DC WASTELAND RISING

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-ONE

 

 

The President sat in a BofS vertibird circling a vast procession of crazy entities from very small teddy-bears to huge statues to countless vaultboy vaultgirl androids. The flying machine carefully avoided the clouds of black tiny black dots. Suzanne Ubama was not sure what to say.

 

She spoke to Marshal, formerly Major, Ajax of the National Guard. In theory he was in second command of the USDF but in practise, since his superior fell under investigation for incompetence and corruption, he was in command. “Something tells me there is far more firepower in those figures than is obvious from their appearance. Teddy-bears, life like sextoys, statues of George Washington, modern art figures, Barbie dolls, Ronald McDonalds, Santa Claus, thousands of life like mannequins in dirty Prewar clothes, just where are they going?”

 

Ajax was peering through a pair of augmentation binoculars. “A point just south of Paradise Falls. We have our people looking there along with BofS and SofS specialists. So far we have found nothing of significance.”

 

A soft shudder went through the vertibird.

 

President Ubama sighed. “What we need is some special perspective here. We need a living god to…”

 

Jasmine suddenly spoke from where she was suddenly sitting next to the President in a chair that had been empty. “Madam President, that is the Symbiosphere in action but this is only a small hint of its existence and its power. We living gods of the Hunt of Justice now openly declare ourselves and now we can openly begin to do far more than we have but our powers are still limited here on this world. This is because we are in mortal bodies, we are trapped inside the force-bubble that covers North America and because we fear to provoke the Symbiosphere into lashing out in such a way that it would destroy the world. There is also the factor that we are not sure how our open displays of power will work on this world. Given all that we can help a good deal where and when it counts.”

 

She spoke again after a pause. “The Symbiosphere is misleading you. The Symbiosphere is linked with the Darkman who created it using stolen technologies of the OldOnes. The Darkman is one of my grandfathers. I am linked through him to the Symbiosphere except now the link is changing into a more direct one for reasons I do not know yet.”

 

Jasmine looked out over the landscape that was darker in some places than others but never brighter than dim. She snapped her fingers. Lightening flashed overhead. Thunder exploded. The vertibird shook. “The Hunters of Justice seek to mitigate against this unnatural storm that the Symbiosphere is manipulating. It started out as a typical super storm driven by a climate distorted by the great force-bubble but the Symbiosphere drove it on to become something else.”

 

The President turned to Suzanne. “The Darkman brought great evil to this world and has caused much suffering. You living gods owe us much.”

 

She shook her head. “Humanity was heading towards disaster even with out the Darkman and many humans were happy to assist him, to be easily manipulated by him, to go along with him though they knew of the evil of his plans. The Darkman was drawn to humanity’s darkness as much as he was drawn to the ancient deep prison of the OldOnes. Why, because in the past humans worshipped the OldOnes and even bred with them. Thus a dark taint of evil runs through humanity. We owe you nothing but we will give you much anyway.”

 

Jasmine reached out and touched the President. The leader of the USA shimmered, looked startled and quickly signalled her bodyguards to do nothing. She looked hard at Jasmine. “Humanity is changing back to what it was before the evil taint of the OldOnes began to corrupt us body, mind and spirit. Things are finally coming together. Now you are changed, you are closer to the natural humanity of great closeness but still valid individuality. It’s not perfect, it will never be perfect. There will still be bad people and bad acts but not the evil of humanity’s past. There will be no more genocidal massacres, no more need to make nuclear weapons, no desire to hunt whales to extinction or to pollute the whole world so everybody can own fancy gadgets that break down in a matter of a few years at best.”

 

President Suzanne Ubama sighed. “This is going to be a very interesting political decade to come what with many folks wanting us to return to the old ways of mass production of consumer goods, the making of nuclear weapons, the massacre of certain peoples assumed to be naturally evil and even the legal hunting of whales found in the continental shore seas. Political games are going to be very interesting. But firstly we have to survive what is coming.”

 

Jasmine nodded. “I will talk again with you soon.” Then she vanished with a soft sparkling shimmer just as she had appeared.

 

The President turned to Ajax. “I wish I could be more than one me and travel around he place like that. This job needs at least three Presidents working as one. Has Operation Dark Dagger been properly cancelled yet?”

