DC WASTELAND RISING

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-TWO

 

 

Jasmine, Dogmeat, Fawkes and the Family explored the big cavern and then went into the next. They found there more mud, more rocky outcrops and also glowcrystal that lit and warmed the big chamber. Yet they also found evidence that people had once been there in the form of a heap of junk and semijunk. There were bits of machinery, including robots, half empty crates of stuff, empty ammo boxes, teddy-bears, a holotape of Tiny Tim’s Greatest Hits, tent gear and much else.

 

The next cavern was even bigger and across its mud grew dark green mossgrass upon which fed a loose herd of brahmins, including a sprinkling of large bulls. They were not alone. There were humans, ghouls and two forms of people that were new to the newcomers. One were ghoul like except they were covered with a type of skin made of small smooth plates like fish scales. The other were super mutants of standard size but these were shaped like men and women. The women super mutants obvious for they were only dressed in work shorts, boots, like a kind of opaque bratop and utility-belts plus wide brimmed hats. The men wore the same but were bare chested but very similar to the men were normal sexless smart mutants and dumb mutants except they were not mindlessly aggressive.

 

In the background were some electric four wheel drive vehicles of various types, horses grazing on the mossgrass, a few dogs, children and other adults. Tents had been erected and some prefab cubicles put into place.

 

Jasmine met Sir Gregory Hammerhead Barkley III, a ghoul who was grimy from head to foot with mud, who wore thick glasses and who clutched a crude set of plans for a new settlement.

 

Sir Greg, his nickname, grinned at Jasmine. “Got to say it but you is beautiful. So, that out of the way, who is you people?”

 

Jasmine smiled. “Jasmine Ashworth late of Vault-101. Fawkes the super mutant, late of Vault-87. Dogmeat the dog, late of the Scrapman Scrapyards. The Family and this is Vance who leads them. Holly here assists in an important fashion.”

 

Sir Greg grinned. “Something tells me there is a whole lot to you than appears on the surface. Normally we have trouble holding back some of our more excitable dogs from annoying or biting strangers but there they are, all on their bellies and wagging their tales. Or even presenting their bellies.”

 

Jasmine smiled. “I am but a humble traveller. Mr Fawkes here is a very brilliant super mutant with great strength and many talents. Dogmeat is the same, being very bright for a canine and very tough. The Family are vampires but they do not feed off people. Do not mistake them for such as the ghoul vampires. What of your people?”

 

“We have escaped from a place of great horror called the Labyrinth of Lost Souls. Uncle Leo saved us. A super mutant with great wisdom and power, though he says he is only a conduit for the Light.” The ghoul adjusted his glasses. “He cured us of our deformities for truly deformed we were. He sent us out of that hell and even told us how we could get passed the creatures that guard the barriers and the barrier gates. He said there were a number of individuals and groups we could trust to help us and he emphasized your name, the name of a great and powerful living goddess. Something tells me you are the one.”

 

Jasmine looked around. “You want to gain more resources? Firstly I suggest that you make contact with others in the area. There is a still functional monotrain fairly close to here. I can give you directions to the Lamplight Caverns settlement and the Vault-87 area linked to it. There is also Vaultburg but I would not bother trading with them as yet. If I do anything wondrous for you, it uses up my energy, then others start to expect the same. If I use up my energies I face the danger of having not enough when I face the powerful evil that I am hunting. I suspect that this powerful evil had something to do with the creation of the Labyrinth of Lost Souls in the first place.”

 

Sir Greg shook his head. “That is not for me to speak of. Even thinking of such things chills me out. Uncle Leo said it was due to something called the Biomazz and something else called the Symbiosphere.”

 

Jasmine cursed softly and then nodded. “Didn’t Uncle Leo say more about these terms?”

 

The ghoul shook his head. “Wasn’t time. As soon as we were cured of our deformities and the Biomazz was transformed inside us to make it harmless, he sent us to our freedom. Actually I overhead him speaking to somebody, an odd young man who called himself Statesman Alba Diplomori. The stranger seemed more than a little agitated, even frightened of something. I think it had something to do with this thing called the Symbiosphere.”

 

Jasmine nodded. “Now, at last, many things are starting to make sense out of this horrible mess. I must go and meditate. Please be courteous to my friends. They in turn will be very helpful to your people.”

 

Jasmine walked away and sat cross legged to start meditating. The others went off to mingle except for Dogmeat and Fawkes who sat protectively either side of her; they could sense that she was deeply worried.

 

Continued in SIXTY-THREE

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-THREE

 

 

When the last of the green mist was gone a quarantine zone was closed over everything in what was left of the Cooperative Republic. Specialists in NBC power armour picked up samples of alien flesh, picked up the spines, destroyed other bodies. Whole alien bodies were bagged carefully and the bag exteriors were sterilized. Much lasering and burning was done. Human corpses were bagged.

 

When they were digging and moving things, were searching for threats of infestation or infection, they found the metallic hatch in the ground.

 

The hatch led to a tunnel which led to a metallic chamber dimly lit by emergency lights. This had metallic doors to a big spiral stairwell, a bigger spiral rampway and a large cylinder elevator chamber. Security turrets shot at the intruders but were quickly knocked out by EMPguns. While one platoon went down the stairway, another went down the rampway and a third dared to use the big elevator.

 

The way down was long and the elevator platoon found the vast chamber first. It rose up as a great domed ceiling and was a very shallow bowl. It was full of beautiful lush green wilderness and small blue rivers. Birds flew through the air. Horses galloped across grassy areas. There were naked humans playing, sleeping, eating on mats near a big circular pool of clear blue water. All the human adults looked young and beautiful as did the children. There were no blemishes, physical defects or other obvious imperfections.

 

The first platoon went to move closer but an invisible barrier gently but firmly stopped them from going any further. They were Sister Protectors.

 

A young looking beautiful oriental woman, in a silken knee length Tdress and utility-belt, appeared in front of them with a sparkling shimmer and she smiled sweetly at them. She smiled sweetly and then she spoke warmly, invitingly. “Oh goody, visitors, oh lovely visitors. Please come in and let us entertain you.”

