[center][h2]Anaxes Orbital Command Center[/h2]
[h3]Present Day...[/h3][/center]

Through swirling currents of smoke and snow, Lieutenant Uled watched the shuttle approach, circling the landing pad like some great, black bird of prey, its dark wings folding up along its sides as though preparing to swoop down on Uled and the troopers assembled behind him.

He stood at attention, ignoring as best he could wind that bit right through his uniform, and the overpowering reek of burning gas and melted ferrocrete. He envied the Stormtoopers around him, in their sealed armor, breathing warm, recycled air.

The raid had hit his facility, hard, and though most of the fires were by now under control, smoke and ash hung over the base like a shroud. The occasional break in the dark pall revealed an altogether more disturbing sight: the vast arrow-head shadow of a Star Destroyer, suspended beneath the grey skies, blocking out the pale winter sun.

Uled wondered for the thousandth time if he was about to meet the end of his career or the end of his life, and could not be sure which idea terrified him more.

The shuttle landed, the exit ramp dropping in a gust of hydraulic exhaust, and down they came, a squad of Stormtroopers first, then the black-uniformed agents of the Imperial Security Bureau. 

The Colonel descended last, the tails of his dark coat billowing out behind him, his collar upturned against the wind. He was a tall man with graying, slightly unkempt hair swept back from a high forehead. The left side of his face was a patchwork of burns, and he wore a metal patch over his eye. An unlit cigarra hung from the corner of his mouth, and the pistol at his hip was far heavier than the standard officer's model.

"You Uled?" he said, approaching the lieutenant. The Colonel spoke in a gutter drawl from the Outer Rim- nothing like the clipped Coruscanti affectation universal among the Imperial officer caste. His accent shocked Uled, who managed stunned blink and a half-hearted salute. 

"Yes sir, Lieutenant Uled, sir, I am the, ah, commander of this facility."

"Colonel Pale, ISB. Rebs hit you boys pretty hard down here," said the Colonel, shielding his cigarra from the wind as he lit it, "Lose anything important?"

"Ah, the comms array, sir, the refueling depot for the ground units, and two turbo laser batteries sir."

"Databases still intact?"

"Databases, sir?"

"Communications logs, ship manifests, that sort've thing?"

"Err, yes, yes sir."

"Good. As of this moment, your facility is under the command of the Imperial Security Bureau. You are to order all personnel- including your troopers- to surrender their weapons to my men and report to the main briefing hall by 0200. Anyone who can't make it without a damned good excuse, we hunt down like an animal. You are relieved of command for the duration of my stay on Anaxes, Lieutenant." 

"Sir, I... we managed to destroy the rebel-"

"I don't give a wookie's ass about the rebels," said the Colonel, "If I cared about that lizard-fucker Ximen and his rag-tag gaggle of pirates, I'd be chasing them instead of standing here in the cold with you. Exactly fifty people were authorized to know about the frigate the rebels tried to lift, and all of them work in this facility. You have a leak, Lieutenant."

Uled opened his mouth to reply, but the Colonel held up a gloved hand as he exhaled a cloud of bluish, spicy-smelling smoke. Behind him, Uled could see landers streaming down from the Destroyer. The first to touch down disgorged ISB stormtroopers, who fanned out in combat formation. There were a few bright blue flashes, as the ISB troops stunned anyone in their way.

"Your sidearm, Lieutenant," said Pale, holding out his hand, "and then I'll need your override codes to the facility."