Exodus by soulNchantress
Prologue
I do not own Inuyasha or its characters. Everything Inuyasha is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, not me. I do not make any money from this fanfiction. This story is for my (and hopefully your) enjoyment.
In the year 1494 the world was saved from enslavement and destruction. History, while always written by the victor, was skewed in that no one bothered to ever write down these events. Of course word of mouth could never be stopped, but the tale lost a lot of itself as it was passed down from year to year until centuries had passed. In every telling of this event only one fact remained: The Shikon Miko was never heard from again. That is how the story became ancient history and then quietly surrendered itself to becoming myth. After all, who would ever believe that any story that spoke of demons as if they were real was anything more than mythology? The jewel in the tale became a moral against the traps and trappings of greed. Like most ancient things, however, they will eventually become unearthed.
Time passed slowly for most that knew of the true events of that fateful battle. Until the day came in 1999 that they were once again brought to a little Shinto Shrine nestled snugly in the great city of Tokyo. Events were unfolding rapidly that could undo all of their hard work in keeping the story a myth. Few knew that the history spoken of by an old priest was in fact very true. The majority decided that it was better to fade than to constantly fight. So preparations had been made to ensure that the fallen were remembered and that the secret stayed safe.
Unless one knew what to look for you would have opened your morning paper on Thursday of May 9, 1999, and would have probably never noticed the little headline in the crime report section of an unconscious trio of friends found at the Higarashi Shrine. It seemed as if they, according to police reports, were heading back from a Cosplay Event when they were swarmed by unknown assailants and mugged. Badly beaten they collapsed beneath the God Tree at the Shrine in the hopes that someone would find them and help them. One of the victims was Higarashi Kagome, granddaughter of the priest of the shrine. The other two were later identified as the wards and family friends of Taisho Nishi and his brother Taisho Sato. The Taisho brothers are the CEOs of Sirius Aeronautics, the world’s pioneering inventors and manufacturers of zero G planes and weapons. They asked that their wards’ names be withheld. It was unknown if the three beaten friends escaped the fate of ransom or if it was just a usual mugging. The investigation was ongoing.
Even this little story was quietly put away and faded from memory. Eventually it became a cold case put into a box and set on a shelf in a little basement room never to see the light of day.
Time moved forward, and in the year 2150 a story came to light that was impossible to cover up and ignore. The time of the Scourge had come. It meant the death and destruction of planet Earth’s very existence. Entire species were wiped out, and with little to no food, the Human race was sure to follow. It was a time when technology did not always hold the answers and the self preservation of the Humans allowed them to once again believe in myths and legends. Above all though, it brought back magic.
It started innocently enough. In the year 2102 a meteor shower was witnessed by western hemisphere. It was a beautiful, but deadly, sight as billions of people in the United Nations of the Americas set up lawn chairs in backyards to watch the rain of a thousand lights. It was magical, if one in that day and age even had inkling of just what “magical” was.
It was also tragic. One giant meteor, the size of the ancient Astro Dome landed in, ironically enough, the desert of the former state of Nevada. Five million innocent men, women, and children and countless wildlife were killed on impact. The volatile explosion of metric tons of torn earth, heated and searing, sent a shockwave across the western half of North America. Dust and ash covered the planet from the Mississippi River to the beaches of the former state of California. The EGD (Earth Global Defense) sent in millions of troops to help survivors and clean up in the aftermath. The MBA (Moon Base Alpha) scientist relayed information that the cataclysm was seen with the naked eye by Mars’ colonist.
Most of the damage was so extensive that the entire populations, in that area of the world, were moved to other locations. It became quarantined. No one could go in or out but scientist and reclaiming crews. Scientist, so giddy at the prospect of such a large chunk of space debris just sitting there for the taking, wasted no time in beginning analysis. That analysis was the beginning of the end. Although it would be another 42 years before the world knew it as such.
In 2142, a guard by the name of Igini Shin was coming from a three year tour of duty in the Wastelands of the Americas. That was the name given to the impact zone and surrounding areas after the meteor strike forty years previous. He signed in at the Contamination Check labs before he headed overseas to the United Nations of Asia half a world away. No one knew he was contaminated with what would later be known as the Scourge. In fact he passed all screenings for foreign agents and physical screenings with nothing more than the common cold. If only their scanners could detect then what they were programmed to detect now, the world’s populations would have been spared… at least for another thirty years or so.
Seventy two hours later, Shin was attending a welcome home party with his friends and family in Beijing. He begged off dancing with his betrothed to sit at a table to catch his breath. He was shocked, but not really frightened as the drops of green splattered onto the white table cloth from his ears. His sister, being a doctor, was quickly called to the table to investigate. A small amount of the substance was collected to take back to her lab after the party. Other than being winded from the dancing and the fact that his ears were oozing thick green fluid, Shin seemed just fine. He just had a cold.
Twenty four hours after the emergence of Shin’s first symptom, two hundred thousand people from the Contamination Check labs in Washington D.C. to the dining hall in Beijing came down with the common cold. However, it was the common cold, so it could not have been remarkable. Could it?
