As the shuttlecraft launched skyward, the gathered shipyard personnel turned their eyes to follow the path of the quickly dwindling vessel. Many of them quietly whispered a prayer that the voyage would be a success, though they worried about being disappointed.
They relied on their hope though, as it was all that they had left.
It had been nearly a century since the greatest minds on Earth had declared that the human race had harmed the planet beyond repair. Whole tracts of southeast Asia were infertile wastelands, so filled with toxic chemical that no usable plants would grow there anymore. Where ocean waters had once been pristine, they were now dwindling under an ever growing mountain of trash. The lists of extinct creatures grew weekly as more and more habitat was cleared to make way for the burgeoning human populace.
Years passed before any real change had been made in the behavior of humankind. It wasn't until the year 2173 that the same scientists who declared the world dead finally came together at the call of the United Nations to solve the problem. While their efforts stemmed the tide, the planet was on a downward spiral that no amount of science or prayer would stop.
But that all changed fifty years ago. Jasper Finch, a young science student from a small university in Iowa was in the lab late one evening when he picked up an audio signal on his equipment. Quick thinking and a nearby recording device allowed him to capture what was obviously a message in another language. Worried that he was on the wrong end of a prank, Finch worked with professors at his school, as well as other well respected scientists to verify and pin point the source of the transmission.
After arduous work to capture the message, Jasper set to decoding it. Translations indicated that there was a civilization on another planet looking for other life in the galaxy. This planet, which Finch and others translated as being name Hwatha, was found among the vast cosmos and looked at as salvation for what ailed humankind.
Desperate to change their ways and be accepted by the seemingly advanced Hwathans, they set out to find a way to reach the distant planet. Buried deep within the former European Union, scientists unearthed and started up the Large Hadron Collider to build the first Starcore drive.
With hope in their hearts, the grounds crew watched as the small shuttle veered into space where they could just barely see the fruits of all the science that had come before. The Starcore Majestic waited to save the Earth from itself.