 

But suddenly a figure in a clean yellow all purpose science suit, a lightly armoured APSS with a rounded visor giving much view range for the user but it was polarised and hid the face. He was on their side of the force field. He spoke through speakers even as he hurried up, speaking in fluent Esperanto. “You can not go in there and it would be unwise to do so any way. I am Professor Arnold Jones. The radiation in that chamber is very high and these people are highly dangerous. This is Morgana and she is much older than she looks. These are children of the Darkman, even the fake horses, for they are shapeshifters. They are a kind of super mutant but they do not look like other super mutants. They have purple-pink skin with odd shallow ridge patterns over their bodies and they are hairless.”

 

The young woman frowned. “Professor, have we ever hurt anybody? Super mutants are not automatically evil. We do not follow the ways of the Darkman. Other shaper mutants did so and the Darkman took them away with him. Anyway, not all of us are shaper mutants. The duper mutants are all out of sight. Are you still angry about what happened to you? We did warn you.”

 

The professor’s voice sounded bitter. “How was I to know that I would go through such a terrible transformation. Even if there are survivors above they will take me as some sort of freak and put me in a laboratory or a circus freak show.”

 

A Sister Protector turned and looked at the professor. “Please, professor, I doubt that it is the case considering what is considered normal in the DC Wastelands. Also we are hard to shock.”

 

The professor frowned. “At least you are humans inside that power armour.”

 

The Lunarites spoke again. “I am Shrellis and, like my sister comrades here, I am a cyborg. Only my brain and spinal chord are human. They have been altered. We are from the moon. We are Lunarites of the Lunar People’s Democratic Federation, the LPDF. We are part of a large taskforce that came down here to assist the DC Wastelanders against various threats. We brought others with us.”

 

The professor sighed and took off his helmet to reveal the face and head of a ghoul.

 

Shrellis spoke. “A ghoul. There are at least a million ghouls in the DC Wastelands. You are not a feral ghoul or a ghoul raider so you are just fine. You do not seem to be unique.”

 

“Oh!” The professor said. “I feel oddly disappointed. At least I could have been unique. On the other hand I suppose I can find somewhere to live and work where I will be accepted as normal. I suppose I should let out the shaper mutants and those with them.”

 

The young woman stepped right through the force field. “Why, thank you, Professor Arnold Jones. Not that the force-field has truly been a barrier for many years. We have been expanding out through other chambers and into a cave system for decades now while you often slept in your status-capsule. We even sneakily visited you to make sure you were okay and it was us who gave you the puppy that became your beloved dog Bushy.”

 

The professor gulped. “Well, I be stampeded by a herd of wild buffalo. All this time without a woman and there you were.”

 

“Nine fine quality android women and Grade-A virtual reality, professor.” She wagged her finger at him. “It was no accident you found either the androids or the VR-lounger. Indeed we put all the machines into that chamber including the two MrHandys, the matter-former, the body-cubicles and much else. What happened to those who worked with you, professor?”

 

He frowned. “They also began turning into ghouls. It was something the Darkman did to us, I am sure of it, because we were down here safe from intense radiation and such like. The nine of us refused to follow the Darkman away to where ever he went and so he grew angry at us. The others killed themselves. We have a small morgue here with those steel body cabinets. Eight now have bodies in them but inside status-bags.”

 

Then he grinned. “The Darkman made a mistake! Please come to my quarters.”

 

It was one great chamber that seemed to be part bedsitter apartment, part laboratory, part workshop, part gymnasium, part dog home and many other things. Nine scantily clad android women sat around waiting for the professor and then three were rushing to meet him in their translucent nighties. They were very young adults in appearance as if barely out of senior high school. Then they were both girlish and womanly, giggling and sexually provocative. The other android women were different. Three were older appearing, though still youthful, in skimpy sporting outfits, and three were older yet in skimpy versions of normal Prewar dresses.

 

The Sister Protector sounded bemused. “Professor, really, do you see women in that fashion?”

 

“No!” The professor shook his head. “But, well, if one is to stay alone for decades and have only devoted androids as company, one ought to make the best of it.” He kissed and hugged the three androids. “Now, my sweets, can you get some coffee going for my guests.” He slapped them on the bum and they rushed off to do as he had ordered.

 

He turned to the cyborgs and shaper mutant. “Truth be known I don’t have much of a sex drive lately. We mostly play chess or debate various topics or play Ultimate Trivial Pursuit or the Race of Life or some computer games. Anyway, I need to show you something.”

 

He took them to a typical bookcase full of very neatly stacked books and turned it, for it was a secret door, on a central swivel. Through it they went and they were in another large chamber. This one was a laboratory workshop with some fascinating equipment, much of it jury-rigged. There it was in an upright cylinder, still fully dressed, it was a Darkman.

 

“Not just an expendable clone either.” The professor grinned. “But a major extension of himself. I had to do some very quick work but it is in status and it is muffled from the Darkman in various ways. I am sure he senses something wrong but doubt he could track it back here, especially now he is down there in that ancient prison with the Malevae and the other OldOnes. This is a profound genetic and psychic link with the Darkman and it is in our power.”

 

The others studied the trapped figure in wonder.

 

Continued in SIXTY-FOUR

Edited November 16, 2009 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-FOUR

 

 

Red Sonji ran along a hallway and leapt over the dead body of a security guard. Of course it was a woman in body-armour. The Vault-69 Dweller had not even had time to draw her weapons when the thing stalking Red Sonji had killed her. Yes, something very powerful was hunting for the living demigod in Vault-69a.

 

There was the muffled sound of lasers and caseless bullets being fired, a scream and the firing ended abruptly even as the scream did. Red Sonji turned a sharp corner and pelted along another hallway. Behind her a super mutant type monster appeared but this one glowed from with in like a Glowing One of the feral ghouls. It moved with amazing speed and power. The floor blackened as its feet touched the floor briefly. It hurled a sizzling energy projectile from its right hand.

 

Red Sonji dived and the energy missile shot over her head. Red Sonji came up in a crouch and fired her laser-pistol, amplifying the power of it. The beam struck into the creature again and again. The glowing super mutant screamed in agony but also in incredible rage as it kept on coming.

 

Red Sonji leapt side ways and the monster crashed into a wall. The wall shuddered horribly. The living demigoddess whirled and fired her laser-pistol into the back of the creature. It exploded and burned away to leave only a pile of softly glowing ash.

 

She still sensed danger but less now. She went back to the dead security guard, crouched and touched her. This was not normally her thing but she called upon the forces of Light and Enlightenment to please flow through her to this other woman. So it was that she soon faced a green translucent nature elemental of a woman floating in the air before him.

