lainesprechnel - Tumblr blog

lainesprechnel · 24 days ago

Text

What Fight of Mine?

Read on AO3

Kleya Marki x Original Female Character

Chapter 2: The grass isn't always greener.

Chapter 1

1 BBY-

Pedria is green, very green. When the land isn't protruding toward the sky in black, jagged, rock formations, there are flat plaines covered in nutrient rich leafy crops. The planetary flag is simple, a singular slate grey triangle upon a vibrant but natural green background.

Lanara has never liked green, in truth she hates it, growing up she was taught that the green of the earth meant that there was life to be had. It wasn’t that she didn’t grasp its relevance to the welfare of her home, simply all it boiled down to the fact that for most of her life all she saw was green. Green, to her, meant sacrifice.

Everytime her mother appeared in the senate, a green stole hung around her shoulders. Every conversation little Lanara overheard from her mother’s office mentioned the lushness of the land. Every moment of weakness when she would ask her mother why she was always so busy, a finger would raise in point to the flag hung above the mantle, raised to the green. To her, what comes from the land is most important, even more so than those who live on it.

Her biggest fantasies never included defending such a maddening color. When mother would bring her along off-world on business it was amazing to her child mind that so many colors could appear in one place. She remembers bits and pieces of visiting Alderaan. It has mountains but none as harsh looking as Pedria’s, It has grass but none as green as home, but most of all it has lakes. A body of natural blue, a color Lanara would yearn for long after leaving.

Looking back, she finds it funny that a color could rank so high up in her life's hates. Now she can’t think of hating anything more than herself.

Lanara keeps to her office as of late. She’s too ashamed to go outside, too ashamed to see the greenery. “They made the wrong choice”, she thinks to herself when she catches a glance of her reflection in the monitor of her data pad. She vowed to protect her planet and vowed to care for her people. Who is she to try and seek comfort when her people are forced to labour until their deaths?

2 BBY -

Two weeks after her speech in opposition of the imperial occupation of Ghorman, a military issue shuttle landed in the courtyard of the Pedrian government complex. Three minutes later she is stood face to face with the imperial Director of Agriculture, who, with a smile claimed to have been sent by the emperor himself. The man in front of her spoke curtly, only saying what needed to be said, only saying what he was instructed to. By his decree, Emperor Palpatine had ordered that Pedria surrender its harvest to the Empire under the guise of raising a strong army to provide for galactic safety. In shock, Lanara, expressionless, looks over the director’s shoulder out onto the verdant landscape that has always surrounded the building. For the first time in her life the green of the ground didn’t seem too scary. For the first time, she herself felt the sacrificial pull of the color. It was her duty to protect it now.

That same day moved all too quickly. The conference rooms that she turned into teaching centers for Pedrian children to learn about their planet’s politics had been remodeled once again into the headquarters for their planet’s occupation. Lanara had gotten them into this mess, standing silently in the hallway outside her office she watches as imperial soldiers and officers carry box after box of equipment and supplies. “They were not leaving anytime soon”, she says mentally in a moment of realization.

Her assistant had been kicked out of the office neighboring hers, moved to what Lanara remembers as being a stationary closet down the hall. She now worked next door to The Empire’s communication hub on Pedria. Through the walls she would be able to listen as the officers gave report of their bounties, gave report of her planet’s slow death to the raping of her land.

It became commonplace quite quickly to not discuss Pedrian business within the complex. Anything said amongst those halls was no longer the business of Pedria, but of the Empire.

In the days between the arrival of imperial troops and when they began to enforce increased labouring, Lanara honestly tried her best to apologise to her people. They seemed forgiving enough at first, reasoning that she had stood up for Ghorman because it was the right thing to do. As the days went on and the first twenty-four-hour farming shifts began, as the first rounds of forced rationing starved her people, everytime Lanara dared to step foot out of the government building at least one person would ask her, “why did you have to speak?”. It was a question she could not answer in a way that would satisfy them.

