The Occupied Territories, Maramanakama, Garina district, central market of the planet’s capital, Tolina.

The day was a cloudy and cold one, as the rain poured from the sky and had been continuing to do so for the past week and a half. It was the kind of rain that followed great battles, or in this case, it was the type of rain that followed the slaughter which took place a dozen kilometers away from the city, at the forest and the foot of the mountain.

Future Maran historians would call it the Battle of the Red Cliffs, from the fire that engulfed the region, Imperium historians would for some time, call it the Great Fire of Baranji Forest, since in their opinion there was little tangible proof of it being anything else than a natural disaster, at least that’s what they ‘officially’ believed for quite some time.

 But one thing both groups of historians could agree on was that a lot of people had died that day and the impact of those cursed twelve hours, had great ramifications, not just for the Maran Nation, but also for the Occupied Territories themselves and the whole Galaxy latter on.

And no more so was the effect of that day was felt, than in the city itself. The best way to experience it was the Central Market, where Ahmaianos and Kalynka where currently taking a kava break with friends.

“Six days! I go on a six day holiday from a beautiful and rich city, and in less than a week I return to a giant ghetto!” Palperarius, a grain merchant said to his friends and kava companions Dfurunahus, his street’s local doctor and an acquaintance of Ahmaianos and Kalynka, Ahmaianos was also a neighbor of his.

“I wouldn’t say the city is a ghetto.” Dfurunahus said to his friend, who replied by taking a long sip of his kava drink, in an involuntary attempt to somehow subdue his anger at that statement.

 “In less than a week, we have lost more than half of the cities income, because outside merchants have all become too scared to even set foot in the state, let alone the city.”

“The Imperials have finally been punished for defiling our lands, and you’re complaining about a minor inconvenience!”  Kalynka angrily interrupted him.

“Minor inconvenience is it? Well, tell that to my neighbors the Dawamuches, whose children are crying for food and their parents, are pulling their hair out of their heads, because no one is importing baby milk!”

“Tell that to my friend Bafuinus, who just got fired because hundreds of firms are declaring bankruptcy because of the rising cost of even the most basic living expenses, since this city relies on imports, or better yet, tell that to the tenants of the lower income districts, who will have to face a harsh winter, since the mountain that shielded us from the north winds is now gone, tell that to every house owner in the city who will probably lose everything they have once  the river swells out and mudslides impact the city, since the forest that prevented that is gone!”

“Tell that to every man, woman and child who are now by the thousands interned in hospitals because the damaged sanitation system from that mess in Dukhym, has turned half the city into a giant incubator!” Palperarius replied before rising from his seat, unzipping his jacket and raising his shirt above his chest to reveal some very ugly bruises from what looked like a fresh beating.

“Tell that to the thugs who claimed to be from the resistance, who robbed me yesterday saying that in order to fight for my ‘freedom’ they needed my money and when I gave them every penny I had, they beat me up, saying it wasn’t enough and that by giving so little I was betraying the country!” he finished and then silently, but with great anger in his eyes, he sat down.

“You got off lucky; already the more deadly ones have crawled out of the woodwork.” Dfurunahus said as he took a sip of his drink.

“Deadly ones?” Kalynka asked apprehensively.

“Criminals and mercenaries, who when there’s a conflict going on, form bandit packs that go rob and murder civilians, claiming that their either doing it for the rebellion or against the ‘terrorists’.”Ahmaianos replied with a heavy heart, the guilt that he was partially responsible for this current state of affairs weight heavily on him.

“But the resistance has been active for nearly two standard decades and things like this have never happened before!” Kalynka added to the conversation.

“The resistance, up until now has never had such a significant victory against the Empire, because of that, the Imperials are keeping in reserve the resources, that were previously used to keeping the country running, and are redirecting them for use against any potential revolt, and since the rebels can’t afford or rather won’t waste their time and effort on petty criminals with an Imperial Juggernaught in their front yard, there’s nothing to stop the bandits.” Dfurunahus replied to her enquiry.

“But this doesn’t make any sense! We have almost 540 inhabited worlds in our nation, the Empire has millions of soldiers’ occupying them, even if we dealt them a heavy blow this was just-” Kalynka stopped herself before finishing that statement, she was about to say just 100.000 troops crippled, 100.000 she burned alive with her own hands, 100.000 who either died a horrible death, or where now in great pain and suffering.

Oh, she had no love for the Empire and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that many times that number of Marans had died during the war of conquest years ago, and many times that number of innocent civilians whose only crime was that they lived on a planet caught in the crossfire, but the fact that she killed so many, so easily and so horribly did not sit very well with her.

Yes, they were evil. Yes, they didn’t belong here. Yes, every foreign invader deserved to die! Yes, she wanted all of them gone, but wanting something horrible to happen to others and actually doing it with your own two hands was two different things, and no more so, when they numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

“Yes, they do have reserves and yes, a lot more probably died elsewhere and still do every day, but this is Tolina, the Capital City of the Capital Planet, this is supposed to be the place where the Imperials have the most strength, the symbol of their power and any insurgency here meets with a quick demise, something like this has never happened before.”

“This sends a message, a message that says: ‘The Imperials can’t event control their mightiest stronghold, so how can they control an interplanetary nation?’ It made them look weak, and that’s not good for them!” Ahmaianos supplied the answer.