 

The nature elemental spoke. “I feel drawn to join those of my kind to help heal the DC Wastelands of the terrible damage that has been done to nature here. I do not know if I can answer many of your questions. There are many security sections in Vault-69a that I never gained access to.”

 

Red Sonji questioned her. “What of the psychic enhanced virtual reality machines?”

 

The former security guard nodded. “I was allowed to go into that room once to help deal with a security robot that suddenly went berserk. Luckily it did not shoot anybody. They are in Room 69a101. Those machines have a bad reputation. Subjects chosen to use them sometimes go mad or even die. Also check out Rooms 69a98 and 69a69. I must go now.” The green nature elemental faded away.

 

Red Sonji shook her head in wonder. Jasmine, back before she had been Jasmine, once explained to her why such elementals came from the process of calling forth the greater forces of the Light and of Enlightenment. It was something to do with the profound need to rebalance the forces of nature, to bring things back to some kind of normality which the world lacked very badly.

 

She checked the nearest info-screen on a wall and went to Room 69a69 first. Getting into the room was fairly easy for her. Inside was a large metallic chamber, a kind of clinic, and lining one wall were ten robotic medibeds. On each medibed was a naked woman covered by a white sheet up to her chest. Each was obviously pregnant. Red Sonji pressed a hand against a woman’s belly and she winced. Growing inside the poor woman, who was semiconscious and in pain, was a darkpire, one of the creatures that she had first met and killed in Vault-69a. It turned out that every woman not only had a darkpire inside her but that each of them was a vampire like those of Vance’s Family.

 

Again she called upon the Light, upon Enlightenment, and this time she was drained of much energies. This was a hard thing to do and by the time the last darkpire child was converted into something good and natural, and the last woman no longer felt pain, she had to hide behind a bed and go to sleep.

 

Which was why she was captured.

 

Continued in SIXTY-FIVE

[Herculine]

Darkpires. Yech! Gives me nightmares...

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-FIVE

 

 

1Kitty and the Mysterious Stranger had at last made a breakthrough in the GNR Tower and it was a biggy. Make a network of network-systems complicated enough and no matter how much you think you know it, have planned it, there is bound to be a slip somewhere. In the big basement levels hidden below the tower and the Lightening Spike thrusting up through it, the two of them had explored banks of machinery including computer mainframes, big circuit boxes and others of very specialised functions.

 

They found hidden away a small office chamber where had worked a engineering architect, a specialist of brilliance who had done much of the work designing the network of network-systems of the Lightening Spikes and the power grid that they fed energy into. A power grid that secretly ran across the whole of North America but underground having been secretly built by an army of robots.

 

They found in that office secrets that should have been destroyed.

 

1Kitty laughed as she lay the 3Dblueprint on the wooden desk and spread it out. Then she pointed to a spot on it. “Right there is how we can get to the actual working command and control centre of this whole network. In non coded truth right there, the CCC for not only the Lightening Spike Power Grid but also for the generation and regulation of the North American Force Bubble and there, amazingly enough, the Stimulation Simulation Sensoscape. If we get there we will learn very much indeed.”

 

The Mysterious Stranger smiled and examined the 3Dbluprint. He nodded thoughtfully. “Yes this is a break through that I have been looking forward to for a very long time.” Then he pulled out a glowing bladed device like a crystal tipped knife and thrust it at her back. “Forgive me!”

 

1Kitty screamed in agony as the device thrust into her and then she simply vanished with a sparkling shimmer. In the GNR Studio 2Kitty collapsed to the floor and into a deep coma just as the Mysterious Stranger had meant her to do. She would not die but she could not communicate with other living gods and warn them about the treachery of the Mysterious Stranger.

 

The Mysterious Stranger turned as Catherine, Jasmine’s not so dead mother, walked into the small chamber. The beautiful Catherine looked much like an older version of Jasmine, much like Jaylee.

 

Catherine spoke. “Will this get us any closer to the Symbiosphere?”

 

The Mysterious Stranger nodded. “Yes and then we can return our people once more to the great and glorious empire that once ruled all of the Multiverse. Or at least all the important parts.”

 

The woman smiled. “This time we will rule all of it and we will destroy all of our enemies be they living gods or the OldOnes or anybody else. We will destroy the Darkman once and for all now that we have manipulated him into doing what we wanted him to do. All we have to do is find the Symbiosphere which has come to this world, capture it, program it to obey us and use it to carry out our plans.”

 

Mr MS sighed. “You make it sound all together too easy. Our work has only just begun. We must go now before others arrive to ask embarrassing questions, especially Jasmine or the real Mysterious Stranger.”

 

The false Mysterious Stranger shimmered and there stood a grinning Statesman Alba Diplomori.

 

Catherine smiled. “Oh how clever of you to actually pretend to be an avatar of the Mysterious Stranger and how daring. It could have gone so very wrong. Yet the Mysterious Stranger, the real one, did not seem to discover the truth. You really did outsmart him. Such a cunning game player you are, such a smart living demigod. Such a very brutal young living demigod. No wonder the real Mysterious Stranger never trusted you. You are so very treacherous.”

 

Then she plucked away the weapon, a special weapon of the living gods, and before he could react to defend himself, she thrust it into his heart. He screamed in agony, shimmered and vanished. Since this was his primary body he, unlike 1Kitty, really did die. There was no more Statesman Alba Diplomori.

 

A new living demigod would arise one day to replace him, would be him reborn, but it would be different.

 

Catherine smiled and picked up the 3Dblueprint. Then she vanished with a sparkling shimmer leaving only a small glowing crystal globe. Seconds later the office exploded and everything in it disintegrated though nothing outside the room was harmed.

 

Continued in SIXTY-SIX

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-SIX

 

 

President Suzanne Ubama did not appreciate being dragged out of bed because she barely got enough sleep as it was. Then she was fronting a large emergency conference with those who could come to the meeting at such short notice. It was a conference and not a meeting because it was more to clarify matters than to make decisions. New information was coming in from all over.

