Doomsworld Fates

[Maharg67]

Post #1

[One][1.1][1]

Machinegun bullets struck the earthy ground causing spouts of gritty brown. The Sh13 kept low, near the top of the dirt mound but still behind it, in their hood robes and body armour suits. Sharry launched a grenade shell from her triplecarbine  and seconds later there came the muffled sounds of an explosion; the machinegun stopped as the pop-up, ambush, turret was knocked out of action. Phasephysical Shzbari had helped her target the location of the turret.

There were nine of them as physicals, three as phasephysicals and one as metaphysical as always linked to the 12 others.

They had been warned that paranoid survivalists had dotted the area with pop-up turrets, pressure mines and other nasty tricks. Not even other survivalist communities, in the area, liked them or what they were doing.

They had been busy getting rid of the indiscriminate threats because it was in their philosophy to do such and also it was an authorised Sidequest that would gain them a small set of rewards as Seekaqusters as in they, as Seekachampions, who were attempting to fulfill quests. They were in Craterzone of Craterfarms, Cratertowns and two Cratercities, one being easily bigger than the other.

They were five, enhanced augmented, humans as two females, two males and a neuter. They were trimorphers and were in their human shapeforms. Then there was two robots and a pair of androids, but all four were also actually trimorphers. The humans, and androids, wore knee length hoodrobes and, beneath them, body armour suits. They also had on moderately sized, lightly armoured, backpacks.

Sharry, a blonde and blue eyed woman with mildly dusky skin, examined the deactivated turret. "Like the odds, a patchwork wonder as made by a practical genius. Sidequest briefings mention her name as TechiSue but she may not be alone; if her half brother, TechJoe, is with her than we have more trouble in getting the Sidequest done."

The metaphysical Seekaquster spoke mindwise to the others. "The Clearing Up Threats Sidequest is completed. The Seekaqusters have gained one Gamepoint, 100 Gamecredit and one Copper Prizecube that has gone into our TMDI (Transmultidimensional Inventory). You have managed to place some useful, semiuseful, salvage into our TMDI."

The turrets dematerialised as it was sent to the TMDI but was also linked to the still smallish, fairly basic, TMDHB (Transmultidimensional Homebase) where the Sh13 could also be found; that is in a fashion hard to explain.

They paused, the humans drinking coffee, the robots recharging, the androids taking in synthetic serums plus recharging and the phasephysicals absorbing special bolstering energies. The one metaphysical one was sustained in a more exotic fashion. Then the humans consumed travel foodbars of high nutritional quality and fairly rich flavouring. They drank cool, purified, water. After some quick, but expert, checking of gear, they moved on.

Anklelusdeep was the survivalist settlement that they were heading into while expecting more trouble. They carefully went between great, extremely old, mounds of pounded down dirt with some tough grasses growing on and between them. A very small lizard started scuttling away, abruptly stopped and went straight to Shanda, a youthful man, picked it up and fed it a tidbit of food. Then the creature shimmered as it went to the TMDI. A Secondary Quest was to gather living samples of wildlife and to then examine them and take harmless samples from them.

Shanda spoke. "Was female with out eggs to care for and with no mate. Well it can join the other earthlizards we have sent to the TMDHB."

They moved onwards with great care expecting to face hostile survivalists of the Hardblood Survivalist Clan.

Edited Wednesday at 01:22 PM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #2

[One][1.2][2]

The 'wrongness' could have been taken as good as they were met with no Hardblood Warriors armoured and armed to the teeth. Instead they made their way, quietly, through a smashed open gate and then found the first corpse. The death might have been painlessly quick, or even weirdly blissful, but the corpse was shrunken up as in desiccated; there were entities that fed on victims' blood, liquefied flesh and even some 'life energies'; some existed on-in Doomsworld but were relatively rare.

Shimmy, another youthful woman, spoke very quietly but the others easily picked her up with their enhanced hearing capacity. "Did you note that the gate was smashed outwards and not inwards."

Shanda responded. "What of the big, odd, burn patch just outside of that broken gate."

