There may be life elsewhere. The life found so far has only been the beginning of a time line full of it. Through the years, there have been probes sent out for exactly this reason. Human curiosity. It's a powerful thing. Unfortunately, so is hate. We cannot reach further into the matters of our universe till, it seems, we settle our own conflicts.

No matter which historian looks at it. This is the longest war in history. Now reach the 127th year, people have had conflicted ideas about humanities home planet, Earth. This planet is now basically artificial, at the surface at least. It is covered by human's creations. Technology in the first years of the war improved rapidly.

Conspiracy or not, global warming is long past in the human eye. Now, the point of space battles the population. The population increased with technology. Disease is battled quicker than it ever has been. Food supplies have been properly fitted for the world, and war had stopped only to bring a greater one. People like to call it "the calm before the storm."

Harmless debates launched into violent protests. Where was humanity going to live? Earth didn't fit them. Mars, the closest planet and the safest guess, was our first step on another rocking body other than our own moon. By now, Mars is out of the question. It has been populated by scientists and researchers alike. Earth wide, this is the place to learn. This happened because humanity had not created a way of survival till long after temporary base camps and research buildings were formed. It is a restricted area.

So we move on.

The asteroid belt? No.

Jupiter was next. It had plenty of cold, but possible inhabitable moons. That was our next step and week took a leap instead. As the war for shelter on our home land branched out, life sprouted from Jupiter's moon Europa. Scientists learned it did indeed have liquids in it. This made things much easier for humans. Most had turned up to be water if correctly purified.

Back to the war, it is against rebels, who disagree with the very thought of building colonies on other planets. They are afraid that this will lead to us leaving Earth completely. The people who have inhabited the moons of Earth and Jupiter disagree with them. They have no home on Earth with all that had been crafted there. Technology is an always advancing field. Taken from movies, cartoons, and shows, suits of technology have been made to fight even in the darkness of space. These suits have been dubbed MECHA or Mobile Electronic Computer Humanoid Armor.

MECHA is the most popular and most powerful weapon on either side. The rush to create stronger MECHA's is a continuing thing. Terrorism on Europa has turned into a daily thing as well. Citizens have been killed along with officials.

We shall turn our attention to a citizen who has endured 14 long years of this war. He has lost his parents, friends, and home because of it. He is not even aware of the debate. He had no political power, just merely the animal that has never proven the title Man's Best Friend wrong for very long. This citizen's name is Gimmy. Born on Jupiter's moon, he is one of the witnesses to the cruel reality that man and animal line in now. Survival is the hardest thing to do.

"Come on Boota. We're close now," Gimmy told the only companion he really had, his f our year old dachshund. The two had been walking through the graveyard; a deserted place full of scraps of metal and even the bodies of men and women who fought for their right to remain on a certain moon or planet. Even though Gimmy doesn't understand why this had happened, he knows it has. How can it be ignored? Terrorism is the only thing that seems to fill the media. There are updates on what is happening on earth, in space, and on Europa almost every hour. This graveyard is only the first sign of the hardships and loss from the war.

"Look! See, I told you! We'll be able to rest there. A guy on the radio said they'll have a ship to take us to Ganymede where we can find shelter while repair is happening. I heard they finally figured out what was wrong with the grass here too!" he said as the buildings of Europa came into view. The buildings looked much like that of Earth but held an exception. They had domes covering parts of the city. Buildings that required different atmospheres had their own domes connected solely by glass tunnels. Large cargo was transported in vehicles from the outside of the domes.

"Boota, hurry up! The food will get cold!" the boy said cheerfully as he bounced along the surface of Europa. He was in a special space suit, given to all pilots of MECHA's. His parents had gotten it for him when he turned 12. They year after that he received the training prototype or a training MECHA. Only a month after that everything was lost and destroyed. If he could find a mechanic, he might be able to repair his small MECHA that literally saved his life.

The two ran and bounced toward the sight of civilization. The dog, Boota, had been equipped with a collar that kept the cold atmosphere and lack of oxygen at Earth levels so the gravity was the only thing that differed.
Their arrival was cut short.

"Halt!" a while, blue, and red, large MECHA demanded. It was the typical police MECHA. The human inside scanned the young boy and his furry companion when they stopped.

"I'm Gimmy from Jeeha dome. It was destroyed by a war MECHA. I came here seeking shelter," Gimmy explained.

"You are wearing a pilot suit. Are you a pilot of a MECHA?" the officer asked.

"My parents got me a training one. I can give you its location but Boota and I have wandered through this graveyard for awhile. We kind of are hungry," he said as his stomach growled to back him up. He smiled at the large suit of technology. Even if it was a piece of government protection, it was frightening up close.

