yellow07 was my first commission (still taking those btw), and flatteringly enough he wanted me to write a back-story for my first series. I was only too happy to do so. This isn't a story as I usually write them, mostly just a narrative of the events that made all the short stories possible. Also, ick, if I'd known how long it'd last, I'd have chosen a better world name than Nedonall.

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The History of Nedonall

Discovery

The first probe sent to the planet that would be known as Nedonall relayed images of a single supercontinent, crisscrossing chains of mountains suggesting it had once been multiple smaller pieces that collided and merged. Yet what drew the interest of the Terran colonization effort was not the promise of land, but water, naturally occurring and most importantly, in a liquid state.

The land was barren, empty, lifeless, the atmosphere poisonous and toxic, the planet incapable of supporting life. But with present, this could change and the Bureau of Colonization approved the planet for routine terraforming and settlement. The planet was christened Nedonall after a scientist of notable, but minor significance and like its namesake, went unnoticed in the greater scheme of Man’s empire, right up until the day all contact was lost.

The Starbridge, the Net, and the Terraformers

The next probes to arrive on Nedonall bore the great Terraformers, massive structures landed along the coasts of the continent. Drawing in the ocean, the Terraformers set about the task of filling the atmosphere with carbon and enriching the soil with minerals—the better to sustain the plant life that would in turn produce oxygen, billions of seeds launched from within the Terraformers and scattered across the land. Genetically engineered, these seeds would sprout to full maturity in a fraction of the time of their unmodified Terran counterparts, an expanding tide of green feeding off the modified atmosphere and producing the oxygen needed by Man.

The final probe arrived not to survey or build, but to connect Earth to Nedonall, bringing with it the Starbridge, the means by which Man had reached the stars. A next-generation space-folding device, the only limit to the Starbridge’s operation was the requirement of a stable connection at both ends. In less than two years’ time, the dust-ridden, craggy supercontinent was covered in unbroken green forests of Terran flora, the air clean and breathable as the first human settlers set foot upon their new world coming from all backgrounds and walks of life.

The forests were cut, dozens of cities founded, and civilization springing amongst the wilderness. To coordinate this grand effort, a web of communication was spun, the Net. The relay stations were self-powered, self-repairing in order to maintain function if damaged or cut off by natural disaster. A wonder of technology, it was said the Net would persist for a century if left utterly alone and unattended.

This assertion proved incorrect: the Net lasted far longer.

Micros and Macrophages

Transporting native Terran fauna to Nedonall proved a more complicated task. The Starbridge’s capacity was limited and mostly tasked with the steady flow of humans sparing little room for livestock and the necessary organisms for a healthy ecosystem. Unlike plants, animals could not be taken to Nedonall in seed form and grown to maturity on the other side, at least, not without the appropriate modifications.

Through selective breeding, Man had long discovered how to manipulate the shape, color, and even size of domesticated beasts, from dogs to horses to cats. In the age of the stars’ colonization, this process went far beyond such primitive constraints. Even elephants could be grown at a height of a mere two inches, created in a breeding center and brought through the Starbridge in the dozens, if not hundreds. Of course, two-inch tall elephants would be of little use or interest, but this condition was not permanent, thanks to the second component of the equation, the Macrophage.

A synthetic bacterium, the Macrophage could augment and change its host organism’s DNA and physiology to the tune of commands sent through the Net by the terraforming stations. Once the bacterium received the command to do so, it triggered rapid mitosis in the host’s cells, growing it to its natural height. Reproducing, it eventually became as common as any other microorganism the Macrophage was harmless beyond its function. As a final worse case scenario, a mass command could be given to self-destruct it should the Macrophage prove a threat to human health.

Thanks to the Macrophage, Nedonall birthed an ecosystem similar to Earth’s but different, the miniaturized “Micros” as they were known, becoming as common a passenger through the Starbridge. Meanwhile, the Terran breeding centers sent forth a steady stream of livestock to aid in the growth and expansion of the fledgling colony.

The Slave Race

Having reached a heightened state of science and enlightenment, or so they told themselves, Mankind had little interest to engage in menial labor, such things reserved for machines and beasts of burden. Machinery proved too cost inefficient; flesh-and-blood the more economical option, turning to their mastery of genetics and biology once more to produce a solution: a servitor companion to accompany humanity to the stars.

Blending small portions of human DNA with that of other large mammals and dubbed “Furs”, the slave race came through the Starbridge as Micros like the rest. Intelligent and sapient, great care was taken so that the Macrophage activated in only the number of Furs necessary for required tasks. Furthermore, a shrinking script introduced into the Macrophage allowed the Furs to be reduced back to their miniature form when no longer needed. Thanks to size-shifting, a reliably large population could be kept in specialized habitation facilities, without fear of revolt against their normally much larger masters.

Arrogantly, the Terrans thought themselves in total control of Life but they were not architects, only dabblers. Because of the incomplete process, Nedonall’s Furs began to mutate, aberrations appearing in their spliced DNA.

The most common aberration, occurring particularly in those with a predominantly carnivorous lineage, was the Pred Phase, a period of intense instinctual compulsion overriding the Furs’ logic and rational centers, reducing him or her to a feral state of mind. Unpredictable and unpreventable, the only upside to the Pred Phase was its seemingly one-time occurrence, easily corrected by prematurely inducing the event within the habitation centers, though with little concern for those who fell prey to their neighbors’ wild tendencies.