Shizar, one of the androids, added her bit being shaped outwardly as a youthful woman. "Such a heavy, steel, gate looked to have been hurled back with disturbing ease."

They teleported the desiccated corpse to the TMDI. The other Sh13, that was somehow also the same Sh13, would then remove it from the TMDI when they were ready to examine it in the TMDHB. The gear, carried by that man, would also be the subject of forensic studies.

They knew too little about the Hardblood Survivalist Clan except that they had arrived, suddenly, in the area only just over a decade ago. They had taken over the abandoned settlement, of Anklelusdeep, and though it was a habit of newcomers to rename such places, they had not bothered to do so. Some locals had been questioning whether they were genuine survivalists and survivalist clan. They had been greatly secretive, and isolationist, even for survivalists.

They came to a rather ramshackle workshed which turned out to be largely filled with a range of tools including a bulky, wooden, wheelbarrow. There was the impression that only some of them had been more recently used.

Two more horribly killed survivalists, if that was what they really were, being a man and a woman. They came upon a horse quietly grazing on some tough looking grass with the ease of one used to eating such stuff. Both the horse, and the bodies, went into the TMDI.

A hole lot of spent bullet casings, and shotgun casings, showed where a good deal of shooting had taken place but there were also there eight, dead, desiccated warriors. By the evidence, there, they had perished quickly and, despite being hardened combat veterans, they did not seem to have done any real damage to that which had attacked them. They went into the TMDI along with their gear.

Two more horses, five chickens and a scrawny old dog soon followed them into the the TMDI. They seemed to have wandered away from the built up part of the settlement.

There were buildings ahead of them, some fenced off crops, a chicken coop, what could be called a stable if one was feeling generous and four huts. The closer they got, the more features they saw and the more disturbing the scene was though in a not so obvious fashion.

Edited Wednesday at 08:02 AM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #3

Note: Added hoodrobes, and backpacks, to all humans and androids.

[One][1.3][3]

They found a big old building that had clearly been used as a barracks and a rough lounge area with shower bathtubs against one wall. They found there a middle aged woman, about a 150 years old, eating heated up baked beans, from a can. She seemed to have mixed feeling with them being there and soon spoke to them in basic Panglish. "So, what do you want?"

Sharry spoke. "By reputation this place is supposed to be of extremist survivalists known as the Hardblood Survivalist Clan but it does not look like it except for the few, dead, warriors and the wall along with the killing devices surrounding this place." The woman shrugged. Sharry took out a boxcan, of breadbiscuits, and placed it on the old table the woman was eating at. "You look hungry!"

The woman, with her reddish skin of light lumpiness indicating she might be a mild case mutahuman, took it. "No, not survivalists, but mercenaries contracted to protect the settlement and to up keep the wall and those killing devices out there. I, and others here, were camp followers with the mercenaries. They were to keep outsiders away and to make sure none of us left with out the permission of those who lived, and worked, below the settlement. The others camp followers went into hiding while I staid out here to keep an eye, and an ear, on what goes on. There are a small number of mercenaries with them. There was never many of us here, be that mercenaries or camp followers. Like I said, just enough to carry out the contract successfully."

Sharry smiled. "Did you see the entity that killed those mercenaries?"

The woman gave a short, nervous, laugh. "See it? It moved so fast it was a blur of blackness, of shadow, but other than that I picked up no details. It darted past me and went only for the malignant ones, amongst the mercenaries. It also took Dolphus, a very nasty old man of about 230 years. Anybody else was spared. A surviving mercenary told me that it went through an armoured gate, in the ringwall,  like it was made of cardboard instead of good quality steel as it is. Shortly after that it vanished with a flash of sharp, red, energies in a smokey blackness. Dolphus was a twisted mystic who bragged about his special abilities and his up keeping psychic magical wards on the wall to stop it, what ever 'it' was, from escaping. I doubt he really knew its true nature though he pretended to do so. My name is Marriet. I will get the others to join us."

