The End
"Are you saying we won the war? Then where did this Empire come from?"
- BL-1707
There was a short little stubby creature running to race at arriving near the parade passing by her. The girl was a Human with red wavy hair and blue eyes that sparkled from the fireworks exploding in the sky. The sun had long set by the time her two parents caught up with the child. With a smile that beamed down at her, the father picked her up in a single swift movement to have her sitting on the shoulder of the man.
"Don't go running off like that Kadie, you little poop." The woman said while smiling and messing up the small girl's hair.
"Yes mum, I won't do that again. B-but I was so excited for a parade! Because the war is over we get to see fun things like this now." Then she giggled at her father tickling near the bellybutton. The running inside joke of both her parents calling her poop came from how she would stink, like right now, from playing with junk she found on the streets. However, the smell wasn't powerful enough to take both the parents out of this festive mood.
"Don't you have to worry about the war anymore, you can just grow up to be a normal kid like us before the Clone Wars." The father said as he stared at the green and red lights erupting across the starry night canvas.
"No need to be scared about bombings or a Separatist invasion." The mother told referencing to both the Jedi Temple bombing, not to mention the countless other explosions caused by Jedi or bounty hunters and the Battle of Coruscant.
There was a large formation of Clone troopers marching in unison to the upbeat theme of the Empire, they were moving down the main boulevard away from the Senate Building with all sorts of vehicles in tow. AT-RT with a clone on top looked around without a canopy as the bi-pedal machine walked down the pavement as onlookers cheered and waved the red imperial flag. The energy and enthusiasm of the crowd practically leaked out to infect the troopers who were used to this kind of reaction. For they were the liberators of a thousand worlds. Yet this was something different, all the time it had been colonies in who knows where or unfamiliar territory that people greeted them with such glee. Never in Coruscant did the people acted like this, if anything the people had rather disliked the clones even after all the blood and sacrifice that they've given to protect these civilians. So it was a nice turn of events when after the regrettable Jedi Rebellion, that still tasted bitterly in their mouths, the population was celebrating the triumphant that so many clones had died to achieve gave an odd pride for the Clone troopers.
Then Kadie's eyes darted back and forth to the TX-130 hovertanks that gracefully floated pass them. To the girl, the things were seen as something of an elegant dancer with the way that they move. Her sights then fixed on the shining clean armor the clones had on, it was something of a nice example for her to follow if the Clone troopers can look this good with a bunch of plastoid plates. "Maybe I can look as nice as them if I had nicer clean clothing", thought Kadie.
"Aren't they called Stormtroopers, dear?" The mother turned around to ask her husband, unsure of the new naming system that flooded in their life recently.
"I thought they were called Imperial troopers?"
"No, they just changed the name of the Republic Army into the Imperial Army but all the Clone troopers became Stormtroopers. I heard the government even started recruiting regular Humans into the Imperial Army and Stormtrooper Corps."
"I thought we didn't need to keep growing the military anymore, what with the Clone Wars' end."
"I guess its to put down all the holdout Sep insurgents that plague the Outer Rim."
"Damn aliens don't know when to quit."
So far the Holonet news had been broadcasting that the Confederacy of Independent System had officially surrendered following very recent Republic operations to destroy the Seps' military leadership. What was left of the Separatist Parliament folded to the unconditional surrender the Republic put forth and they too dissolved like the droid army. That was also around the same time as when a supposed Jedi coup took place with the attempted assassination of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Ultimately, the Jedi failed at overthrowing the government when Lord Vader intervened to protect Palpatine then was dispatched to destroy both the Jedi and the Separatist. It was rather all hush when the people thought about the whole affair. Although the parents could understand why the government would want to keep quiet about it as the subject is a bit embarrassing in hindsight. Meaning that the Jedi Knights were something the Republic held little actual control if you thought about it. In fact, different Jedi held the Chancellorship over the Republic for at least 12 terms in a row during the New Sith Wars. It came as little surprise that the Jedi Order was actually power-hungry following what would be their relinquishing of military command with the end to the Clone Wars. The mother had a different view on the entire thing along the line of a more conspiratorial explanation. She thought that the Jedi had been working with the Seps all this time as the failed gamble to capture the Chancellor forced the Jedi to take a more drastic action of outright killing him instead.
For now, the parents put those thoughts aside just to enjoy the show in front of them. In fact, they couldn't even get used to the Imperialization of all the different names. Like how the Supreme Chancellor became the Emperor and Coruscant became Imperial Center. Tad bit ludicrous to be sure especially considering it was just yesterday that the Galactic Republic became the Galactic Empire. Kadie, on the other hand, was merely fascinated by all the uniform and machines that was just out of reach. They were in the front row of the crowd after Kadie, and her parents shoved their way past some Rodians. Even with a few sharp glares from the aliens they paid no mind to them knowing the Coruscanti Guards would always side with them over the Rodians in a dispute. It wasn't even any real hate of aliens would the guards pick Humans over aliens. More so the fact that most of the CIS were made up of alien worlds and that from what they knew, most of the war crimes during the fighting came from commanders that just so happens to be aliens. For the people on Coruscant, war crimes committed by the Republic was practically unheard of, even within the uncensored news some people had didn't mention noticeable Republic violations. The Separatist meanwhile had blatantly disregarded the rules of war, like bombarding Ryloth to submission then having the audacity to use civilian shields and try to flee with the Twi'lek's cultural treasures.
