Today, billions of sentients across the galaxy gather in solemn crowds to remember one of the greatest atrocities ever committed upon a sentient race of people. Black Forest Day. This is a day that stands out for all sentients who believe in the most basic of sentient rights, the right to live. Indeed on the infamous dates of day 356-357, Year 6, the Galactic Empire under the explicit orders of their Emperor perpetrated a massacre of the Wookiee peoples and indeed any who got in their way. This resulted in all the sentients from the settled districts being captured and herded into killing fields, the massive AT-AT’s supported by the storm troopers from Task Force Delta then began the cleansing by blaster fire method favored by the empire and its lickspittle union members.

Rebels across the galaxy took pause to commemorate one of their greatest tragedies of its history. Rebel citizens and other sentients from around the Galaxy joined the local Wookie populace to honor those lost years ago on Black Forest Day, widely remembered as the “Kashyyyk Massacre”. Twelve years ago the forests of Kashyyyk burned as countless Wookiees were slaughtered in genocide perpetrated by Imperial forces. In the wake of the devastating events of Black Forest Day the population continued to suffer from massive abuses of sentient rights. New Republic forces engaged the Galactic Empire in what is known as the “Battle of Kashyyyk” in efforts to liberate the indigenous population. Operation Forcing Freedom ensued shortly after resulting in the liberation of the planet Kashyyyk and freedom for its inhabitants. On Year 8 Day 93 under New Republic control humanitarian relief operations began. The New Republic continued efforts of repairing and rebuilding of Kashyyyk and the local Wookiee population until the fall of the New Republic in Year 21 where the Imperial Union sized control. Through the Imperial Union, The Faerytail Family seized control over Kashyyyk, to which they pursued to destroy villages and the lush forests in order to construct vast modern cities.

The location of the Kashyyyk Massacre Memorial designed and built by a team of talented Wookiee engineers and artisans and funded by the New Republic is now a barren wasteland, even the sacred Wroshyr trees that witnessed the horrific massacre have been felled. Their trunks pulped and recycled into copies of the Empire’s xenophobic Education Manuals. The memorial has been ground to dust by the very machines the Faerytail Family is using in their “Good for the Wookiees” expansion. This involves destroying the sacred Wroshyr trees to make way for modern slum cities and factories to supplement the Imperial Unions hunger for machines of war, using the Wookiee population as a cheap and effective slave labour force. Just as their Faerytail name is a warped version of much loved children’s stories, their version of caring for the occupied Wookiee home world is warped by the Imperial Unions human centric mantra of, “Empire for all, all for the Empire” Intrepid reporter Halioni Quillbright managed to breach the security with her freedom of press documentation in order to discover if the propaganda being spread about Kashyyyk contained any grains of truth. Which as it turns out, actually does. There are still trees standing tall on the surface, for the moment, just hundreds of thousands of acres less than there was under New Republic sovereignty. The Wookiee people do indeed have homes, just not in the trees anymore as they have been replaced by slum cities. And yes the Wookiees are indeed employed, though could you really call enslavement to work in the mines and labour camps as employment?

Busanbow, a grieving Wookie mother holding a family photo is searching for any information about her children. “When the Faeries arrived after the Fall of the New Republic, They came to our village and herded us out of our homes like cattle. Then they took all the young men and women away for reassignment and forced the rest to move into a camp until our new quarters were built. We never saw our village again.” she holds up the family photo, her red rimmed eyes peering desperately from her matted face. “Please, have you seen my boys? They were taken for reassignment over a year ago and I haven’t heard from them since.” We have had to blur her face to hide her identity and those of her children in the hopes they won’t be targeted if identified. The desperate and inhumane plight of the Wookiees under the yoke of the Galactic Empire through their occupation by the faeries is tragic, though it’s just one more chapter in the ever growing tome of crimes against the galaxy perpetrated by the Xenophobic Empire and its sycophantic union members and one more reason to join in the fight against the perpetrators of a seemingly endless chain of genocidal crimes against the galaxy.

This has been a news story by Halioni Quillbright for the Rebel Broadcasting Group

Image's courtesy of Brandwin Phillips

Translation provided by Becksley our RA-7 Protocol Droid