Title: I was following orders
Author: Liz Skywalker
My e-mail: lizskywalker@hotmail.com
My website/archive: www.geocities.com/area51/atlantis/9010
Feedback: Yes. Constructive criticism only. Flames will be given in as homework
assignments
Category: Canon 
Spoilers: Read the first Zahn trilogy just to be safe.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own star wars. I have no money, I spent it all on the books
and fanzines. I make no money (I wish I did).
Posting: Ask me. I'll say yes.
Summery: An Imperial's last thoughts.


	I was following orders. 

	I wonder how many times those words have been used in self-defense. I 
never expected to find myself saying them. Those four words can excuse even the 
most serious crimes in the doer's eyes, but they mean nothing to the enemy. To 
them, I am an accomplice, to them I am a murderer. But to me, orders are orders, 
never to be questioned. I wonder how my mates are holding out. I wish I could be 
with them. We could be united against a common enemy like we were before the 
Rebels gained power. Men turned traitor and fled, men became chicken and fled, 
some men just fled.

	I was following orders.

	To me, annihilation was a fitting punishment to a crime. If a man killed 
someone, he is killed. If a man is a Rebel, he is killing many people and has 
the potential to get many loyal Imperials killed. But I never justified it even 
to myself. It was an order. I was trained to follow orders, no matter their 
subject matter.

	I was following orders. 

	There are many Rebel officers, I'm sure, who could also take on my 
defense. They are also trained to obey orders. We are more alike than they like 
to think. We all follow orders. So was I.

	I was following orders.

	This new government is a blood thirsty one, I know. They are not just 
content with punishing the people who ordered these 'horrors'. No, they have to 
punish the common soldier also. They pride themselves on being merciful, but I 
know that the least sentence I could get is death. Yet...

	I was following orders.

	I have orders on what I should do as I die. For the Emperor, we all live 
and die. But the Emperor is dead. The Empire is dead. But I obey orders. I 
wonder how many Rebels died with their leader's name on their lips.

	I was following orders.

	And now as I stand by the Executioner's block, the irony is not lost on 
me. This Executioner is following his orders also.