Chapter #1.
Blasters were fired, smoke filled the air as the forest and parts of the city were being burned down. A major war between the Empire and the Rebellion broke out about a week before and was still going on. People stared in horror as they watched their city's Imperial school burn down, with all their children inside. Two men stood in the front of the crowd, their eyes wild and they had wide smiles on their faces as they turned around and faced the crowd.
"You see this you miserable, Imperial dogs, we destroyed your little Imperial school, what are you going to do without your future soldiers?" the man on the right shouted crazily. Some of the people in the crowd gasped, others were surprised. "Ha, ha!, yeah, what's going to happen when you dumb Imperials run out of stormtroopers?" the other man on the left yelled.
There was a low buzz noise to the left of the crowd and the two men dropped dead with two blaster shots to the chest. The people turned to see a patrol of Imperial stormtroopers flanking them with their blasters raised. The patrol leader led his troops to the front of the crowd and stopped next to the two dead men.
"Everyone head back to your homes, we'll take care of the situation from here" the patrol commander said. The stormtroopers pushed the crowd back and everyone went back to their homes. Standing beside a building next to the school was a Young teenage girl, she watched as the stormtroopers made their way into the burning building. Someone grabbed her shoulder, she jumped and turned around to see that it was just her friend. "Terrible isn't it, Terra?" Terra stared at her friend, a long frown on her face. Ashes fell from the sky as the Imperials struggled to put out the fire.
Terra stared at the fire and wondered, why would anyone want to do something like this? "Jackie, doesn't your brother go to this school?" Terra asked her friend. Jackie shook her head. "He used to, but he doesn't anymore" Jackie replied. Terra let out a long sigh of relief, she didn't want her friend to be upset or cry over a lost sibling.
Two more people walked up next to Terra, Terra turned her head to see her two other friends, Rev Erees and Austin Toris. Smoke billowed from the school as the stormtroopers put out the rest of the flames. "You think anyone's still alive in there?" Austin asked. Some people who stayed behind to watch started to cough as smoke floated in their faces.
"Well if the fire didn't kill them all, then the smoke will surely finish them off" Jackie replied, coughing as smoke floated in her face too. Two stormtroopers came out of the smoky building carrying one child in each arm. "Terra!" a voice yelled from behind them, Terra turned around to see her mother, Ashly Dona, calling to her from the nearby marketplace.
She said goodbye to her friends and ran over to her mother, Mrs. Dona had a lot of food to carry, Terra picked up two small crates and started stumbling her way home. When she got to her house her oldest brother, Tacc grabbed the crates and put them down on the table. "Is Ben with mom?" Tacc asked as he started to unload the crates.
A door opened and closed and a teenage girl walked into the kitchen, her hair was blond and her eyes were purple. The girl grabbed a mug and filled it up with water; her hair was not brushed and she could barely keep her eyes open. "Good afternoon, Millie, did you sleep well?" Tacc asked his sister, holding back a giggle. Millie turned around and glared at him, Tacc was only two years older than Millie, but she could still pack a hard punch.
"Did you guys hear what happened?" Terra asked, trying to prevent a fight between her brother and sister. Tacc and Millie looked at each other with confusion, Millie took a sip of water from her cup and Tacc just picked up a few vegetables and shrugged. "Let me guess, some rebels threw a tantrum in the street again?" Tacc said sarcastically.
"No, they burned down the Imperial school" Terra replied. Millie stopped drinking and she put her mug down, Tacc put the vegetables away and he turned and stared at Terra. Mr. Dona, Jeremy, walked into the house with his wife and his youngest son by his side. Ben, Terra's six year old brother, ran over to the table and grabbed a small cake from inside one of the crates and ate it. "Ben!, don't eat those, you'll spoil your dinner!" Mrs. Dona said. Ben looked at his mother, but he kept eating the cake as if she said nothing to him.
Everything will be fine, Terra said in her mind, everything will be just fine. Though she knew things will never be fine, the rebels will keep destroying things and killing people and the empire will keep showing up late to the problems the rebels cause. Bringing her attention back to her family, who were now talking about the rebels burning down the school.
Terra turned away and walked out of the house, she didn't want to talk about the rebels' destruction on Morloth.
A small red cat ran by Terra with a rat in its mouth, she smiled, Terra always loved Spark-growlers. Her own Spark-growler, Buzby, died a few months before the rebels came to Morloth. The sun was going down and the air was getting cooler, the sky was pretty when the sun went down, the sun turned the sky pink and or red during the summer and bright orange during the winter.