Even as a child Kadie knew that just because the government gave up, didn't mean the war was going to end. One day, maybe in the far future or the like, that she was going to see the stars and leave Coruscant. Her best chance of doing such a thing was by joining the military if they would accept her that is, sending her who knows where fighting, probably, Separatist holdouts. If not that at least tour the galaxy going from planet to planet and seeing all sort of exotic worlds that she could only dream of.
Waving a hand from across the street was a similar age boy that was grinning from the guardrail. Blond hair and green eyes were jumping up and down as the bob cut on his head shook. Trying his best to catch the attention of Kadie until she shouted while pointing at him, "Hey, Taler!"
"Hey, Kadie!" But the girl could barely hear him as she could only figure out that he was saying something from his lips moving.
Now, he had been excited when he heard they were accepting normal Humans into the Imperial military. They were talking about this right before parting ways as his parents took him shopping and Kadie's family went straight to the parade. He had been coming over to visit Kadie and play around with her since she could remember. Both her and his father were brothers that just happen to live near each other after Taler's father found a vacant home for rent. He then called the newlywed couple to live here. Her cousin was a lot more energetic than her when it comes to just about everything. Remembering half an hour ago that Taler said, "I'm going to join the Imperial Army and go around shooting clankers all over the galaxy," as he ran around shooting with both of his finger blasters. That made her laugh at him at that time while Taler was jumping about making explosion sounds. But now, the very same excitement was contagious for her while she looked at the Clone troopers in pretty white armor.
Her mind was definitely dead set on following the example that his cousin gave her. Kadie Hix becoming the Hero of the Empire was a ridiculous idea to her but not for Taler believing the same thing of himself. Well, maybe not the exact same example would Kadie follow but certainly the part of joining the Imperial military and going around the galaxy. She would try to avoid the more dangerous aspects of such a life, like dual-wielding blasters and jumping around with explosions in the background. There was also something deeper in herself that drew her in at the display of military might in front of her. It was something irrational that she couldn't explain but this feeling, whatever it was, she didn't want it to end. Kadie wanted to keep this feeling for as long as she could, was it wonder or something else. She would remember it vividly even after the parade was over when the formation of V-19 starfighters flew overhead with their upsidedown V-shaped wings and a third wing just pointed directly down from the vehicle. They were amazing to her as she failed to understand how such a craft can fly in the first thing. It was a wild thing trying to grasp how a hovercraft hovered in the first place but these starfighters were soaring in the skies at great speeds that she could only imagine.
When the parade was done on their section of the street, the people started dispersing from the near the rails and Kadie's family was one of those people. They were going to go home to eat with Taler's family they invited over to celebrate the end of the war, eating Kadie's mother's Talusian cooking. Not exactly Talusian cooking as she didn't bother ordering actual Talusian bread but had to settle for a Corallian substitute that she could find on Coruscant. The two families lived so close to each other that it took only a good two or three minutes of walking before arriving at the other's home. The parents sat down in front of the rectangular dining table while both Kadie and Taler played around in her bedroom. From both, the mothers called over their kids to eat dinner which only got the response of, "Be right there, mum," from Kadie as Taler rushed out of the room. Uninterested from the conversation of the adults that were talking about taxes, Kadie and Taler talked to each other sitting side by side while eating.
"I'm going to be in the navy telling people what to do!" Kadie proudly proclaimed as she pointed the fork she was holding at herself.
"Really? What are you going to tell them to do?" Taler was genuinely curious how Kadie would act like.
"I'll tell one guy to 'Bring me more juice' and another to 'Blow up that ship' or 'Check them for spies'. Something like that, I don't know how the navy work. But I know I'll be the boss of it."
That made Taler giggle from how confident Kadie was acting without a clue of how the military works. So sure of herself in an uncertain subject that it was hilarious to him think about.
Notes
This will be my first attempt at writing an actual partial smut fic. This is where most of the story doesn't concern actual sexually explicit material but rather I would sprinkle them around over the entire story. It would be more focused on the fact that the Imperials have to accept the fact that they are fighting a losing war post-Battle of Endor. Although it can be confusing, I am going to be using both Canon and EU lore to write my setting as some of the things in the EU I found ridiculous while Canon seems rather bland. To be fair the EU had at least 30 years of content to work from so readers might be seeing things from the EU a lot. The story is mostly going to be about the life of an Imperial officer within the Imperial Remnant trying to adjust to the ever-changing tide of war.