The War of the Future

Chapter Twenty Six The Memorial

March 15th 2050

It had been a week since congress got to work on passing the Correct the Future Act, which banned the use of machines in warfare and the United States Advanced Warfare regiment were overjoyed that the War of Annihilation would now never come to pass. All 500,000 of the people from the future had been nicknamed "Futurians" by the people of 2050, it was something to do with the fact they were from the future. All 500,000 of them were gathered at Memorial Square, including General Hunter Spears Padlock the 1st and his son, Hunter the 2nd. Memorial Square was erected in 2026, to honour those who had perished in all wars, on all sides and to serve as a reminder of the pointlessness of war. It was a statue of a soldier, returning from the Second World War, to reunite with his wife and the twin sons he had never seen. There was a plaque below the statue that said "In honour of all the soldiers who fought and died in all wars, on all sides". General Padlock and Hunter the 2nd got up on the stage, General Padlock tapped his microphone and began his speech.

He said "Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming on this sad day. Today marks the beginning of the next 50 years until the day the War of Annihilation began, the war that in the vanquished future, cost the lives of over 12 billion people and almost caused our extinction. But it taught me a very valuable lesson and it is that war...war never changes. In the American Revolutionary War, the American People took up arms, stood shoulder to shoulder and marched to fight for their independence. Some of them came home, others....died fighting for their country and families. We celebrated our victory in the war, mourned our dead and moved on. Almost a century later, the southern States seceded and formed the Confederacy, the reason for this was because they refused the idea of African Americans living as equals to Caucasian Americans and wanted African Americans to be their slaves. Once again, the American People took up arms, stood shoulder to shoulder and marched to fight to preserve the Union and free the slaves. The war ended in a Union victory and slavery's permanent illegality. However, tens of thousands of Americans died in the fighting and once again, we celebrated our victory in the war, mourned our dead and moved on. Years later, in 1914, the First World War began, the First World War all started with some old Duke getting shot in Sarajevo by a Serbian Nationalist, this should have gone down as a sad footnote in history, instead......it changed history. The war saw the use of chemical weapons, trench warfare and the use of submarines. During the war, Germany used submarines to sink ships that were brining vital resources to the Allies and many Americans were killed in these attacks. This led to America joining the War in 1917, once again, the American People took up arms, stood shoulder to shoulder and marched to avenge their fellow sunken citizens. Well over 4 and a half million Americans were sent to Europe to fight in the war, with our help the war was won, but 117,000 of our people were killed in the fighting and yet again, We celebrated our victory, mourned our dead and moved on. 20 years later in 1939, Germany was taken over by Adolf Hitler, who began the Second World War and sought to kill all non-white people. At first our great nation wanted nothing to do with it, but after Hitler's Japanese ally devastated Pearl Harbour, We had no choice and once again, the American people took up arms, stood shoulder to shoulder and marched to end the Fascist abominations of the axis powers. It was almost four years later in 1945, when we won the war by obliterating the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The was was won, but 60 million people had died world wide, among them were 418,500 Americans, yet again we celebrated our victory, mourned our dead and moved on. By this point you have realised that the same cycle of war has repeated itself, over and over again. With no end in sight wars have been fought across the world, the leaders claim that the wars are fought for freedom, unity, country and people. But in reality, the wars are fought for nothing but a meaningless hatred for each other. For centuries we have been tearing each other apart and it has been said by Pacifists that war will someday end us all. In the vanquished future, we created a machine to fight war for us and it went to war with us. The War of Annihilation began with a full blown Atomic onslaught and 10 billion people died. War-Net proceeded to unleash its machines to kill us all and 2 billion more died over the next 40 years. When the war came to an end, Earth was unrecognizable and our civilisation was almost destroyed. It was a full decade after the war that Me and 500,000 others were sent back to ensure that it never happened, we succeeded and now the war shall never happen. But we must never forget the billions throughout history who have payed their lives for pointless wars, that end in nothing but countless deaths as far as the eye can see. We tried to make war safe, but we forgot one very important lesson, the same lesson I was taught by my time in the army....its that war......war never changes."

The crowd applauded his speech, after the applause was over, Hunter the 2nd said "Now a moment of silence to those who perished in all the wars that our great nation has fought". For the next 15 seconds, the entire crowd was silent and respectful to those who died in the wars. When the silence was over, General Padlock said "Thank you all for helping honour the dead on this sad day, may we never have to fight in another pointless war again". As the crowd started to talk amongst themselves, General Padlock and Hunter the 2nd got of the stage and started walking to the car with 5 bodyguards in tow. General Padlock asked Hunter the 2nd "How's school been?" Hunter the 2nd smiled and said "The students and teachers are nice enough, I'm studying hard for school each night and my teacher said I might get into college". General Padlock was proud of his son and proceeded to say "Good then, after all, I never had the chance to go to college. Mainly because of the whole collapse of civilisation we were dealing with". Hunter the 2nd chuckled and said "At least the war will never happen". As they arrived at the convoy, General Padlock got a call on his phone.

He answered it and heard the voice of President Andrew Myers. Myers was in his office, filling out some paperwork and said to General Padlock "General, there's going to be a meeting at the United Nations in a few days, the UN wants you to attend and make a testimony regarding automation". Myers then continued to say "They also want soldiers of the United States Army Advanced Warfare Regiments to be present outside the UN headquarters". General Padlock processed Andrew Myers words and asked "What regiments sir?" Andrew Myers enthusiastically replied "All of them".