The Revolution Iniative Ch 1

Earth. . . or at least that what it used to be called. I don’t know if you could call it that any more or not, but I guess to understand it all you need to start at the beginning.

The year was 2015, and thanks to a series of bad leaders the United States had pretty well ticked off every major country on the planet. China hated us, Russia had grown intolerant of us, hell even Canada and Mexico had closed their borders and were talking about opening them only if we unilaterally surrendered to them splitting the nation in half. We did still get along with the brits, Austrailia and New Zealand but that was it. Life was tolerable, the only person we had to worry about was the new dictator of China who everyone expected, would spend a couple years re-organizing the country before doing anything else.

That’s what everyone expected. We were wrong. Two weeks after solidifying his position a single solitary intercontinental ballistic missile was fired from China aimed at us. It was shot down but at a terrible cost. Mass panic and pandemonium took hold in the now un-United States.

Strike back, some said, run and hide others said. No one could come to a decision until someone noticed a flotilla of ships heading across the ocean at us. That was when several companies got together and decided to make their own plans. For years massive ships had been in development for a range of purposes, space exploration, space travel, space construction, space. . . ships were quickly and hurriedly reconfigured. Each ship was capable of holding one thousand people.

Some were chosen by Genetics, Some were chosen by lottery, some simply bought their way in. It was agreed that 40 men and 40 women from each state would be the bulk of the mission. An additional 2000 Men, Women and Children managed to fill out the remainders of the seats. People that saw this as an historic event, some of the only friends the United States had left.

On the day that the Chinese finally talked Mexico and Canada into going to war against us we were luckily ready. As Jets took to the air, As Tanks drove across borders, six massive vessels in six massive underground launch bays stood ready. As the first bombs and shells exploded over United States soil six massive starships tore into the sky. The Attackers first thought they were giant missiles intent on destroying the various countries. If they had actually looked they may have thought differently. Faster the ships rose into the sky and finally into the stars. Each ship crewed by a small group of people that had their own missions despite the future of earth. Each ship carrying one thousand cryogenically sleeping people. Little did we know we would soon be the only humans left.

According to scanners and satalites left in orbit the countries of the Earth all quickly destabilized. War was declared on global scales and the majority of the human populace was removed from the planet. That was then. We known as the fourties, by some, or the sleepers as others had no clue what was happening at, home.

Now the year is 2215. We the only remaining humans in the galaxy have been asleep for 200 years. Our ships were all pre-programmed to fly for 100 years before turning around and returning. We have no clue what awaits us on the planet we once called earth, but I can tell you this, we have come home, but this sure doesn’t seem like Earth any longer.

The small red light finally turned green as the first massive ship dropped into orbit around Earth. The Ship named Columbia had been the first ship to leave the surface of Earth, It was only fitting that it be the first ship to attain orbit as the bridge crew was awakened from their frozen slumber. A solidly built woman in her thirties finally sat up in her previously sealed sleeping chamber. She looked around at the other chambers in this room. Slowly the glass hatches were retreating into the wall behind the chambers. As if she was afraid of the floor not being there she peered out of her pod before finally swinging one leg out and setting a bare foot on a cold steel deckplate. It was Cold she thought, Damn cold, but there was work to be done and she wanted to be the first to set eyes upon the world she had left 200 years ago. Quickly pulling the olive colored flight suit on over her body that moments before had been covered by only a t-shirt and panties she zipped the flight suit up and headed for the bridge with her socks and boots in hand. She knew that the crews of the other ships would be doing this same ritual as their ships entered orbit. She hoped beyond hope that the systems she had set before entering her sleep chamber were even now running. Down the short corridor and finally a Door hissed open in front of her. The bridge was still dark except for the auxiliary lights, luckily it was warmer then the rest of the ship. Good she thought, staggering across the bridge. She took a deep breath and smiled. There it was the scent of hot tea being made at the refreshment station.

She dropped her boots in-front of the command chair, tossed the socks into the seat and continued across the bridge to wrestle a cup of hot tea from the station. Tenativly she sipped it as she walked back to her chair. Not bad she thought. As she set the cup into the holder on the arm of her chair she grabbed her socks and plopped into the seat. A Flip of a switch on the armrest and a large screen on the front wall of the bridge activated showing Captain Cathedra Anne Mozart exactly what she was afraid of.

As she pulled her first sock on she sighed as she looked up at what had replaced the once beautiful blue and green world she remembered and up till about 20 minutes ago had been dreaming about. In its place was a world of blue, grey and black. Some green still existed but from the looks of it that green was probably just starting to get a good foot hold. She continued to scan across the screen as Earth spun on the screen. She was startled to notice that all the major cities that she remembered being visible from orbit were now for the most part the large blackened areas.