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The Story Thus Far:

Three months after the known world had ended two loose communities arose from its ashes- one the brainchild of a megalomaniac who wanted to rule and dominate over what was left, the second a conglomeration of survivors from diverse backgrounds who came together to form something more than the sum of its parts. This fledgling colony has faced many challenges from its birth that has threatened its very existence but yet has some how survived the odds but for how much longer?

Counter Earth Chronicles - Fallen Empire

Chapter 45: Rationalizing Bad Decisions

Day 72 continued

*Recognized Sir Ram Senior Knight Wundagore Castle.*

*Recognized Lady Ursa Senior Knight Wundagore Castle.*

*Emergency Authorization Alex Winter.*

"Wow this is awfully snug." I said as I was sandwiched between the bear and the ram within the blue coupe.

"It shouldn't be. Ursa why are we taking the boy again?" The evil beastial bemoaned.

"All missions above ground are required to have some one from the medical staff with them. It was one of the protocols the commander established." My warrior bear said to her colleague.

"Him?"

"Yes me Sir Ram." I said sheepishly.

"It is amazing that this is your function here in this would be colony." He said condescendingly.

"Before Shakara arrived- there was a need. I stepped up."

"Now you and that minion of the The Madam are responsible for everyone's well being?" The evil beastial said.

"They have been doing a good job so far Sir Ram." My she beast said.

"Yes, yes you all are thriving... but barely." The evil beastial said glancing at his PDA.

*Sir Ram I have a incoming communication from commander Rhinox.*

"Put it through Overwatch."

"I wanted to wish you three luck on your mission." The rhino warrior said. "But be very careful."

"If this mission is successful, Mara will have the materials to repair the silver prototype and tuneup this one helping us to better defend the lost city." I said.

"When this mission is successful." My warrior bear said correcting me.

"Yes we also need to continue looking for the lost as well." I said.

"Who are these lost you speak about boy?"

"Two from our own community that have disappeared Sir Ram."

"There is also Chemar and Cole who are still out there somewhere as well. They were the last operators of the silver coupe."

"Yes Ursa, I saw the footage. They were fleeing spider creatures?"

"When we found the silver prototype it's weapons were exhausted and it was badly damaged." I said as we entered the south maze.

"That is most likely why they fled I suppose." The ram said.

*We are about to reach the surface.* The Automated assistant said.

"Overwatch follow the protocol." My fierce ursine warrior ordered.

*Engaging halo-projector, the prototype is now invisible. *

"That is a brilliant idea moving about undetected. We can use the surveillance probe once we arrive at World Five." The ram said.

"Um, not exactly Sir Ram."

The evil beastial gave me a curious glance.

"Why?"

"We lost the probe when we lost professor Stern. Well, I did."

"You mean the archeologist who discovered the lost city?"

"We believe she and it were sent somewhere by some weird transportation device." I said meekly.

"So you lost a vital tactical advantage when that happened." The evil beastial said to me.

"Yes."

"Of all the stupid, idiotic dumb things to do...." The ram warrior started to say berating me.

"Hey Sir Ram."

"What?!"

"Do you know that you are greying?" I said changing the subject abruptly.

"Where?"

"Here and here." I pointed to some fur on his ears.

The time traveler paused a long time before saying. "Ursa land and stop the vehicle."

"Something wrong?" My warrior bear asked her colleague.

"I need the boy to help me with something." The ram said grabbing me by the scruff of my neck.

"HEY! AUGH!"

*STUFF*

I was pulled from the cockpit of the blue coupe and tossed into its trunk like a piece of luggage. My only view now was from the storage compartment between the pilot and copliot seats.

"Ah much better." The ram said sitting back down.

"Sir Ram?" Lady Ursa said.

"The interior space on these vehicles has always been tight." The evil beastial said.

"Perhaps Mara could address that as well." The bear said to the ram.

"If there is time." He shot back.

"Yes you mentioned that you only can spend 32 hours in a place before you are brought forcibly to another time period. Why haven't you taken care of that problem?"

"The short answer my dear is that the black PDA needs extensive repairs and each of the eras I have visited lacks the technical-logical sophistication, the resources and tools to properly allow me to troubleshoot, diagnose or fix the problem.

"It started with the EMP the day of the fall Sir Ram. That killed all electronics isolating each of the cities." My warrior bear said.

"How is it that you and Rhinox can communicate with each other?"

"Remember the mysterious signal that caused hover vehicles to go haywire?"

"Yes my dear- it was being relayed from that rebel outpost in the Great Forest."

"Rhinox adapted that signal so that we could have limited communication."

"That was quite cunning of him." Sir Ram responded.

*Additionally the commander repurposed that site as an auxiliary base for away missions.*

"One of the sentinels there monitors World One and World Five for us." I said listening in on the conversation.

