The massive shape of the Carida floated above the surface of Corellia.  It was an Imperial Star Destroyer, and bristled with weapons ready to fire down or up at a moment's notice.  But it wasn't there to fend off the New Republic.

Because it was part of the New Republic.

Corellia had given itself over to the New Republic, and the changes were moving quickly throughout the planet.  Criminals held for political crimes began applying for appeals.  Smugglers started reevaluating their strategies.  And the Imperial began fleeing the planet.

Within 24 hours of the declaration, over 500 shuttles and starships with hyperdrives left the planet carrying everything that could be stuffed in their hulls.  The New Republic tried to arrest some of them, but the sheer numbers made it impossible to catch them all.

It was only the beginning of things to come.



Iella Eclissu stood on the edge of CorSec Plaza, looking at the crowd of people.  The crowd had banners in numerous languages, demanding the release of several people.  The CorSec officers standing near the entrance wore green and black riot gear, with stun batons and transparisteel shields.  The crowd was quite large and it continued to grow.  The sight appauled Iella.  Not because of the way so many had come out to protest, but the basis of their protests.  Criminals were in the jails for a reason, and releasing them would be an open invitation for anarchy.

Suddenly a blaster bolt shot out.  The crowd started screaming and  some started rioting, throwing objects at the officers, some even firing blasters.  Iella unslung her rifle and took aim.  She was a dead shot at one kilometer, and taking down a few dangerous criminals would be easy.  She made sure she had the laser set to stun, because with so many people it was easy to accidentally hit someone that was innocent.  She took aim, and fired.

The blue beam lanced out and hit the intended target drop, people around him screaming and scattering.  The officers in riot gear moved and started pushing the crowds out of the plaza, where it would be difficult to mass and overwhelm the officers.  Iella took aim at another target, but before she could fire she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, and her vision went black.



Iella awoke several hours later in one of the CorSec medical wards.  The numerous criminals often came in hurt or suicidal, and so a medical ward was staffed to treat hurt criminals and officers.  She groaned and looked up, to see her father standing over her.

"Iella!  I'm so glad your safe!" he hugged her tightly.

She squeezed back, then leaned back, groaning "Oohhh... What happened?"

"Some perp hit you in the back of the head with a block of broken duracrete.  We found you unconscious on the edge of the plaza, and brought you in.  Are you ok?"

She nodded "Yeah, I'm fine dad."



The degredation of Corellian society was, for the most part, isolated save for several riots and protests.  CorSec HQ looked more like a battlefield command post than a civilian police force.  The plaza in front was filled with hover trucks and armored personell carriers ready to transport officers immediately where they were needed.  Iella was with one of the teams being sent to patrol Treasure Ship Row.  She would find herself a perch on one of the taller buildings, and then help direct the others on the ground and take out targets as necessary.

The officers climbed into one of the hover trucks, with Iella climbing into the cab with the driver.  As they lifted off, she checked on the buildings and found one to her liking.  She tapped the driver and pointed, and he nodded.  Moving in close on repulsorlifts, she jumped down almost 5 meters to the small terrace overlooking most of Treasure Ship Row.  Just as she landed on the ground, a passing hover train nearly scared her to death.  The train moved overhead on streams of energy that linked it to high rising towers that often branched off other tall buildings.  She let herself calm down, then lifted her rifle and took a gaze through the scope.

Indeed there was a protest going on infront of one of the Imperial hotels, and appeared to be turning violent.  She turned on her commlink and tapped it.  A double tap confirmed she was linked to the other officers, and looked up at the repulsor truck.  "Head for the Hotel Imperial.  We have a 468 in progress out front.  There's an alley on this side of the building that you can use to off-load"

"Copy that."

She watched the repulsor truck move off, and sneak into the alley.  The troops off-loaded, hidden from her view by the building next door, and suddenly burst onto the scene.  Some of the protesters turned and fled, but many held their ground.  The officers spread out, getting ready to defend the property.  Iella scanned the crowd, and came across someone she recognized.  Her friend Bir, a human with dark skin and red hair.  She bit her lip, and got on the commlink.  Her personal one.

She watched him answer the call, and she heard his voice come through.  "Yeah?"

"Dir, what the poodoo are you doing down there?"

She watched him look around, trying to spot him.  But his eyesight was poor, so he never saw her.  "I take it you're with CorSec here?"

"You know what the answer to that is, Dir.  Get out of there before you get arrested or hurt."

