***11 February 2005 –Goodbye mum,
dad and Jason
Murderers..
They murdered my
family..
Aaricia hugged the lifeless body of her mother, tears
crawled over her cheeks.
“Mum this shouldn’t have happened, mum I’m sorry.”, she said with a voice full of sadness, “I love you..”
“Aaricia it is time to bury them.”,
the old man put a hand on her shoulder.
She nodded.
“Yeah.. it..
it is time..”
Now I’m the only one
left, they are all gone. It is my fault isn’t it? But I cannot turn back time.. the only thing that’s left for
me to do.. is continue fighting.. avenge
them..
She had only been able to watch, there was nothing that she
could have done, nothing..
They had shot the droids immediately..
they were with too many. In front of her eyes they had
shot the people she loved.. first
her father, next her brother and third her mother.
When Aaricia saw them standing on top of the stairs of the
government building her stomach turned.. she couldn’t believe this.. she
gasped.. there were her brother, mum and dad, dressed
in orange suits, cuffed. Surrounded by lots of stormtroopers,
even two AT-ST’s.
Two fighting droids.. two propaganda droids. It was too few..
the public would never dare to riot, not with this
many Imperials. Aaricia had been to a very good plastic surgeon, it had cost
some money but nobody was able to recognize her anymore. Even her family
wouldn’t recognize her anymore. And there she was, standing about twenty meters
in front of them, pushed against a wall like the others from the crowd,
invisible.
Then the old man sent in the protocol droid. At least it was
able to say Aaricia’s words, directed to her family, one time: This is Aaricia.. mum dad and Jason I LOVE YOU and you shall be avenged for
what they've done to you! I LOVE YOU!
It had barely been able to say this, when the droid was shot
to pieces by several stormtroopers, it’s parts
scattered along the area. But at least it had been able to say it.. she hoped that they heard it.
Xanado put a hand on her shoulder.
“Come on Salmia, you better not watch this..”,
he said to her.
“No, let me see it.. it will feed my anger.. at least it
will me make fight them harder, give me energy to avenge them!”, she said to
him with a soft trembling voice.
He nodded.
“Put on a brave face.. you are a courageous woman.”
Courageous? Pfff if she
really was courageous she would take a gun and fight them. She felt like a
coward, depressed, hopeless, only able to watch while
they were going to kill her family in front of her eyes!
She tapped her pistol.
No Aaricia, this is
not realistic.. you will be
killed. What can you do against twenty stormtroopers and two AT-ST’s with only
a pistol. They will have you too,
they will have won even more. Don’t let them kill you too..
not today.
She bit her lip. Jason, mum and dad wouldn’t even know that
Aaricia was standing right in front of them because she looked like a different
person now. She couldn’t say anything because if she would, she would be killed
too.
“Aaricia if you turn yourself in they win, you know that!”,
Swoop said to her, a tear crawling over her cheek.
“But at least I have done a last thing for them..”, Aaricia said, looking pretty depressed.
She
looked at her chrono, three hours left before the deadline. “Last thing?!? Let yourself voluntarily be killed too a last thing?
No Aaricia, you have to live! I know for sure that your family wants you to do
this.. they will kill them
anyway. Please don’t do it, I beg you!”, the young
woman of about the same age of Aaricia, cried.
“Please Aaricia, it is because of you that I joined Task Force Banshee.. and now you are already leaving, please don’t do it!”
Aaricia looked in her new friend’s eyes, eyes full of
genuine sorrow.
“People we love will die because of our beliefs.”, she continued, “Maybe it sounds hard, but we don’t have another choice. We all risk the lives of our families but if we ever want to bring down the New Order.. we don’t have another choice!”
Slowly Aaricia nodded.
Her feelings of depression made place for anger, indignation
and resolution.
“You are right.”, she said with a
soft but resolute voice, “I won’t do it.”
Swoop showed a smile and tore the flyer with Aaricia’s last
words to pieces.
“Let’s go to Entha to get your ship, and head back to
Talus.”
That was four days ago. Aaricia hadn’t turned herself in and
now they were about to kill them. A year ago they had been arrested, since that
time Aaricia had been resolute to find and free them. This had been her primary
goal. But soon this goal wouldn’t exist anymore.
“Loyal Citizens of the Empire!”, one of the stormtroopers shouted, “The New Order stands here before you to make an example of those who flaunt justice and conformity in favor of an illusion of free will.”
It is not an illusion,
it is real. Only you try to oppress this.. but not for long anymore!
Then the trooper started talking about her father, that he
had had business with rebels for a long time. She gasped..
it was all lies!
Her father had always been slightly loyal
to the Empire.. he had had
business with Imperials.. he had even tried to put
Aaricia on the
Then Dusty Bantha sent in the second droid: People stand up and FIGHT..
RIGHT NOW is the time.. down
with the New Order! FREEEDOM!!
As Aaricia expected, nobody moved, nobody reacted. She bit
her lip. But at least they heard it, they would remember this all. It would definitely
have some influence on some others from the crowd.
