Anoat.

Even though Shade was wearing her troopers helmet, retro fitted with breathing apparatus, she instinctively shielded her eyes as the drop ship took off. The thrust of the engines kicked up dust and forgotten debris from a wide area.

She waited until the dust had cleared before she took in her surroundings. She was standing in a wide, open, square area with a huge stone statue of a uniformed man placed in one corner. She realised that the square had, at one point, been covered in grass, but it had long since died away, leaving a dusty and cracked brown surface in its place. Towering buildings lined the area, all in different states of decay. Her equipment had been neatly stacked in crates a short distance away, along with several ground speeders of differing types.

Standing before her were her company of troopers; forty in total. They were standing to attention in four columns, awaiting orders. At the head of three of the lines were her team – Quads, Tex and Zak. There was a conspicuous space at the end of the fourth column, the space that should have been occupied by Summer.

She walked along the lines, nodding once to each of her three remaining hand picked team. When she reached the fourth she stood and saluted the empty space – a show of respect designed to keep up the charade.

Fool. You got what you deserved.

She walked back to where she had been standing and addressed the entire group.

"Troopers. You know why we are here. We have forty eight hours to scout the area for any signs of resistance activity. This planet may appear to be deserted, but it isn't. The inhabitants are to be regarded as hostile. If contact happens, well then so be it, you all know what to do, but if possible this should be avoided. Try to maintain a low profile...and everyone remember to keep your helmets on at all times. The air here is unbreathable. Are there any questions?"

She looked around her group, noting the attention that she held from the troopers.

No one spoke up.

"Ok. Then you've been assigned and have your teams and have been tasked search areas already. Get to work. You have an initial six hours to make your first assessments before reporting back here. Group leaders. You are to remain here to establish base command. Now, everyone. Get to work..."

At the sound of the last word all of the troopers split up, heading away in different directions.

Quads, Tex and Zak remained where they were, all stood in silence.

Shade waited until the last trooper had left the area before she next spoke.

"Ok you three, you know why we are here. Let's make this the last journey to a remote hell hole that we all do."

She handed them each a plan of the area, which they all studied. She pointed to a place in the middle.

"This is where we are now. I arranged to have us dropped right in the middle of the old banking quarter." She moved her gloved hand around the map as she spoke. "All of these buildings here are the headquarters of what used to be the main Imperial banks. I have intel that the vaults remain untouched..."

Quads spoke up "Now that's what I'm talking about !"

Shade looked at him "No Quads. That's what I've been telling you... Now. We've got six hours until the grunts come back, with any luck we will be long gone by then."

It was Tex who next spoke "How are we getting off this rock Captain, you never explained that ?"

Shade replied "You leave that to me, believe it when I say it'll be a surprise though..."

The surprise is I'll be gone before you even realise it...

Zak, who hadn't said anything since they had gotten off the drop ship, finally spoke "Captain, any idea what happened to Summer ? I heard she was murdered..."

"I know no more than you do...but we have no time for questions now. Time's wasting. Look for the crates with my own prefix on them, inside you'll find everything you need to get and bring back everything we came for. We meet back here in four hours."

"Will that be enough time ?", Quads questioned.

"It should be. It's possible that some of these vaults are empty, that my intel is wrong. If that's the case just move on to the next one..."

You'll find everywhere has already been cleared out. The Empire wasn't in the habit of leaving anything behind. In two hours I should be gone anyway...so I really don't care either way...

"oh. And take your helmets off. There's nothing wrong with the air here..."

To reinforce the point Shade removed her own helmet as she strode away from the other three.

From near the top of the highest building that overlooked the square, behind a dirty broken transparisteel window, the blue skinned man watched the scene unfolding below through macrobinoculars.

"Interesting." He said to himself.