The Doomday Aftermath

[Herculine]

It's always best to take your time and do it right, and always be true to your own vision.

 

We will patently await the next passage.

[species5478]

Cool. I think what Herculine said in an earlier post is true. You write at a consistent rate, and seem capable of spilling entire pages out within a matter of days. This is an indicative sign of a publishable author.

[Maharg67]

SIX: Mysterious Stranger in the Minibunker

 

She'Oro of Goddess'Paka reached the deck plated floor and looked around at the large dimly lit entrance chamber. There were banks of modular computer hardware. There were 3Dflatscreens and bigger 3Dwallscreens that showed views of the environment around the exposed top part. Complicated capsule-chairs were placed before consoles but the operators were inside flexible metallic suits with polarised visors. Each was hooked into the console through cyberscape.

 

Mr MS was confronted by a floating multibot, a multiple purpose robot that was a one metre wide globe of armoured metal with two folded up tool-limbs and two extended weapon-limbs and he was talking. "I assure you MN-PO-1213254 that I seek to do no harm to either the inhabitants of the minibunker or its network-systems or its robots or its basic structures. I am here to communicate with the inhabitiants and to learn what has happened before, during and after Doomday."

 

The multibot beeped, bipped and then spoke. "I am only a multibot. I know of no Doomday. The humans in the SSSSs have degraded physically because they have been in the SSSSs for far too long. They are in cyberscape. If you can assist them to survive then my programming will be most pleased."

 

He nodded. "Five figures, four being women and one being a man. They belonged to something called the Cybertyne Cyberscape Cooperative from what I see of notices on the pin board and very beautifully done screen-savers operating on the 3Dscreens."

 

The mushman woman stepped closer to a console and the multibot spun and beeped sharply at her. Wisely she stopped moving. Then the multibot turned to examine MrPorty. "A rather clumsy old style Type-2 Mark-5a1 MrPorty robot with some interesting upgrades and adaptations."

 

The MrPorty responded. "Damned snooty little multibots with their nice new multiple purpose programming. Ooohhh look at me, arn't I so flexible, aren't I so compact."

 

The Mysterious Stranger sighed. "Now now, MrPorty, let there be peace between us all. What did the Cybertyne Cyberscape Cooperative do?"

 

The multibot answered after only a couple of clicks. "I am not supposed to know this, being only a multibot, but the cooperative did discrete cyberscape programming various government and private organisations. It tended to serve those with smaller budgets who could not afford their own cyberscape programming departments but they did serve even the largest and most powerful bodies for discretionary purposes. I suggest you save these humans and then see to others in the minibunker."

 

He touched each metallic suited figure in turn. They sparkle shimmered and each took of her or his helmet to reveal beautiful genetically engineered faces that had been altered to fit personal tastes of appearance.

 

The first woman turned her capsule-chair and smiled at Mr MS with beautiful purple eyes from a lighter purple skinned face. "We are Immortalia, elite citizens of the New World Order. You have given me the ability to feed on radiation, to neutralise radiation and to shape that energy in various useful ways. Why have you done that for me?"

 

He looked around at the large chamber. "I did it for you, for the world. I take it that the Cybertyne Cyberscape Cooperative worked from here."

 

She slipped out of the metallic suit and nakedly stood before him. He was tall but she was not much shorter. She flicked back her dark purple hair, silken and smooth as if recently washed. The room's lighting brightened except one corner area. She turned and spoke to the multibot.

 

"Wobit-3, will you please see to repairs for that corner lighting."

 

The multibot responded. "I apologise mistriss but due to shortages of certain types of hardware to light up the corner would be to reduce the effectiveness of the life support network-system of the minibunker."

 

The woman nodded. "Do are you have been doing, Wobit-3, and ignore my last request." She sighed and turned back to him even as the other three beautiful woman and the beautiful youthful man climbed out of their metallic suits. "I am Shrellis Sovisha of the Tessmera Five Network Family. While we were in cyberscape we early on gained a good deal of data on changes to the world but later the data feeds grew troublesome and our bodies began to degrade including our brains. We went increasingly into a shut down mode." She turned to the mushman. "She'Oro of Goddess'Paka, welcome to our minibunker. So you are now our above ground neighbours."