 

The President of the USA sat looking at a big jury-rigged 3Dscreen. It was showing scenes from the Battle of the Cooperative Republic. The audio-visuals had been shot from many places, including the great Baseship floating overhead. As she saw various OldOnes, these terrible aliens that many saw as mythological beings, she felt a chill go down her spine. The USA and its allies had won the battle, had done a great deal of damage to the enemy, but they had heavy losses also. It was not the sort of victory that they could afford to have too many of.

 

Other big screens showed information in various forms.

 

The report of the underground society hidden below the old Cooperative Republic was far more pleasing. Especially as survivors of the old Cooperative Republic now wanted to move down underground to share the great cave system down there along with what was a series of huge dome-chambers and other facilities. The USA had lost one important settlement but was gaining another one of greater strength and more resources.

 

The report from the Subwayers of the glowing tentacle that had attacked the Clanhunters, and which had killed a fool amongst them, was also of concern. Somebody had identified it as a tritentaclor, a fairly powerful creature from the great prison below. The type of creature relied heavily on sneak attacks, on hit and slither tactics, but were very adapt at such tricks. Taskteams of Clanhunters, Psyabalists and Knights of Atom had failed to find it though they were on its trail.

 

The great storm was raging but in an odd shifting pattern. While some areas where being blasted, others were experiencing moving calm spots like many eyes in a great big multiple hurricane inflowing together to form one pattern. Lunarites had taken over the abandoned Spacestation Freedom that had threatened to fall out of orbit, had awakened the astronauts in status-capsules, had repaired, upgraded and extended it. It was now more like a far more manoeuvrable, slow spaceship. It was now parked in geostationary orbit above the DC Wastelands and was in visual range of Mothership Zeta. Even with the force-bubble covering North America they were able to send down some helpful reports on the progress of the super storm.

 

The President noted that the Ormons of Vault-Ormond had decided to join the USA as a semiautonomous zone except that the USFG was wary of some Ormon laws and customs. Amongst them the ability of elite men to marry many women and to buy virginal women off poor families with out their permission, the stoning death penalties of adulteresses that left male adulterers much less punished, the claims that ghouls were demonically possessed monsters that should be exterminated and others. One big reason was for reluctance was that while Ormon diplomats were charming to US envoys, Ormon priests preached to their own people that the USA was truly a return to the evil old ways of sin and secret devil worship.

 

But what clinched it was that when a US diplomat saw a picture of Ormond himself in his black hooded robe, walking-stick and pale skin, it was obvious it was the Darkman. Ormond had been the Darkman who had supposedly left to embark on a great pilgrimage of holy discovery; he left behind over a hundred pregnant women and a very hierarchical and oppressive society. It was also a society that was puritanical at certain levels but which hid away secret perversities and violations.

 

Ormons were not Mormons! There were Mormon settlements surviving close to Salt Lake City and whispers of there being a Vault full of Mormons.

 

Through Red Sonji and Red Sonja, the USA now knew more about what was happening on Point Lookout. Information had also come from refugees fleeing from the area and from agents infiltrating it. Out of a dozen experienced tough agents, eight had died or had simply vanished. None knew anything of importance they could give up during interrogation. There were reports on cyborg-deathclaws, on big atomic powered tanks and even on a big mobile-base like the one that had been destroyed at Adams Airbase. On tracks it was stationed well into the hinterland of the bogs and swampy areas.

 

The PanAxis in the moon had sent forces. There were sociopathic clones like those of the Enclave who were workers, soldiers and specialists. New kinds of robots were seen like skeletal thin humanoids of colour coded light armour that could fight but which carried out many tasks; these were called skelnoids. There were also big mechatanks, low hulking war-machines moving on clever twin or quad leg systems; these mechatanks could submerge beneath water or act like hovercraft for limited distances. Roboborgs like power armoured soldiers, were a deadly form of cyborg that looked like soldiers in Enclave power armour. Zozozi were squat hovering saucers that could fly fast and agile in battle with deadly weapons and thick armour; inside were hidden the deadly izozozi. Zozoz was singular and zozozi was plural while izozozi was both.

 

But there were other things that the PanAxis had sent to Point Lookout that had only been glimpsed. Alien things that were ancient enemies of the insect selenites and yet other, even more mysterious things.

 

President Suzanne Ubama was interested in all of these matters, saw the importance of them, but knew it was not the real reason the meeting had been called. Then she saw Jaylee who was linked to Jasmine Ashworth, who was one with Jasmine, and who looked like an older version of Jasmine. Jaylee nodded to the President of the USA and then sat down at the big meeting table.

 

The meeting began with out many formalities.

 

Jaylee stood up and took the podium with the President sitting right beside her. She smiled at all those there and then she spoke. “If I was to ask you what is the greatest threat to the USA, to the DC Wastelanders, to all of us, what would you say? You could well say it is the Darkman and his army of super mutants; nobody could fault you on that. You could speak of the OldOnes trapped down in their ancient prison and truly nobody could fault you on that. Like some you might point the finger at all of us living gods and speak of a conspiracy of our kind to take over this world. Then there is the Biomazz that some of you have heard something of. You would be wrong. There is something that is linked to all of these and other threats including the Enclave and the PanAxis, its dark ally inside the moon. We living gods who have been seeking to bring the Darkman to justice, who have been seeking to help the people of this world, have been puzzled by a number of mysteries.”

 

“The Darkman has gained assistance, has gained mysterious allies, has made some rather odd decisions, has carried out some rather strange experiments. We had assumed that it was largely a trick to decoy us from the truth, to complicate matters and to make it harder for us to catch him.”

 

“Who are we? We are myself who are many being Jasmine, the other Jasmine, myself Jaylee, Jas the child and Jade the younger woman. We are Red Sonja and Red Sonji. We are 3Dog, 2Dog and 1Dog. We are 2Kitty and 1Kitty. We are Dogmeat and the other Dogmeat, both dogs of some fame. We are not Statesman Alba Diplomori though we had links with him. I say ‘had’ because somebody has killed him, has killed a living demigod. His essence will return as another living demigod centuries into the future but he will never return as he was. I wish I had more regrets than I do for surely he earned his death.”