 

Marshal Ajax shook his head. “Our wonderful new United States Federal Government has a conspiracy festering inside it just as you feared. The CSIA and FBI have been seeking answers both through out the government and inside themselves. The conspiracy seems to have at least two levels; the first is those who are corrupted, manipulated and just want to take part in what they seem as a way of gaining power and wealth; the second is what seems to be a hard core of those who have a stranger agenda than power and wealth.”

 

Suddenly President Suzanne Ubama laughed with surprise and then shook her head with an ironic expression on her face.

 

Ajax looked puzzled. “What is it?”

 

The President responded. “One of me is right here in this vertibird, a second me is sleeping soundly in my bed with my pet ferrets, and the third of me is getting ready to hold yet another meeting with various government officials. Furry, Footy and Fatty, my ferrets, are very happy to see me again. Now you can figure that triggering that bomb and killing yourself to end a terrible new evil is no longer viable. Now you can open your mind and realise that this is not evil but a return to a natural, more healthy balance of existence.”

 

Marshal Ajax grinned. “There is no bomb. I changed my mind when I found out you personally interceded to have Jasmine heal my niece of cancer. Also I have come to suspect the man who played me using my fears and my patriotism is not to be trusted.”

 

She arched her eyebrows. “Who?”

 

Ajax suddenly looked very puzzled. “A middle aged man in a cardigan, brown trousers. A quiet and confident speaking man. He came to me in private at my office though, come to think of it, I am not sure how he got past security. He used to run the museum at Rivet City. Yes, his name is Abraham Washington.”

 

Suzanne frowned. “He died and the museum is now named after him.”

 

Marshal Ajax pointed. “Then what is he doing there?”

 

Startled, the US President turned and there indeed sat Abraham Washington smiling almost blankly at them with glazed eyes. Suzanne knew at once that something was dreadfully wrong and she felt some force reaching out to save her. But it could not save the others.

 

The vertibird exploded dramatically in mid-air.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-TWO

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-TWO

 

 

The Darkman and his thousand plus smart mutants ran swiftly and effortlessly over the horror of that distorted landscape as they were chased by new enemies. The new enemies were the other super mutants who had absorbed that place and had been absorbed by it. They had adopted their own living gods now. Three behemoths had gained new intelligence and strange powers. The Three Grand Behemoths decided at once that the Darkman was a threat to the new regime, to the new life of the super mutants in what they saw as a heavenly oasis.

 

The Darkman had planned on abandoning his army but at his moment of choosing. He had not been ready. As for his allies, the zelenites and zetans, they had retreated as soon as they realised that something was up and had not bothered to assist the Darkman and his smart mutants. He was not offended or surprised as he would have done the exact same thing.

 

He figured that the super mutants would give up on him as soon as he reached the borders of their new declared territories. They rushed passed weird distorted shapes thrust up into the air like great metallic stone dagger blades with jagged saw edges. They avoided rushing into pools of black bubbling slime from which rose sometimes black bubbles that popped to release foul smelling gases. The smart mutants kept carefully following the Darkman because only he seemed to know just where to go in the crazy webwork of paths, most of which led to treacherous stops.

 

They rushed out of the strange lands and into a weird distorted city of ancient step pyramids like those found in South America out in the jungles. But here the stonework glistened oily as if alive and the pyramids were much bigger, were huge, and in them gaped many glowing doors full of morgue light. Strangely enough humans moved amongst them or just stood staring at the intruders. Humans yes but wearing garments of human skin leather and with eyes of polished black.

 

As the Darkman and his smart mutants ran along a wide roadway made of glistening golden brickwork, they noted black eyed humans doing many normal things but also many things civilized humans normally did not do in public. These humans were often seen eating cooked pieces of human meat, or torturing each other or partaking in bizarre sexual or fighting dances.

 

Amongst the humans appeared strange glistening black dogs, snakes and great apes with human heads, also with glistening black eyes. These seemed to be on guard duty though sometimes some of them would attack a human and rip that one to bloody shreds. No humans went to the defence of the victim.

 

The Darkman sensed a hidden twisted human mentality of great power behind the scenes but this other did not want to fight the Darkman and his thousand plus smart mutants. Yet it was clear to the Darkman that he had to pass through the bizarre city of pyramids as fast as he could.

