Uprising [Book Two of the Mission Orion Series]

Prologue

Peace. Isn't that what we all want? Peace. Peace in our heads, peace in our hearts, and peace all around us. We may not realise how precious peace is until it is taken away from us. The world rushes past us, and we are stuck in it, sometimes so lonely, just waiting for someone to come by and offer a hand and we wait for them to comfort us and we want to have that inner peace. Countries go to war and soldiers are martyred. Our leaders repeat the same rhetoric again and again on the daily news. Peace is now synonymous with the lack of violence. And this is what is wrong with us.

The war with the Kenjah has passed. Cities are being rebuilt. The humans are working hand in hand with their creators. They have sent our various envoys to other known civilizations and are in the process of setting up their embassies on other planets, urging them to do the same on theirs. The humans haven't gone to their designated planet yet, they are still helping the Vortex with rebuilding Photrox. Most of the people accepted their differences and both the species were now closer than ever before. The Human Province's population had grown incredibly since the end of the war and it now stood in terms of millions instead of thousands. The Human Province was mostly self-sufficient, with abundant food resources and sufficient water bodies to keep the population hydrated. But the other provinces and the Senate were reluctant to invest in the Human Province. They just didn't trust them enough. In spite of this, everything was peaceful on the Photrox.

But that didn't mean there weren't any problems. Not all the members of the Vortex species were happy with us residing on their planet. These members formed various groups, which held protests in many parts of the Photrox, but most of these protests were concentrated in the newly built Capitol City. Although most of these groups, which numbered to a total of fifty two identified groups, were peaceful, there were a handful of groups who took to arms. After the devastating Year Three twin bombings in the Lockertown, the administrative capital of the Human Province, the provincial government had taken upon itself the responsibility to protect the humans and hence constructed a thin border wall around the human province and in addition to that, a heavily reinforced border wall around Lockertown. The frequency of the bombings went down drastically after strict border control and peace was restored in the Human Province.

It soon was Year Ten and the militant groups fell off radar suddenly to the surprise of the intelligence agencies. The bombings and other acts of violence had ceased in entirety and the members of these groups were never heard of again. Montwik had passed away due to an accident and George Bennington had stepped down as the Mayor of the Human Province after a dramatic corruption scandal.

By Year Fifteen, things were running as smoothly as possible and peace was flourishing around the planet. Communication had been established with twenty three other species in the universe. All these species had a nominal place in the Senate and didn't have any real powers. The Senate held their meetings every year at the new Capitol City and all the important members of the provinces were expected to be there at the annual Senate meetings. It was the mantle of power on the Photrox.

Photrox soon appeared to be the complete opposite of how it was during the reign of the Kenja. It was liberated from the clutches of the evil, and was the epicentre of peace and acceptance. But as they say, nothing lasts forever and things went from utopia to dystopia in one day. It was the day of the assassination.

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Author's Note: This is the sequel to my first book, Mission Orion: The Travel through Time, as the title of the book suggests and you should check that out before you start reading this book. To those readers who've started this book after reading the Prequel, I hope this Prologue has given you an insight about how the book is going to be. It still is primarily a Science Fiction book, but I'm experimenting with a couple of other genres as well, which will be apparent as the book progresses. Thank you for your support throughout this journey and here's to a new chapter :)
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