The day she got the first report of deaths caused by The Empire’s exploitation, she went out to the fields herself clothed in items that did not reflect her stature as senator, not the green stole that was her mother’s, but of that of a Pedrian citizen. No one noticed her for nearly six hours, when she was finally discovered it was only because she ran to the aid of a woman who had been struck in the head by the butt of a stormtrooper’s blaster. Lanara received a message from the emperor himself that evening, “You must take pride in what your people are giving to their Empire… their works are rewarded by the opportunity of living”. A threat of punishment, another lesson learned.

1BBY-

Since the occupation of Pedria, Lanara has visited the senate twice. Each time under imperial escort which had been advertised as protection. She has no intention of returning to Coruscant without the hope of gathering more support for her cause. So here she will remain a willing prisoner within her own office, living life practiced in the ways of pleasing her wardens.

It's a long day when there are no visitors, but she knows that there aren’t many visitors to be had when you sell out your own people in action for another. So, it came as a shock when her assistant, Jara, came barging through her office door loudly and unexpectedly. With a gasp she exclaims, “Senator Mothma for you Senator Elspet”, hurriedly moving from the door frame to allow for her entry. With a confused but professional “thank you” from Lanara, Jara excuses herself as Mon enters the office followed by a young woman close in age to herself, Lanara observes.

“Mon... Senator Mothma what a surprise”, Lanara begins with confusion evident on her face and in her tone. She is given a smile by the woman standing in front of her, “I apologise for my sudden visit, Senator Elspet” she provides honestly … “I found myself indebted to visit you on the anniversary of your election and in hopes that two friends could catch up…” there is sentiment in her voice, but Lanara can sense a deeper meaning to her visit than that of what Mon explained. Her eyes glance to the woman next to the Chandrilan senator, and as if understanding Lanara’s questioning of the unknown presence, Mon starts, “ Lanara, allow me to introduce…” ... cutting her off Lanara interjects, “You know what ladies it's a beautiful day outside today, let me show you to the gardens”. Even with her seeming rudeness both of her visitors could infer the importance of speaking someplace other than her office.

“I hope you can forgive my incivility… our workplace is not as nurturing to friendships as it once was”. Both Mon and her companion were more than willing to accept her apology, Mon going as far to praise Lanara for her awareness of her predicament.

Sitting on a bench much like they did last year before her address on Ghorman, these were the first visitors since her self-imposed exile from the senate that she was truly pleased to receive. Out of what must have been impatience and/or lack of acknowledgement, the woman who visited alongside Mon cleared her throat in effort to gain Lanara’s attention. “Senator Elspet…” she began, her voice stricken with a Deep Core accent “... I've had the honor of listening in on your planet's progress this past year…” her statement was filled with sarcastic contempt. Lanara’s eyes darken with skepticism at her words, “I am sorry… I did not catch your name…” The woman glancing between Mon Mothman and Lanara simply raises her hand to shake, “ Kleya Marki” she says simply. Lanara takes her hand and gives her the professional courtesy of shaking it. “I must say...” Lanara begins, “there are very few things going on here that I would consider progress…” she takes a deep breath “though I do appreciate that there is someone out there who is listening to the happenings of Pedria other than myself.”

Still unsure as to why Mon Mothma would come to a place riddled with imperial enforcers, let alone bring someone along, Lanara stands and beckons them to walk with her. Mon, noticing some rising tension speaks, “ Kleya is a good friend of mine Lanara… I've come to trust her with a great deal, and I think you can as well” ... Mon sighs … “ Kleya has heard reports of nearly three hundred thousand deaths since The Empire’s arrival on Pedria… you stopped coming to senate hearings… I fear that you have given up.”

Lanara stops in her tracks, turning to Mon and Kleya begins to speak with simmering rage, “The Empire doesn’t report my people's deaths… even I only learn from them by word of mouth… Mon, you yourself told me last year to choose my battles wisely… I stopped going to Coruscant because my battles are here now… I chose to fight a year ago and look where that got my planet… We are dying, yes, but if I speak up again, I will force them to be subjected to undoubtable demise… for now at least they have a chance at living.”

