Lucky was in a peaceful sleep, curled up in a tight ball in the master bedroom of their Condo, when a faint buzzing woke her, at first she thought she was only dreaming but after a minute, realized that it was her datapad.

She looked at the message displayed and muttered under her breath "Another mission...Already?" She looked up at the large display clock and noticed with surprise that the night was still young. High Command had said in the message that they didn't have to rush too much, so she shook Alan gently awake before stepping into the bathroom.

Five minutes later, she had freshened up and gotten ready, leaving the door open for Alan. As she walked down the stairs toward the kitchen, she sent a message to the squad to wake up and meet up in the briefing room in forty minutes. That should leave them enough time to get ready and get there.

She had some coffee brewed and poured them into mugs before handing one to Alan, who had joined her in the kitchen and they both left for the briefing room, locking up behind them.

Once the two of them were seated, she pondered on whether to go grab them some breakfast or not. She decided to wait after since this would really be a true midnight snack.

The squad shortly arrived and one after the other sleepily filed into the room. She waited for everyone to be seated and listening before speaking.

'This mission will be somewhat different boys and girls. For one because we'll be leaving at 0100 hours , it is now 1130 as you can probably tell. we'll be headed to Ando prime. Grab your gear and make sure to pack some extra warm clothes, we have to be at the shuttle by half past midnight. That gives you one hour, now let's move people!"

Alan blinked his eyes open as he felt Lucky nudging him gently.  What now he thought to himself as he clambered out of bed slowly and started getting washed and dressed.  Heading downstairs he was grateful to see a large cup of steaming hot coffee waiting for him.  He drank it quickly, feeling the effects start to work on his bleary eyes.

Lucky and Alan were in the meeting room before the rest of the squad joined them.  This gave Alan some time to stretch and yawn, shaking off the remains of sleep.  He checked his watch and was surprised as to how late it was.  He wondered what they were being called in to do now.

'This mission will be somewhat different boys and girls. For one because we'll be leaving at 0100 hours, it is now 1130 as you can probably tell. We'll be headed to Ando prime. Grab your gear and make sure to pack some extra warm clothes.  We have to be at the shuttle by half past midnight. That gives you one hour, now let's move people!" said Lucky.

Alan groaned when he heard the name of the planet they were going to and the mention of warm clothes.  The very thought of going to such a cold environment sent a chill through his bones.  Why do they always manage to send us to an ice planet around this time every year pondered Alan.

The squad started milling out of the room until only Lucky and Alan remained.

"An ice planet" commented Alan.

"Yeah, I knew you'd be thrilled" replied Lucky who smiled slightly.

Alan smiled back and asked "well do you want to go get some warm food before we pack?"

"Sounds like a plan to me" replied Lucky as they got up and headed out the door for some food.

This will be fun. Nick thought as he left the room, heading out to where he kept his weapons.

They had about an hour to ready up. Nick didn’t do anything about the planet, but he could tell it was cold by Luckys warning of ‘’Warm clothes’’. For him, it would be a little bit different, he had never been on a planet with very low temperature. When he saw the others mumbling about the cold, he knew it would be as fun as he had hoped.

Nick looked at the various weapons on the wall. He hoped none of his weapons would malfunction in the cold. That would be unlikely, but it wasn’t impossible. Nick loved to collect weapons. Aside from weapons, he loved armor. To his side was plain Stormtrooper armor, Black shocktrooper armor,  Katarn clone commando armor,  Arc trooper armor and 210 personal armor. This was a squad mission, so he took his Shocktrooper armor, an Annihilator pistol, and a Dc-17m Interchangeable combat system.

Nick also had a small range of vehicles too. He had a Basilisk war droid and an LAAT. Of course, he had never gotten a chance to fly the LAAT. But he hoped it would be useful in one of their missions.

‘’ Okay, time for a warm up.’’ Nick said.

He then headed outside to do some fitness training.

Alan was feeling wide awake when the ship finally took off.  Glancing down, Alan smiled as he watched Zeshaun trying to get some sleep.  Alan wasn’t sure how long the trip would take but right now he wasn’t in the least bit sleepy.  His thoughts went to the planet that they were going and he wondered how long it would be before they could leave the godforsaken frozen planet.  I do so hate the cold he thought to himself.

Nick came up to Alan and asked “I see you’re packing more hardware today Sir, are we expecting trouble?”

