Fallout Plus: World War Four

[Maharg67]

[1] SteelOrderhood First Arrives in Washington DC [29.1][0037]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few!

 

PrimeElder Owen Lyons was pleased with the new, enlarged, upgraded, command chamber with its areas of direction, coordination, supervision, logistics and more. The LittleFateMan stood there, or at least one aspect of him did. He had been able, as he put it, to gift the new chamber to the SteelOrderhood because of evil forces, of a dark conspiracy, was at work in the region; they were not led by mortal beings but by intruders from troubled, dimensional, realms. The LittleFateFamily were a balancing force against the Shadodra Conspiracy.

 

An interactive, holographic projection, map table showed the whole of DC plus bordering areas. It was dotted with small shapes indicating important locations of settlements, mountains and much else. It showed that while the Washington DC area had a few clusters, of settlements, that mostly they were spread out and quite vulnerable; the settlement of Sittingduck was a good example of the latter while that of Comegetsome was in a much stronger situation.

 

Important locations were indicated by small, golden, banner-pins. One was CitadelDC, another SanctuaryDC and yet another was the GoldHive. There was also silver banner-pins of RivetCity, Quadtowertown as the capital of the Settlements Union DC, Rivertown, Canterbury Commons, Megaton, Vaultburg based on TechVault222, Fort Herman and a handful of others being all of the SUDC.

 

The LittleFateMan spoke. "A powerful push is going through the SUDC, from the grass roots upwards, for the union to become more reliable, less corrupt, and not so dominated by the elites of Quadtowertown. Those elites are pushing back but are finding that reformers are to be found even in their large, hill top, settlement."

 

Quadtowertown was the creation of a super wealthy eccentric, of the mid 21st Century; even the 'flattop hill' was artificial. It was part castle, part four skyscrapers, part small city and so much else. It even had its own dome that had mostly survived from Doomsday, mainly because no superweapon had detonated too close to it.

 

The LittleFateMan sighed softly though no air came out from his mouth. "The super wealthy man was one Richie Scrooge but he was not the harmless eccentric that most assumed he was but a brilliant, ruthless, businessman with some very dark, twisted, beliefs. He was also linked to the Umbrella Corporation, TechCorps, Illuminate, Conspiracy Cult, Club of Gifted Intellects and Birgerbilders to name but a few. Whispers speak of him surviving but as a ghoulified remnant of his former self but there are differing ideas to where he might be hiding away now. It could be considered a reliable assumption that he is in Quadtowertown but attempts to find him there have come to nothing. In the years, leading up to Doomsday, he made powerful enemies but it is not known why."

Edited March 29, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[1] SteelOrderhood First Arrives in Washington DC [29.2][0038]

 

If the LittleFateMan knew he was not saying! Most likely he was blocked from doing so if he knew the truth.

 

The celestial entity smiled, nodded, and vanished away almost as if he had never been there. Yet the map now had more banner-pins on it along with small, holographic, notes. The PrimeElder smiled and then started calling in advisers, and assistants, to help make more use of what had been left there.

 

He could not fail to note that the CitadelDC now sported a purple banner-pin as well as its original one but the same was true of the GoldHive, Quadtowertown and Megaton. Then there were grey banner-pins of a range of TechVaults including TechVault087, TechVault101 and TechVaultAA1. Of the TechVaults noted, only the last came truly as a surprise for the SteelFactions had never gained even a hint of its existence in the past. TechVault101 also had a purple banner-pin.

 

Sirens began to sound, echoing through the fortress interior and some of the more open areas. CitadelDC was being attacked from a very unexpected direction.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[1] SteelOrderhood First Arrives in Washington DC [30.1][0039]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few!

 

The LittleFateGirl's gift transformed to look like a more standard type modular structure but it was still 'bigger inside than out'. Even as they went through final awakening processing, sleepers went into the amazing quiet healing spaces that also enhanced them just a small but important amount. So went for the LyonsPriders and others living in the GoldHive.

 

A terrible shudder went through the GoldHive that seemed to emanate from the NecroHive. It lasted but a couple of minutes as blast doors slid over entrances to that inner hive. Then they became melded solidly into place. Then there was another shudder, more intense than the first and lasting twice as long. After that came quietness.

 

They found the LittleFateGirl in that healing place.

 

The LittleFateGirl lay sleeping in a very comfortable, girlish feminine, bedroom and big four poster bed. She had white bandages wrapping one arm and her head. She looked okay except exhausted and slightly bruised on one facial cheek. Considering how powerful she was, even on a mortal plane, this meant quite a deal.

 

Two LittleFateOnes, shaped as white uniformed women nurses, hovered over her protectively. All they would say, as a sure understatement, was that matters had not gone as the LittleFateGirl had hoped they would. Next to her lay her, now buckled, parasol to strengthen the truth of the statement.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[2] Growing Struggles in DC and Beyond [31.1][0040]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few!