“Do they know your sacrifice?” Kleya asks simply, “do your people know you've taken the choice of fighting out of their hands?” There is a moment of silence between the women, Lanara is the first to speak again, “ I cannot ask them to fight”... to which Kleya immediately replies, “ the people of Ghorman listened to you, you urged them to not give in, they now have gathered a resistance” … Mon intercedes, “ do for yourself as you have done for others…stand up”

Lanara, floored by her guests' requests, quietly states, “my people do not have confidence in me anymore… I lost their trust when I stood up for the Ghor… I cannot ask them to fight against a problem that I created… not when I do not know if there is anyone out there to remember their bravery”.

“The Alliance will” ... Mon whispers definitively… “if you stand up against what is happening to Pedria just like you did for Ghorman… if you remind your people and everyone else in the galaxy of The Cause… I can promise you that The Alliance will.” She continues, “I brought Kleya here because she intercepted a transmission that seemed to be sent by a group here on Pedria… a group aimed at retaliation… She has connections that would allow your people to organize safely with access to imperial intelligence… We can help, Lanara”

Mon’s outburst of information linking her to the rebel alliance causes a blanket of silence to cover the women. So many questions arise in Lanara’s mind, so many she cannot put them all in words, but it's not the questions that overwhelm her, it's the small inkling of hope that she feels… hope that this may be a fight she can win.

It’s Kleya who breaks the silence time, “I have friends everywhere… Pedria has friends everywhere.” And maybe, just maybe, Lanara thinks, that might just be true.

#kleya star wars #star wars #fanfic #andor s2 #andor season 2 #just three girls who hate fascists #What Fight of Mine?#mon mothma #kleya marki

0 notes

lainesprechnel · 25 days ago

Text

What Fight of Mine?

Kleya Marki x Original Female Character

Read on AO3

Chapter 1: Enemies Everywhere

1 BBY-

Emperor Palpatine once described the planet Pedria as “a waste of potential imperial resources”. Rich farmland that had supplied its sector with food for decades, now drying up due to over use by The Empire’s occupation. Galaxy famous vineyards closed as a blockade smothers all travel on and off the planet.

Men, women, and children working to their deaths harvesting crops they are not allowed to consume. Feeding The Empire not only with food but with Pedrian blood.

They were small in numbers to begin with, only five hundred thousand, a population of people in need of honest work. It's nearly been a year since the Imperial Agriculture Director marched into her office and steadily ever since her people were slowly dying.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. She remembers visiting the Senate with her mother at nine years old watching as the then Chancellor Palpatine declare the formation of a galactic empire. She remembers how it felt as if all the hopes and dreams of The Republic had been stripped from the chamber in seconds as the words were spoken. Her mother had raised her to feel all the emotions the universe could offer her stating, “ you are meant to feel things for a reason”, but at that moment her little girl mind could only feel despair. A galaxy with a need for empathy was gone in seconds and in its wake an unnatural machine of hatred took its roots.

Lanara Elspet, was elected to the Imperial Senate five years ago on her twenty-third birthday. The headlines said she was only chosen due to her heritage, being the daughter of Pedria’s former senator. After her mother’s untimely passing, a candidate of questionable morals no doubt in coalition with those involved in her death, began running as an imperial sympathizer. Wanting to turn over Pedrian exports and profits as tribute for Imperial strength, a notion that would collapse the planet’s economy and strip it of its autonomy.

Terrified of her mother’s life’s work at sustaining her planet’s democracy and morals being destroyed because no one dare run for office in opposition of an Imperial plant; Lanara announced her candidacy a week later at her mother’s memorial service. Echoing the platform of her predecessor she ran under promise that Pedria would remain a place of individualistic opportunity and sanctuary for the galaxy’s forgotten.

