[h3]ISD-Blackstar (Captain’s ready room)[/h3]
 “Once again, I thank you and your pilots for your timely intervention.” The recently rescued woman had cleaned her once soot covered face and changed into an imperial officers’ uniform, with her black hair tied into a tight bun.

“I’ll be sure to relay your thanks, but I’m surprised. The information I have on you indicates that you have much experience in the underworld, you wouldn’t have needed to blow your cover this early unless something disastrous happened.” Another woman, Captain Merril Lorrange, replied questioningly. She had red hair tied into a ponytail that rested above her shoulder, and due to her sudden promotion by Vader, was younger than most ‘Commanders’ at twenty-five. 

“In a way, I completed an objective far earlier than anticipated. If needed my criminal identity should still be intact and this incident would merely be treated as a ‘theft’. The scum didn’t realize the true value of what they had; they just knew it held something valuable.” The woman seemed to mentally spit on the word ‘theft’ as it left her mouth, but otherwise maintained an impassive face, her Coruscanti accent coming through as clear and calm as any other Imperial.

Merril made a quick mental note. ‘An objective’, one of how many? Maybe it would come up again.

“So, what is its true value?” Merril asked, clasping her fingers together lightly above her desk. The woman revealed an odd shaped piece of metal from her breast pocket. Black, about 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 1 cm thick.

“A datachip, but not one compatible with most computers, even the ones on your ship; carrying files from an abandoned research facility.” She sighed. “The state of our Empire saddens me at times.”

“Indeed.” Merril nodded. “But that datachip, even if my computers can’t read it, [i]your[/i] datapad can, correct?”
The woman smiled wryly.

“You are correct. But I haven’t decided if I want to share its contents just yet, my apologies Captain. For now, please continue your course back to Coruscant. It would be good for us both to see home, am I not wrong.”

Merril nodded again, feeling a little agitated. Even returning to Coruscant wasn’t a guarantee of safety from the other imperial ‘warlords’ like Moff Omm. Several other Moffs, Admirals, and even some Commodores spent a large part of their time squabbling with the others or trying to desperately hold whatever Imperial assets they can get their hands on. The fact that she was a young, female Captain, with a star destroyer had made her an easy target for their propositions. 

“Indeed, dismissed.” Merril nodded firmly. The woman turned over a datapad containing her after mission report and turned to leave. The door shuffled open and closed a moment later.

As soon as the agent left Merril activated her terminal. ‘An abandoned research facility, from Palpatine’s time maybe?’ Her fingers danced across as she tried to recall all his directives, and divine hidden ones based on old Imperial movements. Maybe she would find nothing, but she had the time, at least until Coruscant.

[h3]ISD-Blackstar (Mess hall)[/h3]
“Aaagggghhh…. When are we going to have a land mission? The last time we orbited a planet was also fighter action only; you fly boys get too much attention…” A young man the same age as Liam groaned and complained amidst a background of other conversations. His black hair was cut short to conform to trooper standards, but was covered by an imperial cap, his jaw was squarer, and he had soft blue eyes.

“Relax Kunsel, I’m sure a boots on the ground mission will come up eventually.” Liam said half-heartedly, waving his hand laxly; of course, nobody knows the future, but it might come true, it was a fifty-fifty kind of thing.

“You son of a bantha! You’re jinxing it for me!” Kunsel shouted and started to dig his knuckles into Liam’s head.
“Nerfherder!” Liam shouted back as he did the same.

“You two always get so loud, take it down a notch.” A gruff approaching voice said. Liam turned his head and saw who it was. Obisidan-1, Ben Jenson, the man who made them a unit. He had a more normal appearance compared to Maran, but it seemed his favorite hobby was weightlifting, as his body was a little on the big side. But he had a gentle giant aura to him with his bright green eyes.

“We’re just high in spirits, Captain.” Liam said as he backed into his seat, Kunsel following his example. Although Kunsel answered to the stormtrooper corps commander, a bad word from Captain Jenson could make his life a lot harder.

“Then maybe I could convince you to log in some extra hours with Eson squad.” Ben said with a villainous smirk.

“N-no way, those guys fly way too weird, I was tuning my fighter back into shape for weeks after they did a ‘ship trade’.” Liam replied, visibly disgusted.

“What’s up with that anyways, you don’t trust the mechanics?”

“Oh, I trust them for [i]your[/i] ships, but those twin ion engines are tuned only for this guy.” He said as he jutted his thumb towards his chest with a grin.

“Those engines are certainly impressive; you must be very proud.” Maran said mockingly as he walked up to the table and sat down as well.

“Space is space, as long as you zig and zag, you’re fine, and the specs on the normal tie fighter engines are still pretty high, they even beat out those new T-21s.” Kunsel added, suddenly Liam and the pilots frowned.

“..Troopers..” They said synonymously, leaving Kunsel with a confused look.

As if saving him from further embarrassment, the ship’s alarm sounded, followed by a voice on the intercom.

“Attention, all hands to your battle stations, repeat, all hands to your battle stations!” Another man’s voice, the ship’s comms officer.

“Just sit back and watch from the trooper barracks, I’ll show you how to ‘zig and zag’.” Liam waved to Kunsel as he sprinted off with the other pilots.