That's a rather interesting question you've put forward [member="Razel Kolt"]. There are many, but the one that stands out for me is the aftermath of the Battle over Castamere. I should add a caveat, this isn't a story of me being jolly at an awards ceremony, or having a laugh with my crew after the battle, no. This is a story of how, I came to realise how fickle life was, and how destructive war could be.
During the Omega Crisis, I was a captain, commanding First Imperial battlegroup Imperator. My fleet saw direct engagement opposite One Sith remnant forces, and during the battle, my command ship, the imperial-x class star destroyer Vindicator was hit. And when I say hit, I mean nearly destroyed. A concentrated barrage of turbolaser fire ruptured our shields. At this point, I ordered the immediate evacuation of the ship, and it was only after most escape pods launched that a final blast from one of the One Sith's ships ruptured the reactor causing a massive explosion.
The Vindicator wasn't totally destroyed, but most of its systems went down. I planned to go down with the ship, but the bridges superstructure had a redundancy reactor which began and projected a thin, yet breathable atmosphere. I was lucky. I survived, but, many others,... many others were not.
When the battle finished, most of my ships crew were picked up by the heroism of the Commonwealth, while I was assisted by First Order naval personnel. My ship wasn't fully destroyed, many of the systems needed a refit, but physically, the structure held firm. Thing is, is that there were thousands of technicians, stormtroopers and deckhands unaccounted for from the survivor pool. i, I personally volunteered for the job of helping them clear out the dead. It was at first a macabre sense of wanting to see a dead body. Now, its not like I've never seen a dead body before. No sailor reaches commodore without having seen some poor wretch freeze to death. But, unlike the stormtroopers, I've never seen a proper, dead body. And initially, as horrible as it sounds, that was my motivation.
When we finally got the Vindicator into Zarnathean orbit, some droids managed to activate the artificial atmosphere again, so we wouldn't need the space suits. We still had hazmat suits on, in case of disease and the like to board. When we finally got in, the first thing I remember is the dark. It was a piercing darkness, that was only broken by our torches. I still remember the first body. Name was Adorl Derris, he was a midshipman, and a turbolaser reloader. He was twenty two and straight out of the naval academy. Adorl was one of the lucky ones, had a pistol on him He'd gone easily. Lucky bastard.
I can recall many of the men and women I saw. There's a whole list of them, ingrained into my mind. Many went the way of midshipman Derris, but simultaneously many more went quietly into the darkness. The saddest was stormtrooper Captain Morely Raphe and Ensign Lisle Ferrguld. The two had recently proposed and Raphe had deliberately transferred his unit to my marine compliment to be with the woman he loved. We found him cradling her outside an escape pod bay. The two had just missed the last escape pod, and he'd been consoling her. It was seeing them that made me snap. They could have had a family, perhaps some kids.
But no, that would never happen. Their love, their lives had been taken so soon. Taken by an act of senseless violence. Its very easy to forget that behind every viewport, every enemy fighter is a person. With feelings, with emotions and maybe even a family. And if there is one legacy the One Sith have left, it is one which has made me remember the value of a human life, and how quickly it can be taken away.
Got any sad stories lads? Any tear jerkers from your experiences?