Alan glanced down and remembered that when they had returned from their last mission he had gone to the Imperial Store and purchased a second DL-44 Heavy Blaster pistol.

“With our missions you can never tell” replied Alan, “but I figured that I can use more weapons”.

“Well I’m hoping for a mission that is less hectic than our recent ones” commented Drakar.

A loud snoring sound reverberated around the ship and they all glanced over at Zeshaun and chuckled as they realised he had drifted into a deep sleep.

“I’m guessing Zeshaun isn’t bothered one way or the other about what we may be facing” commented Lucky, smiling as Zeshaun let out another loud snore.

“I’m just looking forward to getting this mission over and done with” said Alan.

“Why’s that?” asked Drakar.

“I hate the cold” replied Alan.

Nova growled in the background and Alan wasn’t sure whether he was growling in agreement of the dislike of the cold or whether he was growling to say he didn’t mind the cold.  Glancing at Nova, Alan thought that the cold surely wouldn’t bother him with such a large coat of fur covering him.

Glancing out one of the view ports, Alan watched the stars streak past and thought to himself wish we were going to a hot planet for once this year.

Alan gazed out as the stars streaked past the view port.  Whilst he was aware of the rest of the squad within the ship, his mind was a million miles away.  He wished there was something to do.  Right now all he wanted to do was to do more practicing with having two blasters rather than one but he knew that firing off a blaster inside a ship was not a wise course of action.

“Anyone have anything worth drinking?” Nick asked.

Alan reached into his jacket and retrieved a small hip flask and he handed it to Nick.  He wasn’t sure whether or not Nick knew that it contained Corellian whiskey but he was sure he wouldn’t mind.

“Thanks, sir” replied Nick as he started to drink it.

Alan turned his attention back to the stars streaking by.  He was glad that he had another flask of whiskey left.  He remembered he had tried bringing Corellian ale in a hip flask on the last cold mission.  That had not gone well and he hoped the whiskey would fare better on this trip than the ale had on the last one.

The intercom on the ship hissed and crackled before a voice started speaking to them.  “Attention” said the voice, “we are on approach to Ando Prime and will be landing shortly”.

Finally thought Alan as he noticed that the stars had finished streaking past and he knew that the ship had now exited hyperspace.  He had started to wonder whether they would ever get to Ando Prime or not.

“Let’s gear up” said Lucky as she stood and started getting ready for when they landed.

“All right, you heard her, let’s get busy” said Alan as he moved to get ready, mentally preparing himself for the cold that was to come.

Drakar, like most of the squad was spending the last remaining moments on the shuttle daydreaming when his thoughts were broken by the fuzzy crackling of the intercom.

"Attention” said the voice, “we are on approach to Ando Prime and will be landing shortly”.

“Let’s gear up” said Lucky as she stood and got her bag out as well.

“All right, you heard her, let’s get busy” said Alan as he grabbed for his bags as well.

Drakar reached underneath his seat for his dufflebag containing his equipment and put it on the ground in front of him.  He unzipped it revealing his Cold Gear and weaponry.  After quickly putting it on he placed his armor over it finishing his preparation.  In order to finish his preparation for battle he began to shift his weight back and forth making sure he still had his mobility with the extra weight he would be carrying for this mission.

Once he got done finished getting dressed he placed his weapons in their holsters along with his helmet in his lap as he sat back down ready for landing. He noticed that most of the squad had been doing most of the same, especially Zeshaun.

"I feel like a lead weight." He grumbled.

"Well, you definantly look like one." Alan said laughing.

Drakar and the rest of the squad noticed as he tried not to fall over as he tried to sit down. 

I hope he doesn’t slow us down with all that weight, thought Drakar. 

His quickly dismissed this thought because he knew how competitive Zeshaun got in the heat of battle.

Zeshaun braced himself for the impact of the land. He nearly fell over again when they landed. The doors opened and a gust of wind blew inside of the transport. Zeshaun considered faking a heart attack so he wouldn't have to go, but decided against it.

He stepped out side and, although he felt like a large rock, did not regret packing this much clothes. He still felt slightly cold even with that many layers on. He made one last quick check to make sure he had everything then grouped with the squad. Ando Prime was more beautiful than Zeshaun had expected. The mountains rose up majestically in the horizon and the sun gleamed off the snow. The cold really deducted from the nice view.