 

The mushman shook her head. "Our tunnels have come up against the underground sides of this structure and we have made chambers making use of your outer metal shell as a single metal wall in each chamber. We are pleased that you survived. The Mysterious Stranger healed me of loopworms. Loopworms are very nasty to us mushmans. We get our revenge by steam cooking them and eating them with spicy sauce."

 

Another woman smiled and laughed softly. Then she bowed briefly having light green skin and dark green hair. "I am enhanced of mind, body and spirit but more so of body than otherwise. I have always wantted to be super athletic and now it seems that I am. I am a cyberscape expert on celluar growth simulations and related evolutionary factors. We were doing a special cyberscape simulation for possible adverse side effects of the wonder technologies when Doomday struck." She nodded. "I am Larsha Sovisha of the Tessmera Five Network Family. Perhaps you would allow you take some genetic material from you, She'Oro of Goddess'Paka."

 

The mushman woman frowned. "Perhaps you would allow me to have some of your genetic material, Larsha Sovisha of the Tessmere Five Network Family. I sense you are kind, very smart and open minded except that you assume me to be some kind of genetic mal-mutation. The mushmans did not rise by mistake. We were created as a hope of some kind of humanity surviving the aftermath of Doomday."

 

Larsha looked startled and then she bowed briefly. "My apologies for my foolishness, for my arrogance and false assumptions. If you wish we will study both our genetics together and we can exchange information. I suspect now your people have a kind of intrinsic ability to both be aware of and shape your own genetics."

 

The man bowed briefly and then he spoke. "I wish to check out the rest of the minibunker. Tanya and I are security specialists. We upgraded this entrance chamber into an actual working chamber when we ran out of space and time to have more modular sections added to the minibunker. Our client wanted us to hurry our project and we did our best. Our client sent us extra resources. We were about to send our client our first completed briefing on our amazing and highly disturbing discoveries when the great ceremony was brought forth a whole month and then came... hell on Earth."

 

The mushman woman stepped closer to the man. She smiled up at him. "You can provide seed for my next pregnancy, if you wish."

 

Another woman, of dull dark red skin like the man, snorted. It was turning out that hair and skin colouring were coded towards job functions. Red was security. Purple was primary cyberscaper. Green seemed linked to life simulations. "I am Tanya and legalities dictate..." Then she stopped and sighed. "In this nasty new world I don't suppose genetic inheritance laws mean a whole lot. Oh, do what you like with Brendari."

 

Brendari, the man, snorted. "Don't I get a say in this?"

 

Continued in another Post

Edited October 6, 2009 by Maharg67

[Herculine]

Normally I'm not at a loss for words, but right now all I can think is:

 

incredible and amazing!

[Maharg67]

SIX: Mysterious Stranger in the Minibunker (Continued)

 

A shudder ran through the floor of the chamber. Alarms rang briefly before Tanya used a cyborg implant to turn them off. She walked to a locker, opened it and began tossing compact emergency security canisters to her comrades. In a surprisingly short time she and her comrades had on light flexible body-armour, slim efficient boots, utility-belts dotted with items and even visored helmets. Each now carried a compact multipulsecarbine.

 

The Mysterious Stranger had knelt at once to splay his fingers over the metal of the floor. He now spoke even as the mushman woman stood ready to fight with her left hand shapeformed into a spike with a small hole in the tip and the robots both seemed ready to deal with danger: that is the multibot Wobot-3 looked ready to fight and MrPorty looked ready to flee for its existence.

 

"What was down there in the middle level of the minibunker?"

 

"Damned!" The last woman, who had been quiet until that moment, stepped forward. Her hair, as seen before, was dark green and her skin was light green. "Semilegal cloned organisms used by the simulation evolutionary process, in the way of relative predictors, were being grown in the Central Middle Chamber. There was no pain for them. We gave them true and full safety, security and comfort levels. The plan was that I would adopt them to live with my in my Condoster 23246509897 in Washington DC licensed to Columbia 444. They are, or at least they were, very small babies of varied kinds."

 

Then she frowned. "Unless that damned fool Spiketor did what he threatened to do and added illegal pain stimulations to speed up the testing process. That would be both immoral and illegal plus it would get me to kill him."

