Through the Horizon_What's Lost is Found
#3 of Through the Horizon
Hello All, here's the newest chapter.
A great thanks to Dasher Cheetah who helped me as always. I hope you enjoy!
_ Through the Horizon: What's Lost is Found _
Bane sat at his desk thinking of the past few weeks. So much had happened, so many had been killed but there had been gains made as well. Hardly enough to totally make up for the destruction and death but at least it was not all dark. Ron had managed to nearly finish repairs to the base. The roof over the gun room had been rebuilt into a permanent roof. Weapons had been placed on the surface in specific locations that would help defend it from further attacks. The old ship had been assimilated fully into the base. Anything that could be salvaged for use somewhere else had been. It had been almost three weeks since the attack and things had almost returned to normal, or as normal as could be after the losses they had suffered. Many faces were missing though, and no one had escaped the loss of at least one friend or love. Such was the fate of those involved in war. You knew it and accepted it as something that happened in war and moved on as well as you could. Being mostly trained for, It was a bit easier for the personel he commanded to deal with than it would be for civilians. The one that hit Bane the most was the absence of Scott, his best friend and declared mate of only a short time before he was lost. Bane took a deep sigh which drew the attention of Dasher, whom was still in feral wolf form. The wolf raised his head and looked Bane over, noting that he was brooding again on the losses as well as the weight of responcebility that rested on his shoulders. Bane had been terribly busy with looking out for all his people, making sure to take care of the greater number first. That did not mean he had forgotten Dasher's situation, or that he owed his friend much for all the former cheetah had done for him and them all. It was just that Bane had to take care of the big issues first so that the alliance could continue to survive. Bane reviewed what he knew and what he had done so far to find out a way to reverse what ever had happened to change Dasher into the wolf form he now had. Ron had been working on investigating just how the transformation had happened but it was beyond his field of expertise. Ron was an engineer. Give him a machine to be fixed or building repaired and the fox could work wonders. This was not that type of problem however and Bane acknowledged that Ron needed help with it. Bane intended to bring Seamus in on the problem for assistance, but the time had simply not been on their side to do so yet. Bane looked down and saw that Dasher was looking at him with concern obvious upon his face. Bane knew the concern was for him and not for Dasher's own problems. It showed how much the transformed cheetah cared for him and his situation. That was how Dasher had been before the transformation and it showed that tho he was outwardly a feral wolf, the caring friend Bane knew and had grown close to was still alive within. Bane glanced over Dasher's body and had to admit, the cheetah made a handsome wolf. Bane reached down and scratched Dasher's head just behind his ears. The former kitty twitched his leg in a very natural canine response. Bane chuckled at Dasher. He made a lovely pet but Bane wanted the old kitty back. That and he was tired of Dasher's ongoing attempts to tempt him into sex. As if on cue, Dasher gave Bane a smile and began licking his balls. Bane gave a half snort, half chuckle and said, "You know . . . there are other things to do besides lick your balls." Dasher looked up innocently, then grinned and gave a sound that Bane had come to recognize as the way Dasher now laughed. Bane just shook his head and went back to work.
