The Rise of Pulsar Company

by PygmalionKK

Three broken people - a survivor, an escaped slave, and an orphan - work together to escape Tatooine. As they transition from greenhorns into famous mercenaries, they get into considerably larger amounts of trouble - from murderous pirate lords and serial killers to bioterrorists and ancient horrors of a long dead race. On hold due to a rewrite.

1. First Hunt

Hello. This is an in-progress rewrite of Pulsar Company. Progress is kinda slow, but rewritten chapters will have some sort of indicator of them being rewritten. Usually a 'Rewritten on (date)' or something to that effect.

Anyways, the only important things I had in the old Author's Notes that was ultimately really relevant was that this story was a mix of Legends and Canon, with Legends usually taking priority in instances of conflict unless stated otherwise, and that this starts in the last month of 4 BBY.

Additionally, as this rewrite is in progress, things may not always line up with the other Tatooine chapters. Be patient, please.

Most recent chapter when this rewrite was uploaded: Chapter 39. Date of upload: 12/10/2022

Read and review.

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Nax entered the rather spacious living room of his family's homestead, a soft drink can in hand, datapad in the other. Casually, he launched himself onto the large couch in the center of the room, much to the annoyance of his brother, Trax. "…You know, you keep doing that, the couch is liable to break, and I don't need to tell you how pissed dad'll be." he remarked from behind a datapad of his own, a cup of cold caf on the end table.

Nax smirked back at his brother. "Won't stop me. I've been yelled at by him more times than I really care to count." he replied as he cracked open the can's tab. "'Least I'm not the one that got clubbed in the head by a Tusken." he said with a snarky laugh, earning a glare from Trax. "Bit more embarassing than just being yelled at by dad."

"Oh, really?" his brother continued in an annoyed tone. "Because last I checked, you were the one that got shot in the ass by his bond-mate!" Trax retorted, thinking for a moment about something else to tease his brother with. "I seem to remember you getting your ass thoroughly handed to you in a shooting competition with her, too!"

Internally, Nax scowled at the remark, but decided to let it go. "Val's bolt bounced and hit me there – it wasn't intentional." he denied, keeping the banter going, though he didn't deny the loss.

"Suuure." Trax trailed, definitely not believing Nax's version of events. "It definitely ricocheted."

Shaking his head in annoyance, Nax downed the can, before throwing it at Trax, narrowly missing the intended target of his brother's head, and instead ruffling his short, chestnut hair, immediately earning him scorn from his brother. Trax quickly grabbed the nearest object to return fire, which just so happened to be the aircon remote, though Nax was expecting this, and quickly ducked, causing the remote to hit the sofa harmlessly and fall on his broad chest. "Nice!" Nax taunted, before setting the remote on the table and sitting up straight, as Trax gave out a defeated huff. "Well, since we're going for low blows, at least I had a bond-mate. You never had anybody for more than a week." Nax pointed out, and that seemed to really set Trax off. "Yuli, Kristi, that Camie girl..." Nax listed off as Trax grabbed a throw pillow, approached him, and started whaling on Nax with it. "...Brinn, Julle, Colla..." Nax continued listing, each name interspersed with laughter. In a surprising feat of speed, Nax stood up, disarmed Trax of the throw, and put him in a headlock. To someone who didn't know them, it surely looked like the two giants were about to get into an actual brawl with each other. "Don't worry, Trax – you'll find somebody eventually!" Nax teased again, before smacking his brother in the face with the throw, and then tossing it aside, letting the younger Strag go.

Trax dusted himself off and gave a half-joking sneer. "Fraggin' slagsucker." he shot out, exaggerating his Concord Dawn accent for comedic effect, and Nax immediately pivoted around to grab Trax's arm.

"What was that, y'cunt?!" Nax yelled out, putting an even more exaggerated effect on his own accent, before breaking down in laughter and letting his brother go.

With their energy for this little engagement exhausted, the brothers returned to their original positions and resumed what they were doing on their datapads. This relative peace lasted for a couple minutes, before Nax broke the silence. "Hey," he called out, earning a look from his brother. "...Where the hell's dad? That sandstorm's gonna be rolling in pretty soon."

"Outside, calibrating the vaporators with Zeethree." Trax replied casually, somewhat annoyed that his reading had been interrupted yet again.

"Still?" Nax asked as he rolled over to look at his brother. "I thought we already calibrated them last week?"

Trax offered no response as he idly flicked through his datapad. "…Nax." he suddenly said, his tone shifting downward, not taking his eyes from the device. Even to Nax, it was obvious that Trax had no intention of continuing the original topic. "Want to explain why I found your datapad on the table yesterday opened to an ad for a freighter for sale in Mos Entha?"

Nax blinked twice, taking a second to process what Trax had just said. "...I like the ship?" he suggested, giving a half-shrug to hopefully dissuade Trax from pressing the issue any further.

Trax set his datapad down and stared directly at Nax. "Don't feed me that bantha fodder, Nax." he said, his voice cutting into Nax. "I know when you're lying through your teeth – you're my brother, for Suns' sake." he continued, and Nax immediately felt ashamed for thinking that would even work. "You're planning on leaving, aren't you?"

Nax paused, looking up at the ceiling. "…Yeah." he eventually answered, not wanting to insult his brother any more by pretending otherwise. "I can't stand Tatooine. It's one big swirling sandpit of nothing. No opportunity, no future, nothing but Suns damned Tuskens, Jawas, Hutt lackeys, and whatever poor bastards get stuck here. I hate it."

Trax looked up from his datapad and took a sip from his caf. "So, what, you're just going to leave dad and I here, alone, while you travel the galaxy, doing the same exact kind of mercenary work you've been doing for the past six years?" he chided, and Nax sat up, giving an offended glare to Trax. "Meeting interesting people, and then shooting at them?" Trax continued, adopting a dry tone.

"Trax, you of all people should know I'm not that heartless. I'm going to leave enough money behind for you two to-" he retorted, but before the argument could continue any further, they heard the sound of several landspeeder turbines pulling up and winding down outside. "…I hope that isn't those laserbrains that've been trying to buy some of the vaporators off of dad." Nax suddenly commented, before getting up and heading upstairs. "We'll talk about this later."

Trax let out a sigh and got up to follow his brother to the garage. It didn't take long before they heard shouting, and they picked up the pace, with Trax drawing his custom DL-44 from its holster, and Nax grabbing his scattergun off of the garage workbench in anticipation of a fight. "Nax, Trax!" they heard their dad yell. "Get out here!"

Seconds before they exited the door, they heard a series of blaster shots, and without any further hesitation, they burst out the man-door to the garage, weapons ready, just in time to see their dad fall backwards onto the sand and Zeethree get shot in the back while retreating. The pair immediately opened fire on the aggressors, receiving the expected return fire.

Bolts and slugs flew all over the place, seemingly coming from every possible direction on both sides. Two previously unseen, larger figures moved to an idling landspeeder, carrying one of the vaporators away. Nax quickly fired off a shot, and then ducked into cover behind a large rock once the thieves returned fire. Trax, however, kept himself exposed, happily blasting away at targets like some kind of stylish gunman while they loaded the first vaporator onto the speeder. "Trax, get behind something! NOW!" Nax shouted out, but he was barely audible over the weapons fire.

Trax didn't verbally acknowledge, but he did run to get behind the same rock as Nax, taking the opposite side to create a wide angle of fire and drop as many of the thieves as possible. "Sniper, on top of the dune, left side!" Trax called out, taking a few potshots at their general positions to keep them suppressed.

"I see him!" Nax yelled back, before partially exposing himself to get an angle on the sniper, and quickly firing two successive shots off in his direction, and just like that, the sniper disappeared behind the dune, and didn't come back up. "Kill!" Nax confirmed, before loading more slugs into his scattergun.

Trax poked his head out of cover, and then quickly ducked back in as a swarm of bolts shot by the rock, harmlessly impacting the sand behind them. "We're getting pushed by a squad of the bastards!" Trax yelled out, before pulling the cell release on his pistol and inserting a new one. "We pop out and drop them on the count of three!"

Nax nodded. "One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

The brothers both exposed themselves from cover and began to lay into the approaching squad, with Nax firing slugs center mass into the larger targets, while Trax cleaned up the others. With the squad forced to pick a target to focus their fire on, they ended up choosing Trax.

Multiple shots were fired at the exposed Trax, hitting him in the chest multiple times. He stumbled back, ceased firing, and then collapsed to the ground. "Trax!" Nax yelled in anguish, momentarily disregarding the notion of cover and wildly pumping shell after shell into their attackers, who effortlessly returned fire on his exact position, forcing Nax back behind the rock as a stray bolt hit him in the arm. "Sithspit!" he cursed in pain, clutching the wound.

A second vaporator was mounted onto one of the speeders, and the remaining hostiles mounted up, before speeding away with their plunder in tow, abandoning their dead and dying. Nax fired off his shells at the retreating bandits in futility, and once they were completely gone, he dropped his weapon and ran to Trax's side, quickly checking his wounds. He was barely clinging to life as it was. Glancing over to his dad's body and seeing that he wasn't moving, Nax focused on his brother, dragging him into the garage for better lighting to patch his wounds. "…Leave it go, Nax." Trax weakly protested, blood pouring from his chest wounds and his mouth.

"Not a damn chance, Trax!" Nax responded as he removed Trax's duster, only stopped by Trax's surprisingly firm grip despite his state.

"Don't waste the bacta..." Trax sternly said, before coughing up some blood and beginning to hack. "...My lungs're all shot up – I've got more holes in me than a womp rat in Beggar's." he quietly joked, wheezing again. "I'm slagged."

