Josk rolled her shoulders, smiling devilishly at her Captain. "You got it, Ray. We'll have this whats-his-face in cuffs in no time. Time to enforce the law and finish off this genocide the Commitee started." She said humorously, twirling a loose strand of her ponytail. Almost everyone walked into the Phoenix at once, which was probably a bad idea. Nothing more obvious than a squad of heavily armed goons strolling into a divebar and asking questions and getting real chummy. Amateurs. Well, whatever. Not like she really cared about catching this guy, anyway. The people inside the Phoenix could wait. There were a gazillion other classless places just like it. Truth be told, Yasaliah knew exactly how this was going to do down. There were going to trot around this crappy planet, find nothing, and then go home after getting yelled at by the Commitee.

Instead of walking into the bar like her clueless compatriots, Josk hit her stride and circled around the back of the business. Anyone who was tipped off to the approach of her crewmates would probably leave out the back entrance. Finding a suitable spot in the alleyway, she kept an eye on the back door of the Phoenix.

Tapping idly on her datapad as if she was searching the net, Josk was in reality checking anyone who exited the Phoenix to be this assassin guy. Anyone that looked like a shape shifter she could accost, pretend to be one of probably many honest sex workers that wandered places like this. Satasis had it easy in the way that pretty much all of them were super hot by common galactic standards, and Josk was like, ten times hotter than that. So it should be easy. If he was in there, they would find him. If not, she would just tag along to whatever other crappy place they found next and just do the same thing until we all got tired and went home.

Tony was a bit more used to the aridness of the planet than some of the others if only because he’d ended up, by chance, on a few desert planets during his adolescence. But he hadn’t, by any means, had to rough it on any of those planets. Traditionally, a certain amount of luxury had always followed him. But not now.

He started to look about and take in his surroundings. Surely, he had spent enough time in his university years in port cities such as this one, but he also knew to keep his guard up and avoid getting comfortable. Perhaps that’s why he jumped slightly when Rendyl tugged on his sleeve. Nevertheless, he quickly caught himself and gave a slightly crooked smile back at her.

”You can tag along, yeah,” he replied softly. He inherently furrowed his own brow back at her, mirroring her before he softened his own expression as though to mentally soothe her. He wondered now what her own background was in the matter of apprehending criminals. Now that he thought it, she probably didn’t have much of a background at all. Or perhaps she had yet another surprise in store for the crew.

The Phoenix. For a joint labeled the “best bar in the galaxy”, he certainly hadn’t heard of it before. But in his past life, he certainly would not have found himself in a port city this…grungy. S07-1 had character. Yes, that was the word. Character. He smiled slightly to himself at Raymond’s usage of the Earth idiom but otherwise passively took in Raymond’s speech as he tried to orient himself in this world. The longer he spent on the ship, the harder he found it to reorient himself. As he let himself focus on the words around him, he began to pick up a medley of languages and, within them, accents. Few understood the beauty of it and fewer still on this ship: that was, of course, why he had his job in the crew.

But he was forced back into the room when the smell of tequila and sweat and whatnot hit him like a brick wall. It brought him back in time to hear Astrid’s comment and give a quick laugh in response.

”I’ll do my best to deliver, sweetheart,” he quipped, stuffing his scarf into his back pocket and adjusting the collar of his partially-unbuttoned shirt.”Best of luck, eh?” He cast a quick glance over his shoulder at Rendyl before sliding his way deftly towards the bar with a hand trailing behind him as though to lend some guidance to the woman as she likely followed. He’d led them to the bar, and once there, he slipped a few credits into his hand and waved down a passing bartender.

”A shot of whatever the hell it is that’s stinking up the place, please,” he requested as he slid some of the credits across the counter. As he waited for the drink, he turned to the Satasi woman beside him and slid the remaining credits her way across the top of the bar. He moved his body in this motion and slid himself closer to her.

”Do you have a moment, darling?” His tongue rolled with her native language, one he’d picked up quite early in life. He’d known most of his life that gossip passed quickly and effective through the sex workers of a port city. If there were an assassin in their midst, she’d certainly have some sort of a lead as to his location.

