“Hello, I’m Alton Kastle and I’m live right here for a glorious Empire Day. All should go well. We will roll out Lothal’s new shipyard.”
“Despite what you think from last year’s Empire Day, expectations are high that there will not be another terrorist occurrence by the Insurgents.”
Searches the Imperial Academy students to interview. “Excuse me. Miss? Miss? What is your name?” The holodroid mic thrusts into the face of a small redheaded girl of 13 years of age. She appears excited and angry from high security due to last year’s attack. “Miss, do you feel safe with the Empire?”
She quickly shoved the droid’s mic away from her. “Get that hunk of junk out of my face!” She saw some of the other girls laughing and went to hang out and laugh with them.
They stood there watching the parade and taking holo selfies together to put on Instaholo.
“That’s 50,000 Imperial Credits, cadet!” He straightens himself up and looks around to find if there are any stormtroopers nearby. He mumbles to himself. “Things change… Not in my day, Academy graduates were eager to speak.”
He leaves them as he glares at them and straightens his hair for another broadcast. “And we have what is called a ‘peaceful protest’ by the Lothal residents. They dress in meager attire and appear like hooligans, not the cleanliness of the Empire and what it brings to them.” The droids take images of dilapidated abodes and grim protestors. “Some say they are Insurgent sympathizers and they aid, abet and condone violence.”
The droid mic starts to interview the protesters who are angry and no one understands them. Alton Kastle rolls his eyes looking for some protocol droid that can speak alien languages. He rakes his head back and the tightened jaw on his face shows his disdain. “Where are Imperials when you need them? I hate interviewing aliens!”
“Woah check that out.” She heard one of the other girls say. Mara turned and saw the protesters. She heard many of the academy students talking smack and agitating the protesters. But she wanted to fit in so she joined them. “QUIT TRYING TO MAKE THE EMPIRE LOOK BAD! YOUR NOTHING BUT REBEL SYMPATHIZERS!”
Alton Kastle interviews an elderly Rodian female whose begging eyes wanted to tell the Empire to stop, but she was long-winded and stuttered. Kastle’s eyes rolled because she was an annoyance, when he saw the crowd surge and sway him almost losing his footing. He stumbles a bit preparing to sneer at them. “You break my holocom, as an Imperial citizen, I will sue you.” But that “you” he spoke to were another group of kids with their heads covered in defaced stormtrooper helmets with various markings. The sweat from their fisted hands ready for Empire day and not in a good way.
Kastle looks around carefully worried the tidal surge of the nasty mash of human and alien bodies would ruin his tidy Imperial uniform. His eyes darted to find a familiar face. It was the kids that last smarted off at him. He waved in desperation hoping they would come to his aid. “I hope this time, they can see, there are always two sides in the Empire. Ours and the wrong side.”
Mara noticed that the academy students started running at the younger crowd to fight them. Bottles and droid parts started flying as the riot started. Mara knew that if she fought the academy students Vader would suspect something. So she did the only thing she knew how to do. She ran with the students and got involved with fighting.
Her mind raced as she got in a fist fight with a around 16 year old boy. Her Jedi reflexes helped her dodge his swings and her combat training gave her the upper hand. She suppressed the urge to use the force on the teen to get him to back off. Suddenly she felt something hit her back and she fell forward as a teen tackled her from behind. They rolled around in the street beating on each other.
His eyes widened as he say two camps of young people start flying across the street and banging sound of pipes and fists on skin. He dodged the duracrete thrown across at him attempting to wade through the scuffle not realizing every move he made was on holocam. “Wait! Wait! I’m in a melee. It looks like children of the Rebel Insurgents have ganged up on the…peaceful protesters–” A meliroon fruit crate rams into him as he body propels into a wall. He feels the freshly graffiti spray paint that soils his neat tidy Imperial uniform in colors of orange, red, blue and purple. Shocked by his appearance he sees the droid keeping up with him dodging the rocks being thrown. “If there any Stormtrooper units, please! Come to my aid! NOW!”
That is when he felt the hairs on his neck stand as the compression of the wind shifted and sonic boom sounds thrown him perpendicular to where he was into a seedy dive. He shakes his head from utter confusion as various flammable lights ignite the night sky. He searches for him holocam droid who huddles next to him as if it were in fear, and the microphone live. “It appears…” He coughs. “Citizens, it appears…I’m sad to say this…the Rebels have attacked us again on Empire Day.” His voice solemn, but his rage narrows his eyes when he walks towards the old Rodian female and throws a punch to her face. “REBEL SCUM!”
Mara through off the teenager that had pinned her to the ground and was thrown back from the blast. She couldn’t help but smile slightly. “Beautiful Sabine. As always.” She took a quick holo of the explosion and posted it to Instaholo so she could see her work in case she missed it.
In her distracted state she didn’t realize a pack of rebels had surrounded her. She knew she couldn’t use the Force to push them away so she tried to battle her way out of the pileup that resulted from their attack.
He sees TIE fighters screech overhead along with other ships filled with the power and might of Empire. “Finally. It’s time to stop this–” He dodges thrown debris as he looks at his gloved fist hot with melted blood from the few Rebels he hit.
Then his holocam droid films the Imperial Academy students fighting with the Rebel Insurgent thug rioters. That same redhead girl has several rioters fighting against her as she beats each one with punches that only can be warrior trained. Perplexed he studies her moves, ones he has never seen before. When a squad of stormtroopers arrive he walks over take her out of that fight but has to stand back. “Cadet! Cadet! The Empire has you. Can you tell us what happened?” The holocam films her as its spotlight flickers.
