Part One

Kaos Theory

The word Kaos is most used when referring to war and the thoughts it brings to mind. “War is Kaos” has always been the popular expression, thousands of seemingly random people perishing at the push of a terrorist’s button. Kaos Theory tells a different story. War isn’t Kaos, in fact, nothing is ever Kaos. No matter what something somewhere along the line caused the events taking place to be set in motion. The events that happen during war happen for a reason. The terrorist pushed the button not to destabilize society and cause Kaos but because somewhere in their conflicted minds they felt mass murder by suicide was the only way they could win. This wasn’t Kaos and could be contributed to the extremist beliefs instilled in them from a young age or by gunpoint. Hurricane Katrina wasn’t Kaos, there were dynamic atmospheric and oceanic conditions that set it into motion, conditions that were monitored long before it ever made landfall. A comet heading towards earth isn’t Kaos; this was always going to happen and was caused by our solar systems dynamic gravitational conditions. Just because you don’t understand why something is happening doesn’t mean it’s happening without cause. Kaos Theory simply states that everything happens for a reason and we can follow any event back to its origin.

Reason for War

There are some things humans can’t do without. Food, water, shelter and war keep us busy surviving one day to the next. It’s in our nature to conquer and explore. If we weren’t this way we would never have made it through the dark ages or even through our ancestor’s beginnings as nomads. Theology would have still been the guiding light in a broken existence. The terrorist with extremist beliefs fought for his religion. He believed that in the afterlife there are many virgins and other wonderful magical experiences waiting for him. Promises of an afterlife no one can prove is the main theme that gives power to those who would falsely proclaim they know the truth. Religion had its purpose instilling proper morals and values into the public but it also brought the worst out of people in times of crisis and persecution. Most religions suppressed exploration outside the church while still conducting holy campaigns to convert unbelievers. These campaigns sparked wars that thrived all the way to the 21^st century regardless of the fact that hundreds of years had past since humanities darkest hours. It would seem we still hadn’t quite made it into the light.

War has had many faces and claimed to be in the name of religion, love, retribution and ethnic cleansing. The fact is all these wars would not have been fought if resources couldn’t have been attained. Sure Hitler really wanted to free everyone of what he believed to be genetic fallacy but his true aim was to control the world and all its resources. When the Crusades fought to rid the Holy Land from Muslim rule early in the middle ages they sought to control resources. If they maintained control of the nonbeliever’s resources they would force them to believe in their God or whither away and die. No matter what the original reason for war the plan was always the same, take control of your enemy’s resources. At first to stop their ability to wage war and after it was over to benefit from everything acquired.

War and exploration have always seemed to go hand in hand. Early settlers of any country had to fight for their right to claim land they knew had vital resources. In battles over territory the side with the most experience in warfare wins. Survival of the fittest is the only route to success in a constantly evolving existence.

Quality of Life

By the middle of the 21^st century humans had conquered many of the challenges that were cause for war. Scientific advancements in medical technology gave us the ability to live long past our expected lifespan.

The global economic and climate calamities early in the century were overcome by massive international cooperation. Recycling became law by the year 2020 and every government, commercial and private company worldwide had to be constantly inspected to ensure every possible measure was taken to preserve mother Earth. Individuals began to realize that with much longer lifespans they weren’t damaging the future for just their children; they were damaging it for themselves. They also realized that by being more efficient their quality of life increased dramatically. Daily personal activities, routines and even eating habits had to be examined and re-engineered to sustain the exponential economic and industrial growth seen between the 19^th and 21^st centuries. All existing and planned buildings, cars, boats and planes were mandated to be constructed with ultra-light nano-fiber materials and new 90% efficient solar panels that are adaptable to any surface. The panels collected photon energy from the sun and converted it to electricity that was stored and feed into local electrical grids when cars, boats or planes were parked. Overpopulation was managed by making highly efficient use of resources and creating vastly more efficient methods for food production and waste management. Meats were all together replaced with high quality cloned and lab grown substitutes by 2033. The planets super volcanoes, like the one at Yellow-Stone National Park, were tamed by immensely durable nano-carbon tubes that very carefully bleed pressure and magma from their massive calderas. At this point in time the last challenge facing humanity and its quality of life was the struggle for energy.

Nuclear fusion was the target of this debate for nearly a century. Five 1-gigawatt fusion plants would replace conventional US energy needs at no extra cost. These five plants could operate for a thousand years on 200lbs of fuel. Building more plants would dramatically reduce energy costs and increase room for growth exponentially. Plants using fossil fuels created harmful emissions, unlike fusion power plants which didn’t emit any unwanted substances into the atmosphere.

