The Wolf Revolution (Science Fiction)

[NoIdeaWhatI'mDoing]

Well, here's my first sacrifice to the critics. It isn't my only story, but it is one that I would like to share.

It strongly shows the influence that I have gotten from Star Trek, as well as other Sci-Fi sources. It is completely my creation, except for the title, which was taken from a thread on a forum that went by the same name. It got me thinking though.

It takes place mostly on a small planet orbitting Centauri Proxima on a planet known to earth only as Centauri Prime. Other than this, other details will be discussed in the story, so I feel that it is needless to mention them.

This is a story that strongly adheres the the action/adventure genre, with new updates coming. If the pace is a little slow, just stick with me, it gets much faster.

Edit: One more thing. Please post feedback. Don't be afraid to totally rip this thing apart for criticism, as long as it's honest criticism, I love it. I have been taught that criticism helps make you better, and I appreciate those who take time to comment on my works. Post criticism here: http://entmoot.tolkientrail.com/showthread.php?t=14482

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The Wolf Revolution
Enter Humanity
by NIWID

Chapter 1
The Centauri Prime Incident

It's been 200 years since humans first discovered planet Centauri Prime. Back then it was just another frontier in the world of scientific discovery, but now it is the main staging ground for one of humanity's bloodiest conflicts.

I'd better explain myself. When scientists first discovered Centauri Prime, or Hysteinia (named for scientist Henri Hystein), it was exciting to them that they had found the first planet that actually was inhabited by some form of life. Not just some form of life, satellites confirmed 50 years later, but rather large, seemingly intelligent creatures. How scientists utilizing 22nd century technology figured out that the creatures were intelligent is beyond my ability to comprehend. All I know is that is what the history books say.

It was another 120 years or so until another development arose. It was in the fateful year of 2341 that cold fusion was finally made practical. Years of fuel crisis faded away as the new fusion reactors went online. Soon, all of earth found that all of their energy worries were gone, and forged forward into new areas of science. Humanity began to advance more rapidly then ever before, pushing the imagination of men to the limit. Light speed travel was made practical in the year 2349. Laser and plasma weaponry was released in prototype form thirteen years later, but has so far proven as dangerous to the user as it is to the victim. Then, two years ago, it happened.

No one actually knows who should be credited with the discovery. Over twenty names have been suggested, but, as time passed, it became clear that no one actually cared. All they cared about was that they had it. The ability to cross light-years of space in what equated to less than a second. The exact process involved is still a mystery to the general public, except for the fact that the process made use of something known only as a 'warp field' to create a distortion in space-time to allow a person to, in effect, walk through the space between point A and point B in one step, no matter the distance covered. The distortion did make it so that a protective suit was needed, but it took very little time to develop the material. It was almost as if it had already existed.

At first, the inventors were quiet about it. They wanted to be careful. What if it was made available to the general public? Enemies could simply appear in front of you, and you wouldn't be able to react before you were routed resoundingly. Nuclear warheads could be dropped anywhere with very little effort. The potential for evil was endless.

It wasn't until this year, 2372, that people finally saw the potential for good. Now that they could cross almost indefinite amounts of space in the time it took to blink, they found themselves longing for the answer to the questions that have haunted man through his thousands of years of existence. What was up there? Or who? How advanced are they? What do they look like? Are they friendly?

Finally, the inventors gave in. Seeing as life had been discovered on the largest planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the star nearest our solar system, it made sense to start investigating there. A group was formed to explore the planet. Leading the expedition was a former American general. Robert Shaw was his name, and he believed he was ready for anything. On January 26, 2372, he took the first step through the warp field that scientists had readied for his transportation. He sent a message back through the warp field. "All's clear. Send in the expedition." The rest of the group had soon followed their leader through the portal.

For more than two days, the scientists waited anxiously for word from the expedition. Then, out of the blue, Shaw made his return. The strangest thing, though, was that, although only two days had passed on Earth, Shaw and his team claimed to have been on the planet for nearly a month. They brought back samples of plant life, as well as some animal life, from the planet. Intrigued by the discoveries made, the scientists organized another party to try to make contact with a group of aliens that had been seen on the planet's largest continent.

Shaw again led the expedition, and was gone ten days this time before he returned. Again, the time he had apparently been gone and the time he claimed to have been gone did not coincide, but the scientists waved it off. All they cared about was the very successful and peaceful contact with the alien people. As it turned out, they bore many similarities in appearance of communication to many of Earth's own canines.