As Bane was reading over some random reports he had been previously avoiding, time passed. He was brought out of the deep concentration it took to try and find solutions to the continually occurring problems that needed his consideration by the sound of his office doors signal. Someone felt that there was something he needed to hear or be made aware of, that an electronic communication would not accomplish. Bane hit the comm switch and stretched his stiff back as he called out,"Enter." The door to his office opened and in stepped Lucian Blake. "Good evening Mr. Accendo. May I come in?" Bane smiled at Lucian and nodded. Lucian was a very talented young man or rather, he was actually a dragon. He was one of only a few that worked on the base and Bane found it interesting to see and talk to so rare a species as Lucian was a part of. Bane waved him to come nearer and sit down before saying,"Of course you can Lucian and for the last time, stop calling me Mr. Accendo." The young dragon blushed and answered,"Sorry Mr....I mean Bane." Bane smiled and said,"There, that's much better. Now what can I do for you?" In an obviously deferential manner, Lucian began with, "Well, I've been doing some work with a few of the satellites that we placed in orbit after the attack. Tho they are not specifically created to do so, I have been working to have them examine and survey the planet." "Yes, I ordered that be done. What of it?" asked Bane. "Well sir, I've found something but I'm not sure what." "Ok, lets take a look.",Bane said and turned to pull up the information to his computer station. He examined the data and report Lucian had made, then looked up for Lucian to continue. "You see," continued Lucian, "I've found something under water. It is...odd. If I didn't know better I would swear it is an artifically created city. I'm getting energy readings and life signs. But it is under water, so that makes no sense." Bane thought on what Lucian had just said....It couldn't be, it just wasn't possible. There was no sign of any previous inhabitants on the planet, other than what the Wolven empire that had built this base and abandoned it. As Bane thought about it and studied the scan data, an idea occurred to him and the surprise showed. The look on Bane's face gave away what he was feeling and the look on Lucians' face told Bane that the young dragon was curious. Bane decided to share his thoughts and said,"I think I may know what you found Lucian. You see, my family owns a very successful company called Wolf Industries. Its, well its a weapons company. Where I come from it is a technology company but currently its a weapons company. In the records I once read, one of the members of that company was a reletive of mine, name ofHugo Accendo. Hugo decided to break off from the company and mainstream society to create a place where he could create without the rules he felt were not needed and stifled creativity. A city upon a hill, he called it and he took with him other researchers and scientists who felt the same. Many signed up for his project and a great fleet was built. His fleet departed never to be seen again. From what he left behind in his papers, I know he headed in this direction from Earth, tho of course he had no destination in mind but planned to find a world he could inhabit. The project, and I use that term very loosely, almost bankrupted the company." Lucian sat stunned by the news he was hearing. For someone to undertake such a monumental project with no assurence he could succeed seemed fantastic! Even if this was where Hugo had ended up, what reason would he have to build a city under water? Could it really be here? Bane then continued, " I ordered the satellites to be sent up because we don't have the people to spare for exploration when satellites can do the job more easily and they also would provide early warning of any ships that might be looking for them. It was only after seeing these scans that I recognized and remembered certain design plans he had for that city. Some of them were so unique, that I have never seem them duplicated anywhere, yet it seems, here they are. Against all odds, it looks like we have stumbled upon the very planet Hugo had colonized and found his city." Lucian nodded his understanding. He sat in silent contemplation. If this was a city under water, then it would be perfect to use as a base. It was not only well hidden from detection, the water would provide additional protection. There would also be additional supplies and material that they could certainly use. Lucian asked,"Bane, if this is there. . . What do we do with it? There were life signs but not as many as one would expect to find in such a city as you describe Hugo wanted to build." Bane answered, "Well, first we make contact and see if it is indeed the city Hugo Accendo set out to create. Whether it is or not, we shall try to make contact and see if they are interested in being a part of the Alliance. Until we know more, we will have to play it by ear. Lucian, I want you to lead an expedition to the city. I want you to carry Seamus as a diplomat to open communication and Ron as an engineer to take stock of their technology. You may need both of their talents for this." Lucian nodded and since he had been put in charge of the expedition, he said, "I also want some ground troups to come with me. We don't know whats there and we might encounter hostilities that we need to defend ourselves from. There are life signs tho they were quick moving and faint. We can't tell what they are from what we could gather by sattelite, so I would rather be prepared than sorry." Bane nodded and said,"That is reasonable and good planning on your part. Ok, carry twenty of our foot soldiers. Also, I want you to carry hazmat suits for everybody as well as weapons and provisions for a week." Lucian nodded and stood up, saluting Bane as he acknowledged his orders. Lucian said,"I must prepare for this before I set out." Bane nodded and stood up as he returned the salute. Bane said,"Depart when ready but keep the nature of this mission secret for now. This is on a need to know basis, only." In saying this, Bane had a slightly worried look on his face. Lucian was curious as to what he wasn't saying but knew better than to question his commanding officer.
