For hundreds of years the Earth has been nothing more than planet surrounded by tons of artificial satellites and having sand, debris, and pollution all over the surface. This is why the remaining humans came underground to wait it all out.
Those who did not believe the BnL's efforts formed a resistance movement called ACL and built facilities under the surface called Outposts all over the globe. Using advanced technology and each of them led by one Leader, they were able to build civilizations without risking exposure to the hazards of the surface.
One of the most important machinery available to them was the ENG-M Transformer. They were in charge of turning energy into mass. Albert Einstein's popular equation E=mc^2 eventually came very true for average folks and even mandatory for survival on rotten Earth. Their main type of energy switched into mass was geothermal energy, but solar energy was also used, yet to a lesser extent because of low energy output. ENG-Ms were also on every Starliner, including the Axiom, therefore contrary to a popular theory about how Axiom got its food, they were the ones providing nutrition and oxygen to breathe.
However, ENG-Ms required maintenance, especially they had to remain functional for centuries. They could break down from excessive use and this is why Outpost citizens, in the number of hundreds for each Outpost, always had their duties. Not everybody was an engineer here, though. The Outposts needed medics as well, not to mention tactical officers and even scavengers. The latest group was formed from the boldest individuals who risked their comfort and safety of their Outpost to actually go outside in order to check for dangers, weather conditions, fix detectors outside, or even to gather resources and old technology from the ruins.
It is 2805 AD and the ENG-M of Outpost 11 faltered. Its citizens still had a food and oxygen supply, yet it wouldn't last very long. Worry started to kick in, unsure of the future. No replacement parts, no upgraded driver for the ENG-M even. They established a connection with another, more developed settlement, Outpost 47, and the latter promised to give them any equipment necessary to fix the problem. The only part missing was the personnel willing to transport it.
There was only one volunteer for this task – others did not want to risk it. A young man with half of his face and throat scarred from an infection he caught a few years back which rendered him unable to speak. Due to the fear of society, he always more a scarf covering his lower face and whenever he could he wore orange-tinted AR goggles, standing for Augmented Reality goggles. Not only it covered his scabbed left eye, but also served him as a modern smartphone or VR goggles but with vision of what's in front of him included. The young man's name was Ohm and he recently turned 17.
Not everybody was surprised by this occurence. Ohm was known as a reliable scavenger, after all. He always volunteered for any task to be dealt with outside of his Outpost but this time it wasn't safe hit – no wonder why he was the sole volunteer. Other scavengers were too old or too wounded already, and the ones fit weren't willing to risk their health. After all, the travel from Outpost 11 to Outpost 47 was quite long, especially on foot, and the hazard of getting lost in a sandstorm or injured by rogue robots was high.
Ohm immediately got dressed in his dark long rugged coat with a hood and padded pants with steel sheets on them and knee protectors. His feet were protected by sturdy combat boots in darkened sand color. He put on an assault backpack to carry resources. Once he connected his AR goggles to his right glove, he made his way to the armory.
The quartermaster identified Ohm and gave him his equipment for the journey. Ohm received a HK416 rifle which had an underbarrel anti-gravity gun and an EMP gun next to it. He was also given a .357 Magnum revolver with extended barrel for greater velocity. After the weaponry, he also picked up the most important part of his gear and also the most trusted companion – Spark the scout drone.
Drones like Spark were made for reconnaissance in older militaries. They were not suited for sustaining heavy damage or providing heavy fire, given their small pair of machine guns on each side, but they were surely agile and could outmanouver their foes. Spark was mostly flat and had wings with jets on them and machine guns underneath. It had no real way or parts to express emotions with, which was unfortunate because he developed a basic level of sentience. Despite all these details and features, from a distance he looked like a rugged robot made out of scrap metal, given his a bit bulky build and patches of metal on the cover as a reinforcement measure. Even though it looked like an ancient machine, he was produced underground only a few dozens of years ago in one Outpost.
Ohm activated Spark and it immediately flew up, ready for service. He made his way to the Outpost's exist, which was essentialy an airlock separated with steel doors with a glass window. When leaving, he once again recalled his task inside his mind:
Get to Outpost 47. Grab all the essential parts for the ENG-M. Get to Outpost 11.
And with this instruction in both his mind and heart, Ohm moved forward towards the unknown, straight into the barren wasteland composed of nothing but sand, trash, and even ruins in the distance. He began walking and Spark flew from above at high speeds to scan for danger. The medium-paced march lasted for a lot of time and the sounds of his footsteps were accompanied by occasional wind blowing with sand particles flying in the air. The outside looked much different than his life in Outpost 11 and other Outposts he visited. The vast space and dead silence brought some discomfort. Then, he once again found out why the vast majority of people were not scavengers like him – for people living underground for centuries, the unlimited space and defeaning silence provided by the surface was simply terrifying.
Even though Ohm was used to the empty spaces, ruins gave him a bigger sense of worry. They provided him a sense of disbelief – huge ancient cities, once powerful and thriving, were now nothing more than blocks of concrete and steel. If humans were on such wheels of progress, then why would they jump off of said metaphorical wheels? In fact, why even jump when they can be stopped by a punctured tire in these wheels or stuck in mud?
