Charm a Relic

Chapter One: Sam and Kenneth Gusterson

Twelve years have passed since the full disclosure of a man made top secret space program called Stellar Overseer. 

For the people of Earth, it was a very difficult time, but from the end of a century of secrets came the dispersal of advanced technologies for energy, propulsion, health and saving the environment.

One such technology was the use of vehicles that could hover across the sky at high speeds, creating artificial gravity for the user inside the vehicle. Each person on the planet was granted access to one of these vehicles in the form of a hover bike. This was meant to be a basic introduction to this new form of transportation technology. Over the years these hover bikes were modified for racing by young men and women who competed with each other in a newly invented sports game called Droneflag.

On one day, in Spring, such a game of Droneflag sparked the events that would change the course of Earth's history, much more than any revelation about Extraterrestrials or advanced technologies ever could.

Along the shores of Lake Huron, there was a quiet forest full of young trees. It was once farm land, now reclaimed by nature. Deer were grazing happily there, until they perked their heads up due to a ruckus. There were two teenagers that flew by racing each other through the forest.

Thirteen year old Sam Gusterson checked the global positioning satellite from his bikes monitor. His location was a yellow dot over the terrain where the match was taking place. The other player was Sam's cousin, Kenneth Gusterson, who was determined to win this match for the minor league recruiters that were watching him play.

"Don't forget to grab the flag Sammy!" A voice shouted at Sam from his bike's speaker. The voice belonged to a nine year old girl named June Peyton. She was watching the game from the beach in the company of other young people. They were all gathered with their eyes fixated upon a large screen showing the match.

Sam was well aware that he not only had to beat his cousin to the finish line, but he also had to capture a hidden flag at a location that was half way before the finish line. As this was a one versus one match there was only a single hidden flag that one player had to find and carry to the finish line.

Kenneth raced past Sam at an incredible speed with his shiny new hover bike, it was more advanced and aerodynamic than Sam's older model.

"Give it up freak boy! You don't stand a chance!" Kenneth shouted as he turned around to taunt him, but Sam would not let it phase him as he looked for the location of the hidden flag.

Sam noticed that there were many wind turbines in what was once a wind power farm. The turbines were now covered in vines and left to decay and return to nature. The flag was attached to a drone that was programmed to find a random hiding spot among the old turbines. Sam was unaware of which wind turbine the drone would be hiding the flag in. He wished that he could gain more altitude to check the top of each wind turbine but it was against the rules of the game and Sam wanted to win without cheating. While his eyes scanned the wind turbine top to bottom he did not see the "Danger do not enter" sign that was also partially covered in vines.

As Sam came close he realized the enormity of these wind turbines. He looked up and counted what must have been thirteen or more. Some were broken and did not have their tops any longer because they had fallen to the ground. Sam passed the first wind turbine and was greeted by a cloud of wasps, he turned on a shield to clear any insects in his path after the first few hit him.

The shield repelled living creatures by activating their instincts to know to move out of the way of vehicles. Sam was headed for one particular wind turbine that was much taller and larger than the others. On this very large wind turbine there were some faded markings. Sam tried to read it, but he could only make out the word "Goals."