High Admiral Sian Labrith sat in his quarters, rubbing the triggers that would fire the powerful anti-fighter laser cannon that, if hit correctly would destroy a shielded X-wing in one hit. Staring out of the starboard side of Velocity, his eyes were glued to the pillows of smoke rising from Corellia. "The battle must be intense," he said out loud. "Maybe we won." Suddenly, green lasers were shooting past Velocity down on the planet. "Theres another targetting beacon. That's the fourth one so far. I guess their base is a lot bigger than we realized." Sian knew his storm troopers would be dead, including Evan. His heart was telling him over and over that he had murdered all of his storm troopers on board the ship himself, when he condemned them to death on Corellia.

"High Admiral Sian, this is General Ivohan, do you copy?" a voice from the COM near him said.

"You're coming through General, whats the situation down there?"

"We've won the battle, but we have taken heavy loses. Out of the three-hundred storm troopers you sent to us, three have survived. From the twenty-one AT-STs you sent, four survived. Out of all AT-ATs, six survived. Ten TIE maulers survived the battle as well."

"What are the designations of those three storm troopers," he asked, hoping to hear Corporal Evan Sachine's designation of ST-927.

"RF-163, Lieutenant, SR-2941, Major, and ST-9275, Private." Sian's heart sunk at the very close numbers of Evan and Private ST-9275.

"I see," he began, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Any MIA?"

"Yes sir. Commander SF-842, the leader of the storm troopers is MIA and was last spotted by RF-163 near a Heavy Vehicle factory. He is the only MIA reported. All dead have been accounted for. No one was just injured."

Sian nearly began to cry, but regained his composure. "What of ST-927, Corporal Sachine?"

"Corporal Evan Sachine was found near the rubble of the barracks, killed to blaster shots to the abdomen," Ivohan replied after a slight ruffle of papers.

"I see. Was his combat recording on?"

"Yes sir, all of the storm troopers recorded the battle. Would you like to see Corporal Sachine's?"

Sian grinned slightly. "Yes, if you will please send that to The Velocity, I will be most grateful."

"As you wish Admiral. His helmet will be sent to yo-"

"No." Sian interrupted. "Send his whole body. I want to see his face one last time. He was a dear friend of mine."

There was a long pause over the COM. "As you wish Admiral. His body will be sent to you ASAP, along with his helmet. His armor is still good and may be used again, so that will be off and he will be in his under garments. Is that OK?"

"No, have him dressed in his under suit. I would rather not see a good friend half naked, General." The under suit was the black fabric between the armor and body so the soldier did not have to feel the armor against their skin.

"Understood. Corporal Evan Sachine will be transported ASAP. General Ivohan out."

Sian dropped the COM transmitter and buried his face in his hands, the tears of loss rushing out like dual waterfalls after a long rain. He sat there and cried for a long time, until Admiral Anthony Arden was standing outside of the door.

"Sian, it's Admiral Arden. May I come in?" he requested.

Sian jerked his head up from his hands, wiping them on his pant legs, and then wiping the tears from his eyes. "Yes, come on in."

As Arden walked into the room, Sian noticed that Arden's eyes were darker than usual. He hadn't slept at all. "Sian, as you probably know, we've won. I have come to ask permission to take a short leave of absense to look for the family."

Sian smiled, and stood up from the chair. "Of course my old friend. Everyone is on for a leave of absense; I promised that just last night after our space victory."

Arden returned the smile and, although tired, he seemed full of energy. "Thank you sir." Arden turned for the door.

"Wait one moment. Would you get some sleep before you go and do anything on the planet?"

Arden stopped and turned his head. "Is that an order, sir?"

Sian couldn't help but smile. "It's a recommendation, Admiral."

"I'll consider it sir. Goodbye and thank you." Arden opened the door, took one last look back and left. Sian returned to his seat near the laser cannon and began drifting in and out of reality. At one point, he began to think of the cycle that the space vehicle of the galaxy had.

"It's an endless cycle really when you have bombers in a battle," he said to himself. "Bombers destroy capital ships, fighters destroy bombers, corvettes destroy fighters, frigates destroy corvettes, capital ships destroy frigates, bombers destroy capital ships." He paused. "But then again, capital ships destroy other capital ships, I guess."

A little over an hour passed before any contact to Sian was made. It was Admiral Kahn of The Tyranny ended up contacting him "High Admiral Sian, this is Admiral Kahn here to inform you that the fleet is leaving for their promised one week vacation. We shall see you in one week."