Nax ran to the wall and fetched the emergency medkit they had set in the garage just in case. "Stop talking like that." he demanded as he knelt down and opened the medkit, grabbing a vial of bacta out of it and injecting it into Trax's neck to stabilize him. Nax then lifted Trax's shirt up to expose the wounds, and he wiped the considerable amount of blood off, before grabbing a roll of bacta patches – seven wounds, seven patches. "...There, you should be..." Nax started, before he noticed his brother's silence. "...Trax?"

Trax had stopped blinking, stopped moving, and stopped breathing.

"…H-hey, come on, man, stop messing around." Nax stumbled, his hands shaking. He dropped the medkit, shattering some of the bacta vials inside, but he didn't care. "C-come on, Trax, that isn't funny." he continued in vain. "Wake up, you asshole!" he bellowed, slapping his brother in a mix of desperation and anger, while tears ran down his face. "I said wake up!" Nax repeated, shaking his brother's body in denial.

As the reality of the situation came crashing down on him, Nax let out an agonized scream as he clutched his brother's lifeless body.

---

ONE MONTH LATER

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Two young women lay in a slave cage, one a human, sleeping uncomfortably on the cold floor. The other was a Zeltron, and she was very much awake. Both were in tattered slave rags, leaving their bodies exposed to the cold harshness of the ship's cargo holds. Compared to the other slaves, their cage was much more spacious, albeit more due to the fact that they were the only two in there. Nobody had any idea why they got the 'nicest' cage, especially compared to the multitudes of cages of starved Wookies packed in like cattle, or the several cages of female Twi'leks due for Nar Shaddaa and Zygerria. Not even the crew had the faintest clue as to why these two were left more or less on their own, but it was on the Captain's order that they were to be the way they were.

The human slowly rose to sit up straight, a low but intense pounding in her head forcing her awake. Her bright blue eyes fluttered, and as she took in her surroundings, quietly resigned herself to what was now her reality. She had been on this slave hellship – The Cranky Bantha, for nearing a week now, but that single week felt like an eternity for her.

Seemingly endless beatings and lashings, threats of death if she refused to comply with demands, crewmen harassing her to get their kicks, and even her own fellow slaves looking at her with hungry eyes. Even with lighting intentionally left as low as it was, though, she could still see her eyes shining back at her under the filmy metal her cage was made out of. They almost seemed to be pink under the haze of the residual spice particles in the air.

The Zeltron pulled her over, away from the hungry Wookie that had been staring at her. "…Morning, Kyra," she whispered, glancing over at the single aloof guard. "Today's the day, choom. You ready for this?"

Kyra looked over at that same guard, before looking back to her cellmate. "…You still haven't told me your plan, Lexi." she responded in a scared, hushed tone.

"Right." Lexi lowered her voice even further. "…When the guard comes by and raps his stunstick against the cell bars, I'll lure him in here." she explained, pointing at her rather large chest with a sly, if worrisome, expression on her face. "You'll be sitting in that corner, and whenever he comes in to try and do… whatever he plans to do, you jump up behind him and choke him out with your stuncuffs." Lexi continued to clarify. "Then, we take his keys, free ourselves, get to the escape pods, and get planetside so that we can hitch a ride to the Core. Sound good?"

Kyra bit her lip. "I don't know, Lexi. This plan seems like it has an awful lot of holes in it..." she replied, clearly worried about the potential for failure.

Lexi gave off a frustrated sigh. "...Look, Kyra. You're not exactly spoiled for choice here." she said, trying to keep her voice down, as the guard had already begun rapping his stunstick against the cage bars, meaning her time was short. "You can either follow my lead and have a chance of getting the hell out of here, or you can sit in this cage until Lostur sells you off at Zygerria in three weeks." Lexi presented, and a look of fear crossed Kyra's face.

The tingtingtingting of metal on metal rapidly grew closer, and Kyra adopted a look of resolve towards Lexi's plan. The Zeltron nodded back in response, and quickly adopted a suggestive, submissive pose that was intended to entice the guard to enter the cage when he came by.

The guard's stunstick very narrowly brushed against Kyra's long, white hair, and the guard stopped moving. Kyra didn't dare look at him. "Well, now..." he said with a whistle, before there was a jangle of keys, and the ker-chunk of the cell door being unlocked. "Don't mind if I do." he continued, walking in and keeping his back turned to Kyra. Lexi gave a surprised look to the guard, and appeared to panic, scrambling backwards as the guard undid his belt. Kyra quickly jumped up from where she was sitting in the corner, ran behind the guard, and put her stuncuffs around his neck. "What the h-" was all the guard could manage, before Kyra pulled tight on her stuncuffs, strangling the guard and forcing him backwards as he fought and struggled to free himself from Kyra's grip, almost managing to overpower her and free himself at several points, but Lexi managed to keep him in check with a swift kick or two each time, and he would fall back to fighting against Kyra. "...Gonna… kill..." the guard wheezed, before managing to get an angle on Kyra and elbow her in the stomach, throwing her off just enough that he managed to slip out of her grasp. Lexi, however, was not about to let him get the best of them, and kicked the guard in the stomach, which served as enough of a distraction for Kyra to get a grip again.

Eventually, his flailing grew weaker and weaker, before ultimately stopping outright. Kyra held firm for several seconds more, before letting go and pushing the guard off of her. Lexi quickly grabbed his keychain and freed herself, before doing the same for Kyra. Quickly searching him, Lexi found that he didn't have much – not even a blaster. "...Skagbait." Lexi cursed, before grabbing his stunstick and passcard. It would have to do. "...Alright, now I need to find a terminal, open the maintenance halls, and then beeline it for the escape pod..." she quietly calculated to herself, taking inventory of her situation, before she glanced up at Kyra, who was giving her a strange look. "You are coming, right?" she said in an attempt to save face. Kyra paused for a moment, and then gestured for Lexi to lead on. As she left the cage, Kyra turned around and looked at the body of the guard for a long while, which Lexi noticed. "Don't tell me you feel bad for him, Kyra." she chastised.

"...It's not that I feel bad for him, it's just, well, I've never killed anybody before." Kyra revealed, sounding extremely apologetic.

Lexi scoffed. "Lucky you." she replied, before she tried the passcard on the door, only for the reader to spit out a negative-sounding beep. "...Oh, for the love of all that's fraggable..." Lexi murmured to herself as she tried to sort out the issue. Crouching down, she thumbed the bottom of the terminal, feeling for something specific, which she eventually found and pushed in slightly, causing a maintenance panel to drop out of the terminal, exposing its internals. Lexi traced two sets of wires, grabbed one, and immediately snapped it. Then, she tried the passcard again, and the terminal let off a different negative beep. Upon closer examination of the problem, Lexi realized why that didn't work. "Great." she muttered, before she turned to Kyra. "The door's on a slagdamned time lock – it won't open for another hour, and even if I had more than just this," Lexi said, holding out her hand, showing off some sort of cybernetic implant mostly concealed inside of her wrist. "...I wouldn't be able to slice it without access to the computer on the bridge."

Kyra suddenly developed a lump in her throat at the revelation. "So, what do we do now?" she questioned, trying to hold back her fear – they had already crossed the line, being forced to give up when they hadn't even left the slave hold would be nothing short of catastrophic.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Lexi hissed, pacing back and forth, looking around the hold for something, anything that could help them get out of there.

The pair heard the sound of a turbolift coming down to the level, and before they could react and hide, they turned around to be greeted by an R5 unit with red-orange plating, exiting the astromech lift and staring directly at them. Slowly, Lexi raised her stunstick, flicking it on and sending a jolt of electricity nearby as an intimidation tactic.

The droid, however, was not exactly impressed by the display, and gave out a perfunctory twitter while looking at Lexi. For some reason, Lexi put the weapon down, but kept it on just in case. "My sweet ass, you do." she said, and Kyra looked between the two, incredibly confused on why Lexi hadn't simply smashed the droid at her first opportunity.

"You… can understand that thing?" Kyra questioned, and the droid let off an offended series of chirps at being called a 'thing.' "...Talk to it, even?"

Lexi didn't even blink. "Slice enough droids, and you learn a thing or two about Binary." she replied, before casting her a sideways glance. "This one wants to help us – something about Lostur shorting him on pay more than a few times." Lexi continued, leaving Kyra confused as to what use a droid would possibly have for credits. The droid then made a mechanical gurgle. "Says his name's R5-G0, and that he can get us to the escape pods without alerting everybody on the ship." Lexi continued to translate, and R5 once again twittered. "He, uh, feels bad for the both of us too, if it's worth anything to you."

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" Kyra asked, and the droid rattled off a series of angry beeps and chirps, seemingly offended by the notion.

"We don't." Lexi replied, before looking at the terminal again. "It's not like we have much choice, though. I don't exactly feel like waiting an hour for the timelock." she said, before looking back at R5. "Try anything funny, and I'll turn you to scrap." she threatened, and R5 acknowledged, before turning back to the turbolift he came from and connecting his scomp link, opening it for them to get inside. Lexi poked her head inside and looked around, before coming back out, already aware of how R5 intended to sneak them out. "It's too small to fit the both of us – we need to go one at a time. You're going first." Lexi said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Kyra bit her lip, hesitating slightly as she moved inside of the turbolift. Once inside, R5 closed the door behind her, and she quickly felt the turbolift moving downwards, before it came to a sudden stop, and the door opened, letting her out wherever R5 had sent her. It was dark – darker than the hold, even, with the only thing even letting her see being the emergency lights illuminating the black corridors. The turbolift went back up, came back down, and released Lexi, before doing the same with R5, who let out a series of chirps when he exited. "Only astromechs down here?" Lexi whispered, and R5 gave an affirmative twitter. "Preem. You're on point." she ordered, and R5 went ahead of the pair, directing them to the escape pods.