 

Tanya raised her hand. "We will go down and investigate. Only Brendari and I have full combat survival program conditioning, training and actual experience. We need som proper combat gear and more than a multibot to back us up. Still I get the feeling both of you newcomers are very combat able though I have doubts about your robot."

 

Suddenly MrPorty robot shuddered, slid open a forward panel and out projected the barrel of a gatling-laser. "I might be a coward but I am a heavily armed coward."

 

Mr MS laughed softly. "When we first met MrPorty was cornered by some stupid raiders. He shot most of them down before I got him to let the others go. That is after I influenced them somewhat to change their lives. There is more than one odd organism down in that chamber and twelve humans along with various animals in status capsules. They continue to be safe behind armour, turrets and two multibots on guard."

 

Another shudder went through the floor followed by loud thumping.

 

The Mysterious Stranger pointed to a heavily armoured floor hatch in one corner. "Open that and now matter how strange the lifeforms look that come through it, please don't shoot."

 

Shrellis sighed. "We are all Children of the Age of Techl Miracles and know well by experience not to judge by appearance."

 

Mr MS bowed briefly. "I apologise. It was supposed to be an age of greatness and look what happened. Then along came the wonder technologies and the hope that they would make everything much better."

 

She looked at him hard. "Who are you? What are you?"

 

"People call me the Mysterious Stranger or Mr MS!" He shrugged. "I am an alien. I am Centrus. We are Centrus. Do you doubt me?"

 

The immortal humans all stared at him in wonder and Shrellis spoke. "No, after what you did to us, the changes, the way you healed us, we believe you but also the secret network we belong to gained proof of various aliens visiting our world. We know of the Greytari, the Shoozma and the Goolvita."

 

Mr MS sighed. "The Greytari are biological puppets of the Greydaxa. The Greydaxa are insanely evil. The Shoozma are wandering scavengers and con-artists. The Goolvita are a heavily religious people who are ever seeking signs of their Holy Gods of Gods of Gods etc. We are Centrus. What we are doing here, well that sort of discussion needs to be left for later."

 

Mr MS went to the hatch, touched it, it clicked abruptly unlocked despite its numerous locking mechanisms, and it slid open with a soft humming noise.

[Herculine]

You continue to impress me, and that's not something easily done.

[Maharg67]

SEVEN: Jasmine Seeing Beyond Old Barriers

 

Jasmine lay in her body-capsule sleeping but she found herself drifting through Clave-101 with abnormal freedom. No security network-system noted her naked extension moving along a big main hallway with robo-vehicles moving along the central double-lane and riding bicycles or walking on the outside lanes. With no going up hill and all smooth ways, bicycles, tricycles and even quadcycles, had proven to be very effective in the Claves. She found herself going through people but they did not notice and she only felt a slight tingle. A pair of roller skating teens were followed by one on a skateboard; such were allowed but under strict regulation such as sticking to certain places and the use of safety gear.

 

What she did notice was that the auras of people were a good deal more defined for her. She could pick out emotions, intentions and even karmic trends to a greater extent. Clave-101 had just over a million people and yet she saw a spriinkling of people she knew; she was surprised at times by what she now picked up. A supposedly very nice man was very dark inside and a supposedly sharp hard teengirl was actually of good intention.

 

She had dreamed of moving through Clave-101 before but never so vividly or with so much control. Now she chose to go to those places that had previously been closed to her. Not that she expected to find much of excitement. Even the rebel activity was fairly boring and did not seem to get anywhere against the Over-System. But where would she go first?

 

Then she had it. The Restricted Exhibition Chambers at the Galleries of History. Anybody could go to the Open Exhibition Chambers. Vaultfolk could go on days designated to them according to their Citizenship Codes but could negotiate to go with family or friends. Jasmine had gone with School groups. Soon she would be moving to Collage or Academy depending on what GECK. Only few could go into the restricted area.

 

Then she saw what the solid people around her did not see. Nine translucent people walked along the hallway towards her of various ages and races, wearing different kinds of Prewar clothes except for a four who wore typical Clavesuits. They seemed sleepy peaceful as if half awake. They walked above the floor. They saw her and smiled at her and she nodded back at them. Then, obivously surprised, they gathered before her and faced her. One young man was naked as she was but nudity did not seem to concern these 'people'.

