Parada (Intaki)

Preface

Events in Parada is a piece of Player Created Fiction written by Ataharan Taldaraani as part of a series of first-hand accounts of black-ops and insurgency on Intaki Prime. Originally published in the EVE-online forums [1].

First hand account from Intaki Prime - Events in Parada

I apologize in advance. I just took up quarters at the University of Caille in Bourynes where I am studying space flight to help my brothers and sisters back home. I haven't had time to really collate all of the data I have, let alone the loads more that keeps piling up in my inbox, so I'll just tell you what I know.

We didn't notice anything really off for a week or so after the Caldari militia gained space superiority in our system. Things pretty much went on as before. Some of us who lived exclusively on the surface didn't even realize that the war had come to Intaki space until days or weeks later.

I would say about ten days from that, though I can't be sure, some Caldari sympathizers (specifically Marashan Tilaat and Kimathu Daraagan) started bragging about town that the Caldari were going to institute "some big changes" and that "smart people" would get on board before the soldiers arrived.

A couple of days after that, my friends and I heard noise behind the Roasted Peach on Danashi Hill Road. This was in Paradan, by the way. Marashan was beating up a young Reborn, Sharala Nevim. She was screaming and her sari was half-torn and there was so much blood. I had never seen such behavior except in those holoreels that Garam likes so much. Kimathu was standing in the corner, laughing, while his friend did horrible things.

I don't know why, but I walked up to Marashan and hit him with a rock. There was so much blood... I had never seen a face look like that before. Not just dead, but torn... broken. Kimathu ran away screaming that we would pay for what we had done. I kept looking at the ruin of Marashan's face until my friends pulled me away.

The next day, the soldiers came. Not Ishukone troops, but honest-to-goodness State Navy Marines. At least that's what their vehicles and uniforms said when I saw them going by. My friends heard them coming and made sure that I hid in the jungle outside of town, but I heard the commotion... Then I heard the gunshots. Four distinct shots. One. Two. Three. Four.

When the Marines left, no one came to find me. As sundown approached, I crept back into town and found that my mother, my sister, and two of my friends had been sent to their next lives by the Caldari. I could see the bloodstains in front of city hall. I saw their bodies. I saw four more faces turned to ruin.

Garam told me that the Caldari were coming back the next day. The marine leader had sworn to kill more of my people the next day if I did not turn myself in. That night, my friends and I made bombs from fertilizer and synthetic oil. They were crude devices with simple, remote detonators. If the Caldari had expected such resistance, I'm sure they could have disarmed them.

The jungle did not look like any natural thing when we were done. There is something beautiful and horrible and spiritual in fire. The shockwave that ripples the leaves, then flattens them. The personnel transports bursting like ripe melons. Pieces of man and machine flying like the scattering seeds, new life in death.

Parada is no more.

That night, as my friends and I snuck back to town, we saw a great light come down from the sky. Garam says it was a missile, some of us thought it was a beam. I am not sure myself, but we saw the sky burn bright blue. Not once, but three, four, five times. Then we saw the orange glow through the trees. We smelled the smoke on the wind.

By the time we got back, the whole town was aflame. There are only three or four buildings left standing these days, and those on the outskirts. About half the town did not survive the night. Many of the rest never reached the "safety" of Aram.