Traversing the corridor was nerve-wracking for Kyra. Between the nearly total silence, the darkness, and the fear of getting caught by a wandering droid or guard, she ended up jumping at nearly every sound that didn't originate from the group, constantly looking over her shoulder. This paranoia ultimately paid off, though, as Kyra picked up on a series of heavy footfalls coming from behind them. She looked back and spotted a glowrod rounding the corner, before it turned to face the group, illuminating them. "Escape!" the guard bellowed, and the trio gave up any notion of stealth, entering a dead run as the pursuit began. Seconds later, the alarm was sounded, and the corridor quickly lit up to expose them.

"Go, go!" Lexi yelled out, managing to outpace Kyra and keep up with R5, who had his head turned around, chattering what Kyra assumed were obscenities at the pursuers. A small panel on his head opened up, exposing a tube, which quickly began to spill oil on the floor. R5 then tilted his body backwards, and another panel on the top of his head opened, showing another tube inside. This one, however, didn't spill oil, but instead shot a flare out. It connected with their pursuer, hitting him in the chest, and once both fell to the ground, a fire predictably broke out, adding the fire alarm and his screaming to the cacaphony of noise.

Barely audible underneath everything else was the sound of every guard on the ship being mobilized to the deck to cut off their escape. They weren't shooting at the group, but they were trying to get stuns in, though the weight of their gear kept them from being able get in range whenever they would actually engage in the chase, but they would still shout threats and curses to intimidate them for daring to try and escape. "How much further?!" Kyra yelled, and R5 gave a positive, if panicked, gurgle.

The group's luck eventually ran out. A guard came out in front of the group, blocked their path, and leveled his blaster at them. R5 immediately shocked him once he was able to, but not before the guard fired off a stun blast, the blue ring of which ended up connecting with Lexi, causing her to stop running and drop to the floor. "Lexi!" Kyra shouted as Lexi's unconscious body was quickly swarmed with several guards, who started beating on her, while the rest continued chasing Kyra. R5 chattered, before tilting backwards and firing another flare, this time aimed at the heat sensor, which caused the blast doors to begin to seal behind them, blocking their pursuers.

R5 gave off an excited chatter, and Kyra saw that the end was near. They had made it to the escape pods. R5 attached himself to the scomp link to override the controls and open the pod, and Kyra immediately jumped in once the pod door was open, with R5 following right behind her. She slammed the door shut, engaged the lock, and punched the button to start the launch sequence. Kyra buckled herself in the closest seat and looked out the pod door, coughing and wheezing as she tried to catch her breath and stop her heart from jumping out of her chest. The guards ended up catching up with her, and they started banging on the door, shouting and screaming at her, but quickly stopped, looked behind them, and cleared the way for Allo Lostur. The Weequay said nothing, instead opting to stare at her through the window, but Kyra could tell that there was nothing but seething hatred behind his amber eyes.

The pod's launch sequence finalized, and there was a quiet crack of thunder as the explosive separators detonated, detaching the pod from the Bantha. Kyra watched for a few moments as the Bantha grew smaller and smaller, before she turned her attention to the forward viewing port, watching as the desert planet below grew larger and larger. The viewport was soon obscured by flames from re-entry, and the pod shook and shuddered from the friction. The flames eventually cleared, revealing the pod was headed for a great dune sea. There weren't any towns or cities from what Kyra could tell, and there was a massive jolt as the pod's parachute deployed, greatly slowing her descent, while the navigational computer maneuvered the pod for a belly landing. The desert came closer and closer, until Kyra could make out individual dunes. The pod went in for final approach, and the landing wasn't nearly as rough as Kyra was anticipating – hard, yes, but not catastrophic. Sand was kicked up in front of the viewport, blocking the view as the pod skidded across the sand, its metal screaming from the friction, slowly quieting down as the pod came to a halt, giving one final jolt to Kyra when it finally stopped. The pod door gave a countdown, before its own charges detonated, sending the door flying away some distance from the crash site. Kyra unbuckled herself and exited the pod, with R5 following after her.

"...So," Kyra started, trying to distract herself from the fact that Lexi had been left behind. "...where are we, exactly?" she questioned, hoping R5 would be able to enlighten her. R5 tilted back and projected a hologram of the planet, alongside a listing of several bits of information, and Kyra leaned to read it. "...Tatooine, huh?" she said aloud, before R5 focused the hologram on their crash site. "...Closest city looks like… Mos Eisley?" she read, looking at the hologram, before standing up straight. R5 plotted a path from the crash to the city, and Kyra pursed her lips. "...If we start moving now, I think we can make it by nightfall." she wondered, before wiping some sweat from her forehead as the intense heat began to get to her.

A thought occurred to Kyra, and she momentarily returned to the escape pod, causing R5 to twitter in curiosity as to what, exactly, she was doing. Kyra quickly returned, wearing a long, faded white cloak over her slave rags that concealed her wounds, and more critically, with the escape pod's survival pack slung over her shoulder, carrying most of the emergency supplies with her. "Let's get going."

---

Nax stared into his glass, and a mismatched pair of teal and light green stared back at him. As much as he tried to find something in there, some semblance of a reason to do anything other than stay in his booth and drink, he couldn't find one. Not one reason.

Down the hatch it went.

He had been sitting there drinking for long enough that the whiskey he had on the table was barely burning his throat anymore, though there was still an extremely potent taste of cinnamon in his mouth. Despite the fact that Nax was two and a half bottles deep, enough to get any regular person blackout drunk, he didn't even feel tipsy.

Nax decided to take a break from drinking, at least for a few minutes, and he pulled out his datapad and checked his account. Nine hundred and twenty seven credits to his name. "Suns alive..." he muttered, putting the datapad back into his duster. Buying that freighter seemed like a pipe dream at this point. He would need to find a way to take on more bounties, or at least handle the workload more efficiently. A partner would help, but most hunters were solos, and those that weren't charged insane rates for such partnerships. Seventy-thirty cuts and such, in their favor.

Those absurd sorts of cuts were all the more ridiculous considering the general pay of merc work on Tatooine. Caravans would pay on average about three hundred credits baseline for a one-way trip, security details in the spaceports were four hundred or so every two weeks, and the safer, 'legitimate' jobs might as well have not even been on the table. Even bounty hunting didn't pay particularly well – the only good contracts that ever came in were when Valarian or Jabba wanted someone dead, and that happened less often than one would think, meaning the bulk of 'bounty hunting' was just collecting for unpaid debts and back taxes.

Nax sat back in the seat, and chose to observe the patrons of Chalmun's from the comfort of his smoky little corner in the back. Most of those in the cantina tonight were either there for Ackmena, or the Modal Nodes, both of whom were on the opposite side of the cantina, leaving Nax's side mostly barren, which suited him just fine. There was a slight… oddity, though. One patron in a cloak had come in around half an hour ago, and was going booth to booth, talking to whoever looked like a smuggler, before walking away, seemingly disappointed. Whoever they were, they tried to bring a droid in, though since the detector at the door is apparently busted, Ackmena quickly got on their case, and the patron had their droid wait outside. The way they carried themselves was strange, or at least, to Nax it was. The patron moved around with obvious paranoia, constantly switching focus between other customers that got too close and keeping their eyes on as many people as possible, but there seemed to be an air of elegance to them and the way they walked. Definitely an offworlder, probably high class, might be trying to move some sort of hot cargo. Spice? Stolen art, maybe?

The patron, having exhausted their options on the occupied part of the cantina, came over to Nax's side. Last he checked, the other booths only had a few moisture farmers, certainly not the type the mystery person would be looking for, which ultimately meant that he was last on the list. Sure enough, the mystery patron came over to his booth. "...May I?" she said in a posh accent, her hood mostly concealing her face.

"Go ahead." Nax replied, revealing his inflection, somewhat curious to hear what exactly the patron wanted, but couldn't actually get from any of the smugglers.

The woman gasped in surprise at hearing his accent, and Nax figured that she assumed he was a Mandalorian out of armor – not exactly an uncommon assumption from those who didn't know him. She sat down, though, and folded her hands together, before she breathed deep. "...I'm looking for passage offworld. I… don't have much to offer, but..." she trailed, her tone growing shy, almost like she was afraid of something, or someone.

Nax had an inkling of an idea of why she had been prowling the cantina for the past half-hour, but chose not to press it. For the moment, anyways. "I'm not a ship captain." he admitted, and the patron paused, before getting up to leave.

"Oh. Sorry for wasting your time, Mandalorian..." she said in a hushed tone, clearly desperate to get what she was after, and obviously running out of ideas.

Nax, however, got an idea, and quickly got up and grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving, to which she responded with a yelp of surprise. "Not a Mandalorian, but I wasn't done talking." he said in a surprisingly commanding tone. "Sit down and hear me out." he advised, and the woman stared at him from underneath her hood, clearly contemplating staying. Then, perhaps against her better judgement, she sat back down. "I don't have a ship at the moment, because I'm working on gathering the credits to get one so I can leave this sandpit." Nax clarified, and the woman listened intently. "I'm a bounty hunter. Work's not exactly consistent for me – pay even less so." Nax continued to say, and the woman seemed to be getting impatient, and quickly poked her head out of the booth, looking over her shoulder towards the entrance for something, before refocusing on Nax. "If I had a partner, I could take on more work, get a more consistent flow of credits. This is where you come in – if you work with me on bounties and mercenary work so that I can buy my ship, I'll give you a one way trip to wherever in the galaxy you want to go, and then we split whatever is left over, fifty-fifty, no questions asked." he offered, and Nax could tell that the mystery woman was hesitating.

"I don't know." the woman replied, pursing her lips in thought. "This sounds..." she trailed, trying to think of a word to describe the offer.

"-Dangerous?" Nax interjected, and the woman nodded. "It is, but I never said it would be easy." he pointed out, before leaning in, pushing his shot glass out of the way. "But I guarantee that this is the fairest offer you've heard in this Suns-cursed dive." Nax said, before looking across the cantina at the booths that she had went to, and picked out the perfect smuggler to make his point. "I saw you speaking to Solo – the Corellian with the walking carpet following him around. How much did he want for what you're asking for?"

