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Celeste had received word that Coulter had been seized, his family safely secured. Hostages? “Caster has access to reprogram the boarding logs. You will still need to take care when approaching the craft. Expect a substantial number of troopers.
The diversion will take place but pray it works!“ No one that knew Celeste expected anything other than the worse. Scruts could be a dammed nuisance.
Attempting to intercept those legitimately permitted to board vessels, replace them with their own. The problem with that?
All the kids from the tunnels that Celeste was in charge of including her own, Serenia, had been put through rigorous training for the iso pods and adapting to life aboard the craft, waking from hibernation, initial ‘iso basing’ as it was known.
Responding in a controlled manner re breathing, meditation to overcome the initial first wave of ‘iso pod’ reactions after waking from hibearnation or iso stasis.
You could see them, into’ iso pod’ containment and panic. Fear? Being separated from loved ones. A whole new experience and frightening. NOPE! Her kids had to be trained, to KNOW what to expect and how best to cope with it.
Kids that could NOT pass the full on training program or showed signs during it of being unable to cope were excluded, in the final selections. Adults were also pushed through the program, no choice. Again, those that failed were eliminated.
There was no room for being complacent. The future relies on the strength of those heading off beyond the stars. Of course Celeste prided herself on Serenia. She was strong willed, determined, knowledgeable and intuitive. No one’s fool. Hence at the beginning, she knew, Celeste would not be going with her. Surprised Celeste, by insisting they talk it through?
TO the point, direct! Earth was a slag heap. Not just the Corporations playground, but their dumping ground. Those that didn’t comply, got shoved aside, or terminated. Gone missing? In their hundreds, their thousands.
War created from the streets flooding outwards to encompass all in its path. The ugly face of misery, of starvation, of pain, of suffering. Masked only by the successes, those who worked for the Corporation constantly streamed to its willing victims from the media lies and falsehoods. Those who attempted to expose the truth, to reveal all, were butchered, quietly disposed of.
The rebels learned quickly. Brute force may have worked in the past but now? Much more sophisticated methods were coming into play. Cyber terrorism struck fear into the big players of the Corporations. Shutting down their financial, trading and profit structures.
Ripping apart the thing that gave them substance. Riches, rewards, trade, research, laws and enforcement.
Nothing was spared.There was no such thing as a dirty bomb when you could achieve so much more with the meltdown of two nucleur reactors? Irradiation across an area where the rich lived.
Thousands dying from skin cancer from Leukaemia and other radiation sicknesses. Sometimes they threw in other bacillus infections, ones like new strains of Smallpox, Legionnaires.
Most deadly of all, Anthrax and a derivative of it called Sarax. The spores were carried within the Sarin gas. Modified to ensure a slow, agonizing death.
Most feared of all rebels was a man called Leif. Not alone in his thoughts or his actions. There were others, some almost identical in thought AND deed. Leif was a European and Celeste knew him from her childhood.
A not so untypical story of how he became who he was, with the murder of his family. All nine of them butchered by assassins from one of the big Corporations they had attempted to expose for dumping contaminated waste. The only child left alive, more to luck than anything else. They would long live to regret him ever getting to being an adolescent.
The ones who had butchered his family? Dumped that waste? He had the lot of them sealed in a hangar type building with the waste and left to die. Slow agonizing deaths. Pock marked, boils that leaked a stinking pus and skin that seeped blood. Mercy? He had none. Imagine opening him up to find a block of ice where his heart should have been? No surprises there.
Finally the Corporation capitulated. Backed off, behind Citadel walls to protect its own. Rigorous searches of those coming and going. Slowly the deaths died back.
Calm was restored to their world, whilst the rest of the world outside the citadels fell upon each other. The strong won, the intelligent won. Usurped the warmongers, protected their own in communities.
Bound by their rules of strength. of compasion, of the need to survive, in a world that was slowly being choked to death. In the Citadels they expanded. built the means to travel beyond the stars. Take the risk, whatever the odds. Converted Skyliners. Reinforced outer shielding, armed, sophisticated. futuristic.
No one knew, what happened after they left the Earth. Communication when they reached the outer rim was lost.
The deep space sats and exploration probes, seldom appeared reliable. No signals, coming back from them? Even the ones that had initially sent data back. DEAD. Hope, that was it, maybe delusional but in a world of doubt, it fueled the desire, to find something different and the perception that nothing could ever be as bad as this.
“You all know what to do! Line up and stay close to each other. This is the real thing. No more pretence. Tonight you will all be facing the next step on your journey! You leave US, to make sure you get safely aboard that craft. You do NOT detour from your prepared course. YOUR DESTINY!“
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