HOME WORLD: 2240

The battle with the Tehral Federation had come as a surprise to the humans. It had been sixteen years of fair trade and open space, and then one day, it was all out war. An alien species that saw us as miniscule scum, unworthy of the planet we inhabited. The humans, had limited advanced space flight and only planetary defences such as ground mounted direct energy weapons. These were guided by deep space scanners which would fire through the atmosphere and hit ships as far away as Mars. We humans came out as the underdogs, using nuclear weapons, guerilla tactics and close earth planetary defence to fight the enemy where they were weakest. Seven billion humans on one planet and a few space stations defeated the one billion Tehrals who had advanced weaponry. That being said, they did not go down without a fight. Most recent estimates say there may only be four million humans left on earth and abroad. There was a 400 story alien ship that went down somewhere in Siberia and it blew a massive crater in the ground, rendering the surrounding two thousand kilometres, uninhabitable.

There would have been planetary defence on Mars in 2190, but the battle between SpaceY and NorthOrigin lead to unwarranted corporate espionage by the current CEOs of each company. If only the original founders from the early 2000s could see their companies now. The colonies on Mars had been stagnant since the time of the espionage, resulting in loss of growth and the ultimate abandonment of many of them. Whatever was left, was the first to be destroyed in the opening shots of the war. It’s amazing what 200 years can do to a company when the original founders had demonstrated such high and life changing ambitions.

Upon winning the war, the powers that be became very self centered and controlling. Using scare tactics and propaganda to sway the people that were in survivor camps, military installations and even Hope Station. Which wasn’t really for hope at all but to provide a safe haven off the planet for those that thought they were in charge. The only issue, they actually are in charge. The reach of these people went far, even with most of the people in the world dead, dying or trying to survive. The survivor camps were monitored around the clock by cameras and armed guards. Anyone that stepped out of line, was immediately put back in it, by whatever means necessary. Some people were thinking that everything from the invasion, winning, and reconstruction was all a false flag to better control the people of the planet, but no one was saying that out loud.

* * *

From the ground looking up, a husband heard an explosion ripple across the open air followed by smoke streaking across the already dark and cloudy sky. He hurried to the collapsed building where his wife and two children were waiting, hiding. He rushed them back inside hoping not to be seen by what was coming. What he saw, was one of the few remaining Marine drop ships from Hope Station. Just seeing the ship itself was enough to make even the most distressed of people, cringe and shiver in fear. Onboard the ship, alarms were rapidly beeping and lights were flashing as the crew struggled to maintain control. The drop ship had seen a lot of action in recent years and was nearing the end of its service life. The blast holes from fighting the Tehral Federation had been patched but re-entry and breaking the sound barrier has broken a weld on the patch job. Now, depressurization at sixty thousand feet threatened to compromise the crew’s mission. Captain Alrik, of Swedish descent and commander of the drop ship as well as patrol leader, ordered the crew of 18 to put helmets on. Their suits had built in pressurizers as they were meant for war fighting in space, and this call ultimately allowed the crew to maintain control of the craft and land safely within their drop zone. The mission was to clear a section of San Diego, a city in California, looking for survivors and to clear out any remaining alien hostiles. San Diego was Alrik’s home city, where she signed up for the Space Force back in 2213 at the age of 19. She knew the area well but had concerns for what she would find on the patrol. The mission was supposed to last for 2 weeks, setting up camp, gathering resources and sending reports back to the space station, then being replaced by a different crew.

The Marines worked around the clock, using the space craft as the primary hard structure of the camp, moving steel beams and wood to create a barrier and setting up a base of operations within the newly formed walls. On the first patrol, the second day, outside the base there wasn’t much to see, burnt houses and craters the size of football fields scattered the terrain. Dead bodies of civilians who ran or put up a last minute fight against the ground invasion were also littering the landscape. Buildings were barricaded with dozens of bodies, all shot and burned up, rotting away and being eaten by what rats remained. The smell was horrible. When the Tehral’s first came for blood, they had energy weapons, capable of frying even the components of FutureCorps’ newest plasma engine at the time. Their flight vehicles were not as agile as ours, nor were they nearly as combat capable. Our Drive Wing AI fighters that were capable of both atmospheric and zero g fighting although they could only reach half the distance to the moon.

