***Thand Sector, Kafrene Asteroid Belt***
***Ring of Kafrene, South City***
The whine of BlasTech E-11b blaster rifles dominated the noontime hour. The Imperials had landed in their Lambda-class T-4a shuttle and hadn't stopped firing since. The Red Keys watched carefully at first, and their vigilance would be rewarded for it. Instead of clearing out their hideouts, the Imperials were seemingly fixated on rooting out the Blue Star strongholds. Evidently, the pirate group had not anticipated the entrance of a third party into the fray, much less them being the Empire's elite Stormtrooper Corps. What the Red Keys could not accomplish in months was being realized right before their eyes.
Days later, the last Blue Star stronghold fell and the captured pirates were led away in chains. It was on this day that a Stormtrooper lieutenant sought out the Ubese leader of the Kafrene Red Keys and offered him a small, handheld holoprojector. Moments after taking the device, the holoprojector displayed the image of an Imperial naval captain, standing silently with his hands behind his back. As the image corrected momentarily, the Imperial captain greeted the Ubese.
"The Empire has weighed and measured the Ring of Kafrene, and has found it wanting for order. The Blue Star Pirates are a scourge that must be burned from their holes, as we have on so many other worlds. Make no mistake, the Empire holds no illusions that you and your group are nothing more than a band of criminals, but there are battles to be fought in more important systems, and an Imperial garrison on Kafrene would be wasteful," the captain explained, "I am offering you and your group the opportunity to represent the Empire's order within this system and keep it from ever falling into the hands of rebel or pirate filth."
The Red Keys were given time to consider the offer, though the Imperial captain implied that there would be only one acceptable answer from their organization.