Luirae followed after the rest of the crew making their way to the Phoenix but instead of entering the establishment like many of the others, she decided to wander close by. She had no doubt that the place would hold useful information but when you are trying to catch an evasive object, you need a wide net. The scanners didn’t all need to be located in one position in her opinion because it ran the risk of possibly being spotted should multiple devices go off at once or worse, trapped in the location while the culprit was just passing on by. In her mind, if she had been the one to break out of jail then the last thing she would want to do is the obvious. This criminal could bend in, better than anyone from the description provided so why not make it a needle in a haystack. They might want to have a drink or stay in the scum but wouldn’t that be too easy for anyone searching? They had to know this, right?

She knew that she could be giving them too much credit but on the chance she was right, it never hurt to be safe than sorry. It was one of the reasons she was close enough that if things went down in the bar, she could get into action but also far enough away that she could scan further out and call for backup should the need arise. Rae took on the part of explorer and tourist, stopping at the stalls to admire items for sale or chatting a bit with the locals as to not draw anymore attention then she probably already did. If she looked like just another crew passing on through and was excited to see what the place held then maybe she could be ignored by the one they were hunting. It would also give her a chance to see if anyone new or even a local was doing the same thing or bulking up on items for a trip. It was a long shot but it was better to try as many options as possible.

Walking into the room, Raymond did his best to keep his eyes away from his crewmembers who either walked by him, or stayed outside to get to work. After last night's festivities, the stench of tequila made Ray's stomach churn. With a puffed-cheek sigh, he managed to find the bar, laughing a bit at Tony's response to Astrid's. It was times like these that he knew that he was a rather lucky man. His crew definitely wasn't a boring group... And Ray's encounter with his first Interstellar Expedition crew ended with a fistfight and damn near mutiny by a rebellious Tu'Veeri. The glances the crew got were suspicious indeed. Well armed and exhausted looking people entering a locked down space port was definitely not the way you want to find an assassin. "Ugh..." Ray pinched his nose slightly, and ever so slightly using his elbow to hide the tracker on his wrist.

"Rough night?"

The Captain looked up to see the bartender give a toothless grin. The bartender was eight feet tall, had four arms, and was covered in a slime. He looked like a giant toad, especially with the smile. He had just served Tony his drink, who was now speaking a language he didn't quite make out to the Satasi. "That obvious? Ray smirked. The bartender grinned and slid a glass across the table, and accidentally dropping a bottle with his other hand. "Ah shit! Try that, big guy. That'll make you feel better, and ready for more drinks." Ray rather would have drank Valanx's toilet water, but he didn't want to be even more suspicious. With a silent prayer he took the shot, giving a shudder and shake of his head. The bartender looked over at Tony and the Satasi. Even from Ray's position he could feel the lure of the female alien, but he knew that if anyone were to outcharm a Satasi, it would be Tony's silver tongue. "You all together?" He nodded toward a couple of the Marauders.

"A couple of 'em, yeah. Whiskey please." He nodded towards Aamara and Astrid. "The others we met in port. "Ah." Was the bartender's only response, tossing him a glass of overflowing clear alcohol. "You guys definitely give off tourist vibes... I'm surprised *you* even risked coming outside." He chuckled at Aamara and her outfit. "You guys usually get a lot of visitors?" The bartender shrugged. "Depends... People usually come here for the market." He leaned forward a little bit. "A lot of criminals come here to smuggle things in and out as well."

Ray leaned in even closer. "Things... and people?" For a brief moment the bartener's eyes widened, but he moved back and looked away. "They don't pay me enough to give away all of Solela's secrets." He chuckled. Ray moved his arm to take the shot of whiskey, a slight beep coming from it. Raymond noticed the glance, and held it up. "keeps track of her life support." He explained. Once again the bartender nodded, stealing glances at the Marauders, noticing that they were all wearing one as well.

The hairs on Raymond's neck rose. "So how long you've been a bartender?"

"Decades. This place has been my home for as long as I can remember!"

"You must know this place like the back of your hand, then. I'll take another whiskey." The bartender nodded and once again poured a drink. Ray downed it and gave a satisfied sigh. "You're definitely giving these tourists a warm welcome." Ray said. "Just doing my job." Replied the bartender. "That so? Because you've been giving me Syrlum tequila instead of shit whiskey... You said you've been a bartender for a while, right?"