Terra felt so at peace during this time of the day, it almost felt as if nothing could happen to her at this time. "Good evening, my lady." Terra turned around and saw Austin standing a few feet behind her, she smiled and walked over to him. His blonde hair covered his right eye and he was holding his Porja stick in his right hand, Terra knew that he carried the stick around for good luck.
"What are you here? Shouldn't you be at home with your dad and brother?" Terra asked with a smile. Austin smiled back and shrugged, he rubbed his thumb up against the strangely patterned Porja stick.
"I decided to go for a walk, I was passing by your place so I decided to stop by and say 'hi' to you guys!" Austin said, putting his Porja stick in his back pocket. The Spark-growler that passed Terra earlier was now rubbing up against the side of Terra's house, its red fur turning black in the quickly disappearing sunlight.
"Having problems with your dad again?" Terra asked. Austin frowned, he looked down at the ground and sighed, ever since his mother died he and his father have gotten into arguments and fights over nothing and today was one of those days. "Yeah, but I came on this walk to forget about that, how are things going for you?" Austin said.
The sunlight was gone and the stars had already appeared in the pitch black sky, the air was cool and still and Terra, for once felt happy with her life. Terra looked out to the city and saw a few stormtroopers and an Imperial officer enter a cantina, she smiled as she remembered the brave Imperial soldiers that ran into the burning school. I'm going to become a stormtrooper and I'm going to get rid of the rebels on Morloth so it can be a safe planet once again, Terra thought.
"Things are going fine for me right now, though I can't help but to feel like something bad is going to happen soon" Terra replied to his question.
The door to the house slid open and Terra's mother stepped outside, she looked at her daughter and smiled. "I'm sorry to end your conversation, but Terra needs to come inside and eat her dinner" Mrs. Dona said. Austin nodded to them both and walked away back into the city, once he was out of sight Terra turned around and walked into the house.
The sun was shining through a window in Terra's room, she blinked her eyes open and yawned, the sun was shining in her eyes making them water. Terra removed her blanket and hopped out of her bed, Terra sighed as she remembered that she had to work today.
She works with a retired Imperial officer named, Commander Fitz Willasin, he now owns a diner in the middle of the city and Terra is a waitress there. "Terra, you're not not going to work today," Mrs. Dona said as Terra walked into the kitchen.
"But I have to go to work today, Mr. Willasin…" Terra cut herself off as her mother grabbed a data-pad from the table and handed it to her. On the screen was Willasin's face with big, black letters on the bottom that said 'DEAD', Terra read the whole report of his death, why can't these rebels just stop this madness. Terra stared at the data-pad for a few minutes, anger and sadness building up inside her, Willasin was a good man and Terra respected him highly.
Terra's mother stared at her daughter tightly clenching the data-pad, she frowned and she went over and hugged her daughter.
Terra pulled away from her mothers' embrace, she put the data-pad down on the table and ran out of the house. Rebels ruin everything, outside, Ben was playing ball with Tacc and for once, Millie was up and doing work. Terra sighed and decided to go talk to her sister, even though Terra and Millie didn't really get along with each other they sometimes could talk to each other without fighting.
"I'm surprised, you're actually up and it's not noon" Terra said, walking up to her sister while smiling. The morning sun was warm, but the air was cool and dew was still on the ground. "You act like I've never been up at this time before" Millie said, smiling. "That's because you haven't!" Terra giggled.
Millie rolled her eyes and went back to work, Terra frowned, she wanted to talk to her sister more but Millie didn't seem interested in talking. Looking toward the city, Terra saw her friends coming over to her.
When her friends reached her she smiled and greeted them politely. Rev Erees turned his head to look at Millie, he flattened his ears against his head and hissed at her.
Millie extended her arm, she put her hand out and smiled. "Here kitty, kitty!" Millie said, her voice full of sarcasm. Rev stared at her with clear contempt in his green eyes, Rev's species, the Zaydiss, looked more like cats, but have the body structure of a human and Millie loved to make fun of Rev for that.
"Don't mind her Rev, anyway, what are you guys doing here?" Terra asked. In the background, Ben was crying over a game he lost and Tacc was laughing over his win.