 

A mature woman, rejuvenated to look young and beautiful, spoke then for the group. She wore a smart bizdress with once fashionable holographic flowers opening and closing slowly at her shoulders. Her voice sounded both slightly muffled and as if with a light echo effect. "Please help us. We need to escape this state between true life and true death. There are billions of us around the world. You can help at least some of us."

 

Jasmine nodded. "I sense I can though I am not sure what you want or how I can. I am going to the Galleries of History to have a look at places normally closed to me. You may follow me there and there I will try to come up with an answer."

 

And so Jasmine set out again, moving now with surprising speed, and as she went the number of Lost Souls following her steadily increased. As she went through the crowds she realised, with a start, that the number of Securitors in light power armour and with pulseguns, was far greater than she had imagined. So were the number of secbots and security turrets each with a 3Dcam, mikes, sensors and a multipulsegun. There were also multibots, normal 3Dcams, standard security guards, law guards and Vault Police. She was living in a police state and she suspected it had slowly been getting worse over the last ten years since the Overlord had changed.

 

The Securitors tended to reflect dark mentalities and actions in their auras.

 

The Galleries of History were in the Citizen Cluster along with the Gardens of Contentment, the Sports Fitness Centre, the Sports-Fitness Centre and the Games Arena. She darted through the orderly gardens of the GofC and felt the freshness of the plants and small animals, the worms, even the microscopic life in the soil, in the aura of the big domechambers. Then she was going into the Open Galleries of History.

 

Armaglass sealed displays, with special preservative systems, enclosed the wonderful history of VaultTek who designed and built the Claves. There were samples of Clavedom technologies such as robots, a robocar, bits and pieces of machinery, a body-capsule that one slept in, manniquins with various colour coded Clavesuits, displays of typical Clave used small items and much else. It was a large display and she was impressed.

 

Except it was portrayed as a wonderful life for all and she knew that this was not the case. Not at least for the Common Citazenry. What of those in the Elites? What of those in their own Subclave where the Common Citazenry were forbidden to go? There were persistent whispers of luxuries, of sex-slaves, of large living spaces, of what ever else people conjured up.

 

A side display spoke of a wonderful world that VaultTek had kept running through its design and construction of safe, secure, comfortable, eco-friendly semi-underground Clavements made up of apartments and other facilities along with gardens that partly produced food. That world was supposedly good for all and only a sudden and terrible 'Act of God' had destroyed it, had caused so much destruction.

 

Jasmine heard harsh laughter and the mature rejuvenated woman drifted forward.

 

The other spoke. "The world was supposed to be a hightech utopia enjoyed by all but the truth was far from that. Most people lived in huge Slumburgs, basically automated slum cities, that were isolated by barrier-walls and such as barrier-drones. People here did so called unskilled work or worse, were cyber-slaved into various hazardous jobs. Over six billion people were Slummers. Then there was the middle class, the people who had a fair life in the Domecities who did the skilled and semi-skilled work. They could not leave the Domecities except to visit other Domecities on a restricted basis. The Domers numbered about two billion. Only the Eliters could go elsewhere, could go into the National Parks, to the Paradise Clubs, and to live in their own amazing Paradise Cities."

 

She paused and then spoke on. "A few parts of the world were like older times with more traditional towns and cities but they were becoming the minority. The tradional villages of countries like India and China were vanishing. The only folks who lived in traditional villages, towns or small cities tended to be Domers who had gotten away from the Domecities, often to retire, and a few lucky Slummers who escaped from the Slumburg. A tiny minority were Eliters who got tired of being in the Elites. Together they were known as Scapers."

 

Then she went on. "Spacers lived in orbital colonies, the big ones all at L5, and Lunarites who lived in the semi-underground cities on the moon. They all were Domers or Eliters, the Eliters having their own special deluxe orbitals or mooncities."

 

Jasmine shrugged. "What you say does not surprise me. I have never been able to believe the propaganda spouted by the Over-System."

 

The woman nodded. "I would not like to live as most do in this place. Follow me now and I will show you the truth of what lies in the Restricted Zones of Clave-101."

