Preludes
In memory of....
Shannon Smen ( 2/6/1980 - 11/7/2021 )
Legal Statement
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
The Year 2099 had just begun. Those who will live beyond this year will realize it would be the longest year of their lives. It has been 113 years since a dead star was discovered on Earth forcing humanity to evacuate it nearly 54 years after. The leaders of the ARK were led by Jonas Miller and his wife Linnea. During their time on the ARK. Disagreements over the chosen place for humanity to restart grew. As plans were made to sabotage the ARK the 1st time was thwarted, the people responsible were held into account, the father of one of the saboteurs never forgave the Miller family for the death of his son, and when they made it to their home, this Father named John Mathis led a rebellion and began his reign of extermination of those who supported the old order. His 2nd in command, Pascal Spencer killed Jonas and Linnea on the ARK and was planning to kill Ruth as well. His other Lieutenant, John Forbath was instrumental in destroying the last piece of Earth.. The ARK itself. There were still a number of people on the ARK when it exploded. Not every human was on the planet just yet. It was estimated that nearly 12 thousand people died in the sabotage. Including Gareth’s parents and grandparents, as well as the many parents and grandparents of survivors in Uralica.
Those who survived the purge hid in a settlement called Epsilon. They changed the name to Pitt Novus in honor of Jonas Miller who was from the Pittsburgh Area. His granddaughter Ruth was the de facto leader of this settlement. Her efforts and a stubborn will to end the tyranny that befell the survivors led to the Mathis War. This war cost the lives of some of her friends. But she still never gave up fighting for their freedom. In the end a major clash of settlements, forced Mathis, Pascal, and Forbath to flee. When Mathis and Pascal were separated from Forbath, They made it so they did not make a single target from Ruth and her allies. Mathis however was killed by Gareth and Pascal was killed by Ruth. Forbath however remained at large.
As time passed, Technology from Earth began to fail. Replacing parts for ATVs became nearly impossible. There was no dedicated infrastructure to continue the maintenance required for these cybertruck looking vehicles to keep going. Shuttles ran out of fuel not long after the Mathis War, except for a few that were presumed lost. There was active work being done to make pressurized Rubidium in a gas form to use as fuel but the scientist specialized to make this was killed on the ARK. Many animals that were brought from the Ark to repopulate on the planet had flourished, fish populated the lake of Proteus, The seas saw an uptick of Tuna which thrived in the lack of heavily commercial fishing. Dogs were brought as were cats. However, cats had trouble adapting to the new environment as rats were not brought along. However, Birds were. Dogs made good hunting companions for solitary settlers.
Then 7 years ago, after a constitution was drawn up and an arbiter was appointed to handle disputes between all the settlements on the continent. Not all was peaceful. Forbath was slowly building his power base under the noses of Ruth and her allies. During the 10th year on Erdos, people started to go missing. It was assumed that the people missing were ferried to the Julian isles. This was not the case. But an old ex of Anna Miller’s, Richard Hendrick, plotted to make his return as well. He joined forces with Forbath in establishing The Crimson Empire. The discovery of a lost colony on the Julian Isles was a shock to many. It was later found that the people on the island were from the lost settlement of Pe. It was assumed that all the shuttles were disassembled and salvaged. One remained on the islands. This lost Shuttle still had fuel. No one knew this until Heath discovered it. But he ran into Anna’s Ex, who was none other than the aforementioned Richard Hendrick. His return leads to The death of Ruth’s father Heath. However, it determined that his son whom he fathered through Megan Spencer was still alive. And it was his hope to have Ruth teach him to grow up to be a greater man than he ever was, and perhaps, better than Jonas himself. Richard Hendrick and John Forbath broke up the little family reunion after Heath’s death.
To make matters worse Anna at age 29, who was Ruth’s Cousin fell in love with 45 year old Doctor Lucas, who was a good friend of Ruth and her father Heath. This Love between them shook the core of the entire continent. When they were captured by Forbath’s forces. It sparked another war that continued to the present day. Forbath appointed Adam Cross as his 2nd in command and they tried to capture Pitt Novus and kill the Miller Family, but they failed. Riding the wings of victory, Ruth later lead a counter-attack to track down and kill Forbath once and for all, but he laid a trap for them.. If it wasn’t for Mother Nature and the remorseful actions of Travis Krug, Forbath would have succeeded in killing Ruth, Gareth, and Anna. When the memorial was made in the honor of those who had fallen. Anna placed a bioluminescent flower on Doctor Lucas’s tombstone as her love for him did not end. When she named her child, she wanted to honor him and named her child Sashya Rae Lucas, after Doctor Lucas’s grandmother.