The second aberration however, was taken more seriously. Unbidden and worse, completely voluntarily, some Furs possessed the ability to size-shift without a command from their masters. Size-shifters were disposed of wherever found and Furs in general were kept at a menial level of education sufficient only to use the most basic of tools should one ever get loose.

Thanks to these control mechanisms, the Furs spent the better part of two decades utterly subservient to the humans. Nevertheless, this state of affairs could not last forever, though neither race could predict the earth-shaking ramifications of its end.


The Uprising

Led by an illegally educated fox Fur known only as Redtail, the uprising swept across the continent like a wildfire as hundreds of dissident Furs joined the burgeoning army. So unprepared were Nedonall’s residents for this sudden attack that Redtail captured and destroyed the Starbridge, severing Nedonall from Earth and any reinforcements it could have sent, smashing its delicate machinery beyond salvage and overloading its power core to consume it in a great explosion that obliterated an entire city, albeit unintentionally.

Nevertheless, as the majority of the Furs remained Micros, Redtail’s forces were outnumbered and pursued by the ad hoc militia of vengeful humans led by the hastily commissioned General Bradford P. Owens pursued the Furs, cutting off their intended escape into the mountain forests. The final battle occurred on the Oakenwood peninsula in the shadow of one of the monolithic Terraformers and the Furs, still regarded as little more than clever animals, were mercilessly slaughtered to the last with Redtail himself mortally wounded.

Catalyst

Redtail’s flight into the Terraforming complex was initially derided as cowardice on the part of the victorious humans, a broken beast running off to die in a hole. The jeering laughter died in their throats when the dormant machinery whirred to life; only then did they understand that Redtail had learned how to control and manipulate high-technology.

Still linked through the Net, the Terraformers all across Nedonall awoke from their slumber, having never been dismantled in case the planet began to revert to its lifeless state. In further damnation, each station could be used to command the others, exactly as Redtail planned all along. As the last of his comrades fell defending him, Redtail used his dying breath to command the Macrophage into a mass size-altering action before triggering the Apoptosis Protocol to prevent an undoing of his work.

Those who followed Redtail believed their leader intended to grow the Microfurs in their enclosures, bringing their numbers to a level that could not be contained, but this was a lie. Understanding technology, Redtail knew it to be humanity’s trump card; no matter how many joined his cause, they would never be free so long as Man could chain them to the press of a button. With only time for a single world-altering command, Redtail chose to destroy human power so that those few Furs who survived the war would come into power of their own.
Instead of growing all Furs, Redtail shrank the humans.

The Fall

Across Nedonall, humans descended in stature to the size of Micro animals and Furs as the Macrophage executed its final command without hesitation. In a single night, the formerly dominant species of the planet found themselves so low in the food chain even rodents preyed on them.

The chaos and devastation that followed would fill a book in its own right. The human population was devastated; everything from household pests to former pets became a lethal threat, to say nothing of thousands of lives washed away in heavy rains or trapped within fires as their unattended homes went ablaze. Worst of all, the remaining normal-sized Furs were now giants to their former masters, and though a few well-treated or kind-hearted individuals showed mercy, most others set upon them with unspeakable torments born of intelligence paired with primal instinct, to say nothing of those who underwent the Pred Phase.

The surviving Micro humans fled their homes and cities, delving to an unknown fate within the wilderness, taking their chances with the unthinking predators and hazards there. Meanwhile, the Furs found themselves in possession of a world they had no idea how to rule, their interaction with human technology limited to menial labor, agricultural, and housekeeping duties. Redtail, the only one who understood human science and technology, died giving them their freedom, the Furs inept as cavemen next to a rocket ship.

The New World

Over the next fifteen centuries, Nedonall regressed into a dark age. The coastal Terraformers fell silent once more, and were ignorantly cannibalized for resources by Furs. The Net, its durable relay stations atop the highest peaks, endured, though it would not see use for some time.

True pioneers now, the humans began the uncertain task of survival, building what shelter they could from the scraps of their former glory. Some, ironically, found refuge within the old Micro habitats, settling into an uneasy coexistence with their former servants, though most such facilities were abandoned as the Microfurs sought their own destiny.

For years, many forlorn souls looked to the night sky in the hope that help would come, but sadly, the investigative probes sent from Earth did not see them, reporting back only ruins and a large feral Fur population. Several times recolonization was proposed but the Terran Colonial Bureau axed the idea, claiming it was disrespectful to the “dead.” Besides, there were plenty more worlds that could be altered, and Nedonall soon became a footnote in a history of failed colonies.

In truth, they were right and wrong. Nedonall, for all intents and purposes, was dead. Both Man and Fur forgot their origins, even as the latter slowly learned and came into its own as a civilization. Only the animosity remained, driving humans and Furs of all sizes further apart.
Micros, which now included humans among their number, were seen as some sort of intelligent rodent that infested and stole, while Macrofurs, a conversational version of Macrophage-Grown-Fur, were cruel, capricious giants best avoided if one wished to not become an underpaw smear, quick snack or a momentary object of amusement.

But even in such a dismal state, human tenacity and innovation endured. Some knowledge of technology survived, still surpassing that of the Macrofurs, who in turn gradually came to master basic, rudimentary forms of their predecessor’s science. Industry gave way to information, and soon both possessed computer technology once again.

Seeking a way to coordinate their thinking machines, Micro and Macro alike stumbled onto and connected to the ancient but still functioning Net, and in doing so, each other, though few realized this at first...