Photos taken by the expedition showed that they were extremely tall, averaging over 7 feet in height, and wore clothes over their heavy fur coats. A video showed Shaw talking to one of them, oddly enough in their own language, which consisted of what seemed to be nothing more than a dog's barks, yips and howls. According to Shaw, upon their arrival, the aliens showed that, remarkably, they could speak English without a trace of an accent. At least to him. When he heard one of them address him for the first time, however, the rest of the group claimed that it was Shaw who was using the aliens language, not the other way around. It was revealed to the members of the group later that they had been somehow implanted with some sort of translator when they arrived. The aliens said that it was used much like the humans' weapons (which had been brought for self defense), yet they refused any more information, saying that, if in the wrong paws, the technology could be used against them. Shaw could not understand why, but, in order to stay on the aliens' good side, he left it at that.

In later tests, Shaw and other team members showed the remarkable ability to speak in any language that another person used, and without a trace of an accent.

The third trip was frequently postponed until it finally got underway on May 2nd. Shaw was again the leader, and the team's simple mission was to try to acquire a small parcel of land for humans to colonize. "Easier said than done," said Shaw, but he went for it anyway. He returned less than a day later. When his expedition ended up so short, the scientists worried that he had failed. "No," Shaw said, "After three months of bargaining, we acquired an area of land large enough to recreate New York State, and for nothing but a promise to move should we ever be told to."

And so the first colonization mission to Centauri Prime got underway. 3000 brave men and women became Earth's first interstellar colonists. After so many years of lacking a place to colonize, the dictionaries once again sported the word 'colony.'

If you have not already guessed, I was one of the 3000. I was only 18, and I hadn't even been to college, but the pay, in my estimation, outweighed the risk, so I took a shot. The first thing that became clear as I stepped out of the disorienting warp field was that I felt a little lightheaded. It took me a minute to realize that I was also light-bodied, if that is the correct term. The gravity here was a bit lower than on Earth, that was for sure.

The first few months of our new lives were spent building. Working with wood was strange for me. It had been ages since I'd seen wood on anything but a tree, but we needed temporary shelters, so we built little houses to live in until the prefabricated metal structures were sent through the warp field. After we received and set up the so-called prefabs, we spent three months adjusting. Every now and then, something weird would appear on the radar screens in the small military outpost, but everything was quiet. I began to enjoy my work, studying the different new things that we found on the planet. I was no scientist, but I got paid to send in my observations to our distant homeworld, and it was an entertaining hobby.

June 3rd, 2372 marked my first birthday on my new planet. Sadly, I noticed, no one back on Earth had sent me congratulations (or condolences) for getting one year older. I wouldn't learn why until later. Luckily, someone did remember my birthday here. I found a card on my desk from Sarah Raines. She was a lifelong friend of mine that had joined me on this strange journey. It read, "Happy Birthday. I guess I can't truly say, 'Happy nineteenth time around the sun,' but have a good one anyway." Good old Sarah...

The city wasn't exactly the most modern thing you ever saw. We were still waiting for the cold fusion power core to arrive. In the meantime, we were making due with an antiquated fission reactor. Also, the computers were probably all reused from somewhere, as they all seemed about six months behind the times, but I dealt. Connecting to Earth's Internet was also impossible, so I couldn't check my e-mail. I probably had piles of birthday e-cards in my inbox just waiting for me...

One month later, I was sent to help out in the military outpost. In my estimation, it was easier that what I had been doing. much more boring, but easier. All I had to do was stare at a screen all day and see if I could find any red dots to get excited about. Unfortunately, the dots were routinely green, and all thought of action was slipping through my mind.

Fun began to seem like something from a bygone age. More and more I caught myself asking, "I wonder who's in the World Series," or "I wonder what's on ESPN this afternoon."

I began to wonder where the aliens who had supposedly given us this land were. I wondered if it had been some sort of huge hoax to get Shaw and his boys some fame. To me, this seemed more and more likely. Little did I know how close I was about to get to them.

It was another routine day at the outpost. I was busy counting the pixels on the radar screen, and had just reached 5,000,000 when someone yelled out, "I've got a red dot in Area 51!" This exclamation was, of course, followed by an insane whoop of triumph and the obligatory victory dance.