It took most of the day for Lucian to put his team together. He was in command of the mission with Seamus being his second in command. Seamus had more experience than most of the other crew members at his disposal and as he was going anyway, he seemed like a logical selection for this position. Ron was his chief engineer for the mission and had brought two teams with him consisting of a total of ten people. Lucian had also brought twenty foot soldiers of various species, but mainly wolf and fox. There were no inter-species tension between them anymore, the battle had made them brothers. The expedition was taking a medium sized cargo ship that had been retrofitted for troupe transport. It had been modified to work under water, so getting there wasn't a problem. The expedition members took their stations in the ship and Lucian sat in the pilot's seat. "Its been a while since I've done this, so lets see what I remember." He quickly went though the pre-flight check list. Seamus was at weapons, and Ron was at the engineering station. Everything was green so the ship lifted off of the space pad and headed for the planet's largest ocean. It was at this point that Lucian engaged the auto pilot and informed Ron and Seamus of the nature of the mission. Both were filled with a mixture of excitement, curiosity, and fear. It seemed fantastic to find a city on what they had thought was an uninhabited world. To think that it might be created by peope from Earth was astounding. If it had indeed been created by Bane's ancestor... the odds of it being here were astronomical! Yet Bane had said he had reason to think it was so and whatever it ended up being, it was their job to investigate. Ron felt confident he could handle his part but Seamus was nervous. It could be a simple matter to contact and talk with the city inhabitants. It also could be a Wolven secret base and they would have to fight. The third posibility was that it was a totally alien race and then anything could happen. If Bane had chosen him to fulfill this role, then Seamus would do his best to not let the big wolf down. None of them knew what awaited them at their destination. As the ship neared the coordinates of the site it slowed and then entered the water. As expected, the transition was flawless. The ship sped towards its destination. As it neared it, a shape emerged from the gloom and became slowly visible in the distance. Seamus consulted his station. "Lucian, its a city alright. I'm getting minimum power readings and odd life signs. I can't pin down the species, the genetic makeup is nothing I've ever seen before. I'm getting no radio chatter, I've hailed them but am getting no response." "Ok," said Lucian, "then lets assume nobody is in command of the city. Are there any defenses that are obvious?" Ron looked at his station and replied, "I can see that the city is equipped with a shield that I assume is supposed to hold back the water. Its failed, probably years ago. The emitters overloaded by the looks of these readings, and nobody reset the system. I'm not getting any weapons signatures from the city, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. I can't read anything inside of the city, but I will say this. Its massive, I can't even begin to say how large it is accurately without more surveying of it. However if I had to guess I would say its probably large enough for several million inhabitants." Lucian nodded and began his approach of the city. Just as he was nearing the edge of it, the entire ship shook and lost power. A hologram appeared in the center of the command deck, it was a wolf. "Greetings, my name is Hugo L. Accendo. If you are seeing this message then I have placed the city on lock-down. What you see before you is my city. It was to be a city upon a hill. A place for people to come and work free of restraints. Unfortunately in designing my society this way I made a fatal flaw. With no regulation, experiments went out of control. Research into genetics led to the manipulation of DNA to alter appearance, mental abilities, and even physical abilities. What nobody expected was that in doing this, it actually degraded the mental facilities of the subjects. By the time this side effect was noticed, most of the population had embraced it and used it. I myself am showing the early signs of the effects. To protect innocent people from being harmed I have locked down the city. You may chose to ignore my warning and proceed, I will remain with you and give you all the help I can, but be warned. You are not prepared for what awaits you." With that the hologram became still. Lucian looked at Seamus. "We need to explore the city to see if its a viable location for a base. I am sure that Bane will want to know more about this and what has happened here.We are going in." Seamus nodded his agreement and Lucian addressed the hologram of Hugo. "Hugo, we chose to proceed and explore the city before us." The hologram sprang to life, "You have been warned!" With that the ship began moving under an unknown power that guided it forward. It entered the city