small moon if he so chose, yet he preferred to live frugally in the underbelly of Coruscant. The people here were certainly interesting. The impoverished, the revolutionary, the criminal, and the fanatical all gathered down here away from prying eyes to live their lives as they saw fit. He had seen many gang wars in his time, rarely with Imperial involvement, and yet, life went on. It was a truly fascinating case study of the criminal underworld of a city-planet like Coruscant.

Setting his thoughts aside while the paint dried, he continued to deliberate over what to do with his stories. Deciding to sort through his reference material again, he stood up and opened his closet, revealing a collection of marble brain sculptures. Taking one out and into his hands, the man carefully examined his creation – every fold and wrinkle was down to the original details as he had envisioned them. At the base of the sculpture were the words 'Pando Misaki' engraved on them, the name of the brain's owner, as he recalled. A fine fellow that made for a delicious meal. The brain next to his was marked 'Yasumichi Misaki', his wife. Her feelings of passivity made for a very bitter soup indeed, only made remotely palatable by her fear in her last moments. There was, however, an empty space for the third member of the Misaki family; Reika, who had managed to get away from him. A shame, really. She would have tasted fantastic – a great finisher for a three course meal.

A cursory glance over the rest of his collection confirmed his suspicions that he would need more material. "Sekhuo!" he shouted in a cold, raspy voice.

Without missing a beat, a man wearing tattered old rags for clothes came scampering into the room on all fours, mouth panting like a tamed beast. "Yes, master?" he said in a frenetic tone.

"Fetch me my list of potential marks. I'm running low on material to write with." the man commanded, and Sekhuo frantically nodded, scampering into the other room to grab the list. Perhaps it would be beneficial to cause some skirmishes between the Hivers and the Union.

Idly toying with two credsticks between his fingers, Nax glanced towards the front window of the cantina. Kyra was sitting in a booth just outside the view into the cantina from the street, daydreaming in Nax's direction, while Arfive idled beside her protectively. Lexi was sitting at the far end of the counter, scrolling through her datapad and occasionally being served a drink by Eath, which she'd down in record time.

In the soft glow of the interior lighting that had escaped out onto the street, Nax could make out two small figures, running and dancing around each other, before two men in Coru-Hiver gear appeared, shooing them away, before disappearing themselves. Shortly after, the cantina door opened, and Vopa came through, waving off the second Coru-Hiver. Eath nodded to him, while Lexi gave him the barest form of acknowledgement she could muster with how much she had drunk. Nax simply beckoned Vopa over.

Pulling up the stool next to him, Vopa leaned on the counter with his left arm. "You called, Nax?" he said expectantly.

Nax nodded, reaching into his duster and pawing for the Pather datapad, pulling it out. "Yeah. I found this." he answered, and Vopa took the datapad from him with mild curiosity.

"The hell is this?" he asked, briefly confused, before turning it on and being greeted by the symbol of the Path, and his eyes went wide. "…Oh, hell." he silently mumbled as he unlocked the datapad with ease, almost as if he had done this a thousand times before. The datapad skipped the memo to Sti, and went straight to the files, which Vopa scanned through. "…Do you have any idea what this is?" he asked, giving Nax a weary look.

"A datapad from the Path of Ludd. Lexi told me that they had a cell on Coruscant until she was ten." Nax answered. "The Empire wiped them out."

Breathing in, Vopa shut his eyes, suddenly getting more serious. "Did she also tell you that, when the Empire wiped them out, thousands of civilians got caught in the crossfire?" he poised. "I don't mean people killed in shootouts between the Empire and the Path - I mean people getting accused and disappeared on the suspicion that they were with the Path. You couldn't even breathe without the ISB trying to shove a stunstick up your exhaust port, or throwing an Interrogator droid at you if you got turned in."

Nax straightened up. "Sounds like you think the Empire was wrong to be paranoid about who was a Pather and who wasn't, Vopa."

