Junction Pt. 01

Synopsis: Science unleashed brings about the salvation of humanity and the destruction of reality.

Inspired by multiple roleplaying gaming systems too numerous to mention. © EmotionalStorm September 2020. This story cannot be transferred to any other site besides Literotica.com without the prior authorizations in writing from the author and EmotionalStorm must be credited for this work.

Prologue

By the middle of the 25th century, with yet another nuclear war on the horizon, an unlikely alliance was formed between mega-corporations, environmental activists, genetic researchers, and the heads of the new world Triad criminal organizations. The 3 remaining religions that survived the 30-year Holy War that rained destruction around the globe now ruled what remained of the useable world.

What was left was 3 theocracies, religious governments. Each called on the end-of-days being upon them as they held their fingers over the triggers to bring it about in the name of 'their God' at a moment's notice. The armies were indoctrinated zealots to these religions.

Separation of church and state had died as did most personal liberties. Any that stood against their local 'Religion' were outcasts, imprisoned, reeducated, criminals in hiding, or executed. Strong 'religious' families got better options for any wayward children or siblings caught in those activities.

Else execution was the preferred method of dealing with heretics. The theocracies were so fearful of open revolt that they tightly controlled everything. All known forms of communication were monitored on every continent. Trade and even power consumption were regulated and monitored.

The 'revolutionaries or rebels' built underground manufacturing facilities based on geothermal energy on remote islands or in under ocean facilities away from any normal trade routes. Outside of the eyes of any remaining satellites as space-based monitoring activities were sporadic at best, at least publicly as 80% of the world's satellites had been destroyed in the previous wars or had fallen from the skies due to age.

Each of the 3 'governments' had their own launch facilities and worked to place monitoring satellites over the world but they were focused mostly on each other's activities and energy spikes in potentially hostile areas. Anything that would cause them to lift the cover and press the button to bring an end to humanity in the name of their God.

Communication was handled via secretly genetically enhanced telepathic couriers. Some of whom had ranges of thousands of miles. That allowed them to get the messages delivered without actually having to travel 'near' the distant facilities.

To send the messages from one courier to another over great distances to coordinate their efforts. Sometimes to subs outside of shipping lanes that acted as relays from the bottom of the ocean floor.

What they built were 7 supercolliders and a small fleet of stealth enabled submarines that operated in remote parts of the world's oceans. It took 50 years to build the 7 sites but they were running out of time as the rhetoric from these 'world powers' became more inflamed.

Each group in this 'Rebellion' saw something different from the solution. They all worked to have better survival bunkers publicly. Something the leaders took to heart in case the enemy struck first, they did not fear those.

The Triad wanted religion and government separated as it strangled their illicit businesses. If religion got wiped out entirely, all the better. Any member caught in what was termed 'repugnant criminal activity,' were given death sentences. No trial.

Mega-corporations wanted to unseat the theocracies and return to a capitalistic and materialistic world controlled by them instead, and the people they put into power. The genetic researchers wanted a return to a free exchange of ideas and knowledge without borders.

Some even wanted the gloves taken off to allow human experimentation and trials to 'speed up' human evolution. The telepaths had been just the beginning and there 'buy-in' into this rebellious collective.

The environmental activists wanted a return to a simpler time with a massive reduction in the world's pollution. The 'individual players' of that era were lost to history. Also lost was what they thought the colliders would do to solve those particular problems.

But the actions of that day, the 1st of April 2468, gave them all exactly what they hoped for. They used atomic clocks to synchronize their activity. The 7 supercolliders went online. Each of the theocracies picked up the energy surges. They each managed to launch a nuclear strike on a collider nearest there 'Religious Ruling Centers' before they each reached full power.

Other airborne missiles were destroyed in the arching energy that engulfed the world from the other colliders and released from the missiles being destroyed and by the earlier missile strikes. Those caused massive Electromagnetic pulses on a global scale that destroyed the majority of electronic devices not shielded against such activity.

The energy they released, combined with the 4 remained supercolliders, fractured reality. It fractured the Earth while encasing it. Earth became Junction or a small part of Junction. The fusion of 3 realities. The merger of 3 worlds as it crossed into alternate realities and merged with 2 other worlds before shutting down.

Junction's mass was 112 times the size of the earth and it orbited in a different galaxy, that happened to have a young yellow star at its center. Junction now had a population 1.5 times what Earth previously had.

This population was not all human; most of humanity was killed in the 'mad experiment.' Over 90% of that population consisted of 'other sentient races' with the massive loss of human life that occurred during the transition.

These other races became known as some of the entitled races. Entitled races were drawn from dwarves, elves, and in some cases giants. The alpha-predators at the top of the pyramid in this new world were dragons and at least initially, a couple of 'alien' species.

Those humans who were looking for salvation through a 'judgment day' found it; at least they were no longer around. The mega-corporations that survived had new markets. They had hardened facilities to aid for a higher survival rate. Criminal enterprises started to thrive again; many sponsored or were backers of these mega-corporations.

