Lana and Otto move towards their stationed stormtroopers. The troopers are still at attention and give a salute once Otto and Lana approach. "Your orders, sir," TK-161 speaks up. Otto looks around the courtyard and sees that the only viable defenses are all on the walls encircling the mansion.

Dozens of heavy blaster cannons are embedded into the stone, and along the wall, imperial army troopers are armed with: megablasters, blaster sniper rifles, missile tubes - all up to date and factory fresh. Yet inside, there's absolutely nothing in terms of strategic defense.

'And we're supposed to call this lout a Moff,' Otto angrily thinks. After thinking it over, Otto knows what they should do. "I'm giving you emergency authorization of all arms, troopers and defenses within the Moff's palace. Do with them as you please and place them where you think is best. I'm going up top."

"Understood, sir," 161 faces his squadmates and hands out orders. Otto turns his head to Lana, "Jori, stay around here and comms me if any changes occur, or if anyone approaches the gates." Lana nods in acknowledgement and Otto goes back to the mansion.

TK-161 divides up the troopers. "626, 902, 408, 207, 557, and 923. Go through this palace's armory and take out whatever can be of use. 902, if any of the armaments do not follow imperial regulations, make a list and we'll have replacements be on requisition."

The group of troopers salute 161 and shout, "Sir," before splintering off. "519, Agent Mateen will have the high ground at the moment. Be on standby for whenever he's not present there." "Copy, sir," 519 nods and runs off into the mansion to station himself at the top floor. "321 and 531, stand by at the gates. If the troopers there give you trouble, stun them and move them aside." The two salute 161, "Rodger," they say before heading towards the gates.

"604 and Triple One, you're with me. We're going to have a talk with the commanding officer of these troopers." Whenever 161 mentioned the troopers of this palace, he doesn't bother hiding his disapproval of their current status. Had this been a warzone of the traditional sense, these fortifications would be slightly more acceptable. But this is a thick urban environment: no tanks, no artillery, no armies, no open plane for both sides to blast each other endlessly, no clear enemies, and surprises around every corner.

"Mind if I come?"

TK-161 and the last two stormtroopers turn to look who said that. Lana gives a wave when they see her. 161 answers her, "An extra hand is always useful, Miss." "Just 'Lana' is fine, TK," she says somewhat friendly.

'Might as well get to know these guys, if I have to work with them. Hell, they may be more pleasant company than what I've currently got,' she thinks to herself. 161 ignores Lana's statement, "Follow us, ma'am."

The bounty hunter rolls her eyes but catches up with them, wherever they're going: she didn't really pay attention to what the troopers were doing. She soon finds out when 161 and them go up a set of stairs connected to the left side of the walls.

161 finds the nearest army trooper and sternly says, "Trooper, take us to your commanding officer." The male army trooper armed with a megablaster, casually holding it with the safety off, sneers at them. "We don't take orders from the guests'-" he wasn't able to finish his disrespectful comment as 161 bashes the butt of his blaster rifle into the man's face.

The army trooper falls to the ground, dropping his megablaster and clutching his broken nose. "Chuba," Lana said under her breath: she didn't expect that. "That wasn't a request, private," 161 says with his voice lowered into a threatening tone. The army trooper glares at 161 and scrambles back on his feet.

"T-the captain will hear about this, drone," he shouts while blood comes out of his nose. "Good," 161 says completely unthreatened. Lana had always figured all stormtroopers were just mindless clones who took orders from everyone in the imperial military. 'Guess I was wrong,' she thinks.

The trooper bends down to pick up his megablaster, but Triple One walks forward and places his foot on it. The stormtrooper slowly shakes his head in warning at the army trooper. The man pauses there and glares hatefully at the stormtroopers. "Drones," was all he shouted before running off to get the captain.

Lana just had to ask, "Drones?" Triple One answers her with a proper, polite tone while holstering his blaster, picking up the megablaster, and switching the safety on. "Derogatory term used by standard infantry towards those of the stormtrooper Corps, ma'am. We're normally well favored in the imperial army, and we often seem to threaten their standing in terms of authority."

"Also, the fact being cloning facilities are still active within the Stormtrooper Corps and some clones are more… 'obedient' than others." While talking, Triple One folds the stands on the megablaster and holds it at attention as per drill instructions. "It only shows that we're doing our job when filth resort to trivial nicknames as weapons," 161 says indifferently and the other two stormtroopers nod in agreement. "Huh," Lana mumbles and then curiosity gets the better of her, "So... are any of you...?"

