THE IRON SHIELD

Prologue

       

PROLOGUE

            History has changed over the last several years.  Scientists have successfully been able to use the Moon for mining its minerals for scientific purposes.  No one would have guessed that the Moon's rocks could be changed into fossil fuel; much cleaner and reliable than diesel fuel. 

In the near future, the population is nearing eight billion and over population is a fear for many of the world's largest or most populated and more economical countries at the time. The most populated and economical countries pull together its resources to build the largest city in the world on Hawaii.  The entire island of Hawaii is made into one large city. However, the largest island is the city only.  The rest of the smaller islands are for farming, but there are several greenhouses in the city as well.  With the United States being the largest benefactor in the largest city project it was agreed upon by the other countries-England, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, India, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina, France, Egypt, South Africa, and Brazil-to allow the city to be in United States territory, despite the fact that Hawaii already belonged to the United States.  Russia was unable to contribute due to its weak economy, although it wished to do so greatly. 

            The city was named Independence.  The city itself was a state and replaced Hawaii as the fiftieth state of the United   States.  Independence is three times the size of New York City and can be seen from space.    It consists of three airports, six ports, and a nuclear reactor.  The nuclear reactor is located on the nearest island to Independence. The only buildings that would be considered houses were the ones that were all one big building, but was essentially a group of houses brick and mortared together.  Nearly all living quarters were apartments, but there were some of the houses as mentioned earlier. 

            At the center of the city was the tallest building in the city and the world having passed the Burj Khalifa over in Arabia-IndependenceTower.  IndependenceTower stood with 256 floors including maintenance and parking floors and standing at a breathtaking height of 3,645 feet. 

            Since the city is three times the size of New York City, which has an average population of eight million, Independence has an average population of twenty-five million.  Over the next few years Independence's population has grown to the average population of twenty-five million.  Most of the people in the city migrated from the United States.  A small section in the city is where many Chinese stayed, since China has the most populated country in the world.  Other countries spread out all over the city but the United States remained dominant. 

            Much of the funding from the United States came from the increased amount of oil drilling in the country, particularly in North Dakota and Alaska. 

            The year is 2037.