Earthlings 3: RISE

8

[WARNING: Hints of r&pe/forced prostitution]

4 BBY, Narkina 5

"Girlies, guess what day it is-?" London's voice broke the silence in the cellblock, prompting every head to swivel over towards her direction.

"Don't tell me..." Anna groaned as the lights were switched on.

Essa glanced at her datapad before giving the grim confirmation. "Empire Day."

Kendall raised a brow. Sure, she was aware of Empire Day as the day Order 66 was initiated and the Jedi were massacred, as well as the day the Republic fell, but her experience of Empire Day was of mass fireworks, broadcasted hate speech, and Imperials showcasing their new toys. She couldn't help but wonder what it meant for the inmates of Narkina 5...

"Wait, what happens on Empire Day-?" Leda asked.

"You don't know-?" Elizabeth sighed softly, her legs dangling just over the grey tiled floor. "Well... it's a day off from work."

"What's wrong with that?"

"You don't want to know."

"Is it bad-?"

Elizabeth just gave her and Kendall a grim look. "You'll find out. Thankfully, those of us over 30 generally don't have to participate, nor do the majority of us... save about 2 or 3 unfortunate souls per room."

Kendall tilted her head. "What do you mean by that...?"

"The guards come and take whoever they like," Kepira piped up. "We have no choice but to do whatever they say, else we get fried."

"You should have seen what happened to Sevyn last year," Anna added, indicating a 15 year old girl in the distance. "By the end of her ordeal she ended up crying for her mother, who- news flash- was the very one who sent her here in the first place."

"If we were boys, they wouldn't do this to us," Nara grumbled.

"Why would they do it in the first place...?" Kendall asked.

"Because Empire Day is pretty much their day to spend however they'd like," Was Yoon's grave response. "And as prison guards, many of the men are away from their wives or mistresses, which means there's no one besides us inmates to satisfy their... needs. So aside from occasionally sexually assaulting one of us on a regular day- which is normally prohibited, but Madreth especially will do it anyway just to be cruel- Empire Day is really the one day they can do whatever the hell they want to us without the fear of legal consequence. And their few female colleagues don't do shit to stop them."

"The men have one job, we have two," London lamented. "When we're not the Empire's worker bees, we're their toys."

"Sad but true," Casi chimed in. Since her incident with Captain Madreth, she'd been violated at least 7 more times (once she wound up pregnant and was forced to undergo an abortion), and each time she became more withdrawn and depressed; to the point that now, she robotically went through the piles of textiles that needed to be sewn during shifts, rarely saying much more than what was necessary. A few times, Kendall had seen Casi write something on her walls with her own blood, but never was able to see more than a faded God, are you... before maintenance crew came to wash it off.

"So then what-?" Leda asked. "We can't just let this keep happening."

"What can we do-?" Elizabeth asked with a small scoff. "They fried out an entire level because they dared to resist the guards' advances. So what options does that leave the rest of us?"