Fires burned everywhere. Several homes had already been completely destroyed, and more were being ravaged by the fmes and explosions. A drone hovered overhead, shining spotlights down into the vilge while others fired into the houses that were still standing. A single hit was usually enough to destroy the roof, if not the entire building.

  It wasn’t very windy that night, so the smoke billowed up in columns that obscured the stars. Trees crashed as they fell, and the sounds of gss shattering, fires burning, and buildings colpsing filled the night.

  Charred corpses were scattered across the streets, but the majority had been crushed in their homes. The few that were still alive were either in shock at the brutality unfolding before them or desperately trying to escape. The ones that ran were picked off by the drones overhead or shot by the troops encircling the vilge on the ground.

  They didn’t spare anyone.

  Amidst the utter destruction sat a girl. Her long, dark hair fell past her shoulders, put back in two ponytails. Her silver eyes reflected the light of the fires burning bright all around her. Dressed only in a simple blue and white dress, her small figure knelt in the middle of a road that had been dark and quiet only an hour earlier.

  The sounds of people screaming still rang out across the chaos, mingled with the sounds of gunshots steadily approaching. A shot fired from a drone hit the base of an old metal tower, causing it to fall over and take two houses with it. Fire billowed up from the colpsing buildings, but the girl didn’t even flinch.

  She watched as a drone fired more shots at a house to her left. The walls were bsted away and the roof colpsed, sending a cloud of dust and smoke into the air. The girl remembered visiting the elderly dy who lived there when she was younger. The woman had been fond of her, often making chocote bars for her and her older brother. She briefly wondered if she’d died in the colpse, or if she’d tried to escape.

  The girl shifted her eyes back to the corpse of her father in front of her. Blood was still flowing from the gaping hole below his right shoulder bde.

  Just then she heard a woman cry out behind her. She turned her head to look over her shoulder and saw her mother fall to her knees a few yards away. Several soldiers dressed in bck stood behind her. The girl’s mother got up and stumbled past her to colpse again at her husband's side.

  “This wasn’t supposed to happen…” she whimpered, tears streaming down her face.

  “This wasn’t the deal! Why is he dead?!” she screamed at the soldiers that had surrounded them.

  The soldiers didn’t respond, and it was impossible to guess their expressions behind the bck visors on their helmets. One began to raise his gun toward the mother.

  “Wait a moment,” said a new voice coming from a man approaching the group. Two men of higher rank were coming towards them. One was overweight with graying hair and a thick mustache, the other was younger and taller. His shiny, bck hair was slicked back, and his chiseled face appeared stern and devoid of emotion.

  “Captain Marshall!” The soldiers excimed, lowering their guns.

  “Why is he dead?! I asked for protection for my family!” the woman cried, looking at the older man, who was evidently the Captain.

  “I decided it didn't matter now that your sister’s been captured. I don’t need you anymore.”

  As soon as the woman heard this, she began crawling backwards, terrified.

  The major looked past her at a trio of soldiers approaching from the other direction. Two of them were dragging a woman between them, the third had his gun trained on the back of her head. They stopped a few feet from the dead man lying in the road and the woman next to him. The two soldiers carrying the woman lifted her by her arms to reveal her face.

  “Captain, as ordered; the enemy commander, Heiya Kassia!” the one with the gun said.

  “Still alive?”

  “Yes sir,” he replied, grabbing her bck hair with his free hand and pulling her head back to expose her face. She was an extremely pretty woman in her mid-twenties. She grimaced and opened her eyes. They were the same dull silver color that her sister and niece shared.

  “What do you want us to do with her?” the soldier with the gun asked.

  The other man that accompanied the captain strode towards her, passing between the terrified mother and her daughter, who hadn’t moved this whole time. He stepped over the corpse and stopped in front of Heiya Kassia.

  “I’ve wondered for a long time…” he said, removing the bck glove from his left hand. He raised his arm and pced a single finger against Heiya’s forehead. For a brief moment a look of surprise crossed his face, then something that almost resembled disappointment.

  “So little, I expected more from a Kassia.”

  “Sometimes it skips a generation.”

  “It appears so.”

  Then his tone changed.

  “Very well, it appears you’re of no further use to the Empire either. Your rebellion has been crushed, your family has betrayed you, and you are about to die alongside her. With your death, the st bit of resistance to the Empire will fall. It’s over. Do you have any st words?”

  Heiya slowly looked up at him, then her silver eyes moved briefly to the little girl still sitting on the ground.

  “Over? It’ll never be over until the Empire falls or changes completely. There will always be resistance, as there will always be those who wish to steal the freedom of others. Someday, my successor will arrive to burn down this Empire!”

  The man looked at her bnkly.

  “Your words aren’t convincing me,” he said.

  “Enough of this. Kill her,” the captain said, addressing the guard. The guard raised his gun to the back of her head and pulled the trigger.

  In the moment before she died, she muttered a single phrase, just loud enough to be heard by those around her. “I’ll be waiting.”

  The girl, who’d only been observing this entire time, heard the gunshot and felt warm blood sptter across her arms and face. Even then, she didn’t even flinch.

  Her mother was crying, pleading for her life with the lieutenant.

  “Wait, wait, I’ll do anything, just don’t kill me! I don’t want to die!”

  “Kill her too,” the captain said.

  “No, wait, please don't’ kill-”

  The guard shot her through the head as she cowered on the ground.

  “What pathetic st words,” one of the guards muttered.

  “This’ll be a huge success on my record. Definitely worthy of a promotion,” the captain said, a smile spreading across his face.

  The younger man walked back to the girl.

  “I suppose we have no use for this one as well-”

  He froze as soon as he touched her head.

  “Well, this is interesting. She may be of use to us, Captain Marshall.”

  “Very well, take her with us and annihite the rest. I don’t want survivors spreading stories if I can help it. I’ll leave you in charge of her until we return to base, Lieutenant Schoss.”

  The Lieutenant scooped her up into his arms. She didn’t resist, allowing him to carry her away down that burning street.