Disclaimer: None of the Places or characters in this story is mine. They all are the property of Lucasfilm.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Imperial strike team silently makes their way on hover skids through the dark lower levels of the city-world Coruscant. There is little light down in this crime-infested underworld, but if all goes well, they will have no need to be here long.

Their mission: to stage a combination sting operation and drug raid on a suspected Rodian drug lord.

Hours before, the team had gathered as much intelligence about the drug lord, his operation, and the location as possible. One of the members had established contact with one of the Rodian's underlings, and was posing as a potential client.

The plan was for the client to enter the warehouse, while the rest of the team surrounded and sealed off the perimeter, making sure that no one escaped.

Finally, the team arrives at the warehouse. The team's technician does a scan of the surrounding area with his computer equipment. He tells the team that there are a series of probe droids on lookout around the building. The team leader, a big burly corporal, directs the technician to use his computer jamming equipment to essentially "blind" the probe droids from seeing them.

The corporal then tells the men to check the power levels on their E-11 Blaster Rifles. Then the group moves out.

Under the cover of darkness, the strike team makes their way around the building, placing trip mines on all of the side exits to prevent escape by any of the gang members inside. The leader sends two of the squad back to the hover skids and tells them to cover the front entrance with Tenloss Disruptor Rifles. He then motions the rest of the group to continue sealing off the perimeter.

Once the area around the building has been secured, the corporal tells the team member who is acting as a client to go into the building and signal them when they should come in. The "client" then goes inside.

The squad leader positions a group of men at the back of the building, where they prepare to use detonator packs and their Merr-Sonn PLX 2M Portable Missile Systems to blast open an exterior wall and provide backup fire.

Suddenly, the signal comes. The corporal draws his Briar Blaster Pistol and motions his group towards the front door. They burst through the front door in a flurry of activity, guns blazing. Several of the men in his group spray the room with their Golan Arms FC-1 Fletchette weapons, which sprayed out a shotgun-like blast of metal shrapnel. Immediately, several of the gang members go down. The rest jump to places behind boxes that will provide them with cover. The leader pulls out a gas grenade from his belt pack, and throws it into a group of gangsters in the far corner of the building. Then, he runs after the Rodian drug lord, who is attempting to escape.

All at once, the door that the Rodian is attempting to escape through is blown open with explosives planted by several members of the Imperial strike team. The drug lord is thrown backward by the force of the blast – right into the waiting arms of the corporal and some of his men.

The rest of the gang is then rounded up and taking out to one of the waiting hover skids by several of the team members. The corporal and an assistant walk over to one of the large, gray, metal boxes. When they open the lid, they find that it is filled with high-grade ryll. A search of the rest of the containers reveals a large cache of more ryll, glitterstim, and some death sticks. As the leader and his men transport the drugs back to their headquarters, he thinks about the possibility of a promotion because of the success of the mission. Then his thoughts are interrupted by a call coming in from headquarters. It informs him that he is to drop of the prisoners and contraband at the headquarters building and immediately travel to a landing pad farther up in the city where there is a riot breaking out. "So much for that promotion." he thinks, as he relays the information to the rest of his squad.