Ant Planet

[Wood~Ant]

The year was 2177AD and Earth was no longer fit for mankind to live on, as it had been made so toxic by humans they had wiped out 99% of all life and there were only 5 million people left on the entire planet.
They had hoped to live under the oceans, but even here the waters had become uninhabitable for most marine life; and above the land was unabable to sustain life apart from a few of the hardier species, and even they were struggling to find a way to simply exist.

It was decided to evacuate the planet and go in search of a new one, a planet like Earth that might offer some hope for the last remaining survivors of mankind. Even then the chances of saving everyone was slim, as there were no spaceships large enough to carry them all, so only a mere 7% of the human race would be lucky enough to go.
The day came when the chosen few blasted off into space to seek a new planet they could call "home."

A few surviving animals were taken too, but nobody noticed the few lucky insects that had boarded as stowaways, including several newly mated queen ants. But these did not matter to a race of apes who had just killed their home planet which was left bleeding and dying, and although only a select group of the more intelligent humans had been chosen to go, it was hard luck for the ones left behind as they would soon be as dead as the dodo.

To be continued..................

[Wood~Ant]

Years of space travel turned into centuries, as the survivors of Earth died and new generations were born, so not one of the pilgrims that began the journey was left alive by the end of it.
Moving at the speed of light it took 700 years to find a suitable home, which meant resources were stretched pretty thin by the time they found the planet they were to call "New Terra"; but some very strange things were to happen on their new world, so perhaps 'terror' may have been a more appropriate name.

Questions were raised about if some of the ships should push on further out into the vastness of the universe, but most decided to stay put while a few bold explorers went on. They were maybe the luckier ones if they could find a place to live elsewhere, as the ships that remained unloaded their precious cargo of people and animals.
The decendants of the ants also disembarked onto this new world, and found plenty of food and places to nest. The land here was rich and fertile, and soon farms were growing food crops; but nobody thought about eating the native plants or animals as yet, all that was except the ants.

As time passed the human race slowly began to grow in numbers, as towns and villages sprung up in places where no habitable dwellings had been originally. Various races argued over the name of the capital city, but it was finally named Hope Springs as mankind believed they had found their paradise.
How wrong they were, which would be proved once they began to use a local fruit that grew everywhere and tasted like pineapple, a delicacy that was enjoyed by humans and ants alike.

To be continued...............

[Wood~Ant]

The nice tasting fruit proved to have a rather nasty poison which slowly began to eat away human flesh, so many people began to die in agony. Medical teams declared the fruit to be toxic for human or animal consumption and so they stopped harvesting it.
The ants and other insects however had no such problems with this fruit, although after several generations ants began to grow in size until workers the size of mice were seen roaming the fields.
The farmers did not worry too much as the ants did no harm and kept down other pests, so it wasn't until the ants attacked and killed several humans that they were looked upon as a menace.

Nothing that was used against the ants worked, and people could not even get close enough to the ants to crush them, for as soon as the ants felt threatened they fired jets of acid which burned through any protective clothing.
Not only that, but they had adapted the poison from the local fruit and their jets of acid were now a deadly weapon which killed humans and their livestock alike.
An emergency was declared and mankind decided it was time to flee this planet and search for another, perhaps where the other remnants of humans who had gone on to explore might have found a better world. In any case it was becoming impossible for the human race to remain here, as the ants and a few other insects were becoming a deadly problem, as hundreds of people were dying each day from insect attacks.

The Earthlings left the planet as soon as they had prepared their space ships for another journey. Back on New Terra the ants were now the dominant species which ruled over all the land as they quickly spread to what had now become their planet.
On the last of the human spaceships a single newly mated queen ant who was hidden among some crates began to lay eggs, eggs the size of chicken eggs laid by a queen the size of a rabbit.
Other humans in the other ships wondered why the last spaceship in the fleet suddenly stopped transmitting messages, but then the entire ship's company and passengers were all dead afterall

The End