Evolve : The Plot

Finally, it’s here….
Evolve is a story based in real world events with a sci-fi twist .

The Evolve Story is Set in one of the Earth- like planets within the ‘Surviving Tomorrow’ galaxy… More on that later.

for all intents and purposes, the civilisation that inhabit this planet are indistinguishable from humankind as we know & love them. The technology; Culture & society are also remarkably similar to our 21 st century western life on earth.

The planet is (so far) called Allunnya. the city & place names are taken from places that I know in N. Ireland & Scotland .

The NI & Scot connotations play a very poignant role in every part of this story . I’ve transposed 1970’s NI with 2014 Scotland – well , thats to say, the 2014 scotland / england political situation .

The story is set in a island nation that has 2 distinct Cultures . This island is called Anvongard & is culturally divided into East & West regions .

The west is predominately an industrialised region & essentially the manufacturing backbone for Anvongard . The East is the location of the economic & political elite (sound familiar ?).

After a series of policies which deeply affect the businesses in the west , western business leaders and local authorities form a political party with the goal of influencing the ruling party to recognise the unique society in the West.

The in-power party refuse to take this new western party seriously, and further policies – conceived in the east, are passed which places greater pressure on the quality of life in the West.

After 1 particularly messy protest in a western city; where the national military fires on and kills local police officers, the new western party form a paramilitary wing, and the west is unilateral annexed from the east.

The eastern military engage with the western paramilitary in urban fighting that lasts a number of years.

…

All of that information is presented in the prologue.

In the good old fashion style of story writing, the inciting incident in this story happens 20 years later. At this stage, the east still doesn’t recognise that the west is an independent country and a political solution is being explored after years of conflict between the west’s paramilitary and the national military. Just like that in NI, things didn’t go quite so smoothly for the national military and public opinion soon weighted heavily enough to force a ceasefire.

Near one of the western cities near the unofficial Eastern Western border, several large, carnivorous quadruped creatures emerge from the forst and fields,   rampaging through a road of congested traffic, killing many civilians.

The creatures soon descend upon the unsuspecting city to wreak havoc, death and devastation. The horde empty the city of the civilians and overpower the local police and emergency services.

The local paramilitary – who have legitimacy among the western people, politicians and police service – are the only line of defence against these supernatural horde of super carnivores of unknown strength and origin. Those forces quickly learn that these creatures are unlike anything on this planet, and soon learn that they are impossiblely hard to kill, and quickly become overrun.

The military Intel teams in the east soon learn of this unexplained supernatural attack and they mount an airborne assualt to enter the western city. Their mission is to secure key locations like the hospitals etc, gather intel, repel the monsters and protect civilians.

Amongst this airborne assualt is the focus of the story, Drake Will Harper – the middle name will become important later. Drake is 1 third through his officers training. The bulk of the national military are out of the country – for reasons that will become clear later – so he is thrust into a position of command to support the ground objectives.

Drake, under trained; under experienced; and under qualified quickly finds out that he is hurdling back towards his old family city that he forsook 8 years later. He battles with the anexity of returning home in this fashion and the prospect of seeing his twin sister, whom he had abandoned with out any fanfare 8 years early after he felt responsible for the death of their older brother.

During Drake’s journey into mental anguish, his sergeant, Zara- a hard nosed; take no-nonsense; head strong; seasoned; but rebellious soldier, challenges Drake’s authority and takes command of ‘her’ team.

Their triumphant aerial insertion maneuver is quickly thwarted by paramilitary elements with powerful anti air missiles – who were clearly awaiting the day that the east would invade in force.

After the ground to air/air to ground chaos settles only one helicopter landed in the city – Drake’s helicopter…

Drake’s team – led by Zara whilst the man questions his life choices, meet up with elements of the cities special forces, police service and civilians.

Why didn’t a blood bath ensue?… The twist…. The lead of the paramilitary element is a friend that Drake used to be very close with, and, the police officer is Drake’s twin sister….. “What are the odds” I hear you say.

The motley group set aside their personal and political differences to focus on the new enemy – the stoppable horde of creatures, to learn more about the things, and to find a way to kill them.

During the journey through Drake’s old home town the teams find out that the creatures are rapidly evolving, and their weapons are becoming ineffective at slowing them down. The team also learn of the creatures’ cruel intelligence and supernatural methods of stalking and coordinating.

To overcome the overwhelming odds, the 3 groups have to evolve out of their cultural differences in order to survive the night ahead.

Drake battles with the ghosts of his past whilst challenging Zara for the respect and leadership of his soldiers, and works to regain the trust of his twin sister and once best friend. At the same time Drake has to learn who he is.

After many fights, personal growth and pinnacle moments of self enlightenment, Drake evolves to be the man he wanted to be, and the man he needed to be to survive and protect the ones he loves.

The story ends when – what’s left of the team, find the origin of the supernatural creatures and the extent of their devastation.

I’ve been working on the story since 2013 and I’ve only really had time to write it out since 2015. I’m really hoping to have it finished and published by summer 2018.