 

“What of the Mysterious Stranger, you might ask.” Jasmine sighed. “He has vanished. We are seeking him. But this is not our deepest concern now for now we know a very ancient enemy is on this world. It is called the Symbiosphere. Long ago we living gods, in our arrogance, created it as part of an empire that ruled a large part of the Multiverse. We created it to make us stronger, to better unify our conscious, to better coordinate our power, to better supervise an enemy that was starting to crumble as subject peoples began to rebel. The empire was oppressive and though not totally evil, it deserved to end. Central to the creation of the Symbiosphere was a very powerful and very creative super genius even by our standards. The Emperor of the Living Gods was what he liked to be called but now we call him the Darkman. The Darkman was a fraud for he stole secrets from an ancient forbidden zone to create the Symbiosphere with. The ancient secret technologies were antinatural, were evil, and the use of them corrupted the Symbiosphere.”

 

“Instead of serving the empire, the Symbiosphere tried to absorb it and all living gods, all peoples of the empire. A great war broke out. The empire crumbled. The living gods and the rebel forces ended up forming an alliance in a desperate battle with the Symbiosphere. Then came unexpected help from the Elder Living Gods themselves and from the Light. The Symbiosphere was destroyed or so it was assumed.”

 

She paused for dramatic effect. “Now we think the Symbiosphere is here on this world.”

 

A tall broad shouldered man stood up, with out seeking permission, and strode to another podium. He was dressed in a lightly crumpled but clean Prewar business suit of brown and a white buttonshirt with only one small brown stain. There was no tie but ties had become uncommon in Prewar Times because of the rationing of cloth for civilian uses. He was Crosswayne with mostly demands for aid and concessions from the USA. He was an arrogant man who seemed to assume that the only way to negotiate was to tried to get as much as possible and to give as little as possible. He also saw himself as a practical down to earth man who assumed that much he heard was false simply because it did not fit into his narrow vision of the world.

 

“Nonsense!” He spoke out aloud. “Damned nonsense. We in Crosswayne are a practical down to earth people and I myself am a fine example of those qualities. Super mutants we believe in. They are solid enough. Ghouls, feral or waiting to go feral, well we know of them well enough. Radscorpions, radbeetles, those damned giant ants, bloatflies, well they are solid enough. But his nonsense about a giant prison beneath the ground, about living gods, about this Symbiosphere, it must be ignored. Crosswayne must be central to the focus of the USA. Crosswayne is a land of simple farmers, cattle herders, shepherds, artisans and traders. We want for nothing…”

 

The President stood up. “Envoy Edgar Mildaman, you will sit down, you will shut up or I will have security remove you by force. This conference was not called for us to discuss Crosswayne’s problems or needs. Those are being taken care of by the Crosswayne Assessment Subcommittee that you yourself attend on a regular basis. We have many areas now with problems and who need assistance.”

 

But the man would not be so easily quietened. He pointed to Jaylee. “This woman calls herself a living god. Is she insane? Are you insane to listen to her nonsense?”

 

Jaylee motioned with her right hand and Edgar Mildaman rose straight up into the air as his body shimmered. He cried out and then he was lowered down again safely. The man fell back in fear and anger.

 

Jaylee spoke. “I am a living goddess. The Symbiosphere is a real threat. Crosswayne has a diverse population and though there is good there, there is also bad. There is slavery of ghouls in Crosswayne. There are wealthy land holding families who illegally stole the land in the first place by forcefully taking over smaller properties using private armies of thugs. You yourself are a member of one of these families as was the Warlord Hrashman.”

 

“These families have too much influence in Crosswayne’s very limited democracy. Much of Crosswayne’s fertile land is used to support a hard alcohol industry because alcohol is more profitable and despite that food is in much demand.”

 

“Crosswayne has no public welfare, education, health, transportation or other systems and yet has pretended to have so in submissions to the USFG. This is only one of many falsehoods presented to the new Federal Government. Crosswayne is demanding an amazingly high amount of resources but has pretended that is has less resources than it has so it can get away with not sharing what it has in the form of fair aid trade programs. Crosswayne made no real attempt to support the USA or its allies against the super mutants but was in truth seeking to conquer the Lamplight Caverns and to take over Vault-87 to grab their resources. The FBI has linked Crosswayne with the growing of semilegal and illegal drugs for the DC Drug Syndicate in Armageddon Park.”

 

Edgar Mildaman cried out in anger, pulled out a big powerful but clumsy revolver pistol, and aimed it at Jaylee. “No damned demoness is going to…”

 

Bullets exploded into his body from three directions. His body shuddered, blood vomited from his mouth and he was well dead before he hit the floor.

 

Jaylee sighed. “Now, if there are no further interruptions, I must discuss the Symbiosphere that can alter the very fabric of reality though it has strong limits. It can alter people’s mentalities though this can easily go amiss or lead to a rejection and future immunity. It can create things as a matter-former does. It can and normally does exist with at least hundreds of bodies and brains. It is anciently brilliant and cunning. The biggest difficulty with fighting the Symbiosphere is that for something that can overwhelm whole galaxies with great armadas, it can hide itself with amazing skill. Now we know it is here, we will find it because we know how to look, what to look for and some special tricks to help in finding it. Despite this it is not going to be easy. The Symbiosphere will soon realise we have discovered its presence on this world if it has not done so already and soon even the most cynical of you will gain proof of its existence.”

 

She sighed. “The Symbiosphere is linked to all the major troubles that we face. Like never before we must create a centre in Bunkertown that gathers all available data, analyses it, re-analyses it, creates briefings and does what ever else is necessary. This is one major way to find the Symbiosphere. It needs a host of bodies, of brains, and while those bodies may be hidden away out of sight, knowing the Symbiosphere they also may be hidden right in front of us and we may be taking them for granted as part of our normality.”

 

There was no much to say except for some brief plans that were little more than decisions to hold more conferences, to hold various meetings and to appoint various committees, subcommittees and taskteams.

 

It would all have seemed typically political and bureaucratic except for the subtle and powerful change happening to humanity, including ghoulkind, which was uniting people at some deeper level. In other words the whole process was quite efficiently done and had just a mild taste of corruption or politicking about it.

 

Continued in SIXTY-SEVEN

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-SEVEN

 

 

On that day 3Dog sat beside a bed in the new Bunkertown Hospital and held 2Kitty’s hand. She was slowly coming out of her coma and was very healthy and fit because of her living demigoddess nature. As he sat there she whispered the name of the Mysterious Stranger and at first 3Dog thought nothing of it. Then she spoke of there being something odd about the Mysterious Stranger. Then she spoke of the Mysterious Stranger having been the one to kill 1Kitty. The word was soon spreading to other living gods.