After all, this is what happened – humans did not halt the progress out of their will. Humans supported the progress and the unmoderated and unsupervised progress made them ultimately fall.
Ohm continued to look out from danger by connecting to Spark's cameras through his AR goggles. Once fatigue eventually hit him, he rested behind a sand dune. He managed to march straight through the sandy plains for many hours and not only he felt exhausted from utter silence but from hunger aswell. From his belt, he pulled out a plastic tube filled with a white paste. Without thinking, he lowered his scarf mask and emptied the contents right into his mouth. It was completely without taste, however it had every nutrient his body needed to stay functional and, most importantly, very healthy. What most people realize is that apart from physical activity being the key to fitness and health, nutrition is equally important, if sometimes not even more.
He made sure his feet did not ache him anymore and he continued his journey. After another couple of time walking in silence, he finally went near the city ruins. This was certainly a harbour city with docks nearby and next to them there were skyscrapers. He visited enough city ruins in his life, but this one was seen rarely by him and it always amazed him.
Just as he reached the outskirts of them, Ohm caught a glimpse of something familiar and his heart froze in fear. A plant. A green leafed plant living on the surface next to a puddle.
All the plants Ohm has encountered so far on the surface were already dead and even then there were only two he saw on his very own eyes. This specimen, however, was verily much alive and doing well in this hositle environment. At the sight of this, Ohm was terrified because he clearly knew it could mean for the BnL that their hundreds years of work paid off and life is able to find a way again. He was warned thousands of times about it by the older citizens of his Outpost. He was warned since he was a little kid about how the bad people, the evil consumptionist from the BnL spaceships will come over to litter and destroy again once they have evidence Earth has vegetation back and can handle pollution once again.
In stress, he rushed over to the plant, undug it from the ground, and looked around for a safe place. He did not think of destroying it, he didn't know how to do it effectively and he never saw a plant this close living on the surface. Therefore, he made the unthinkable – he opened a fridge nearby and put the plant with soil right into it so it could rest here. After closing it, he fistpumped in joy, believing that he secured it and made it unable to be found by anything from the surface. He would pick it up later once he gets equipment for that – it could be valuable for Outpost scientists after all.
This moment was ended quickly. Spark turned mid-air to a pile of garbage. Ohm immediately aimed his rifle at the threat, but his drone already fired a few rounds at the garbage pile. From behind it, a faint fizzle of burnt electronics and burst of small light could be seen. Spark flew closer and there Ohm could see it through his AR goggles – the eliminated threat was in fact a broken massage bot.
After the gunshot, a few following service bots came out of various places – from behind the vehicles, from inside the buildings, nearly everywhere one might imagine. They seemed broken beyond repair, left without maintenance for hundreds of years and their software drastically deteriorating. Because of the failures in recognition of living organisms, they charged at them both. Ohm did not want to retreat. He took cover behind one of the cars and put one robot down with a double-tap. The 7.62x51mm NATO caliber was clearly superior at piercing metal and thus it was his caliber of choice.
Both Ohm and Spark managed to defeat the rogue machines without taking damage themselves. After the skirmish, Ohm moved forward to examine the opponents. He bowed down to check the bot which got destroyed. It was an industrial robot, made for lifting heavy loads. Just then, Spark suddenly fired a few bursts at another building and Ohm immediately aimed at the target.
Then, he got hit in his head very hard by a pneumatic arm of another bot. He fell down in pain with a loud thud, dropping his rifle and then pushed the hostile robot off of him with his legs. Unfortunately, Spark was busy with other enemies on his side, a bit far from him, so did not manage to help him. Yet thankfully for him, the bot got suddenly fried from inside and shut down immediately. Ohm's heartrate spiked up drastically and he grabbed his rifle in panic, worrying about more trouble.
However, all of Ohm's worries faded away when a few ACL militiamen came towards him, each of them still dressed like desert militias, wearing either jackets or coats, and either caps, berets, or hoods. Just as earlier, their recognizable feature was a dark green armband.
„You're from Outpost 11, aren't you?!" One of them called out, possibly the leader. He was completely bald and had a synthetic dark short jacket, his arms were wielding a modern sniper rifle, yet outdated for their standards. Brown-tinted goggles were covering his eyes.
At this call, Ohm did not respond. He just looked around and aimed with his rifle at the windows and entrances.
„Ey, I'm talkin' to you!" The ACL team leader spoke again. „You ticked me off with the roguebots, you know what you're doing, kid?"
Just as he was done talking, Ohm turned back to the team and lowered his rifle, nodding slowly in approval. His drone Spark flew over and stood next to his right shoulder.
ACL team leader only shrugged and continued: „You're alive and that's what matters. Outpost 11 told me about you. I'm Razor."
Ohm nodded politely and then Razor tilted his head in confusion and disappointment. He walked up to the young scavenger and asked him:
„Hey, you're a mute or what?"
After a few seconds, Ohm nodded again. Razor scoffed and commented:
„Well, at least we know you're not deaf." And chuckled at his own joke. „Come on, lad, Outpost 47 is not far away from here, let's get moving!"