Vopa shook his head. "No, the Empire was justified in its paranoia – we've never had an attack as bad as what the Path pulled outside of wartime." he elaborated, before sighing. "I'm saying that if this new cell is as big as the old one – a lot more people are going to disappear than last time if the Empire finds out." Vopa finished, before setting the datapad inside his jacket. "You were right to bring this to me – I'll get dupes of this made and send them out to my contacts. The Coru-Hivers'll put a stop to this cell before anything happens. I just have one question, though – how did you find this?"

Nax stacked the credchips on top of each other and looked Vopa in the eyes. "Lexi went up to Wilrand's store to buy parts to fix our Threepio droid. She ended up coming back with the parts and a job to take out some of Wilrand's competition, a Duro by the name of Baal Sti, working out of the Bu'lal district."

"Wasn't he with the Ascendancy? Nax, if you got caught-" Vopa cautioned, only for Nax to interrupt him.

"I'm getting to that – he was with the Ascendancy. All of us were crawling through the vents to his workshop, and I saw him talking to some girl. Couldn't get any features from her, since she was completely covered in either armor or cybernetics. She was also apparently with the Ascendancy, and seemed to know Sti was a traitor, so she shot him, looted the place, and then left. She never saw us." Nax recounted, before lifting his right leg on top of his left. "We did the same once she was gone – Kyra found a fake wall, opened it, and that datapad was inside."

Giving Nax a curious look, Vopa raised an eyebrow. "You said an Ascendancy agent showed up and shot him? Can you elaborate on that?" he asked, and Nax leaned into the counter a little.

"Sure. She was short, about four foot nine. Had a gray urban camo trenchcoat with a hood up. She carried around this, I dunno, I guess a small leather tool belt? Had some big milsurp packs on her, too." Nax detailed, idly tapping his fingers against the counter. "Oh, and one more thing – she had this mask on. Looked like a series of durasteel plates, the middle part was sort of a dark gray column, but the edges of the plates were an almost crimson red, and at the top was a sort of spinning orangeish-red glow, not sure what it did."

Giving Nax a look of acknowledgement, Vopa move to press down on his buzzing commlink. "Noted – I'll have my people look into this person. They sound like an Arbiter for the Ascendancy, but I'm not sure. In the meantime…" Vopa said, before pressing down on the commlink. "Hello? What did you want, Corbar?" he spoke into the device, receiving a muffled reply, causing Vopa's expression to go blank. "…I'll be right over." he said, before getting up out of the stool and rushing for the door.

"Something happen, Vopa?" Eath said, putting away Lexi's glass as she idly scrolled around on her datapad, somehow not completely smashed.

"Corbar just called me. Desani's been murdered." Vopa said succinctly.

Eath made a hissing sound in response, although it sounded more out of frustration than malice. "I'll keep that in mind if he drops by and wave his tab for him."

Nax suddenly spoke up. "..Who are Corbar and Desani?"

Vopa stopped mid-stride. "Corbar is one of my lieutenants. Desani was his wife. Which reminds me, I'd like for you four to come along – see if Cobro taught you anything about investigating a scene." he explained, beckoning them all to follow. "They don't live too far from the cantina."

Nax made a grunt of acknowledgement. "Sure, I don't have anything better to do." he responded, getting up. "Kyra, Arfive, you two in?" he asked, pocketing the credchips. Arfive made a chirping sound of confirmation, while Kyra seemed to be in a daze. "Kyra?"

Kyra immediately snapped out of it. "…Oh, uh, sure thing, Nax." she responded, sounding distracted, before getting up and taking some bags off of the booth seat.

Nax then shook Lexi by her shoulder. "Hey, you awake in there, or are you too drunk to hear me?" he teased, and Lexi shot him an annoyed look, like she was insulted personally. "I'll take that as a yes. You coming?"

Debating it internally, Lexi shut her datapad off and threw it into her coat. "Sure, let's go." she slurred slightly.

"Lead the way." Nax said to Vopa, as he guided the group out of the cantina and to Corbar's residence. "You mentioned Corbar was one of your lieutenants?"