 

Zombies came up from the depths below CitadelDC proper as power armoured Steelguards, of defensive aggressive purpose, blasted away at them with battlecarbines in those more confined spaces. Lasercarbines were also used, burning neat holes in zombie heads while handgrenades were thrown amongst them. When they died, these zombies disintegrated into fine ash like dust but the gear they wore, if any, staid intact. Items they carried with gear, but did not use, did the same.

 

Middle aged Steelguard Major Morris O'Brien ran a scanner over oncoming shamblers and shook his head in wonder. "There is something most odd about these Zs. They don't scan like typical ones we have encountered in the past or at least a few of us have done so."

 

There had been a major disaster back in the Lost Hills of California when an overconfident SteelBrotherhood expedition had penetrated a hidden UmbCorp complex known as the GreyHive. An EagleEnclaver force was already there, was already trapped. With extreme reluctance, and wariness, the two forces had formed an alliance with each other and the GreyQueen. So Steeltroopers, and Stormtroopers, had fought alongside security robots against the zombies of former UmbCorp employees. After cleaning out the Zs, the two human forces had departed, the GreyQueen having bribed them with both with copies of the same very useful data. Of course both the SteelBrotherhood, and the EagleEnclave, had sent other expeditions only to find an emptied complex. There was something about that complex that, despite some resources being there, had the two factions not try to move their people into it.

 

After the last Z was killed, of that swarm at least, gear was carefully gathered up and examined. Technologically it turned out to be more advanced than that of the SteelOrderhood. Compact, solidstate, laserpistols and handcoms, flexible armoured jumpsuits and fatigues, one use medicants in hypotubes, implants from inside disintegrated bodies and a few more including overlapping platelet body-armour. There was nothing left over of any possible biothreat.

 

Fighting was taking place across that level with robots, soldiers and even some androids against the scattered swarms of the shamblers. Thankfully there, so far, had been no faster, nimbler, sprinters or bigger, slower, stompers.

 

A techi had examined data and she spoke with a tone of puzzlement. "The left overs are made up of some kind of bioplastic type substance. The zombies appear to be fakes programmed to disintegrate in an attempt for their true nature to be hidden or there could be some other explanation. Otherwise this does not make any real sense at all."

 

The zombies, in the GreyHive, had not disintegrated upon dying or at least not as quickly; they had done so more slowly as nature caught up with their true age. GreyQueen provided data had spoken of a foolish experiment attempting to open a gateway with other dimensional realms. That had been in the GreyHive but had a similar experiment taken place below them?

 

The unit moved onwards, sealing up some areas and locking down some doors. The major, a former Steeltrooper of the SteelBrotherhood, kept giving out orders as units finished their sweep through the area. There soon turned out to be no more zombies.

 

Psychic specialists soon confirmed that the attackers lacked the unpleasant psychic auras of true zombies, that they were indeed fakes though very clever ones.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[2] Growing Struggles in DC and Beyond [32.1][0041]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few.

 

Sentinel Sarah Lyons staid with the LittleFateGirl but from there the sentinel gained reports and issued both requests and fewer orders.

 

Teleportation links, to CitadelDC and to a very few other places, were highly secure now. One was to SanctuaryDC where UncleLeo, the LittleFateMan and a Rainbowlord presided. Another was to Megaton but had not been used yet and the same could be said for that linking Quadtowertown. Groups had gone to-from the amazing RivetCity with its multiple buildings, jetties and other features with a big MPBC, Multipurpose Battlecarrier, at its core. More links began to open up!

 

The mysterious origin parachute crates fell down to seemingly random locations, somehow avoiding landing on people or inhabited buildings etc. There was some fighting over them even as 2,000 more began to drift down from the sky high above. They still continued to be green-white striped crates and parachutes full of basic-general equipment-supplies, being mostly supplies.

 

Some people were actually disappointed that they did not carry NukaCola with them or even such as NukaCoffee, NukaBurgers, NukaFries, NukaJuice or NukaBars.

 

Reports, of the Gifting Crates as they were being called, reached CitadelDC simply because 10 parachute-crates landed in one of its outer, open, workyards. This allowed the SteelOrderhood to examine the crates, the crates' contents and the parachutes but it also meant a tightening up of security if something could so easily penetrate part of CitadelDC.

 

The scientific, technical, analysis of those items discovered only that they were quite 'normal' and of fairly advanced nature; that is a mixture of hilotech and lomidtech. The first was in the form of well made hand-tools, clothes, backpacks, tents, hunting bows and other such gear; the latter was basic, compact, reliable 2way radios, electric handtorches, survival carbines and other such items.

 

What was not discovered was how the crates had managed to do such tricks as moving against the wind and landing in formation, close to one another; no hidden technologies were found or other telling evidence.

