Inside the now moving long speeder, Tharan and company sit separate from each other. The back of the speeder has this box-like room with seating all over, minus the two doors. Otto at the left corner seat stares through the long plasteel window. B'el Sah at the bottom right seat checks and makes any needed corrections to her makeup.

Tharan at the bottom left seat stares through the same window as Otto. Lana in the middle of the back seat holds her vibro-longsword in front of her, and watches a droid connected to the central console - that has a disabled holoprojector.

The machine pours drinks for them into clean glasses filled with ice. When it's done, the droid compresses itself and shuts off. Zel in the middle seat up against the front of the enclosed room, grabs his drink while no one else touches theirs.

As he tries relaxing by taking a sip of his drink, Tharan breaks the silence. He still looks at the window, seeing the sorry state the upper city is in. "When did the rebels take this planet," he bluntly asks. Zel's drink goes down the wrong pipe in surprise and he coughs. When he's able to speak again, he looks over to B'el Sah and Otto to see if they're laughing at the 'obvious joke' Tharan made.

They show him no reaction to Tharan's words. He then looks over to Lana who moves her eyes towards Tharan to see if he's joking or not. She looks back at Zel and shakes her head as a warning to him. Zel answers, "I… I don't understand your meaning, sir." Tharan keeps his gaze out the window, not wanting to waste the energy in actually addressing him.

"If this was an imperial planet; there wouldn't be desecrated statues, there wouldn't be homeless wandering the streets, and squatters in most likely abandoned buildings; there wouldn't be mounds of trash everywhere, and there wouldn't be droids last minute washing graffiti off of buildings." Tharan says finally allowing his voice to match his anger.

"If this was an imperial planet: things would be orderly, clean, up-to-date, functional. What I am seeing right now, Assistant Chambra, isn't an imperial planet." Zel puts his drink back on the central console and tries composing himself. "Y-yes, well… s-sir, you see, ah… the aliens in, in the middle cities; they've been all kinds of difficult last season."

"And, um… uh, some of our infrastructure has suffered. Ah… i-it's in dire need of repair and um… well it's all in the Moff's, um, report. W-which you can take a look at it when you arrive at the palace, of course. Uh… uh, I-I couldn't say, sir, to the exact details. I-I'm just an assistant, sir." B'el Sah closes her pocket mirror with a loud snap, causing the assistant to flinch.

"Excuses, excuses," she indignantly says to him. Zel practically shrinked in his own clothes when B'el Sah glared at him. It was only a second before she focused her attention outside the window - something that's worth her time. Otto stopped listening to them the moment he entered the long speeder.

Lana just rolled her eyes at the man and started tuning him out as well. Tharan sighs through his nostrils. If there's one thing he has grown to dislike about the Empire, it's the misinterpretation and/or failure to properly explain the reasoning behind their more human biased structure.

It isn't because the aliens/near-humans 'look weird,' it's because organization and stability wise, humans have been more effective and less detrimental to their own people, and the galaxy as a whole compared to the alien and near-Human governments.

Many civil wars, galactic conflicts and the entire corroded, aimless structure of the Old Republic were because the majority of aliens and near-Humans in it knew only: tribal, feudalistic, or crime lord dynasty forms of governmental systems. Was the treatment a bit heavy handed, yes, but (at least to Tharan) it was necessary for the sake of progress and order.

They didn't know better and the Empire had to guide them the proper way. This bias is not supposed to be used as a mere excuse for every imperial citizen/soldier's grievances. This disorder is squarely their own people's fault, and they must accept the consequences.

Tharan finally speaks with irritation in his words, "Aliens? What I am seeing is all because of aliens? You're blaming this all on people who can't even read what's on a credit? Is that the story you're trying to feed us?" Zel tugs at the collar of his tunic again, "Um, well… well, sir… it-it's just that we're so understaffed."

"W-wh-when we had a full legion here, well… well we could keep order, here, a-a-and they stayed within the lower levels where they belonged. B-bu-but they've been coming along - the-the lower city, and now… um, well the people of the middle city are trying to get into the upper city and it's all-it's all just… it's chaos, sir."

"T-that's why we're so glad to have you here. T-to-to help the Moff with these problems, and to put things right on Taris. W-we're honored, really. Just honored." Zel looks over to the others to reassure them that all of them are honored guests, even though everything up to now has said otherwise.

Everyone at this point have stopped caring in what this spineless coward had to say, and even less on his hollow excuses. As the long speeder makes a turn, Otto and Tharan see remnants of an imperial bank or the like: it's monolithic stone pillars just starting to show corrosion, the interior completely barren with only garbage taking the place of whatever was sacked, a discolored outline of the imperial cog on the front of the building, showing that someone has taken the metal plaque off it, and burn marks everywhere on the entrance.

To add more humiliation to this picture is a large yellow colored poster with a propagandized image of Luke Skywalker holding his green colored lightsaber up plastered onto the building. The poster also has a row of X-wings flying overhead of him with lines of smoke behind them. The Rebellion regalia outlined over it all in light blue, and at the bottom it says: 'For the New Republic! May the Force Be With You!'

Otto presses the comms button next to his seat and calmly says, "Droid, stop the speeder." "Stopping, sir," the droid says over the speaker, and the long speeder comes to a stop. The second it does, Otto opens the door and walks out. Zel sees Otto getting out and leans over to speak out to him.