Responding with an affirmative 'uh-huh', Vopa slipped past a drunk Twi'lek being trailed by a green R2 unit. "Corbar and Desani were a pair of smugglers I occasionally ran with before I met your dad. Biggest job I had with them was stealing about three bulk freighters' worth of Ajan Stones for some Intelligence spooks." Vopa retold as it began to drizzle down onto the streets.

"Ajan Stones?" Kyra questioned, shooting Vopa a curious look.

"Semi-precious gems some prospectors dug up on Aja, a backwater the Hutts wouldn't give two damns about if it weren't for them being the most convenient place in the galaxy to get them. Every other known place is in the Unknown Regions, and I don't think I need to tell you how much of a pain navigating that is." he explained, suddenly cracking his fingers. "Lotta people are interested in them since they conduct and amplify solar energy, or something to that effect. I'm not an engineer, or a scientist, so I don't know the specifics." he continued, before shifting into a quieter tone. "What I do know is that any backwater shithole'll pay you a good price for even an impure Stone to get local solar farms going."

"…Noted." Nax replied in a similarly hush tone as they turned down an alleyway. "By the way, how'd you know my dad?"

Vopa gave a sort of happy-sounding huff. "I met your parents, I dunno, maybe two years before you were born?" he began to recollect fondly. "Well, met is a bit of a stretch – Cobro'd actually tracked me down for a bounty some pissant Pantoran politican put on me. About ten grand, I think. He was an alright sort, and he didn't like the client either, so we settled the bounty over a game of Pazaak." Vopa continued to wax nostalgically.

"What happened?" Lexi questioned, and the only response Vopa gave was an amused snort.

"I won, obviously. Ended up sticking with them. For some reason, my smuggling routes usually ended where their bounty targets were. We ended up getting quite a few credits out of our combined work, enough to catch Lostur's attention, so we joined on with his crew a year before the Clone Wars." he said dryly, causing the group to collectively gasp. "This was before he got his death sentences, we thought he was just an exceptionally well off smuggler, which, from a certain point of view, he was."

The group passed by a burning astromech shell in a small alcove, with several homeless surrounding it for warmth. "Hey, Vopa!" one of them called out, and Vopa tossed them a credchip seemingly out of the blue. "Thanks!" the man said, waving at Vopa, who simply acknowledged him, continued walking.

"…You mentioned something about my dad not mentioning you, like he did it intentionally. Did something happen between you and my parents?" Nax pressed, raising his voice a little as the rain picked up, and Lexi and Vopa threw up their hoods.

Vopa exhaled slowly, his hot breath blowing out on both sides of his head, before evaporating. "…Yeah, something happened, alright." he said in a suddenly solemn tone. "Lostur'd been getting more viscious, and we went to this planet called Volara. Little jungle planet in the Jangala system in the Rim. Place was tidally locked, so one side of the planet was hellishly hot and humid, and the other was the same, only a little bit cooler. Every damned animal on that shithole would try to kill you. Locals were nice though." Vopa detailed, before catching himself at getting sidetracked. "…Anyways, we find this small village in some valley on the night side of the planet. The Bantha's sensors had picked up some strange readings, so I took Lostur down planetside with a small team in my VCX. In about a half-hour, the whole village had been razed, we had a bunch of new weapons, and a bunch of bodies that got butchered and sold." he finally finished, much to everyone's shock. "I was waiting in my ship for them to come back, and if you're anything like your parents, Nax, I don't need to tell you how they reacted to finding out I was involved, even if it was just as the getaway pilot."

Nax curled his lip as he glanced off at Kyra. "…Lostur told me my dad cost him a pretty big pile of credits. What happened with that?"

"Well, the two of them came to me after the raid and wanted me to leave with them. My dumb ass said no, since the money was too good. So, what did they do? They melted the whole stockpile of weapons and a bunch of stims and spices we had in storage that Lostur was going to use to pay off a debt to Jabba. Put him deeper in the shitter with Jabba than he already was." Vopa explained, before glancing down the street at the end of the alley. "We're here." he commented simply, turning his head to the right and walking out.