 

They passed through a thick armoured door covered by security hitech. Then they were in a big expedition chamber dotted with amazing displays. There were atomic powered hovercars from the Domecities. There were protectrons, security and police robots, that served in the Domecities and Slumburgs. There was a MrHandy of a kind that served housewives and househusbands in the Domecities.

 

A hulking power armoured soldier bore the symbol of the Brotherhood of Steel, the powerful and efficient paramilitary force that tried to keep order in the over populated Slumburgs. A Sister of Steel was in faster, lighter armour, for the Sisterhood of Steel focused on smaller, faster missions while the BofS dealt with larger scale troubles. Or so went the theory. Behind them was the umbrella organisation of the Order of Steel who regulated them and operated their fortified semi-underground bases and low flying baseships. The OofS also undertook larger scale paramilitary operations as time went on as it absorbed older military and other forces.

 

There were more hitech devices ranging from a big atomic motorised hovercoach of a kind found world wide to a Slummer shock-cage to a wide low cylinder shaped slotshelter, to a pleasure android to a Formula One atomic powered hoverspeeder. There was even a small sleek antigravity shuttle of the kind that power glided back to the surface of the Earth after its missions were completed; such shuttles could easily go to the moon and often did but needed booster-packs to return to the Earth.

 

There was a manniquin of a Slummer cyberslaved into a slavesuit, an armoured power suit that did hazardous work. The money for cyberslaves was good but the work was dangerous.

 

There were 3D government propaganda posters, fancy corporate advertisements and much else.

 

Then, in one corner, in a big armaglass display case full of preserving gas, she found naked bodies piled up in a heap. These were real bodies and they had all been murdered but with out leaving any physical marks. They were mostly of adults but there were some older children there. She stood and stared that the close to a hundred bodies in shocked astonishment and then in horrified sadness.

 

Just what was going on?

 

How had these people died?

[Herculine]

Like I said, Barnes & Noble material to be certain. Very well done!

[Maharg67]

EIGHT: Sajji and Comrades Take The Scenic Route

 

Three Ninja slipped along a winding gully and passed dead soldiers in punctured power armour. They could not help and so they did not try. These were Armatroopers, men and women who had died trying to breach enemy lines. The women feared to be caught in a counter attack of super mutants. They knew also that if more power armoured Order of Steel soldiers came that they would shoot the Ninjas with out pausing to ask questions.

 

Pools of rancid blood, the screams of the dying, the thunder of artillery, the crazy war howls of super mutants, the horrible thumping of automatic guns, the hissing horror of laser beams, the roar of approaching machines that threatened to crush one into the ground; it was horribly familiar to all three women.

 

Stealthboy power was running low and the special units needed recharging. The three deadly young women found the broken metal grating that they had been seeking. No armoured OofS could hope to go through it but they, well they were much smaller even with the stealth power armour. They could and would do it with some discomfort.

 

The trip along the old pipe was made more interesting by a few radroaches they ran into and duly squished. A couple of times Nedi, who was a little broader of shoulders, threatened to get stuck and when Tara pushed her smoothly armoured behind, she cursed softly. It was a horror trip but then they were dropping into a rocky chamber that was happily much worse. The chamber was a partly dug bunker shelter with skeletal remains heaped in one corner, rusting tools and the dim lit glow of an atomic motor powered lamp. These people had been trying to find shelter on Doomday or after but had failed.

 

The three Ninja found the tunnel that was threatening to collapse and they hurried along it as quickly and as gently as possible. Being buried under tons of dirt and rock was not one of their mission objectives.

 

Then they halted as they came into a big metal chamber and studied the murder scene ahead of them. Dead raiders scattered around as if some incredibly fast and savage force had torn through them with out mercy. Half naked men and women. Lots of splashed blood. Plenty of spent cartridges. No looting had taken place. There were still weapons, ammo, and much else there of value.

 

Sajji spoke then. "He was here. I can sense his presence. He was here but why did he kill these raiders? He would never do so unless he had a very good reason. My sweet comrades, it is now time to play detective."

 

So they did so.

[Herculine]

I know I keep repeating myself, but I'm still awed by your work, and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to read it!