Viable fusion’s major issue was the fuel needed for maximum efficiency, helium 3. It was a rare element on earth because it’s created by radioactive decay over long periods of time much like fossil fuels. The difference was fossil fuels were created only on earth by organic decay over vast amounts of time. They existed nowhere else in the solar system apart from scarce deposits on mars. Helium-3 was a product of inorganic radioactive decay that could be found in many parts of the solar system like the atmosphere of Jupiter and embedded in the crust of the moon.

By the year 2035 the United States, European Space Agency (ESA), Russia, China, Japan and India all had base camps on the moon. At first efforts were made to work together while exploring and mining but eventually they separated into two separate camps, working totally independently from each other. The Lunar Act of 2041 was created to establish boundaries and maintain an equal share of the moons resources. Russia and China worked together under their new name the Republic of Asia (RoA) to occupy one half while the US, ESA, Japan and India under the name Lunar Missions International (LMI) occupied the other half.

In the lunar regolith massive quantities of helium-4 existed with small amounts of highly valuable helium-3 spread throughout. To cost effectively transport the elements to earth all the helium-3 had to be first extracted from the helium-4 deposits via manufacturing and refining facilities on the moon. It was agreed that both parties would mine about half of the available helium-3 a piece. It stayed this way for 50 years evolving into a very low cost high yield operation for both sides. By the beginning of the 22^nd century most of the lunar regolith was mined and refined from the moons surface and operations were starting to shut down. On Earth, helium-3 was distributed to all working nuclear fusion power stations around the world. The RoA supplying most of Asia and Africa during and after mining operations, while LMI supplied North and South America, Australia and Europe. Once everything shutdown the stock piles on earth were inspected twice a year by independent agencies to maintain equal distribution.

The US, ESA and Republic of Asia were using the moons low gravity to easily send ships all over the solar system at very low cost compared to launching from Earth. One main target for all space agencies was Mars. Since it once had plant life, a thicker atmosphere and water on the surface it may have had a habitable environment for humans. Eventually plans to terraform mars were on the drawing boards and by the year 2081 a planet wide operation was underway. Plans were to emit hydrocarbons into the atmosphere while building massive cities in self contained environments. Bulky pressurized suits with oxygen supply were needed when working outside the cities which slowed down the progress of terraformation.

Territorial management was laid out the same as on the moon. Approximately half of Mars was under the RoA and the other half under Mars Missions International (MMI) which was made up of the same countries as LMI with a few additions. A new treaty was born called the Mars Act of 2081. The act also sanctioned limitations on population growth to maintain stability of the developing ecosystem. Earth’s population had already passed the 10 billion mark and room on Mars was limited during early development. Since China was the majority it claimed a bigger portion of the eastern hemisphere than Russia. When Russia decided to join China creating the RoA back in the 2030’s the US and the rest of MMI ceased diplomatic relations. The US felt they should be two separate entities exploring the solar system apart from each other due to their history of corruption. Both countries still maintained their individual governments and names legally but were working together to explore beyond Earth. China wanted to do everything their way and because they had so many people and resources, they thought it was within their rights. Other nations rebelled, saying humanity isn’t one race it is an endless sea of many various people of many different cultures and backgrounds. Proclaiming that diversity and working together has been the only way evolution got us to where we are today. Eventually they just separated into the RoA and MMI, keeping policies and views away from one another.

Terraformation of Mars began when hydrocarbons were mined and imported from Jupiter’s satellites Ganymede and Callisto. Mars itself was rich with carbon dioxide and other critical elements locked in its surface layers. Eventually nitrogen and methane were extracted from Titans rich atmosphere but because it orbits Saturn it takes a lot longer to get it back to Mars. The hydrocarbons reacted with minerals and compounds already on the planet to create water and carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure continued to increase and temperatures started to rise as gases and the suns rays began to be trapped on the surface. More water was needed for the thirsty red planet and was imported from icy cosmic bodies such as the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Critical to the planets development of life, cyano algae started to flourish and was breed in massive lakes and ponds. The algae absorbed and purified water and in the summer it vaporized under the sun and evaporated into the atmosphere condensing into clouds that eventually fell back down as ran all over the planet. Water began to flow in rivers and streams collecting and dispersing Martian minerals and nutrients everywhere it went. The dry empty desert planet started to show signs of re-awakening. Plants that could survive extreme conditions on Earth were beginning to take root on Mars. Once the temperature was high enough the soil was tilled and agriculture began.Gradually carbon dioxide was converted into oxygen and by the middle of the 22^nd century half of the planets surface was green and the atmosphere was up from 0.13% to 14.3% oxygen. Pressure had increased dramatically from around 7 to 500 millibars due to the accelerated hydrocarbon transplantations. The ice permafrost stored beneath the surface began to thaw every summer in the southern hemisphere and by 2160 the temperature fluctuated from -70۫ F to 30۫ F.