A bit further down the street was a small group of Coru-Hivers in full gear. Immediately, they noticed Vopa and the rest of the group, and wordlessly waved them over. "Hey, boss." one of them with red markings on his helmet said. "The body's in the bedroom. It's, uh, it's not a pretty sight." he revealed, before gesturing with his head to a large transport speeder being guarded by several Hivers. "Corbar's in the speeder. If you need to talk to him, be quick about it, alright? He's had a long day."

"Obviously, we will. I trust you've sent out the probe droids to search for the killer?" Vopa pressed, and the Hiver nodded in response. Satisfied, Vopa turned to Nax. "In that case, I suppose we should talk to Corbar, shouldn't we?" he suggested, eyeing Nax for a response.

In turn, Nax nodded. "It'd be best to see if he knows anything about the killer. Maybe a motive or something." he proposed with relative confidence, earning an approving look from Vopa. Without another word, Nax headed to the speeder and pulled the back doors open, letting himself in.

Corbar was sitting at the back of the bed of the speeder, huddled in the fetal position, his head buried in his knees, completely and utterly silent. Nax took his helmet off and kneeled in front of Corbar. "…Excuse me," Nax said in a quiet tone to not seem as intimidating to Corbar. "I'm here to help find out who killed your wife. I'd like to ask you a few things before I head into your apartment – is that fine with you?"

Slowly lifting his head up from his knees, Corbar gave Nax a distrustful look. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was wet and red from crying, and his body was shaking all over. Corbar tilted his body to the side to look at something behind him. "He's with me." Nax heard Vopa say calmly, and Corbar relented.

"…Fine." he muttered in a defeated tone, his voice weak, weary, and shook, before he looked back to Nax. "…It probably won't help much, but… what did you want to know?"

Quickly debating which question to ask first, Nax sat down fully. "Can you think of any reason why someone would want to kill your wife?"

Corbar shook his head. "…No…" he weakly answered, burying his head in his knees. "…All of our debts had been paid off years ago, but even then, you can't collect from a dead person…" Corbar continued, silently weeping. "…We don't have any enemies, either – we're not field agents, we do numbers! Who murders someone that runs numbers, for the Emperor's sake?!" he ranted, briefly getting angry, before calming himself. "…Sorry."

Nax pulled out his datapad and quickly wrote down 'No enemies, ran numbers.' before focusing his attention back on Corbar. "Did you see the killer?" he asked, and Corbar shook his head no. Nax wrote down 'Didn't see killer.' as well. "…Now, this may sound insensitive, but did anything stand out to you about the way she was killed?" he continued to press.

Corbar remained silent for a short while, until he began to weep. Nax moved to comfort him, but Corbar backed away. "…The baby…" he muttered, moving into full on sobs. "…the baby…" he repeated, much to Nax's confusion.

Nax was about to ask what Corbar was talking about, but before he could, Vopa pulled him out. "…I think that's all you're gonna be getting out of him, Nax." Vopa dryly advised in a hush tone.

Relenting to Vopa's suggestion, Nax nodded, and headed into the apartment alongside the others. The front entrance had two sets of stairs, the one on the left leading to the basement, while the one on the right led to the living room, as well as the rest of the apartment. Vopa immediately went into the basement, so Nax and Kyra went upstairs, while Lexi helped waddle Arfive up the stairs. "Looks like nothing's missing, so it can't be a robbery gone wrong." Nax noted.

The layout of the apartment was markedly similar to Lexi's. The stairs lead up to the living room, which was largely situated to the right when walking up, while the kitchen was directly in front of you, with a hall on the left that led to the bathroom and bedroom, with a utility closet at the end of the hall. "Stay on your guard – we don't know if the killer's still around." Nax advised as he drew his shotgun. Kyra and Lexi nodded, drawing their CR-2 and A-180, respectively.

Pressing down the hall, they came to the bedroom door on the right. Keeping his shotgun at the ready, Nax mentally prepared himself for whatever was on the other side. He was expecting a skinned body, maybe a few dismembered limbs, and a whole lot of blood. The reality was so much worse.