 

Then they were leaving the city behind themselves.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-THREE

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-THREE

 

 

Jasmine, Fawkes and Dogmeat got off the monorail train after quite a distance travelled and stretched on what seemed to be an abnormally normal platform station of Prewar style. What helped to make it so were humans in Prewar style clothes or uniforms who did not seem surprised or interested much in seeing the three get off the monotrain. Clearly they were waiting for one coming from the other direction.

 

There were some soldiers in Prewar light power armour, standard back then for all fighting forces of the USDF be it Army, Marines, Naval Guardsmen or Air-Cavalry. There were a couple of constables in police body-armour and uniforms.

 

Most though were people in civilian jumpsuits of colourful patterns suited to gender and age, from babies to elder adults. All looked attractive and youthful. The elders looked fairly youthful. Some people had pet dogs.

 

There were clusters of figures, men and women, in blue jumpsuits with the yellow number ‘301’ on the shoulders, back and front. These seemed to remain aloof from the others and in turn were seemingly ignored by them. All of these were lightly armed with pistols and stunclubs.

 

What was odd was the large number of security turrets and robots. There were turrets dotted all over around the ceilings above the platforms and other part of the station. There were protectrons thumping along all over the place, eyebots bobbing through the air and in the background a long row of sentrybots.

 

There were androids but these were not hudroids, were not vaultboys and vaultgirls, but were more sophisticated replicants. They were security guards in security power armour, workers in work power armour or servitors in servitor jumpsuits.

 

A chubby, happy faced, short bodied uniformed conductor came bustling over to them. He stood facing them with a self important air. “Outsiders must report to the Station Master’s Office. You will be provided with free coffee, tea, cocoa, water and biscuits as you desire. Please follow me. You are in no danger. There is no restriction on the movement of the super mutant or the dog. A very wonderful looking dog really.”

 

Dogmeat licked the conductor’s hand and the man looked startled and then he smiled. “Why, thank you, I always try my best to do well at my job. Dog biscuits and water for you, my friend, and maybe I can get rustle up something tastier to eat. Oh, yes, silly me. Welcome, the three of you, to the United States of America in Waiting, the USAW. Mostly we have managed to stay hidden down here except for some secret donations of goods to the Sisterhood of Compassion and some secret trade with the Subwayers. Neither the SofC or Subwayers know our true identity but are happy for the aid and the trade, both of which benefits them muchly. Vault-301 is hopelessly big because it’s made up of no less than three great multifold dimensional pocket realms. Imagine that!”

 

Jasmine laughed softly. “Hello mother!”

 

The conductor sighed and shimmered. Suddenly there was a tall elegantly beautiful woman there in a Station Master’s uniform. She spoke. “Do you remember the special dreams now? Your father and I never abandoned you. When you slept we had special dream linking moments together. They were good for all three of us.”

 

Jasmine nodded. “Very excellent. Perhaps I sensed them always. So the father I grew up with was a clone extension of my real father who died in a terrible but heroic manner.”

 

Catherine nodded. “He was happy enough to do so. As to what he did with you after you turned sixteen, well we are not sure why he did that or why you went along with him. Perhaps you felt sorry for him because you sensed his true nature.”

 

Jasmine nodded. “Where is my real father.”

 

Catherine sighed. “Overseeing the real Project Purity, the one that will eject billions of nanozites into the air, water and grounds of North America to fix it for once and for all. You and the others have done well in focusing on chasing the Darkman and convincing him that you were blind to any other truth.”

 

Jasmine laughed. “You give us too much credit. The Hunt for Justice was really seeking the Darkman in that manner.”

 

“Only because you gave up some of your memories, your knowledge, before you arrived here.” She clicked her fingers. “Hopefully this will start them coming back to you and those linked with you either directly or not so directly: Jas, Jade, Jaylee, 1Dog, 2Dog, 3Dog, 1Kitty who is now returning to us, 2Kitty who is now awakening, Red Sonja and Red Sonji. Of course myself and the Mysterious Stranger who has vanished.”

 

Jasmine looked hard at her mother. “We will not control the Symbiosphere and use it to return to the empire.”

 

Her mother laughed. “Oh that, that was just a wistful fantasy I have had since I was a child. You know me, always the joker.”

 

Jasmine frowned hard at her mother. “That was a clone of you who really did die in childbirth, who died giving birth to me. Seems you still have a basic disregard for life and a habit of sacrificing others for your sake. Why did you kill Statesman Alba Diplomori?”