Her name on the ballot did not mean hope. It did not mean a solution to the problem. It especially did not mean she would be anywhere near as amazing of a leader as her mother. What it did mean though was that she would not allow for her people, her neighbors, to experience the same feeling she did fourteen years ago in that senate chamber as she witnessed empathy begin to slip.

As long as she were senator her people would know empathy. Pedria would continue to empathize with the strong hearted and the hard working. It would know the importance of the past and its hold on the future.

That was until a year ago when on a senatorial visit to Coruscant a rumour of Imperial mining equipment being landed on the planet Ghorman started to make its rounds through the chamber. After some stealthy questioning and discussion with her fellow senators, notably Senator Dasi Oran of Ghorman himself, Lanara had come to the personal belief that what was happening was a true occupation and a threat to a planet’s livelihood. Ghorman like Pedria is a planet whose success is determined by the profitability of a singular export and even less tourism. The imperial diversion of incoming profit would subdue its people's ability to thrive.

2 BBY -

Lanara in her best efforts to live up to her promise of empathy and ever striving to fill her mother’s shoes decided to speak in support of ending the Empire’s occupation on Ghorman. A topic she hoped to find backed by her like minded peers, only to be turned down out of lack of evidence which she determined to actually be fear. Mon Mothma of Chandrila asked to meet with her the morning before she was scheduled to speak. Sitting on a bench near the fountain across from the senate building, she began “ Lanara… I want you to be sure of what you are about to do. I need you to be sure” the look in her eye caused a sliver of uncertainty to take its place in Lanara’s core. Mon continued “ I believe that what is happening on Ghorman is abominable too… and I know that we took an oath to protect even the smallest remnants of democracy, of the republic… but please take head before endangering your own…”. Lanara nodded to Mon with understanding but the look of defiance in her eyes told the Chandrilan all she needed to know. In a whispered voice nearing that of espionage she began her reply, “Senator Mothma, you served with my mother during the final years of The Republic… you worked hand in hand to help slow The Empire’s growth… and yet today you plead with me to not carry on that task?… to hand over a planet’s right to prosper?” Inhaling in thought Mon simply states, “ They will not cede Ghorman today no matter the passion behind your words… but they won’t hesitate to take Pedria tomorrow because of that passion.”

Lanara spoke to the Senate just around noon on Coruscant that day. In her preparations for the address she allowed herself to speak for the standard six minutes, yet Lanara did not yield her time until the sun began to set nearly five hours later. She ended her disquisition with a simple reminder, “It is our duty as members of this body, to speak in the interest of our citizens… to ensure that The Empire acts in accordance with their wishes, the day we fail to act on their behalves is the day this senate gives into dictatorship.”

An imperial funded, Coruscanti, tabloid described her as the “long winded senator from a planet no one cares about”. That statement may only have been true to those who had not witnessed the words that ended The Republic. The faces she remembers seeing come and go from her mother’s office as a little girl, the senators who had witnessed the fall just as she did. Even Mon Mothma who warned her against picking this fight. Those senators found Lanara that evening before she left her office, and one by one she was reminded that people do care about Pedria. Maybe they even still care about The Cause.

1 BBY -

Sitting in her office, in a position now nearly defunct, she determines that there is a reason some senators serve life long terms. A reason their planets seem to thrive even under imperial oppression.

Mon Mothma warned her that speaking out would put Pedria at risk. Mon has served her people since she was a teenager, she continues to serve because of the same reason Lanara is now forced to watch her planet fade. Mon Mothma knows what battles to fight and which ones are too costly to lose, Lanara Elspet chose the wrong battle all in the name of continuing her mother’s fight. Her mother served Pedria for thirty three years, it seems as though she knew what battles to pick as well.

In hindsight Lanara now knows that Mon was trying to be a friend on that bench pleading her against action. It's nice to know she has at least one friend, because on a rainy morning like today it feels as if she has enemies everywhere.

#andor season 2 #andor s2 #kleya marki #kleya star wars #original character #fanfic #wlw #political fic #girl power #mon mothma #What Fight of Mine?

2 notes · View notes