Laying on the floor in front of the bed was a woman with long, golden blonde hair and deathly pale skin, her face permanently terrified, and her mouth locked in an eternal scream. Her stomach had been cut clean open, and organs were sticking out, as if they had been moved by someone rummaging around inside. As Nax cautiously approached the body, though, he realized just where the cut had been made.

Their stomachs collectively sank and churned at the sight. "I think… I think I'm gonna…" Kyra mumbled, sounding sickly, before running out of the room with her hand over her mouth. Lexi quickly followed after her, leaving Nax and Arfive with the body.

Arfive gave a low, sad trill at the sight. "…Suns, I don't think even Mos Eisley's worst would have done something as awful as this." Nax said as he kneeled down by Desani's body. "…Looks like she was strangled to death. Arfive, can you gimme your blacklight?"

On command, Arfive turned his blacklight on, shining it on Desani's neck. To Nax's surprise, however, there were no fingerprints. "Looks like whoever killed her was wearing gloves." he noted, before taking a closer look at her neck. "…Or it was an aug without synthskin on. Look at how crushed her neck is. Only thing I can think of that could feasibly do that kind of damage would be either a Wookie or an aug." Nax added on, before noticing a small stream of blood coming from both of Desani's nostrils.

Deciding that the body likely didn't have much else for him, Nax stood up and began to look around the room. The window that led to the fire escape was open – no, it was smashed outward. There weren't any shards of glass in the room. In the pale light that was leaking into the room, Nax spotted a long, thin tendril sitting in a pool of yellow blood. Hesitantly, he picked it up and examined it.

There was a small hole on the pointed end of the tendril, with a small amount of red blood dripping out of it. Out of the corner of his eye, Nax spotted a sharp combat knife, fresh with the same yellow blood as the tendril, with some red mixed in. There was also a small amount of pink flesh scattered along the blade. Nax heard the door open behind him, and he turned to see Vopa in the doorway, staring blank at Desani's body. Silently, he mouthed a curse, and then looked to Nax. "…Did you find anything?" he asked, and Nax showed him the tendril. Taking it from Nax, Vopa began to examine it. "…Son of a bitch." he breathed.

"What?" Nax responded, expecting Vopa to know something that he didn't.

"This is an Anzat's tendril." Vopa revealed, prodding at the tendril.

The name had sounded familiar to Nax, but he wasn't sure of the connotations. "An Anzat?" he questioned, and Vopa gave him a sympathetic look.

"Aliens that look more or less human, but once they get close to you, they stick one of these," he explained, presenting the tendril, "…up your nose and suck your brains out. It's how they feed. They only go after 'strong' meals, whatever the hell that means, usually after stalking them for a while." he finished, before looking at Desani's bloody nose. "…Judging by her nose, I'd say that's exactly what happened. He must have gotten into the apartment, either through the front door or one of the kitchen windows, came in here, and tried to feed on Desani. She probably fought back and managed to cut one of his tendrils off, but…" he trailed, his gaze drifting over to her body.

"…But that doesn't explain what he wanted with the baby." Nax remarked. "If he wanted it to feed, wouldn't he be better off feeding on another adult?" he opined, cautiously looking out the broken window as the draft from airspeeder traffic above made the curtains flow.

Vopa shook his head in frustration. "Maybe, but if you think about it, a baby's a growing life. Maybe that gives them more energy or something, I don't know." he reasoned, sounding sullen. "Nor do I want to. Did you find anything else?"

"Window got smashed out towards the fire escape. Whoever killed her probably got away through the alley." Nax deduced, poking his head out the window. "Looks like he was bleeding. There's more yellow blood going down these stairs."

"Go ahead and follow that. I'll stay here and look for anything else." Vopa said, and without another word, Nax climbed out the window. Quickly moving down the fire escape, Nax followed the trail, noticing intermittent spots of red blood. He got down into the alley, moving at a fast pace until he got about halfway from the fire escape to the street, when the trail turned towards a dumpster and then stopped.