“It’s not good for us little fellows either, things are going to get volatile soon, this whole Sector is an S cla.s.s Fire Spell ready to go off, and what happened in that forest, is just the first of many flame crystals that are ready to blow.” Dfurunahus added to the conversation and with a look of sadness gazed into his cup. He, along with Ahmaianos and Palperarius, was old enough to remember the Imperial Invasion, and even though that had been a brief affair, when compared to other battles and wars, one time was enough for them.

 Although that didn’t stop Ahmaianos from joining the resistance, or at least he barely now was starting to grasp what that meant, what could return to their lands, thanks to his and his comrades’ actions, along with n.o.body in particular.

“So, what do you suggest we do? Not rebel against the Empire, just bow our heads?” Kalynka asked, but her tone was not an angry one, it was more of a pleading one, she truly wanted to free her people, but at the same time she was starting to feel something, which didn’t sit right with her………..She didn’t feel bad, she told herself that she didn’t feel ‘bad’ about what she did, but rather that she felt a sense of ‘discomfort’, with doing what she was starting to realize, needed to be done, in order to achieve their goals.

“I don’t know the answer to that, all I do now is that I’m not a rebel, everyone at this table’s not a rebel, and out of countless Marans and other ethnicities living in our system, there’s about one or two rebels out of the lot of them; And despite our efforts, for the actions of one rebel or Imperial, a million neutral civilians are going to pay the price for it.” Ahmaianos replied which drew stares of disbelief from Kalynka and stares of sadness from the other two occupants of the table.

At that reply, nothing more could be added, so after a few moments of silence Dfurunahus and Palperarius left, saying they had other things to do today, leaving Kalynka and Ahmaianos alone at the kava shop.

After a few more minutes, they paid for their drinks and both of them ordered some kava to go.

Kalynka held up her thumb and index finger, signaling for two more cups, while Ahmaianos held up his index and middle finger ordering the same amount, after that they left the shop for their respective destinations.

“Have you lost faith in our cause?” Kalynka asked him.

“I don’t know, when I started a few years ago, I was full of romantic ideals of brave rebels fighting the good fight, with the odds stacked against them, in their struggle to free themselves from the evil oppressors, and initially it was like that during the first few ambushes, but after a while you realize…………….you realize, that beneath that armor there’s a living breathing person, not just some mindless monster. I guess I didn’t lose faith, I just ignored what I always knew.”

“I feel like I don’t know anything anymore.” Kalynka replied and Ahmaianos was tempted to ask her elaborate on that and fill her in on just how much she was ignorant off, but he decided against it, since if her family did not inform her, who was he to do so?

There was also the possibility that she already knew, but choose to ignore the truth or was so deluded that she couldn’t see it, in which case he better keep his mouth shut, if he valued his health.

“Are you going to join n.o.body?” she asked after making sure no one was in hearing range.

“First thing I do, after I finish teaching today’s cla.s.ses.” he replied.

“Even……….even after what happened in the forest?”

“It’s because of that I’m joining……… I can’t just walk away………. not after that!” he replied and exhaled a breath of sadness and regret, after what he did…….after what they did, there was no going back.

 Oh, sure he did nothing more than help plant the bombs, but that didn’t make him any less guilty, and upon that thought, he realized that he had been doing this for many years, during which he must have killed dozens, if not hundreds of Imperials, and he felt nothing, until that day when thousands perished, which was something so big, even he couldn’t ignore.

“Looks like I made the right choice in becoming a reb-……….. in becoming a terrorist, monsters like me belong there.”  He thought to himself before turning his gaze at Kalynka and an idea struck him.

“Kalynka, you don’t have to join, you can still leave this life, leave this place, you can have a future!”

At this the young girl turned her head towards him in surprise, all confusion and sadness replaced with shock at his words.

“How can you say that, this is my home, my people, I can’t just leave!”

“Yes you can, this is not your only home, you can have another, and although it may sound blasphemous, you can have a much better one that this, so listen! This land has fallen, the past will never return!” “And for your sake I hope it never does!” 

“We may have a chance to build a future, but you now know what the price will be, you can avoid that, leave all this behind, start a new life, go with your family far away from here!”

“This is my home, the only true home I’ve ever know, any other land is foreign to me!”

“But Kalynka!”

“Also…………also I was the one who pulled the trigger………..like you said, I can’t just walk away from that.” she replied with sadness and regret in her voice. At this, Ahmaianos shook his head, as it was obvious that she would not budge, so he said nothing, but turned to make his way towards the University, where he would be holding cla.s.s soon.

“Kalynka, if you walk this road any longer, you’re going to have come clean and face your family, you’re going to have to face your brother, if it comes to that, what are you going to do?” he asked with his back turned towards her .

At this she said nothing, she merely stared into the ground, silently looking at her own reflection in a puddle of water, as the rain distorted the image. Ahmaianos waited a minute, then two, and four, and ten, but nothing was spoken, and so having obtained his answer, he walked away, leaving Kalynka to stare at the image in that dark and murky puddle.

For how long she remained there she did not know, but Kalynka stayed there with nothing but a reflection facing her, she stayed until the rain finally stopped and before her laid a clear image, of what, she wasn’t sure.

But, it was crystal clear.