Aurren Farr was a reluctant employee of the Empire. For most of her life, she had no care for the matters of the Republic, & even now for the matters of the Empire. Born on the Alderrian countryside, the few pleasant memories she had were flashes and glimpses of sunny valleys & snowy mountain peaks, wildflowers and her mother's laughter. At the young age of 6, Aurren had been orphaned after the death of her parents. They had been ruthlessly murdered one day by petty robbers who had ransacked her parent's small meager farmhouse while she had been playing in the orchards, picking wildflowers for her mother. When she returned to the house, arms full of flowers, flushed from the sun & without a care in the world, her life suddenly flipped upside down. She took no notice of the fact that the door was wide open, & rushed in, only to be stopped in her tracks. There, sprawled unnaturally on the floor surrounded by crimson pools, were her parents. The flowers dropped unceremoniously from her tiny arms, floating gently to the floor, landing lightly in the bright red pools of blood.
Hours later, Rolin Crange, a family friend stopped by to visit, not only to be greeted by the disturbing scene of the wrecked house, but of small Aurren sitting dazed on the blood soaked floor next to her murdered parents, the wildflowers eerily scattered about.
Living in a small, poor rural village, the news spread quickly of the death of Allan & Berra Farr. Most were shocked to hear how it appeared they were attacked in the middle of the day in their own home. They assumed that the intruders were angered when they realized there was little in the home of value. Berra had been struck by a blunt object at the base of her skull, & then stabbed multiple times. Allan's throat had been slashed. As for Aurren, she had spent the next week in a daze, going through unsure motions as her parent's friends tried to figure out what they would do with her. She did not speak a word to anyone until the funeral. As the pyre was lit, the young girl's shock seemed to break, & along with it came the sobs & wails & screams that had been held back all along.
After her parent's death, Aurren was placed in an orphanage in the capital city of Alderaan. As much as she did not want to leave the only place she ever knew, she understood, even at 6 years old, that there was no one in the village who could afford to take her in, no matter how much they cared for her or her parents. She was taken aback by the city, the loss of the vast open spaces, but found herself fascinated at the architecture of the city, especially the royal palaces. It was new to her to see the tall sleek buildings of the capital after only knowing the small thatched cottages of the countryside. She marveled at the vast expanses of cold, white marble & colorful sparking granite. She spent hours looking out the dingy windows of the orphanage, staring at the skyscrapers & wondering how they were made.
At the age of 13, the orphanage she lived in was invited to the royal palace as guests of the King & Queen for the solstice celebration. While the other children found themselves delighted with the rich foods & new clothes & toys, Aurren was spellbound as she walked through the grand hallways & ornate arcades. She saw the building as not just a home or a symbol of the Monarchy, but as a massive, magnificent piece of art. She began sketching the buildings she saw, remembering the various architectural details, learning their proper names & origins, & contemplating floor plans & layouts. Her curiosity turned into love & passion, & soon she spent all her free hours when she wasn't in class or working in the dish-room at the run down diner down the street in the vast public library & archives.
It was this building that was her muse. A mixture of old & new, of nature & technology, it was not only the most beautiful, calm & serene place in the busy city, but it was also a bastion of endless knowledge. It was here that she found colorful books full of glossy pictures of buildings from all over the galaxy. She learned of the distinct style of each planet, how people lived, & how life was centered on the unique architecture of each culture. Here she fell in love with the countryside estates of Naboo with their "bring the outdoors in" style, as well as finding herself awe-struck at the severe architecturally vertical style of the city planet of Coruscant. For the first time in her life, Aurren began to dream of actually making a life for herself. She wanted to travel & see all of these places. She wanted to learn how they were created. She wanted to meet the minds that these wonders of rock & steel were created by. It was also here that Aurren learned of the Architectural Academy of Coruscant.
At 16 years old, Aurren Farr left the orphanage. She had found out that her parents had not left her completely alone & penniless. At their death, a trust fund had been set up for her by friends of her parents after all of their debts & responsibilities had been taken care of. It hadn't been much, but it was enough to get her off of Alderaan.
Aurren was lucky that she was a smart girl. After her visit to the Royal Palace, her teachers at the orphanage school noticed that she had a keen eye & had introduced her to a few of the Royal Architects who worked out of her beloved library. These kind men allowed her to watch them work, answering her questions, & were impressed at the vast knowledge she had gained on her own through her readings. They knew of her desire to leave Alderaan & attend the Coruscantii School of architecture, even though the timid girl never once made mention of it to anyone. Though her formal education was scant-only what the poor orphanage could afford- without her knowledge, the kind men spoke to the Dean of the academy & gained her admission.
