Shade was lost in thought as the lift doors opened and she headed towards the room of 9178. Her absent team member bothered her greatly.
As she walked along the long floors that were lined with identical gray dormitory room doors she was lost in thought. No matter what she did she had always worked hard. When she had joined the military she had always tried to impress her superiors. It had paid off. Shade had risen quickly amongst the other troopers, promoted even faster than she had hoped. She knew she was thought of highly amongst the upper ranks in the First Order, in time they had given her free reign to put together a team of her own. She was now in charge of fifteen storm troopers – and they were always assigned to risky missions. She excelled whenever the odds were against her. She had thought of herself as an elite – someone to be relied upon to get the job done, but over time in the dark recesses of her mind she had wanted more.
Now she had it she had realised military success wasnt enough. She grew jaded, always risking her life for a cause she didn't truely believe in. She couldn't pinpoint exactly when it had happened but she had changed.
Shade now found she wanted to be rich. To be free and independent. That was three years ago. She had been very careful, had planned everything. Had waited for the right opportunity, had known that at some point that it would come to this, and when it did she would need to be ready.
She had hand picked the four other troopers – her inner sanctum that may prove useful for several reasons. From that point onwards the rest of her team were unimportant to her, they were just window dressing. All part of the disguise. Within the four she had chosen she had recognised the seeds of free thinking, something otherwise frowned upon within the First Order. It had taken three years of careful subtle suggestions to get to this point, where the four others thought they were thinking for themselves. She knew differently though, that really they were just an extension of Shade's will. Shade didn't know how but she had always been skilled at manipulating people, at getting them to do what she wanted. She had taken it slow and planted the embryo of a plan in their minds, not obvious details, simply hints and suggestions; she had even gave her selected troopers names to make them think they were special, unique. That had been a risk, if the First Order commanders had discovered this she would have been in prison...or worse. But the risk had paid off. After three long years they did what they were told without question, and she knew exactly what they would do and what they would say. It was all predictable. Which is why it especially irked her that 9178 had started to show disobedience. Maybe she had been too successful with her conditioning, but it didn't matter now.
There was a solution.
Shade slowed to a stop as she finally came to 9178's door. She looked around - the long corridor was deserted. She pressed the glowing comm button on the right hand side of the door. As she waited for a response she knew there could be no loose ends. She had worked too long and too hard for one grunt to stop her. She frowned.
The door opened.