A Lone Soldier

I made my way to a cave system not far from where we were ambushed, it was reading massive amounts of the element draconian, another untapped vein that the Federal troops will be trying to exploit some time in the near future. At least I'm safe from their scans, and I have enough rad medicine to make it to our evacuation center. There we will board the last of the colony ships that were converted from nuclear fusion to the new ore and head out to find a new haven to grow and live away from the oppressive Federal troops. All our women and children have been busy preparing it for launch, getting supplies stocked for the long journey.

We had managed to save six of the old colony ships and convert them. Each colony ship had six sections that could function as a lander as well as four small shuttles to use for surveys or recons that could land on planet side to check out conditions. Along with the fuel for the original journey we loaded up the sixth ship completely with extra fuel in case we never find anything like the draconian ore again.

Hours later I finally made my way to the hanger , and into the control center. All our greatest minds were there, we had the command crew of the explorer ship Lolan, who were the discovers of our new found wealth and ticket to finally making it out of our own solar system within a person's lifetime. They have been going over all the data they had collected on their two hundred year journey. With all the possible planets and systems to go to they found one that meets our needs.

It is another one hundred and fifty light years away but it is a young system that matches Earth's eco system in the early years and supports life as we know it . The probe has sent back some interesting data from Vandalia as we have so named it after the crew of the Vandalia has lost contact shortly after dropping her probes throughout the system. We hope it is just a comm issue but we may never know. The probe has sent some interesting files back to us. There are bipedal life forms on the planet that seem to be thriving in the warmer climate, and seem to share more ancestry with the reptilian family than the apes. They seem peaceful living off the land , homes made out of the very basic of materials. Hopefully we can coexist with them peacefully. We have to get there first though and it looks as if the Lycans are making a new push and will be extremely close soon.

Morning arrives with the sound of transports and machinery starting up all around me. The last outpost finally made it home safely and warned that the Lycans were not far behind.

We all loaded into the colony ships and strapped in for the launch, it was going to be spectacular. We are gonna clear the mountains and engage the Draconian drive within the atmosphere and be a thousand light years away before they figure out what we did to escape. It is the first time anyone has ever tried it in fear of igniting the whole planet's atmosphere and starting a chain reaction with the draconian ore still left unmined on the planet. Our scientists have figured out the exact point to jump and do exactly that, not only do we win the war with the Federal troops, we put an end to their harsh reign and any chances of them following us into the void.

The launch was successful and all six ships cleared the mountains and made the jump on schedule, each igniting a part of the atmosphere and in doing so the ore as well, you could see the fires from our rear monitors. We had to wait a few minutes while the computers set up the next jump, the one that should put us very close to our home.

While waiting we all watched as our old oppressive home blew up and was as bright as the twin pulsars of Jorran. Our engines kicked in before the shockwave could hit us luckily enough. The Federal troop's ships did not have enough shielding or warning to jump out or even survive the explosion. Our victory complete, we had condemned the corporate Federal troops to the only sentence befitting their cruel oppressive regime an immediate and instantaneous death, just like they had planned for us and our wives, our children, and anyone who gave us aid since we rebelled and stopped mining the Draconian Ore for the Federal troops. Only payment we ever received was rads meds barely enough for our women and children and rations enough to be a foot away from starving. They treated us as slaves and indentured servants making us pay a sum that none of us could ever repay in our lifetime. That debt would pass to our young and no one would ever be free and have a new beginning as promised.

We had scheduled a few stops along the way with planets that were deemed to support life to restock our water and food supply and possibly leave a colony if it checks out. It would be a road map to the new home we all had hopes for being our answer to truly a new beginning. We made sure to put them far enough out so that even a lone Federal vessel could not find them.

The first stop is years away even at jump speeds and we had plenty of time to create a government that neither punished the poor or enriched anyone above anyone else. Everyone would be equal and treated fairly among everyone. Everyone would pitch in and help where their help was required the most and within their realm of expertise. Everyone would receive a more than fair share of rations for each member. Money would not rule our worlds as it has in all the past crumbling civilizations. All of the people fleeing had been lied too and forced to serve as an indentured servant to pay back the costly trip to our last home. An amount that even by today's standard would take five generations to pay it back. With a new lease on life everyone is at peace as we speed through the cosmos.

Each ship held 3 of our leaders whom we had voted for and put into office, broken down by each crew so that if by chance we should lose a ship all would not be lost. They all spent many an hour on the holo-cams discussing the different aspects of a new type of governing body and finally had something that everyone would agree upon. Each ship would start their own colony and be in charge of finding the necessary building blocks for our survival as a human race among the stars. One ship was charged with finding a replacement fuel much like the Draconian Ore we are using at the moment. They would be our rovers among the stars and would only be volunteers, men and women who enjoyed a challenge and had the knowledge to safely mine, and refine the ore and store it for any future emergencies. Crew 5 and their ship would take care of setting up a production facility and start manufacturing space worthy ships so that as our colonies grew bigger we could spread throughout the new planets and solar systems. Crew 4 would handle our agriculture needs setting up hydroponics and testing to see if we can grow our wheat and corn on the new world. Crew 3 would be in charge of taking care of our structures and homes for each colony after of course they had found a usable source to build with from our new home. Crew 2 had the job of setting up a hospital and finding any possible new plants for medical uses, before we dip into our store houses as they were pretty empty after the conflict we left behind. Crew one had the mission of establishing peaceful relations with the natives if possible and to work on learning the natives languages. If any one ship did not make it we all would draw straws once on planet side to fill whichever crew need be should it fall short and not make the trip.