Wanted , The Bad Batch

01 - Deal

"Can we trust this person?" 

Hunter's shoulder's slouched with the burdens of the day catching up to him. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Cid made a point. We need friends and money to get by. We only have Cut and I don't want to drag him and his family into our mess." 

Echo leaned on the ladder of Omega's room. Hunter just carried her to bed after she fell asleep in the cockpit. "What if she turns us in for bounty? Omega has a heavy price on her head. I won't be surprised if this person already knows about it." 

The Sargent grumbled. Echo had a valid point. "That's why I'm not going to mention Omega. I need to see who this person is and if I sense any hostility on any of us, I'm cutting off the deal."

-----

Ryki didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to think. One moment, she's tending to her herbs, everything quiet. She runs into her simple home to get some gardening tools, then comes out to face a group of fully grown men clad in armour. 

Now naturally, when one is graced by the appearance of four heavily armoured men, their first instincts would be to cower in fear and run for their lives. If they were fighters they'd be defending themselves. For Ryki, she already anticipated their arrival thanks to some information from Cid. The Batchers stood idly, none wanting to move in case they'd scare the tiny woman before them. Hunter though quiet was sensing the woman's heart rate, which seemed too normal for someone who would be in her position. He could only assume that Cid had informed the woman earlier. "Uhm- we got you co-"

The boys exchanged glances when Ryki held her hand up, successfully stopping Hunter mid-sentence. Her emerald eyes assed them head to toe. Her eyes were trained on the Sargent, particularly. "Cid sent you." 

"Uhh, yeah. She told you?" 

Ryki gave the Batchers, collectively, an annoyed look before pushing right through them to reach her herb garden. "She wouldn't be doing her job if she didn't." Ryki busied herself with plucking some wilted herbs from the garden bed. "She did mention company," Ryki paused for a moment to take a good look at them. Swinging one of her small shovels, she pointed at Hunter "She showed me a holo image of you. That why I wasn't too worried when you lot showed up." 

"How did she get his holo? " She heard the one with the goggles ask with a worried tone. "Cid has her ways, and I'm sure she has reasons for it. Plus, I needed a way to identify you somehow." she hummed. The clones continued to stand there rather awkwardly and when no conversation passed, Ryki simply returned to her gardening. "What if I was supposed to expect a pack of sentient kowakian monkey-lizard or a miniature hut gang, maybe some murderous Jawas, see my point?" 

The Batchers found it hard to ask the mirialan woman any further questions because of how unfriendly and distant she was. Communication was rather hard when the other party was not willing to talk. As if she read their minds, she decided to introduce herself. "Name's Ryki Taala. You can call me Ryki." she wiped one of her hands of dirt on her jumpsuit and offered it for a shake, "Now which of you is 'dark and broody'?"  

It was about sunset, Ryki and the Batchers had officially been introduced and now there were crammed up in her tiny little excuse of a house, "So care to spill your tea?". 

"Tea?" The one they called Echo asked. She looked at him like he was the densest person in the galaxy, in fact she looked at all of them like they were the most dense people to ever cross her path. "Uhm, hello? Don't you get civilian talk? Tell me your problem." 

"Ah well. You could have just said so." 

Ryki shook her head. This conversation has gone on too long and was going nowhere. "Alright, smarty pants. So what is the actual problem here?" After some exchanged glances with the rest of his team, Hunter began to explain their current predicament. "For starters, we're deserters from the Grand Army of the Republic." Getting that information, Ryki nearly spat her tea, "Your clones? I thought  you guys supposed to look the same or some kriff."