"I thought Mara made the trunk sound proof!" The ram warrior grumbled.

*Sir Ram, Lady Ursa, Mr. Winter we are coming into World Five now.* Overwatch announced.

Sir Ram and my mistress looked at the winter scene below.

"Overwatch what is our present position in the city?"

*We are directly over Harbor Place and the hub studios Sir Ram.*

"Unbelievable."

"Sir Ram?" I asked.

"I saw what the city looks like twenty six years from now." The evil beastial said to us.

"Any better?" My she beast asked.

"No, it is identical. The lake overtook and became part of the city making most of it uninhabitable except for the tallest buildings."

"Feleen reported that there was activity taking place all around here." I said.

*There is look down there to the left Mr. Winter.* Overwatch commented.

"Automated assistant zoom in and magnify." Sir Ram ordered.

Sir Ram, my mistress and I watched some activity on the city's new shoreline. A large group of humans, beastials and monsters shoveling snow making a walkway. While a second group were collecting bodies, flotsam and debris that was from the storm making piles and a third group would take those piles away.

We watched the activity for a while. The groups moved like a highly organized efficient unit. Not a complaint or frown among any of them.

"That is just, just wow." I said to the ram and bear.

*This appears to be the new order the entity has been advertising.*

"Overwatch any sign of Russell Ferguson?" My lady bear asked.

*No Lady Ursa. There are stragglers though.*

"What do you mean computer?" The ram asked indignantly.

*Rejects. The green buff fellow over there with the long ears and incisors for instance.*

The creature appeared to be humanoid initially but had exaggerated features- a square jaw, large teeth, large eyes, ears and was green. It didn't look like any human I had ever seen. I surmised it had to be another escaped lab creature.

Sir Ram, Lady Ursa and I watched as it groveled at the paws of a small white rabbit who shook her head no and indicated that the creature to move on.

"Apparently that creature wished to become an Other and the entity rejected him outright because of some imperfection." Sir Ram commented.

*Possibly a new member for our community.*

"It depends on loyalties Overwatch." My she beast commented. "There are some rejected out there that still will ally with ONE.

"Trust me we don't want refugees that are still longing to be possessed after they have been rejected. They are a danger to everyone around them." I commented.

"We had better resume the mission. My time is not unlimited." Sir Ram said looking at the black PDA.

"Where is you lab?" The bear asked to the ram.

"Give me a minute. The city looks so different." He responded.

(You think?)

"A third of it is underwater Sir Ram."

"That building over there Lady Ursa."

The building looked like two letter 'Js' meshed together to form a sleek grey futuristic looking structure. At the very top was a spire. The building I surmised must have appeared taller than what we were seeing now.

"Fortunately my lab is near the top." The evil beastial said to my perfect person.

"Mistress?"

My she beast took a look around. "GRR. No place to land. But even if there was..." She growled.

*It would be easier flying directly into the lab than walking around the hallways and corridors?*

"Exactly. Who knows what is inside this building now." My warrior bear said scrolling through the weapons menu. "This should do it."

*Side-pods engaged.*

*Laser system engaged.*

Lady Ursa positioned the prototype facing the building just below the spire and cut a circular hole just large enough for the prototype.

"Done. Overwatch defectors to maximum." With that the disguised blue coupe flew into the circular hole that was cut on the exterior of the building causing it to fall down inside a grey, metallic metal colored room.

As we landed Lady Ursa exited the prototype to check the perimeter.

"Alex, Sir Ram put on the clothing we brought. It is in the back."

"That?!" The beastial scientist protested when seeing them.

"Yes these rags Sir Ram. Cover yourself head, to hooves do not leave any part of yourself exposed. I am going to make sure the lab is secure." My she beast said leaving the blue coupe.

"These things?! How degrading!"

"Better it be degrading Sir Ram than being the synoptic's slave. There is a lot of knowledge and experience in that head of yours that could be added the horde." I said chiding the evil beastial. "Besides they don't look so bad."

Of course I was lying, the black shirts, pants, hoods, masks, gloves and footwear made us look more like thugs ready to rob a establishment. In a way we were- one that he owned.

"So what is our first priority sir knight?"

"To fix the black PDA boy. I am tired of being dragged backward and forward throughout all time. Once I have control of the device destroying the conquerer of our world will become that much easier. In fact I may be able to completely erase what you and everyone experienced the last three months. You may just find yourself in front of the master being judged for being a pre-rebel." The evil beastial said condescendingly to me."

"Actually if you could erase the events leading up to that horrid day as well Sir Ram it would be appreciated."

"That is right boy you didn't tell me about the events of that morning." The ram said.