 

What was discovered, of great interest, were manuals including blueprints of crated items showing how they might be manufactured; this even included food rations. The other, interesting find, was that the parachutes could be converted into dometents and the crates into huts.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[2] Growing Struggles in DC and Beyond [33.1][0042]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few!

 

A darker skinned man, 3Dog, was a tough Wastelands veteran whose name came from him sleeping often in extreme conditions and, more recently, from his having three pet companions of canines. He was at his DJ Desk, was reading a grey screened computer terminal. EMPs, electromagnetic pulses, had destroyed a large amount of electronics on Doomsday but a large amount had survived having been shielded enough to do so.

 

There had also been a large scale drive, in the decades before Doomsday, to replace older electronics with EMP proof, solidstate, solidtronics and to produce special, even portable, EMP resistant shielding.

 

3Dog sighed for the GBS, the Galaxy Broadcasting Service, had only older electronics scavenged from there, the GBS Tower, and other spots in WashingtonDC.

 

He spoke into a microphone. "Yes, you have heard correctly folks, great big parachute equipped crates, that are also very large, coming down from the sky above or so it appears to those who have observed them. So far they have come in two waves, or so state the SteelOrderhood who have radar capacity at CitadelDC. The same SteelOrderhood captured 10 of the crates, though they refused to give me the details of how, and have stated that they are full of quite conventional hilotech, and lomidtech, equipment-supplies being largely supplies. What they did not find was any explanation to how the parachute crates have been seen moving against the wind."

 

In the corner was a slowly growing mount of slot toasters, toaster ovens and sandwich toasters. His joke about his toaster burning out, and his toaster needing to be replaced, had backfired badly. This was especially true as most of them worked poorly if at all.

 

JackOtrades, brother to JackOman of the LawRegulators, was the Towertown Sheriff but also amazing at working old tech. Only his business stopped him from fixing up yet more of the machines.

 

Towertown, located at the base of the GBS Tower, had been taking in a steady trickle of refugees coming from the north. This was far from being a problem as Towertown had needed more people and the resources that was coming with them. The same story was true for other settlements like RivetCity, Canterbury Commons, Megaton and Rivertown. Only Quadtowertown seemed reluctant to help refugees, except to exploit them, but this did not surprise any who knew about that place's troubled reputation.

 

His eurowhite wife, 2Kitty, came into the room wearing only a towel while drying her hair with another. She was following by two, large, cats of rough, tough, appearance; despite that she viewed them as her adorable 'kitties'.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[2] Growing Struggles in DC and Beyond [33.2][0043]

 

DJBot, a crazy but efficient handybot, floated quietly into the chamber as lifted up by electric driven hubprops. He, an honorary him, gave a wolf whistle before dumping a load of envelopes and packages onto a large table. By the shape, of some of the packages, more toasters had arrived.

 

3Kitty sighed. "DJBot, you cheeky robot, you have no real attraction to humans. Anything of note in today's delivery?"

 

DJBot spoke. "Apart from five toaster units there are letters from varied settlements about increasing trouble not with most refugees but with harder, more aggressive, types. Conflict, mostly skirmishes, are breaking out between them and local factions. It seems that settlers may start abandoning smaller settlements to head for the relative safety of bigger ones. Oh, yes, fighting has broken out in Quadtowertown between loyalist and rebel forces; one reason is the Quadtowertown Council's ill treatment of refugees from the north. Also there is said to be open war raging, south across the Pontiac, between the SWCR and the RepublicDC."

 

The South Western Columbian Republic was smaller than the RepublicDC but still quite organised and powerful. It was also more respected, and trusted, by other factions than was its bordering neighbor. President Thumpem, of the RepublicDC, was said to be a mad genius with a grand sense of self importance who was fast becoming the dictator of his nationstate. In contrast President Oblama, of the SWCR, was a strong advocate of democracy restricted only by security needs to stay vigilant against all threats.

 

Why would the two start fight now with indications of the EagleEnclavers coming southwards as a major threat? If President Thumpem had launched an invasion, of SWCR Territories, why then and not earlier on? The two republics had fortified lines facing each other and the RepublicDC would risk much in attacking that.

 

That was when the LittleFateCat appeared in the chamber almost as if she had always been there. She landed lightly on a large package, on the table, and a sharp flash of energies filled the chamber and areas beyond. When it was over the LittleFateCat was sitting, on her haunches, next to 3Kitty and was grooming herself.

 

Somehow the humans, and robot, now knew that the big package had contained no less than a mininuke based booby-trap.

 

Everything technological, including DJBot, was upgraded and polished while the humans were more youthful, rejuvenated. The radio station was so improved and the pile of toasters had become a powerful mainframe computer of the solidtronics type.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[2] Growing Struggles in DC and Beyond [34.1][0044]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few!