"We should find a place to stay, hopefully there will be hotels in the city." Lucky said looking through her datapad.

"There's a city?" Zeshaun was surprised to hear that people even lived on this planet.

"Ando Prime is actually well known for their podracing tracks. Maybe we can watch one in our spare time." Lucky said.

Zeshaun snorted, he knew they would never have any spare time, especially on a mission.

"If you bothered to look around you you can see the city right over there." Lucky pointed over toward the mountains.

Sure enough there was a glow coming from that direction with the roofs of some building visible. It didn't seem to far away.

"We should start making our way over there if we want to make it before night." Lucky said. "and walking will keep you warm."

The squad started hiking through the snow towards the city. It was a mind numbing walk, nothing to see, no interesting landscape other than the mountains. It was very boring. When they finally reached the outskirts of the city it was starting to get darker but there were city lights that illuminated the streets.

"Let's find a hotel and then we'll talk more about our mission there." Lucky said.

The doors to the ship opened and Alan was immediately buffeted by the coldest wind imaginable.  Oh hell, I was expecting cold but not to this degree of coldness thought Alan as he shivered in his snowtrooper armour.  Who designed these things anyway he thought as he wondered why they were so poor at keeping out the cold.

"You want me to stay here and guard the ship, don't you?" asked Alan.

Lucky laughed and replied "let's get moving".

The squad exited the ship and Alan wondered whether or not they would actually get to see any Podracing on this mission.  He knew that Ando Prime was renowned for its Podracing.  He glanced at the rest of the squad and he thought to himself that the chances of them getting to do any sightseeing were minimal.

The squad trudged slowly towards the city and Alan began wondering about the mission.  The squad had yet to be briefed on the mission objectives and Alan was curious as to what it was they were doing on this hellhole.  Thank the maker thought Alan as he spotted the Hotel looming closer.

"We are almost there, lets keep going" Alan said.

The squad's pace seemed to quicken as they approached the Hotel.  Alan was hoping that the Hotel was going to have some form of bar.  Right now a Corellian whiskey seemed very appealing to him as he needed its warmth.

The squad entered the building and Alan could immediately feel his body warming up as it was quite warm inside.  He removed his helmet and soaked in the warmth of the Hotel.

"Where's the bar?" asked Alan.

Zeshaun shook his head and smiled.  He replied "is that all you think about when we go on missions?"

Alan laughed and replied "you're trying to tell me there's something more important?"

They both laughed and Nick joined in by saying "the bar sounds like a good place to check out".

Alan watched Zeshaun head off for his room and thought he was insane.  More drinking time for the rest of us he thought to himself as he and Nick entered the bar.  Alan scanned the bar and opted for a table in a darkened corner.

Alan wasn’t expecting there to be trouble but you could never know what was going to happen next in an establishment and if someone who had a grudge against the Empire happened to see them still donned in snowtrooper armour then things might not go down too well.

“What’ll it be?” asked a waitress who had moved swiftly up to their table.

“Corellian ale for me” said Alan.

“The same” replied Nick.

Alan had been thinking of a Corellian whiskey ever since he exited the ship but once he had entered the Hotel and felt his bones warming up, he decided to go for his usual drink.  It did not take long for the waitress to return with their drinks.

“Cheers” said Alan as he raised his glass and Nick and Alan clinked their glasses together.

Now we’re talking thought Alan to himself as he took a long sip of the cool refreshing liquid.

Alan wondered where Zeshaun had gotten to as he ordered up a second round of drinks.  When the drinks arrived, Alan wasn’t overly bothered that Zeshaun had still not arrived as he took a sip of his drink.

His mind wandered to what their mission was going to be.  Lucky had not yet briefed them as to what the squad was going to do and right now he was itching to find out what it was.

He was looking forward to getting into a fire fight as he wanted to put his new DL-44 Heavy Blaster pistol to good use.  Right now he had used it only on the firing range and it needed to be tested in the heat of real battle.

Glancing up, Alan noticed the arrival of Zeshaun.  About time he thought as he waved Zeshaun over to their table.

Lucky had unpacked her small bag and placed everything in order in the dresser, she was naturally like that, she didn't know why.She had taken off her helemt, and was glad of the Scout Trooper armor she had acquired when she had started her Specilaty Courses not long ago. She had two suits, one was black for missions where they wore their Shock Trooper armor and the other was white to blend in with the squad when they were in Stabdard or Snowtrooper armor.