"I saw some dear friends of mine fall under ONE's possession. One of them even killed the High Evolutionary." I said solemnly.

"Who?"

"It was Lurie- well the entity who was controlling Lurie. She then tried to turn me. Tauren intervened. As he was being converted, Tauren warned me to run. I told him to fight it, to resist. He told me he couldn't."

"So the synoptic got both of them eh?"

"I took one last look and he and Lurie were kissing and he had the same look as all the entity's meat puppets."

"You mean that stare that says it took my body in exchange for a 1000 orgasms."

"Yeah that one Sir Ram. I tried to get help I went to Lea's lab and she had already become an Other."

"So it got her too boy? She had a gifted mind."

"Lurie had visited her before attending my judgement. I then ran to get Mara. The ceiling in her lab had collapsed with her under it Sir Ram." I said whimpering.

"What else did you see?"

"I ran into Sorren in the hallway. I told him what had happened and warned him to flee. He told me that he had to find Tauren and Lurie and ran off as the castle started shaking violently. That was the last time I saw him."

"So you went and hid boy?"

I nodded. "There wasn't anything else I could do you, Lady Ursa were in the field and the castle had those things running around randomly touching those who were fleeing."

"We are clear as we ever are going to be." My brown bear said returning.

"Very well. Let's get in and get out- quickly." The evil beastial said.

Sir Ram's lab in that tower was comprised of two large circular rooms both of them were lined with electronics which had stopped functioning because of the EMP. Both rooms were dark- glowsticks and the lights from the prototype were our only source of illumination.

The one room the prototype landed in had a large circular platform in its center, a railing around it, closets, chairs, table and a counter all metallic.

"Don't touch anything." The ram warned Lady Ursa and myself.

"There is nothing working to touch Sir Ram." My warrior bear said to her colleague.

That point would be proven even more in the next room where I saw the floor to ceiling cylinders with small platforms inside. There were three in total in two the remains of what looked like some man-beast experiments long dead he had been working on prior to the fall. In the first one was a gargoyle like creature about the height of an average human, green skin, claws and tail crumpled at the bottom of the platform as if the air inside had expired, he did shortly afterward.

In the second one was the ram's next experiment it looked like a human in mid transformation, a very painful one. The poor unfortunate soul looked like it had expired during the transformation- it had the head of a tiger but everything below the neck apart from being nude was human; a moderate build, nice muscle tone with great looking biceps and not an ounce of fat on the abdomen.

"That one showed great promise." The beastial scientist said approaching me. "But it was not to be."

The third cylinder was empty, the subject in it had broken out leaving shattered glass on the floor.

"And that one managed to escape. A pity."

"Where were you in all of this Sir Ram?" I said following him back to a nearby chair and table.

"You mean the last day boy?"

I nodded. I watched as he fished through a drawer, found some tools and started working on the black PDA.

"When was the last time you and I saw each other?" The ram asked.

I thought for a minute. "It was the afternoon Spirit was being released into the wild after he was de-evolved."

"That is right afterwards the master ordered the core to hunt down all who celebrated our pending demise during the great sickness." He said not lifting up his head from the black PDA.

(The reign of terror.)

"I was helping out that week hunting down the revelers."

"You mean we were all helping out boy. The afternoon of December 30th. I was working in one of my off site labs and these two younglings appeared out of nowhere gibbering about the end of the empire."

"Cody and Primrose!" I said to him.

"Yes. My lab was in a undisclosed location. I told them that I had no time for such nonsense! The empire would endure! I told them to go home! If they were caught outside past curfew they would be in big trouble."

"But they came back." I concluded.

"That night pounding on the door of my lab. Reluctantly I let them in. Again with the warnings that something bad was going to happen the next day, the empire would end."

"And you didn't believe them?"

"In my arrogance boy I thought the empire would endure after all beastials are the ultimate life form. We would crush all opposition to the master's rule. So I refused to believe them despite the details that poured out of their mouths. I told them if what they said was true why didn't they warn their families and friends? They told me they had tried but no one would believe. I told them to sit in the corner of the lab and be quiet I would take them home afterwards. To my surprise they refused they would run into their past selves which would be weird."

"That would be one of those paradox thingies I heard about Sir Ram."

"Their whining got to be really annoying so much so I used the paralysis setting on my weapon to shut them up and returned to my work."

"Sir Ram you didn't?!"

"I did. When I looked up it was 6:30 AM. I turned on the hub as I decided to get ready for the day. I was watching that morning show from World Five when the broadcast ceased. That was when the cat-boy and rabbit-girl went nuts. I unfroze them. They told me that it was beginning whatever it was. I was annoyed but decided to hear them out. What they saw and experienced in the arts district sounded like the phantom cascade from years before."

"So you corroborated their story?"