Three hundred bodies were found on the second patrol, the third day. Captain Alrik was lucky to be afforded two Asiki AI Drones that would take 3D pictures of the ground, fly automated patrol missions and provide security for ground patrols as they had direct energy weapons that were good not only for killing, but for welding and cutting. It was getting dark out and troops were deploying the drones to provide over watch for the night as everyone went to ground. Alrik took the report of the day, sat down at the computer and started typing up a report for Hope Station. She hit send, waited a minute and got an uplifting jingle from the computer saying the message was sent and received as well as a picture that read “The Future, but Hopeful” with a picture of the globe.

* * *

Hope Station, with a population of about twenty-five hundred, was a rapidly built station that was put together by remaining space stations of other countries. On board were politicians, doctors, technicians, and scientists as well as a very diverse set of military powers from around the world and multiple elements. It was built on the premise of coming together as a planet and a species to survive and rebuild the world and society. With most governments having collapsed, there was only a handful of politicians, along with what military personnel were left and groups of people who banded together on the ground. When the war was over and the dust had settled, the captains of the stations were on their radios and the decision to combine all the stations took under an hour to make. With its advanced AI computers and ground tracking radars, Hope Station became the staging area for recovery and reconstruction of society. But even on that premise, no one moved without authorization.

* * *

On the fourth day there was a slight standoff. The Tehrals were tall creatures, maybe seven to eight feet tall on average. Their weapons were superior but they lacked the numbers and body armour. They wore what could be attributed to a 2x4 foot chunk of steel on their chest and back. Thinking they would have a quick victory, they considered it to be adequate. The humans had mechanical suits with weapons mounted on them, heads up display and early warning radars. Of course there were still dismounted infantry which even had a slim mechanical suit that could be compared to the Iron Man movies of the early 2000’s but without the ability to fly. There was a Tehral held up in an old warehouse that had collapsed. There was a large pocket behind a steel door that it had likely put there. When the patrol arrived, it hid and was only found because of the on board biometric radar on one of the mech suits. The marines cautiously walk up to the barricade, ripped open the door and put three, forty five millimeter rounds thru its body, killing it instantly.

* * *

On day five, Captain Alrik was set to go out on a patrol to get the lay of the land and to produce science reports with the two military researchers. Alrik got dressed in her light armour suit and was escorted by a number of team members with various weapons and rescue equipment. They had been out most of the day, collecting samples on radiation, crater depth, and damage assessments on the area. They were even able to rescue a group of four people that had been in hiding for months, held up in a partially collapsed duplex.

The survivors were gathered up and a Drive Wing came by shortly after. They were loaded on by Alrik and her crew. She desperately wanted to tell them what was going on at the camps, but she knew that even she would be court martialed and shot for treason. Alrik knew in her gut that the future was neither as bright, nor as hopeful as everyone wanted. She was under orders, the civilians were in distress, and everyone was being manipulated.

* * *

Nearing the end of the day, the patrol had a few more areas to check and deployed a drone to assist. A member with the secondary duty of handling the drones, opened the hard case, pulled out the drone and set it on the ground. He then pressed a few buttons on his ballistic eye wear with heads up display and the drone whirred to life, lifted off the ground and flew off into the distance looking for anything of importance.

About an hour later, while walking down a nameless street with decimated houses, Alrik noticed a glint of light reflecting off of something in a lone standing burnt tree by the sidewalk. She walked up to it and noticed it was a heart shaped locket. Thinking nothing of it, she untangled it from the tree and held it in her hand, wiping away the soot and dirt from the sides. She turned around to the group and said “What are the odds to find something like this around here?” She then opened it and when she did, her heart sank. Her knees were weak and tears formed in her eyes. The memories came rushing back in vivid colour and detail, her emotions uncontrollable and heavy as she fell to the ground, crying. The locket was hers, and she knew it. Given to her years before the war started, she thought she would never see it again and in ways she wished she hadn’t, because inside, was a preserved colour photo of her…and her husband.