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Science Fiction

Boom! Bang! Explosion! The sound of the UNS ships is blaring all over the city. The sound is hurting my ears. The smell of the fuel is burning my stomach and heating my lungs. My eyes are stinging and starting to hurt. The vibration of the ships has my body swaying back and forth. I can't take this anymore. Every time a UNS ship takes off me and every person on the planet suffers.

Finally, it's over. I can breathe again and see again. My stomach is not hurting anymore and my lungs are not burning anymore. My body is not swaying back and forth anymore. It's no wonder people are leaving for mars. Almost half the population of earth has left for mars and you would think our leaders at the UN would be happy about it.

No, they are pissed off, angry, cursing the living day lights out of the Martians. Why are our leaders so angry? Because the Martians want independence from earth and because the Martian world is healthy and safe for the people.

You would think the UN would be happy not to cough up more money to pay for healthcare, social security, relief aide and all these other programs the people need. The answer is no. They have refused to acknowledge mars as an independent planet. What they want is to control mars.

Since the first settlers settled on mars seventy years ago, the Martians as they liked to be called transformed mars into a world vastly different than earth. On earth the UN complains almost every day about giving out free money. They are all about themselves and enriching their pockets.

On mars, the Martian leaders are all about creating a world free of earth, free of the fighting, free of the false hope and free of the political turmoil. They want a world where their citizens live a happy and fulfilling life free from the inference from earth.

The Martians are not a warring people but they have built technology that will protect themselves and mars from earth. The Martians have built numerous ships, defense technology an army and navy. For seventy years they have been preparing for war with earth.

Meanwhile back down here on earth, the UN has also been creating its own army, navy, weapons and ships. The loud bang that I just heard and felt was the latest in a long list of ships that has been created.

The UN hasn't stopped with ships. They created an orbital defense system and a moon base with Augmented humans to guard the base. The moon base called Guardian has continuously bombarded mars with missiles and other weapons. The Martians have repelled them every single time.

Many of us on earth myself included have refused to condone the impending war with mars. We want peace. Mars can become our greatest ally. We can share and build technology but the UN and the elite don't see it that way. They are greedy people who want all of the technology for themselves.

There has been attacks by the Martians on earth like the bombings at the earth defense corp and the ship building yards. The Guardian base is still sending bombs to mars. But nothing in size and enormity that's about to come.

Me and my anti-war protestors have been urging the UN not to go to war with mars. We have been staging protest every single day at the UN. We've been calling the delegates urging them that war is not the answer. We've been doing everything we possibly can do to stop the war but nobody is listening to us. I don't know what else to do.

I wish I could have done more to prevent war with mars. All my effort went to waste. In just a matter of hours the UN is going to announce a declaration of war. The delegates are meeting within a matter of minutes for the vote. Friends of mine that work in the UN have told me all the delegates are in agreement. War is coming.

I had a fight with my best friend Nathan about the impending war with mars. Nathan is station on the flagship UNS Constitution. He's all for war with mars. He tells me "Quinn, the war is happening. This is not our fault but the fault of mars. This is what they get for leaving earth."

I can't believe my best friend said these words to me. War, I told him is not the solution but he wouldn't listen to me. Nathan took the side of war loving lunatics instead of me.

The news coming from mars is not much better. The Martian civilians are protesting begging their leaders not to go to war with earth but the Martian leaders might not have a choice. If the UN declares war which is going to happen then the Martians will have to do the same.

I look back to the generations of the past and think about the wars they fought in, the many lives lost, the many homes destroyed and the countless of refugees who lost everything and I say to myself how can we repeat what our forebears did. This is going to happen again.

I can't think about the future. I can only think about now, the present and the present is telling me to continue the fight to stop the war. Me and my friends are going back to the UN to protest. Giving up is not an option even thought we know the outcome is war.

Nathan keeps messaging me telling me not to go. The UN is planning a surprise for the protesters. Yeah, like I'm going to listen to Nathan. This is important to me and no one is going to stop me.

Boom! Bang! Explosion! The smell of fuel is hitting me again. My body is swaying back and forth again and it means one thing. The UNS is launching another ship. This is like the fifth or sixth ship they have launched. The UNS ships are beautiful, there is no doubt about that. I wish they could be using the ships for something better than war like space exploration.

Not many people know only Nathan knows that I'm a trained pilot. I would love to use my skills for something that can benefit humanity not something that would destroy humanity.

During our fight Nathan accused me of being a coward for not joining the UNS Navy. I'm a lot of things but coward is not one of them. I am fighting to better humanity and to stop a war from destroying two planets and two people.

The UN is crowded with protesters. I'm not the only one who doesn't want a war. I don't think the UN is capable of handing all of us which I assume estimates to well over a million people.

The earth has been reeling from a catastrophic flood that happened two months ago. Relief Aide was going to the people who lost everything but that aide has since stopped. Everyone knows the reason why. All of the aide is going to the damn war. We try to help where our leaders have failed but it's not enough.

"Stop the war. No war. Vote No." We are all chanting. I look across the street and see Nathan. He's watching me. "Stop the war. No war. Vote No." We continue to chant.

It's reaching midnight. The vote is almost done. Me and my fellow protesters are still at the UN chanting for no war. None of this is going to do any good. A UN delegates comes out and tells us.

"The votes have been counted. Earth has declared war on mars." I feel hopeless and angry.

One month later, the ear with mars is in full swing. More and more ships have launched. More and more of our people have gone to war including myself. There is no end in sight. God help us all.

October 05, 2023 20:52

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1 comment

Pamela Zero
23:03 Oct 11, 2023

This is a visceral story with a mix of great ideas. The author is able to pull us into the main character's experience, and the result is a rich emotional ride. There are a few grammatical and structural tweaks needed but the concepts make the story well worth reading.

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