Mari knew that Yoshiko wouldn't be able to respond, so Mari gladly answered the person's question. "Why yes we are!" She said cheerfully. "And who might you be cutie?"
"Mari! Show some professionalism!" Yoshiko elbowed Mari in the ribs.
"Ow! What did I do?" She asked, rubbing the area she was hit.
Yoshiko stepped in front of Mari. "Yes we are Dahl soldiers. Meaning that we are well armed and trained in combat." She said with confidence as she walked forward towards the girl. "So what is your business with us?" She ended, pointing a gun under the girl's chin.
The girl however, seemed unfazed, "Oh please, I'm not here to hurt you, and even if I was, what are you going to do with a gun with no ammunition in it zura?" She stated matter of factly.
Yoshiko was taken aback. Her plan was to scare the intruder off with no shots fired, so as not to alert any city goers to their location, "How did you know?"
"Anyway," the girl said, ignoring the question I was wondering if you could take me to a ship called The Drakensburg? You see I'm a scientist and creator for the weapon company Maliwan and I came to Elpis since I heard there was a broken down spaceship just teeming with technology that wasn't being used anymore zura." Yoshiko and Riko perked up at the name of the ship.
"Well you are out of luck" Yoshiko said. "Drakensburg was taken over not long after it crashed by a bunch of psychopaths. You'd be dead as soon as you had the ship in your sights."
"Oh come on Yoshiko!" Mari shouted from behind them. "I wanna get out of this place already and explore. Besides, we all know that you think this girl is super hot, so let's help her out!"
Yoshiko's jaw dropped to the floor in disbelief of what Mari said. "First of all, WE HAVE A MISSION here before we head out. Secondly, I do not! I don't know what would make you say such things." She said with a humph, but her cheeks were a bright rosy red. Then Yoshiko's face changed and became downtrodden, "Besides, I don't want to see that ship, and I'm sure Riko doesn't either." Riko nodded her head in agreement.
Mari, immune to the sudden somber atmosphere, had a large smile and a twinkle in her eyes. "Hidden lore! How Shiny!" She shouted out really loud.
"My god Mari. Ok, group huddle." Yoshiko said, knowing they weren't getting anywhere at the pace they were going. The three members got in a small huddle, far away enough so the girl couldn't hear them "Look the bottom line is we can't trust this random chick at all. We don't even know her name!"
From behind them, the girl cleared her throat, "Um, my name is Hanamaru, if you guys were wondering zura."
The three of them looked at her for a while before slowly moving even further away from her. "Hanamaru hmm? Pretty name." Yoshiko muttered under her breath.
"Thank you!" Hanamaru said with a big smile.
"How did you hear me!?" Yoshiko shouted across the alleyway.
"W-w-what? I uh, I totally didn't." She stammered trying to feign innocence.
"Well how are we supposed to talk here if you can hear us?" Yoshiko asked, Hanamaru shrugged. Then her face brightened with an idea. She stuck her fingers in her ears and went "Lalalalalalala".
"I guess that works," Yoshiko shrugged, and then shrunk back into her group huddle. "Ok guys, my answer is a no. We have our mission, we have to wait for Lieutenant Rickards to bring us an ECHO device* to contact Zarpedon. We can't just leave now."
Mari's face turned sour "But we've been here for a week! He should have been here by now!"A small wave of discomfort settled over the three of them. Despite her impatience, Mari was right. Elpis was hostile, it was entirely possible that bandit's had attacked him for the bounty. Not to mention all of the deadly creature that call the moon home.
Desperate to change the mood and ignore the possibility of one her fellow soldiers being dead, she pushed on. "Anyway, we can't help out Hanamaru."
"Oh come on! You obviously like her! I saw your little choking fit as soon as you saw her. You were speechless! Besides, she seems to have some skills that could really help us." Mari argued back. Yoshiko was ready to respond when a low, gruff voice broke out between the two of them.
"I don't trust her." Riko said. With that, the three of them immediately broke the huddle and walked up to Hanamaru.
Yoshiko stepped forward, "We are sorry, but we can't assist you."
Hanamaru's shoulders slumped. "Aww, why is that?" She asked.
Yoshiko pointed at Riko, "Well Riko doesn't talk often, but when he does, well we tend to listen to him." She said simply. "He said he doesn't trust bringing along a stranger, especially since Dahl soldiers aren't really liked right now. It would just put us all in more danger, even if you have good intentions. My apologies." She finished with a small bow.
Instead of looking sad or upset, Hanamaru set an inquisitive stare on to Riko. She looked Riko up and down for a minute or two, especially focusing on his the helmet covering his face.
"I understand you guys not wanting me around, but if I may ask one final question. Why do you keep referring to Riko as a boy when she is definitely a girl?" She asked.
There was a moment of silence, then Mari broke the silence, "Shit, guess she figured you out quick Riko!" She laughed. Yoshiko kept opening and then closing her mouth, searching for some sort of response.
Riko walked up to the intruder and took off her helmet. Under the helmet was indeed the soft face of a female. Her face was stern, eyebrows knitted together as she stormed towards Hanamaru until they were face to face.
"How." She demanded, her voice was slightly more feminine now that it wasn't muffled by her helmet, but it was still gruff.
Hanamaru, not intimidated in the slightest simply responded, "Well as a weapons inventor, we see a lot of people testing weapons, and the way you held your sniper rifle earlier was the exact same way 93% of our women testers held theirs."
There was astonished silence. Then Mari spoke up, "First the empty pistol, now this. Are you some sort of psychic?"
Hanamaru chuckled. "No, just really observant. You know, I would be glad to aid you in whatever your mission is. I'm sure I could be useful in analyzing situations. I could also make you guys weapons if given enough time!" She offered.
The three let this settle. "Group huddle" Yoshiko said again. The three huddled together once more and Hanamaru plugged her ears. "With this new information, she seems like a very useful ally. But we would still be going out of our way taking her to the Drakensburg." Yoshiko reasoned. Her two teammates nodded in agreement. Then Mari's face lit up with an idea.
"Ooh! How about we have her accompany us until we get our next orders from Zarpedon? We'll get to know her better in that time, and if our next mission leads us towards the Drakensburg, then we can escort her part of the way." She said excitedly.
Yoshiko mulled it over, then slowly nodded her head. "That could work. What do you think Riko?" Riko, her helmet now back over her face, sat for a minute, but finally nodded in agreement. They broke the huddle and Yoshiko walked up to Hanamaru.
"Ok Miss Hanamaru, we have a proposal. Our mission right now is to stay here in Concordia until we meet up with a fellow soldier holding an ECHO. In that time, we will get to know you so we may gauge if you are trustworthy or not. If, and only if, we deem you trustworthy and our next mission is in the same direction as the Drakensburg, we will escort you. How does that sound to you?"
Hanamaru's face lit up with elation. "Yes! That'll be perfect zura! Thank you so much!" Despite Yoshiko's best efforts to stay cool, she couldn't help but feel joy seeing the strange girl in front of her so happy.