The War of the Future

Chapter One The Congress Meating

March 1st 2050

President Andrew Myers was sitting in his desk in the White House, he had his pen in his robotic hand and was writing an anniversary letter to his deceased wife, Andrea. It was a tradition he decided to begin, in honour of her memory, He would write an anniversary letter and place it at her grave, in the hopes it would reach Heaven and she would read it. The letter said "Dear Andrea, happy anniversary, the years we had together were some of the best years of my life, it has been hard without you, but me and Mary are trying to pull through. We miss you every day and I hope that when I pass we will be reunited in Heaven". He then looked at a photo of Andrea on his desk. She was wearing similar clothes to the wife of John F Kennedy, appropriate because she looked up to Jacqueline Kennedy. Andrew placed the letter in his suitcase and then heard footsteps outside. The doors opened and Mike, his bodyguard, entered the office. "Sir, Congress is ready" said Mike. President Myers got up and said, "I will head over at once". He got his suitcase and exited the room with Mike. They made their way through the White House with at least 10 other body guard's in tow. They exited the White House and Myers instantly saw the tall towers of Washington City, capital of the United States of America and the most heavily guarded city on Earth. Within it's limits, 678 elected officials, 140 foreign embassies and 100,000 Military personnel. Aside from all that, it is the most prosperous city on earth, with a population of 10 million and a poverty rate of zero percent. It was the city where they developed the bacteria that ate up the plastic in the ocean, the city where they made a cheaper version of the electric car, the city where conversion therapy was permanently banned almost 30 years earlier by the 46th President Joe Biden, shorty after his election. The city where the first female President, Kamala Harris, abolished the 22nd Amendment in 2032 and now the city where forced marriage would be banned forever.

Myers proceeded to get into his limousine. It was one of 5 limousines that all looked the same, so that if terrorists tried to assassinate the president, they would not know which one to hit. Myers got in to find his daughter, sitting in the seat where he was to sit. "Mary" Myers said with joy. They hugged each other and she said "Nice little surprise, right Dad?". Andrew chuckled and said "Certainly". They got in and the convoy sped of to the Capital building. Mary looked at a treasured possession Andrew gave her earlier. It was a photo of her mother, when she was a little girl, she had a white dress and a red bow. She was smiling to the camera and at the time was only 5 years old. "Nice to know what she looked like when she was growing up" said Mary. It had been a year since her mother died, she was killed by the same man who she was forcibly married to when she was Marys age! "Ya know, sometimes I still can't believe that her now former parents forced her to marry this snobbish rich guy who she didn't even know, they said it was in keeping with their traditions, they said that you shouldn't marry the one you love, but rather love the one you marry, its a stupid thing to say and not to mention her now ex-husband tried to rape her". Mary looked at her father and asked him "Must've been hard for her". Andrew sighed and said "She was able to escape and was on the streets for months before my parents found her, they took her in and we fell in love. Not to mention how we joined the marines and fought in the Venezuelan War. It's how I lost my hand" he said, while pointing at his robotic right hand. "That was about 22 years ago, am I right?" asked Mary, trying to confirm it. "Yes it was" said President Myers, confirming what his daughter had said. He then said "Not long later the war ended and Venezuela became a Democracy again."

"We left the Marines and got married after the war" said Andrew, reminiscing on his life in the Marines. "I then realised that the now defunct Republican Party didn't care about us soldiers, so I joined the Democratic Party and supported a policy of only going to war if we are struck first." said Myers. Myers had been elected President in the 2046 election and was running for a second term as president. What really helped him win was the fact that he was descended from late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who started the space race. "Of course who could forget that Jerome hated me for marrying your mother and he became extremely delusional" he said, remembering how insane Jerome Hockley was. Mary then said "Of course I'll never forget how the guy tried to shoot you while as drunk as a Russian in a Moscow pub, but I'll never forget how the bullet missed you......and hit Mom". They both felt a few tears come out of their eyes. Andrea had been an excellent mother, but she went to heaven too soon. "At least now nothing like that will happen again" said Mary as the convoy reached the Capital Building. The building was huge and was guarded by over 1000 soldiers. There were anti air guns, armoured vehicles and even a couple of tanks. All to protect the meeting place of the most powerful government on Earth. Andrew got out of the car and said to the driver "Take Mary to school please". The driver nodded and said "Yes sir". Mary looked at her father and said "Bye Dad". Andrew waved her good bye and got to work. Andrew entered the Capital Building, the soldiers saluted him saying "Hail to the Chief". He went inside with the bodyguards who sought to protect him with their lives. He passed by many important paintings, such as the one depicting the Declaration of Independence and another showing the burning of the White House in the War of 1812. He finally entered the Congress, where over 600 house representatives and Senators were jammed into and applauded the arrival of the President. Myers sat down next to the Vice President (A Democrat) and the Senate Majority leader (Also a Democrat).