The final stages of full planetary terraformation were nearing completion around the year 2185. Temperatures ranged from -40۫ F to 75۫ F, atmospheric pressure was 900 millibars at low altitudes and oceans covered a third of the planets surface. MMI had 12 large cities spread across the western hemisphere. Each city represented a different country back on earth and had populations around 50,000. The RoA had a significantly larger population on the eastern hemisphere and in the later 50 years of the planets development had constructed 19 cities with populations over 100,000 each. Russia claimed only five while China made up the other 14 cities. This brings the total population of mars to 2.5 million, which is still a very tiny fraction of the 18 billion back on earth.

The Last War

Tensions between the east and west continued to thrive long into the 22^nd century. On Earth the US still maintained military superiority and had a constant watchful eye on its neighbors and adversaries. Mars was more than two-thirds RoA and more than two-thirds of the RoA was China. China was also the first to begin to terraform Mars and through the Mars Act of 2081 controlled its military forces. Suspiciously, China seemed to be protecting itself and its territories more than any other country. Its old-world communist regime still trying to keep a hold of everything it could to ensure personal prosperity. Corruption had always been a problem and ran rampant among both Russian and Chinese government officials. The back-alley deals and political oppression interchanged between the two so much that it was another reason the Republic of Asia was born. However unjust many of the exploits were; it pushed them both into positions of immense power.

For some time the US and its allies suspected China of having secret space programs with hidden launch sites on Earth. They were unable to obtain any surveillance photos containing hard evidence confirming their existence. Even with autonomous drones equipped with stealth cloaking technology they couldn’t pass into mysterious black zones deep in the Hunan provinces of China. During the lunar missions of the 2090’s many sightings of rocket launches were reported by surrounding villages hundreds of miles away. Villagers claimed to see a bright trail of fire across the night sky but no rockets or ships igniting the blaze. On the moon two facilities with landing zones for Chinese lunar landing crafts were inaccessible to the Russians. Chinese officials maintained that their transportation capacities were smaller than the Russians or US and required more ships when delivering helium-3 back to Earth. Ship blue prints and design specifications corresponded to this claim.

On Mars the situation escalated out of control. Russian guards protecting a high-security storage facility are found dead and 3 tons of helium-3, all of Russia’s reserves, went missing. This was enough fuel to supply sufficient energy for Russian cities to last another 10,000 years or more. They immediately started a massive investigation set at the highest priority. If they didn’t get the precious fuel back they were looking at a bleak future on Mars. There was still enough helium-3 in fusion reactors to last them until the end of the year but that was it. They would have to use from their stock piles back on Earth.

Russian anti-Chinese revolutionaries immediately drew the conclusion that China was responsible. They always suspected China of finding massive helium-3 deposits on the moon and mining them before anyone could find out. A week into the investigations the revolutionists stumbled upon the smoking gun. Their talented secret task force in the Chinese city New Fuzhou found the stolen resources. Instead of ceasing it and transporting it back to Russian territory they planned to detonate a hydrogen bomb and destroy the city with all the helium-3 included. To them this was only the start; they didn’t want Mars to exist at all. Their plan was to nuke all 14 Chinese cities forcing everyone on either side of the planet to evacuate back to Earth. After a few hundred years they would reclaim Mars for their own and clean up any nuclear radiation still remaining. US intelligence caught onto the plan before it fully unfolded and stopped all but the first nuclear explosion. New Fuzhou was wiped off the face of Mars.

After the ash clouds settled an incredible surprise was revealed. China was using advanced shielding technology to protect against high energy particles from solar wind and cosmic rays. This shield protected the facility storing the helium-3; it was all still safely intact after the explosion. A fusion reactor, using the helium-3 itself, was powering the shield. Unfortunately there was still no way to access ground zero and get to the helium-3. The advanced shielding was actually intensifying the effects of nuclear fallout and its residual radiation.

