Elmo Lawrence’s Journal: Before the Flight

DISCLAIMER: The World Government, the United Resistance, the Lobotol Army, the SFOXAS, the United States Reformed, the plasma gun, the Vylar, and the Cyron movement, are subject of author’s creativity. Note that none of such had existed in the real world at the time this note was made.
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The ride through Minneapolis was a pleasant one for Elmo Lawrence, if only he had nothing else in mind. About eight million people lived in the prospering city almost intact by the world wars–except that at the beginning of the World War III, where the World Government Army took over the Twin Cities and the whole state of Minnesota in a highly efficient blitzkrieg sweep operation. The term ‘peaceful revolution’ coined by the World Government elites referred to this momentous operation, of which none of the citizens were killed or harmed during the takeover. The reigning Governor of Minnesota at that time, Zebulon Warding, instantly surrendered to the WGA following the earlier surrender of 12th Army Division of Minnesota. The Twin Cities then, under the reign of Military Governor General A. T. Keqta, were merged into the city of Minneapolis by August 2053, while Minneapolis being the Lower City and Saint Paul being the Upper City. Hundreds of thousands of refugees had flocked in from all over the war-torn States every year since then, causing the population to skyrocket and the city itself to become one of the largest cities in the world post World War III–with Arkantos being the largest (of 38 million population).

However, even with a vast number of immigrants flocking into the city each year, the new government was able to contain them–even improve their condition. They established infrastructures at the same rate with demands, no matter how high they were–an evidence of a perfect city planning backed up with an infinite source of funding, not only in Minneapolis, but in all World Government-occupied cities Elmo had visited. The WGA regulators and their SFOXAS extreme measure squad did more than necessary to keep the United Resistance at bay, leaving the urban areas intact by war, no matter how tough it was outside the borders. Just like the old USA foreign policies, Elmo thought, the last place for battlefield is the backdoor of their own country.

World Government territories were always peaceful, even progressing, while the rest of the world is at war, and the effects are predictable–people turned their favor towards them. One by one citizens of the occupied regions started to accept the new system the World Government employed, thus believed that a One World Government is the most suitable system with the globalized post-World War III world. Every year the World Government gained new territories, mostly not through war–they were lining up to surrender, to integrate with the World Government and its system.

At the time the World War IV broke, United Resistance was made of all freedom fighters in the world and their patriotism spirit summed up. But, as the war wages on, the young, energetic and revolutionary, saw the opportunity the new system gave–how the world regulated by the World Government was far better in every aspect than the pre-World War III world. They saw a chance the World Government offered to humanity in general, a chance of living a better life with a better system with harmony and balance in it. They learned that people of the pre-war world were forced to choose between humanity and Earth, a hard choice which left humanity running in circles for decades while the Earth was still decaying. The World Government offered them a chance to live freely without such concern–an opportunity impossible to miss by humanity’s generation of hope. Most of them then turned to the World Government–and recently, the United Resistance consisted mostly of the old people being shadows of their former countries’ glory, what’s left of their spirit of freedom. With most of their revolutionary motor gone, the United Resistance could barely stood a chance. By the end of World War IV, which Elmo predicted would be somewhere between 2066 and 2067, the world would be a unification under the World Government, and a new era of humanity would begin.

The World War IV was both a war physically and a war of belief, and the World Government was winning in both of them. It was clear for Elmo– he too, he could’ve been siding with the World Government, but he knew there’s something behind it.

“Honestly,” said Mindy Amberton, a young woman Elmo encountered on his mission in Minneapolis and currently driving his car, “I think the reestablishment of the old United States is ridiculous. The USR is a joke. They just couldn’t see the greater picture, being brainwashed by their patriotism and thousands of hours in battle.”

Elmo merely sighed. He’s lying on his back in a position he deemed most comfortable, watching the scenery of the city as they crossed the Mississippi through the World Government-built Minneapolis Bridge, dedicated to the city itself as being a symbol of the Peaceful Revolution. One wouldn’t aware that the world was ever at war in Minneapolis–Elmo found out that it was true in all World Government-occupied cities.

