OOC:

This is just a little personal blurb that's supposed to take place after the HSC and before the QW there will be other parts to it. I might include something with my character's POV for the Eclipse training prior to the QW. PM me suggestions and the like. :]

The hallway around them was dark; there were a few dim, yellow lights every ten or so feet and the sound of their footsteps seemed to echo painfully against the walls. Zaria felt the movement of the group around her but it seemed as though every time she turned to look at one of them, they became shadows. Her hands tightened on the blaster rifle she held: what is this!?! Dark eyes shut for a second as she became dizzy and when she opened them she was alone. Her mouth opened as she tried to yell for them, anyone of them, but no sound issued.Her legs carried her forward to where the rest of Eclipse should be but she couldn’t run fast enough, she was so tired and as she turned the corner of the hall she came face to face with endless dark. There was nothing. A laugh issued from the hall of endless night and slowly she began to distinguish features. A faceless man dressed in what seemed to be the uniform of the mercenaries half dragged himself out. He laughed a chilling, mirthless laugh. Zaria felt her skin prickle and she reached for the rifle she hadn’t realized she dropped. It was gone. Suddenly, she was unarmed and wearing simple civilian clothing. She stared as the single mercenary turned to four then ten.

“That’s the little darling.” One of them said leering at her though his skull was half open.

“You killed me. I had children you know.” Another said at the same time as he attempted to hold together the parts of his body that seemed, like a dolls, to be falling apart.

Zaria stared from one to the other rapidly, still unable to speak but shaking her head. Her hands were held out in front of her to stop them but they had her arms. She could smell the sickly stench of decay coming from them. Finally, her voice returned and she screamed and screamed…and screamed.

The female soldier bolted up in her bunk letting out a strangled yell. Gasps issued from her seeming too loud in the empty barracks as she looked around to where the members of Eclipse usually kept house. Zaria Bernadette let her breathing slow to normalcy, placing her face in her hands and thinking that after today she would be home. That might help. Unlike most of the members of the platoon she had a very short trip ahead of her. While the others moved quickly to make the best of the few days of leave they were granted, she allowed herself another day to gather her thoughts before returning home. It did not seem like a very good idea now, though. Zaria gingerly removed herself from her bunk taking care not to upset her bandaged arm and wary of another bout of dizziness. Medical had fixed her head up right away though they had told her to try and rest for a few days; apparently the bump she had received had rattled her more than she thought. But the minor concussion had proven to be a small dilemma for the droids.  Her injury and her Squad’s seemed like nothing compared to some of  the other squads’.

The redhead gathered her things quickly even with her arm still bothering her, it was more sore than anything really. Zaria did not let her mind wander as she packed the few belongings that she had brought to the academy. She slipped on the extra set of civilian clothes that her mother had packed for her. Zaria wore a blue dress, a sturdy leather belt that accentuated her waist, and also served as a place for her to hang her valuables from, and a simple jacket of some unnatural fiber. On her feet was a pair of dark brown boots, the kind that many a worker of Hast would use.  Her lightly tanned skin seemed pale, her eyes were unfocused, and in her shoulders was the almost sickly tension that haunted her. Time moved too slowly for her; yet, before she knew it she had all her things in the pack, ready for leave. Ready for…what?
The shuttle awaiting her at the terminal was early, for once, and she quickly got checked through with her military identification.

After about two hours on a shuttle that would never leave the atmosphere of Tadath she would be home. Zaria swung her bags into the compartment above her seat and then lowered herself gingerly into her seat. Zaria had not slept well last night and before that she had been practically sleepless. The fatigue was grating on her and she felt her eyes closing involuntarily as the shuttle began to move, almost soothingly. As soon as sleep began to take her she say that face like in all her dreams it was a face that could be anyone, nearly faceless in its simplicity, but it was cloddy and accusing.

She roused herself looking up to make eye contact with a man she had not felt sit in front of her. He was around her age, dressed as a mechanic, and with a look of curiosity on his face. Zaria gave him a tired, weary smile and turned away from his gaze. She didn’t want to explain herself to a complete stranger. The tension in her shoulders hurt and there were bags under her eyes that indicated her need for rest. Yet, she couldn’t. The red haired girl found herself nodding off and gripped her injured arm to stop herself from sleep. The pain, previously dull, exploded up to her head making her grit her teeth but she was awake. Zaria breathed deep and glanced out the window beside her to the rapidly passing scenery. There wasn’t much to do now but wait for the shuttle to get her to the station outside of the little town she now called home.

OOC:

Well here is the second installment of the personal story quite late but unfortunately what can I say? As always questions and comments to me and thanks for reading if ya do! :3

The hallway around them was dark; there were a few dim, yellow lights every ten or so feet and the sound of their footsteps seemed to echo painfully against the walls. Zaria felt the movement of the group around her…

Ebony eyes shot open, interrupting the familiar dream as she sat up. The shuttle had stopped and the young mechanic from before was eyeing her with a look more akin to concern than the initial curiosity. The pain in her arm registered a second after and she realized that she was still holding onto the skin tightly with her fingers. She let go, biting her lip to keep from yelping in pain even as her eyes watered. Zaria looked up confused as the mechanic stood taking his things with him.

“Where are we?” Her voice was a little gravelly from sleep and her eyes still unfocused as she spoke to her would be travel companion for the first time.