"I attempted to contact the Knights of Sovereign and the hub studios to no avail. I didn't react then but it turned out to be some sort of cascading effect when contact with World Four and World Three ended."

"When did you start to believe Cody and Primrose?" I asked the focused beastial.

"It was when I lost contact with everyone in World One. The younglings brought me to the window of my lab and I saw the giant cloud advancing on the city and the chaos in its wake. That was when I went to the a drawer where I had stored the black PDA."

"I remember you said after our trip that you were going to hold on to it and try to get it working again Sir Ram."

"I found a temporary replacement for its power source, but I was not able to get it to function completely but at that time it didn't matter in desperation I activated the device. I didn't care where or when, we just had to leave. We arrived in YOE 2 after the master came to power. The children and I decided that that time period would be a nice place to take refuge which we did for 32 hours before we time shifted again. At first, I thought it was some sort of fluke. Then it happened again and again and has happened for the last thirteen years."

"During that time you were never able to repair that thing Sir Ram? That is a bit far fetched."

"Not as far fetched as you think boy when we kept arriving in periods where technology is nonexistent or it is not safe to even go anywhere near civilization- because there isn't any or it is too dangerous." The ram countered. "So every place we have been to after the fall or before the master came to power is the equivalent to the stone age- I am sure there are pockets of technological sophistication but finding them in the space of 32 hours is very difficult boy."

(Wow.)

"We have no control of where we or when show up. It was fluke that I was able to rescue Mara before her passing pet." He said condescendingly.

"It was fluke that you appeared in the lost city after you rescued Mara." I countered.

"I noticed that you are keeping strange bedfellows these days boy." The ram said eyeing me.

"What do you mean sir knight?"

"The scent of that lioness criminal it is all over you. Double dipping boy?" Sir Ram whispered.

"It is complicated."

"Try me."

"You are aware of my perfect person's condition."

"You mean Ursa? Yes."

"Well my devious person also has a condition."

"Similar to Ursa?"

"No Sir Ram. But I treat it in the same manner."

"I see so you get sexed twice a day so that your community has a functional healer."

(For a big horned sheep, Sir Ram can be such an ass.)

"Actually it is four times a day and I have someone who can look after my mistress as long as I can look after that someone."

"Intriguing arrangement boy." The evil beastial said to me.

"It is necessary during these dark times Sir Ram."

"I am sure it is."

"Any progress Sir Ram?" My warrior bear said entering the room.

"None I am afraid, I am going to need more time to study and work on this device. Alex make yourself useful- lend me your weapon."

"Ok."

"And go clean up that mess in the other room. Ursa in the closet next to prototype should be some spare parts Mara needs." The beastial scientist said.

So I was on cleaning detail while my she beast loaded the blue coupe with as many parts she thought Mara could use to fix the silver prototype.

I went to a closet in the next room to try to find something to clean up the glass from the shattered cylinder.

Damn there was a lot of it. I grabbed a brush and a metallic strip and started moving the shards of glass on to it while the two in the next lab worked silently. Afterwards, I was looking for some place to dump the refuse so I started checking the other doors along the wall next to the closet of the lab looking for the trash recliminator which in retrospect was a bad, stupid mistake...

_And so the master allowed me to take control of my body for a while. I found myself swimming in the lake right where Harbor Place used to be. _

You mean where the amusement center was located?

_Yeah there, yeah you know how we sharks love to swim. Anyway it wanted me to fish out any bodies I found and bringing them to shore. I did for hours and then headed to the center of the lake to stretch my fins. _

That sounds nice. The master was ok with it?

Yeah. Anyway one of the outer islands you will never guess what I found?!

A stranded family of chinchillas nearly frozen to death?

Yeah. How did you know?

We are linked through the master; we are ONE remember?

_ Yeah, yeah. Anyway their boat had been disabled during the awakening and they had been stranded for two and half months! Their shelter was destroyed, their food was exhausted and they had nowhere to go. Then they see me emerging from the water! _

They didn't know of the awakening huh?

Nope. They had been trying to get help but couldn't figure out why all communications were down. I became a freakin hero to them. They were saying Mr. Shark do you have something to eat? Mr. Shark can you go get us help?

Tourists!

_ Yeah you know right? I fed them. Built them a makeshift shelter and then I laid down with them, you know to keep them warm they didn't suspect a thing and budda bing, budda boom four more subjects for the master! _

ONE must have been very pleased.

Rewarded me on the spot I was. Ya know what I mean?

*creak*

The two shark beastials' conversation came to a dead stop as they glanced at a door that had opened to their immediate left and the stupid human (me) who had mistaken it for a closet who was looking out it into the hallway right at them.

"Um, hi." I managed to blurt out stupidly.

To Be Continued....