Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

63:

Astera:

"Not sure what's got you all twisted up in knots." Cid had the audacity to look offended, her blue hologram scoffing and planting her hands on her hips with a baleful glare.

"We were stranded on that planet, Cid," Omega reminded her, folding her arms angrily. The rest of us had adopted similar poses, entirely unimpressed with the reptilian's constant attempts to justify her actions. "We needed you, and you left us."

"You're fine now, aren't you? And you got your ship back."

"Yeah, with no help from you," Wrecker fired back.

"What part of that justifies the fact you abandoned us?" Cid had proven time and time again she was unreliable, and it was something I'd known before I'd gone to her, but I still couldn't help the anger seeping into my words.

"Do you wanna mope, or make money?" Even over a hologram, I could recognise the familiar glint of greed in Cid's eyes. "Because I got a tip on a downed ship, which means cargo ripe for the taking. I'll even give you thirty percent of the cut."

"That is our standard percentage," Tech reminded her with a hard look.

All right." Cid didn't even flinch. "This one time, let's say thirty-five percent." No one answered her, only Wrecker looking marginally excited at the thought of an increase. "Okay, forty."

I smacked Wrecker discreetly at the start of his grin, the larger clone quickly schooling his face back into gruff indifference at the nearly imperceptible shake of my head. Cid snorted, her short temper fraying again and quickly replacing the facade of pleasantry. "Fine, fifty percent as a token of my goodwill, that you seem to have forgotten." Every word was loaded with double meaning, and she made sure none of us missed it, glaring at me most of all. "I'm sending you the intel now. Don't come back unless you scavenge something valuable."

"What makes you think we'd come back at all?" Hunter asked, returning her glare with a look just as frosty.

"Don't test me, Bandana. Just get it done."

I groaned as soon as she cut off contact, dropping my face into my hands. "We can't keep working for her."

"I'm inclined to agree." Tech had already gone for his datapad, sifting through the likely limited information Cid had already sent over. "But severing ties with Cid could be problematic, considering what she knows about us. Especially you, Astera. Perhaps we choose a diplomatic solution and complete this one last mission for her."

He passed the screen to Hunter, who scowled upon reading it. "Cid only sent coordinates. No ship transponder code or indication of what caused it to crash."

"Limited intel," Wrecker scoffed. "There's a surprise."

"How hard could scavenging cargo be?" Omega asked, taking another bite of her ration bar. I held back a snort - with our luck, we'd wind up being attacked by something, or trapped in another landslide. But knowing us, it wasn't going to affect anything.

******

"There's a village here!" Omega reported excitedly from the gunner's mount, staring at the bright lights of the mountainside town

"That would explain how the wreckage was reported so quickly." For once, Tech had willingly given over piloting the ship to me in favour of locating the crashed ship, albeit after giving me several warnings about doing it safely. I'd only rolled my eyes at him - he'd seen the condition of the ship I'd fled Mandalore in once, and I'd been half conscious then. "The crashed vessel appears mostly intact. The cargo aboard should be in fair enough condition to transport."