The Star Showdown

The Star Showdown is an unmarked quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Encounter
Located just outside the west exit of Nipton, following the road that heads west towards the NCR Mojave Outpost, one can see two individuals shooting at each other. The characters in question are named Tomas and Jacklyn and will continue to fight each other until one of them is dead. They cannot be interacted with until they have finished fighting, however, Jacklyn will shout out to the player character for help. The Courier can kill either character, but killing Tomas at this point affects Karma negatively.

Once either Tomas or Jacklyn has been killed, the other will approach the Courier and initiate conversation.
 * If Tomas is the survivor, he will inform the Courier that Jacklyn was his traveling companion he met a few days earlier. He claims they were getting along, even flirting, when she turned her gun on him and demanded his caps. When he gave her his money, she stated she wanted his necklace made of Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps.
 * If Jacklyn is the survivor, she may first run over to Tomas's corpse and interact with it before running over to the Courier. She will claim that he was insane and wanted stars.

Walkthrough
Upon entering the area Jacklyn and Tomas will engage in a gunfight with one another, and the player character can intervene or wait until one of them wins the fight.

If Jacklyn dies, Tomas will approach the player character and initiate a conversation. Through certain dialogue options, one can learn about what happened and achieve one of the following outcomes:
 * Passing a Speech (50) challenge to convince him that his 'Lucky Necklace' is dangerous and that he should give it to the player character for which earns 50 XP and his 7 Sunset Sarsaparilla star caps peacefully.
 * If one demands the necklace, he will become hostile and attack the player character, who can then kill Tomas without incurring bad karma.
 * Other dialogue options will end the conversation and Tomas will leave and remain friendly.

If one of the latter two options is chosen, the Courier can then kill or pickpocket Tomas to claim his 7 Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps. Killing Tomas will incur bad Karma unless he was made hostile through dialogue.

If Tomas dies, Jacklyn will approach the player character after interacting with Tomas' body and initiate conversation. Through certain dialogue options, she will give her a description of events and achieve one of the following outcomes:
 * If the Courier explains that Tomas was after Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps and ends the dialogue, she will initially remain friendly, then try to kill the player character most likely under the assumption that they have star caps as well.
 * If confronted about what she took from Tomas's body, and an Intelligence (7) check is passed, one can trick her into revealing that she has stolen Tomas' 'Lucky Necklace' of 7 Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps. She will tell the player character that she "can't leave any witnesses" and will immediately become hostile.
 * If one reveals that they have Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps after the dialogue closes, she will remain friendly for a short period before turning hostile and attacking the Courier.
 * All other dialogue options will end the conversation, and if no options mentioning star caps are chosen Jacklyn will remain friendly.
 * After the dialogue, if Tomas's body can be found, one will find his journal. This reveals that Jacklyn is lying about being ambushed and one may confront her if they can catch up.

The Courier can choose to pickpocket Jacklyn for the Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps, incurring in a loss of Karma. One can, however, kill her at any time with no Karma loss, even after the gunfight or before speaking to her. After she loots Tomas' body, she will have 9 Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps, otherwise, she will have only 2, the other 7 will still be with Tomas.

Rewards

 * 2-9 Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps depending of one's choices.
 * 50 XP if one passes the speech check with Tomas.

Tomas's inventory:

Jacklyn's inventory:

Bugs

 * Jacklyn's body may not be present if Tomas runs up to the Courier, it disappears from the gameworld.
 * Jacklyn's body can spawn in Nipton if Tomas runs up to the Courier.
 * Sometimes the gunfight doesn't happen.
 * When walking on the road from Nipton to the Pit Stop, Tomas will be walking away and Jacklyn's body is nowhere to be found. Oddly enough, killing Tomas rewards the Courier with 0 caps as his necklace will have mysteriously disappeared.