Edited Wednesday at 08:02 AM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #4

[One][1.4][4]

They came forth from their basement hidey hole, a few of them reluctantly, and then were partaking of a meal with the food-drink being provided largely by the Sh13. The Sh13 did some general medical checkups but found that the mercenaries, and their camp followers, were in reasonable condition. Their secretive contractors had made sure they were given a fair amount of service support including some equipment and more supplies. The mercs-followers had tended their own, small, crops along with the chicken coop and other livestock. They had horses, enhanced fertility mules, dogs and cats with them, the cats being their to hunt vermin. They also had some six limbed furbbies that had an odd selection of duties to carry out such as caring for sleeping children.

Sharry spoke to them. "A couple, of you, have asked us why we are being generous; we want information from you about local conditions. We also want you to come and join us in a special realm of transmultidimensional nature. The more lifeforms in it, the more rapidly it expands-evolves to meet the needs. There are means for you being both there, and here, at the same time. We expect that you will not know much about those below."

A rugged, scarred, mercenary man spoke out as a mutahuman. "Overheard an argument between Dolphus and a tall figure in a filthy black hoodrobe who stank strangely and awfully. Dolphus mention the 'Shadowcult' and that he was with a 'Shadowcultmaster' who then struck him down for saying those words out in the open and in the surface settlement. I think that Dolphus would have been killed, at that moment, if he had not been useful to the Shadowcult but that they would have murdered him, sooner or later, anyway. So we have always been here, as general level mercs, to pretend to be hard line survivalists but for that we were paid generously. Our biggest problem has been boredom or at least that was the case until the entity struck."

After an agreement was formed, the first group was 'sent' to the TMDHB through a security-medical filtering process and mild enhancing one. The first transshiftment group was made up largely of all of the younger children and three oldsters. The mercenary man, who had spoken before, turned out to be Commander Gavag of those Strongborne Mercenaries Cooperative. His second, in command, was a woman called Chancecis who happened to be his half sister with them sharing a mother who was a camp follower. That is Marriet who had already gone through to the TMDHB so that she could care for the oldsters and young children.

The next transshiftment was of non living items except for very small, or even tiny, ones that would be picked out by the filtering and sent into secured, comfortable, confinement. Such transshipments cost less, in energy including electricity, than sending larger lifeforms that needed to be more secured. So spare equipment-supplies were sent including stuff salvaged from the abandoned settlement and no longer used.

Gavag spoke. "The abandonment of Anklelusdeep was a mystery as it was apparently done with extreme speed. Our contractors gave us some information, though I do not know why they did so. Perhaps it was to prepare us more for what we would find here. It was as if they got up, in mid meal, and fled away. Work was found part done. Animals were left unattended. Plants were left to grow wild. Tools, weapons, and other items were left where they had fallen. Now it seems logical that any more exotic evidence would have been removed, or erased, by those Shadowcultists; perhaps there were desiccated corpses that were taken away to below."

That was when fighting began as a heavy skirmish!

Edited Wednesday at 01:25 PM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #5

[Zero][0.0][0]

They, ultimately powerful celestial forces, viewed Doomsworld as one would observe an impossibility that somehow had come to exist anyway though of quasireality and not of full reality.

That previously more possible world, of NewEarth, had suffered the Doomsdays and had slipped away from 'normality' but still managed somehow to survive. The Doomsdays were mysterious to even those celestial observers though that was supposed to be impossible.

It was a truly, exceedingly deep, mystery and a quandary.

It was then that the Celestial Madness spoke. "Let's play a game, an implausible but perhaps successful way to solve this great dilemma."

Then came the vast expression of the Celestial Goddessgods. "That is what we will do but not the only action that we will undertake. The 'game' will, perhaps, help draw the truth, of Doomsworld, out into the open."

So  it was that the Doomsworldgames were instigated!

Edited Wednesday at 08:04 AM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #6

[One][1.5][5]

Old fashioned type, cased, cartridges were loaded into mercenary guns and fired off as bullets, shotgun slugs and even shells from small mortars. The mercenaries used those weapons, along with rocket-grenade launchers fired from body armoured shoulders. Shadowcultists attacked across the settlement grounds being armed with mostly the same kind weapons as the mercenaries were. Clearly they had been sent off to 'tie up loose ends' as in murdering both the mercs and their followers.