“And so everyone of your age would say,” Elmo grinned. “I begin to see the World Government as a sort of popular culture.” He enjoyed the way his words irritated Mindy.

“Very funny. Is that how everyone in the USR see things? No wonder the war does not stop, you closed-minded, narrow-thinking bigots blinded of your old times…”

“Hey, I take offense in that,” said Elmo, though he didn’t really. “I don’t belong to the USR. I don’t belong to anything but myself.”

“So what are you,” Mindy asked carefully, glancing at the .45 heavy duty handgun on Elmo’s lap, “a random terrorist?”

Elmo burst in laughter. “Hell that’s the last thing in the world I would be! You don’t know how chaotic it was at the time the WWIII started. There were riots raging everywhere, people burning, looting, killing–they’re called the Savage. Can’t blame them, it’s mankind’s basic instinct. When they learned that order had failed, they seemed to recall the animal genes in them. The World Government was quick to contain them, though. All of them were piled up in a part of the city–every city where there were Savage outbreaks–and the World Government’s Vylars evaporate them into fertilizers. Funny, the sight of terror in their faces after all they’d done–most started to kill each other before the Vylars got them. Some claimed that they saw God floating, ordering the WG tyrants to accept their redemption. Others simply shat their pants–the most embarrassing thing to do before you die.” Elmo laughed on his own words. “No, I think the last Savage gene had been exterminated ten years ago. It’s impossible that I could be one of them.”

Mindy didn’t take impression in Elmo’s story. “You’re doing favors for the USR. If you’re not one of them, I bet you’re some sort of contract killer.”

Elmo laughed again. “You bet,” he said, wiping his nose with his index finger. “I could be. Or I couldn’t be. It could happen to anyone, couldn’t it? Oh, what does that matter to you?”

“Of course it matters to me,” snapped Mindy, “you’ve involved me in all of this!”

“Hang on,” said Elmo evasively, “we’re not taking a Maglev ride, are we?”

He noticed that they’re heading to a Maglev metro station at the heart of the Upper City. Maglev is short of magnetic-levitation, trains which levitates on railways due to electromagnetic repulsive force similar to those of the late 20th century. The difference is, mid-21th century Maglev did not harness electromagnetic levitation–they harnessed the Earth’s magnetic field so that they did not require rails. Cars were still wheeled since the World Government held the mass-production of Maglev cars until the end World War IV to increase public pressure against the United Resistance. “What else could it be?” asked Mindy, as if Elmo had asked something that’s already obvious. “You’re not thinking we’ll be leaving by plane, are you?”

“Do you think that shit-laden baggage I’m carrying will pass the security?”

Mindy scratched her head. “Well, I don’t think that far.”

“Hell you should,” Elmo shouted frustratedly, “once they’ve found the scene, we’ll be fugitives!”

“So,” said Mindy sulkily, “what’s the cute plan?”

“To the marshaling yard,” ordered Elmo, “we’re going to hitch on one of those cargo trains. We probably need to perform some evasive maneuvers when we cross the borders. Well, first, we’ve gotta find the maintenance hatch door to the subterranean yard–entering through the front door is suicide.”

“Oh,” he continued, “and never let your face being exposed to them–they’ll reconstruct the faces of their agents to the likes of yours, and doing so, they’ll be more than able to compromise the Cyrolab security. Remember I told you that Cyrolab will be the only safe place for you after all of this? So don’t let them.”

“Alright,” said Mindy, turning the car to the marshaling yard’s direction. “And what we’re gonna do with this car? Would they be able to track us down if we leave this?”

“Take the valuables–I’ll salvage the car of its microfusion drive, so that it will not explode as I evaporate it with plasma. Sides, I need the microfusion drive for my Elmo Gun component.”

He noticed the tension on Mindy’s face while she drove. She’s got the sense of how dangerous this is, Elmo thought, and that’s good–that means less questions to me.
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“Where are we?”