"Twenty thousand." the woman replied.

Nax nodded, his point already made. "Solo's on the cheaper end of things, too." he continued, and the woman still seemed indecisive. "...Look, you're obviously running from somebody. Don't know who, but it's desperate, and you've already made a bunch of noise as it is. You won't make it past morning, not if you stay in town." he continued, before clasping his hands together. "Hell, I'll even sweeten my offer by letting you stay at my homestead and think it over, even if it's just for tonight."

The woman seemed to be dumbfounded by the offer. "You won't charge me if I do?"

Nax raised an eyebrow at the mere suggestion that he would do such a thing. "What do I look like, a Toydarian to you?" he shot back, feigning insult. "You expect me to charge interest on that, too?" he continued, and the woman quickly backpedaled, trying to apologize, before Nax relaxed. "...Relax, I'm just messing with you. Not actually mad." he said, before pouring one final shot for himself and pounding it back. "So, are you coming, or would you rather wait around?" Nax finished as he got up. The woman looked up to him, and then got up. "Good choice. My speeder's just outside."

The pair quickly left the cantina, and while Nax made an effort to not draw as much attention to himself, he could still feel eyes falling on him as he led the woman out. Odds were he was being fingered as a sucker by most of them, but at least he would be the one benefiting from this.

They turned the corner of the cantina towards the speeder lot, and found the R5 unit she had tried to bring in waiting for her. The droid looked to her, then to Nax, then back again, before twittering a question at the woman. She, however, just shrugged, not knowing how to translate. Nax gave her a sideways glance. "He's introducing himself – R5-G0. Your droid?"

"...Yes."

Nax huffed, and then looked over to his speeder, an older X-34, beat to crap and sunscorched, but still in mostly working order. "Better hope the astromech locks still work, then. Come on."

---

The ride to Nax's homestead was extremely uneventful, though there were some problems with mounting R5 to the speeder's chassis – the locks weren't holding R5 in properly, so Nax ended up just grabbing some maglock cables from the storage compartment and tying R5 down that way, much to the droid's chagrin.

"...This is your home?" the woman commented, just barely being able to make out the approaching structure, poking out ever so slightly from the massive rock formation it seemed to be built into.

"Most of it's underground, but yeah." Nax replied, as he maneuvered the speeder around to the garage, hitting a button on the dash to open it up. He guided the speeder inside, hit the button again to close the garage, and then shut the speeder down, causing it to hit the floor with a heavy thud. He then got out and unstrapped R5, pulling the droid off and setting him on his treads. "Doubt you've had a decent meal lately." Nax commented, looking to the woman. "How do you like your bantha steaks?"

The woman didn't answer immediately, as if she was trying to remember the answer to such a simple question. Nax raised an eyebrow in response to her silence. "...However you like yours is fine." she eventually answered.

"Medium well it is, then." Nax said, before heading for the stairs, the woman and R5 in tow. "Shouldn't be too long, bantha cooks pretty quick." he continued, before stopping at the base of the stairs to take his duster off and set it on the coat rack. "Go have a seat in the living room, I'll get started on the food." Nax finished, pointing off to the left, before continuing straight into the kitchen.

As soon as Nax stepped into the kitchen, he quickly washed up and headed for the conservator to grab the steaks. On the conservator's door was a little handwritten note that he had ended up blanking out of his mind and forgetting about until now.

Check the vaporators, air intakes probably need cleaning. -Dad

Nax stared emptily at the note for a moment, and then frowned, before opening the conservator and grabbing the steaks from the top shelf. Setting the steaks on the counter, he grabbed two pans, put the steaks in, and got cooking. It didn't take long before the smell of cooked bantha was wafting through the house. Nax wasn't a good cook, not by a long shot, but nobody ever really complained by the time he was done.

Once the steaks were done cooking, he seasoned them exactly how he liked them, plated them, and took them out to the living room where the woman was waiting, and Nax was greeted with the sight of the woman handling dad's cycler rifle, which had been sitting on its wall mount. "I'd put that back, if I were you." Nax warned, causing the woman to jump in surprise and turn around, accidentally flagging him with the barrel, which made Nax instinctively flinch, especially once he noticed her finger was on the trigger.

The woman looked at him for a moment, muttered something under her breath, and put the rifle back, before sitting down on the couch. Nax handed her a plate, before taking a seat opposite of her, setting his down on the table – he could stand to wait a few more minutes to eat. She didn't immediately start eating either, however, and kept staring at her plate, perhaps in disbelief that she wasn't being mistreated. She then mumbled something else and began to dig in, taking her time. "I..." she started in-between bites, before looking up at Nax from underneath her hood. "...Thank you." she said graciously.

Nax picked up his plate and began to eat as well. "Not a problem." he said, before catching a glimpse of her arms, seeing that they were heavily bruised. He chose not to press the topic at the moment, however, and the two ate in silence. Once they were done, Nax leaned forward, intent on getting further details from the woman about her predicament. "So." he started, and the woman looked up at him. "What's your name?"

Again, the woman paused, intriguing Nax. She didn't exactly trust him, that much was obvious, but for her to be consistently hesitating over simple questions? Something wasn't right. "...Kyra." she eventually answered.

"Nax Strag." Nax responded, before focusing solely on Kyra. "So, Kyra, tell me – who are you running from?" he asked, and Kyra froze up at the question. "You clearly aren't here by choice, and those bruises on your arm make it pretty clear why you're running. Really, the only question is the 'who.'"

Kyra rubbed her arms, trying to hide her wounds from Nax, though there was little point in doing it now. "...Yes, I'm... an escaped slave." Kyra admitted, looking ashamed that she had even said that in the first place. Kyra then started shaking as she tried to answer Nax's question. "M-my captor is-" she said, catching herself. "-was Allo Lostur. He has a ship up in orbit – where I was kept." she corrected.

Lostur, Lostur, Lostur. Nax racked his brains trying to remember where he had heard that name before. It rang a bell, and he was obviously a slaver, but Nax couldn't quite place it. "Name sounds familiar." he eventually responded. "How did you escape? Slave ships tend to be pretty tight on security."

Kyra lowered her head. "I had help." she answered. "My cellmate, Lexi, she got us out of our cell, and R5 got us to the escape pods." she explained, seeming particularly remorseful at her mention of Lexi.

"Cellmate?" Nax echoed, sounding surprised. "You say that like she was the only other person in there with you, and I've busted enough slaving operations to know that isn't the norm."

"She was, actually." Kyra replied, surprising Nax. "Lostur had us in there as, um..." she trailed, trying to think of the correct word to use to describe what her position was. "...High value slaves, I think? Or at least, that's what Lexi told me. We weren't packed in like the others."

Nax tapped his fingers against the chair. "Strange. He considered you high value, but didn't stop anybody from beating you?" he wondered aloud. Now that the bruises had been brought up again, Nax figured that he should probably take care of that. "...Gimme a minute." he said, excusing himself and leaving the living room, leaving Kyra confused. That confusion quickly disappeared when Nax returned with a medpac. "Here, I've got some bacta for those bruises. Take your cloak off, lie on your back, and I'll get it on you."

Again, Kyra froze up, though perhaps this time, it was understandable. "I don't think that's… um… necessary..." she muttered sheepishly, slowly sliding away from Nax on the couch. "I'm fine, really, I-"

"Kyra, I'm not going to hurt you. Honest." Nax interrupted, catching her attention. "If I were, don't you think I would have done that by now?" he asked, and R5 twittered in agreement with Nax. "Just want to help." he said, opening the medpac and pulling out a roll of bacta patches.

Kyra thought about it for a while, before she took the cloak off, revealing that everything below her neck had been beaten and lashed by her captors. Bruises and cuts everywhere, and her already tattered rags were heavily stained and damaged. "...Sorry, I..." Kyra apologized, greatly ashamed that Nax was seeing her like this.

"Don't be." Nax interjected, switching the bacta patches out for a container of bacta salve, which he poured onto his hand. Nax gently took Kyra's left arm, causing her to instinctively try and jerk it away, before correcting herself and relaxing her arm. Nax rubbed the solution along the length of Kyra's arm, causing her to hiss from the stinging as the bacta healed her injuries. "Honestly, I'm surprised your wounds aren't infected – slavers aren't exactly known for keeping clean."

"...They're not?" Kyra asked, sounding genuine, before gasping as Nax moved to her shoulder.

"Nope." Nax replied, before moving over to her right side and taking her right arm – this time, she didn't try to jerk it away. "If they were infected, there would be a foul smell, and I'd need to bust out the antibiotics." he explained as he applied the salve, and Kyra snickered slightly. "What?"

"I was talking about the slavers." she revealed, and Nax stopped for a second to think about what they had just said to each other. He then gave a short chuckle, before resuming treating her. "Surprised that went over your head." she admitted.

"...Yeah, it's uh, been a while." Nax said as he rubbed it into her shoulder, before finishing with her arm. "Lie back so I can get your legs." he requested.

"You live alone?" Kyra inquired as she did as Nax said.

Nax nodded as he applied the salve to both of her legs. "Have for a while. Still not used to it." he admitted. Kyra's legs weren't too bad in regards to injuries, so he was done with them fairly quickly, and moved to get the rest of her front, but stopped himself short when he saw Kyra squirm when he moved his hand for her stomach. "Do you want-" he started.

"I would rather that you didn't." Kyra said, cutting him off. "I can do that myself. Just… get my back." she requested, before turning over. Nax carefully brushed her long white hair out of the way, before pulling the back of her top up. Kyra was clearly uncomfortable with her position, so Nax aimed to just get it over and done with.

When he finished, Nax pulled her top back down and handed her the salve container. "When you're done with that, let it set for a few minutes, and then go hit the sonic to clean up. 'Fresher's in the hall, past the kitchen." he suggested, and Kyra nodded, taking the container from him. "I'm going to go and see if I have any clothes that might fit you. Doubt it, but you probably want to get out of those rags as soon as you can anyways." he continued, before taking both plates and heading for the kitchen to clean them first.

