('V')

Courtney Ayshala locked her flat behind her, going through her normal routine. One of the billions of sentients that made up the ranks of the 'eco class', a sort of limbo between the lower and middle class, Courtney had stumbled into her residence late last night. As jobs went, depreciating equipment was a simple yet intricate task that forced her to work overtime more often than not. A trusty holoplayer filled with audiobooks and music was often Courtney's only company, especially when working in the lower levels, where signal was more fantasy than reality.

When Ms. Ayshala headed for her job this morning, she had no idea that the Jedi had taken control of the Republic after the bloody murders of all the Senators and the Chancellor himself.

Courtney got on the tram like she normally did, slipping on her headphones to block the hum of morning commuters, though she was annoyed to find she had to turn her player up several notches to find the solace she was looking for.

Coruscant Hub, the largest connecting station on the planet, sat 300 meters opposite the Jedi Temple. One building designed to inspire hope, spires reaching for new opportunities, the other the lowest bid, a building created by Senators who would never use it. Not even a Post-Modernist could find something beautiful about the Hub.

Courtney stepped off the tram into the bustling station. She tried to make her way to the next terminal, but the crowd was so thick she barely made it halfway across the station before watching the status of her tram switch from 'boarding' to 'in transit.'

Courtney briefly wondered if today was some holiday she had forgotten. Deciding today was just a quirk, she tried as best she could to be ready at the right terminal for the alternate tram. Courtney had already tuned out the crowd again to try to focus on calculations. Taking the second tram would make her thirty minutes late for work. Her boss would dock her the standard three hours of pay as Disciplinary Procedure. The loss of wages would mean the difference between real vegetables and Veggie-Paste, a goop the color of slugs that had to be vigorously boiled to avoid tasting how it looked.

Being jostled was practically a requirement of this station. Courtney had no idea something was amiss till she felt the sun on her face, something clearly out of place if she was still inside the windowless station. Courtney couldn't fight the push of the crowd, she would just have to wait until the group dispersed slightly to return to the station.

As the mob got closer to the Temple, the shouts became deafening, turning into a chant so loud she couldn't even understand what everyone was saying. As she got closer, the polished armor of the clones seemed to magically appear from the gleaming marble steps leading to the entrance of the Temple. A lone Jedi, too young for the silver-white hair on his head, stood in front of the clones, as much a statue as they were.

Flimsy yellow barricades marked how close the mob could get without the clones taking action, and for a moment, Courtney hoped she could escape back to the tram station. Even if it meant paste for a month, she preferred it to being stuck between a mob and the Clone army.

Someone pushed her.

Courtney stumbled forward a few dangerous steps, inside the zone marked by the flashing holo-barricade. A single loud clack pierced the mob's shouting, the sound of hundreds of clones bringing up their weapons in unison. The lone Jedi stepped forward, saying something to her, but Courtney couldn't hear. The crowd was so tightly packed, she didn't have a chance to turn off her player. Hands shaking, she reached into her coat pocket to turn off the hand shaped device.

Davros could hardly think. The sheer hate spewing off the mob was flooding his senses. He had hoped the crowd might stay civil, but then a human girl stumbled across the line, surely by accident. Davros stepped down, and to his credit, calmly asked her to get back behind the barricade. Sure, the protest was getting rowdy, but Coruscant had some of the strictest gun laws in the galaxy, anything less than a blaster could easily be handled by a veteran Jedi and clone army.

"Gun!" Davros heard from one of the clones, he didn't know which. The only clear thing was that his clones, men who had been on the front lines until assigned here, clearly thought this woman was pulling out a gun.

The world was in slow motion, Davros regretted putting off the concealed weapons training. He thought he didn't need it for Coruscant. There was no way to use the Force to help here, the shear emotion thrown off by the crowd masked the individual feelings of each being. The only choice Davros had was to trust his clones or ignore them.

In one smooth motion, Davros ignited his saber and sliced the woman in half. For two glorious moments, the crowd was silent.

"He killed her!" A voice called out from the mob.

Davros was focused on the corpse in front of him. He didn't notice when the mob started throwing rocks, or firing illegal homemade weapons. He didn't hear a terrified clone calling in support. He didn't see two clones fall to lucky shots he should have blocked. He didn't even notice as the clones returned fire, charging into the mass of bodies.

All Davros could see was the young woman he had cut down. Reaching into her pocket, Davros pulled out the black object, a small music player, completely harmless. Even when the 'battle' was over, Davros couldn't bring himself to care about the few clone casualties, one who would never walk again, or the several hundred dead civilians, being cleaned off the steps by mindless droids. Davros had killed a woman in cold blood, and that changed everything.