The 'new world' was much larger with the other two worlds pollution next to non-existent, it dropped overall pollution levels to a minuscule percentage. Nuclear fall out got absorbed into the Energy Nexus of this new world.

Not counting 'natural pollution' generated by this experiment, such as volcanic activity. Gods of old rose again; the seals that held them at bay being destroyed. New gods came into being or came with the other races. The answers to the how and why were not truly known and only theorized by the new faithful.

Religion, magic, technology, and a new world order had to be addressed. As all of these creatures had to find a place, in this new reality, and within this new merged world. This new-found creation soon went from chaos to all-out war, to a rebirth over the next 2,500 years.

Even the Gods went to war with each other and only a few survived, yet they were all different and none of them were geared as representing humanity, not that they did not get followers from humanity who became part of their faithful. All that remained were wilderness, farms, villages, ancient ruins, and a handful of Megacities within new City-State Kingdoms.

The landscape was dotted with many ancient ruins of many unknown or forgotten races or factions of races. Most of those existed outside of the boundaries of any recognized City-State and exploration of them was tightly controlled.

The only excavations that were authorized were dragon sponsored. Thus, they controlled any and all found resources, legally anyway. Countries no longer existed. There was no internet connecting it all.

The magic permeating the world blocked all forms of wireless technological communications, from cell phones, radio, and wi-fi. When the ashes cleared, the famine, pestilence, and wars had ended. At least the wars had tapered off.

The merger of technology, genetics, and magic became the new 'industries.' The use of magically infused crystals into technological devices was required to connect into what was known as the Magical Communication Weave, or simply called the Weave.

The Weave was part of the nexus that absorbed the radiation and pollution from the world and harnessed that energy into itself. Though nobody could explain why that happened, other than to say, 'it was magic.'

The Weave was the part of the magical nexus around this world that could be used for communication. Yet the magical nexus was capable of and did so much more. It had layers and the higher layers were only accessible by those with the talent or enchantment skills to access those layers.

Communication tracing was hard to do through technology alone in this world, impossible from all attempts that were made. It had to go through this Weave, connect to it, or through it else it would not function.

Those gifted in magical talent could, of course, trace anything created from a lesser talent given the time, resources, and an identifier or approximate location of the transmission.

The highest talents were Dragons followed by the elves and each City-State had its own share of both. What was left was an integrated mess. The head of each City-State was a Dragon Overlord Royal family. Each of the 83 remaining City-States focused on a particular race or races as its entitled population.

Each became a member of the Royal Executive Council of Dragons (RECD) within this world. The new United 'Draconic' Nations of the world as it were. Elves, giants, and dwarves accounting for nearly all of those entitled races, and giants were sparse in that count.

Giant population took heavy losses after a bio-engineered weapon circulated over 500 years prior, yet it adversely affected every race's population. Some of the City-States had the same entitled race or more than one entitled race, but they were factions of races split along sub-racial lines. In the case of dwarves, by clans.

Humans were spread across all of the city-states and were not entitled anywhere as a race. They bore the brunt of the responsibility for the destruction of the past. At least history has recorded that to be the case. Any information on the merger was strictly controlled and could not be confirmed.

At least not by anyone outside those who controlled the information. The same Dragon Royal Families quickly adapted to the philosophy of knowledge was power. Those within the given Royal Families of the 83 City States as a general rule had some level of access to the information, but in truth, it was held by the King or Queen who ruled those City-States and their trusted archivists.

Humanity, in general, was seen as the biggest threat, but also the biggest resource. Humanity's reproduction rates were extremely high in comparison to any other race. They became the future underpinning of the armies and 'law enforcement.'

The commercial workforces and farmers. A step above slave labor though some were treated as such in some provinces, they were paid but they were under very strict controls. It was humanity's knowledge of technology and genetics that the dragons worked to capitalize upon.

They became the third-class citizens of the world, at least as a racial level. Humanity still had vast knowledge in areas of study that the entitled races worked to 'understand' over the centuries. Particularly in genetics which the elves had a stronger lead than dragons in the research over the last 400 years.

While they refused to 'stoop to that level,' in most cases, as they worked to keep their own races 'as a strictly pure whole society.' They allowed their genetic material to be added to the research but to never have their own races modified themselves. That was considered blasphemous.

That was where their underlying goal in matters remained. Humans were foot soldiers and genetically simple to manipulate by comparison. Humans had the most experience dealing with their own genetics; something other races had no experience working with before Junction occurred.

Except for the alien species in the early years. While not entitled as a race, those humans skilled in technical evolution and genetic research could and often did become entitled individuals. The exceptions to the rules to rise 'out of the genetic gutter' of the world if their stars aligned.

Some managed to rise out of the military to be entitled. The most common path for humans, yet the numbers were well below a fraction of 1% of all humans. It gave humanity hope, though in truth there was not much humanity in most of them who 'made it out.'

No pure human ever succeeded in becoming entitled; they lacked the advantages of the more 'evolved' races or altered individuals. Those that succeeded were all genetically and or technically altered by one means or another, if not both.