"Understood Admiral. Have a nice vacation. Stay safe and drop off your Star Destroyers at Courscant. I'll have some added goodies for you all when you get back."

"Thank you High Admiral Sian. Goodbye sir," Kahn said. Sian returned to his losing of sanity.

After two hours of no contact to Sian, he realized that he needed to leave the room before he went insane. As he stood up, a voice from the COM spoke, saying, "High Admiral Sian, General Ivohan is here to speak with you in the medical room."

"Understood. I'll be there in a few minutes," he responded, picking up his cap and jogged out the door. Once out of the room, Sian broke into a full sprint to the medical bay. He wanted to see his friend right now, even if he was dead.

"Admiral, please slow down!" General Ivohan pleaded as Sian neared the medical bay. Sian complied with the order and slowed to a jog. Ivohan flashed a look of worry as he went back inside the medical bay. Sian was right behind him.

Lying on the table in the middle of room was Corporal Evan Sachine, designation ST-927. Once Sian saw him, he nearly broke down, but due to the other people around him, he did not. Instead, he shuddered and approached his dead friend, whom he had shared a friendly embrace with less than twenty hours ago. True to word, there were burns in his under suit on the abdomen where the bolts had hit him. There was also a small hole on his right foot, near the big toe. His helmet lay to his left on a small table.

"I took the time to view his combat recording myself on the way up from the planet. After you view it, I'm sure you will be very proud of him, sir." Ivohan stated.

Sian took this into consideration as he looked down on Evan's young twenty-two face. He looked very peaceful like this, but Sian couldn't help but to shed an unnoticeable tear that fell onto Evan's forehead. His short pale blonde hair, usually spiked carefully was now flat. He couldn't help but smile a little when he thought, My, my Evan. You've got some hat hair. After studying his face, Sian shifted his attention to the helmet.

The white helmet of a storm trooper always gave Sian the creeps, even after his joining of the Empire after the occupation of his planet Bonandan, situated on the outer rim. Lifting it up, he stared into the black eyes of the helmet. After a few moments of staring at these eyes, he located the combat recording.

The recording wasn't very long; only about thirty mintues long. Sian couldn't help but laugh when Evan jumped on the back of the TIE mauler and smiled when he was wise enough to jump off before it entered a battle that would have killed him earlier on. Sian thought he was witnessing his death when he looked back at the other storm troopers coming from the AT-ATs and four Rebel soldiers had ambushed him as he was off guard. Luckily for himself, Evan was a good shot and had very quick reflexes. One of the soldiers shot him in the foot, and that, Sian concluded was what made the hole in his under suit on the foot.

Again, Sian thought he was witnessing his death when they were running towards the base and were continuously ambushed by rising numbers of Rebel soldiers, but everyone seemed to be dying around him save for Evan himself. Sian was surprised to find that Evan was the one who had made the first targetting beacon active, but was also frightened when he was thrown into the air from the force of the blast after picking up two other beacons. When he saw that Evan was also the one who activated the second targetting beacon, Sian was astounded. Then a third large explosion was heard as another troop set up a targetting beacon.

Sian then witnessed Evan's set up of the fourth targetting beacon, which almost made him faint. Then he saw Evan running towards the burning rubble of the barracks as a massive laser went past him. Evan yelled loudly, which made Sian shudder.. He had never heard Evan yell in such terror. As he watched Evan dive into the rubble, witness the destruction of the T2-B following him and then witnessing the destruction of another Heavy Vehicle factory by the Imperial Army, Sian began to wonder how the hell he had died. Then he heard a loud yell, which sounded like attack, and Evan turned to see fifteen Rebel soldiers jumping out of the forest to attack. One shot killed a soldier wielding a rocket launcher, and then the others hit him, making a loud smack against his army as Evan whirled around to fall to the ground, his cries of pain ceasing.

Sian began to cry, no longer caring of what the others thought of him doing so, whether it was of being a softie or of being weak. He cried and cried as he fell to his knees, dropping the helmet and burying his face once more in his hands. Evan had almost lived, and if he hadn't of been in that unfortunate spot at that unfortunate time, he would be alive right now.

As General Ivohan came over to comfort him, Sian suddenly realized something: Corporal Evan Sachine, designation ST-927, was a War Hero.