For a while, Kyra just sat there, salve in hand. After everything that had happened to her in the past week, this almost didn't feel real. Nax was giving her food, medical attention, clothes, and a place to sleep, with his only expectation of compensation being working with him as a bounty hunter. It seemed too good to be true, yet here she was.

Nax suddenly poked his head around the corner. "By the way," he started, snapping Kyra out of her thoughts. "You'll be sleeping in my brother's old room. It's the room right across from the 'fresher." he said, before disappearing again.

Kyra muttered a delayed 'thank you' before she got up and headed for the room to get some privacy so that she could put the rest of the salve on. Once she was set with that, she would hit the sonic and then hit the sack. Even the mere prospect of sleeping on an actual bed was enough to excite Kyra.

As for Nax's offer…

Kyra would sleep on it.

---

Allo Lostur sat in his captain's chair, staring blankly at the bridge's viewport and out into space. Tatooine was barely visible on the port side of the window, and the bridge was quiet, save for the tactile clicking of keys from the stations of the bridge personnel. With his right hand, he was toying with the lekku of his favorite pet, making her hiss and moan as his rough skin scraped against the sensitive flesh. In his left hand, he had a glass of Juri Juice, which he eventually downed in one go.

Since the escape that morning, he had not said a single, solitary word to anybody. To those who hadn't been on the Cranky Bantha for long, they didn't notice much of a change provided they weren't part of the bridge crew. To his veterans – those who had been with him since before the Clone Wars, though, Lostur going quiet was practically a sign of the end times. This had only happened on two separate occasions before – once a year before the Clone Wars broke out, and once during.

"Boss." a rough, but feminine voice said off to his left, and Lostur snapped from his trance, turning to meet the source. "The bitch is awake."

"Bring her to me, Kaz." he ordered, and his fellow Weequay nodded, before turning off to the corridor and motioning for some unseen subordinate to come over, and after a minute, the Zeltron slave was forcibly dragged to the bridge and placed in front of Lostur, on her knees and staring down at the floor. "Look at me." he ordered, and the slave remained in place, silently refusing the order. With his patience already being tested, Lostur tightened his grip on the glass. "I said..." he trailed, before throwing the glass at her, causing it to shatter and making the slave let out a scream of pain as she doubled over. "...look at me!" he ordered again, the venom in his voice much more evident now. Lostur let go of his pet, drew his blaster from its holster, and placed it under the Zeltron's chin, and she finally did as he demanded, staring back at him with defiant, purple eyes. "Where is she?" he interrogated.

The Zeltron spat back in his face, only serving to incense him further. "Why the hell do you think I would know?" she shot back, and Lostur immediately punched her in the face, before jamming the barrel of the blaster further up her chin. "...She ghosted, and you aren't ever finding her again." the slave taunted, and Lostur had enough of this, and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Lostur blinked twice, and then checked the blaster. There was a little red indicator above the trigger group indicating a malfunction, so he manually charged the blaster, turning the light green. Lostur pulled the trigger again.

Click.

This became a repeating cycle of malfunctions and attempts to remedy the malfunction, with Lostur's mood only growing worse the longer it went on. At one point, out of sheer frustration, he pointed the blaster off at a wall and pulled the trigger, and the blaster shot just fine, spooking the bridge crew. It was only then that Lostur gave up on actually trying to kill her for now, and instead pistol whipped her in the face, receiving a satisfying crack and a pained yell from the slave.

Lostur then got up and holstered his blaster, before turning to whatever poor schmuck had been watching the display. "You, comms officer. Clean up this mess." he ordered, and the officer scurried away to get what he needed to do exactly as told. Lostur then turned to Kaz. "Take her back to her cell and put her under watch. I want ground teams in every major city planetside within the hour looking for my property." he ordered, making an effort to emphasize the poison in his voice. "If we get any lead on her, I want this bitch down there making up for her mistake."

Kaz quickly nodded, and ordered one of her subordinates to grab the slave. "O'course, Lostur." she responded, before leaving to make preparations for sending the ground teams out.

Lostur sat back down in his chair, and held his face in his hands in frustration. Of all the slaves that could have escaped, the one that he absolutely needed managed to get away. Heads were about to roll – that much was certain.

His pet quickly picked up on his frustration, and began stroking her hand along the length of his arm to try and entice him. However, Lostur instead grabbed her hand firmly, and without a single word between them, his pet understood his position, and she retracted her hand once he loosened his grip.

---

Kyra stared up at the ceiling. She had gotten some shuteye, but it wasn't much. With how much she had been tossing and turning in the bed Nax had offered to her, as well as the frequent drifting in and out of consciousness, she guessed that it was maybe five or six hours worth. There were no pleasant dreams for her, just flashes and nightmares of her prison – of them. The beatings and lashings and the abuse, all of it replaying in her mind over and over, like some sort of sick, twisted holovid she was being forced to watch by her own psyche.

Feeling a cold sweat coming on, Kyra rolled out of bed and onto the floor. She tried to pick herself up, but her hands and knees felt weak, and her limbs failed to support her, buckling. Panic began to set in as she recollected every single thing that her captors had done to her, and a pit formed in her stomach. In a desperate attempt to get up off the floor, Kyra threw her arm over the mattress, struggled to pull herself up, and then grabbed on to the nightstand, only for her grasp to falter and send her crashing back to the floor, accidentally knocking a glass of water that Nax had left for her down, causing it to shatter.

In her state, Kyra didn't even hear the bedroom door slide open. Nax took one look at the scene, before rushing over and scooping Kyra up from the floor. "No!" she yelled, struggling against his grip, smacking him in the face multiple times. "Let go of me!" she begged, seemingly not aware that it was him.

"Easy, easy!" Nax said as he set her down upright on the bed. "Kyra, it's me, Nax! You're not in any danger!" he called out again, trying to get through to her. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

For a second, Kyra continued to stress out and flip between trying to fight Nax and trying to get away, before something he said got through to her, and she stopped. Kyra turned to look at him, her messy bangs partially concealing her tear-stained face. "I..." she trailed, looking horrifically ashamed that she had treated her host like that. "I'm sorry, I..." she muttered, trying to hide her face.

"Don't worry about it." Nax replied in an extremely reassuring tone. "I'm not mad at you – I would actually be more worried if you didn't have some sort of reaction, all things considered."

Kyra had buried her face in her hands by this point, but Nax's comment eventually registered for her. "...What do you mean?" she questioned, moving her fingers slightly to look at him.

Nax thought for a minute of how to explain what he was trying to say. "...Let me put it this way; if somebody went through what you did, and came out on the other end seemingly completely fine, that's not a good sign."

"Why?"

"'Cause it means something inside them broke." Nax replied, clasping his hands together. "Seen it happen before. Never ends well for anybody." he said, sounding somewhat vague on the subject.

Kyra was feeling a little bit better by this point, and she tried to change the topic at hand. "...Nax, why do you want to leave Tatooine?" she asked, more out of genuine curiosity than anything else.

Nax thought on how to answer. "Because there's nothing left for me here." he simply replied, leaning forward and tapping his foot against the floor. Kyra picked up on a very small hint of sadness in his voice, but Nax continued to speak. "It's one big desert with nothing to offer but pain for every poor bastard who has to live here."

Kyra began to put the pieces together – on why Nax lived alone, and why he seemed so vocal about his hatred for Tatooine. "...What, um, happened to the rest of your family?" she asked, before immediately regretting it, afraid that she had pushed too far for her own good.

However, Nax didn't react negatively, and instead just sighed. "Mom died when I was two – complications from going into labor with my brother. That was… just over eighteen years ago, actually." he answered. "Trax and dad, though..." he trailed, his voice cracking somewhat. "They were murdered last month. Some mercs had been bugging us for weeks to buy some vaporators – dad kept telling them no, so they decided to stop asking. Cut him down right in front of the both of us, and then they took Trax from me, just for good measure."

Kyra went wide-eyed, caught off guard by how candid Nax was with something like that. "I-" she stumbled. "...I'm so sorry for your loss, that's… awful."

Nax said nothing, and just stared off into space. "I tracked them down afterwards." he eventually resumed. "They had a camp out in the Jundland Wastes, near where the salt flat starts. All it took was a few shots into the bantha they were keeping, and they had an entire nest of scyks on them. Anyone who tried to run caught a slug to the back." Nax grimly retold, clenching his fists in anger, before breathing deep and letting go.

Kyra tried to think of her own family, only to come up with nothing more than vague flashes of light and shadowy blurs. No solid memories of anything before waking up on the Bantha, and she had been in such constant terror that she was only now realizing this. Kyra tried to think of something aside from her family – a childhood memory, her friends, something embarassing, even, but she was still drawing blanks. Worse yet, she felt a migraine coming on, and clutched her forehead to try and soothe it.

It wasn't exactly hard for Nax to notice. "You alright?" he inquired, quickly moving to hold her upright.

It took a second for the migraine to subside. "...I'm fine, Nax. It's just a migraine." she lied, internally panicking over the realization that she had lost her entire memory beyond knowing her own name.

Nax let go, and then got up. "Alright. I'm going to go make breakfast, but before I forget, I found some clothes for you. They're in a tote, right-." he said, before opening the door, reaching around the side, and sliding the bin into the bedroom. "-here." he finished, kicking it over to Kyra. "Don't worry about the mess. I'll clean it up after we eat."

With that, Nax stepped out of the bedroom. "Wait, Nax." Kyra suddenly called out, and Nax poked his head back in. "About your offer..." she trailed, seemingly still conflicted about what to do. "...I'll take you up on it."

The slightest hint of a smile graced Nax's face. "Alright, but I have just one question for you." he stated, and Kyra seemed to perk up. "Do you know how to handle a blaster?"