Forty eight hours after Shin’s first symptoms, he committed his first murder.
Shin woke that morning and dressed himself as normal. He stuffed his ears with cotton balls to contain his still unfortunate side effect from his cold. He said goodbye to his family and headed to work.
As he entered the Beijing branch building of the EGD, a woman brushed his shoulder in passing in the tight entrance hall door. Witnesses say the snarl of a beast emerged from the mouth of Sgt. Igini Shin as he casually placed his hands on the side of her head and twisted until her slender neck snapped. All hell broke loose. All those who tried to contain and detain Shin were ripped into mercilessly. Fifty Six bodies, including Shin’s, littered the floor of the EGD entrance hall before EGD security brought Shin down with one bullet through the head.
The spectacle was covered by media around the world as hospitals were becoming packed with panicked citizens displaying anything from the common cold to green liquid oozing from the ears. The world was getting its first look at the biggest global pandemic since the minor SARS and Swine Flu epidemics of the early twenty first century. More mass murders were to follow.
Six days. That was all it took from first contact with an infected individual until homicidal tendencies struck the victim. And it always struck. The rage would build like a sleeping lion that suddenly awoke to pounce on anyone within range. It took months to figure out just how contagious the disease was. It would be another year before the cause and the source of the spread would be found out.
A parasite, a tiny micro biotic life form, previously unknown, was the cause of Humanities decline. It was named The Scourge. Its source was the very meteor that struck earth forty one years ago. Most would say that the five million it killed at landfall was an omen of the devastation to come. Five years after the discovery of the parasite and its origin, two thirds of the world’s populations were extinct. All that remained were scattered remnants of the EGD in pockets only communicating by subspace radio signals. All traffic from Mars’ colonist and the Moon Bases to Earth ceased. Visitations from one pocket of resistance to another halted. It was too dangerous to meet up.
For five years, until 2147, the world held its breath in self imposed isolation while it tried to form a plan to combat the still lingering Scourge. On March 26, 2147 the signal went out. Years of technology had been rushed and the scientist harried, but a solution was found. It was time to abandon the Earth.
The Scourge was not idle. It became blatantly obvious that this tiny life form was sentient amassing an intelligence that most humans could not comprehend. In and of itself, it was nothing to worry about. In numbers, however, it gathered itself into a collective so huge and mind numbingly ambitious that anything less than total domination of its new planet would do. The humans that became infected with the parasite became mindless drones working only through orders from the Hive and what rudimentary instincts were left to the human hosts.
They began building cities, dubbed Hives by the few drones captured and questioned. One by one these Hives were built. When one was finished a few would scatter, like bees following a Queen, only to begin to erect a new Hive. Given the onslaught of the contamination, they spread globally. They now could easily claim the position the most dominate creature on Earth.
That wasn’t enough. It became known, because they were not shy to shout it through every means of communication available to them, that until all of Humanity was part of the Hive they would be hunted like the pray they were. If you were captured, being killed would be lenience.
In the year 2150 one third of the population left in the pockets of resistance left the Earth behind. A tiny planet had been found in a neighboring spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. They named it Endur, for it was on this new planet that Humanity would show its endurance. Its distance from Earth was an estimated 25,436 light years from earth. It would have taken millennia to travel that far, but we now had the sub-light drive. It would take 20 years for the pioneering crew to reach its destination.
So it was that the day was set. One third of the population left Earth, another third went into cryogenic sleep, and the last third stood as guard and protectors of their sleeping brethren. If this trip to Endur was successful, a return trip would be made and the rest of Earth’s residents would be evacuated. In the mean time, those left behind would work to find a way to finally rid Earth of the Scourge.
On January 1, 2150 two million men, women, and children boarded the EGD star ship Exodus for a pioneering trip to Endur.
The Exodus was 600 football fields in length and stood 430 stories tall. It was rather packed, to say the least. At its helm were project director and Admiral Taisho Sesshomaru, his second in command and Brother Taisho Inuyasha, and his chief of engineering Higarashi Shippo. There, nestled in the bowels of the ship, warded by more than just technological security, were four magically sleeping humans, among them, the Shikon Miko.
A/N: This is a new story idea I've had recently. Let's just say I have some weird dreams and spending hours upon hours of playing Halo: Reach (I do not own, except the game) and Gears of War 3 (Also, I do not own) have gave me a lot to think about. This story is made up entirely by my imagination except for the characters we all know and love. If any character name I have stated clashes with any original character of yours...whoever you may be....it is entirely unintentional. Obviously I haven't read every single fanfiction out there. Also bear with me folks. I'm not good at writing and it took five hours for me to even get the prologue written. I see the story in my head, but when I go to put it on page, it's like looking at a broken mirror. Everything is scattered. I do hope you enjoy it. Please leave positive reviews if you can offer any help I may need. No flames. I'm not that self confident. Thanks! -soul