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| Lpnet2-100 Lpnet2: The 4D Earth War Chapter One: Callisto Colony Two Chapter Two: To Amplexa and Tranqua Chapter Three: Asteroid Mining, Politics, and War Chapter Four: Return to Earth Chapter Five: A Friendly Reunion Chapter Six: The Last Outpost Chapter Seven: Air-strike in the Night Chapter Eight: The Temporal Connection Chapter Nine: The Temporal Intersection Chapter Ten: Reunion with Old Friends Chapter Eleven: Ideals for the Future Chapter Twelve: Stonedancer Grounded |
The 4D Earth War
Chapter 4: Return to Earth I hid the Warbird in the hilly woodland of Vermont, somewhere in a wildlife preserve known as Green Mountain Forest, just north of a town called Stamford. I left the vehicle with the jetpak secure on my back, as well as the helmet, and a bag of provisions. As I flew over Stamford, heading south to my old homeland in western New England, it looked completely deserted. There were no people, no moving vehicles, no sign of life whatsoever, except a few birds in an old church tower. I decided to investigate closer, and did so. I landed on the roof of an old building near a gas station on the edge of town. I spied with the visor and zeroed in with the helmet remote and chin-video, and saw no one but a lone wolf or dog preying on a dead animal in an alley. The town was apparently deserted. Most of the windows in the shops were broken or boarded up, debris were littered about the streets, and the wreckage of several road vehicles were scattered about. The gas station appeared to have been bombed, the pumps were full of holes and rusted away, and there was a large hole in the ground where a fuel tank had been. I got an eerie feeling seeing it all this way and wondered if the rest of the country was the same. Not that the country didn’t need to change, after the facade of a democracy it had evolved to in the 21st century. But the violence and the death; why did it always turn to war, the violent solution? In venturing into space, I had thought I would have a part in a more peaceful solution, that of expanse and colonization. But the colonies were limited in the capacity of humans they could tolerate, and needed time to grow. At the same time, many humans just did not want to go, and turned to the tired old option of fighting and killing for a greater piece of the earth. I just couldn’t understand people who would rather risk another violent war than risk peace in outer space. Before the war, the Earth had been, quite simply, a playground for the wealthy upper class, and at the same time, a slave camp for the poor lower ‘working’ class. Freedom, even in America, had been not the inherent right of all, but instead, something measured by the amount of money an individual had. And since the cost of living was so high, the poor never had any more than enough to survive. I had always known that war was inevitable, but I had hoped the opening of space colonies would have helped to minimize it. I looked north at the grey clouds over Canada, and realized that perhaps it did. If the whole planet had been nuked like those NATO bases, the Earth would be in a nuclear winter. I had seen enough of the small town, and took to the air again, and continued southward. I followed the old paved road through a forest that had been partly scarred by a fire, over a small jut of mountain, to a land of hills and field, and sparsely scattered farm houses. I flew for almost ten kilometers and reached a large town. It looked as dead as the first, and so I passed over it without stopping. As I reached the edge and more hills and field, I sited a tall dark mountain about five kilometers southwest. I recalled its name; Greylock. I decided to check it out; as I recalled it had a ranger station on it. If the station on Greylock still stood, there was a good chance a ranger might still be holding the post. I flew up to 3,000 feet, sited a stone plateau on the side of the mountain, and landed. Not less than a hundred yards away, I sited the station, nestled between trees and stone. I spied with the visor and zeroed in, but saw no one. At least it still stood. I flew to it and landed on the slope behind it. It appeared to be deserted, and I approached it with caution. I climbed the creaky wooden steps and looked in through a side window. It occurred to me that if some one wanted a secure place to hide, this station was ideal. I saw no one and heard nothing. I tried the door and it was locked. After failing to pick it, I decided to check around for another way in. I flew around to the high wooden balcony overlooking the lowlands, and found a glass sliding-door, It was locked also, however, my jackknife managed to slip through the crack and moved the metal bar. I opened the door carefully and looked in. It was deserted, but apparently, someone had been there recently, and by the looks of it, planned to return. I checked a calendar on the desk and found the final page to be the 8th of May. It was over a week ago. Either the ranger had neglected to turn the pages or really had been gone a week. I checked the logs and they agreed. The last entry was on May 8th. I read it. “It’s been two days since I’ve heard from Davis and Lyles. I can’t wait any longer. Something must have gone wrong. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. “Long-range contact has been out for almost a month. I have to go out and do something. Davis and Lyles may have been captured by rebels, or they may have been killed. Either way, I'm not serving any good just hanging out here. I’ve got to go. “May God have mercy on us all.” I thought about the weary ranger heading out there on his own, into who knows what kind of danger and went to the radio. It was fixed to a particular frequency, probably an open line to Davis and Lyles. I turned it on and received only static. I tried several other settings and it was all the same; all static. I left it on and went to the kitchen to see if anything worked. There was an open panel of grey metal with switches. By the looks of it, the station was self-sufficient, and the switches controlled power to every facility. |
Chapter Thirteen: Rebels in the Aftermath Chapter Fourteen: Temporal Relativity Chapter Fifteen: The Hand was Forced Chapter Sixteen: Ion Trace to the West Chapter Seventeen: A Warlord and an Evacuation |