"I-is something wrong? Um, um… it-it's really not safe to…" Otto disregards him and keeps walking toward to the poster. Zel looks over to Tharan and nervously says, "H-he really shouldn't be out. It's not safe here. Tharan ignores the assistant and focuses on what this particular part of the neighborhood is.

B'el Sah does the exact same thing and they both see that this used to resemble one of the many financial districts within imperial territories. Now it's been reduced to nothing but burnt out homes for squatters.

Immediately after the long speeder parks to the side and it's left door opens, TK-161 bangs the wall that separates them from their drivers. "Stop the transport," he orders to the army troopers and they do as they're told. The twelve other stormtroopers get up and ready themselves - turning their safeties off.

TK-161 walks to the backdoor of the troop transport and punches the door button. The ramp falls down and 161 motions them outside, "Move out!" The troopers all nod in unison and file out. The trooper officer unfolds his blaster rifle's foregrip and is the last to exit. He comms his squadmates, "Form a defensive perimeter."

He looks to where the scout trooper is and points to him, "519, I want you on high ground now." 519 nods, "Copy, squad leader." The scout trooper turns to the troop transport and fires his underslung grapple device. He climbs up its side and crouches. He begins looking through his scope for any threat up top and below.

After the first order TK-161 doesn't let up, "626, cover the speeder and check for injuries." The heavy trooper nods, "On it, squad leader." During his sentence, 626 turned on his heels and ran towards the long speeder. The stormtrooper keeps the orders coming, "408 and 207." The two demolition troopers stand in attention.

"Sir," they say simultaneously. "Scan the perimeter for any IEDs. If there's so much as a firecracker, I want to hear about it." "Understood, sir!" The two say in unison and pull out their scanners and move through the neighborhood. He continues in succession, "321, 604, 557, 902, 808, and 923 take cover around the speeder and 626. I want all possible flanks covered, you get me?"

"We get you, sir," they all boom before going through parts of the neighborhood the demolition team have deemed safe, and take flanking positions.

TK-161 looks to the last two, "531 and Triple One, you're with me." "Copy," they answer and follow 161 to Otto's location. 626 reaches the long speeder and kneels at the open door. "Are you injured, sirs?" Tharan answers, still looking through the window as the stormtroopers go about their duties. "Just our pride, trooper."

The heavy trooper nods, "Understood, sir," and gets back up. 626 closes the door and comms 161, "Agents safe and secured, squad leader." TK-161 answers while jogging to Otto's position, "Affirmative, keep it that way. If they get so much as a scratch, it's your ass."

"Copy," 626 answers back and moves to the upper right of the long speeder. He unfolds the integrated stands of his FWMB-10 repeating blaster and takes a knee. "Hmm. Good genes," B'el Sah whispers to herself, genuinely impressed by the efficiency of this squadron.

161 and his two squadmates catch up to Otto who now stands in front of the New Republic propaganda poster. "What's the situation, Agent Mateen," the officer asks. Otto doesn't give a reply and continues staring at the poster. His face is placid but his eyes are filled with hatred.

161 accepts the non answer and signals his squadmates to help form a defensive perimeter around the agent. As the three troopers do that, Otto suddenly grabs the poster and tears it down. He pulls out a lighter and ignites it, a loud hiss and a straight blue flame erupt from it.

The agent lights a part of the poster on fire and turns his lighter off before putting it back on his belt. Otto turns around and says to the stormtroopers, "Back in the transport."

"Rodger," 161 says whilst standing and moving aside for Otto. After the agent passes them, 161 comms the other troopers, "Everyone, form up at the troop transport. We're done here. Be ready for headcount." "Rodger," all the stormtroopers reply before breaking up from their positions into small groups and line up on the transport's side.

161 does a quick headcount as all troopers reactivate the safeties on their blasters and holster. He does the same by refolding his blaster's foregrip and switches to safety. "Everyone file in," 161 motions to the transport's entrance.

The stormtroopers nod to their CO and form two lines of six. They reenter the transport in an orderly fashion with 161 taking up the rear. Once he's in, he slams the door button and takes his place at one of the handlebars again.

Otto returns to the long speeder and the droid opens the door for him. He retakes his seat and presses the comms button again. "You may resume driving," he says dully. The door automatically closes and the engines start up again. Zel, still being a sweaty mess, wrings his hands repeatedly and avoids eye contact with everyone in the speeder.

Tharan continues looking out the window when talking to Otto. "So dramatic," he sighs. Otto doesn't acknowledge him and stares back out the window. Zel finally speaks up to continue making excuses as to why this mess isn't their fault. "We-we've been… uh, we-we've been trying to, um… t-to maintain order."

"B-but there are some neighborhoods that've gotten so bad. T-the… alien infestation is just terrible in this particular neighborhood, b-but there's no other way back to the port. And… um, well… I… y-yes, we have cleaning teams, and in fact I'll have one of them make another sweep here." The assistant goes for a datapad that isn't there anymore and interjects, "O-once we get back to the palace, of course."

'Keep tying that noose around your neck, assistant. You have more than enough rope,' Tharan says in his thoughts. He would've committed to actually saying those words had the person been worth more of his time. Throughout the rest of the ride, everyone is dead silent and it doesn't help Zel's anxiety much. But he knows better than to talk - at least now he has.