and was carried to the largest building in the city that was located in the center. On it in holographic letters were "Accendo Tower." Lucian figured it was the central control of the city being as it was at the center and Accendo was the name of its creator. As if sensing the question, Hugo said, "Accendo tower is the central building of the city. All controls are located within it. You will need to take control of the central systems in order to bring the city back to life." With that the ship began docking procedures. Ron, Lucian, and Seamus walked into the cargo area and informed the troupes of what faced them. There was surprise amoung the team members but they were professionals and went about preparing for what lay ahead. As soon as the ship docked the airlock opened as if greeting them. The soldiers walked slowly into the airlock as the other door opened as well. With weapons drawn, the team members of the ship filed into the building. The first room they came too was a reception room. The hologram of Hugo appeared in the center of it on a pedestal. "Welcome to my city. This greeting room is on the same level as the control room. You will need to proceed to it. There I will turn over control to you and my functionality will end." With that the door to the room opened. As it did a humanoid creature ran into the room among the explores and screamed a terrible battle cry. It ran up to the nearest soldier and hit him in the head with a pipe. The unprepared soldier collapsed under the blow. Seamus pulled his blaster and attempted to stun the strange attacker, this had no effect and the attacker ran back from where he had come from. Seamus walked over to the soldier. The man was dead, beside him lay the device he was killed with. "My God, Lucian look at this." In his hand was a pipe, but a battery cell had been attached to it. It sent a lethal shock into the body it hit. It was a very crude, yet very effective. Lucians looked up and ordered, "Set all weapons to vaporize. Kill anything that looks dangerous!" There was a massive clicking as all did as he ordered. Seamus didn't argue as he was in shock. Lucian pulled out his weapon, "I'll take lead." He walked into the hallway and followed it to the control room. As they walked in, the monitors and panels sprang to life. The room light up and a buzzing filled the air as computer stations booted up for the first time in years. Lucian looked to Ron and said, "Ron, see if you can get this city up and running. I want a status report ASAP! Seamus I want you to have a look around the command deck, see what all is in here but take ten of the men with you. Keep sharp! We have already seen that there are dangerous creatures here and I don't want to lose any more men." With that they went off to do what Lucian had ordered, he then looked at the remaining men and said."I want you guys to form a perimeter around this room. Keep the com channels open and shoot to kill." With that everybody went to their appointed tasks and Lucian went to work trying to assist Ron.
Two hours later everybody returned to the central command room. Seamus had one less soldier and several others looked as though they were badly shaken. Lucian spoke up, "Seamus, Ron will you please join me in the command office?" With that the three walked into the room and Lucian sealed the door. Ron and Seamus both looked troubled. "Ok guys, whats our status?" Seamus spoke up first, "From what I can see this city is very large. This deck is actually part of the largest building in the city. There are many rooms and offices. There are the remains of Mmany dead bodies, and we lost another soldier to one of the inhabitants." Lucian nodded, "Ron what about you?" "Well," began Ron, "things are bad, really bad. You see, this city is supposed to be protected by a force field from the water, but it collapsed. When it did so, many of the outer buildings were damaged. As a result the city started to flood. The city systems kicked in and sealed many parts of the city off. Being built under water, there were naturally safety systems built it. Because of time and lack of maintenance, some of them have failed. Then there is the matter of the lock-down. Now its almost impossible to get from one side of the city to the other. As far as power, one of eight generators are currently working. Three are flooded, the rest are just shut down. The problem is we don't have enough power to start them automatically. They must be restarted at the generator, and we need those generators. City power is at critical levels, and life support is in danger of collapse." Lucian listened with interest. He moved behind the desk and sat down. "Guys we don't have enough men to secure the central control and to make treks to restart the generators that aren't currently under water. I am considering going back and reporting to Bane what we know, then gathering more help to enable us to accomplish the goals. To go on further would expose us to attacks and losses we cannot afford to take." As he finished this though, the hologram of Hugo Accendo once again materialized