"You got a good eye, friend... Sorry about that, we ran out of whiskey, and didn't want to keep you waiting. I'll grab another bottle in the back." And with that he was gone. Slowly Raymond raised his hand and spoke quietly into the commlink. "Hey, Astrid, ask your friend if he knows the bartender... Josk, standby near that backdoor. Everyone else get ready."

Astrid’s ‘friend’ had apparently been at the bar for quite a while, judging by the slur she couldn’t even begin to describe that somehow made it through the translator, butchering every sibilant and forcing Astrid to do some guessing to determine what the words meant. He talked a mile a minute, starting about various places to get small spare parts and within a minute moved onto a story about a smuggler having gotten shot in a filthy alleyway and not there being a freighter blocking one of the landing pads, no-one bothering to remove it on account of the lockdown. She thanked her dumb luck for having picked probably the most sloshed guy in the room, owing any progress to this very luck, as she possessed all of the tact and charisma of a thrown brick.

At least it gave her an excuse to bring up her datapad under the pretense of taking notes of the places one could reportedly get spare parts, tooling and materials, all the while making sure there wasn’t a changeling out to snuff her lights out. It was only for the best, because deciphering the Yhei’s drunken ramblings took up all of her brainpower and Ray’s message was lost in the background noise, but the linked datapad helpfully converted the message to text and displayed it for her to digest.

She caught herself in time to not instinctively look in the bartender’s direction, instead opting to blow a generous amount of smoke up the drunkard’s ass. ”You seem to know the ins and outs of this place. Frequent patron I take it? Must be a good bartender to keep you coming to a place like this, know him well?” And with that, she set the commlink to relay the frogman’s response to Ray.

“I thought so, but apparently not. He started serving shite a few days ago, and now I’m thinking I’ll need a new watering hole, but finding one here that isn’t an absolute dive where the mortality rate hovers somewhere around the peak of Olympus Mons is like making orbit with a hot air balloon and a fire extinguisher.”

As the Yhei spoke, Astrid found a moment to utter in reply to Raymond. ”Contact or trouble?”

Josk shifted her weight onto one leg, continually checking her datapad for signs of disturbances. She blew some air through her luscious lips and toyed with her luxurious locks of lavender hair, the loose strands that hung down from her ponytail. Josk realised that there was no way she could pass off as some random lady of the night, because she was just too damn good looking. In another life, she could have easily been on the front page of a tabloid. An underwear model or something. Too bad that shit was boring. But honestly, that looked pretty good right now, because she was bored. No flying, no shooting, just waiting. Waiting for some shape shifter to come crawling out of his hole.

Sighing and adjusting her sunglasses on her nose she shifted her weight onto her other leg.

A message came through from Raymond, causing the Satasi to perk up straighter. But it was just a standby message. So she slumped back down into her standard casual pose, to let everyone nearby know how over this she was.

"Sure thing, Captain." She responded. "...Be a lot easier if we just burn this whole place to the ground..." She mumbled. She didn't mean to broadcast that last part, and she hadn't realised she had. But the members of the Marauders were probably used to comments like that at this point. Considering the misfits, outcasts, and adventurers that made up the rest of the crew, it might be easy to forget that the Marauder was a suicide mission for unapologetic pirates like Yasaliah.

Valanx steered away from the bar itself and towards the tables near the back of the building. Their target could be anywhere, and with three of the crew already seated near the bar, Valanx felt it would be a good idea to try to gather information further away from the main action. As he looked for people who might accept his company, or at least tolerate it, he cast surreptitious glances at the datapad on the inside of his wrist. There were a few minor blips here and there suggesting that their target had indeed been here, and there seemed to be a stronger signal back closer to the bar. Still, three of the crew were already there and had likely picked up the same signal, so he kept his distance. They looked suspicious enough as it were; the last thing they needed was other people finding out that the lot of them were together.

Valanx scanned the room, avoiding eye contact with the hostile looks that many of the patrons shot in his direction. He had attempted to sit at a few of the tables, but the others at the table glared sharply at him before he could even ask if he could sit there that he had quickly moved on. Finally, he decided to just casually lean against the far wall. As he did this, assuming an indifferent expression, Ray's voice came in over his comlink, along with responses from Astrid and Yasaliah, including a suggestion that they burn the building down. Valanx rolled his eyes at the pilot's comment while his hand drifted towards his blaster, ready to draw if trouble started. His guess was that Ray had found their target. His hope was that the target didn't know that it had been found.