Taking a closer look at the dumpster, he saw blood dripping down the side of the dumpster, collecting into a slowly growing pool. Getting a sinking feeling in his stomach, Nax reluctantly opened the top of the dumpster, and immediately regretted it at the sight of what greeted him.

Slamming the top of the dumpster shot back down, Nax couldn't have thrown himself to the side any faster if he had tried. Dry heaving and fighting back the urge to full-on vomit, Nax steadied himself. What an awful thing to have to see.

"…Hey…" a man's raspy voice quietly eked out behind Nax. "…You saw it, didn't you?" he asked, before developing a small cackle. "You saw the baby, didn't you?" he repeated, waiting on Nax's response.

"…No shit, I saw it. To think that someone would do such a thing…" Nax replied in between heaves, and then the man began to cackle.

"You saw it! You saw it!" he exclaimed, audibly jumping. "You saw it, and now you're marked!" the man continued to rant, on the verge of shouting now. That caught Nax's attention.

"…Marked?" Nax questioned, looking behind him to see the man. He was short, probably about five foot five? He looked – and smelled, like he hadn't bathed in days, and he was visibly under the influence of stims and spices.

"Marked! By the Hive Butcher!" the man raved. "He'll stop at nothing to suck the life from you, now that you've been marked!" he yelled, continuing on his tirade of chem-induced madness.

Confused, Nax looked down the alleyway, and saw a shadow moving in the dim light of one of the windows of an abandoned building. The shadow seemed to be looking at Nax, as if studying him, and then looking back at something else, seeming to write, and then it shifted back to observing Nax. This process repeated at least three times in the ten second window Nax had to observe it, before finally, the figure realized that Nax could see it, and promptly panicked, disappearing from sight.

It took an instant for Nax to connect the dots. "Like hell you're getting away that easy!" he shouted, suddenly having regained his energy. As he dashed out of the alleyway into oncoming landspeeder traffic, Nax jumped onto the hood of one speeder, ignored the protests of its driver, and jumped lanes onto another, before jumping back onto the sidewalk opposite the alley.

Barreling through a small crowd of bystanders, Nax forced the old hinge door open with relative ease, and was confronted with a massive stairwell. He could hear faint, rapid footfalls, and could see a shadow moving up the stairs, presumably to the roof. Raising his left arm to the ceiling, Nax pressed one of the buttons on his gauntlet, and the whipcord shot out. For a moment, Nax thought it would fall back down, but thankfully, it wrapped itself around one of the guardrail posts. Activating the internal winch on the bracer, Nax pressed himself up against a support pillar, beginning his comparatively fast ascent to the roof. He could still hear the stomping from the person he had seen in the window, but it sounded like he had stopped going further up, it sounded more like he had gone up three, no, four floors, before ducking into the rest of the building. As Nax climbed, he felt the urge to taunt the killer, but held his tongue.

Coming up to the sixth floor, Nax pulled himself over the railing and readied his shotgun. Spotting a hinge door slightly ajar, he positioned himself so that he could move with the door as he cleared it. Cautiously, Nax opened the door slowly, and saw the hallway it led to in a major state of disarray. Ceiling lights were either out or smashed against the floor, with a few of them flickering still, barely hanging on by their wiring. Garbage littered the carpet, although it looked to have been disturbed recently.

Keeping his guard up, Nax jimmied the handles of each and every door, with every single one of them being locked tight. Brushing past light hanging out of an exposed ceiling panel, it flickered when his shoulder bumped it, Nax moved to the last door in the hallway, Trying the handle, it surprisingly opened, and ever on edge, Nax moved in, clearing the apartment.

The closet by the door was empty save for a few jackets and longcoats, while the bathroom to the right had no door to speak of, letting Nax see a skeleton wearing tattered clothes on the floor by the rusted sink. The apartment's automatic lighting failed to properly kick in, so Nax grabbed the glowrod from his duster and haphazardly attached it to the shotgun. Aside from the bathroom and closet, the rest of the apartment was just one big room, with what would have been the kitchen and living room being stripped bare of all furniture, while a small staircase in the living room leading to an alcove with the only spot for a bed. The living room window was open, letting the artificial breeze blow into the tattered curtains.