She wasn't too sure of herself in this mission, it seemed a little strabge to her. shrugging, she carried her helmet under one arm and left for the bar where the rest of the squad was presumably waitinng.

She hurried down and found everyone sitting around a table each with a drink in hand. She ordered a Corellian Whiskey for herself and sat down, after a minute of chatter the table became quiet.

"Nice to se you guys all here and ready to rock. Now, as you all know, this missin is different from any of our previous ones. Yes, we will be going to soem Podraces but not for enjoyment, there are some people who are plotting to sabotage the events of the Podraces and use that distraction to get to some "Galactic giants" if you want to call them that, so basically take over the galaxy by starting off with sabotaguing the big businesses and organisations. Our job is going to be to stop them and bring them back to Tadath for sentencing, only kill if it is really necessary. The specific race we'll be "attending" is the Andobi Mountain Run. I brought wit hus some tents, we'll be camping out in caves and we'll be keeping an eye out for the troublemakers. If there are no questions, then finish your drinks quickly and let's get going."

Zeshaun had just gotten his cooler when Lucky showed up. Damn, just my lucky. Zeshaun thought trying to chug the cooler before Lucky could start talking. She came over just as he was finishing the last drop. Apparently they were here to stop some kind of sabotage against the podraces. They needed to catch them in the act and then bring them back for sentencing. Even worse they weren't allowed to kill, only if necessary.

“If there are no questions, then finish your drinks quickly and let's get going” said Lucky.

Zeshaun tried to catch the attention of the waiter but couldn't before the rest of them started to leave. He sighed and gave up. He realized that he had left much of his clothes and such in his room where they would not be staying anymore. He ran past everyone as fast as possible. Lucky started to say something but he as already in the turbolift before she could finish. He got his things and went back downstairs.

"Where did you go?" Lucky asked.

"I had to go get my stuff." Zeshaun said motioning toward his bags.

"Okay, well now that everyone is here, let's go." Lucky started out the door.

Zeshaun paused a moment before going outside, he didn't feel like leaving the warmth of the hotel lobby. He sighed and stepped outside into the chilling winds and followed along with the squad, trying to stay in the middle of the pack so that they acted as cover against the wind.

They were out of the city by night fall and they were on there way toward the race course. Lucky stopped them and they built up there camps and started a fire. Zeshaun curled up in a ball as close to the fire as he could possibly get without hurting himself and tried to stay warm.

The journey to the cave was uneventful but Alan wished that his armour came with its own heater.  He shivered inside his armour and began to wonder whether or not he would ever properly de-thaw.

Alan couldn't believe how cold it was in the cave.  A fire was started and was soon raging.  Alan noted that although the fire was burning he felt no heat from it whatsoever.  The cave was a good location as it looked out over a good portion of the Podracing track.

The Podraces were well covered by audiences apart from this section which would be sparsely populated so if there was to be any hijacking of the races then this was the prime location to do it.  Alan wasn't sure what the hijackers had in mind to disrupt the race but he was looking forward to stopping them.

Alan glanced out from the cave and looked down at the track.  He had never seen a Podrace before and although they would not get much chance to witness it fully, he was still looking forward to seeing them race past.  He just hoped that their calculations were correct and that this was where the hijacking of the race would indeed take place.

"Do you think there are any Wampa's in here?" asked Nick.

Alan laughed at the very notion and replied "don't be silly Nick, we are all alone here".

A roar resounded around the cave as soon as the words came out of Alan's mouth and the squad jumped slightly, glancing down into the depths of the cave.

"Um, guys" stated Zeshaun as the noise reverberated around the cave.

"I don't think we are alone here" commented Drakar.

The squad were soon on their feet, weapons raised. 

I might have spoken too early thought Alan as he wielded both blasters in his hands.

"Everybody up! The Podraces should be starting up shortly so move it!Move it! Move it! Lucky shouted.

Nick quickly got up and prepared himself for the podraces.

About time. Nick said, putting on his helmet while holding his Dc-17.

He looked at the inside of the cave. It was a good thing Nova was what made that sound before. If a wampa had caused that, they would have been in a lot of trouble. But now that he had gotten rest, he thought he could take on anything including a Wampa, or a wookiee possibly.