Elmo found himself in a deserted metro station. The last thing he remembered was that he could’ve fallen asleep during the ride to the marshaling yard–and when he woke up, he found himself here. There’s nobody else in the station but him and Mindy, and for God’s sake, the girl was lying there incapacitated.

“Mindy? Are you alright? What happened?”

Elmo paused, he seemed to hear voices around him. The voices of a conversation, and they sounded so damn familiar.

…the WGA struck again, they’ve got a Vylar with them, there’s no way we would win…

…but they seemed to be holding back. I don’t know, it seemed like they’re letting us escape…

…there’s something behind all of this. There’s something behind the WG, it’s huge, it’s full of intrigues, and it’s not good…

Elmo recognized the conversation at once–everything he asked before he was unwillingly recruited by the Cyron Beta Squad, to investigate the anomalies in an attack against a World Government installation at St. Olga, somewhere near Arkantos. It happened that they’re stumbled upon something far greater than a mere anomaly. The owners of those voices were dead by now–Elmo and Josh McKinnon were sole survivors of the doomed Cyron Beta Squad, caught by surprise by the level of unpredicted hazard in that mission they failed to contain.

“O’Connor? Willits?” he asked. “Doherty?”

The voices faded as quickly as they came, giving Elmo the chills of being alone in that dead-empty metro. But he quickly noticed a figure right ahead, emerged right out of the darkness, walking toward him…

“McKinnon? Josh?”

Josh McKinnon walked toward him in a frightening steadiness. He pointed his finger to his eyes, smiling, while asking Elmo a question,

“Tell me, Elmo, am I what I look like? Are we? Is the world really what it seemed?”

“Josh, what are you talking about?” Elmo reached forward, trying to get Josh, but something within him kept holding him back. “It’s impossible. It’s just a dream. I know it.”

“Don’t wake yourself up, Elmo, don’t you want to know how it ends?” Josh grinned–a psychotic grin of a spree killer.

“You’re not Josh,” said Elmo. “All I’m seeing, all I’m hearing, they’re all nonsense.”

Josh stopped a couple of feet in front of Elmo. “You don’t want to believe the obvious–you’re afraid of it. But your mind is dying to know it, Elmo. You can’t lie to yourself no longer. When you’re failed to see everything else, what’s left is the truth. You know that.”

“What are you talking about?” Elmo shouted hysterically. “I’m not gonna listen to you, not anymore. This is bullshit. Mindy. Mindy! Wake me up!”

“It’s not what it seemed,” Josh continued, untroubled with Elmo’s struggle. “You and I, and the rest of the world… when they will finally see? The human race is at its critical point, when we were faced to two options: to change to something more, which is uncertain, or to return to the likes our ancestors, living side by side with nature, although it means we’ll be losing every trace of civilization we’ve achieved so far.”

Elmo didn’t listen, he kept struggling to wake up.

“And here comes the World Government, stepped into the trouble, offering a solution. Though it’s more than what the ordinary humans think. The World Government is preparing us for a Mass Ascension.”

“Elmo!”

Mindy’s voice caused Elmo to jump forward out of his sleep, almost bumping with the front window.

“How could you sleep in times like this?” asked her furiously. “I’ve been driving with all the pressure you’re giving me and you just sleep like that?”

“There’s no way I can avoid that one, okay?” Elmo wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Did I say something when I were asleep?” Elmo asked back evasively.

“No, you’re sleeping like a baby,” said Mindy. “This better be good, or else I’ll be regretting the day I met you. Oh, what the hell, I am already.”

Elmo winced, pitching his eyes to see clearly–the sunlight was stinging right into his eyes. “Where are we?”

“We’re almost there,” she said. “You better know which train going to where else we’d end up in Nevada or something.”

“I’ve got to tunnel the timetable database first,” said Elmo, withdrawing a handheld device with a display on it.

“Well, judging the way how you say it, it sounds easy to you.” Mindy took a glance at the device.

“It is, thanks to Connor.” Elmo waved the device. “He made the programs in this device. It even compromised the World Government’s cyber-security link and anti-tracking firewall.”