Confused, Nax eased up a little. "…Where the hell did he go?" he mumbled under his breath, taking the glowrod into his left hand. The apartment was completely empty save for Nax. He must have gotten out through the window, but if every other door in this part of the building was locked, why was this one open?

Poking his head out the window to see if there was any way he could have feasibly gotten down, Nax was surprised to find that it was a straight drop to the street level – no catwalk or fire escape to climb down from. Suddenly, Nax remembered something.

The killer was an Anzat.

A species that liked to stalk their prey.

The only logical reason that this apartment's door was open was because the killer wanted him here. Mentally tuning himself out of the background noise, Nax could hear slow, deliberate footsteps approaching him from behind. The killer even made a hushed 'wryyy' to rattle Nax.

He didn't have much time to think of a plan, so Nax did what he knew best.

As soon as the killer was within an arm's reach, Nax swung around harder than he thought possible and punched the killer square in the jaw, sending him flying back into the decayed couch. Re-readying his shotgun, Nax pointed it at the killer's chest, racked the pump, and prepared to clamp down on the trigger.

Except he never pulled the trigger. The killer had his hand outstretched, and no matter how much Nax wanted to or tried, he just could not pull the trigger. Slowly the killer pulled himself up out of the debris, and began to approach Nax. "Five hundred years I have lived. I have seen countless wars, crises, invasions, and deaths. I have consumed many." he said in a slow, deliberate manner, his voice chilling Nax to the bone. "Yet, not once have I had a Mandalorian." he taunted, as a tendril appeared from underneath his hood, waving and curling in the air.

Nax was completely frozen in place. Even though he was screaming at himself to run as far away as physically possible, his body just would not listen to him. The killer's tendril crept ever closer to Nax's nose, until it was at his nostrils. The killer flashed a sick, manic smile as the tendril coiled back, prepared to strike, and he opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Kyra shouting.

"The crash came from up here!" she shouted, and he could hear three more people aside from her stomping around. The killer cursed under his breath, and placed his index finger to Nax's temple.

"You will now fall asleep. You will not remember what I look like when you wake up." he said in his ever calm tone of voice. Nax unwillingly nodded, before promptly collapsing into the destroyed couch. Deciding that it would be best to stir the pot while he had the chance, the killer slipped a transponder marked with Ascendancy codes into Nax's duster, before fleeing through the window without further theatrics.

Kyra and Lexi burst into the apartment, Vopa not falling far behind the two of them. Immediately the girls rushed to Nax's side, concerned for him. "Nax, wake up!" Kyra pleaded, shaking Nax, although to no avail. Lexi put her ear to Nax's chest, listened for a while, and then pulled away.

"…He's alive and breathing, thankfully." she said, relieved that he wasn't dead.

Suddenly, Nax reached out and grabbed Lexi's hand, pulling himself out of the destroyed couch. "Kinda wish I wasn't. My head's killing me." he complained, deadpan, even as Kyra latched on to him and practically refused to let go. "…Feels like I've downed an entire cask of that pisswater dad called whiskey, actually." Nax complained as Arfive trundled his way in leisurely.

Vopa immediately moved to keep Nax supported, and began to check him for wounds. Thankfully finding nothing, Vopa turned his attention to Nax himself, rather than his nonexistent wounds. "You alright, kid? What the hell happened?"

Nax gave a discomforted groan as he got out of the ruined couch fully. "…I was in the alley checking out the blood trail, which led into the dumpster. I'd prefer blocking out what I saw right now, but some old spicehead comes up behind me and starts rambling to me about me being marked. I take one look across the street, and I see someone stalking me, like he's taking notes or some shit." Nax explained, rubbing his arm a little bit. "He notices me, and then starts to run the hell away. I chase after him and found him up here. Or, well, he had me – he snuck behind me from that exposed ceiling panel. I punched him, broke the couch, and was about to finish him off."

