unrest until 2138. This was all there could be, because the world had united in a confederation with one military, consolidated so that there were not separate branches. One world, one army – that was the idea; there would be no one to fight.
2138 is when the civil unrest evolved into The Confederation’s mandated war against radicals organized well enough to warrant attention. Like many wars in Earth’s history, the center of fighting was concentrated in the mid-east. This war wasn’t like preceding battles; it was no longer desert fighting. Urban conflict replaced desert battles because sand was paved with kilometers of concrete to help support the population growth the whole world was experiencing.
The timing was unfortunate for Alexa.
For as long as she could remember, Alexa had wanted to be a doctor. She spent all her free time as a child looking up free content on the viewer – anything that could tell her about biology, chemistry, psychology and anatomy. She took all the Confederation supplied exams and performed well. And though she was accepted into medical school, neither she nor her parents could afford it. The reality was a hard one for her to accept, and in the heat of rejection and doubts about her self-worth, she joined the military for the free training and the opportunity to practice what she loved.
When she joined, all she had known about the war was what the media was reporting. What she had never imagined was treating the mortal wounds of her friends and fellow service members. The realization on the front lines that the media either refused to report the real story or were being severely censored in their coverage destroyed any illusions she had about the glamour of the military medical profession.
Entire communities were devastated in the effort to quell radical activity. Fighting a war amidst rows upon rows of 40 story buildings began to prove to be impossible – danger was literally around every single corner. The struggle for dominance peaked in the first year of conflict and the Confederation responded by razing entire cities to the ground. Instead of acting as a deterrent, it seemed to only embolden and swell the ranks of radicals who were steadily losing anything they might have had a will to live for. When news leaked of the wholesale destruction of a city on the coast of the Arabian Sea, the Confederation was forced to return to putting soldiers on the ground to quell violence one block at a time.
Alexa was often plagued with the question of how many innocent people had gotten caught up in the terrible business. She couldn’t believe that hundreds of thousands of people deserved to die for the actions of a few. Worse, it was never entirely clear what the radicals wanted, or what compelled them to fight – so she had no concept of what she, in turn, was fighting against. Popular consensus was that the radicals wanted to practice some archaic religion that involved self-mutilation and secretive cult-like gatherings. Others insisted the radicals were rebelling against government intrusion and were cutting bio-stamps out of their arms in alarming numbers.
With little other choice, she took solace in her unit – clinging to the element of family and mutual survival. She did everything she could to support her team to give herself a solid focus. But a day came where she could no longer ignore the realities of the kind of war in which she was party to. She and her unit were in city-center of a southern region of Old Egypt. They had been entrenched for days and were running low on food and water. News came through over a secure wireless channel that a path to the west had been opened for them to move through, and with an unambiguous order to return to base immediately, they were on the move.
They jogged in a line, the point leader clearing the gaps between buildings and the others, with Alexa in the middle, following suit. As she was clearing one gap, her eye caught something that made
2138 is when the civil unrest evolved into The Confederation’s mandated war against radicals organized well enough to warrant attention. Like many wars in Earth’s history, the center of fighting was concentrated in the mid-east. This war wasn’t like preceding battles; it was no longer desert fighting. Urban conflict replaced desert battles because sand was paved with kilometers of concrete to help support the population growth the whole world was experiencing.
The timing was unfortunate for Alexa.
For as long as she could remember, Alexa had wanted to be a doctor. She spent all her free time as a child looking up free content on the viewer – anything that could tell her about biology, chemistry, psychology and anatomy. She took all the Confederation supplied exams and performed well. And though she was accepted into medical school, neither she nor her parents could afford it. The reality was a hard one for her to accept, and in the heat of rejection and doubts about her self-worth, she joined the military for the free training and the opportunity to practice what she loved.
When she joined, all she had known about the war was what the media was reporting. What she had never imagined was treating the mortal wounds of her friends and fellow service members. The realization on the front lines that the media either refused to report the real story or were being severely censored in their coverage destroyed any illusions she had about the glamour of the military medical profession.
Entire communities were devastated in the effort to quell radical activity. Fighting a war amidst rows upon rows of 40 story buildings began to prove to be impossible – danger was literally around every single corner. The struggle for dominance peaked in the first year of conflict and the Confederation responded by razing entire cities to the ground. Instead of acting as a deterrent, it seemed to only embolden and swell the ranks of radicals who were steadily losing anything they might have had a will to live for. When news leaked of the wholesale destruction of a city on the coast of the Arabian Sea, the Confederation was forced to return to putting soldiers on the ground to quell violence one block at a time.
Alexa was often plagued with the question of how many innocent people had gotten caught up in the terrible business. She couldn’t believe that hundreds of thousands of people deserved to die for the actions of a few. Worse, it was never entirely clear what the radicals wanted, or what compelled them to fight – so she had no concept of what she, in turn, was fighting against. Popular consensus was that the radicals wanted to practice some archaic religion that involved self-mutilation and secretive cult-like gatherings. Others insisted the radicals were rebelling against government intrusion and were cutting bio-stamps out of their arms in alarming numbers.
With little other choice, she took solace in her unit – clinging to the element of family and mutual survival. She did everything she could to support her team to give herself a solid focus. But a day came where she could no longer ignore the realities of the kind of war in which she was party to. She and her unit were in city-center of a southern region of Old Egypt. They had been entrenched for days and were running low on food and water. News came through over a secure wireless channel that a path to the west had been opened for them to move through, and with an unambiguous order to return to base immediately, they were on the move.
They jogged in a line, the point leader clearing the gaps between buildings and the others, with Alexa in the middle, following suit. As she was clearing one gap, her eye caught something that made
Similar Books
