Prologue:

"And in our latest news feed we bring you live to our orbital reporter Debbie Chan!"

"Thank you Bruce," Debbie bowed slightly in the confines of her space suit that was covered with UpTime News logos and a dozen different corporate brands as she floated in front of the camera man aboard the civilian space station. "I'm here with Nolan and we're about to head out to view what might be the story of the century." Both of the hustled along the corridors, waving at rich civilian space tourists and professional astronauts alike on the way to the airlock.

Bruce tried to fill time "Is it true there is an asteroid about to hit Earth Debbie?"

"That's what the scientists see with their instrumentation yes," replied Debbie pulling into the airlock "But in a moment the asteroid will be pulling into near earth orbit and we'll be able to see it with our own eyes. And film it in person."

"Wait you're going to go out there and stream it as it flies past us in person? Are you crazy?"

"I told you Bruce, this is the story of a lifetime and I'm not going to miss it! Now hold on I'm about to pop the airlock and hook up the tethers."

In the next few moments two civilian news reporters in space suits drifted away from the safety of the safety of the space station and out into the void saved only by long strong tethers that kept their lives safely bound to civilization. Beyond was Earth in all it's majesty and the open expanse of space. And then, there in the distance they could just see it. Small at first but then growing fast.

"That can't be an asteroid.... Bruce there has to be some mistake that thing is moving too damn fast to be a piece of rock." Debbie sounded both terrified and euphoric as she watched the growing ball of light approach. Privately she spoke to Nolan "Are you getting all this?"

"Every nano of it Debs, I'm out in the vac with you. So of course I'm getting it. Don't spazz on me here you're going to be famous after this."

"We're receiving the footage here at the station and so are our viewers Debbie, my God that thing must be huge!" exclaimed Bruce over the intercom.

"I think, I think I can see it glowing. And it's getting closer! It must be several miles wide at least," Debbie said with awe.

"I'd say morel like several hundred miles wide Debs," commented Nolan from behind the camera "And from the speed of it it's going to hit hard."

"Hit? Nolan don't scare the viewers. The scientists said it'll just be a near miss."

Nolan took his eye from the viewfinder without moving the camera "You ever play pool Debs? I'll bet you a thousand credits right here it'll hit."

"And here you have it folks, a live wager for the safety of our planet!" Bruce laughed "but surely our star reporter has this money in the bag."

Nolan just returned his eye to the viewfinder of his camera. The asteroid was now clearly defined and hurtling past the moon at breakneck speed. It wasn't quite the size of Luna but she wouldn't have exactly been able to drop kick it either. Even if it had been smaller at that speed it would have been deadly and it DID appear to be on a direct course for Earth. It appeared to be made of some kind of rock and was trailing a mass of debris behind it like a comet would but it did seem to be glowing a bright green in it's own right. Shards of green and blue trailed off of it in it's wake.

"Look down there. Coming from the eastern U.S. seaboard and there from Russia, and there from China. Are those all missles?" Debbie said and pointed to growing points of light approaching from earth. Indeed rockets appeared to have been launched from various countries and were headed straight towards the approaching asteroid.

"Debs I really think we should go back inside," said Nolan tugging at her arm.

"Nonsense this has just started getting good," Debbie said as if starstruck watching the misles approach their target.

"Debbie I really think we need to go back inside right now," Nolan said with more force and spun her around to look at him "Those are nuclear missles. And we are in space suits with limited protection against radiation."

"Oh... shi-"

Four nuclear explosions blossomed against the approaching asteroid. Part of the impacted surface cracked, shattered and exploded outward into space but the vast majority stayed it's course towards Earth. However for Debbie Chan and the rest of the civilian space station those newly created meteorites were the beginning of a nightmare.

"Holy..." a piece of rock sped by Nolan's ear with the force and speed of a bullet. Another went through his leg and immediately his suit inflated to seal off the affected area. Debbie had it even worse as her chest-piece had been punctured and she was bleeding out. Nolan hit the emergency retrieval button on both their tethers and radioed the station "Emergency. We have a medical emergency here. Both our suits have been compromised and Ms. Chan has been seriously injured. We need immediate assistance."

"Nolan," Debbie's voice was weak over the comm but when she pointed back towards earth Nolan looked and instinctively pointed his camera in the direction she indicated. What he saw and recorded for all of the viewing public to see was horrific and bewildering at the same time. The asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere and began to burn up slightly and did in fact come down hard and fast as Nolan had predicted. It was over quickly but not as one would have expected with explosions or fireballs. The asteroid broke shattered into thousands of tiny pieces upon impact. Most were scattered for miles across North America but billions of tons were thrown up into the atmosphere as dust and debris. A fine green glowing cloud could be seen growing and covering nearly half the planet as Nolan and Debbie were towed back into the relative safety of the station.

As they were being carried to sick bay on stretchers a child carrying a tiny kitten walked by Debbie Chan's cot, the tiny feline brushing against the reporter's hand as the child leaned forward in her excitement "Oh my God! You're Debbie Chan! My Mom watches you every day! You're so funny. But why news you're.... Debbie what's wrong with your face? And what's that icky stuff growing all over you." Debbie weakly lifted a hand to her face and felt the bones under her skin shifting. She also felt a bio-organic resin being secreted from her very pores and solidifying on the bed she was laying upon. The more she moved the faster it spread and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She screamed and then lost consciousness.

In less than an hour Debbie Chan had encased herself in what appeared to be an alien cocoon. No matter what the doctors did they couldn't awaken her or pierce it. The more they tried the thicker and harder the resin got. Shortly after a visit from an medical therapy dog Nolan her camera man also fell ill and formed his own cocoon. In about twenty four hours time they would emerge as newly formed hybrid feline and canine anthropomorphs respectively but by that time the station had been riddled by thousands of flying meteorites. And between repairs and medical emergencies the anomolies and mutations were hardly the highest priority aboard.

At the same time down on Earth mass panic and riots were erupting as a new mutagenic pandemic spread from city to city, continent to continent in a matter of hours. Any living being infected would form a symbiotic mutagenic link and fuse their genetic code with the first living multicellular organism they encountered. For many humans that meant their family pets. But humanity quickly learned that animals were not the only Kingdom they could fuse with. Many infected species also fused and adopted traits from plant species as well or vice versa. New species of intelligent and sentient plants and animals emerged at an alarming rate. Whole ecosystems changed and mutated at rapid pace as species melded, died off and new species were born and adapted to their new conditions. Many old human governments collapsed during this transitional period.

Though several new local factions sprung up the fill the needs of the people in various areas. And as in human history humanity formed new tribes based on ideologies, religion and appearance. Many new "furries" as the new term was coined were not in fact furry and were in fact quite outlandish in appearance sporting everything from scales, chitinous exoskeletons to feathery wings. Appearance and diversity varied greatly as did internal biology. Therefore not only did prejudice become rampant but also the need for healers and biologists to help care for people. And given the fall of civilization such things were hard to come by. Everything from motorcycle gangs to government agents roamed the streets. And so those with claws took up blades. Those with eyes learned to shoot. And those that lurked in the shadows learned the ways of assassination and information trafficking. Each made use of their newfound gifts or died because of their weaknesses. And to find friends was a gift because enemies on this new Earth were a dime a dozen.