Benner slowly made his way down the street away from the tavern, smiling slightly as he watched a couple of kids chasing each other across the street up ahead of him. They were carrying sticks and were pretending they were swords as that made the sound effects whenever one of them swung their 'blade' at the other. It was nice to see that there was still time for people to enjoy themselves. There was no danger here, nothing on the surface at least where the general population could see it. No, to them, the great wall that enclosed the entire city was keeping them safe from anything and everything that was lurking outside. Honestly, it was probably MORE dangerous inside the walls, but they didn't need to know that. The pilot just kept on walking slowly, glancing to his right when he heard a third kid pop out from behind some wooden storage crates and shoot at him with a toy blaster.
[color=lightblue]"Pow pow!!"[/color]
Ruce chuckled and played along, turning to face the kid and bringing a hand up to his chest where the kid had 'shot' at him.
[color=007236]"Argh! Oh no, yer got me, aaaah!"[/color]
The Captain crouched down and faked a cough, pretending to be dying when the kid looked shocked and ran out from behind the boxes up to the pilot, looking at him with concern.
[color=lightblue]"A-are you okay? I didn't mean to shoot you!"[/color]
[color=007236]"It's okay. I 'ave a healin' ray on my holo comm. 'ere, I'll fix myself up."[/color]
Ruce pulled his holo comm out and 'scanned' it over himself, making a whirring sound with his mouth as he did so, standing up straight afterwards and showing the kid he was all better. The kid laughed and clapped before turning around and running off to rejoin his friends.

The Captain chuckled to himself and watched as the kids vanished around a corner to keep playing their games, when Sky approached from the side, causing the brown-haired pilot to glance at his friend. Ruce placed his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and pulled the heavy piece of clothing about himself, frowning as his friend as he started to slowly walk towards the docking tower again.
[color=007236]"Makin' friends again? I wonder 'ow long yer new friends are gonna piss themselves for? It's a shame tha' even in this part of the galaxy, there are shitheads who just wanna ruin the day of someone. Well, tha's a bit cruel. You technically count as one of those shitheads too."[/color]
Ruce grinned from over his shoulder as he peered towards his friend, listening to him as he asked his question about some guy named 'Fal'tok'. The name didn't ring any bells at the moment the question was asked. Ruce shrugged his shoulders and turned about to take the datapad off his friend, looking at the alien language that was on the display. He didn't say anything though about it, but was clearly able to read what was written. After a couple of minutes walking in silence, the scruffy pilot glanced back over his shoulder.
[color=007236]"We met two Grannok and four Urin about seven clicks east of 'ere, where we exchanged 'solar farmin' equipment' an' some other cargo with 'em. They used a shuttle to meet up an' the Zephyr was in orbit pretty much directly overhead. I wasn't able to perform a detailed enough scan to see if they had their weapons pointed at us. I took the Valkyrie to the air an' brought her straight 'ere when I discovered the Zephyr."[/color]
Ruce turned about and started to walk backwards a short distance as he glanced at Sky and brought his arms up, interlocking his fingers behind his head where he leaned his head back into his hands.
[color=007236]"Whether this 'Fal'tok' was one of the Grannok, I dunno. I can't see any reason why he'd try an' off me anyway. Hm... Well, I did make him cough up four times the agreed upon amount for the cargo... Whatever was in those crates, he was willing to pay up without a fight to get them."[/color]

The Captain of the Valkyrie turned back around and made his way to the turbolift that would take him back to the docking tower were his ship was. Pressing the button to call the lift, Ruce glanced back at Sky and frowned.
[color=007236]"I've had a bad feelin' in my gut ever since I docked 'ere. It's part of the terms an' conditions, NOT to check the cargo I'm deliverin'. Money tends to be good, an' tha's usually because I'm smugglin' illegal cargo over what is actually written in the job descriptions. I would take combat missions and bounty huntin' missions, but I'd never forgive myself if I was responsible for hurtin' Tes in any way, plus as couriers, we get to see parts of the galaxy we've only seen in holovideos."[/color]
The sound of the lift reaching the ground level caused the pilot to turn around and step into the lift as the automatic doors slid open. Waiting for Sky to get in, he pressed the button for the floor where the Valkyrie was and held onto the handrail as the lift took off, quickly gaining speed as it rocketed up towards the more high-tech and upper class city levels above. Ruce tapped his fingers against the metallic handrail and pondered for a second as he glanced back at Sky, tilting his head at him a fraction.
[color=007236]"Mind you, I did see Tes speakin' with one of the Grannok after we received payment, but the audio was out so I dunno wha' they said. The Grannok looked suspicious though, but why'd he send a mercenary after me if he was upset with Tes? Honestly, I ain't got a clue an' I'm actually worried I've got myself an' Tes involved in somethin' serious. We can't run away. It'll be too suspicious an' they're bound to send the Zephyr after us. We can't outrun a ship like tha'! I doubt even the Royale could. Best chance we'd 'ave of gettin' away would be to hyperjump to another planet an' drop out of hypercruise when we're inside the planet's atmosphere to avoid showin' up on long range scanners. But do yer know how difficult an' dangerous such a maneuver is?"[/color]
Ruce grumbled and complained as the turbolift doors slid open to reveal the Valkyrie sitting on her landing pad. The pilot's face lit up immediately and he walked out of the turbolift and over towards his ship with arms spread wide, as if he were about to give the ship a big hug. Actually, that's precisely what he did, walking up to one of the landing gears and wrapping his arms about it as best he could.
[color=007236]"Hey gorgeous! Daddy's 'ome!"[/color]