Prologue
"Thomas, look at Beautiful Earth. Do you know why I brought you up here on the Moon Balcony?"
"No. And I don't care. You don't have to do this. You don't have to go to Earth. Let the machines have it."
"Easy for you to say, after all you're the only man who's ever coming back. The living legend, Thomas Deliah. A true war hero."
"Then heed my warning as the only man to return from Earth, Jaycee."
"You know I can't do that. You know I can't live in this metal box on the moon any longer."
"Jaycee. . ."
"I'm not changing my mind. I need to feel the grass in my hands, to feel the wind against my face and birds in the sky. What's it like to dream when you've been to Earth? Do you not see Earth in all its glory?"
"I do,"
"Then to me, that is worth death. As all I dream is of metal walls, humming fans, and the faces of all my friends who've killed themselves up here. But tomorrow that's all changing. Tomorrow at dawn, we commence our drop. And it will be me this time walking on the remains of civilization that our ancestors abandoned."
"And soon you will die."
"I don't care."
"You say that now Jaycee, but when you watch your friends die, you will think otherwise. That enemy is not just an enemy, and at times you will feel as if their thirty-foot frame stands at one hundred. Or their midnight black armour is likes staring into the depths of death; nothing but black.
And when you feel the rush of the wind as they swing their sword, shield, and axe; you will feel like a mouse in a cat's lair. Earth isn't a paradise Jaycee, it's a slaughterhouse. Twenty-two million have died, and we haven't taken a single square foot of ground.""
"I've already accepted death, ."
"Then if you've accepted death, and are willing to drop to earth, then tell me why you brought me here?"
Because. Before we drop on the city of Lexus. I want advice. How did you survive all those years? How did you survive Australia when everyone else died?"
"Remember to run when you need to run, and fight when you need to fight."
"That's it?"
"That's it. And if you so happen to survive as a hopeless fool, do me a favour, then take this."
"And this is?"
"The picture and index of the only flower I need to complete my collection, find it, and bring the Marigold back to me."
***