Jack was looking through a near transparent object in front of himself. It was a cylindrical container with a green liquid inside of it.
"You are also selling medical bacta solutions?", asked Jack the store owner while his yellow eyes scanned the liquid in front of himself under his little hood.
"Yes. The quality of it is also very good. Are you interested?", asked an alien with a long snout and slim tendrils that looked like a mustache.
The alien was standing on its hands while its feet were raised upward in the air. Or was it that the feet and hands were just switched? They could still be both used for walking through.
This alien race was called a Dug and it was apparently the shop owner of the clothing shop they were led to by the little commercial droid.
"Hmm, how much does it cost?"
"3000 Credits a unit."
"That´s expensive..." Jack tried to immediately to negotiate with this guy but it didn't seem to work very well.
[Bargaining was acquired.]
"I told you those are of high quality. Don't try to bargain. I know enough of you smuggler types. And if you dare steal something I will make sure to hunt you down."
´Those skills get kinda overhand. At some point, I will probably drown in them. Oh well.´
"Come on, friend. We are only trying to get by a little bit. We are also buying some armor so you could just give us some discount, no?" Ben was already intervening and trying to smooth Jack his failure over and still get something extra.
The Dug looked at him disgruntedly and actually nodded. "Alright, but I will only go 200 units down. It's already bad enough that you want to pay with credits. Normally you should know how unreliable that is in the hutt area. So if you find something good that you need to sell off later come to me first. Is that a deal?"
"Sure is one!" grinned Ben and agreed.
"Good, then do your browsing and come to the check-out."
Ben came closer to Jack and bumped him with his elbow to the side. "Like a natural, right?"
"At least one of your skills from our old world still has some use. No wonder you ended up a smuggler.", smiled Jack back and basically thumbed up his safe for the discount.
They had money but it was still alright to be stingy with it. There were two types of people when winning money. The first that squandered it instantly and the ones that used it in meaningful ways.
And since they didn't have a way nor really the knowledge to do either in this world, they keep amassing it for now. Or in this case, try to pay as low as possible. Ben did this already before they died.
From the trio, he was mostly the guy that was broke nearly every time. So there was no real wonder about that. It is also one reason why Jack safeguarded most of the money.
"Hey, over here." David now chimed in and wanted them to come to a certain corner in the somewhat spacious shop.
Jack looked over, grabbed 10 medic stims and walked over to David. He basically could plain and simply steal most of the stuff in this shop with putting it into his inventory but the owner had a lot of cameras installed and it was doubtful that he wouldn't notice the theft.
Better stay clean for now.
"Did you find something good?", asked Jack when arriving at his friend's side.
"Just look." He pointed at a helmet.
"Huh? Isn't that a Mandalorian one? But it is somewhat slimmer? I don't think my head can fit into that." commented Jack and looked at the helmet that had a big black horizontal visor slightly over the point where the nose would be. Everything else was very much closed up and a small antenna sprung upwards on the right side.
"Just try it out. There is also lightweight armor to the left. It should give you some protection while not hindering your movement too much with overweighting you. Ben, you and I should also consider getting some things."
"How does armor mainly work here? I actually prefer using normal clothes like the ones I have now.", answered Ben directly.
"And you also like getting shot into swiss cheese as well? Armor keeps energy weapons and ballistics - if there are any still used - from penetrating too deeply into your body. Having none is basically a death sentence. So you better gear up."
"Come to think, we should also get some standard DC-15 blasters. I think I saw them at the check-out."
"Good idea. Now, everyone lets change into those gears." smiled David. Not that they would really see it.
Jack wondered how he would look later when he actually started wearing some plates of armor.
----
A little bit later Jack came fully changed into his new gear. Most of it was under the trench coat he got from Ben.
(A/N Here is a picture of how he looks at the moment - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2e/18/b6/2e18b6c32b25d252385594ee6ec75cf0.jpg)
(Just add this helmet to his outfit that hides his complete face and head - https://www.instagram.com/p/BE44EHtygwz/ -)
What surprised Jack was that David actually really had some armor plates over his shoulders. Why was he even still wearing most of his stuff over his robes?
"Why are you still wearing that robe", asked a very muffled voice underneath the helmet.
David only looked up at him and pointed at his helmet. "Activate your voice amplifier. It is on the right side. And why I still wear it? It looks like Jawa don't have it that easy. My body is covered by an environmental suit. That's where the yellow glows from my eyes come from, mate. And don't I look much more intimidating like this?"
Jack fumbled around with the helmet and succeeded with activating the voice module. Now his voice would be heard louder outside. Even though now it had a robotic undertone to it.
"Are you sure? You still look like a midget. Just with a lot of armor."
"Asshole...." Jack chuckled. "Nevermind that. Don't be fooled. I tweaked with this armor a little bit. I can overcharge it and electrify about 10meters around myself."
"Damn, that knowledge in your head seems to be very useful." Jack was genuinely surprised. Then he looked around "Where is Ben?"
"Not sure, he hasn't come out of the changing chamber yet."
"I have finished already." (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EVv1GN)
"Really now? You basically just changed some clothes.", said Jack after looking at Ben. Well, there were still some things that looked to have been enforced but that would not do much.
"Don't worry. I like this free moving clothes more. And the shop owner said it is a material that can absorb some dmg. So if I get it its not instant death.", said Ben while grinning.
"Suit yourself. Did you get the guns?", sighed Jack. David also could only shake his head in disapproval. Sooner or later he will find out how important stuff like this is.
"Yep, here you go. I also got 5 clips for each of us. Never thought that each clip can shoot 500 blasts. Damn this future."
"Alright, let's pay up and move out.", suggested Jack and both of them just nodded.
At the check-out, the Dug counted all the items they had on them.
"That will be 470.000 Credits in total. I already discounted the meds and the old clothes you leave here."
"That much!?" Ben was a little bit horrified but Jack just paid up.
"Don't make a fuss. We ended up buying high-grade stuff. And armor, in general, is expensive." commented Jack to his friend.
Now it seems he was rethinking his own choice of clothing. After all his friend was the one paying in the end.
But the most likely scenario was that Ben would clearly sell it elsewhere as soon as possible and buy something else with the money.
With that pretty much done, they went ahead to their next destination.