Up to about 3 years ago, Ruth had 3 more children, Corbyn, Jonas, and Tara. However, Tara died of fever before the Events of Crimson Obsidian. Her brother Elijah and his friend Astrid were caught between the hammer and the Anvil as the Mad Tyrant Forbath sought to conquer the world and burn the resistance to ashes and the war did just that. Astrid was later abandoned by Elijah by no choice of his own and was subsequently captured by Forbath. Adding salt to the wounds of the Miller family, Forbath forced her to be his wife, much to the ire of Elijah. With the death of her family and falsely blaming Elijah and his family for their deaths, Forbath cemented her loyalty and lead an unholy crusade on the Miller family, to kill every single person Elijah ever cared about or knew. Together they all tried to conquer the last safe haven for Ruth and her allies at Brevcik but failed. Astrid later bore Forbath a child named Calen Asher. Forbath’s latest failure to get revenge on the Miller family and his manipulation of Astrid would be his last as Astrid stabbed John in the Kurgan Taiga for raping her and left him for dead. His demise, allowed her to elevate to the status of Empress of the Southern Crimson Empire. Even though Forbath was dead, the war never ended, and Shaanxi was destroyed. After the fall of Pitt Novus, Uralica City, and destruction of Shaanxi, and the subsequent famine that followed Xanadu, cost the lives of 500,000 people. However not all was hopeless, despite their losses.
4 years had passed, and now in the present, a treaty between Astrid and Peter Voronkova led to the rule of two halves of the Empire. The North and the South. Peter, who overthrew Edward Amundsens Administration, had made himself Emperor of the North Crimson Empire. Elijah felt he got his revenge on Forbath, but it came at a terrible price. Astrid Married Adam Cross and had a child with him as well and named him Simeon, now 3 years old. Simeon joined with his brother Calen Asher who by now is 4 years old. Another one of Ruth’s children died however, her son little Jonas, died in 2098 from hypothermia after walking out in Brevcik in the middle of the night in a sleep-walk trance. This took a heavy toll on Ruth, which hardened her heart and made her very protective of her eldest son Michael who is about to turn 18 soon.
The Crimson Empire needed time to rebuild their armies. With 4 years passing from Astrid’s Ascension.. The Empire had all the time, they needed.. So Ruth’s Allies took advantage of this lull. Time allowed Brevcik to rebuild and Ruth had hoped to rebuild the town of Pitt Novus. Olivia felt a bit uneasy as her miscarriage of Antoinette, being the result of the unrelenting stress of the Crimson War took its toll. This left her feeling some resentment towards Ruth and Elijah, not enough to feel the need to kick them out of Brevcik but enough to affect her decision in the future affairs of the town. Time will how she feels in the end. Elijah married Emma Milko as Emma’s free spirit and easy-going attitude complimented Elijah’s flaws and Anna Lucas married Zach Steele. Emma and Elijah have been trying for a baby for 4 years with no success. Emma was pregnant twice in those 4 years but miscarried both times. It’s been a trying time for them both. Meanwhile, Astrid and Adam enjoy their life of luxury as she inherited an empire and he married an Empress. There were lingering questions that remained. The line of succession. Would Simeon respect Calen’s position? Would Adam respect that? Does Astrid have doubts about Adam? Does she miss Elijah? Does she wish peace for Ruth after so long?
Meanwhile Ruth’s remaining 3 children she had, Michael, Sonja, both now almost 18, and Corbyn now 6 were meant to carry her legacy. Michael and Sonja’s best friends, Freya now 10, and Fredrick 12 wondered about the world around them. For Freya and Fredrick, War and hardship were all they ever knew. For Michael and Sonja, they remember the time before the Crimson War. It was their obligation to tell the younger generation that there is hope in the middle of despair. Speaking of hope, Brevcik had become a bastion of freedom for all humankind. Ruth had become a legend, as a resistance movement was growing in Axum, as well as all conquered Crimson territories of the south and resistance members began to identify themselves as Ruthanites. The bastion of freedom and hope became a very tempting target for Peter Voronkova... The question that remained was, how long will this lull in the war last???