The nine, physical, Seekaqusters fired off advanced triplecarbines using combustible cased slimlong cartridges as in different versions; that is bullets, shotgun sluggets, grenadeshells and rocketshells. Each triplecarbine was, in the middle, an actual carbine but could be one, of a selection of, devices above and below. Below could be a weapon firing grenade shells or rocket shells. The androids used each one as the humans did but each robot handled two, adapted, triplecarbines.

Shimna whirled, in mid air, firing off pulsegun pulsebullets of blasting destruction along with bullets and rocket-shells; rocket-shells flew straight while grenadeshells went up and over. She kept zigzagging and ducked behind cover much of the time.

Without the Sh13 being there, the mercenaries would have easily been overwhelmed with the greater numbers of the fanatical, drugged up, Shadowcultists. When one of the mercs was wounded, that one was assisted by one of the phasephysicals who boosted the wounded merc with healing energies.

The Shadowcultists kept coming only to die immediately or to fall, dying, to the ground. In some non obvious fashion the dying ones managed to poison themselves and so they always died. Then the survivors were retreating but not in panic but in a roughly orderly fashion as if ordered to do so, somehow. 123 humans had attacked and, of them, 86 had died; only 37 had managed to get away, some of them being wounded.

Sanka frowned hard. "A stupid waste of life but it is evident that they expected to face only you mercenaries and maybe some armed camp followers. They came both over confident, and strung out on drugs, thus were heavily defeated. The drugs were probably amphetamines but could have been methylphenidates or of some other kind of enhanced stimulants."

Shimna: "We need to keep up the transshiftments and clear away those dead Shadowcultists and their gear."

Then those dead Shadowcultists, who had not suffered brain damage, began to climb clumsily to their feet as zombies. Quickly, steadily, they were each of them shot in the head and so died a second time, collapsing to the ground; they would only be moved, after that, due to the effort of others.

Now there were more questions, to gain answers to; that is such as how a few, of the dead Shadowcultists, had become zombies.

Edited Wednesday at 01:26 PM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #7

[One][1.6][6]

A rainstorm came from the west, being clean of toxins, and soon water was falling lightly from a dull cloudy sky. A second transshiftment, of living cargo, was sent along with two of the other kind, to the TMDHB. It was mainly of camp followers along with a wounded mercenary and two mercenary artisans, plus some animals and plants. In Doomsworld terms such, healthier, flora and fauna were worth very valuable as was fungi.

Time, in the TMDHB, was twice faster than it was on-in Doomsworld generally and so more could be done there, in relative terms, compared to Doomsday time. They had removed desiccated dead bodies, of malignant mercenaries, from the TMDI, along with their gear and had begun to examine them in the forensics chamber. As for the humans, animals, plants, other lifeforms and other items, they had either arrived, more directly into the TMDHB or indirectly through the TMDI. The Sh13 were still working out how best to use both transmultidimensional zones.

There came a Game Patron Mentor Benefactor Tributetee, GPMBT, giftcube of a one by one metre cubecanister that materialised in the big barracks chamber; it did so on a cleared area, of floor, and soon from it were being taken a remote guidance portable console, little remotedrones and short, skeletal, observation turrets. Such were not remote controlled, but were only remote guided, as they had their own computers on board to direct them. Their were enhanced, adapted, ammo for the mercenary weapons. Small bits of medical equipment, field supplies, were given over along with more food rations and other gifted items.

Sharry explained to Gavag. "We Seekaplayers do not know the true identity, of our GPMBT, or even if there is just the one of them; we have to earn the right to such information along with so much else. We know were materialised in our TMDHB but not where we were before that, if anywhere. That giftcube came for you but still indicated that the GPMBT was pleased with what we have done so far, since leaving our TMDHB, but not how."

