He joined the military and thought it would be a thrilling job. He was a private and was part of a large division with other soldiers who were as thrilled as him. Once upon a day, his division and some others were sent out on a mission to re-capture a Separatist-occupied city. They had to face the enemy directly, and they started to siege the city, but before they came even close to the city border, the division was slaughtered by Separatist forces, and mowed down until the soldiers had no limbs anymore. My father barely survived, leaving him the only survivor of the siege as his entire division was obliterated within days. Coming back, he was a changed man, afraid of everything.

It turned out that command saw my father and his men as cannon fodder. They were expendable soldiers sent straight to death, and command didn't care about them at all. I'm telling you this story to make clear that the military doesn't care about its men. It's not what you believe it is. Once you're sent out and face the real truth, you get out misformed.

''Hey kid, watch your step!''

Eva startles and steps away. She was stuck so far down in her thoughts that she didn't notice a truck driving in reverse. As the truck hovers backwards over the pavement with its engine rumbling as if it's climbing a steep mountain, the truck driver opens his door.

''You almost lied below it,'' warns the driver.

Eva looks up and apologizes.

As the truck hovers away over the paved street, its exhaustion pipes on top of the cabin leaving behind a fowl stench of combustion gasses, Eva walks on and crosses the street. The story Lu told her stuck with her for all the wrong reasons. Lu can't just apply a 20-year-old story to a current civil war, thinks Eva.

''Hey, Eva.''

She turns around and sees it's her friend.

''Hi Oliva,'' greets Eva, a smile forming on her face.

Oliva is the daughter of teacher Lu, and they've been good friends for many years. Her black hair is curly as always, perfected as much as possible to make it look the best it can.

''You're out late,'' says Oliva. She walks beside Eva. ''Did my mom give you detention again?''

''Kinda,'' answers Eva.

She then goes quiet as she's still thinking back to Lu's story, shifting her eyes to the pavement, deep in her memories

''Something wrong?'' asks Oliva.

Eva then turns her head to Oliva and shakes her head. Oliva nods.

''Hey, have you heard about Lyndon?'' she asks.

Eva shifts her eyes to the pavement, thinking whether she heard something about Lyndon, but she hasn't heard anything about the boy today.

''No?'' says Eva, shaking her head.

''I heard he was in a discussion with Steyner and Rolland about the war and got a punch in the stomach,'' says Oliva. ''They had beaten him up pretty good.''

Eva nods and looks away. ''Well, Lyndon deserved it. He's a Rebel sympathizer anyway.''

Oliva starts to giggle. ''That's the Eva I know.''

Eva chuckles too as she shifts her head to her. Together with Eline, Oliva is one of the few to accept her Stormtrooper ambition. It makes her happy to joke about Rebel sympathizers getting punched without someone judging her.

''Eva,'' says Oliva. ''Come help me set up the market stall at Steel Crane Plaza if you want.''

Once a week, Steel Crane Plaza fills with visitors to buy food and other goods cheaper than at the retail stores. Sometimes, Oliva sells the crops of her father there, and figuring it would put her mind to rest about Lu's story, Eva thinks it's a good decision to give her friend a helping hand.

''Sure,'' Eva nods, and she smiles.

Eva follows Oliva through the city blocks of the Capital. From streets a far, she can see the old steel crane towering above the buildings. It's nearly 300 years old, and it moved a lot of steel to the roofs of the early housing. Now all of that old housing is demolished and replaced with the modern highrise. Now it's a monument, displaying the first years of Vaulent 6. The Exodus Mining Corporation that built their houses here had no idea their settlement would become a thriving city with millions of people, permanently inhabiting the moon.

On the plaza are a lot of market stalls, and most of them are still being set up by sellers. As they walk through lines of empty and half-filled market stalls, they stumble upon a platoon of Stormtroopers on patrol. Usually, they patrol in squads consisting of 6 men, but now they're with 12.

''That's many Stormtroopers,'' points out Oliva.

''Yeah,'' answers Eva. ''They're patrolling more than usual.''

The shiny armour of the Stormtroopers almost blinds Eva's eyes. That armour is still too inviting for her, and she begins to question Lu's story more.

''What are you selling today?'' asks Eva to forget Lu's story for a while.

''Corn,'' answers Oliva as she walks past the Stormtroopers. ''Straight from the farm. My dad harvested them yesterday.''

Oliva's parents are divorced. Half a week she stays with her mother Lu in the city, and the other half with her father in the farm fields.

They arrive at Oliva's stall. The stall is a metal, collapsible table, with cloth in a metal square frame on 4 support beams on the corners as a roof. Behind the stall is the orange droid of Oliva's father moving crates from the speeder. It's grey and bulky. At the back is an open cargo space with enough room for 12 crates, stacked in a 6 by 2 formation. At the front is the open cabin with little, but sufficient space for a driver and a passenger.

''Hey Eva, you remember CK-3?'' asks Oliva and she gives a pat on the droid's metal shoulder.

The droid's distinct color never fails to remain crystal clear in her mind.

''Isn't it your father's cargo droid?'' asks Eva.

''That's right,'' says Oliva with a smile. ''If only I had a quiz price for you.''

