Writing Post 4
Title: History
Series: Syn_Thetic (Original)
Rating: PG/PG-13
Word count: 1237
A long sigh escaped the weary Lieutenant as he sat himself down against a tree. It should’ve been a simple operation. There had been ninety men under his command at the start of the operation. Now he was down to fifteen, including himself. That was hardly a workable number when dealing with a well established enemy force that had air units, artillery, along with infantry and armor at their disposal.
But Kage would worry about that all later. He and his remaining men had established a small camp at the base of a small ridge, giving them high ground to fall back to if they needed. For now, he set his rifle down and pulled his helmet off, an armored glove ruffling the front of his blue hair some. Cyborg or not, he was tired. And very thoughtful at the moment.
He couldn’t help but wonder how it all came to this. Sure, history had a lot to do with it all, but he still couldn’t help but wonder why humanity was fighting amongst itself again. It was currently the year 3312. No, humanity has never reset its calendar, seemed that the general consensus was that it‘d make things easier to record. And it was right, in a sense. Especially when 2012 rolled around. The year when the supposed apocalypse would happen. Ironically, it turned out that all the prophecies had been right. Kage wasn’t exactly sure why it’d happened, but he wasn’t alone in figuring that it happened mostly because people thought it would happen.
Either way, it did happen. On that fateful day in December, the political climate at the time reached a breaking point, with what had been the United States of America taking a sledge hammer to that thin pane of glass the world had been resting on. The wars in what had been the Middle East were still raging on, even with a new President at the head of the States. Terrorist attacks had become increasingly more frequent and violent. History stated that the President finally decided to put a stop to it all and withdrew all US troops from the Middle East. And then the world went to Hell within the following week.
Tactical nuclear strikes were ordered and the Middle East got wiped off the map. The rest of the world viewed this as a war crime of the most horrible sort and retaliated, with what else but their own nukes. The States were devastated but enough people managed to survive for retaliatory attacks to be launched.
The winter of 2012 was not marked by the fall of white snow, but radioactive ash. The entire world was devastated, with large portions of almost every country on the planet turned into nothing but a radioactive wasteland. Almost every living thing was eradicated, the wildlife that did survive was only that of the most hardy creatures. Humanity hung on by a thread, Fate seeming to favor it for just a while longer, if only to see how the surviving humans would react.
Roughly seventy percent of both polar ice caps melted from the sudden increase in temperature, flooding much of the low-lying land of the world, as well as many areas that had recently become land that rest at sea-level or even below it. This allowed the radiation to be spread across the world as the oceans were contaminated. But perhaps humanity’s only saving grace was that it was adaptable and resilient, because once the sun was blocked out, things cooled down quickly. The Earth’s atmosphere became known as an extension of space as a radioactive ice age set in. But... humanity held on. Even with the United States laid low by nukes and mostly covered by radioactive ice, Great Britain and Japan completely wiped off the map along with the Middle East, the mighty Amazon Basin reduced to ash and bubbling cess pools, and every other continent rendered mostly barren, humanity trudged on.
History told it was a horrid existence, with one in every three babies born in the beginning of this centuries long time period suffering from debilitating birth defects. And even for those who could be born healthy, there was a one in two chance of still birth or miscarriage. The remnants of humanity struggled immensely, populations declining steadily, but one could say there were some good things to come out of the end of civilization. As time went on racism and prejudice disappeared, along with hatred and strife. Or so it seemed for the time.
Perhaps the only reason humanity survived was the fact that the alien species that had been apparently studying humanity since its infancy finally revealed themselves to us. Every human being that still lived on Earth was moved to a colony set up by its saviors on the moon. Those that were ill were cured. The population rebounded. And the best thing of all, its new allies proved advanced to the point of being able to restore the Earth to a livable state. The endless winter had finally been brought to an end.
It had been 2504 when humanity was finally able to return to its proper home. Humans thankfully did not fall back into it’s old habits, instead setting about rebuilding all that had been lost almost five centuries ago. The survivors all agreed that nuclear power would never again be used for weaponry, or even as a power source until it could be efficiently contained and disposed of. They also set about coming up with a way to stabilize the orbit of the moon, as it had moved noticeably farther away from the Earth.
With a bit of help from its new allies, humanity’s problems were solved within the next century, and the human population on Earth continued to grow. Evolutionary science exploded as new life began to take shape, and the galaxy was laid before the human race thanks to its new technologies. And with the moon as the stepping stone and knowledgeable allies to show us the way, humanity quickly spread through the stars.
Colonies were formed on what planets that were found to support human life, and space stations to house humans about resource rich worlds they couldn’t live on became prevalent. Humans were even inducted into a type of Interspecies Federation for their expansions into space.
The sad thing was that peace amongst humanity couldn’t last. Those elected to the Federation were effectively the rulers of the race, and while most of humanity tended to agree with their ruler’s decisions, there were those who didn’t. Humanity was beginning to fall back into its old habits of prejudice and strife. The faction that did not agree was quickly labeled as a rebel faction. Military force was not used at first, as the leaders of humanity did not wish for humans to fall into a war amongst themselves again. But it was not to be so.
Multiple human colonies fell into league with the rebel faction, and to compound matters further, a race of aliens closely allied to the Human Federation experienced a schism of its own, the rebels of that race allying with the rebels of the human race. And thus an intergalactic civil war began, bringing Kage to where he was today. Stuck in the middle of a jungle on a colony planet in a star system millions of light years from his home on Earth.