He tested the microphone and said "Members of the Congress, as you know, the United States of America has had a rich history, we were once a colony of an imperialist Monarchy, but we rose up and gained our independence. We once split into a civil war over the poison of slavery that ended with the abolition of that atrocity, we liberated Venezuela after 3 years of fighting and restored the Democracy down there and who could forget when 2 decades ago, Mexico agreed to become the newest member of this magnificent country of ours". The Congress members nodded at this as he recalled American history. "But sadly during all of that there has been a thorn in our side.....forced marriage" said President Myers. "You have that right sir!" Senator Jones shouted. Other Congress members quickly agreed with him on that. "There are those who claim that forced marriage is just marriage as a whole, but it is not, it destroys the lives of people everywhere, it takes away the futures of the women who are put through it and in the past 274 years since our nations founding, it has still not been banned! A ban on forced marriage, can not wait, it must now wait and for gods sake it will not wait another 274 years" Myers said with great confidence and fearlessness. The Congress members immediately applauded his speech and Myers then said "My wife, God rest her soul, was put through forced marriage, she was fortunate to escape that slavery sham of a marriage, but a year ago her former husband, God have mercy on him, tried to murder me, but missed and tragically killed her". A tear went down his eye as he reminisced of his beloved Andrea, who had departed this Earth too soon. Andrew pulled himself together and said with great confidence "We cannot let it happen to anyone else, so who votes that we ban it for good?" Democratic Congress members started standing up and saying "I!" as loud as a jet engine at an airport! In just 10 seconds, all the Democrats in congress had voted for the ban. Members of the Federalist Party did the same, but others didn't. The Democratic Party had for 8 years in a row, held 50 percent of the seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, so they had the majority. 30 percent of the senate and house and senate were held by the 'Patriots' Party and the rest by the Federalist Party. Both the Patriots and the federalists were successors to the Republican Party, who collapsed after Donald Trumps attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. "All of those opposed?" asked Vice President William Roan. As expected, all of the Patriots party members got up and said "Neigh!" But it wasn't nearly as loud as the I's. Myers then proudly said with a smile "The I's have it". Applause was then heard form the Congress and 1 hour later the Forced marriage act of 2050 was passed, making forced marriage illegal forever!

All across America people celebrated the fact that now never again would an American be forced into any more slavery shams of Marriages and that forced marriage was now punishable by 15 years in prison. All across the nation, people who had committed forced marriage were being arrested for their sins and justice was being served. It reminded a lot of Americans of how Kamala Harris, the first female President, made it compulsory that if a female inmate gave birth in prison, the child was to be placed into foster care, mainly because a prison is no place for a child to grow up and by allowing kids to be raised in prison, the U.S Government were ruining lives. Fortunately, after the "Child of Inmate" act was passed, the government issued an apology and President Harris pledged to "Make it right". A while later, President Andrew Myers exited the Capital Building with the other Congress members and the Vice-President to find a huge crowd of people cheering them on. Myers then got to the microphone and said "My fellow Americans, as you know forced marriage has been a scourge in America for far too long, but now never again will an American be forced into a marriage that they do not want". The crowd cheered even louder. "Now understand that forced marriage will never be legal, it will never be tolerated and it will never have exceptions, forced marriage is NOT marriage....its a CRIME" Myers said to the crowd. He was about to continue talking when all of a sudden, a lightening strike was heard. The sky had been nice and cloudless with clear skies, but now clouds had covered the entire sky and were emitting a strange bright blue lightning that didn't strike anything. "That's weird, the weather forecast said it would be nice and sunny today and thanks to enhanced weather tech, the weather forecast hasn't gotten the weather wrong in over 20 years" said Vice President Roan. The crowd was also very confused, but then they realised something, the clouds went on for miles and they were all going in one direction in incredibly un-Earthly speeds, west. "Send a drone over to where those clouds are headed" said President Myers. "Yes sir!" said one of the soldiers, who then had his drone head towards the location where the huge clouds were heading. The clouds all emitted a bright blue lightning and seemed to go on to the ends of the Earth. The drone finally arrived at the eye of this mysterious storm, 20 minutes later and what its camera broadcasted to the crowd via a hologram shocked the world. Even the veteran diplomat Daniella Ramos, who had singed the papers that bought Mexico into the USA years earlier, could not contain her shock. At the centre of the storm that no rain and seemingly harmless blue lightning was coming from, there was a ginormous ball of blue electricity.