in the room. "Hello all, I assume by now you have found the desperate state my city is in." Ron looked confused, "How did he know we were assessing the situation?" Hugo laughed, "Because this isn't just a hologram, I'm sitting a floor above you in my office as we speak. Shortly after it all went to hell I locked myself into my office. I've been here for ten years. I would like you to join me." As he said that, a hidden door opened in the room and an elevator arrived. The three reluctantly got into the elevator with 3 soldiers to help guard against any possible attack and were carried up one floor. It opened to reveal the office of Hugo Accendo. It was lavishly decorated, and still in top condition. He smiled and said, "Greetings friends." They didn't know what to say, the city was bathed in blood, but he was in his comfy office watching as if it as if it was a movie. There were medical machines running and hooked up to him but he looked to be in good shape for a wolf as old as he had to have been. Could these machines have kept him from aging at the rate of normal people? "What have you done?", Lucian yelled this as more of a comment than a question. Hugo didn't show any signs of fear or shock. His face didn't change from its tired yet arrogant expression. "What have I done? . . .I have survived." This was his only response to the charge. He turned around and walked to a large window facing the outside of the building. Fish swam by as he gazed out of it. "It wasn't always this way, this city . . . My city was a place to come and be free of tyranny. To explore new ideas, new avenues of research. But my plans for a free thinking utopia were flawed. A group of scientists discovered and started making some chemical to alter DNA. It started out innocently enough, people fixing their looks, making themselves smarter, making themselves more than they could ever dream of being. Then it all went to hell. The company started releasing chemicals to give the people super human power. Abilities to make fire with a wave of their hand, to freeze enemies, and many more. The people went mad with power and began to take in massive amounts of the chemicals. We wanted to become supermen . . . Nay, even as gods! It was only after we started to show what such power did to the minds and souls of our people, that we discovered the second great flaw to this. It was then that the unknown side effects of the chemicals began to show themselves. Altering our DNA had degraded our cognitive abilities. People lost it, and the blood bath started. It broke down into a civil war, then riots of killing and destruction. I was forced to lock myself in here and wait for it to all end. One by one the generators failed. With nobody to fix them, they went down. The shield collapsed and I prayed it would destroy this wretched city. That it would erase it from time and history but it did not. I had built it too strong. The city systems locked it down and the last two of the three remaining generators that were running flooded. I've armed this tower's defenses and set them on automatic but its not enough. Those infected can move too fast for my systems to take reliably out. There are other buildings intact where my defences do not reach and so I could not eliminate their threat to me. Hence, I was trapped here, unable to repair the damage. I couldn't get to my labs to even attempt to find a cure for them. Bioengineering is not my forte anyway but I would have tried. Unfortunately I believe there is no cure for this." Hugo took a deep sigh, "So much regret, so little time. I also lacked the will power to flood the city or attempt to blow it up and end the suffering of these creatures. I was afraid to die and now, the matter is moot." He coughed and took a seat at his desk. "You see, I'm dieing." Seamus pulled out a scanner from his bag and approached Hugo. He ran the sensor over the wolf's body and then addressed Lucian. "Sir, he has advanced cancer. He hasn't long to live. I don't understand how he's still conscious." Hugo smiled, "You'll find my city full of unknown's. Come here Lucian, you seem to be the leader and the honor of dragons is well known." Lucian walked up to Hugo and Hugo pulled out a data pad. "Put your paw on the screen Lucian." He did as he was told and the pad beeped loudly, then the computer spoke." All system controls transferred to Lucian Blake." Hugo smiled and coughed. He was visibly weaker and said softly,"I give to you my city and all it contains. I hope you make good use of it and the knowledge it contains. May you make better use of it than we did and may you avoid the failures we made." His last act was to give his city to somebody he didn't know. He had hope that the new generation would make amends for his sins. Hugo died with a smile on his face and Lucian, Ron, and Seamus stood in shock. Lucian was the proud owner of a city, a city bathed in the blood of its inhabitants. None of them had any idea of what the future held for them. But the three would face it together. Bane sent them to do a job, and they would succeed in it.