All jest aside, today was destined to change our lives. The outpost was suddenly abuzz. I even found my own voice mixed in with a dozen others as we suddenly had more than enough red dots to keep us all busy. After a while, I tried to count and see how many dots there were. "HQ, I'm seeing over 50 dots here, and none of them are blue. Something tells me that this might not be a good thing," I shouted into my headset. On a regular day, I would have been proud to be the first to send in a count of the dots, but today was no ordinary day. "Unidentified bogeys entering radar screen in areas 45, 46, 47, 48..." My eyes darted around the screen. "They're everywhere!" I yelled. "Radar signature unknown. We have multiple UFOs closing from all sides!" I stared a the screen. Slowly, I reached up and removed my headset. I held it to my mouth. "Bogeys have passed the border! HQ, do you read?" I didn't hear if there was an answer. Suddenly, the entire building shook at its foundation. I left HQ with one more message. "Run for your lives!"

I was quick to follow my own advice. I took off, only to run headlong into another frantic man. The building shook again. Getting to my feet, I looked around. The place was a madhouse. All exits were completely full, and everyone was pushing for position. Suddenly, the roof came in. I dove for cover, raising my arms over my head to offer as much protection as possible. In a moment, the place where I had just been standing was covered in rubble. Worse, I hadn't escaped it completely, and my legs were both trapped under a heavy metal beam. Even worse still, hardly anyone else had escaped the falling ceiling at all.

I reached down, pushing desperately at the beam to try to get it off. The pain was excruciating, but even the adrenaline rush wasn't enough to help me get free. After trying for a few minutes, I dropped back, exhausted, onto a pile of rubble behind me. I looked up into what should have been open sky, but instead saw a huge fleet of airships, each one styled after a bird, but not one the same as the next. They continued through the city. I watched as they fired strange projectiles at the city. Many building were flattened instantly by great explosions, others took as many as three hits, but after less than five minutes, not a building stood against the darkening skyline.

I closed my eyes and forced myself to think of other things. Home. Earth. Would I ever see it again? My family...

These thoughts caused me to actually prefer to look at the devastated city than to think elsewhere. I felt the tears rolling down my face, whether for the pain I felt, or for the pity I felt for the others, or for the thought of Earth, or for everything at once, I couldn't tell. All I know is that from that moment on, I wanted to get revenge. Everything I had ever learned struggled against it, but the anger I felt destroyed any repentance I would have felt. 'They had killed innocent people, they deserved death, didn't they?' I thought in an attempt to justify myself. In my current state, that was all the reason I needed.

I must have faded out of reality from pain, because light had returned to the sky when I opened my eyes. I had almost convinced myself that I should pass out again when I heard voices. My eyes sprang open, and I swiveled my neck around, looking for the person who was talking. No, not talking, yelling. It was coming from the city. I could see someone searching through a building off to my left and not 200 yards away. He was hunched over and calling into a pile of rubble, apparently having found someone in need of help. Somehow, either from renewed hope or sheer desperation, I managed to announce my presence with a rough, hoarse, "Help, over here!" The man apparently heard, as he turned to look in my direction. He turned away from me and called something out behind him. Another man appeared on the rubble. He was a giant, and was easily a head taller than the other man. As the first man motioned in my direction the second ran towards me.

As he got closer, I could make out specifics. He wasn't human, but seemingly of a human-canine hybrid instead. As he reached me and saw my leg he shook his head and grabbed the beam with both paws. He first hefted it off of my legs, which resulted in the pain being redoubled, then tossed it away from my body. Then he pulled a small odd-looking gun from his belt. I winced and closed my eyes as he pointed it at me. I felt nothing, but heard him say, "It's all right mow, it's over."

I somehow mustered the courage to look at his face. It bore what I supposed to be his version of a kind smile. "You're lucky," he said. "We haven't found many others."

"What are you?" I asked.

"Most people call me Ranger," he said.

"Not who are you, what are you," I said.

"Ah, I see, you've never seen one of my kind before. I am a native of this world. Many of your kind call us 'canines,' others, 'wolves.' I. would tell you our name for ourselves, but your kind don't seem to be able to pronounce it well," Ranger explained. "Enough talk, though. You're injured. I'll take you to the camp." With that, the man lifted me as though I weighed nothing and walked over the hills of rubble until we reached a group of huddled figures. I found that most of these were survivors from the disaster. I searched the faces, but couldn't find Sarah.

As we approached, another one of Ranger's kind approached us. His head hung low and his shoulders slumped. "We've only found two hundred, sir," he said.

"But there were over three thousand of us," I protested.

"I'm sorry. The attack was quick and merciless. Not many have survived." He turned back to Ranger. "One more thing to report, captain."

"Yes?" Ranger said.

"The Revolution has begun."