"...No." Kyra replied after a moment.

"Then you're going to have to learn." he said in a firm tone. "Don't want you fumbling with one in the middle of a firefight. I'll show you how in a couple hours."

Nax finally went to the kitchen to make breakfast, and Kyra grabbed the bin, popping the plastoid top off and sorting through it, glad to finally be able to get out of her rags and into some actual clothes.

---

"Okay, we're ready to start." Nax said, before pulling out a small holdout blaster from a duffel bag and showing it to Kyra, as a strong gust of wind nearly sent the bag flying, only stopped by Nax stamping his boot on the strap to hold it in place. "First thing's first, you need to treat every blaster as if it's got a power pack in it, no exceptions. They aren't toys." he began to explain, and Kyra nodded. "Second, don't point the barrel at anything you don't want to destroy, and third, keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire." Nax listed off, before pulling out a power pack and loading it into the blaster. "I'll fire ten shots, let you see how you're supposed to do it, then I'll hand it to you and let you try." he said, before flicking the blaster shut and flipping the safety off. Taking a stance with his legs spread apart, Nax aimed the blaster at the target, leaned in, lined the sight posts up, and squeezed the trigger, receiving a metallic clatter from the durasteel target he had set up. Nine more shots, six more hits.

Once he was done, he relaxed, before handing the blaster off to Kyra. "You try." he said, and Kyra took the blaster from Nax, being mindful of the trigger, and she aimed it at the target. Nax barely had time to utter a 'stop' before Kyra immediately fired, missing the target completely and nearly dropping the blaster from the flimsy grip she had on it. "You need both hands on the blaster, Kyra, can't get a firm grip otherwise." he said, and Kyra did as she was told after composing herself, and he was about to correct her for sticking her left thumb away from the weapon, but she corrected that herself. "Line up the front and rear sight posts so that they're even, then make sure the front post is in focus, not the rear posts." he directed, and Kyra aimed the blaster correctly this time. "Feet apart, like..." Nax trailed, before spreading Kyra's legs with his boot so that she had a solid shooting stance. "...that. Now, you can-" he started, before realizing that Kyra was leaning away from the blaster. "You don't have to be afraid of it, you know. Lean in, it's not like it's a heavy blaster that'll kick into your face from the recoil." Nax directed again, before standing directly behind Kyra and putting his hands on her shoulder. "You're good to go. Just squeeze the trigger, don't jerk it."

Finally, Kyra raised the weapon to the target, lined the sights up, and pulled the trigger. The recoil spooked her again, but this time she had it under control, and although she missed again, she quickly reset the blaster and followed up, this time hitting the target. Seven more shots rang out, and she got four more hits, before she lowered the blaster. "Feels strange holding a blaster." Kyra admitted, handing it back to Nax. "Not bad, just… different."

"You get used to it." Nax replied, before realizing there was a malfunction, which he quickly cleared, before giving it back to Kyra to let her get some more practice in. "Blasters aren't nearly as unwieldy as you'd think, even with a little baby one like that." he commented, before reaching under his duster and drawing a much larger heavy blaster from a holster. "Besides, for your first time shooting, five out of ten isn't bad." he said in an encouraging tone, before opening the loading port and slotting a much larger power pack inside.

"What one is that?" Kyra asked as Nax aimed the blaster at the target and squeezed off a few bolts.

"It's a DL-44. Trax's, actually." Nax answered, giving a slight pause in his shooting. "Guy we're going to see soon modified it to repay a debt he owed." he said, before ejecting the power pack and catching it midair.

Kyra cocked her head. "How soon?"

"Depends on how your wounds are coming along." Nax replied, turning to her. "Let me see." he requested, and Kyra held out her arm so that Nax could inspect her injuries. "...Huh."

Kyra raised an eyebrow. "What's 'huh' supposed to mean?"

Nax leaned in a bit further. "...Nothing, just surprised your wounds are healing as quick as they are." he admitted, pulling her sleeve back further so that she could see for herself. Where she had once been completely black and blue along the length of her arm, Kyra's skin was now relatively undamaged, though some stragglers remained, refusing to heal completely. Even the scars from the cuts and lacerations she had endured during her captivity seemed to be healing nicely. "Are you hurting at all?"

Kyra shook her head. "Not really, no." she answered, before letting off a quiet gasp as Nax touched one of her bruises. "Okay, maybe a little." Kyra quickly corrected, and Nax pulled his hand back.

"...Well, considering how much you've healed, we can actually head out right now if you want." Nax suggested, and Kyra waited a second, before nodding. "Then grab something you could use to hide your face – pretty sure there's a duster with a hood in that bin, and a scarf, too." Nax advised, before walking off to the target to grab it and bring it inside. "I'll warm the speeder up in a bit, but bring R5 along, too." he requested, and Kyra nodded again, before heading inside.

---

For a weekend afternoon, the Kerner Plaza market was unusually empty. The place was usually packed with merchants and prospective customers of all colors – Jawas and moisture farmers, mostly, but offworlders and mercenaries sometimes showed up, too. Today, however, there just wasn't much out in the market, and most of the vendors had actually gone home for the day. "Who are we looking for?" Kyra asked, looking up at Nax expectantly.

"Thel Novar." Nax replied, passing by a Jawa-run stall where they were trying to peddle some salvaged droid parts. "Old friend of mine, known him since we were kids. He's a weapons tech, and probably has info on our target." he explained, before stopping and pointing off to a corner of the market, towards a stall with plenty of weapons laid out, but without an actual merchant manning it. "There he is." Nax said, walking over to the stall.

As the pair approached, they heard a veritable storm of swearing coming from behind the stall. "Suns damned useless piece of-" a young, frustrated voice said, before Nax knocked on the stall to get his attention, cutting off the anger. "Hold on a second, let me just-" the voice continued, before there was an audible thud. "Dammit!" the vendor cursed again, before throwing his hands over the counter and pulling himself up, revealing a head of slicked back auburn hair and heavily tanned skin. "What can I do for-" the vendor started, before looking at Nax, and his golden eyes blinked twice. "Nax!" he yelled, dropping any semblance of professionalism, excited to see his friend again.

"Thel, it's been a while." Nax replied, allowing a hint of a smile through as Thel came around the stall and threw his arm around Nax, pulling him into a one-handed bear hug, which Nax reciprocated. Thel then pulled away, looking around for somebody else, before his gaze fell upon Kyra. "Who's she? Your new bond-mate?" he questioned, causing Kyra to instinctively try and hide herself further in her hood, embarassed.

"No, she's my new partner. She's as green as they come, but I'm not going to complain about another blaster and a pair of eyes watching my back." Nax answered, causing Thel to raise an eyebrow towards the idea of Nax playing babysitter.

"Why her?" Thel asked, crossing his arms. "Is Trax not helping you out anymore?" he inquired.

Nax's expression soured. "...Trax is gone."

"You mean he finally left the nest? I figured he would-" Thel tried to start, only for Nax to raise his hand and signal Thel to stop.

"I mean that he's dead, Thel." Nax clarified, and Thel's eyes went wide. "Dad, too. Raider attack last month got them both."

"Suns..." Thel said under his breath, his tone containing a mix of shock and horror. "I just got back from Mos Espa yesterday. If I knew, I would have..." he trailed, his mind running a hundred different trains of thought at once. Thel then looked Nax straight in the eyes. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Nax reached into his duster, rifling around for something. "...Unless you can spare thirty thousand credits, I need some information." he said, producing a holopuck and turning it on, displaying a hologram of a scarred Rodian, wanted dead or alive for five thousand credits for a multitude of violent crimes – arson, terrorism, murder, the like. "Vark Rurmiid. Know him?"

Thel analyzed the hologram closely. "Only vaguely." Thel answered. "He's pretty shady – not sure what he is exactly, but I've heard rumors that he's an insurgent or rebel or something to that effect. I've actually worked on his blaster a few times whenever his usual tech wasn't around, some roided up DC-15s – Clone Wars vintage."

"Got any idea where he might be?" Nax pressed, shutting the puck off.

Thel scratched the side of his face. "Not really, but I have talked with him a little. Guy plays Pazaak a lot, and there's only three dedicated Pazaak parlors in town, so you do the math."

"Thel, I'd rather not run around half of Mos Eisley busting up Pazaak games looking for this guy." Nax replied, a serious look in his eyes. "Every little bit helps – where do you normally see him coming from whenever he's in Kerner?"

With a sigh, Thel rubbed his chin in thought, trying to recall what Nax was asking for. "I… think I've mostly seen him coming from that direction." he answered, pointing behind him with his thumb. "Only one parlor is up that way, and it's the one near the Lucky Despot."

Nax cursed under his breath. "Which means it's a Valarian joint." he noted, and Thel nodded in response.

"Doubt he's under her protection." Thel theorized, raising his hand to his mouth. "Valarian doesn't like messing with the Imperials, and considering that's who put the bounty out in the first place, she probably won't intervene." he continued, tapping his cheek with his index finger. "Though, then again, she doesn't like lightfights starting on her property, so she might get on your ass and make you pay her back for damages if anything happens."

Nax was half-expecting Thel to say that she would kill him if a fight broke out. "...Right, I forgot that Valarian's a lot more forgiving than Jabba is." Nax remarked.

"True, Jabba would just feed you to the Rancor."

Nax and Kyra both shivered at the thought, and Nax immediately began thinking of a plan for how to quietly take Vark in. "Well, it's a start." Nax said, before turning to leave. "Thanks, Thel."

"Hold up." Thel called out, reaching out to grab Nax's shoulder. "If you get me his blaster, I'll pay you top cred for it."

Nax paused, looking over his shoulder. "How much?"

"Considering all the aftermarket stuff I saw on it when I worked with it? Five and a half thou." he offered, and Nax let off a whistle.