Only special anti-rad robots equipped with Human Presence Technology (HPT) and small but powerful electromagnetic field generators could operate in that kind of environment. HPT had already been in use on the front lines of war for over a century. This takes people out of harms way and makes for a truly interesting career. It was first used with stealth fighter aircraft early in the 21^st century. AI (Artificial intelligence) was still a work in progress; nothing could come close to the responsiveness and intuition of human control. The operator would lie in a comfortable reclining chair which was enclosed. It scanned your body in real-time, made a link with your brain and put you in the driver’s seat of anything you could imagine. Right after its initial scan your eyes close, when you open them you feel and look as though you teleported somewhere else entirely.  The US had used it for decades with small space craft destined for nearby stars. A fully capable life-like robot much like an android is controlled with a human operator remotely by mission control in Houston. The cost actually decreased greatly because they didn’t need to bring along food or water.

The Chinese also had specialized robots with HPT and quickly surrounded the area in attempt to hide the helium-3 and transport it to a safe location. A Russian revolutionary was caught and under interrogation by Russian officials. He informed them that they detonated the nuclear weapon and it was China who stole the helium-3 which managed to survive the blast. Russia quickly organized its own military grade robots with HPT and rushed to New Fuzhou to reclaim their stolen property. When they arrive the Chinese are just finding out that Russian activists were behind the murder of 100,000 of their people.

An intense war erupts and they begin to engage each other around the borders of the city. Russia having fewer civilians on the planet already began evacuating to their colonial ships in orbit before China discovered who was at fault.  China was furious and quickly retaliated by launching four stealth inter-continental ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads to each Russian city. All four hit their targets and Russia lost 300,000 people not yet evacuated in an instance. Both Russia and China were not supposed to have any nuclear weapons or material in accordance with the Nuclear Disarmament Act of 2025. Obviously there was still some out there and in the wrong hands. Chinese response to questions of why they retaliated this way was because they said they didn’t see any other option. They some how came to the conclusion that this wasn’t like the cold war; there was no mutually assured destruction. All of Mars can be destroyed and survivors could just make their way back to Earth. They already lost one of their cities and didn’t want to lose another so in their minds all major Russian cities had to go. After finding out the new shielding technology was adequate enough to sustain a nuclear blast they deployed them in their three largest cities Elysium, Hesperia and New Beijing along with the one at New Fuzhou.

At this point MMI had to intercede before the planet was made unsuitable for human life. The US stopped a fifth Chinese nuclear missile from completely destroying the orbiting Russian colonial ships. Fortunately this missile was not equipped with stealth capabilities and could be targeted by a ground laser. It would also have knocked out a large portion of the planets electrical grid with its EM pulse. In response they quickly deployed 50,000 specially fitted heavily armored robotic troops with HPT to the cities in RoA territory. The US didn’t plan on ever dropping any nuclear warheads on any Chinese city. They did however make extensive plans incase someone else decided to do it against them. The US already had intelligence on China’s five missile launch sites and using satellites equipped with directional electromagnetic pulse weapons disabled the shields erected to protect them. Using ground based military grade lasers that could reflect off of satellites and back down anywhere on Mars they also disabled the Chinese forces controlling the Helium-3 storage compound in New Fuzhou. The moment they did that however, the Chinese targeted those reflecting satellites with their own ground based lasers and took them out. They then started targeting US military ships in orbit destroying all but one that made it on the far side of Phobos. This was no ordinary ship; it was a one stop war shop, equipped with the leading edge in space warfare technology and was named the USS Star One. It could even have sustained a direct hit from China’s ground based lasers but obviously didn’t want to risk any damages.

China couldn’t target the two EM Pulse satellites because they were equipped with experimental cloaking technology. Both of these satellites immediately began disabling all Chinese military installations and power plants across the eastern hemisphere. As soon as their shields were down the US military ship in orbit targeted their capital city New Beijing’s central government building and demanded surrender. No response. Three minutes later rural areas around the southern pole reported a blaze of fire across the sky but no missile or ship in front of the flame. With the US unaware, China’s military research and development departments had created their own cloaking technology decades ahead of anything anyone else had on the drawing boards. By manipulating particles in carbon atoms they could set them out of phase and put them in a different dimensional space undetectable by humans.

The one US city New Terra realized it was a nuclear missile heading straight for them. Panic and terror had already erupted in the city and there was no hope for evacuation. Star One tried to target the missile with its lasers but had no luck, the beams passed right through.

My story starts here, my name is Alexa Young. I was the lead science officer aboard Star One. My husband, Admiral Jon Young, was the commander of the fleet and ship captain. He was well known for his bravery and self-sacrifice in his long and distinguished military career. I loved him because even in a dead end situation with no way out, he never lost hope always fighting until the end. His reason was always the same, “If I lose you, I lose purpose and meaning, life would no longer be worth living.” So he would fight in my honor, protecting me and everyone else from harm. War was his way of showing me he loved me. Both of our families were living in New Terra and couldn’t find a way out, their lives were at stake. I had never seen that look in Jon’s eyes before; glazed, determined and overwhelmed with emotion. It scared me trying to think of what was going through his mind. This was a fight we could not lose or he would never forgive himself.