Eva smiles too. ''You maybe have some free corn?'' she asks. ''My mother will like that.''

Oliva nods with a smile, grateful for her friend's decision to help out.

Together, Eva, Oliva and the orange droid unload all the crates of corn from the speeder in no time. As the last crate is unloaded, Steelcrane Plaza begins to fill with visitors. Eva is standing behind the stall, looking at how Oliva is selling her corn to buyers, and it all seems to go smoothly.

''That's how you do it,'' says Oliva afterwards. ''Let's see how you do it.''

''Right,'' answers Eva a little nervous.

Then an elderly visitor comes up. The wrinkles are all over his face and his hair is more grey than plain concrete. He wears a thick jacket to protect his frail skin from the cold, even though the sun shines brightly in the sky with a faint breeze blowing through the market stalls. Usually around these times, it's warm enough for the flowers to bloom, showing off their colourful leaves. The old man walks up and his eyes land on the corn and the price tag displayed on a blue hologram.

''How much for 3 corn?'' asks the visitor with a frail voice, seemingly unable to read the price tag.

Time for some glasses I guess. Okay, the price of one corn times the amount of corn the buyer demands. Two and a half Creds multiplied by three.

''That's seven and a half, sir,'' answers Eva.

''seven and a half for three corn?'' says the visitor shocked. ''Well, get lost with this scam,'' he exclaims and walks away angrily while cursing.

Eva looks shocked at Oliva, and then they erupt in laughter. Then, they hear something somewhere in the crowded market alley. Eva stops laughing and bends over the corn on the table to look. She tries to figure out where the commotion is coming from, but all she sees is a wall of people. Then, a single person breaks from the crowd and runs through the market alley, dashing past the stalls with his shoes pounding on the pavement.

''Stop the thief!'' she hears someone shouting.

Blast it, it's a robber. Eva tracks the thief with her eyes as he runs past other visitors. None of them seem to care enough to interfere, but Eva feels the urge to step in. The market stall owner shouts again through the crowd, and Eva feels like it's her duty to stop him. Then, Eva's eyes are distracted by a flash between the market stalls close to her, and her eyes land on a shiny Stormtrooper running onto the market alley and smashing the running thief in the face with the bottom of his E-11. The thief lets out a shout of pain and trips over his own feet. He falls and smashes his head against the table of their stall, and Eva backs away as the table shakes and some crates of corn fall off. Eva looks bewildered, having seen a Stormtrooper in action as he runs to the thief lying on the ground. Eva walks around the table, wanting to look at how he does his duty, and she sees the trooper smashing the handcuffs on the thief's arms. It's a Rodian, a green-skinned, alien species that resembles reptilians. He has big, pupil-less eyes that were as big as a football boys kick at the yard of her school. His mouth is in the form of a snout like an ant-eater, and his hands held together in the steel handcuffs have five, abnormally long fingers, and his skin is dark-green with the texture of pebble. It's an alien species that is disgusted and looked down upon by the Empire, an alien race that has no right to be equal to the human race in the current era. Their rights are more limited than slaves, and looking at him with the green, alien blood dripping on the pavement, Eva clenches her teeth of disgust, and the visitors around her look at the Rodian with the same look as her, full disgust. And she hears Oliva letting out an audible gasp of shock and disgust as the Rodian's green blood drips down from his alien snout.

The Stormtrooper locks the handcuffs in position, enclaving the Rodian's green hands, and he stands up from the ground.

''Alright alien, get up,'' he commands with a strict voice of authority.

Hold up.

Eva recognises his strict voice, and seeing multiple other Stormtroopers emerging from the crowd, her eyes land on a blue, double-ring insignia imprinted on his chest. His orange pauldron reflects the light from the sun as he pulls the Rodian up with much force. The alien continues to curse at him in his native language, sounding like a biological computer gone crazy. The Stormtrooper Commander who keeps the alien thief with him sounded familiar to Eva.

''We got another alien to throw into the slammer,'' says the Stormtrooper Commander, shifting his bucket to his colleagues.

Now, she recognises his voice, and Eva's eyebrows rise with surprise.

''A sweep clean, I see,'' says another Stormtrooper, approaching him with his E-11 locked in his hand.

''Carry him away to the transporter,'' orders the Commander, and as he hands the alien thief over to his colleagues, he turns to Eva.

A smile forms on her face as she sees the Stormtrooper Commander looking at her from behind his shiny bucket.

''You came right on time, Kyraan,'' says Eva, her smile from ear to ear.

The Stormtrooper reaches out for his helmet and takes it off, revealing a man in his thirties with a stubble beard, brown eyes and black, short hair, the same kind of person you can find at every high-esteemed corporation.

''Good day, Eva,'' Kyraan greets, a smile forming on his face too.

Oliva dashes around her market stall towards Eva. ''You know him?''

''Yeah,'' replies Eva, shifting her head to her. ''He was my teacher, like three years ago.''

''That's right,'' says Kyraan, his armour shimmering in the sunlight. ''I've known Eva since she was small. Let me help you get the corn back on the table,'' and he lowers himself to the ground.