604 answers her before she could finish, his harsh sounding voice lifting with pride, "Only Triple One, Miss. The rest of us are born ad bread imperial citizens." 'Awfully proud of that, aren't you,' Lana thought with a small measure of scorn. "They're sufficient enough," Triple One adds with the same practiced voice. "Hah," 604 sarcastically spits out. As they wait for the captain to meet them, 161 gets an update from 902. She tells him, "Sir, we've done inventory on all useable items, and are hauling them out into the courtyard." 161 comms back, "Copy, 902. What's the damage?" There's a lengthy pause before the trooper answers her CO.

902 sighs, "Sir, where to begin? Apparently, no one assigned maintenance droids in there for years. There's several water leakages and moss has grown through the cracks. All axillary artillery and ammunition for said armaments are well preserved and up-to-date, but the same can't be said for most of the infantry's stock."

"Luckily, the barricades aren't too corroded, we can make a more effective perimeter with these. All we got to work with in terms of heavy arms are two out of 11 decommissioned E-Web blasters: the only ones that remain somewhat functional. 626 is 'brimming' with nostalgia as we speak. As for ammunition, over half of the power packs are dead weight at this point."

"Fantastic," 161 sardonically exasperates. 902 continues with , "Fret not, squad leader. The caches of detonators and landmines remain in perfect condition. If used right, we'll get good kilometers out of them. No sniper rifles or FWMB-10s were present, meaning the ones you see outside are all they have."

"What about blaster rifles," 161 questions. There's another pause till the comms flare up again, "You're not going to like the answer, sir." "Shoot," he orders. "Nothing. No blaster rifles to speak of: not even obsolete ones or spare parts we could use. My guess is the only blasters they have that're suited for urban combat are their pistols."

Lana didn't have to see their faces to know that the stormtroopers are furious. 604 clicks his blaster's settings from stun to lethal. "What about riot gear," 161 asks with his irritation growing by the second. 902 answers, "The shields are rusted and unkempt to where you can poke a hole through them with your finger, and the riot batons are just thin metal sticks that don't even charge."

"So if we requisition what we need for these whelps, it'll take two weeks, at best," 161 states as a fact instead of a question. "Seems that way," 902 affirms. "I'll file in the report to our superiors and let them decide what to do. For now, we're setting up emplacements several meters from the gate"

"Copy. Have the gate opened and tell 408 and 207 to bury several landmines both outside and inside the entrance. Make sure 321 and 531 are covering them. Tell the demolitions team to set both groups on different charges, and bring them to me." "I don't think the Moff will be too happy with us messing up his fancy tiles, sir," 902 replies derisively.

"Let him stew in it, then," 161 answers before hanging up the call. Lana can't help but smile underneath her half mask, 'I might actually like these imps,' she thought. It was more than what she could say for the ISB agents.

Just then a man - about 1.558 meters tall (5ft 11in) - in an imperial army trooper uniform. A captain's badge gleams on the black breast plate as he walks up to the stormtroopers and Kiffar. With an accompaniment of two heavily armed army troopers at his sides. He carries his helmet to his right side.

He looks to be in his mid-40s with most of his brown hair receding, and a finely trimmed mustache that's split in the middle. He carries his head high and glares down at the group, "What is the meaning of this stormtroopers?" Normally, the stormtroopers would stand attention and salute an officer, regardless of rank or division. These men, however, have never earned that right in this squad's eyes. Their insult to the captain doesn't go unnoticed.

161 bluntly states, "We've been ordered to reorganize this mess you call a defensive strategy, 'Captain'." 161 says the rank in disgust. "By whose authority, Officer," the captain shouts at them but maintains composure. "From the Imperial Security Bureau: the only proper authority that's currently on this planet. As. Your. Guests." 161 drags out his last three words to make clear the importance of that statement, and expects the captain to adhere if he knows what's good for him.

"You are out of line, trooper!" The captain explodes. "Your task is to be nothing more than bodyguards to these agents - whom, I may add - have shown nothing but flagrant disrespect to their host's assistant." "That is your duty," the captain placed great emphasis on 'your.'