She and Xanado sent in the fighting droids, they were shot
immediately. She was amazed that after this more of these droids were sent in.. she knew that there was this
Twilek woman that helped them too, were all of these extra droids hers or were
more people sending them in? But the many there were sent in, it didn’t matter
a thing. The Imperials were with too many. There was no chance that Aaricia could rescue her family.
In front of her eyes one of them shot her father in the
head. Next was her brother.
“Now to the boy.. Jason Silverstar.. an innocent schoolboy? Or a devious hacker and traitor?”
Aaricia gasped in disbelief.
“No longer will he use Imperial funded education to hack
into civilian system to cause carnage and spread the filthy propaganda of a
misguided rebellion around the galaxy!”
“What the hell?!?”, she whispered,
“This is all lies, they made it all
up, how can they do this?!?”
She clenched her fists.
They put a gun against his head.
“Aaricia wherever you are, I hate you!”,
her brother yelled.
Then he got shot too, falling on the body of her father.
Aaricia fell on her knees and started to cry.
“Salmia let’s go, now.”, Xanado pulled her sleeve.
“No!”, she hissed and pulled
herself loose.
“How can you do things like this?”,
Xanado shouted.
“Silent!”, one of the cops yelled
at him, “Or you’re gonna be in jail for a long time.”
“Let the woman live, you have killed the other two, let her
live!”, Xanado continued.
“Yeah let her live!”, Aaricia
yelled, “She is punished enough!”
Cops approached them, threatening with their stun batons.
Aaricia spat at them. Let them hit her, let them put her in jail, she didn’t
care. She was furious.
She saw her mother crying uncontrollably.
“You are just a machine, you are a thing!”, she cried.
The stormtrooper that was giving the speeches continued.
He accused her for implanting the rebellious thoughts into
the rest of the family.
Then she got shot too.
“NOOOOOO!”, Aaricia shouted and she mourned.
“Salmia we have to go!”, Xanado
pulled her along.
“How longer do we tolerate this people!”,
Aaricia continued shouting, fanatically, “How much longer?!?”
The cops and stormtroopers started dispersing the crowd and threatening that everybody that made noise would be detained. She saw one of the troopers pointing at her, but Xanado dragged her away fast.
“Get to the safehouse.”, Dusty Bantha whispered to her, but Aaricia fell on the ground again and cried uncontrollably. She saw Talln and Dellis, they all comforted her.
“It will be alright Sas, you are not alone.. they will be avenged!”
“Salmia get to the safehouse now, jump on your swoop and move!”, the old man urged her, in the background Aaricia saw stormtroopers approaching.
She nodded, jumped on her swoop and raced away.
An hour later Iara came, with the bodies of Aaricia’s
mother, father and brother on her Dewback. She had asked her ‘Do you want to
bury them now?’ Aaricia had agreed.
There they were lying in front of her, like lifeless
puppets. The people she loved, her mum, her dad, Jason..
they would never be able to talk again, to move, to
open their eyes. They were dead, life had departed out
of them. It had been taken out of them
by the Imperials.. an hour
ago they had still been talking, moving, but this would never happen again.
Aaricia kneeled in front of them and cried, hugging them.
“I’m sorry I’m so sorry..”, she
repeated with a voice full of sorrow and despair, “I’m so sorry for what they
did to you.. I’m sorry..”
She stroke her mother’s hair and
kissed her on the forehead.
“I will avenge you, I promise…”
“What do you want to do with them, bury?”,
Dusty Bantha, the old man, asked.
She nodded, sobbing.
“I know a good place, far from the city. So that nobody will
disturb the grave.
Grave..
“Murderers..”, Aaricia mumbled,
“FUCKING MURDERERS!!”
Everybody calmed her down.
“Sas.. let’s
go.”
Not far from the old man’s house there was a little hill with some ruins on top of it. Aaricia looked at the sky, at the many stars that were twinkling in it.
Dusty Bantha started making a grave with an explosive,
Xanado had left because this was too much for him, it reminded him of his son.. Aaricia wondered what had happened to his son, Xanado had
never talked about it.
“They didn’t deserve this.”, Iara said, sobbing.
They put the bodies into the hole after which Dusty Bantha
give some short speech.
“There is only peace.. there is only love.. walk into the light sisters and brothers..”
Then they filled the grave with sand.
Aaricia hugged her friends and they left, leaving her alone
at the hill.
She knew that she better not put a very visible mark on the
grave, it would definitely be vandalized, or worse: destroyed by Imperials. But
she would never forget this place. If she would die, she wanted to be buried
with them, at the same place.
Out of one of her pockets she took a dried Bespinian flower
and put it on the grave, while kneeling.
“You will be avenged, I promise you. I will do everything back to them what they’ve done to you! I’m so sorry.. I will always love you.. farewell mummy, farewell daddy.. farewell Jason.”
While crying uncontrollably she ran into the cold night desert..