"Sure thing, Thel." Nax replied, before finally leaving the market, Kyra in tow. As they rounded the corner out of the market and headed to where the speeder was sitting, they heard R5 wailing and screaming, and the pair came to find that a gaggle of Jawas had surrounded the speeder, trying to dislodge the droid from his locks. "Oi! Get the hell away from my speeder!" Nax yelled out, getting the group's attention just in time for them to see him draw the DL-44 from its holster and aim it at them. The Jawas took one second to process that fact, and then they bolted, the group scattering into the alleyways, dropping whatever they had in hand. Nax quickly holstered the blaster and headed over to where the Jawas had gathered to inspect the damage as R5 twittered incessantly in anger. "How long had they been over here?" Nax inquired, picking up a piece of disconnected plating and setting it aside. R5 gave off an angry sounding gurgle, indicating that the harassment had just started, and Nax looked up at the droid. "Lucky we got here when we did, then." he commented, and after looking at the internal wiring and determining that it was fine, Nax mounted the plate back in its spot, and the pair jumped inside.

"So," Kyra started, giving Nax an unsure look as he started the speeder back up. "Do you have a plan for how we're supposed to get Vark?"

Nax tapped his fingers against the steering wheel in thought. "Think I'll play a game of Pazaak with him." he suggested. "Been a while since I played, but Pazaak is basically braindead anyways. Get as close as you can to twenty without going over and you win a set, three sets in a row to win a round." he briefly explained, pulling the speeder out onto the street and heading for the Despot.

"Don't you, uh, need to make a wager for these kinds of games?" Kyra questioned, seeing the possibility that Nax could lose badly. "I remember some of the guards talking about debts they owed over… Sabacc, I think?" she tried to recall.

"Mhm." Nax replied, making a sharp turn to drive past one Mos Eisley's many docking bays, narrowly avoiding another group of Jawas that decided to run out in front of his speeder. "The wager'll be his freedom against my credits. He loses, he surrenders himself for the bounty. He wins, he runs me for every credit I've got."

Kyra raised an eyebrow. "You think he'll actually surrender himself?" she questioned, wondering if Nax seriously expected Vark to do as much.

Nax snorted in response. "Considering his rap sheet? I seriously fraggin' doubt it, which is why I want you standing there with me. You see him reach for his heater, you blast him. Bounty'll pay the same whether he's warm or cold, so it doesn't matter to me." Nax continued, before they passed by a large crashed freighter in faded Old Republic colors, weathered by the sands, with plenty of Valarian gangers hanging around the premises. "I only really want to settle this quietly so I don't have to deal with Valarian." he admitted, scratching the back of his neck as he headed the speeder onto a main road, before pulling off into an alleyway, leaving the speeder on idle. "Parlor's not too far from here." Nax commented, and the duo got out of the speeder. Nax released R5 from his restraints, setting the droid on his treads. "R5, you're up front. There's probably going to be at least one bouncer at the door, so I want you to shock the guy so we can get in."

R5 twittered with excitement and wobbled side to side, nearly tipping himself over until Nax grabbed him and set him straight again. Nax then turned to Kyra and motioned with his head for her to follow. The trio proceeded further into the alleyway, with Kyra and Nax stopping and leaning against the wall while R5 exposed himself to the guard. "Git, y'friggin trash can." a gravelly sounding woman called out. Nax poked his head around the corner, watching R5 approaching the Weequay guard. "I said git!" she repeated, pointing off into the distance with her blaster rifle. R5 started babbling to her about something Nax couldn't quite understand, but it was then that the second guard, a burly Zabrak, came into view.

The Zabrak, instead of saying anything, simply opted to kick R5, who gave off an electronic yelp. Nax then fully exposed himself. "Hey!" he yelled out, getting their attention. "The hell do you think you're doing to my-" he tried to continue, and R5 took his chance, shocking the two guards enough to drop them to the floor, unconscious. "-droid." he finished, and R5 gave off a happy sounding chirp, pleased with his work.

Kyra came out from the alleyway and took in the sight. "That… went surprisingly well." she commented, following Nax as he walked over to the guards and picked up the Zabrak.

"Yeah, surprised they didn't just shoot him." Nax replied as he hefted the guard over his shoulder, earning an angry gurgle from R5. "Grab the other one, we need to move the bodies so any laserbrain coming by won't think something's up." he ordered, and Kyra grabbed the Weequay. The both of them headed for a nearby dumpster, and Nax threw the Zabrak in with little issue. Kyra, though was struggling to lift the Weequay, so Nax gave her a hand and tossed the body in, before slamming the dumpster shut. With that out of the way, Nax turned to R5. "Keep watch, we're heading in." he said, making for the door to the parlor.

The moment the door slid open for them, they were blasted with a horrifically foul odor, like a mix of bantha dung and dewback bile being boiled together in a pot. Nax had grown used to awful smells, but Kyra immediately began to gag, and quickly pulled up her bandana to mask the scent. They proceeded through a cramped hallway to hear sounds of frustration and anger coming from what Nax assumed to be the Pazaak table, and upon opening the door, they were greeted with the sight of five people at a Pazaak table, three sitting, the other two standing. The ones actually playing were their target, Vark, and a human, with a Valarian dealer sitting to the side. The spectators, meanwhile, were a male Twi'lek and a female Mirialan. The four of them were giving agitated looks to Vark, and Nax gathered that the three players had been pretty soundly beaten, judging by the large pile of credits at Vark's side.

Vark's opponent got up from the table, staggered a little, and brushed past Nax and Kyra, leaving out the back. The other spectators quickly followed suit, leaving the dealer and Vark, who had turned their attention to the pair. "Another sucker come to line my pockets?" Vark questioned confidently as he pocketed his credits, his voice nasally and dry.

Nax sat down at the table and reached into his duster, while Kyra stood off to his left. "Not quite." he replied, pulling the holopuck out and setting it on the table, displaying his bounty. Vark's cockiness immediately evaporated, and he shot up straight. The dealer, meanwhile, gave Nax and Kyra a wary glare. "I'm here to play. I win, you surrender and I get to bring you in warm. You win, you get every credit in my account." he offered, before putting the puck away. "Of course, I could just bring you in cold."

Vark silently stared at Nax for a while, tapping his fingers against the table. The dealer looked at Vark expectantly, waiting on him to answer. "...How about I take my third option, merc?" he wryly suggested, suddenly putting his hand into his jacket. Kyra barely reacted in time to draw her blaster from its holster, but by the time she did, Nax was already halfway across the table, gunning to punch Vark out. Vark, however, managed to evade the blow, causing Nax to tumble forwards and onto the floor. With Kyra drawing on him, Vark was forced to fire off a poorly aimed shot at her, hitting the wall, before running off as Nax picked himself up off the floor.

"Cold it is!" Nax yelled after Vark, chasing him through the door with Kyra keeping pace behind him, the dealer yelling in anger. Nax and Kyra pursued Vark to the front business, some sort of restaurant that was particularly busy at that moment. Vark barreled through the servers and pushed customers out of the way as he made for the front door with Nax and Kyra quickly closing in on him, blasters drawn. In a bid of desperation, Vark quickly turned back and fired a shot at the pair, missing his intended target again, but striking one of the restaurant's servers in the side.

Vark got out onto the street and tried to run to the left, maybe hoping to duck into an alleyway to avoid the two hunters, but Nax's aim was faster, and he quickly fired a shot into Vark's back, sending the fugitive crumpling to the ground. "He's down!" Nax called out. Quiet quickly fell over the area as onlookers watched Nax and Kyra run up to Vark's body and slap a pair of stuncuffs around his wrists, before grabbing both his blaster rifle and his bag of credits from the game.

A patrol of Stormtroopers was apparently in the area – a fact that Nax and Kyra found out the hard way when they were approached from behind. "Drop your blasters! Hands where I can see them!" one of the troopers yelled, pointing his blaster rifle at Nax's back.

Nax did as was demanded of him, and Kyra followed suit. "Relax, officer. I'm a registered bounty hunter." Nax said, keeping as calm as he could with a blaster pointed at his back. "This Rodian has a bounty out on his head – I'm simply collecting on it." he explained as the Stormtrooper circled around to Nax's front, keeping his blaster trained on him.

There was a flash of light from the trooper's visor, probably scanning him to verify that fact. The light disappeared, and the trooper lowered his blaster. "Got the puck on you, Strag?" he inquired, and Nax nodded. Nax slowly reached into his duster and produced the holopuck, turning it on for the trooper to see Vark's face. The trooper stared for a second, perhaps in disbelief, before letting off a whistle. "Damn, nice work." he complimented, before giving the order for his patrol to stand down. "You want an escort to the garrison? Wompbrain bastard's got a pretty chit on his head – don't want some vulture stealing it from you." he offered as Nax and Kyra picked their blasters up from the ground and stood up.

"Definitely." Nax replied, grabbing Vark and hoisting him over his shoulder. He then turned to Kyra. "Go back and grab R5 and the-" he started to say, only to hear the telltale whir of speeder turbines approaching them. Nax turned back, and spotted R5 in his speeder, controlling it through his scomp-link. The troopers made room for him to pull up, and Nax simply shook his head at the amusing sight, before loading Vark onto the back.

The troopers, meanwhile, called in a request for two speederbikes to swing around to the restaurant to provide the requested escort, and it didn't take long for them to show up, either, and in no time at all, Nax and Kyra were headed for the Imperial garrison to collect their reward.

---

Nax pulled the speeder up just in front of the steps to the garrison, leaving it on idle once again. Their escort did the same, hopping off and leaning against their bikes. Nax and Kyra got out, and Nax picked Vark up off the back of the speeder, slinging him over his shoulder once again. "...This is where you collect all of your bounties?" Kyra inquired as they headed up the steps.

"Not all of them." Nax replied, re-adjusting the Rodian to fit more comfortably over his shoulder. "Just the Imperial ones, like Vark here." he said.