 

On that day 1Dog in Hubville was at the ceremony that officially declared Hubville to be part of the USA and its people to be US Citizens.

 

On that day Red Sonja and the Ironsides Mercenaries with her dropped out of the utility pipe they had been going down through with some difficulty. They dropped into a big metallic chamber largely full of abandoned machinery, empty containers, junk and the long dead bodies of the five people that the Vault-301 High Overseer had sent down there. Yet they found a loose grate-hatch and opening it led to a fairly big empty pipe. They began to move along this.

 

On that day Red Sonji woke up to find himself a prisoner in a mostly dark and icy cold chamber. He was naked and free to move around except something lurking in the dark kept him in the dimly lit corner. He was no longer woman shapeformed. He was disorientated and not even sure if he was still in Vault-69a.

 

On that day the Cooperative Republic was officially proclaimed returned in the newly named Cooperative Underland below the old Cooperative Republic. It was planned that one day people would return to the surface and rebuild the old settlement, a better version that is, as an extension of the new republic.

 

On that day Bobby Bobs delivered Candy Sweets, real name Deirdre Smith, to Rivet City along with their brand new baby. With the three golden finger-ingots, a nice handful of emergency issue coins, some nice clothes, books, shoes and other items to her name, she bought an apartment lease in the ocean liner. True it was fairly small but it was clean, safe and it was hers for five years. Candy Sweets decided to be mother and to go to new public teaching classes to gain more of an education.

 

On that day Bobby Bobs entered the Washington DC Subway Network.

 

On that day Project Intelligence began with a whole bunker of Bunkertown being now devoted to the gathering, processing and analyse of data.

 

On that day Uncle Leo came to a great monolith of glowing stone in the Labyrinth of Lost Souls. It was a marker monolith of alien design and construction. It showed how the Elder Living Gods punished millions of mortal followers of the Malevae and the other powerful OldOnes by exiling to the Labyrinth of Lost Souls. Next to the monolith was a small sealed gate to the ancient prison below.

 

On that day Jasmine in Megaton linked the Megaton House, that was far more than a mere house, to Bunkertown, Vault-101, the Lamplight Caverns, Vault-87, Rivet City and Vault-108. For now they were linked but not active telegates. As for the mutated lion, or big male muttlion, he was soon relaxing with the other animals.

 

On that day Jasmine below Vault-87 returned to the monotrain with Dogmeat and Fawkes. The Family remained with the refugees from the Labyrinth of Lost Souls. The three were soon moving steadily towards the next stop on the monoline.

 

On that day elementals of many kinds were seen swirling together in a great pattern above what remained of the Pitt and energies flashed of many colours. Glowing mists arose and the Pitt began to transform.

 

On that day the Enclave on Point Lookout found a huge vault door unlike anything ever found any where else since the Great War. It was hug, round and horizontal and it was marked Vault-301. Their machines began to expose it further, to clear away the muck. Soon after this began creatures came out of the ground just like those ones that had attacked what had been the Republic of Dave. Antilazi of all kinds and the flying sabtilazies attacked the Enclave forces in the thousands. But they had a rude surprising waiting for them. The Enclave had been waiting, with its PanAxis allies, just for this to happen. Massive rocket-shells exploded into the massed OldOnes, each explosion enough to cover a football field and leaving a huge crater. Again and again the rocket-shells came zooming in, right on target, and now other, smaller rocket-shells came zooming in along with missiles, other kinds of rockets and other projectiles. The OldOnes ceased attacked for they had very quickly lost this battle and they knew it.

 

On that day the Darkman and his army of super mutants drove back the DeepOnes that had been attacking them on a putrid island of bone, rotting stone and rotting corpse moss. Actually many of the super mutants considered the moss to be quite tasty and it was nutritional. The Darkman and smart mutants kept to their prepackaged preserved rations but were thankful that there was more of it for them to have. The super mutants who devoured the moss, who drank the local waters, were becoming part of that ancient transdimensional prison that the Elder Living Gods had created but they did not think of this; if they had they would not have cared for they liked this strange new realm. The Darkman did not care because soon enough he would discard all but his smart mutants and plunge into places no big army of super mutants could or would go. As for the zelenites from the moon and Zetan aliens from the Jovan Moons, they had their own agendas and they would go their own ways when the moment was right.

 

On that day the Selenite Great Ones, the great brains that had controlled the selenites for hundreds of thousands of years, decided it was time. They had tricked the humans and the Uri9 Peoples into making the selenites their allies. Now they could treacherously strike and wipe them out as the selenites had treacherously wiped out the zelenites so long ago. So they gave the order, expecting armies of zelenites to soon start slaughtering the Uri9 and the humans. Instead the Elite Selenite Guard swarmed into the Chamber of the Great Ones and slaughtered them. The selenites had changed, had learned, had evolved to suit new survival conditions as they were best at doing but somehow the Selenite Great Ones had failed to realise this. The rigid old ways were not suited to the new technologies or the new and better approaches to doing things. Also many selenites had become shamed of the slaughter of the zelenites as they had other crimes of the selenites in the past, a subtle and curious change akin to that happening to humanity and to the Uri9.

 

On that day the first great rebellion began in the PanAxis Colonies in the moon. Everybody expected that it would quickly be crushed but it spread slowly but steadily. It did this as not only slaves revolted but also non-clone human citizens, cyborgs, androids and some types of mutations. Soon the PanAxis was forced to take its main focus off the Earth and the DC Wastelands as it fought to survive in its home territories. The Federation would soon take advantage of the spreading rebellions by sending them resources, reinforcements and by launching a series of offensives but the trouble was now they also had to focus on the moon.

 

On that day a small mist of black vapour floated over Crosswayne, drifting like simple black smoke except that it was going against the hard winds blowing because of the great storm.

 

Continued in SIXTY-EIGHT

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-EIGHT

 

 

Jade rolled her twelve sided dice and this time it was Sagittarius the Archer that was the result. This time she sensed great danger. The armoured door opened and out flew three arrows. They were fire, lightening and ice. The first would burn, the second would shock and the third would freeze her. She shot to one side, raised her weapon and blew the arrows out of the air.

 

The archer leapt through the doorway. She was golden and she was lithe. She was beautiful and slimly muscular. All she wore was a skimpy golden metallic leotard, tight pressed against her body. The bow was special. The archer drew back the glowing golden string and three arrows appeared instantly out of mid air.