The Seekaquster humans, and androids, placed odd suction cup like devices against the floor explaining that if there were more attackers they might not be physical let alone Shadowcultists. The detectors would pick up shadowghosts as shadowlings, stronger shadowtasms and even more so shadowghasts. Thankfully the stronger, more dangerous, such entities were the less numerous they were. Then there might be also shadowbeasts, coming, as shadowspitters, shadowfangers, shadowspiners and shadowclawers; all had spiked armour and other intrinsic weapons. There were other shadowthreats that might attack.

Another living transshiftment had just been launched when the floor detectors began to chime in alarm.

Edited Wednesday at 01:27 PM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #8

[One][1.7][7]

Shadowlings came first, weakest and most common of the shadowghosts, coming up out through the floor only to be swept, out of existence, by laser pulsebeams from now pulselasers attached to the tops of triplecarbines. Mercenaries fired more basic laserguns that had been sent from the Seekaplayer TMDHB. They were followed by more of their kind but also more powerful shadowtasms in smaller numbers; their fate was not any better than that of the shadowlings. So that attack ended but none, in that place, expected it would be the last one. It seemed to have been a testing of defences.

Another transshiftment departed, taking the last of the camp followers with it along with flora, fauna and even some mushrooms. They also took non living items with them, of course.

Sentry turrets set off alarms, inside the chamber but not outside with them, as they detected attackers out there above ground but another assault did not begin as it seemed they were just being observed by scouts, most likely shadowlings or more cultists or even both.

A terrible shudder ran through the building, probably through all of the settlement, causing a small crack to appear in the floor.

Another transshiftment was sent with the last humans, livestock and plantstock plus remaining working animals. More gear went with them.

Now the Sh13 felt freer to utilise their special abilities. They went to the hatch, in the that floor, that led down to a basement chamber in which others had hidden, apart from Marriet. There was quite a lot of stored up stuff there, in almost well organised fashion, and it was all vanished even as it was transshipped to the TMDHB. Not staying there for long, they went to an entrance to a tunnel that was partly collapsed. Shadowlings flittered across the ending of the tunnel, in the distance, in what seemed to be a 'T' junction.

It was not long before they entered another, big, basement type chamber with a terrible scene at its core of swirling, black, smokey substance with flashing streaks of red energy like short bolts of forked lightening. Around it, and inside it, were long decayed, skeletal remains, of humans and other lifeforms.

Shanda cursed softly. "A Shadowista , the worst kind of Shadowis Avatar of the Shadowadis. Now we know what happened to original inhabitants of Anklelusdeep."

At the very center, of the swirling Shadowista, was trapped a rainbow patterned globe with a swirling of glowing strips, of different colours, including larger ones of yellow and white that were brighter than the others. It was celestial and was what the Sh13 had come looking for, it being the basis for the current Subquest of their Primary Quest. It was a CEEET, or 'C' 'triple E' 'C'. being a Celestial Educational Entertainment Enhancement Toy. Such were amazingly powerful and the CelestiRaynbaHybriBaby. The CRHB that owned it, and some others liked it, had them stolen from Shehershe causing a great deal of strife even at a celestial level.

It was time to call out the 'heavy guns'.

Edited Wednesday at 01:28 PM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #9

[One][1.8][8]

The Sh13 had earned three Gamepoints, and 2,000 Gamecredit, plus 6,000 Tradecredit, a big Giftcube plus a small Questcube. The first three remained invisible, the Questcube materialised before them being a 3x3x3 metre cube and the Giftcube ended up in their TMDHB as a 9x9x9 metre cube shaped machine. The news came to them, there and then, being most welcome.

A Giftcube could be a range of items to be given away, or used by one, being of general nature or could be a general machine in nature.

In contrast a Questcube either carried more exotic items or was a supersolidstate mechanism.

This time the cubemechanism hovered in mid air, aiming towards the swirling entity one yellow white lens of a disk; from that embedded lens spat a pulsating beam of rainbow-yellow-white that blasted into the smokey black, red lightening, entity. It screamed out in agony, rage and emotions less identifiable. The physical nine, of the fired off not triplecarbines but UVLGs, ultraviolet laserguns being potent laserrifles. They added their firepower to that of that of the celestial cubemechanism hoping that this would help tip the balance, of power, against the Shadowista.  

