Life is hard for all of us on this side of the ocean. We are treated no better than the slaves used to be treated. I am sick and tired of our rulers treating us like dirt. I intend to change the way this world is ruled. There have been rebellions in the past. The only difference is that this one will succeed where the others had failed.

It all started about three hundred years ago with that first spark of rebellion. We were bold in defying our rulers and we might have won the war if we had received the help that never came. Without the aid of the French we fell to our rulers and a few decades later the French joined the Empire. Our rulers didn’t even learn from our rebellion. The taxes continued to rise and we were still angered. So, about seventy years after that first rebellion another came. This one did not last long because our rulers had by now conquered the better part of this planet and were too powerful. Still we fought as hard as we could. Maybe we were just trying to be heard, to have things change for us for the better.

After that rebellion things did change. Now anybody who even sounded like they were from the “homeland” as our rulers put it received anything they wished. We had to defer to them because if we did not it would be seen as “acting in rebellion”. We reached another breaking point about sixty years later. This rebellion lasted much longer because there was plenty of support from all the conquered nations. Still it was beaten down, the flame of rebellion stamped out. After that taxes raised again and rights were removed. People went into poverty and were forced to live in hovels. Over the next hundred and fifty years there were multiple rebellions that were snuffed out before they could gain support.

Then twenty years ago came what would have been the largest rebellion yet. It had been started by a very old group, one thought to be long dead. The Children of Liberty had been holding meetings in secret, passing information throughout every country. The rebellion had been planned very carefully so that practically the entire world would rebel against our rulers. Then just a week before the rebellion was planned to happen the leaders of The Children of Liberty vanished in the night. A few days passed without a sign of them. That is until the day before the planned rebellion. The leaders were shown on television. They were bloodied and beaten but alive. In front of the entire world they called for the rebellion to halt, for no action to be taken. The rebellion did not happen the following night and The Children of Liberty went into hiding.

Today our rulers will tolerate no talk of rebellion. If any word against the Empire is spoken the person disappears for a day or two. When they come back they seem brainwashed. If you ask them about what they were talking about before they disappeared they seem to have no memory of it. They never again spout rebellious words against the Empire. They praise the Empire whenever they talk about it and just repeat the Empire’s creed. “The sun never sets on the Empire”. That is what has happened to my friends and family. I was lucky enough to not be taken because I was not foolish enough to say anything out loud. Ever since the Empire took my family from me I have been forming plans of revenge, plans that will destroy the Empire. My family and I had been members of The Children of Liberty. Over the past twenty years, since they went into hiding, The Children of Liberty have been devising plans like mine that would destroy the Empire once and for all. One plan was set to go off about a week ago but then my parents were taken. We worried that the Empire would learn of the plan so we cancelled it not wishing to take risks. Now one week later we are preparing to put our second plan into action.

We learned from past rebellions and found the one thing that none of them ever did. If you wish to kill a beast as large as the Earth you must strike at the heart. People from all over the world travel to the homeland every day, and for the past few days almost every person has been a member of The Children of Liberty. The plan is set to go off in three days time once we have a large force in the homeland. When our plan begins the thousands of people that we have stationed in the homeland will strike. Our forces have been split into many groups and those groups each have a target. The group I am to be in is going straight for the capital. Then the other groups will raid supply buildings and barracks to stop support from arriving at the capital. Once we have the capital under our control each group will spread across the homeland with the technology gained from the raids. If everything goes according to plan then we will have conquered the homeland four days after our initial assault.

We are using night as a cloak to hide our movements. All of us try not to make a noise as we sneak our way through the streets towards the capital. We are about a street away from the capital when we hear the first gunshots coming from a supply house somewhere to the left. Sirens begin to wail from the supply house and lights turn on in nearby buildings. Then on the right more gunshots pierce the night as another raid starts before the Empire’s troops have time to react to the siren. We begin to creep to the walls of the capital building before we are spotted on the streets. The few of us assigned to bring grappling hooks toss them over the wall, hooking them on the other side. We climb over the wall and jump down onto the grass on the other side. The assault on the capital building has begun.

I am running through the halls of the capital building. I lost the majority of my force as they split off down hallways to secure zones. My goal is the center of the capital building, the room of the ruler. The final remnants of my force peel off as we reach another hallway. They know that the ruler’s room will be difficult for multiple people to enter. I reach the doorway that leads to the ruler’s chambers and take a deep breath. The most important part of the plan is the death of the ruler. We intend to throw the Empire into chaos and there cannot be a leader to restore order. I push the door open. The room beyond is dark but I take a cautious step forward. Nothing happens to me as I enter the room and I continue to creep forward, straining to hear where the ruler is. I hear the sound of feet shuffling to my right and I turn and shoot, the sound of my gun rebounding against the walls. I stop shooting and listen for more sound, anything to tell me if my target is still alive. All I hear is the sound of a body hitting the floor. I let out a sigh, my job is done the plan can continue. Suddenly the room is lit by brilliant white lights. I squint as I lose my night vision. I prepare myself to fight whoever turned the lights on while I am blind. Nobody attacks me and my vision returns. I look around the room to see about a dozen people all holding guns at their sides. I look closely at the faces and realize they are people I recognize that had gone missing about the same time as my parents did. The only difference is these ones never returned. We believed them to have been tortured for information and then killed but now I see how wrong that assumption was. Every person who had been taken was standing in front of me with glazed looks in their eyes. “The sun never sets on the Empire,” they say in unison. “You have rebelled against the Empire and rebellious souls must not be shown mercy. The sun now sets on your life but it shall continue to shine for the glory of the Empire”. As one they raise their guns and shoot. Bullets pierce my body and I collapse to the floor. I am barely alive and all I can see is the pool of my own blood steadily growing. All I can hear before I black out is the sound of my brainwashed companions repeating the same phrase over and over. “The sun never sets on the Empire”.