After much organization and planning and scheduling, Eva, Miko, and Mack reconvened a couple of cycles later. They were joined by Eva’s grandparents, who were positively ecstatic to hear that Eva was still alive.
The two of them looked like your typical caucasian grandparents - they were in their 60s and had completely grey hair. They were both thin and frail, but their eyes were full of life.
All three of them cried when they saw each other - the strain of their loss was difficult to bear. They thought she had died, and she thought she was never going to see them again.
“Grandpa! Grandma!” Eva cried.
“Eva darling!” replied her grandma. “It’s so good to see you again! We were so fraught when you disappeared… But now everything is right again! You’re alive!”
Miko does understand nationalism, of course. But her parents think she's just a normal 13 year old.
Mack, who had been completely quiet this entire time, had watched the two families. Although he wasn’t able to fully understand or identify with their problems, it didn’t mean he couldn’t comprehend what they were going through. In fact, he was rather broke himself, and his trust fund was running damn near empty. More than that, he had undergone a few changes after realizing how much he had hurt Eva. In the process, he had re-awakened his sense of empathy, which now tugged at his heart. He felt a desire to help. Especially after having experienced Eva’s unyielding declaration earlier. She was inspiring. Both of the girls were. He had been useless most of his life, and ruined a great many things because of that.
The bluish light of a white dwarf star broke the dawn on the purple planet far below. Meanwhile, stars glittered in the vast darkness of space above. A fighter screamed by, its guns blazing. It was very quickly followed by nearly a dozen more, all of which were similarly designed and bore the same logos - a sun surrounded by three rings. The fighters intercepted another fighter group, whose logos were of a purple four-pointed star, and entered into a vicious skirmish. Behind them were a smattering of ships, from frigates to cruisers. All of them were in mixed formations, and it was clear one side was fighting against another. Weapons fire was being exchanged between all of them. The battle seemed pitched, and for every casualty one side suffered, the other had
Hundreds of thousands of people in both universes watched the Ravens’ trailer video. Some enjoyed it, some didn’t. A number of people certainly engaged with it, and left all sorts of interesting, funny, and entertaining comments. In Eva’s universe, the comments were mostly positive. She and Miko got a kick out of some of them. --- Quarkystar99: OMG you’re both awesome and cute!BigBetaBobby: Thanks for showing me how to use streamer! I got to talk to my lil’ bro again!PickyPickle: lolol d-ranked mecha noobs lololQuarkystar99: So what pickle? You realize they didn’t e
“Alright, talk to all of you later!” said Eva. She waved at the EyeCast and ended her stream. She was previously discussing a few things with Miko, the family, and Mack. Their numbers had done a little better and reached some people on both sides, but the results weren’t mind-blowing. Not that any of them expected it - growth always took time. And effort. That said, it would also benefit them greatly if they had a strong start. They had taken down any videos they had published previously, and only uploaded the one they had recently created. It was a strong “first” video, but Eva reasoned that their followup ‘casts needed to be better. To help build the snowball’s momentum, that sort of thing. All of them decided to
Amal’s shuttle landed on New Persepolis, the capital city on Venus. Similar to Mars, Venus was also terraformed for human habitation. When Sol was mostly enclosed by the dyson sphere, Venus’ overall temperature dropped. This allowed its atmosphere to be transformed into something more breathable. The planet’s atmosphere was thick with carbon dioxide, so humanity employed a great many techniques and machines to force a Great Oxygenation Event. They used different methods, from artificial photosynthesis to specialized ultraviolet light to achieve this. In the end the result was the same - carbon dioxide was converted into oxygen. They then covered the entire planet with plant life in order to complete the process of making the planet truly habitable.
Amal had spent a great deal of time ruminating about applying for citizenship at the Federation. She had become distrustful and disillusioned of offers such as those. In her old life, she and her family had been offered asylum by a few governments, but she had learned that there were ulterior motives behind them. Some of her friends and acquaintances who had gone to those other countries and experienced those tragedies had warned her. They often used the refugees as political leverage, and this never bode well in the long term. After all, once their usefulness had run out, there was no longer a need to continue supporting them. Many found themselves living in abject poverty, having been forgotten and abandoned by their new hosts. Although Amal had been lucky wi
The ground whipped by quickly as the tractor sped towards the chaos. It had reached maximum velocity and was cruising at a relatively good pace. Its main display showed that they had topped out their speed, which fluctuated between 24 to 26 meters per second. Although it wasn’t fast compared to space superiority fighters, it was definitely rather quick for any land-based vehicle. Especially for something that weighed as much as the tractor did. As they neared, the sounds of gunfire became clearer and more recognizable. “Should we continue flying over there, or walk?” asked Amal. Dareon shook his head. “Walking will take way too long,” he replied. “By then… everyone would… I
Amal woke up with a start and quickly looked around to get her bearings, but her sight was hazy at best. She saw that she was in a dark room, and could tell that there were a number of other people there. But before she could take a better look, or even ask what was going on, pain suddenly flashed through her head. She felt the pounding sensation of a migraine take root at her temples, which then slowly spread everywhere. Amal groaned as her hands went up to her head to massage it, but found part of it wrapped in some sort of cloth. It felt a little damp under her fingers, so she brought them in front of her so she could take a better look. Her eyes had trouble focusing, so it took her a few moments to realize that she had blood on her hands. It seemed her head