The technological advantages that human technology brought to bear on society were one of its saving graces. That kept them from being exterminated outright. Humans were the only race on the world that could, in a few cases with the aid of genetic or magical manipulation, be cross-bred or spliced into other species.

The more evolved races bared the research on anything other than humans as a foundation for genetic research. This occurred over 1,500 years prior, to protect their own species. That did not stop underground efforts from occurring. Humanity became the lab rats of the world.

Those humans who excelled and had over 5,000,000 Dragon Credits (DC's), could find the means to buy there escape out of being third-class citizens, becoming entitled individuals.

Through genetic manipulation and technological implants, they could gain the advantages needed to become entitled individuals. This was not much of a choice to the poor, as it was random circumstances to get pulled into genetic research or technological research facilities.

The selection and evaluation process for humans was always the first line unless they came from a genetics lab. Those that went in, were never 'fully human' again. There given genetic mix could never seek or be seen as a race of their own, as that would be considered a threat to the 'Entitled races' and the Dragon of this new world.

The alien cultures at the beginning were either absorbed, made extinct, or in some cases, it was believed (though unproven to the masses); that they simply escaped the chaos of this world into space. None were known outside of genetic labs, which had limited samples or sources of any alien species, they did not exist in the wilds of the world.

At least not in any controlled areas of society where populations were considered or even counted. The medical profession no longer worked to lengthen life as other methods existed for that. They working only on genetic manipulation and splicing.

Healers, any number of gods had faith-based healers, took care of things from broken bones, sexually transmitted disease, or cancer. Major injuries being one of the few exceptions as to what they could do. Only for those who could afford their services which were steep and not given freely as a general rule.

This, of course, killed off pharmaceutical companies except in the markets of research equipment, performance enhancers, anesthesia, anti-rejection medications, and nutrient supplements used by technology firms to create better soldiers. Also illegal recreational drugs. Legally they focused on better 'genetic and technologically enhanced' experiments, but some cross-over often occurred.

Those born with physical or mental deformities were identified at birth. They were fixed or used for genetic research; usually the later unless an entitled race for the given City-State. Unless the parents could afford the augmentations, or genetic manipulation required to fix the defect and took on the cost to correct the issue, if possible.

There were 5 forms of currency in this new social order. Food, as a basic need, was the lowest form of currency, yet everyone required food. Issued via a ration type card for simple basic and nutritious foods only. Other food supplies would have to be bought with other currencies.

Then there were local coins for each City-State; made mostly from the common metal gold with local trace elements to identify them as 'real currency' to the given City-State. The pocket change of each city-state's society was used for restaurants, low-end used vehicles, and common household appliances. Though DC costs came into play for some items, depending on the rarity or luxury of the items.

The third yet most commonly traded and often used currency was the Ki units, pieces of your very soul, and simply called Ki. Run out of Ki and death occurs. Age was irrelevant in the scheme of things as you could theoretically live on even after your body should have stopped working, to a point.

It still required the aid of a life extension which increased in cost every time they were purchased for an individual. It would turn back the hands of time on a body, the fountain of youth as it were, in 25-year blocks.

Barring catastrophic injury; heart(s) removed, being blown apart, bled dry, diseases, certain poisons, or having your head severed from the body. Brain damage being a curse as they continued to live but the brain would never fully recover.

Some early 'contracts' for the entitled kept adding life-extensions to those who were mentally damaged from injuries. Until new laws were passed to ensure those who got life-extensions issued were still 'mentally viable' as it was deemed a waste of resources.

That kept the family court cases from clogging up the judicial system. Still productive members of society, at least for those who were mostly humans. Some exceptions were granted for entitled races, the why and how of it was unknown to those outside the Royal Families.

They were the only ones who could grant those exceptions and their methods kept in secret. Whatever anyone sold or used in Ki you could not get back.

You could obtain it from others and Ki storage devices. It was the most commonly used resource from humans. Tech designed to use Ki could offset damage received or fix serious wounds, except catastrophic injuries. Every race took advantage of Ki for these reasons.

With Ki they could extend any life; dragons and the military used it to offset enormous amounts of damage and it was one of the few technological implants used by every entitled race over the last 500 years. Once they figured out how to adapt its usage into other races.

Ki was life force but it was humans who typically supplied this life force to the rest of society. That made children, human children, the fourth form of currency. They were easy to breed and became a source of Ki for every race.

All human children were considered the property of the City-State they were born into and the mothers were compensated for their 'crops' as it were. They were expected to provide compensation to the male donor if known. Children born to a single mother were taken into the custody of the state immediately.

Some ended up in care facilities, like orphanages of old, to raise and educate. While others ended up in projects at genetics labs. Human children were considered all of those under 18 years of age and mandatory completion of their education cycle. The evaluations of children began at 14 for females and 16 for males. Females matured faster.

They would all be moved into the military army schools, Mage corp training facilities, and scientific research boarding schools at those ages to continue their education. Those evaluations set the course of action that would become their lives or their deaths when they turned 18. All children were race-based. Based upon the percentage of DNA in their bodies from all incorporated races they might have from their lineage.