Jackie handed Terra her data-pad, on the data-pad was a report about the burned down Imperial school. Fifty dead, twelve injured and only ten made it out unharmed, Terra frowned at the data-pad, she was hoping for better results.
"Pretty terrible news, isn't it Terra?" Jackie asked sadly.
Too many people have died during this on-going-war that it's almost becoming a normal thing to watch people die right before your eyes, Terra hated this war and she wanted it to end.
She handed the data-pad back to Jackie and stood there, thinking for a moment. Why…why does this have to happen? Why can't rebels leave everyone alone? With a heavy sigh, Terra looked up and walked off into the city, leaving her friends behind. The city, Broadin, was a calm place, not too many people and not too many big buildings either.
People in the city liked the Empire and respected the people in it, the Empire was welcome on Morloth, the Rebellion was not and soon the rebels will come to know that.
The diner Terra worked at was closed, two stormtroopers were standing on both sides of the door and an Imperial officer was talking to one of the other waitresses. "Hey, what are you doing here?" standing a couple feet to the left of her was a stormtrooper, his helmet was off revealing his pale white skin, flame red hair and orange eyes.
Terra stiffened, she didn't want to get in trouble for being where she wasn't supposed to be.
"I-I'm sorry…I was just passing through and-" she paused as she noticed that the stormtrooper was smiling at her. "It's okay kid, I know you work here, on my off days I like to come here and have a good meal and I've seen you a couple times" the trooper said, crossing his arms.
Terra looked closely at his face and then it hit her, she remembered waiting on him just a week ago. "Oh yeah, I remember you, you order our special every time you come in" Terra said, smiling at the man.
The stormtrooper nodded, Terra stared at the trooper wondering if he was the only Imperial that came into Willasin's diner? Many people on Morloth believed stormtroopers to be 'Peacekeepers' and some believe they are starters of 'Chaos' and 'Destruction' but Terra knew that they are normal people who are just trying to do their jobs.
The air was turning cold, even though it wasn't even mid-day it was still not normal for it to be cold at this time of day. Terra soon realized that it wasn't the air that was cold, it was just her, something was sending a chill up her spine.
She turned around when she heard someone walking up behind her, Terra's eyes nearly jumped out of her head when she saw Moff Zarin, the governor of Morloth. Moff Zarin was a young man around thirty years old and he is the first governor of Morloth.
Taking a step back to let the young Moff pass, Zarin nodded to Terra and walked over to the Imperial officer. "Captain, why hasn't anyone told me about the recent rebel attacks in this city?" Moff Zarin asked sternly.
The air was still, but warm, Terra felt uneasy being around such a powerful and honorable man, she looked down and took a few steps back.
"We're sorry, sir, the rebels are blocking our transmissions, we can't get a word off this planet" the Captain replied firmly. The stormtroopers that were guarding the diner door came up to stand beside the Imperial Captain.
The Moff didn't look happy at all, he hissed a curse between clenched teeth, he looked back at the Captain and frowned. "Why didn't you just send someone up to my ship then?" Moff Zarin asked furiously. The Captain put his head down and cowered at the Moff's harsh tone.
"Well sir, you see, we tried to do that, but the rogue rebels have been shooting down every ship that tries to leave the planet," the Captain said. "They've even shot down civilian ships." Terra felt her blood turn cold, the rogue rebel leader known as, Rowane Scross, is going too far with things. Grabbing Terra's arm and dragging her away from the conversation they weren't apart of, the stormtrooper told Terra that she had to leave then he went back to his commander.
Terra stayed where she was for a few more minutes, watching the stormtrooper disappear behind a house, Terra turned and walked back to her house.
To her mid-surprise her sister was still working outside. "Hey Terra, how are you feeling?" Jackie asked quietly. The sun was high over the trees and it was now really hot out. "Yeah, I'm fine…sorry, but I can't hang out today," Terra said. Austin looked at her and smiled, he always knew when Terra wasn't feeling her best. The others nodded and ran back into the city, Austin however, stayed right where he was.
"What's wrong Terra?" He asked. Terra looked up at him and smiled, any other day Terra would want him beside her, comforting her, but today wasn't one of those days. "Nothing is wrong, I just need some time to think…I'm fine don't worry" she reassured him. Austin smiled, he hugged her and then walked back to the city.
Terra smiled then she ran to her room, she jumped on her bed and laid down, she grabbed her data-pad that was under her pillow and turned it on. "I'm going to become a stormtrooper and get my revenge" she said darkly.