Upon stepping off of her transport in the great hanger of the academy, she was driven. The city around her seemed to buzz, 24 hours a day, & she thrived off of it. Her small inheritance covered her tuition to the academy, but that was all. Her days were spent waking early & working in the dining hall to supplement her living. After the morning rush, she would dash through the halls to reach her classes early so she could speak to her teachers. Straight through the day she would attend classes, a heavier course load than the normal student, & then after dinner she would return to the dining hall to scrub dishes. Once the dishes were done she would retreat to the academy's grand library to finish her school work & pursue extra credit work.
Though the city energized her with its lights & sounds & endless stream of people, it also tired her & made her sad. Long ago she had given up having friends. She had found it hard to get close to people ever since the death of her parents & then being left in a strange city by her parent's friends, the people she had always considered her extended family. It boggled her mind when she really thought about it… all these people, all on their own path in life, all doing their own thing… & all singularly concerned. This bright glossy planet looked happy on the outside, but it was all false niceties. The endless stream of foreign dignitaries & politicians only added to the greed that seemed to ooze secretly out of the seams of every structure. The only way to live in this city was to be self-sufficient, & selfish. As much as she hated it, she needed this city. She didn't know why, but she felt that it was her way to something better. She stayed away from people, only forming the necessary relationships between classmates, teachers, & mentors, keeping herself from forming any sort of attachment. In her mind, it only led to one of two places, & both of them ended in hurt. She feared loss, much as she had since the death of her parents, but she also feared the fakeness of false friendships, relationships created only to further one cause or another.
The only light & peace on this planet was in the only obvious place, the revered Jedi temple. Towering & grand, she spent hours outside its façade, watching the play of light across the building & wondering what the corridors & rooms inside looked like. She felt a sense of calm when she sat across the street from the temple, watching the somber figures in brown robes come & go.
Her 21st year was the one that changed the course of her life. At long last, after 5 years of studying & proving herself, she finally graduated from the academy at the head of her class. She accepted a position working for the unstable republic government infrastructure. As for her feelings about what was going on in the galaxy, the clone wars, the separatist factions, the rumors of the return of the sith… well, she had none. Her entire life she had felt insignificant when it came to the vast galaxy & all of the planetary systems & their governments. In her experience, she had never felt any hate or love for government, it was simply an entity which would always be there, in whatever form it came, where her tiny voice would never make a bit of difference. Of course, in her heart she felt strongly for cause of democracy, she was always utilitarian in nature, her heart longed for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Throughout her life, though, she never saw the supposed democracy she lived in work as she understood it should. Living in Coruscant quickly jaded her to her lofty ideals as she realized that a true democracy seemed nothing but a pipe dream of the poor.
Hours & hours in the library, with her nose in books or reading endless data pads kept the problems of the Republic out of her mind. She had decided to simply roll with the punches, no matter what happens, & make the best of it.
Though Aurren wanted to believe that graduating at the top of her class at the Academy was the biggest life changing moment of her 21st year, the truth was that something much darker had brought about the biggest change. The fall of the Galactic Republic & the rise of the Empire were events that changed everyone's lives.
In the first few months of working for the Republic, she rose quickly through the ranks, designing elaborate bases for the waging war. Though she hated the work, with its plain lines & stark almost clinical dura-steel construction, she had a certain knack for designing new ways to fortify buildings, making them nearly impenetrable due to their construction alone, as well as creating secret rooms & passageways. Aurren always felt that it was an unwanted gift, gained from the violation of her unprotected home when she was young. She was constantly, unconsciously, looking at her surroundings & figuring out how to make them the safest. That was the thing, she thought, since her parents were robbed from her at such a young age, she had never felt safe. She loathed it, even though it gave her drive. She longed to be creating beautiful buildings, but even those, if she were honest with herself, would function with as much security as she could muster. She felt that as long as she was creating something, it might as well be beautiful. In her off-hours, she would toil over her drafting table in her small apartment, & draw by hand the buildings she saw in her dreams.
On the day that the Jedi temple burned, & Chancellor Palpatine was voted emperor by the Senate after declaring the Jedi as enemies of the republic, all government employees were summoned to their superiors office & told to declare themselves loyal to the new Empire & the new Emperor. A few brave souls refused to declare loyalty, & were in turn declared traitors, & put to a sudden & painful death at the hands of the white armored clone troopers in front of his fellow employees. Those who had a mind to dissent quickly declared their loyalty for fear of their lives.