“Last stop, you feel asleep after the first 10 minutes. “ He said it rather dismissively as he moved to leave the shuttle but she noted a strange tenseness in his walk.

Zaria looked at his retreating form, her mind still processing the information before a look of realization hit her. I’m home . A man in the simple uniform of the shuttle service was walking down the center aisle checking to see if anyone was loitering behind. When he saw her he opened his mouth to speak, lifting a hand to catch her attention. Her dark eyes lifted making eye contact with his before he said a word. He looked a little startled at the young woman sitting here. She was pretty enough in her simple blue dress and with her auburn hair tumbling about her shoulders but there was something shocking in her eyes, the bags under them and the utter exhaustion in them making him simply nod to her and move on.

Zaria Bernadette was not one to overanalyze a situation too much so she didn’t really think on the strange reaction from the man though the look he had given her had been strange. She stood slowly and tugged her pack from the compartment sliding it easily over her uninjured arm, noting the sting in the other as she moved to leave the shuttle. She was oddly refreshed now, though her mind was still a little sleep weary. Yet, she had dreamt…what had she dreamt? Auburn locks shifted easily as she shook her head in attempts to clear it.

Her legs carried her easily over the platform and she quickly managed to flag down someone who would take her to the outskirts of the city where her family waited for her with open arms, or so she hoped. Zaria wasn’t sure when she told the driver her destination but suddenly she found herself in the speeder moving in the right direction. She sat quietly listening to the hum of the engine within the speeder and watching the scenery move quickly past her. Though her eyes moved over everything her mind registered nothing, she sat stiffly holding her pack in her lap and when the driver spoke to her she gave short answers, answers she didn’t really think of as she knew that he would be doing nothing other than polite small talk. After a few minutes he stopped speaking looking at her with a slight frown from his rearview mirror, shuddering a little at the look in her eyes. Those eyes were older by far than the years that the young woman’s face betrayed. He sped up a little more, suddenly wanting to leave her as quickly as he could at her destination.

It took a second for Zaria to register the low hum that meant the speeder was stationary as they arrived in a small neighborhood in the first outskirts of the city. She leaned forward from where she had laid against the back of the seat in attempts to relax herself prior to arriving home. There was no sense in worrying her parents with her own concerns for now, they would be happy to see her. Her eyes flickered up to meet the driver who was looking at her anxiously and she realized that she had to leave vehicle. With a few stiff movements she helped herself out of the vehicle making sure to hold her dress as she did out of habit. A slightly tanned hand searched her pack for a moment as she tried to find her means of payment.

“Don’t worry dearie, this ones on me.” Zaria heard the driver speak and looked up as he nervously licked his lips and gripped the wheel. She registered this with a frown and leaned into the window of the speeder to speak with the man, her wallet out in front of her. He shook his head repeating himself and muttering something about her service to the Empire looking down nervously at the military ID. Ebony eyes wandered his face for a second and he shuddered; then, she nodded and moved away from the speeder watching him with an understanding look. Do I really look so bad?

Her dress whipped against her legs as the man sped off and she watched the vehicle with a frown. Then she turned to the building behind her and a soft sigh came to her, her shoulders relaxing as they hadn’t since she had entered the academy. For a second Zaria Bernadette looked the girl who had gone into the academy. Her shoulders where relaxed and in her step was something of a bounce, almost a curiosity and a wanting for adventure, as she looked up at the home that had kept her for only a few months before she joined the Corps. She quickly used the keypad to enter the code she needed, surprised that she remembered it after so many months, and entered.

The familiar smells and sounds of the home were nearly overwhelming as she entered and she let her back rest heavily on the door as she looked around in taking everything as if for the first time. There was a small family room to her right and a dining room to her left. Behind the dining room a small rectangular kitchen and behind the sitting room a set of stairs leading to the two bedrooms above. Nothing was too exemplary but everything was neat and clean just as her mother liked.  There where little knick knacks around which showed the many hobbies of the house’s inhabitants. The room smelled like the chemically sweet cleaning fluids her mother used and like the stew on the stove waiting to be heated up. It was warm and there was a trace of her father’s cologne in the air.

Zaria moved as if in a trance tracing her fingers over the couch to her right as she moved past it to the stairs. She walked playfully up the stairs making sure to avoid the fifth one of the left side as it made a loud noise when stepped on. She reached the top turning to look around the empty house. They must be working, it isn’t time for them to come home yet Her cool hands touched the metal of her door, on the right, the front of it had a small hand crafted sign with her name of it, one her father had made before they left Hast. The door opened to her touch and she entered the room for the first time in months. It smelled a little stuffy and everything was where she had left it. Yet, there was no dust on anything and her covers were clean pointing at her mother’s hand.  The pack slid to the floor beside her as she entered and the door closed behind her. She sat on the edge of the bed looking around the room with new eyes appreciating the personality of it, created by small almost insignificant objects, something almost nonexistent in the barracks.

Her shoulders slackened and she sighed leaning over her knees.  A warm feeling made her stare at her knees for a second as she noted a small drop of moisture on the top of one of them. Another dropped beside the first and she reached for her face with a frown noting the trembling in her hands. Then, and only then, did she realize that those were tears…and they were hers. A rush of emotion overcame her for the first time since she had left home to join the Stormtrooper Corps and she lay over her knees letting the tears come silently. Tears for her own loss of innocence, for the knowledge she had gained, and tears for the years still to come and the knowledge they would bring.