In response to the missile launch our lasers locked on and destroyed the main government building in New Beijing, hopefully depriving them of their military leadership. Aboard Star One was an untested transportation pod that was due to be ready in a few months. I was still working on the receiving end of the transportation process. As far as sending someone or something somewhere I was 90% sure it would work. We were able to track the missiles con trail back to its original launch point outside the Chinese city Secchi. The only way to stop the missile was by infiltrating the facility, finding the control room and altering its trajectory. Before I could stop him, Jon used the pod to transport himself somewhere inside the facility. I tried to transport him back before he was captured or killed but it wasn’t working. We all had to trust that he knew what was going on and had a plan that wouldn’t fail. Only 5 minutes remained before New Terra was completely destroyed. Thoughts of my family, our past and future together overwhelmed me, wasn’t sure what would happen if they were gone. I started to lose hope as the count down neared one minute when suddenly the missile began taking a new path. It started heading into the upper atmosphere away from the planet and out into space, he had somehow done it! The crew was still at a dead silence waiting to hear what happened and whether or not their savior made it out alive. He hadn’t. A live feed from the control room was displayed on our screens as Chinese soldiers made us watch them execute him. My heart stopped and I couldn’t breath, I could feel every part of me begin to dissolve away as all the images of our best moments together flashed before me. I had to gather myself and remember that without his sacrifice over 50,000 people would have lost their lives. That day he forever became a legend and was an inspiration to us all.

The crew was furious and instantly retaliated with full force. Although we had no nuclear weapons, we still had tactical bombs capable of producing the same destruction but without any nuclear fallout. One at a time they were prepped and placed in the transportation pod each targeting a different Chinese military installation. Within minutes China no longer had a force strong enough to deter the intensity of our advances. MMI’s coalition forces quickly took control of each Chinese city. An end to the madness was finally within reach as we began to pull ourselves together and access the damages. The ships first officer Colonel Lee Chavez took control and began to address the survivors with a planet-wide broadcast. “Today marks the beginning of a new age. War is in our blood but not produced by our heart. Deep inside, no matter what flag you wave, the loss of even one life holds heavy on your conscience. This isn’t what we were born to do and can’t be all we live to see. We keep our heads high and our hands steady as we move into a time of peace and prosperity. I vow that under my command I will bring an end to the need for war. We must not forget the lives lost today and it’s absolutely imperative that they were not lost in vein.”

A new Act was born called the Concord of Peace, 2191. China was banned from colonizing Mars and the remaining civilians were extradited back to Earth. Russia was given back its Helium-3 and China’s overstock was distributed among the countries within MMI. Ironically, a year after the war, scientists found a way to use deuterium only fusion reactions. Deuterium is heavy water derived from salt water oceans. Enough of it exists and is easily extracted on both Earth and Mars to last billions of years. The struggle for energy and last true cause for war was over.

Make no mistake I still view war as a necessary means to ensure prosperity. However, I and most others out there were over 200 years of age with the possibility of thousands of years ahead of us. War shouldn’t be the definition of human. Advanced civilizations beyond Earth probably haven’t made themselves known because we still don’t know how to act properly as intelligent beings. If we continue to live the way we do we lose who we are and change the meaning of our existence. We shouldn’t be forced to fight for our survival. Instead it should be a choice, with no real consequences, only to appeal to the darkness inside all of us. Rage and anger should be channeled in a constructive meaningful way because we will never extinguish these emotions. They still course through your veins no matter who you are or what you stand for.

If this is truth then the only way to control those emotions without hurting others is by letting people express them in a controlled environment. The ancient Romans got it right with their iconic battles at the Coliseum. Use entertainment to diffuse the ticking bomb inside us and shine light where darkness prevails. Make it a competition instead of a fight for survival. Keep those that would fight in a time of peace occupied at a convention for war. At this point I decided to spawn WarCon, to help stabilize the need for hostilities. A contest based on combat where losing doesn’t mean you lose your life, just your need to wage war. Just because you have enemies that did you wrong never means they should lose their lives, only their dignity and honor. If you kill them there is no room for suffering and you only get to administer pain once. Why not engage them over and over until your heart is satisfied and they agree to stop whatever it is that caused your feelings of rage and anger against them.