The trooper guarding the door signaled for the pair to stop. "Need your peacekeeping license." he requested, and Nax produced his datapad, handing it to the trooper, who pulled out another device and plugged it in. After a short wait, the trooper handed the datapad back and pressed down on his helmet's commlink. "Gaffi, Strag's here with a bounty for you." he reported, pausing again, before opening the door for them. "Sit in reception, he'll be out in a minute."

The pair proceeded inside, earning a few curious looks from the clerks mulling around behind the desk. They mostly kept away from them, however. The troopers, though, were watching the pair, clearly impressed that Vark had finally been bagged.

Eventually, Gaffi came out of his office, and waved the pair over to him, letting them inside. "Impressive work, Nax." Gaffi complimented as Nax looked for a place to set the Rodian down. "Is he still breathing?"

"Barely." Nax replied, deciding to just prop Vark against the wall. "He caught a blaster bolt and then crumpled, but he's alive."

The elder Imperial cracked a slight smile. "Ever the professional, Nax. Would've had to do more paperwork if he bit it." he remarked, shaking hands with Nax, and then casting a glance to Vark. "At least this insufferable pile of excrement will no longer be a thorn in our side once he gets shipped off to Imperial Center." he said with a restrained fury in his voice, before turning back to look at Nax. "Well done. Payment has already been disbursed and will be in your account tonight, with a little extra for good work. Just need you to sign this." he said, producing a datapad with an empty spot for his signature

Nax nodded, signed, and then cracked a smile of his own. "Always a pleasure, Major." he replied. "If you ever need my services again, you know how to find me."

Gaffi nodded, and then dismissed the pair, who quickly left the garrison. "...That's it?" Kyra asked as they left.

"That's it." Nax answered. "Actually getting the bounty and collecting on it is barely a fourth of the work in actually bounty hunting." he explained, heading down the steps back to the speeder, where the escort was still sitting around. This part of town was actually fairly quiet, so the sound of the idling speeders drowned out whatever distant background noise there was. The escorts pulled Nax aside for some casual conversation, leaving Kyra to mind herself.

There was a group of familiarly dressed mercs approaching the garrison – a male Trandoshan, a female Weequay, and a male human, conversing amongst themselves. "...ssso, thisss guy, he'ss in the dirt, begging for hiss life, right?" the Trandoshan recalled.

"Yeah?" the human replied, intent on hearing the story through. "What happened then?"

"Well, the bounty ssaid dead or alive, sso I ssslagged that scopdump. Sshould have sseen the look on the girl'sss face!"

The Weequay, who looked exhausted, grabbed hold of the two of them and stared them down. "Will you two just shut the hell up?" she pleaded, fed up with their chatter. "When I have to make my report to Lostur, all he's going to find out is that you two have been screwing off and gabbing to each other instead of looking for her!"

Kyra froze up at the mention of Lostur. Of course he would scour the planet looking for her – why wouldn't he?

The trio fell silent for a short while, and then the Trandoshan began to sniff the air, turning around to look at Kyra. "That one smells… familiar." he remarked, and the group approached Kyra, the Trandoshan taking a particular interest in her. Kyra's heart began to race, and she faltered slightly, trying to retreat behind the protection of Nax. "It iss her." the Trandoshan hissed to the other two. "You, bounty hunter." the Trandoshan said, gaining Nax's attention. "Are you aware of who your 'friend' iss?" he questioned.

Nax approached the Trandoshan, sizing him up. "Who's asking?" he asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer.

"That iss not important, but considering you likely know anyways..." the Trandoshan replied, fishing around in his jacket and producing a small cloth pouch, which jingled as he moved it around. "...We will pay you two thousand credits for you to release her into our custody."

"That's cool, buddy, but you've got the wrong person." Nax replied, and the trooper escort quietly drew their weapons, flipping the safeties off.

The Trandoshan snarled. "I would never forget one'sss ssscent, fool." he lashed out, temper beginning to flare up.

"Say you're not just trying to kidnap some random woman off the street, and she is actually the one you're looking for." Nax countered, sounding particularly bored. "What if I refuse?"

"Then you'll have to be… dissposed of." the Trandoshan answered. "One way or another, we will get our property back. So, what will it be?"

Nax feigned deep thought, and the trio clearly grew more impatient with the waiting. "Well, it's a good thing I already figured this would happen." he vaguely answered, sounding particularly agreeable to their terms. Kyra stood frozen with fear, waiting for Nax to take the bag of credits and sell her out. Instead, the Trandoshan opened his mouth to congratulate Nax on making the 'correct' choice, only for Nax to stick the DL-44 in the lizard's mouth and pull the trigger. The nanosecond that the other two processed that Nax had just killed one of their own, they immediately ran for their lives, and Nax drew the blaster on them, firing off another shot and hitting the human in the side, causing him to stumble and nearly fall.

"Scyksucking slavers!" the escorts yelled, firing shots at the slavers, one of them pursuing on foot while the other remained behind. "I'll put out an APB on those two – you two should probably clear the hell out of here just in case they bring their friends around." the trooper advised, before following after his partner.

Nax grabbed the pouch of credits and stashed it inside his duster. "Come on, let's get Vark's blaster back to Thel so we can get back home." he said to a shellshocked Kyra, before ultimately just taking her hand himself and bringing her back to the speeder.

---

That evening, Nax had decided against immediately leaving town, and had somehow convinced Kyra into sharing a drink with him at Chalmun's to celebrate the bounty. They were sat up front on the actual bar, and the joint was basically dead quiet. "Thirteen thousand credits for today's work." Nax finally said, very pleased with the haul. "Almost halfway to what I need to get us the hell out of here – not bad if I do say so myself."

Kyra stared blankly ahead of herself, not really responding to Nax. "...Why didn't you sell me out?" she eventually asked, her voice quiet and somber. "Now Lostur and his men will be after you, too."

Nax sighed and lifted Kyra's hood slightly to be able to look at her better. "Kyra, when I took you in, I accepted that whoever you escaped from coming and looking for you was a likelihood." he explained, trying to perk her up a little. "I didn't take you in on a whim, and that aside, this is a professional relationship. What kind of professional backstabs and sells out their partner?" he asked, and Kyra was unable to produce an answer. "Exactly. Professionals have standards. A reputation to maintain, too – betrayal for credits isn't exactly beneficial to upholding that, and even if you weren't my partner, I still wouldn't have handed you over." he further elaborated, resting his arm against the bar counter. "You're safe with me, Kyra."

That, at least, assuaged Kyra's fears over Nax's intentions. If there ever were a time for him to double cross her, it would have been right then and there. "...Thanks, Nax." she gratefully replied.

"Actually, I should be thanking you." Nax said in a matter-of-fact tone. Kyra cocked her head, not sure what he meant by that, since, in her eyes, she didn't do much of anything. "When I jumped the table, Vark was quick enough to get out of the way and make me fall onto the floor. If you hadn't been there to draw your blaster on him, Vark would have probably just shot me. Instead, he had to prioritize you since you were still an active threat getting ready to shoot him. Even if you didn't directly do anything, you still helped."

Kyra blinked twice at Nax's assessment, and then smiled in response to the praise. "Well, I guess when you put it like that, yeah, I did help." she replied, relaxing on the stool. "Think I'll finally take you up on that drink."

Nax nodded, and then turned to Ackmena. "Hey, Ackmena?" he called out, and the bartender turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Bottle of Hettyc Baar for me and my partner." he requested.

"Of course, Nax." Ackmena said in her almost grandmotherly tone.

Ackmena smiled and disappeared under the counter to grab the shot glasses and the actual bottle. "What's Hettyc Baar?" Kyra questioned, clearly unfamiliar with the brand.

"My favorite kind of whiskey. Usually only drink it after a job goes particularly well." Nax replied as Ackmena came over, and he reached into the pouch to produce a chit to pay her with. Ackmena poured the drink into the shot glasses, and then took the chit, running it through the processor. "Little extra for your silence, Ackmena." he tacked on.

Ackmena gave him a somewhat sarcastic look. "What were we talking about, dear?" she asked with a smile, before walking back to the front of the bar, leaving the two to their own devices with the bottle and shot glasses.

Nax then refocused on Kyra. "Well, Kyra," he started, grabbing the shot glass, and she did the same. "Here's to our partnership!" he said, and the pair toasted, before they pounded back the shots in one go. Nax showed no outward changes, but it didn't take long for Kyra to register just how strong the whiskey was.

"Holy-" she started to say, cutting herself off as she grabbed her throat. Ackmena had the foresight to know exactly what was going to happen, so by the time Kyra was grappling with the burning sensation, Ackmena had already slid a glass of water over to her, which Kyra quickly downed. "I-" she stammered, trying to eke out hoarse laughter. "I can't tell what's worse, the burning or how intense the taste is. How do you even drink this stuff?!" she complained, setting the glass back on the counter, which Ackmena refilled.

Nax chuckled, pouring two more shots for them. "You get used to it. Come on, I paid for the whole bottle, and we've barely even started." he said, pounding back his shot and waiting for Kyra to do the same. "You're not gonna tap out after just one shot, are you?" he teased.

Kyra steeled herself, grabbed the shot glass, and drank it again. "...Stars, I'm really going to regret this, aren't I?" she questioned to nobody in particular, before drinking some more water. Nax poured another round.

"Maybe you will, maybe you won't." Nax replied, and they drank the shots in unison again. "Wonder how long it's gonna take for Ackmena to give us the boot." he half-joked.

"Halfway into the bottle?" Ackmena replied with a smirk. "I know you can handle it, but I don't think she can."

Nax shrugged and poured another set of shots. "Hey, looks can be deceiving, Ackmena!" he joked.

One thing was for sure, and that was that this was going to be a long night.

---

And that's the first rewritten chapter of Pulsar Company done. I hope you enjoyed, just... keep an open mind with the future chapters if there's not an indication of them being rewritten.