“That’s impressive,” said Mindy, and she meant it. It took more than the cross of an egghead and a nutcase to compromise the WG network systems. “Is he a friend of yours?”

Elmo curled his lips in a humorous way. “Well, used to,” he said. “Now he’s swimming in the stomach of some worms. I met him in a covert top-level operation that turned up to be much bigger than that. We sent a dozen of America’s second best agents, the Cyron Beta Squad, only two of us managed to escape.”

“Seemed that you were in so much trouble,” said Mindy.

“You have no idea,” said Elmo, as they drove near a cargo station and Mindy started to slow down. “I think we’re here. Just slow down… I need to find someplace to hide this fucking car.”
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Gimme feedback.

Elmo Lawrence’s Journal: The Invention of the Gatling Plasma

DISCLAIMER: The World Government, the United Resistance, the Lobotol Army, the SFOXAS, the United States Reformed, the plasma gun, the Vylar, and the Cyron movement, are subject of author’s creativity. Note that none of such had existed in the real world at the time this note was made.
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“Caramba!”

Alejandro Martinez took out his plasma gun, but it’s too late. Elmo Lawrence had shot him on the head.

Disgusted on the scene, Mindy Amberton got out of her hiding spot and yelled, “Is it necessary to leave such a mess?”

Elmo wiped the blood, brain juice, and skull pieces of what’s left of Alejandro Martinez’ head with the tip of his boots, picking up the plasma gun. “Don’t have a choice,” he said, taking a grimy mop out of his windcheater inner pocket and wiped the bloodstains from the gun, “else he’d got me first, and that’s worse mess for you to handle.”

Mindy watched on how Elmo put the plasma gun into his backpack, and how the 80-liter backpack was laden with similar objects.

“What do you have in mind, piling plasma guns on your back?” she said, peeking into the backpack. “You can only fire one each time, and you barely used them.” She glanced to the .45 heavy duty pistol in Elmo’s tight grip.

Elmo holstered his pistol and took one gun out of his backpack, holding it on the mid-air with two arms for Mindy’s convenience.

“Plasma guns are the most powerful weapon known to man,” said Elmo, admiring the sight of the gun he’s holding, “and though there were many series of them, the Lobotol models were always the best–see, the one I’m showing you.” He wiggled the gun. “The reason I’m piling them because, after yesterday’s Lobotol invasion, I’ve got this idea that the potential of these babies could be greatly amplified, making this Elmo Gun–I named this schematic weapon that–the most efficient weapon EVER.”

Mindy took a look at the Lobotol Model Elmo’s holding. It’s a weapon used by the Lobotol Army, a separate rank in the World Government Army which focused on fighting the United Resistance and reclaim their declared nations. Mindy had seen similar weapons used by the Lobotol troopers at the news on TV–she couldn’t believe that the gun was present on her very eyes.

After the United States Reformed Government joined the United Resistance and declared war on the established World Government, the USR Army along with the United Resistance–following a series of massive defeats with numerous casualties–finally fought off the World Government Army in the battle of Portsmouth on July 2063. Aware that the sounding of the defeat of their proclaimed invulnerable army in a decisive battle that could be the turning point of this World War IV would rally the United Resistance and other freedom fighters in the world, the World Government leaders in Jerusalem decided to adapt extreme measures to fight the United Resistance and its most stubborn participant–and thus the Lobotol Army was formed. The Lobotol Army is more capable of destuction than even the feared World Government special force SFOXAS, and after three major invasions in Boston, Philadelphia, and the D.C., the USR Government was at the brink of abolition.

Of course, if what Elmo had said was true, the United Resistance–humanity–would have a chance to ward off the World Government tyranny.

“What’s your plan?” Mindy asked, while Elmo put the Lobotol Model back to his backpack. “You’re trying to establish a plasma army against the Lobotol?”

Elmo shook his head. Mindy helped Elmo strapping the backpack shut.

“Selling them to the USR Army?”

