Galactic Dystopia Part 1

Humanity now lives inside of an empire the size of the Milkly Way. Technology is greater than ever. But the people are controlled by the corrupt emperor.

Prince John Freeman

The neon colored lights from the city glare into my room. I gaze out of my window, watching the hovercrafts zooming between the ominous looking skyscrapers, the cars, and motorcycles speeding down the roads, the holograms flashing across the skyscrapers, and finally the glass dome that is over everything, protecting us all from outer space. This is Galactica, mine, and everyone's home.

Humans do not live on Earth anymore, our technology has grown so much, that we are now living inside one city the size of a galaxy! I am the son of the emperor of this ultra-civilization. And when he dies, then I will take charge of Galactica!

When I was younger, the idea of leading the most advanced civilization of human history made me thrilled whenever I thought about it. However, as I grew older and learned more about the truth, that feeling began to go away. I learned that Galactica is not as fantastic as everyone thinks it is. Galactica has been collapsing for an extremely long time now. Over half the population, (which is about three hundred trillion) is homeless. The rest of the population (which is about two hundred trillion) work for extremely long hours, just to be able to keep their homes. No one is safe from the Starnet, (the vast network that connects all of the technology of Galactica, also used to store data and to spy on everyone and their thoughts to make sure that they respect the emperor). These numbers worry me because if Galactica falls, that also means the fall of humanity.


Kira Prototype 2

The dark skyscrapers loom over the street, packed with people and cars. I hustle down the sidewalk, trying to look as normal as possible. It's a pretty overwhelming site. Countless holograms flash in front of the buildings, advertising different brands and new technologies. Even more holograms above display videos that give amazing testimonies about the emperor. A group of people is crying while watching one of those videos. “Because I live in Galactica, I will be able to pursue my dream of being a painter.” A man on the recording says. Trying to ignore the holograms, I hurry across the street and into an alleyway. Once in the alley, I crouch behind a trash can and think.

I have a rare skill. I'm an android that thinks, acts, looks, and has emotions like a person, but I can hack into the Starnet with my mind. To some, this seems kind of like a superpower or something like that, but believe me, it's been more a curse than a blessing my whole life. For my entire life, the authorities have tried to arrest me because of this power. So I have always had to live carefully and spend most of my time hidden, which also means that I have no home. So to get food, I have to wait until a restaurant closes, hack into and disable the security software, and sneak in and take the amount of food that I need. It's a tough life but there is a small amount of hope for me. A few weeks ago, a secret society approached me with an invitation to join. Their whole goal is to take down Galactica by hacking into the Starnet and sending messages to people that tell the truth rather than the propaganda. I was honored to be able to fight for that cause, but there is a catch. Before anyone can get into this group, they have to demonstrate that they have the skill of manipulating the Starnet. And to do this, the candidate has to sneak into the building where the Starnet is managed, hack into the servers, and delete their profile. Its pretty risky.

I'm willing to take the risk though, and that's why I'm here now. From the cover of the alleyway, I gaze up at the Starnet server building in the distance. I feel sick to my stomach with the fear of getting caught. It's worth it; I reminded myself. I rush out of the alleyway and dart across the street, cars swerve and honk at me, but I barely notice. I race through another maze of streets and alleys until I reach the base of the building! Even looking at makes me feel scared. It's the tallest building in the empire, so it looms over everything. Its painted black and a deep shade of purple, which makes it appear ominously over everything! Men with Electorchips, small electronic chips that can disintegrate something in seconds if used right, patrol the premise. It's a sight to see. I gather my courage and sneak up to the building, carefully avoiding the view of the guards. I climb over the outer wall and enter the small side yard. There is a large gray door in the wall. I lock my eyes on the door, and soon the security software is flashing through my mind. I switch a few critical parts of the code and the door swings open. I enter a long grey hallway with flickering lights.
Luckily, I don't encounter many guards or anyone at all. I reach a place where I can climb into the air vents and crawl to the server room through them. I pull myself up into the air vent and soon after I reach the higher floors, I begin to hear guards patrolling the halls. That means that I'm close to the server, as I get closer, I have to do a bit more hacking to turn off the alarms and the security cameras. I'm the vent above the server room! I pop the vent out, and I drop down as quietly as I can. I approach the main computer in the room. It's so vast that it takes up the entire back wall of the room! I hop on it and begin to look through all of the profiles of everyone that is controlled by the Starnet, which is all of humanity until I find mine. I hurriedly delete my profile and scram back into the air vents. I hear someone coming, so I quicken my pace to get out of here! I climb onto the roof and scale down the building, monkey-style. One I reach the bottom, all of the people from the secret society take turns shaking my hand. “Congratulations,” one of them says, “you're in!”

Author's Note

What do you think of the setting and storyline.