The Bad Batch: Tech and Vel

2. Indignation

Vel's eyes cracked open, confused by the brilliant display of colors and buttons on the panels above her. She opened them fully, rubbing her forehead with her hand and looking around. With a start, she scrambled to her feet, realizing where she was. Or rather, realizing that she didn't know where she was.

"Good morning," came a velvety smooth voice, "Would you like some caf?" Crosshair chuckled at his sarcastic offer, not pausing his careful weapon inspection. "Hunter, your friend is awake," he called, practically hissing the word "friend". Casting one last scrutinizing look at Vel, he got up and retreated to the bridge.

Hunter passed him on his way from the front, stopping in the doorway to maintain a distance between himself and Vel. He leaned against the wall, folding his arms across his chest. Vel stared back at him, standing awkwardly like a cornered animal whose fight or flight response was still buffering.

"Why were you after Lank?" Hunter asked, wasting no time in getting right to the point.

"Why did you kidnap me?" Vel responded evenly, feeling her head clearing up.

"You interfered with our mission, and you fired a live round at a target that we needed to bring in for questioning. Who sent you after him?"

"Bob," came the pert reply, as Vel stood taller and crossed her arms, matching his stance. "You know Bob, from Dantooine? The human, with the eyes and the hair?"

Hunter furrowed his brow for a second before the realization dawned on him, and he fought to keep the corner of his mouth from curling into a smirk. "Ah yes, Bob. The notorious crime boss," he replied sardonically, "And what did he want with Lank?"

"Ugh, just give it a rest," said Vel, turning away from him to sit on the floor facing the hatch, "You know I'm not going to tell you anything."

"Fair enough," Hunter replied, "We'll just bring you in and let them figure it out then." He shrugged and turned back to the bridge.

A million questions raced through Vel's head, having no idea who these people were or whom they worked for. She knew it would not go well for her to have botched the job so badly, but she had confidence that she had proven her worth so far and it wouldn't be the end of the world.



***

The Batch was instructed to try to return her to the Bounty Hunter Guild, which could give them a lead on her assignment. So they set off for The Rig, the outpost of Crimson Nova. 

"You'd better have a lot of money or firepower if you think you're going to walk in there and ask questions or demand anything for my return," Vel snapped from the back of the bridge, angry that they had somehow narrowed down her employer so quickly. "Stroth knows what I'm worth, even if I got captured."

"We'll see how it goes," Hunter returned evenly.

"We can be pretty persuasive," Wrecker growled, cracking his knuckles and grinning from the side seat. 

***

They entered a dark chamber, an odd mix between a bar and a conference room, and approached the table where a few sordid characters were gathered. A Trandoshan hissed a warning as they got closer, and Hunter stopped the group. 

A human stood from the group, walked around the table, and leaned on the front of it, regarding them with mild interest. If this was Bob, "with the eyes and the hair", Hunter mused that Vel could have used some more prominent descriptors in her account of him, such as the fact that he was bald on top of his head but had long hair all around the back and sides, and was missing one entire arm below the elbow. 

He noted Vel standing among them and a smile broke out across his face. He beckoned toward the service droid, who immediately began pouring a tray of drinks and quickly rolled it over to him. 

"Well look who we have here," he said congenially, taking a drink from the tray and motioning the droid toward the Batch. Wrecker grabbed two from the tray, Hunter politely declined, and Crosshair took one but held it without drinking. Tech and Vel remained motionless. 

"You've brought back my newest bounty hunter." He looked at Vel, "And how was your endeavor?" She stayed silent, staring at the floor in front of his feet, unsure how to reconcile her utter failure with his apparent warmth. 

"Ah, I see," said Stroth, "Perhaps we began with a target a bit out of your league." He gave a big sigh, taking a long draught from his glass mug. Wrecker looked from Stroth to Hunter, then downed one of his mugs in a few sloppy gulps. Hunter's senses prickled in the seemingly-casual atmosphere, and he lowered his eyebrows as he spoke.

"We will return her in exchange for a small piece of information," Hunter said. "Why were you trying to kill Senator Lank?"

The only sound in the silence was a poorly-concealed burp from Wrecker, followed by a sigh of distaste from Crosshair. Stroth raised his chin, regarding the crew from his jaunty lean.

"Kill Senator Lank?" Stroth said, with theatrically feigned surprise, "I would never. The Separatists surely wouldn't appreciate that."

Hunter didn't believe a word, and his silence made that clear as he continued to wait for a real answer. 

"But what kind of other reward could I offer you, for the wonderful return of my asset here?" he asked, motioning toward Vel. She looked up at him, feeling her confidence rise at his positive mention of her. He smiled at her again before returning his gaze to Hunter.

"Who wants Lank dead?" Hunter repeated, resting a hand on his hip in apparent ease yet intentional proximity to his blaster. 

"Mmm," Stroth mused, finishing his mug and setting it on the table next to him. He clapped a hand on the shoulder of one of the figures at the table, a Rhodian bent over some schematics, and looked at the motley crew gathered there. "I can see you've got your mind made up. I don't want to make a mess of things, you know," he said, with an air of surrender. 

He signed, standing to his feet, and gestured carelessly. "Kill them all."

Vel's mouth dropped in shock and horror. 

In one solid blur, blasters were pulled from every holster in the room. Wrecker threw his empty mug at the nearest bounty hunter as Hunter flipped the table to their right, throwing Vel down as he dove to cover behind it. Crosshair flipped himself over the bar, crouching behind it and leveling his sniper at the group. 

Lights flashed on all sides as blaster bolts flew. The Rhodian hit the ground as a couple Trandoshans continued shooting from behind him. Stroth pulled his own blaster and fired a few careless shots as he ran out of the room. Hunter threw a knife after him, but it landed in the door just as it slammed. 

Tech fired evenly with both hands, leaning out from behind a pillar to stun another human. Crosshair's perfectly-placed shots dropped two more, and Wrecker met some reinforcements at the door with a huge arm to clothesline them into oblivion. It was over as quickly as it began.

"Stroth will undoubtedly be back with more," Tech surmised.

"Let's go," Hunter said, grabbing the schematics from the table and tucking them into his belt. 

"What about her?" Crosshair asked, nudging his sniper barrel toward Vel, on her knees behind the table, still in complete shock at the turn of events. 

"Leave her," Hunter responded, peeking out the doorway and beckoning to the others.

"She will be terminated," Tech pointed out, "Perhaps her knowledge could be of use to us as we determine the motive for Stroth's bounties."

"Fine," Hunter agreed, his sense of urgency outweighing his disdain for extra baggage, "We've got to go." 

***

The light turned blue around them as the Marauder jumped to hyperspace, and Vel sat on the floor on the back of the bridge once again. Her mind was reeling. She was abandoned, again. No matter what she did, she was never enough, never worth keeping around. She fought from spiraling into despair, sinking her head into her knees. 

She barely heard the hologram on the front panel, assigning the crew to a new mission on a planet in the Abrion sector, and offered no resistance as she was shown to her new quarters -- a makeshift prison built into the corner of the cargo hold on the lower deck of the ship. 

There were larger matters to attend to.