With a flash, of deepest red, the Shadowista vanished away, with a disorienting blur, as it dematerialised. Yes, it had escaped, but in a very damaged state. At once the CEEET vanished away as it transshipped to the TMDHB. The Questcube shimmered and was gone for it had only been on loan, being controlled by celestial forces.

Then came a localised flash of rainbow-yellow-white energies, filling the chamber and going beyond but how far the Seekaplayers did not know. The desiccated bodies, and that which was with them, had vanished away when the flash incident ended.

The Sh13 were confronted by a 3x3x3 metre cube that turned out to be just a way into a mobile Transmultdimensional Outpost or their TMDO; it was nine times bigger inside than out or so was the solid illusion of its existence. Soon they were in a chamber that was where they rested while drinking, eating, and quietly discussing matters. The robots, and androids, went into special bays while the humans slept after showering. The TMDO was camouflaged and had other forms of defense, security and safety.

Then 'something' knocked on the side and, in an amazing fashion, the TMDO shook very lightly.

Edited Wednesday at 08:07 AM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.

[Maharg67]

Post #10

[One][2.1][9]

In the TMDHB there was a generally calm business going on as the newcomers settled into a suddenly expanded, evolved, zone that had added a large habitat area to itself. The former inhabitants had not all materialised there but most had. Thankfully they did not remember, for the moment, the horror that had struck them down. They did remember that a small group of settlers had gone down, into the underground depths, to investigate what appeared to be an ancient Shaztec Temple of some kind, perhaps a tomb. With a curious mixture of technologies, the Shaztecs did have elites with more exotic, potent, ones with often disturbing reputations.

That had only been one of the reasons for the infamy of that 'civilisation' with its reputation of human sacrifices, torture rituals, the raising of zombies, links with Shadowadis, cannibalism, brutal slavery, brutal conquests and so forth; many had classified it as an anticivilisation.

The Sh13 there were titled as Seekaservers as they supported the Seekaplayers, now being active as Seekaquesters,  both directly and indirectly. They helped care for pets, some of those being plants or other types of lifeform, the infrastructure and took on other duties for themselves and the Seekaplayers. They bore the same names and had the same shapeforms as the Seekaplayers did for they were them as in being in two places at the same time.

The CEEET named itself as Ceeetiopsi for it had its own personality and was very intelligent along with powerful plus having many capacities-abilities. Ceeetiopsi floated, slowly spinning, in mid air in an energy field feeding it electricity, sunlight and other forms. "Iself slept much even as Iself defended myself. Inside I kept safe the soul entities of most of the horribly killed settlers of Anklelusdeep; the others failed the testing of the Goddessgods and were punished with total oblivion. Iself also has, inside, other soul entities, and even full lifeforms, under protection. Iself has lots of other stuff as well. Iself as a wonderful, very interesting, collection of stuff myself has picked up."

Sharry smiled richly. "Very good but perhaps you could show us what any item is before you bring it out."

Childlike Ceeetiopsi responded happily and then let loose with a whole lot of information that herself thought as important as shehershe began to take on a female gender description. "Better, still, Iself can show you them safely outside of Iself with out bringing them outside of Iself in a not very safe manner."

A large, very hairy, dog trotted up to the CEEET and licked it, in a friendly manner, as his tail wagged madly. For just about a second the canine shimmered with rainbow-yellow-white energies before he turned and trotted over to Sharry to sit, next to her, on his haunches and started licking himself in a very unsocial manner.

The CEEET was soon sleeping, in the fashion of such celestial entities, shehershe being part subconscious but also, to a lesser degree, semiconscious and fully conscious.

Then there was another materialisation of those being brought, successfully, from Anklelusdeep.

Edited Wednesday at 01:30 PM by Maharg67
To show that this story has been edited from the start.