“Nope,” Elmo fastened his backpack. “I saw the battle, you know. I saw how a small squad they called the Alpha Omega Squad erased a fleet of seven battleships, fifteen destroyers, eleven frigates, and two carriers in the last Battle of Boston. I saw how huge caliber plasma cannons, mounted on combat-efficient Vylars (a Vylar is a superscalar bipedal armored vehicle with the capability of manlike movement, usually operated by a strike team of four or five), tearing apart the deck of USS Oklahoma and sank her in seconds. Even with plasma weapons distributed like daily ransom packs in the USR Army ranks, we could not match the firepower of a Lobotol squad.”

“The gun I showed you,” he continued, “is extremely rare. The reason why a Lobotol organic weapon came into possession of a USR citizen is, this weapon is stolen by a Cyron infiltrator team–and the issue is fresh, less than three days ago.”

“I’ll bring this to the Cyrolab in Arkantos to be examined,” he said, “and all of this plasma guns are my objects of convenience.”

The words ‘objects of convenience’ intrigues Mindy in a way she didn’t like. “What do you mean, objects of convenience?”

Elmo crouched next to Martinez’ body, searching for every valuables he could find. “They’re components for my Elmo Gun,” he said, while counting on the money in Martinez’ wallet. “You know, the concept is, I try to make a plasma gun capable of rapid fire. I don’t know how the World Government made it possible for a plasma gun to fire continuously, but the concept of a plasma gun is to reduce the projectile to plasma using fusion power, while the particle accelerators produce kinetic energy for the plasma to travel forward just like a ray of light. The difference between laser and plasma is that laser consists of a ray of electromagnetic wave, mostly the gamma rays, while plasma consists of a gel of alpha and beta particles reduced from greater particles through means of fusion reaction.”

Mindy rolled her eyes. “What I learn in college is that laser has relativistic momentum, while plasma has kinetic momentum.”

“Well, let’s say it’s extremely hard to produce plasma continuously,” said Elmo, checking on a safe combination in the inner pocket of Martinez’ trench coat, “since it will cause the gun to superheat and melt the owner. Plasma could only be produced in discreet successions, thus causes every plasma gun we have to fire like an old flintlock rifle back to the 18th century.”

“But the Lobotol issue fires continuously,” said Mindy.

“To hell with that, perhaps those eggheads in Cyrolab could find out once they obtain one,” Elmo put off Martinez’ gold Rolex, gold-buckled crocodile skin Aigner, and Prada suede shoes. “Richard M. Gatling invented what becomes the modern ballistic minigun in 1861. My idea is to invent several separate plasma reaction chambers mounted around a revolving cylinder, which revolves in a rate of two separate fires of a single reaction chamber. Short, you can call it the Gatling Plasma.”

“Oh, such a practical idea,” Mindy commented cynically. “I thought you’d rig the fusion reaction so that you could fire an issue continuously. I’ve started to think that you’re clever as well as practical.”

“Well, you could come with me to Cyrolab, I’m sure you’re in for a job there,” said Elmo, getting back on his feet after he could find nothing else valuable from Martinez’ body. He withdrew a syringe in a sealed packaging, ripped it open, and fill it with Martinez’ blood.

“What are you doing?” questioned Mindy, while Elmo injected the blood into a small canister.

“Taking DNA samples,” said Elmo, withdrawing a plasma pistol from his gun flap and aimed at Martinez’ body, “and annihilate the rest. If you don’t like the scene, don’t look.”

Mindy got a bad feeling about this–she looked away just in time Elmo shot Martinez’ body with his plasma pistol, reducing him along with the floor materials including the concrete foundation to gel-like substance of God-knows-what in a superheated plasma explosion. A foul-smelled steam emerged shortly after, causing Elmo to sneeze.

“Ah-CHOO!” Elmo snorted, wiping away the steam with his free hand. “I always hate close-ranged plasma fire,” he said.

Mindy was outrageous by Elmo’s actions. “Are all of this really necessary!?” she shouted furiously. “And who the hell is this man, do you really have to kill him?!”

