Kurben was timid as he ordered the star ship from the Sith base on Taris. Where are we off to this time? he asked himself sarcastically. Off to kill some more innocent people. His stomach clenched as he thought of his last mission. Darth Malgus almost forced him to shoot someone.
"This mission will be to Scippio to destroy a Rebel base," Kurben heard in his earpiece in his stormtrooper suit, "Kill anyone on sight." He shuddered. He knew inside he couldn't follow the order, but he nodded along with the other troopers.
"Kill anyone on sight," he repeated in unison with everyone else.
The ship took off seconds later. Kurben gripped the overhead handle to keep his hands from shaking.
He had been taken from his family when he was a boy and sent to Taris to train. He was never told his age, or where he came from. Just that his name was Kurben and he was Soldier 4812.
They landed on Scippio a few minutes later. The rebel base was still a few miles away from where they had landed, seeing as the hadn't want to land on top of a bunch of people.
Quietly, their battalion snuck up through the forest. They emerged on top of a hill. Kurben immediately saw smoke rising from the trees ahead. He gulped loudly.
Soon, he found himself in the back of the regiment, trudging along with a few stragglers who both had the same emotions as he did. He hoped that when he got there the shooting would be over. But he was wrong.
Darth Malgus, a towering figure, his black hood and armor coating his entire body, greeted them at the entrance to the camp. Kurben immediately saw the prisoners in the camp tied to a pole.
"Shoot them," Darth Malgus said. His coldness was stunning to the few boys. His gloomy figure gestured to the prisoners.
The latecomers shakily raised their guns when Darth Malgus instructed them to. Kurben tried to aim slightly above the prisoners, thinking "I'm a bad shot" would be his excuse. Darth Malgus walked over to him and lowered Kurben's gun with one hand.
"Not going to wo-ork," he said in an evil, sing-songy way.
"I'm watching you," Malgus whispered in Kurben's ear. Kurben shuddered.
"Ready. Aim. Fire!" Malgus yelled.
For some reason, Kurben couldn't look away as he fired his gun at a boy. The boy was about the same age as Kurben was, with long, brown hair and hazel eyes.
The plasma ray entered the boy just above his hip. Kurben's eyes stared intently at the boy's limp figure on the ground. A single tear, masked by the heavy stormtrooper helmet, trickled down Kurben's face. Kurben and the other latecomers turned toward Malgus, all of them shaken. Malgus turned to the entirety of the stormtroopers and said this:
"I hope these troopers," gesturing to Kurben and the latecomers, "will teach you a lesson. You were trained to kill. You should be able to kill with ease. If I see this again, you," he eyed Kurben, "will not come out alive."
Kurben slumped into his bed in the barracks, glad to be out of the stormtrooper suit. His thoughts immediately drifted to the day's events. A lot happened, but his thoughts went to the words Malgus had said to him directly, you will not come out alive. The words rang in his head as he slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.
In Kurben's dream, he emerged in in the same rebel camp he had invaded that day. However, when he looked down, he didn't have his stormtrooper suit on. He was the boy he'd shot. He felt his hair, it was long and brown. Suddenly, stormtroopers came into the base and began to blow things up. They grabbed Kurben by the arm. Kurben caught a glimpse of himself atop the hill looking down at the base.
Malgus soon arrived. He surveyed the stormtroopers in a line at attention. Malgus ordered the troopers to tie the rebels up. Troopers held Kurben forcefully to a pole as others wound itchy rope around his chest. Kurben saw himself and the other latecomers arrive.
"Shoot them," Darth Malgus said, just as before.
Malgus put them in a line, each one of them facing toward a prisoner. Kurben remembered his own face, scared, as if he was looking at Malgus himself. Kurben saw himself aim higher.
"Not going to wo-ork," Malgus said.
"I'm watching you," Kurben saw Malgus say to stormtrooper Kurben.
Kurben watched as his own blaster was pushed down by the Sith Lord. His heart skipped a beat: he could see inside the nozzle of the blaster.
The latecomers all loaded their guns in perfect unison.
"Ready!" the lieutenant barked.
"Aim!"
"Fire!"
Kurben heard the whiz of the plasma ray, closed his eyes, and braced himself. He opened his eyes, and he was back in the barracks as if no time had passed.