 

The arrows flew out always in threes and with deadly power, speed and accuracy. Jade flickered from place to place, so fast did she go but so did the archer.

 

Then Jade saw through the open doorway three targets against the back wall of the chamber the amazing archer had come out of. She avoided the attacker with some difficulty, shot through the doorway and shot the three targets. They exploded and vanished.

 

The archer halted and she bowed to Jade. She spoke in a golden voice. “I am Sagiti the Archer and I am now free to serve you. I bring a message from the Darkman. It is as follows: one Darkman and one Darkman may be the same Darkman but the third may be yet different again.”

 

Jade nodded. “Some sense tells me that you are not to assist me further with these rooms. Go now to join Jasmine at the Megaton House. She will need you there.”

 

The golden archer bowed and then she vanished.

 

Why was the Darkman helping her by giving her first the muttlion and then the archer? What were these tests about? They had each been won not by killing anything but firstly by fighting the mutated lion until it was exhausted of anger and shooting at the archery targets in the room.

 

The chamber held in it lockers full of equipment and supplies including twelve different types of bows from history, each with arrows and other related items. There was a painting on one wall, a fine oil rendition, of a semifamous statue at the Washington DC Modern Art Gallery. It was, somehow not surprising, exactly like the golden figure who had attacked her but was three times larger and was on a big brass base. The statue was coated lightly in twelve carrot gold.

 

Mary and Gary came in numbers and took away everything of use that could be moved.

 

Aquarius the Water-Bearer came out of the room as a great sturdy muscleman of bronze with a big bucket of water so heavy that as big and muscular as he was he stumbled too much. He raced to get to a hole in the floor that had appeared so he could pour the water into it but every time he got close enough the hole would vanish. Then it would appear somewhere else.

 

Jade took up the great bucket with him and now they moved quicker. They poured the water together into a hole before it could vanish.

 

With a great sigh of relief the metallic man put the great empty bucket down. He bowed and then spoke with a rumbling voice. “It would be my honour to serve you. The Darkman said that if one wages war endlessly against one self than one is bound to lose and the constant violence will make monsters both out of victors and losers.”

 

After Aquta the Water Bearer was sent to the Megaton House, Jade searched the chamber to find various very useful portable machines; they were generators, pumps, battery packs and others. There was also a robotanker, a robovehicle with a tank on the back for carrying water.

 

She sat and meditated for a while. What was the Darkman trying to tell her or was he just playing one of his warped games with her? Or was it the Darkman that she was actually dealing with?

 

When Mary and Gary came down in numbers to take stuff from the Water Bearer’s room, they brought some robotrucks, small robotic vehicles, to carry the loot away with. Then they told something that surprised Jade but also gave her an insight.

 

A Gary said it to her even as the other Garys and the Marys were busy. “Those hudroids, those vaultgirls and vaultboys, they always give us the shivers. Something is not right about them, something is not good. So we are sending them away to some place where they will be happy. All of them are collected now just outside of Vault-108 as if they are deciding where they will go.”

 

Jade stood up and stretched. “Don’t you like androids?”

 

“Other androids are okay but not those androids, not those vaultboys or vaultgirls.” A Mary stepped up to Jade. “Gary met an android who was running away from the Commonwealth in the north. The Gary attacked the android but got killed by the android. Yet Gary did not feel that android to be bad compared to vaultboys and vaultgirls.”

 

Jade nodded. “Look for hidden chambers, passages and other places vaultdroids might be hiding in. This is very important.”

 

The Marys and Garys were soon enough gone. She rolled the dice again.

 

Capricorn the Seagoat was the result and she wondered just what might be behind the door. A seagoat? What would happen next? A lion, an archer, a water bearer, all had been represented in interesting ways but this? She opened the door and saw a wall of water held back by a shimmering force field that was already starting to fail. Behind her a heavy armoured cylinder arose from the floor with a simple hatch door on its side facing her. She understood, turned and moved so fast she was a blur of motion but even so she only just clicked the hatch behind her when the water roared through the big chamber under high pressure. Inside the cylinder was a set of SCUBA power armour or SCUBAPA that she slipped into after slipping out of her current power armour. The gear she could not use in the water went into a watertight waterproof locker. Then she was slipping out for the cylinder acted as an airlock system.

 

The seagoat creature raced with amazing speed through the water though it hardly looked streamlined enough to do so. It was a goat headed man with a great trident who was from the waist down a dolphin with a powerful dolphin lower body and tail. Then she noted the odd bubbling effect around his body and realised a specialised force bubble was allowing him to move quickly through the water as his powerful tail drove him.

 

The seagoat slammed heavily into Jade but as he did, she vanished with a shimmering, he went right through her as slammed into the cylinder and stunned himself. Threatening to drown, he was a mammal, he drifted semiconsciously until Jade pushed him up to the surface of the water. Getting him to breath again was fairly easy. He was confused for now he saw a young woman where before he had seen a dangerous monster but it was the bubbling force bubble that had deluded him. Jade sent the seagoat off to the Ashworth Megaton House.

 

The water drained away with amazing speed and she switched over power armour and other equipment for dry conditions. She sat meditating to regenerate her energies.

Continued in SIXTY-NINE

[Maharg67]

SIXTY-NINE

 

 

Red Sonji awoke to find himself naked in a big brightly lit chamber and against the opposite wall was a monstrously distorted man in the rags of what had once been a scientist outfit. The other was in agony, was quite insane, was growling to himself and was muttering odd things in various languages.

 

But then he looked up. “Welcome to SSS01, fool, welcome to hell dressed up as a copy of Prewar Washington DC. I am Professor Altman or at least I was. The Darkman rules here but something tells me he would not want you to be here. Somebody has made a very bad mistake in bringing you here and they will pay heavily for it.”

 

“NeoWashington!” Red Sonji nodded. “Yes, through the window one can see what Washington DC would have looked like if it had survived the Great War. Except for a few details that is like the old people hanging upside down from that airship and screaming as one by one they plummet to their deaths. I take it that people do not stay dead in this horror zone.”

 

“Nope but they suffer before they return to life in a random selection of a variety of hells that the Darkman has invented for folks.” Altman writhed and blood dripped from his distorted eyes. “Really, I didn’t mean to steal the biscuits, mama. No, mama, please don’t blow off my head with dynamite again.”