"I can't do that Iella.  I'm standing up for something, like you did with CorSec."

Before Iella could argue with him, a blaster shot emerged from a blaster somewhere in the crowd.  It hit one of the armored officers in one of the joints, and he went down.  The crowd began to disperse.  Iella was stunning some of them, when her sights settled on Dir.  He was running, when a blaster bolt from behind hit him in the square of his back.  He went down, a smoking black crater in his back.  Iella stared in shock.  Then she saw Dir's killer.  She clicked her blaster over to kill, and fired.  He never saw the shot that killed him, but it lanced through his head and turned it into a gory mass of blackened, cooked tissue and bone.  Without switching back, she took out the others with blasters.  By the time it was finished, five lay stunned from her rifle.  Twenty lay dead.

As the reality of what happened hit Iella, she realized she'd committed a horrible crime.  She'd let her rage kill people without turning them over for a trial.  She sat back, unsure of what to do with herself.  Then she knew what she had to do.  She headed inside the building, and went down to the basement.  There, she used her override card issued to officers to obtain civilian transportation.  She had to flee Corellia before they realized what had happened.  She drove out of the basement and headed for the spaceport, where she managed to use her officer status to get transport up to the CorSec security station.

The CorSec security station was built during the Old Republic days.  It was based on a triangle design that would later evolve into the Golem Defence Stations favored by the Empire.  She stepped off the shuttle as soon as the ramp was down, and headed for the equipment office.  There, she filled out a form to requesistion one of the unit X-wings for a training run.  The lack of staff due to the shortages ground-side ment that the officer on duty was bored, since all his sabaac buddies were gone.  She signed the form, then headed for the fighter deck.  Inside she found an Incom X-wing painted the standard green for all CorSec fighters.

Selecting one of the astromech units plugged into recharge stations along one wall, she used the magnetic crane to lift the droid into the air, then down into the socket built to hold it securely.  Once she was certain it was secure, she got one of the ladders and rolled it over.  Once she was ready, she grabbed one of the flight suits and slipped it on over her CorSec uniform.  Once she was fully ready, she climbed up and hopped in the fighter's cockpit and lowered the canopy.  She quickly went over the pre-flight checklist, glad that the people in charge of maintaining the ship worked hard to make the fighters ready to face anything.

Feeding power to the repulsorlifts, the ship rose into the air, and with a small nudge forward on the throttle, the ship slid through the magnetic containment field that kept atmosphere in the bay.  She moved casually out, until the range between her and the station exceeded the range of their tractor beams.  She then kicked the throttle forward, and had the astromech behind her plot a course.  The droid began giving her heading information when her scanners indicated approaching X-wings.  She brought up the first one, and felt her heart sink.

It was her father.

She fed power from the weapons into the engines, moving slightly faster.  Since they were both in X-wings, Iella was certain she could maintain her lead on him.  Then there was a crackle of static on the comm.

"Iella?"

She felt ice grip her heart, and she flicked the comm on.  "I'm sorry dad... I did something bad.  I can't... I can't go back"

Silence was her responce for several seconds.  Then he came back "Iella listen to me.  I heard about what happened.  But running away isn't the answer.  That's what criminals do, and I know you're not a criminal."

"But... But I killed them... I killed so many..."

"You weren't thinking Iella.  You saw your friend die.  It's never easy on anyone, but you weren't in control.  No one is going to hold that against you.  Just turn around and we'll get through this together, ok?"

She couldn't answer.  She didn't even remember her hand touching the throttle and moving it forward a little.

"Iella... if you don't stop I'm going to have to open fire.  Don't make me."

Her responce was to pull the hyperspace levers, that stretched the stars into lines, then implode and form a blue tunnel.  She cried the entire way.



Later, on one of the numerous stops she had to make on her way across the galaxy, she received a message.  It was her father, and he didn't look happy.

"Iella... I know what you did wasn't right, and I know you feel like you have no choice but to run.  Well..." His voice broke, and he could no longer look angry.  "Iella... your mother has cried non-stop since you left.  Please honey, come home.  We're not going to hold you accountable."

Iella sniffled and wrote out a message.  It was simple, and to the point.

"I'll miss you both.  I'll come back... one day..." and sent it.  After she did, she cried until she fell asleep.  Upon her awakening, she made the next jump towards where she knew the Imperials were.  But the hollow feeling in her heart made it almost impossible to think past that horrible sight of Dir getting shot.  The image would haunt her forever in her sleep.