As Eva and Oliva get the crates and the corn back on the table, she remembers when Kyraan taught her at school until he was conscripted and joined the Stormtrooper Corps. He left her school sometime after the mass mobilisation of four years ago, forcing the authorities on Vaulent 6 to push out conscription calls, forcing everyone above 13 years of age to attend military training. Before that, Vaulent 6 only knew enlistment, letting civilians voluntarily join the military, but since the little conflict between a sad Rebel group grew into a full-scale galactic war, the local military switched to conscription.

Thinking about the time Vaulent 6 switched from voluntary enlistment to forced conscription, Eva thinks back to the story Lu told her. It turned out that command saw my father and his men as cannon fodder. They were expendable soldiers sent straight to death, and command didn't care about them at all.

As she puts the last crate on the table, the story of Lu remains in her thoughts. Eva knows she's right, but she has to make sure she's really right. What's better to have it confirmed by a real Stormtrooper?

''Hey, Kyraan,'' says Eva as the Stormtrooper puts his helmet on. ''Can I talk with you for a second?''

''Yeah sure,'' replies Kyraan, starting to walk away. ''Be quick, I have to join my squad in the ITT.''

ITT, isn't that the troop transporter?

''So, my teacher told me a story I question,'' says Eva.

''Let me guess, it's Lu.''

''How did you know that?''

''Lu has always been a bit anti-military. She's not exactly against the Empire, but she's just worried about the conscription program.''

''Yeah.''

''So she told you a story? Tell me about it.''

''So, the story is a bit large, but what matters is that she told me that her father's commanding officers used him as cannon fodder. She told me that he was seen as an expendable soldier.''

''I've heard those details for quite some time, and the cannon fodder argument is mostly just blown-up stuff. I've been sent out to Ryloth for a three-month campaign, and I've fought in some tense battles where we lost quite a lot of men, but it's not as if we were ordered to be target practices. We've never been handled as an expendable resource. Not even the infantry forces of the Army are handled like that.''

''Well, I figured that out on the way here. Why is she saying it though?''

''When people are worried or scared about something, they take any argument that supports their view, no matter how unbelievably flawed some of them are. The cannon fodder and the expendable soldier arguments are flawed too. It's just the high casualty number on some campaigns that make them think they're right.''

''Which campaign could it be?''

''The Bloody Three comes to mind the first.''

''The what?''

''The Three Kashyyyk Campaigns. Bloody as hell and difficult as anything. I didn't serve during that time, but I heard the Army lost thousands and thousands of soldiers. But that's a one-time event. The Ryloth campaign I was part of had a relatively low casualty number, like 1 death per 80 soldiers.''

''Okay? How much is that?''

''Naval pilots are more likely to die during their Strike Academy years than Stormtroopers on Ryloth, so not much. But no matter the casualties, the Empire remains superior. We've already brought peace and prosperity to Ryloth and so many other worlds and it's thanks to the Emperor and Imperial worlds like ours that allow it to happen.''

''Yeah, and I want to be part of it,'' says Eva, starting to smile. ''I just want to hold that E-11 and mow them all down. Those Rebel scumbags deserve it.''

''Hah, rightfully so,'' replies Kyraan, letting out a chuckle. ''All the Rebels do is threaten our system which works excellently for our people.''

The system, the New Order, has been working excellently since its instalment on the day the Galactic Empire was established, thinks Eva. The New Order the Empire maintains focuses on the values of order, control, the rule of law, and nationality through civic pride, patriotism, and militarism, while boosting xenophobia and humanocentrism. It's a system that works for the people, keeping the human race as the lead species in the galaxy, ruling it with order and authority. It's a system that is safe and secure.

''I want to join the military so much, but I haven't received a letter from the Academy yet.''

''Well, I have to disappoint you, but the Academy halted the conscription and they're planning on shifting the minimum age to 15.''

What? Why? The minimum age for conscription has always, ALWAYS, been 13. As they walk out of the market towards the ITT standing in the parking spot, Eva's smile disappears. Ever since Project Warmantle introduced the Stormtrooper program, children were conscripted at the age of 13. It's the year they perform at their best, so it confuses Eva even more why the minimum age is planned to be shifted to a later age.

''Why?'' she asks, shifting her head to Kyraan.

''I don't know,'' he answers, the sunlight reflecting off his white helmet, ''but Eva, waiting 2 more years is nothing to reach your ambition. Never stop believing in yourself. It kept me and all of my comrades alive on Ryloth.''

Never stop believing in your ambition. The last piece of her conversation with Kyraan sticks with Eva, resonating in her mind. As Kyraan says goodbye and steps aboard the ITT, driving off, something else resonates in her mind too. It's the conflicting information that remains in her mind. She trusts Kyraan, who gave her lessons for years, but she also trusts Lu, and she understands why she's worried about the conscription. The Clone Wars and the current civil war may not be the same, but they are wars nonetheless, and the conscription and the training programs are most likely the same. The training at the Academy are not easy, and when she finally gets there and stands on the battlefield, it still isn't easy, but it's something she wants to face. Protecting the Empire and maintaining the New Order is all that matters to her and her future, and that of everyone around her. For the rest of the day, the conflict resonates in her mind.