Bloody lovely.
Series: Syn_Thetic (Original)
Rating: PG/PG-13
Word count: 1237
A long sigh escaped the weary Lieutenant as he sat himself down against a tree. It should’ve been a simple operation. There had been ninety men under his command at the start of the operation. Now he was down to fifteen, including himself. That was hardly a workable number when dealing with a well established enemy force that had air units, artillery, along with infantry and armor at their disposal.
But Kage would worry about that all later. He and his remaining men had established a small camp at the base of a small ridge, giving them high ground to fall back to if they needed. For now, he set his rifle down and pulled his helmet off, an armored glove ruffling the front of his blue hair some. Cyborg or not, he was tired. And very thoughtful at the moment.
He couldn’t help but wonder how it all came to this. Sure, history had a lot to do with it all, but he still couldn’t help but wonder why humanity was fighting amongst itself again. It was currently the year 3312. No, humanity has never reset its calendar, seemed that the general consensus was that it‘d make things easier to record. And it was right, in a sense. Especially when 2012 rolled around. The year when the supposed apocalypse would happen. Ironically, it turned out that all the prophecies had been right. Kage wasn’t exactly sure why it’d happened, but he wasn’t alone in figuring that it happened mostly because people thought it would happen.
Either way, it did happen. On that fateful day in December, the political climate at the time reached a breaking point, with what had been the United States of America taking a sledge hammer to that thin pane of glass the world had been resting on. The wars in what had been the Middle East were still raging on, even with a new President at the head of the States. Terrorist attacks had become increasingly more frequent and violent. History stated that the President finally decided to put a stop to it all and withdrew all US troops from the Middle East. And then the world went to Hell within the following week.
Tactical nuclear strikes were ordered and the Middle East got wiped off the map. The rest of the world viewed this as a war crime of the most horrible sort and retaliated, with what else but their own nukes. The States were devastated but enough people managed to survive for retaliatory attacks to be launched.
The winter of 2012 was not marked by the fall of white snow, but radioactive ash. The entire world was devastated, with large portions of almost every country on the planet turned into nothing but a radioactive wasteland. Almost every living thing was eradicated, the wildlife that did survive was only that of the most hardy creatures. Humanity hung on by a thread, Fate seeming to favor it for just a while longer, if only to see how the surviving humans would react.
Roughly seventy percent of both polar ice caps melted from the sudden increase in temperature, flooding much of the low-lying land of the world, as well as many areas that had recently become land that rest at sea-level or even below it. This allowed the radiation to be spread across the world as the oceans were contaminated. But perhaps humanity’s only saving grace was that it was adaptable and resilient, because once the sun was blocked out, things cooled down quickly. The Earth’s atmosphere became known as an extension of space as a radioactive ice age set in. But... humanity held on. Even with the United States laid low by nukes and mostly covered by radioactive ice, Great Britain and Japan completely wiped off the map along with the Middle East, the mighty Amazon Basin reduced to ash and bubbling cess pools, and every other continent rendered mostly barren, humanity trudged on.
History told it was a horrid existence, with one in every three babies born in the beginning of this centuries long time period suffering from debilitating birth defects. And even for those who could be born healthy, there was a one in two chance of still birth or miscarriage. The remnants of humanity struggled immensely, populations declining steadily, but one could say there were some good things to come out of the end of civilization. As time went on racism and prejudice disappeared, along with hatred and strife. Or so it seemed for the time.
Perhaps the only reason humanity survived was the fact that the alien species that had been apparently studying humanity since its infancy finally revealed themselves to us. Every human being that still lived on Earth was moved to a colony set up by its saviors on the moon. Those that were ill were cured. The population rebounded. And the best thing of all, its new allies proved advanced to the point of being able to restore the Earth to a livable state. The endless winter had finally been brought to an end.
It had been 2504 when humanity was finally able to return to its proper home. Humans thankfully did not fall back into it’s old habits, instead setting about rebuilding all that had been lost almost five centuries ago. The survivors all agreed that nuclear power would never again be used for weaponry, or even as a power source until it could be efficiently contained and disposed of. They also set about coming up with a way to stabilize the orbit of the moon, as it had moved noticeably farther away from the Earth.
With a bit of help from its new allies, humanity’s problems were solved within the next century, and the human population on Earth continued to grow. Evolutionary science exploded as new life began to take shape, and the galaxy was laid before the human race thanks to its new technologies. And with the moon as the stepping stone and knowledgeable allies to show us the way, humanity quickly spread through the stars.
Colonies were formed on what planets that were found to support human life, and space stations to house humans about resource rich worlds they couldn’t live on became prevalent. Humans were even inducted into a type of Interspecies Federation for their expansions into space.
The sad thing was that peace amongst humanity couldn’t last. Those elected to the Federation were effectively the rulers of the race, and while most of humanity tended to agree with their ruler’s decisions, there were those who didn’t. Humanity was beginning to fall back into its old habits of prejudice and strife. The faction that did not agree was quickly labeled as a rebel faction. Military force was not used at first, as the leaders of humanity did not wish for humans to fall into a war amongst themselves again. But it was not to be so.
Multiple human colonies fell into league with the rebel faction, and to compound matters further, a race of aliens closely allied to the Human Federation experienced a schism of its own, the rebels of that race allying with the rebels of the human race. And thus an intergalactic civil war began, bringing Kage to where he was today. Stuck in the middle of a jungle on a colony planet in a star system millions of light years from his home on Earth.
Bloody lovely.