“I’ve got to ensure that on this world, the only source of Martinez’ DNA is here in my pocket,” argued Elmo. “And yes, I’ve got to kill him, I told you. Well, if you don’t know Alejandro Martinez, you better keep it that way–believe me, you don’t really want to know.”

Elmo walked out of the flat room, but Mindy grasped his arm.

“You killed that man, you looted his corpse, and you destroyed it–yes, I do really want to know.”

Elmo sighed. “He’s Alejandro Martinez,” said Elmo, “a smuggler. He smuggled plasma guns into the USR, you know.”

“And?”

“Well, I’m on my way back to Arkantos. Listen, girl, if you seek sanctuary, you should come with me to Cyrolab. It’s the only safe place on Earth after what you’ve witnessed.”

Mindy raised her brows–she didn’t seem too concerned with Elmo’s last sentence. “What could come to me, after all?”

Elmo shook his arm off Mindy’s grasp, and continued walking out. “It’s only a matter of time World Government agents arrived here. This place–and me–are being watched. And once they notice that you’re with me in this scene, they’ll be right after you.”

He enjoyed the sight of Mindy’s face became pale, although just through the corner of his eyes. “I’m coming with you,” Mindy said quickly, totally unnerved.

“Good,” said Elmo. He took Mindy by the hand and climbed the metal staircases right outside the tenement building down to the alleys. Mindy could see a black topless muscle car parked on the street right ahead. “It’s Martinez’ car, I’ve got the key,” Elmo continued. “But we’re taking a train ride to Arkantos, I can’t risk being noticed. Besides, driving to Arkantos would be extremely dangerous by now–especially on the borders. By train, I could work a way so that we could slip away unnoticed.”

“The faster, the better,” said Mindy. “I hate being in this city for longer.”

“Especially in the World Government territory,” Elmo unlocked the car. He opened the baggage cabin and put his backpack in before shutting it.

He then threw the keys to Mindy, who caught it with confusion. “You drive.”

Mindy stood still next to the car, the keys hanging on her hand, while Elmo entered through the front right door. “Why me?” she complained.

“You can drive without arousing suspicions.” Elmo took a pair of aviator shades out of his windcheater pocket, and searched the car to find a hat, which he put on at once. He then took off his windcheater jacket, took the plasma pistol out of the gun flap, then threw the jacket under the seat. “To the nearest train station, wherever it is,” he ordered. “You live here, you know Minneapolis more than I do.”

As the American United Resistance established the United States Reformed Government in July 4, 2062, what used to be the United States was now torn in two: The United States Reformed and the World Government jurisdiction–not all of America had become a part of the new States, in fact, the USR only claimed response of states mostly in the Eastern America. Minneapolis was always under the World Government control ever since the beginning of World War III, when the World Government declared its establishment in 2052 and used its superior mililtary force with technology alien to the world at that time to wipe out every claims of jurisdiction of all existing nations in the world, including the United States.

The US, due to its position as a superpower nation, last the longest–it took seven years for the World Government to control the entire US territory (The second is Russia, due to its sheer vastness of territory, and the third is China, the world’s newest superpower), thus putting the entire world under its control–where the World Government claimed as the end of the World War III. But freedom fighters all over the world could not be wiped out–the World Government stood on a forced stability through military presence. Although most of the freedom fighters fought separately before February 2060, a movement called Cyron, with supposed connections to the abolished United Nations and the remaining NATO forces, united the Western, Eastern, Middle-Eastern-African, and the Pacific resistance movements under the United Resistance on February 2060, which united the freedom fighters all over the world under one systematic movement. This United Resistance gave every existing nation before the World War III the right to reclaim their independence from the World Government–and so far, 63 nations from all over the world had followed. India was the first, then second came the Chungkuo Renmin of China, the European Union, Korea-Japan union, the Arab League, the Federal States of Appalachia, Federation of Canada, and the United States Reformed.

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Whoa, whoa, I got it going. This is all for now, I’ve got a class. See ya, and leave comments if you like it!

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It’s a copy-paste of my same-titled note in my Facebook account.