"Have a seat, people." Captain Kolit barks. The briefing room is stark gray, with arrays of chirping consoles. The holograph starts up as Kolit continues, displaying a map of the Anoat system.

"We dropped out of hyperspace two standard hours ago. 8th Wing's reconaissance work shows heavy Imperial activity on Anoat, here (the map changes to display Anoat's habitation domes) and here (it rotates and zooms to show a hastily-constructed flight base)."

"We need to put operatives on Anoat, but there's no way to get by the Imperial blockade without raising a storm of Bantha fodder. Your mission is to procure two Lambda-class Imperial shuttles. It would be best if the Empire's forces here didn't know about it, so get them from somewhere else unless you're absolutely sure Anoat won't notice."

"12th Wing launched before we jumped - they're intercepting the Imperial codes that will put our men on the ground without suspicion. If you have the opportunity to get applicable codes, take them. I want to double up on this one; we need to know what's going on down there."

"Once you have the shuttles, we'll send you rendevous coordinates. Any questions?"

Jorm speaks up first. "Sir, what's our timetable for procuring the shuttles?"

Before the response comes, Jorm reaches for one of his ever-present datapads and begins looking up everything available on Lambda Shuttles.

If I were a Lambda Shuttle, where would I be?

When the time for the briefing, Calsera rises from her nap, her movements lithe and graceful. It is a short walk to the briefing room, and she glides into a seat near the front.

The Captain's briefing is short and too-the-point. *Steal two shuttles. Got it.

At the call for questions, Cat raises her hand. "Captain? Do we have any intel on where we might find a pair of Lambda's ripe for the stealing?"

Eritram listens carefully to Kolit as he explains their next mission.

At Calsera's question he casually remarks:

"If there is civillian maintenance station nearby we could simply wait there for the next Shuttles to arrive - and grab them."

While listening to the others' questions, Jorm keys a private message to Aurelia.

Cat turns to Eritram. "I would think that the problem with just waiting around is that we don't know how long it would be: hours, days, months, etc.. I don't think we have that kind of time here."

Aurelia looks up for a moment from her datapad, where she was in the middle of composing a message, and speaks up.

"If there's a spaceport, there is a maintence dock. Lambdas are the backbone of alot of these smaller bases, might be there's some in for repairs, or in mothballs. With spare parts and a little time, I might be able to get a couple of them running long enough to get them back here for a full refit and a fresh coat of paint?"

"It certainly wouldn't hurt to investigate. Who knows what we'll find."

Ganet's been pretty quiet since they got off mission. While he often hangs out with the rest of the Vandals, sometimes there's just an unavoidable sense of distance, either perceived by him or simply created. He's been known to drink alone, something Dutch has been meaning to talk to him about.

"If possible we should probably get the shuttles from separate locations. Makes it harder to for them to figure out that they've been had initially, and makes it less clear that we have two shuttles. The empire can be surprisingly inept at intelligence fusion."

He also keys in a message to Jorm asking if he could forge some diplomatic/bureaucratic credentials. The easiest way to aquire a shuttle might be just to fly off with it within a cloak of incomprensible paperwork.

Jorm smiles as he receives Ganet's message.

"Well Vandals I think the first thing we should do is choose our marks. Let's get to a bigger display so I can get everyone's input. That is, if there is nothing further, Captain Kolit, Sir."

Arnae puts his feet up on the empty seat in front of him and crosses his arms behind his head. No need to chip in at this point. He knows he'll be flying one of the shuttles, and plenty of good ideas are being bandied about already. He's simply biding time until he can cast his vote for Aurelia's idea.

"A nice pile of paperwork would be handy for the maintence area too. Nothing like Imperial Navy officials to get the grease monkeys to spit up their spare parts list."

"I'll let you get to it," Captain Kolit advises the group, and leaves with a final "Good luck."

---

Later...
The Rusty Dagger floats in the hangar for a moment before igniting its ion engines, sailing easily into the void. Calsera and Eritram, manning the B-Wing, follow soon after.

Jorm locks in coordinates for a promising looking spaceport on Tanteldra, a short hop from the Anoat system. It's likely to have an Imperial presence, but not much - it's an agricultural colony.

The two ships jump into hyperspace with a thoom.

---

Tanteldra system
The jump proceeds without incident, dropping the two Rebel ships into Imperial space. Calsera immediately heads for the cover of Tanteldra's second moon while Arnae pilots the Dagger into the green planet's atmosphere.

Tanteldra's sole spaceport is a rickety affair - maybe 15-20 landing pads of various sizes are splayed haphazardly across an expanse that was once a field, now built up with steel and plastic into a roughneck port. There are several small freighters like the Dagger berthed at the port. Sensors are also picking up Imperial vehicles, clustered around a fairly new-looking outpost. A handful of turbolasers ring armored fortifications, while a pair of AT-ST walkers clomp to and fro.

As Arnae slides his ship over the spaceport, he's hailed by an unmistakably Imperial communications officer. "Imperial outpost 1532-SA to unidentified freighter. State your business. Over."

"Lovely," mutters Jorm as he checks the sensors to try and locate their prey and get a read on the number and functionality of the Turbolasers. It looks like a new outpost. Maybe they aren't all up and running yet

"Fly casual."

"I'll see what I can do to help, sir" says Jorm as he attempts to tweak the Dagger's power systems to mask their arsenal or at least the full extent of the arsenal.

Tanteldra. A backwater system she hasn't visited before, and that's saying a lot.

One jump and they're in-system. It only takes a moment to slip the B-wing into the lee of the moon.

Time to sit back and let the rest of the team do their thing.

Bee-boop "Imperial outpost, this is the freighter Rusty Dagger here for trade good speculation. Requesting permission to land."

"Permission granted. Happy shopping, Dagger."

Jorm scans the turbolaser emplacements during the flyover - one appears to be down for some reason or another, but the remaining four cannons have power.

Then he sees it - a Lambda shuttle sits on the refueling platform, swarmed by maintenence droids. It's inside the Imperial section of the compound but a quick scan shows it to be serviceable.

As Arnae nears the landing area, he sees ranchers and farmers bringing goods in and out on landspeeders and native beasts. A maze of dull gray cargo containers lines the outer edge of the docks.

The Rusty Dagger sets down with a cloud of maneuvering exhaust and dust. The natives don't appear to take too much notice, preferring to leave the ship matters to the droids. A passel of power droids waddle over to the freighter as Arnae keys the exit ramp.

Arnae yawns and stretches up over his seat and swats an overhead intercom button.

"Tanteldra! Smoke 'em if you got 'em."

He tightens his gunbelt a notch and heads for the exit ramp.