Obey and die.

[Xing]

It was a cold afternoon. Not that the temperature could get any lower on California Minor anyhow, it always felt that damn cold, except summer time.
It was summer.
Nobody were in the summer mood though. Everyone present were looking grim, sad.
Isabelle shivered. No, it wasn't the temperature. Everyone present merely looked like walking zombies today. It was enough to make the whole scene very cold.
Hopefully, the ceremony was ended, and everyone were already heading home.

Her eyes, still red by all the sobbing she went through last night, looked around, and only saw mourning parents and relatives. Among the dead, her long time friend Sarah was among the victims. Few did survived the bloody massacre, and were among the 121 final survivors found from the wreckage of the Antioch. They were for the moment on Los Angels Hospital, some having been badly burned or injured.

A site was cleared in the graveyard of Torrance village, California Minor, that would in a few days become the future place for the monument to the Antioch tragedy.

The emotions she felt tasted like ash, as her father huged her from behind, sighing his sorrow.
"It's over."
Isabelle looked up at the man, her cyan eyes still bright with tears.
"I have a feeling it only begun..."
John said nothing, only looking in the faraway. Somehow, he understood the mystical meaning from the words of her daughter.

--

2 months passed by. Wounds healed, even though they left scars that often hurts when you touch them too much. Was Isabelle still with her comrades, she would have been enjoying the last day of school with her friends. But the reduced class was barely 27 student strong. That was what was left of the 200 some students of their grade, from the little village of Torrance. It wasn't like what it was before. There were no more noisy students disrupting the class. No more intelligent intervention from the nerdy/too-intelligent-for-their-own-good-kids. No more girls chatting about useless fashion or boys showing off some brainless exploit. All that was dead.
How could this have hapenned?

Within the week, the LPI investigation led to all kind of evidence leading to believe the attack was mounted and prepared since a very long while ago. The Lane Hackers, apparently pissed at Planetform decision to finance a powerful group of bounty hunting clan to hunt them down, decided to punish this decision by taking down one of their top leader. Along with a few kids didn't mattered much, in fact, they didn't even checked for the other passengers.
They merely wanted to send a strong message against Planetform.

Instead, Isabelle thought, they've sent a strong message to the people of Liberty. This act wasn't going unpunished.

Within week, the suspects who were accused of organising the attack were apprehended on Rochester, and sent to incarceration on Manhattan. The men led up to a number of arrestations, all of them strongly linked to the massacre.
The people, angered by their murderous act, would have thorn everyone of them apart were they ever seen in public - hopefully, the LPI had enough wisdom to move them covertly in anonymous prison hovercraft, avoiding contact with the civilian mobs, often showing up at the prison where the prisonner were held with large banners showing the faces of the victim. The faces of the young students often appeared; they were the martyr, showing to Sirius just how cruel, evil were the pirates. Some of them openly yelled "Death to the pirate scums! Kill them all! Burn them down!"
Yes, it moved everyone. Even the most pacifists were troubled at this show of pure violence, and even though they weren't asking for the death penality directly, requested for the harshest treatment possible to these unhuman beings.

But in a few days, maybe a few weeks, everything will go back to normal, people would have been distracted by something more interesting as the medias went along.
Isabelle however, was changed forever.

--

Even before the end of classes, Isabelle had taken her decision. Her father, for once, decided to stay much longer than usual, staying with her daughter and forcing his aide to bring the work to him - which could be from tons of paperwork needing his personnal signature to a battalion of officers needing details only himself could give and explain in person.
That morning, she explained her decision, even though everything was already arranged.
The man merely looked up, and rose from his chair. Went to her, and knelt to her eye level. His eyes were deep with concern and seriousness.
"Es tu sure?" [are you sure?]
"Oui." [Yes]
He continued to fix her, but Isabelle supported his stare, cold dark blue eyes versus equally cold cyan eyes.
"Tu es pret? Tu a considere les sacrifices?" [You are ready? You considered the sacrifices?]
"Ma vie si necessaire, pere." [My life if necesary, father.]
They remained silence a bit more, the elderly Kaitlynn looking suddenly much older than he was suposed to be. Isabelle softened up, and abandonning her chair, hugged him. They remained in their embrace for a long while, without saying a word.
"I only have one condition, Isabelle. I want you to swear that you will respect it. For the honour of the Kaitlynn family, which lasted well before the Great War."
"Oui, pere."
"If intend to serve, never quit until you deserved it."
She considered the words, this time remaining silent for very long as her father waited. He did, patiently. It wasn't something easy, he knew. He himself sworn the same to his father when he took upon this decision.
"Je le jure. Sur le nom de tout les Kaitlynn avant nous, je servirais jusqu'a ma mort si necessaire, et ne quitterais avant d'avoir accomplis mon devoir envers mon people."

[I swear. Upon the name of all Kaitlynns before us, I shall serve 'till death if required, et shall not leave before my duty toward my people is accomplished.]

John Kaitlynn nodded with gravity, but when his head looked back at her daughter, they were filled with pride and love.
"Bonne chance."

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