 

Red Sonji stood up. He focused his mind and suddenly he wore a set of Civil Police riot power armour. “We are in the NeoWashington Central Police HQ representing various police services and related agencies. We are in real physical space into which a powerful energy field has been projected to create a solid false reality complete with multiple sensory interaction including basic psychic interface.”

 

He touched a wall of the stone prison chamber. His fingertips shimmered. “The Darkman was in a hurry, in the terms of our people. He took shortcuts and now I can use those shortcuts to my advantage. For the Darkman did not plan on having one of his own kind in his special place.”

 

The metal armoured cell door slid open and halted with a click. He walked out into the hallway, a wide stone space as bleak as the cell had been, and he looked up and down. At that moment a woman in the uniform of a prison guard ran down the hallway shrieking in terror, in total blind unthinking panic. Behind her came rushing a slavering fanged hound big and sickly brown with horrible black shining eyes. The woman halted when she ran into him and stared into Red Sonji’s eyes. Then she was suddenly very calm, the fear having fled. She turned, took out her .32 revolver pistol, and fired it at the hound. The beast simply faded away into nothingness.

 

Red Sonji spoke. “Creature was a projection of your own terror reinforced by the Darkman’s own perverse mentality. Now I need to know where you really are.”

 

The woman gave him a funny look. “This is where I am. NeoWashington is the Darkman’s special city built for those who escaped from the destruction of Washington DC. The Darkman is a monster but not everybody is hurt every day. We all just keep on wishing and hoping we will be missed.”

 

But he shook his head. “No, you are in Simulation Stimulation Sensoscape 01. Your body, like those of all two and a half million people trapped here, is in a very special kind of capsule. Call it an SSScapsule if you must. It is far more than just a VR-lounger or capsule-chair. It is psychic, it is deeply interactive and it allows the Darkman to draw upon your life energies to make himself stronger. He feeds upon your dark psychic emanations also by causing you all suffering. Now, please, try to think about where your body really is. You have dreamed about where it is and so have the others trapped here.”

 

She closed her eye and focused. There was a shimmering and on a wall appeared a window. Through the window could be seen a vast metallic chamber and high on one wall was written VAULT-301. The chamber had vast cylinder machines rising up to towards the far off ceiling and from each projected hundreds of thousands of the capsules, each with a body of a man, woman or child in it. It was an incredible sight as thousands of robots moved over it taking care of both the machinery and the capsules.

 

What was Vault-301?

 

The woman turned to him with a puzzled look on her face. “There is no single Vault-301. Vault-301 is everything that is needed to carry out the final plan of the Darkman from vast fusion globe generators to the SSS-capsules of his NeoWashington victims to the real control command chamber of the Lightening Spikes which also controls many other facets of Vault-301. The real place where his super mutant clones were created is part of Vault-301. Below Vault-108 is Vault-301 and it can also be found deep beneath other VaultTec Vaults in the DC Wastelands. It is below Vault-69 at Point Lookout and Vault-68 where men out number women which is hidden beneath Pittsburgh; it easily survived the Pitt Firestorm. There is the Darkman and the other Darkman. One Darkman is the real Darkman. He is down in the ancient prison of the Malevae. The false Darkman was in Vault-108 with the Gary clones. The false Darkman is also the Mysterious Stranger and the Mysterious Stranger is really Catherine Ashworth, mother of Jasmine Ashworth. Both true and false Darkman are bad but the false Darkman wants to end the real Darkman’s plan that would cause the death of many worlds, including this one. The real Darkman is truly evil but the false Darkman is not.”

 

The woman shook her head. “I do not know where this information is coming from. Yes, the Symbiosphere became evil because it was based on evil technologies of the Malevae, the monstrous OldOnes trapped down there. The real Darkman wants to find dark technologies down there, or should I say take them from their owners, and use them to regain control of the Symbiosphere. Then he will use it to control the Multiverse. The Darkman caused all that death and destruction out of greed for absolute power and now he is trying to do the very same thing. He also wants to escape being erased from time and space. The Symbiosphere ran out of energy and went into hiding to rest. There it became passive and would not try to wake again but then the Darkman began to try to stir it up again. Now it is active again.”

 

The prison guard woman looked startled and then she vanished with a sparkling shimmer. The window view also disappeared. Some secret force had made her vanish before she could say more and yet some secret force had provided her with important information in the first place.

 

Red Sonji frowned heavily but what could he do?

 

He focused and willed himself into a prison guard’s uniform, body-armour and other equipment. Then he started walking quickly along the hallway on his way to getting out of that place.

 

Continued in SEVENTY

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY

 

 

The hudroids in Vault-101 departed from the vault and gathered outside of the Vault Entrance and the Free Trade Zone. Then they set out for a single place close to Paradise Falls. From all over, from vaults, from surprise places, came thousands of vaultboys and vaultgirls. From all over the DC Wastelands life like mannequins became active and set out marching towards the same point.

 

But there were other surprises. Teddy-bears of one kind found in the many thousands through out the DC Wastelands, also became active and began moving towards the same point. Except those that were owned by children, they staid put.

 

Where any of these figures went, a calm spot in the storm would follow them. Not the smallest figure of any kind was damaged by the storm.

 

They were joined by sexdroids, toy dolls, medical display androids, and many other kinds. But the madness did not stop there. Bronze statues, amazingly life like figures, set out striding or otherwise moving across the landscape. Not all statues by far but many of those built during the last few years before the big bombs fell.

 

Great big parade figures also began marching, big robotic historical presidents and snowmen, Father Christmases and others.

 

The President of the United States ordered everybody to stay out of the way of the great transmigration. She warned others to do the same and the raiders and even the feral ghouls did so. For there was something about the moving figures, a feel about them, that warned all not to stop them.

 

A horde of thousands of twenty centimetre tall robotic action figures of fictional characters flowed out of a big buried shopping complex and made its way passed the DC Citadel. Superman, Captain America, Jane of the Jungle, Elvis the Pelvis, Barney the Dinosaur and many others were active.

 

Black smoke swirled through the air and moved towards the same point but it was not smoke but many billions of special microbots.

 

The Symbiosphere was revealing itself and in a big way.

 

But there was more to come.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-ONE