  Nick looked at his mechno-arm. Luckily, he couldn’t feel the cold that much in that arm.
He felt a bit exposed when anyone was able to see its prosthetic appearace, so he wore a glove to hide it. He wasn’t ashamed of it, it would just be a target point for enemies.

The rest of the squad were preparing to head out.

‘’As we move out, I will explain how we are going to do this.’’ Lucky said.

Tons of joy. Nick thought.

The squad readied up. And began to move out into the cold. The planet looked beautiful at this time.

Zeshaun awoke to the sound of Lucky's voice.

“Everybody up! The Podraces should be starting up shortly so move it! Move it! Move it!” shouted Lucky.

Zeshaun found that he had slept on his arm funny and it had fallen asleep. He tried to shake it awake, getting the feeling back so he could use it. A sudden deafening roar made Zeshaun jump. He looked over the side and saw hundred's of thousands of people cheering on the 10 racing pod's lining up on the track.

"God keep it down will ya?" Zeshaun yelled to no one in the particular.

He heard the squad laughing. They started to move out of the cave, the sun shone on Zeshaun. Although it didn't help much with the temperature just the thought of the warm sun cheered Zeshaun up a little.

"Alright, as you may have noticed stormtrooper's aren't very common around here." Lucky started saying.

"By not common you mean we're the only trooper's on the planet right?" Alan said sarcastically.

Everyone laughed. Lucky gave Alan a dirty look but you could tell she didn't really care.

"We must stay as inconspicuous as possible. That's going to be rather hard seeing that we are in bright white armor." Lucky said pointing to their armor. "But we'll have to do what we can."

"Since the stadium is so large we will have to split up. Keep in touch with each other through the commlink, if you spot anything suspicious tell eveyrone right away, don't try to deal with it yourselves." Lucky said laying out the details.

"Are you sure we should split up?" Zeshaun asked

He didn't like splitting up, he was very reluctant to go off on his own, although he had been on many missions before he was still a little low on his confidence and didn't know if he could pull through without help.

"Your right, we'll pair up." Lucky said.

Zeshaun let out a sigh. "I call Alan."

"I think not, Alan is with Nick, Drakar is with me, and Zeshaun your with Nova." Lucky said.

Zeshaun now regretted bringing up that he wanted a partner. He wasn't particularly comfortable around wookies. He had grown up hunting wookies for fun and selling their furs.

"On second thought, I think it would be better if we did it alone..." Zeshaun offered.

"No, you were right the first time." Lucky said putting down her foot.

Damn. I don't know how well I'm going to be able to deal with this wookie.

Zeshaun tried to keep a friendly tone whilst talking with Nova but old habits die hard. He could understand most of the things Nova said since he picked up on the language a while back. Zeshaun searched the crowd looking for anything suspicious but couldn't find anything. Well it's hard to find any single person here much less a person trying to hide themsleves. Zeshaun thought.

"(There's some strange movement going on down there,)" Nova growled.

Zeshaun looked over at where Nova's arm was pointing. Sure enough there was a group of people all standing against a wall holding datapads and trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

"Let's go check it out then." Zeshaun started to make his way over to the group.

It was harder to move through the crowd than Zeshaun would have thought. They were all pushing forward trying to get as close as possible to the track, it also made them warmer to huddle together. It was easier for them to pass through the crowd since Nova was so large and they were wearing stormtrooper armor which made people get out of their way.

"Excuse me gentlemen." Zeshaun walked up to the men by the wall. "Can I ask what you are doing here."

They gave Zeshaun a dirty look but when they saw Nova their expression changed.

"We're here watching the podraces." one of them said. "What else would we be doing here?"

Zeshaun nodded. "Do you mind if I take a look at your datapads." Zeshaun reached out his hand.

The man shrugged and handed it to him. "Sure."

On the datapad a odds and bet's were being recorded for the race. Zeshaun quickly scanned through all the files on the datapad but it seemed all it had was old race info and bets that were placed. He handed the datapad back. He went through all 5 of the datapads and each one had the same thing.

"Have a good day gentlemen." Zeshaun said turning back.

He walked into the crowd trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible but with Nove and the armor it was rather hard. He kept his eyes peeled for any sign of trouble or someone who did something to get noticed.