"Very well, get in," the person said as the hatch on the chest opened up to form stairs. A red haired female sat in the cockpit. Draped in the full body suit, similar in color to her MECHA and similar in structure to Gimmy's suit, she eyed the strange boy. "Well, are you just going to stand there wasting my oxygen supply or are you going to get in?"

Gimmy had been staring at her. He had expected a male controlling it. This MECHA had been upgraded with the newest type of technology to fight against terrorist. Along with that, her weapons were nothing he had ever seen before. Yet, he had never been any more sexist then right now.

He climbed up the stairs to the cockpit. "Come Boota," he called to the dog at the bottom of the flight of stairs. When it heard its owner call for it, the dog started up the stairs. It happily obeyed its owner. They both had survived a lot.

"I'll have to take you to dome 42. That is the one that allows animals with in Enrique dome. You'll have to wait till after your ID is cleared before you get your food too," she explained as she moved back in her seat to allow Gimmy to sit in front of her. Gimmy held on to Boota when the stairs returned to the chest armor.

"Can we get my MECHA? I don't mind having to go through some hassle about it but I don't want to lose it. It saved my life," Gimmy asked the female pilot.

She sighed. This was supposed to be a regular scan of the area. Nothing at all was even supposed to show up on radar. The rebels were being held back by her superiors. All she had to do was keep the citizens calm. Most were use to this b y now. "Fine, give me your comm. and I'll hook it into Eva," she explained.

The boy pulled of his necklace. A square screen was attached to a chain. Latin was written on the back. Latin was still a dead language but it was the common language across the human worlds. He handed this to the girl and she inserted it below the control wheel. A hologram appeared to show a map and a small blinking circle. At the sight of that, they took off through the graveyard of machines and humans.

"It's puny! I think you're just about a foot shorter than it," the girl said as a black MECHA appeared behind the pile of scrap metal.

"It's a training MECHA!" Gimmy defended.

"Still," she muttered as she leaned over Gimmy to operate the controls. The robot grabbed the boy's MECHA like a human would grab most things. She placed the MECHA on the back of her large, robotic space suit or Eva. There it was hooked and supported. They took of toward the domes much faster than toward the MECHA. The city was much more magnificent up close. Even Earth trees and plants looked better than they ever had on Earth.

"We're low on room, especially for the homeless and orphans but Noah should be taking off toward Ganymede tomorrow. Hopefully repairs will being for the damaged domes and life can continue there soon."

"I heard from a guy on the radio talk about that. Is it hard to get a spot?"
"No not as far as I'm aware. It'll be hard to figure out to do with your child MECHA," she said as she landed on a platform. A tunnel was connected to the front of Eva.

"Elizabeth, did you pick up another robot from the graveyard?" asked a male's voice through the woman's head phones. When she shook her head with an irritated sigh, her left headphone fell out.

"That was once and it was of use, even if we couldn't get it to operate," she said defensively. Gimmy could see some other robots taking his MECHA. They didn't look like the kind that was operated by humans. The two along with Boota crawled through the tunnel till they reached a door.

Elizabeth waved him to stop as she pulled out a card from her suit. As she slid it into a slot in the door, a mechanical voice asked, "Verbal identification."

"Elizabeth Yitten of the officer justice section, pilot of MECHA number 872, named Eva," she said. She sounded like she was holding in her frustration. The doors opened and the mechanical voiced stated, "Welcome." He could see her frustrated expression as she entered. They landed on a second platform, smaller than the one necessary for the robots. The wall of the dome was in touching distance and if Elizabeth hadn't held Gimmy Back, the boy would have touched it. It had been nearly a half of a year since he had been in a proper dome. Jeeha dome had been destroyed and the survivors of that survived together. Many people now were migrating to repaired domes or domes like this one.

The platform took off like an elevator toward the dome's roof. It came to a sudden stop, tossing Boota and Gimmy around (not bothering Elizabeth at all). There was a new set of larger doors behind them now. When they stopped, these doors flung open to reveal a mechanic's heaven. To Gimmy, it looked like a garage café hybrid. Parts of robots and other metals were spread over the tables in the room.

"I'm not really good with the ID process. It annoys me every time I re-enter Enrique Dome. So I'll set you up with a friend of mine and you can then get something to eat," she explained to the wide-eyed, jaw dropped boy next to her.

He picked up his dog so it wouldn't give anyone any trouble. The dog was innocently eying the food some people had. Gimmy knew it would go right for the food the moment he let Boota go.

"Who's your friend?" Gimmy asked her.

To be Continue...