The peaceful blue and green hues of the planet were marred by the sleek and angular shadow cast upon it by the shape of the Belligerent, amongst the first of her class of ship; the new Oppressor class Star Destroyers. The Destroyer was a Geonosian Hive of activity with shuttles, barges, and TIE Fighters flying between the surface of the planet and the battleship in a constant motion that strained one's eye to keep up with.


Captain Vikrax preferred looking at the holodisplay of the activity instead, whilst keeping an open ear on proceedings on the surface. They'd arrived in this system barely a few hours ago yet promising results were already coming in. The First Order was establishing itself and like any new military force they needed recruits. So here they found themselves, in orbit over a Republic world in the Outer Rim, formerly an Imperial Outpost, looking amongst their former brethren to see if any would be willing to fight for the new cause.


But as always, something would have to happen to interrupt the peaceful proceedings. Word was coming in of a fierce firefight breaking out at one of the villages a shuttle had been sent to. Waving his hand through the air delicately to maneuver the screens around, Vikrax quickly arrived to the displays of the scene at hand and witnessed a quickly departing shuttle being covered against ground fire by two TIE Fighters that'd arrived on scene. Tapping on one of the TIE Fighters revealed information about that particular ship, including which squadron it belonged to and a direct link access that he would make quick use of.


"Ash Four, this is Captain Vikrax. Please explain the situation."


"Captain, the courier was shot as soon as he started stepping off the shuttle. Three storm troopers were shot as well while recovering his body and retreating into the shuttle. They fired on us as well but we got the better of them. There were about a dozen attackers that we could see," came back the female voice of Ash Four.


"Very well then. Escort the shuttle back to the Belligerent," ordered Captain Vikrax.


This wasn't entirely unexpected of course, as encampments of Republic transplants had been found on Imperial Worlds before of course. That's why all couriers now were escorted by at least a squad of storm troopers but it was still a dangerous assignment.


"Captain Vikrax, a full report has been compiled from the planet. Apart from the one problem village, recruiting has exceeded expectations, with three thousand joining us now and another ten thousand strong making preparations. Total losses amount to just under ten personnel," reported Lieutenant Calam.


"Excellent news. Send the message to Stolhammer Base and ask for additional transports with an escort. Now there'll only be one last task to be dealt with."


With that being said Vikrax turned his attention back to the planet before glancing over at the display image of the resistant little village.


"Lieutenant, turbolaser battery seven scored the lowest in the last gunnery exercises I believe?" asked Vikrax.


"Yes sir, they scored considerably lower the next to the worst and it resulted in a few demotions."


"Well then, let's see how far along their replacements have come in training. Assign the obliteration of that pesky village to battery seven."


"Yes sir."


The Lieutenant left to carry out his orders with a smile on his face, one that was matched by the grin on Vikrax's face. These recruiting missions tended to be tedious work but just occasionally, there was a chance for some real pleasure.