"Oh honey, this is such a fine celebration. I'm proud of you." said Melina, hooking her arm around her husband's, standing at his side as she looked at the stairs upon which descended torwards the ground newly minted Admiral Druid Carson. The former Commodore had been promoted following excellent service in view of the Empire, and a very public ceremony had been staged just outside the main military base on Vladet. This man had been working behind the scenes for a very long time while others had had their time in the spotlight, and now it was his turn to shine.

Kraken looked down into his wife's sparkling eyes before turning his gaze with hers back to the Admiral and his wife, and their three children, ages sixteen, fourteen, and ten, as the family descended torwards the hoverlimo awaiting to take them back to their quarters. This would almost seem a wedding sort of ritual. Normally a parade through the streets would be used for a military hero, but it was decided to limit the size of the celebration for security reasons. There were always those who would use such an opportunity to deface the Empire, but Kraken hoped it would not be so in this case. Even though he was a military man who had once dreamed of conquering all and ruling it forever, the realities of the real world, of having power, losing power, and the effect power had on men and their families, friends, loved ones, had dashed that dream to pieces. Now he just wanted to live out his life, he was content, he had established the Empire very well in the Mid-Rim territories, had brough justice and peace to sectors that needed it, and now, he hoped, peace would reign.

The Admiral and his family were approaching the hoverlimo now, and the chaffuer smiled as he opened the rear door for the family to enter the vehicle. In the after account, Kraken and others could have sworn they heard the sound of the explosion before they actually saw the flames. In either case, the limo simply exploded, dis-entegrated, and judging from later reports that a concussion grenade had been responsible, one cannot blame the vehicle for how it died. However, shrapnel now splayed out in all directions. Those with a clear line of view of the limo were flattened by the force of the explosion, and were considered the lucky ones. This included the Admiral and his family, excluding ten year old Marius Carson, who, walking behind his mother, was decapitated by a jagged metal piece of the limo door.

Not a minute had passed from the time of the explosion to when the first batches of medical personnel and stormtrooper platoons arrived to restore order and help those who needed help. When they arrived, they found the Admiral, and his wife weeping, wailing ove the body of their youngest son, a group of people, including Kraken and Melina, standing, in a circle around the scene of catastrophe, some of them blackened, slightly wounded and cut, staring, either with bleakness or with streams of tears pouring down their faces. Although he was present physically, mentally Kraken was lightyears away, back in his younger body, perhaps ten years old, his mother carrying him through the streets of Isiz, as turbolaser beams from far overhead obliterated buildings and sent stones and shrapnel flying in all directions. Suddenly, he remembered the piece of stone that had hit his mother in the back of her head, both of them falling to the ground.

Then, he was back, to the present and the now. The medics were struggling to remove the two parents from their fallen child, and to place a white sheet over the body of the child. Deprived of their youngest boy, the two parents hugged, their two older children sharing in the embrance. It was hard to tell what ran more freely upon the steppes of the concert building, blood, or tears. Kraken looked up to the sky, if for no other reason than to avert his gaze, but even in the sky, smoke reminded him of where he was, and what had happened. Tears began to form in his own eyes. The anger was building. He may be shedding tears now, but he promised himself, when all was said and done, he would shed blood.

As the hovercar sped on, racing away from the city and torwards the outer areas of Grand Isle, the traffic became less and less existant until theirs was the only car to be seen on the paveway for miles around. In the driver's seat, Park barely paid attention to the road before them, most of his attention focused on this mind, thinking and having thoughts, for the Admiral, his family, what this bombing meant, who was responsible, and how the retaliation would take place were all thoughts that swirled though his head at once. His wife sat next to him in the passenger seat, her face composed and solemn, but with the sightly trace of where tears had been running down her cheeks, and her eyes were bloodshot red from the weeping that had gone on earlier.

Park realized that she was probably in a state of shock now, and it would take a lot of convincing on his part to try and make her stay and continue living here alongside him on Vladet instead of moving to a more secure and safe location, probably somewhere in the core. He knew that this was probably an isolated incident, but he would take no precautions where his family was concerned. To help alieve her fears and to keep them safe for the time being, they would spend the night together in a safe house in the woods, before Melina and the kids were spirited off to Byss for a two week furlough while the offenders were tracked down and punished. Moments later, they pulled into the driveway, to see the main family vehicle already in the hidden driveway, with the kids, their nanny defender droid, and the family maid and butler already inside and setting up shop.

Getting out of the vehicle, Park paused for a moment to take in a deep breath of the fresh mountian air, and with a long exhale forced his bunched up muscles and nerves to relax. Back in the old days he would have probably been a nervous wreck in this situation, but since then, being a leader and a father has taught him calm, patience, and relief. He then walked behind as his wife ran to the living room of the relativley small cabin to embrace their kids. He stopped a moment by the door of the cabin to confer with the butler on the matters of security arrangements for the transfer off world tomorrow. Then, walking into the living room, he shared with his family his embrace, and for the first time since the incident occured, he allowed tears of grief to shed across his face, intermingling with his other emotions of the day as he savored his family and mourned for the loss of his fellow officer.