As the Jedi temple smoldered in the distance, Aurren boarded the government transport sent to take her to the Architecture office, she assumed to do as everyone else had done, & declare her loyalty to the Empire. Gazing out the window towards the thick clouds of smoke that suffocated the remains of the Jedi sanctuary, she wondered distantly what had really happened. She knew what everyone else knew, & that was the words of the Emperor… the Jedi had tried to overthrow the chancellor & the Republic… they had been plotting with the Separatists… & finally, that all remaining Jedi were traitors, & to be captured & executed. She felt a tinge of sadness pass through her, but immediately suppressed it. Things were changing, times were changing, & to survive, she would do what she had to do. Right now, what she had to do was declare her loyalty to the Empire.
For many people, many of Aurren's co-workers included, the realization that the Republic & democracy were truly gone was hard to take. It was a concept they believed in down to their very souls. Sheer survival was the only reason most of the people she was acquainted with accepted their new situation. Things were so unstable, that the mere mention of dissent was enough to have troopers enter a home forcibly & arrest the suspected traitors.
Aurren felt indifferent about the change of rule. Not to say that she wasn't upset about it. Though she was a pessimist by nature, & had thought for the past few years that the galaxy was on the path to Imperialism, it wasn't a turn that she wanted to see the Republic make. But beyond being a pessimist, Aurren thought herself a realist as well. One had to take everything in stride, especially things that they could not change. The Empire was certainly something she could not change.
As the transport passed the Architecture offices, Aurren began to worry. As one of the head architects in the newly formed military division, she did not find it unusual that she was to be escorted by clone troopers to the meeting. She had heard that those who were affiliated with the military in any way were having a close eye kept on them, being that they would be the most damaging if they dissented the new government & fled. She didn't fear what would happen to her, but when she saw the transport approaching the private senatorial hanger, she understood that she was in a dangerous situation. As she was escorted through the halls of the senate, she noticed that the mood of everyone she passed was very serious… almost scared.
At the end of what seemed to be the hundredth hallway they had turned down, the troopers stopped in front of 2 large doors, & told her that she was expected inside.
A chill raced its way down Aurren's spine as the doors swung open & she walked into the room. A hooded figure sat with his back turned, gazing out the large windows, behind an imposing wooden desk on a dais. Standing in front of the desk, facing Aurren, stood the Director of the Military Buildings Program under the Republic, General Talken Bavlin. He no longer wore the uniform of the Republic, the one that she always saw him in at work, but the new, trim, gray uniform of the empire. This generally happy man's face was drawn- blank. He looked defeated… yet resolved.
She was greeted briefly by General Bavlin as the figure behind the desk slowly turned. She was then informed that the hooded figure was her new Emperor. Without even being prompted, Aurren fell to her knees, bowed her head, & vowed allegiance to Palpatine. For several moments she remained on her knees, her head bowed before the Emperor. An eerie voice from behind the desk told her to rise, & as she raised from the cold floor & looked towards her new liege, it somehow seemed appropriate to her that he was obscured by the shadows in the room, his face hidden under his hood. He seemed to be natural in the darkness.
The following events she can only recall as a faint blur. General Bavlin informed her that she would from then on be working for the Empire in much of the same position she did for the Republic- but there was a catch- she would be required to work in strict secrecy. If anything she worked on fell into the hands of the enemy- or anyone for that matter- she would reap the consequences. All projects that she would be commissioned by the Empire would be done solely by her, with no outside help. The General told her that the floor plans, layouts, & secret accesses would only be known by her, & whomever else the Emperor deemed needed that knowledge, as well as the Emperor himself. The buildings would be constructed in stages, with different work crews completing each phase, & no one soul was to ever have a complete set of drawings.
For the next hour the General went over protocol & procedure for each move she would make. At the end of it, Aurren was overwhelmed with the new responsibility placed upon her, but she knew it was her only path. Before she left, she was informed that she would be expected to move out of her home, & onto a massive starship, out of which she would both live & have her offices. Without being told, she understood that her life was no longer her own, that she was now the property of the new government, one that instilled trust in no one, & that all of her movements would be watched. She was told that she was being gifted a great opportunity, but with that opportunity came huge responsibility.
As the clone troopers escorted her back to her home, she took only a moment to grieve for the loss of her freedom. She couldn't see being unhappy for something she couldn't change. She resolved herself to her new fate as she stepped off the transport & entered her home. As she began to pack her things, Aurren decided that as long as she did her job well, kept her projects private, & kept to herself, she would be fine.