"Ours, is to make sure you ingrates are safe inside these walls until Moff Wrillcart returns, and sends you back to wherever you belong. You have no authority here, and you will not bully my soldiers around at the whim of your ISB masters. Understood, drone?" 'This sculag hasn't dealt with ISB before, hasn't he?' Lana thinks to herself.

"Copy," is all TK-161 says before giving the captain an uppercut using the butt of his blaster rifle. Blood and teeth fly out as the slightly taller man falls backwards. The army troopers raised their megablasters at the stormtroopers. The three stayed completely unfazed by their action.

"Put those down before you hurt yourselves," 604 belittles. One of them immediately fires a shot and he buckles from the recoil - a telling sign. The shot sails over their heads and the stormtroopers remain still while Lana flinched out of instinct.

The other army trooper looks at his fellow soldiers on the ground, them struggling to get back up, and back to the stormtroopers. The man pales a bit then smartly decides to lower his weapon and backs a step away. 604 walks towards the trooper sitting back up from the kickback, and kicks him in the face with the heel of his boot.

Blood flies out and the army trooper is knocked out cold. 604 holsters his blaster rifle and takes the repeating blaster from the unconscious trooper. He begins the exact same procedure Triple One did with the other megablaster.

"I'll have your rank for this, drone." The captain snarls while getting back on his feet and holding his bloodied mouth. 161 approaches him and the captain tries jolting back from the stormtrooper grabbing the collar of his breastplate. He fails and 161 tugs him over to the end of the wall facing the upper city. 161 moved behind the captain's right side and placed his left hand firmly on the back of his head.

"Look at Taris, 'Captain.' It's crumbling into dust because commanding officers like you and your Moff have failed to properly rule over it's people. Order hasn't been maintained. We wouldn't be here if you were competent at your duties. What if the people pile on top of your gates? You can't kill them all - blaster cannons overheat and your ammunition supply is greatly lacking."

"What if the New Republic commandos and rebel scum you all allowed to fester within this planet find a structural weakness, and break it? Everyone inside this palace would be completely defenseless while you'd be busy with an overwhelming crowd made up of all the people from the upper, middle and lower cities!"

161's voice rises in anger as he gives the captain a wake up call. The man is speechless, "I… I-I… I-I've only been-" "The lot of you bring shame to the Empire!" 161 shouts, "You do not deserve to wear that uniform! You do not deserve to lead!"

161 turns the now meek and shaking captain and rips off the magnetically tied captain's badge on the breastplate. Lana, surprisingly, starts feeling a bit sorry for these poor sods, but only a bit. 161 tosses the dadge over the wall and the captain, once acting high and mighty, is practically wetting himself and tries making excuses.

"O-ou-our walls have no structural weaknesses… s-sir. P-please, I… apologies f-fo-for…" Lana decides to help by placing her exposed fingers on the wall to see if the captain's right. Unfortunately for him, there are a lot of exposed areas and weak points at the back end of the circular wall.

The front and sides have been maintained well, but the back hasn't received much attention for a long time. "Actually, there's close to 84 weak spots at the back of this wall. A good team of commandos and several well placed detonators could go through it with little resistance. You don't even have stationed guards and blaster cannons there." The captain's eyes widen in horror and gulps.

Everyone trains their eyes on the bounty hunter now and the captain mistakenly shouts, "How did you know!?" 161 turns his head back to the captain, "So it is true," he says with a dark edge to his words. The captain realizes he had just confirmed what Lana said and shamefully tires backpedaling from it. "Uh, I-I me-mean… w-we were just going to-" "Shut up," 161 barks and the captain flinches.

161 turns his attention back at Lana, "How did you know, ma'am?" Lana with a satisfied smirk, wiggles her fingers in front of them and says, "Kiffar." "You brought near-Human filth in here!?" The army trooper who backed away shouted - regaining a bit of courage from this 'offense.'

TK-161, still holding the captain in place, turns his head to look at the trooper and fires his blaster rifle at the front of his helmet. The shot was set on stun and only had enough force to leave a dent in the helmet. The bolt knocks the army trooper off balance and he falls on his buttocks.

He takes the helmet off and holds his head as he groans in pain. "She is accompanying agents of the ISB, making her a guest as well, trooper. As such, you will show courtesy to her as you will the agents. If you ever use such disrespectful language in our or their presence again, I will personally see to your execution. Apologize to Miss Jori, now." 161 said with frightening authority and Lana was surprisingly touched by the stormtrooper's action.