"And then what happened?" Lexi questioned as she managed to pry Kyra from Nax's arm.

Nax shook his head in disbelief. "I don't know how to describe it. He held his hand out, and I just… couldn't shoot him. I wanted to, but my finger just wouldn't pull the trigger." he continued to explain. "…He gets up, and then he puts his hands to my face and mumbles about never having had a Mandalorian before. And then, the tendril came out of the side of his face – would've gone into my head had you not yelled for me, Kyra." he said, shifting his gaze to her. In response, she immediately smiled and latched right back on to Nax, much to Lexi's frustration. "No idea where he went."

"…Sounds like Anzat telepathy. What'd he look like?" Vopa questioned, shifting glances between Nax, Lexi, and Kyra.

Responding with a shrug, Nax threw his arm around Kyra's back to pull her closer in appreciation for saving him. "Dunno. Every time I try and think of his face, I get a huge headache, and my mind's like a censor. It blocks his face out. The only thing I can say is that he was about my height." Nax responded. He didn't know it, but Kyra's heart skipped a beat.

Vopa pondered his response for a few seconds, and then snapped his fingers quickly. "What about your helmet?"

"What about it?"

"Doesn't it record things?" Vopa asked, although it sounded like he may have been misremembering something Cobro had done to the armor.

Scratching his neck, Nax nodded. "…Yeah, but I didn't have it on. I left it in the ship, didn't I?" he answered, and Arfive gave an affirmative, if disgruntled beep. "Yeah, it's in the cockpit."

Vopa facepalmed. "…Of course you did. Just our luck." he said, annoyed, before moving for the door. "Well, no helping it now. Let's get a move on, yeah?"

The group began to leave, with Nax at the back. Warily, he turned back to face the open window, even as Kyra yanked him by the arm to leave. He just couldn't shake the feeling that the killer didn't really run away.

Ash pre-emptively got off the walls of the turbolift before the doors even slid open. On the way back to the Church, she had briefly skimmed through the unlocked datapads, while ignoring the protected ones. Most of the datapads were technical blueprints given to Sti by the Ascendancy, while others were logs of business transactions and day to day operations. Fairly boring stuff, but the Ascendant would have her head if she didn't bring everything back.

Although, the one thing of note on one of the personal logs was a name that kept coming up - enough to pique Ash's curiosity; Reika Misaki. She had no idea who this Reika person was, but they were likely an associate of Sti's.

After what seemed like an eternity, the turbolift doors opened, and Ash headed through. The Grand Ascendant was on his throne, still plugged in, and appeared as if he were disinterested. Immediately, Ash took a knee. "You've returned." he said, his synthetic voice seeming to only add to how bored he sounded. "I trust you've taken care of Sti?" the Ascendant questioned, as the Vanguards pressed their electrostaves against the floor, causing them to spark up in case Ash attacked.

Ash nodded, and very slowly, took the bag with the datapads off of her back and held it out. A large metallic wire that had been laying on the ground near the Ascendant suddenly sprang to life and moved to her, and it grasped the bag, bringing it to the Ascendant, who began to scan it with his implants. "Very good, Ash. It seems you are loyal to us after all. I'll have the scribes sift through this bag later. For now, however…" he trailed, before getting up and slowly approaching Ash, and the Vanguards shut their electrostaves off. "…You remember the oath you took, yes?" he questioned, and Ash nodded once.

"According to our station, all without exception." Ash said in a monotone voice, completely straight faced.

The white-purple blade of an industrial plasma cutter shot out from the Ascendant's right wrist, and he placed it above her right shoulder as it gave off superheated crackles against the dust in the air.

"On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons." Ash continued. "We swear to uphold the Ascendancy – even to our dying breath." she finished, and the Ascendant switched the shoulder the blade was hovering over, before raising it and deactivating it.

"You have been given a rare second chance, Voto. Do not waste it." the Ascendant said, with a sense of finality in his words. Ash said nothing in response, only choosing to deepen her kneel in respect.

'Till next time.

-Tweak