 

Sasha Lyons, psychic specialist and sister of Sarah Lyons sat next to the LittleFateGirl as did Sarah. Sasha was in the GoldHive as the commander of the new LyonsPride Psychic Section.

 

They were two of identical sextuplets except that one of them they had only met long ago as she had departed, when there mother did, from California. They had oddly vivid dreams in which the four were with their sister in a quiet, very homely, bunker type structure. Sarah, Stella, Serena, Samtha and Sasha were in the SteelOrderhood while Susie was gone with their mother, Serenity; what little they remembered, of their mother, did not suggest at all a serene nature but quite the opposite.

 

Sasha left out her breath. "What ever attacked the LittleFateGirl was given a deadly blow in retaliation but it was not destroyed any more than the LittleFateGirl was. Somehow the rest of the LittleFateFamily are here while not being obvious about it, apart from the two LittleFateOne nurses."

 

The LittleFateGirl was looking much better, the bandages were gone and the parasol was as brand new. She kept on sleeping.

 

With a soft shimmering five, almost identical looking, black metallic headbands materialised on the bed; they had ornate golden writing and other symbols that would prove to be of an interesting nature just as the actual headbands did. It would turn out that each was meant to go to one of the Lyons Quins.

 

Sarah, and Sasha, slipped their headbands onto their heads before freezing quietly in place.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[2] Growing Struggles in DC and Beyond [35.1][0045]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few!

 

It was the domes, smart self-repairing materials, and tiny maintenance robots that helped WashingtonDC structures stay largely intact despite the passing of centuries. Some few were part collapsed and even fewer were fully so.

 

Yet, somehow, the domes did not stop the ghoulification of large numbers of humans plus other lifeforms; it was not just intense radiation that caused it to happen but a mixture of that, the FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) and other, more mysterious, factors. Some speculated it was a fault in the very design of the domes. Some pointed at NukaCola as being a culprit. Of course there were many speculations about conspiracies.

 

Another mystery was that at least half of the population had seemed to have vanished away leaving no sign behind them of ever having existed. This was unlike the skeletal remains, of multiple other victims, that only staid preserved in some locations as most were soon worn away in the open. Nor was the number of unexplained missing solved by the ghoulification of many.

 

Some pointed to the varied sized cylinders of BudgetShelters going from single sized to quite large ones. Had the missing ones gone there?

 

Then again there were the other strange stories that came from observers of Doomsday events even if they died soon afterwards of radiation poisoning or other terrible causes.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

[2] Growing Struggles in DC and Beyond [36.1][0046]

 

The LittleFateObserver was active, was observing but not observed except by a very few!

 

At the World War 2 Holocaust Museum, a memorial to when fascists had attempted to genocide psychic mutants, Jews, Romanies, antifacists, a power armoured figure moved with surprising gracefulness along a hallway until he halted at a large space dedicated to large, black-white, photographs on the walls. They showed death camps in Europe, South America and North Africa. They also showed the disguised soldiers that had come to the rescue of the inmates, shooting down brutal guards in the process. Neither fascist governments, or those of their enemies, could explain where the prisoners went along with those that had freed them; sometimes guards, and other official fascists, had gone with them willingly and sometimes not so much.

 

Captain Casper Friendly, and the other Stormghosts, were lying in bodycapsules filled with a very light, soft, glowing mist. They had fallen into a simple trap of a secure looking location where they decided to rest before mist had slowly filled the chamber, causing them all to fall into a deep, peaceful, sleep.

 

The eccentric looking LittleFateDoctor, as linked to the LittleFateMan, appeared as a late Victorian Age doctor wearing black and with an old fashioned, black, doctor's bag open on the table before him. Yet the other items were far more eccentric appearing being a mixture of crystal disks, globes, pipes, cubes and other shapes. Sitting on a softly glowing crystal disk was the small box taken out of Casper's body.

 

Two LittleFateOne Nurses were quietly moving around and keeping an eye on the EagleEnclaven clones. One was guised as a woman and the other a man.

 

The LittleFateDoctor spoke to the EverChampion with out turning around. "The EagleEnclaven did not create this noxious, highly lethal, device for it is way beyond their ability to comprehend its nature let alone to manufacture it. It could be linked to the entity that attacked the LittleFateGirl in the NecroHive for it has the same kind of aura around it though much weaker in the case of the device."

 

The EverChampion looked around here. "Interesting choice of location to check out the special clones and his clone comrades."

 

The other nodded. "'They' had me come here for it appears that this is the most opportune time-place for this task to be carried out. Now, how many forces do you have with you?"

 

The power armoured figure responded. "As Marshal Hawkeye Ironsides, of the Ironsides Mercenaries, I have 1,450 of my own mercs along with about 2,000 auxiliaries, robots, androids and others."

 

The doctor spoke. "Excellent but let's hope that they will not be needed."

 

The EverChampion just nodded at those words.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Maharg67