Sure he was only doing it because she's under Tharan's thumb, but it was nice to know somebody's got her back here. The army trooper scrambled to get up and stood in attention in front of Lana. He bows to her and says, "I am so sorry, ma'am." The Kiffar has the biggest smuggest smirk on her face - which no one can see - when she says, "Good, now piss off."

"At once, ma'am," the trooper says. He turns on his heels and begins running. He doesn't bother picking his helmet or megablaster up. Triple One places his new megablaster aside and picks up the third one, repeating the same procedure ingrand into his memory. He returns to his spot and holds both blasters in attention.

After that bit of needless drama, 161 redirected his ire back to the sorry excuse of a captain. "As for you," Tk-161 tosses the ex-captain towards the feet of the other stormtroopers. "604 and Triple One, take this wretch to Agent Tallon. He'll decide his fate. Transport the three megablasters to the new emplacements while 'escorting' the 'private'."

The now private army trooper's eyes were as wide as dish plates when hearing that he'll be taken to see an ISB agent. "W-wa-wait! Wait! Wait!" Before he could beg 604 dragged him up and directed him down the stairs. "Keep quiet," the stormtrooper orders while shoving the demoted trooper down the stairs.

161 turned towards Lana, "A near-Human, huh?" "Never heard of a Kiffar, haven't you," Lana tilted her head towards him and pulled her half mask down, revealing her Qukuuf. 161 shakes his head, "I didn't think there were near-Humans who… who looked… um," 161 shuffles a bit in place, a bit uncomfortable and indecisive in what to say. "Normal," Lana asks. 161 coughed and averted his gaze from her.

"Yes… ma'am," he shyly answers. "Our 'gift' is what gives us away. Sometimes the tattoos, too," Lana explains to the stormtrooper with a carefree attitude. 161 turns to her when he sees that he hasn't offended his charge. "If I may ask, ma'am," 161 requests. Lana shrugs, "Shoot."

"What is this gift, exactly? Is it how you knew the wall's weak points," he asks with genuine curiosity. Lana nods, "We can see… imprints, and I guess the past, of inanimate objects just by touching them." "How far does it go," 161 continues. Lana walks over to him and held out her hand, leaving it centimeters away from 161's blaster rifle. She looked at him and waited to see if he would allow her.

161 looks at her for a bit and moves his blaster rifle closer to her fingers. A flood of new information poured into her psyche. She answers, "Its serial number got scratched off at some point, making it unreadable now. The number was 568920341: it's from the original set when they were first deployed, the 999th were one of the first to receive these types, it's seen 124 successful missions, and 37 failed ones; you requested a foregrip to be installed on this because when you're nervous your hands shake." She looks up at him with a blank expression, "It's a bit loose now." Lana decides to not pry further and pulls her fingers back.

Before 161 could say anything in response a loud cracking sound went off, alerting everyone. An explosion went off soon after within a section of the upper city, not too far from the mansion. 161 crouches Lana down, "Get down, ma'am!" She allows him to cover her and darts her eyes around for any threats.

The stormtrooper unconsciously unlatches his blaster rifle's foregrip and searches for any threats. The other stormtroopers and army troopers went on high alert as well till 519 comms in his squadmates.

"Disregard that, Seventeenth squadron. It's just Agent Mateen up top." 161 relaxes and comms in, "Copy, 519. 923 and 557, relay this information to the army troopers." "Sir," blared through 161's comms soon after.

Lana stood back up and angrily comms Otto, "Otto! What was that!?" Otto replies, "I'm cleaning the planet." Lana looks over to 161, then the sight of the explosion, and then towards the top of the mansion. She comms back utterly confused, "Wh-what? You're blowing our… what are you doing? What're you shooting… is something wrong? Was someone coming?"

Otto only says to her, "This needs to be done. Keep the channel clear," Otto's end abruptly stops and all Lana hears is static. She turns her comm-link off and looks to 161. "I'm going up there," she says irritated. 161 nods and watches her run down the stairs, passing 923 and 557.

The two stormtroopers pass by 161 as he stays where he is. He looks down at his blaster rifle, fully realizing the unfolded foregrip's presence. "Heh," he blurts out in both embarrassment and amusement. The stormtrooper checks it to see if it is coming loose. As he moves it around, he hears jingling and clanking sounds emit from it. 161 sighs and refolds the foregrip, 'Need to get that fixed,' he thinks.