HELP: The Last Generation

[Patrick Haines]

This is not a Pokémon FanFic, just an idea I have been throwing around for a while. I was hoping readers could let me know if the premise sounds interesting/where they think the story might go. Nothing too in-depth, just a little feedback to get the project off the ground. Thanks for your help and kudos to everyone who reads The Legend of Ampharos.


In 1953, aliens landed on Earth. No-one knew about it, of course, they are far too advanced for that, but they were there. Over the next 100 years, they lived silently and peacefully among us. Watching us. Testing us. We failed.

In the summer of 2053, the aliens decided they would no longer tolerate us and the human was race was all but eliminated. In a single, silent night, six billion people…dead.

Five thousand people, very special people, were chosen to try again. One thousand people were left on each continent, mostly children no more than twenty years old. Yes, those are children.

Most of us were angry. Others were depressed. It didn’t matter. The aliens were gone and we are all that is left. I was among those who believed the aliens were wrong. How could eliminating nearly an entire race be right? Yet now, I am not so sure.

We have survived. And so much more than that. The people chosen by the aliens were special. We are beginning to see that now. The world is a better place. It will grow again. But only if we few remaining have the courage and the heart to raise the new generation correctly.

We are the last chance humanity has. If we fail to correct the severe faults that humanity before us exhibited (and believe me, they are far to numerous to count and most you wouldn’t understand because you are too hard-headed, too “perfect,” too human to know better) then the aliens won’t give us another chance.

We are the Final Chance. And the next generation of humanity may be its last.

 

[Drakon]

So where exactly are you planning to go with this?

Are you making the aliens the good guys or the bad guys? Because right now, it seems like you're making the aliens really unsympathetic.

 

[Patrick Haines]

So where exactly are you planning to go with this?

Are you making the aliens the good guys or the bad guys? Because right now, it seems like you're making the aliens really unsympathetic.

The aliens wouldn't be in the story at all, they are simply the catalyst for the change on Earth. It would be about the humans discovering WHY they were chosen because is they don't discover why the aliens decided the other humans were unworthy, then humanity will end. It is still a shallow concept.

 

[diamondpearl876]

So where exactly are you planning to go with this?

@Patrick Haines specifically asked for people to guess, presumably to see if the idea is hitting the chords they want it to. Do you have a guess?

Anyway, it seems like an interesting concept to me, and it strikes me as a story that'll be really philosophical in nature and reflective on how humanity acts as a whole. The pessimist in me thinks they'll just self-destruct in their attempt to prove their worth to the aliens, but if the aliens are never present, then I could see an ending where they accept humanity's flaws anyway and go from there.

 

[Patrick Haines]

Follow-up question that struck me as interesting and wanted some more feedback.

You are one of the aliens deciding who lives and who dies. What three (or more) human traits and characteristics do you value the most highly in re-building a better civilization??? (They can be physical traits: strength, intelligence, ect; or mental beliefs: equality, freedom, ect.). Thanks.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

An alien entity seeking to create a superior human civilisation through genocide and letting children mature unguided in the post-apocalypse probably doesn't have the ethical or intellectual standards I do. An alien entity with such a plan must surely value the traits that such a setup would incentivise, such as strong survival skills and psychological resilience. I mean, would aliens that wipe out countless young children, countless kindly old grannies, countless charity workers and teachers and doctors and builders and librarians — and do so without warning or explanation at that — would those aliens really have characteristics that we admire, like compassion, or respect for the self-determination of others, justice, integrity, even common sense?