Planetarium

Part Two- Son of War

Chapter 1- Victory
Ashton woke up feeling dizzy on a slab of metal that he was chained to. A nurse came in and escorted him outside where his family was waiting.
"We watched all of it son," said his mother.
"What happened in there?" he asked.
"You won the 74th Philly, son. I am so proud of you son."
"What about Ashley?"
"She saved you and she got demoted to janitor." his mother explained.
"Come outside son. There are people waiting."
He walked with his mother until they came to a platform with all of Ballistae surrounding it.
Odair came up to him and placed a medal around his head. Then he spoke about all of the candidates, especially Ashley and Henry and Harry. Then he talked about his decision with his secretaries to promote Ashton more than usual. He left the stage and Juliet Larry, the head commander came in. She talked about deciding to promote Ashton to general because of his bravery in the arena by conjuring up his team and charging Victor. Then she said in a very loud voice, "Hail General Ashton Lawrence!" And all of Ballistae said,
"Hail General Ashton Lawrence!"

Then he understood. This was a new era. A new age. An entire civilization was created. It wasn't just plain old human beings anymore. No, it was an endangered species fighting Nature for freedom and survival.

After the presentation, many people congratulated him on his promotion. He decided to go visit Ashley at her compartment, but she wasn't there. Then he went to the Special Defense Room because of his schedule. There Odair was waiting for him. He presented him an orb with radioactive power inside.
"This orb is an electric charge motor for a hovercraft engine. After it is placed inside the engine, the hovercraft can go at hyper speed. Here, take it."
Ashton was shocked. President Odair, giving him the most important artifact Ballistae had.
It was too much. But Odair hadn't finished speaking.
"Of course this will not work without the hovercraft. We have created the best super tech hovercraft ever for you."
He led him into the hangar. Ashton almost fainted. Sitting right in front of him was the biggest and coolest spaceship in the history of time. "We can change the color and the name if you want," said Odair. No, this was perfect. The ship's name was the HOLO. The color was a maroon and silver color. It had bomb trapdoors in the belly and it had guns and cannons in the back and on the sides. On top it had a nuclear ballistae tower. In the front it had a supersonic cockpit that separated from the ship if they had to abandon the ship. He loved it. He was about to say thank you to Odair when Odair interrupted him.
"Don't thank me; it was your sister who arranged this. Well, I also wanted to tell you about the location of the arena. It wasn't real. There was no food or water. There is no other planet with food and water other than Earth."

Chapter 2- The HOLO
Two years after receiving HOLO, Ashton has recruited a whole crew. A woman named Anne Jacobsen is the new copilot. A reparation droid stands in the back, ready to fix a cable or wire on the roof. His name is Clank. A young boy, the gunner, befriends the droid and becomes inseparable. His name is Ratchet. He does not have a last name. Ashton and his crew have been exploring the endless void of Space. Now he has been receiving more and more nightmares of Earth. He has doubts about whether they are the only species left alive in the universe. One time about four years ago, he found a space station on the remnants of the third star of the belt of Orion. It had a robotic arm with a huge magnet that attracted ships that ran out of gasoline or electricity. He stopped there and had thought to himself; humans don't build this type of technology. This was way more advanced. The only thing he found in the space station was a leather jacket with faded letters on it. He only read a part of it. The part that said: Fredrick Lawrence.

Ashton had been playing in the backyard of his house when his mother told him to pick up his toys and get into the car because they had to get to the airport to go on vacation. This was Ashton's first time outside of Austin, Texas, the state they were living in, and he thought it was really cool. The odd lady that asked him bizarre stuff like "Ravioli or tortellini?" was the exception though. But even then, his mother stood up for him and said, "Do you have any mac and cheese that he could eat?" That drove her away. Then, after eating, he would go to the pilot seat and touch all the cool buttons until the pilot and his mom told him to go back to his seat. He always wanted to be a pilot when he was little. He wanted to be a pilot when he grew up, but not his sister Ashley. She wanted to be a soldier and fight for her country. That's when his dream messed up. Ashley was the girl that got him into the amazing position of explorer and general all those years ago at Philly. Seeing her pained expression while cleaning weapons and scrubbing floors back at Ballistae in his photo album was too much to bear. Then, while seeing her face, he imagined how his father must have looked like. His mother told him that he had been the pilot of a rocket that went haywire and was never seen again. That's what inspired him to become explorer as well as general. Then, not that long ago, came the memory of finding his father's jacket on an old and abandoned space station. Then as the dream re winded, he heard the explosion, tasted the metallic taste of the air, saw the planets melting before his eyes, and felt the abusive heat of the sun's rays piercing through the cracks under the subway door. Then, surprisingly, he felt nothing.