Meeting the new "gang"

The city wasn't anything like Theo had seen before, it looked like it was lost to time with it's outdated and aged structures. The buildings ranged from well maintained to down right destroyed especially in the outskirts. The kids were covered in dirt and malnourished, some to his surprise were dressed in rusted mining gear and carrying loads of some unknown materials. He was sure that child labour had been abolished centuries ago but he had heard alot of unsupervised planets might still practice it and apparently this planet was one of them. He noticed a lot of the tech they used were far older than the models he knew and some he only learned about in school. He seemed to have found himself in a land left behind by time.

They reached the bar pretty quickly, considering it was a stone throw from the base. The doors swung open violently as a man stumbled out of the bar, a beer bottle quickly following behind him smacking him squarely on the back of his head.

"The next time you touch me Bill, I'll cut off your filthy hands, you hear me! Fucking spineless bastard".

"If it wasn't for Nick, you would have been a brothel whore just like your mother" Bill shouted as he ran away as two more bottles crashed at his feet.

"I swear when I catch him, I'll make sure he's never able to go to those brothels again. Nick? You're back!" she beamed up with pleasure as she ran to and hugged Nick. She shot a cursory glance at Theo "and you brought our new friend. Hi, I'm Sarah by the way."

Theo shook her hand "my name is Theo, thanks for saving me out in the wastes".

"It's no problem, let's go inside and get you something to eat then you can tell us how you got stranded in the first place."

The Sarah led them into the neon lit bar and walked to a table which was already occupied by a young man. He had a lean build with curly brown hair, he was dressed in combat pants and a t-shirt with a leather bag by his feet.

"This the new stray? Can't say I am impressed" he said as he took a look at Theo.

Sarah gave him punch as she sat beside him "Don't be a dick. I'm sure you'd be dead in days, if you were stranded in the wastes. Sorry about him Theo, James is actually really nice once you get to know him."

"It's a pleasure to meet you James". Theo said with a shy smile, he definitely wasn't to happy being judged on his physical aspects.

"Enough of that, James" Nick frowned as he signaled to one of the waitress and ordered some food and drinks. "Now while we wait for the grub, tell us who we saved and how you got yourself into this situation cause only a fool would find himself walking alone in the wastes."

Both James and Sarah turned expectantly to Theo.

"Well to begin with I'm not from this planet and I....." Theo stopped as he saw the surprise look on the faces of the group around him.

"Hey Tony we want to use the other room" Nick stood up quickly and gestured to the others to follow him. Tony opened a door behind the bar as the group approached and closed it as they stepped in. The room looked cozy with low lights and two circular couches facing each other with a large table in the middle. The most important thing was it seemed that the room blocked out the sound from the bar, so no one could hear what happened in the room. 

"Now Theo continue what you were saying" Nick said as he got comfortable. "How are you not from this planet, none of the space ports are working and there aren't any functioning spaceships on this planet, well not anymore."

Theo explained his whole ordeal; from leaving his home world and the work he did on the space station. To the unexplained betrayal and him waking up in the heaps of trash, his escape from the rat-like creatures and trek through the wastes.

"Holy shit, that's insane and you managed to escaped a pack of those rat bastards.. You were fucking lucky" Sarah gawked at Theo, her curiosity peaked. Neither Nick or James could hide the look of surprise written on their faces. 

"You really are, most weapons can't damage those stupid rats but your laser pistol tears right through them " James commented. 

"Talking about weapons, here " Nick handed him the bag James had been carrying, inside were his pistol and the remaining credits.

"Also a point of note, don't go waving that gun around If you don't want to get mugged or killed for it. Worse you can attract the eyes of Don Dario and that's the last thing you want to do."

"Why is the attention of the Don so bad". Theo asked sheepishly as he picked out his weapon and credits.

"Well let's just say there are things worse than death, leave it at that".