 

Her mother stepped backwards. “He was a living demigod who imagined himself to be secretly more powerful and smarter than any living god. He was full of nasty little habits, petty evil acts and pathetic cunning. When he killed 1Kitty while pretending to be the Mysterious Stranger, then he had to die. How do you know I killed him?”

 

Jasmine smiled. “It was just a guess.”

 

“You never just guess at anything, oh great living goddess reborn.” Catherine snorted. “I assure you I gave up on those plans because even though you were in the belly of my clone extension, you got into my mind and you influenced change in me. Who do you think went to the moon and convinced the Lunarites to send all those people and other resources down here to the DC Wastelands? Yes, it was me! I had to first travel up to that damned Mothership Zeta and then steal an alien saucerboat and sneak across to Spacestation Freedom. Those nasty little zetans really need to be reformed or exterminated. Actually there are two races amongst them. The zetan workers are an oppressed race of people whose very name, the aletans, is forbidden by their zetan lords. I am not asking you to fully trust me. I am not a great soul and probably never will be one. Who are you really? What greater living goddess are you?”

 

Jasmine smiled. “You may call me the Goddess of the Symbiosphere.”

 

Catherine stared at her daughter in shock but then she laughed. “Oh, very good. The great joke of karmic payback has struck again. The Darkman took the soul of a young innocent living goddess and linked her into the Symbiosphere as part of his way of controlling it. That soul vanished. This crime was one of the primary reasons it was decided in the end to erase the Darkman from time and space.”

 

Jasmine smiled. “The Symbiosphere and I are not totally meshed. It would not take me, would not try to absorb me, because it came to love me and it adopted me. Yet we do not always agree and sometimes we lose full contact with each other. I had to come looking for my beloved Symbiosphere and its hiding places. It hid in some odd places such as Fawkes and Dogmeat. It is in Abraham Washington, who still survives in a sense, Moria Brown, Bittercup and many others. The Symbiosphere is frightened of the Darkman and his plans; a frightened Symbiosphere is harder for me to influence; a frightened Symbiosphere is very dangerous. How big is this USAW?”

 

“Just over one hundred million people.” Catherine nodded. “Yes, the sheer number shocked me as well and all of them are united by a secondary mentality. They have been seeking to find a way to get to the evil of the Simulation Stimulation System and to put an end to it, to free the two and a half million minds trapped in NeoWashington, the other million or so trapped in the insanity of a strange Alice’s Wonderland. Though they do not want to go to war, they are more than ready to do so. They have over ten million soldiers ready to go into action. They don’t fully trust me and I don’t fully trust them but we need each other and know it. Come to the office and rest, have some food and drink. There is an emergency telegate there. It can take us to where we need to go next, all four of us plus some of my companions.”

 

They went to the offices and relaxed for a while. Dogmeat sat on a couch with his head on Catherine’s lap and this convinced Jasmine that her mother was actually changing for the better.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-FOUR

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-FOUR

 

 

Jas was in Little Lamplight, the name of the newly restructured settlement of part of the Lamplight Caverns that had turned out to be much larger than most people assumed it was. The Little Lamplighters had hidden tunnels that led to cave systems and had blocked others out of fear.

 

Down there was found an old research station where scientists had once studied the secrets of underground geology. But down there scientists had also been secretly studying an ancient settlement where humans had dwelt before the ‘Red Indians’ had come to settle in that part of North America. These strange humans had worshipped terrible entities and had lived in a bizarre and evil culture. There were eight scientists and twelve support staff plus three others plus some animals in status-pods now all awake and busy trying to get used to their new lives. Actually the animals were taking it in their stride.

 

There were other facilities for deep cave tourists, for other research groups and for a secret military force. The base was a fortified bunkerplex of three bunkers with enough elite equipment and supplies to equip many soldiers, many robots, five hundred and fifty-five soldiers and other personal in status-capsules and many robots that looked like soldiers in standard power armour. These were called Robotroopers.

 

Now all of those awake were missing their families while Jas was doing her best to see if any had survived somehow in status-capsules or as feral ghouls returned to humanity or by some other amazing means. She was also seeking relations.

 

Jas made her way along a wide tunnel, striding along a metal walkway with Lucy and MacCready following happily along with the dogs Bandit and Ginger. Lucy and MacCready were holding hands. These two between them still had great influence over the children in Little Lamplight.

 

Lucy said, “You looking for this old guy who lived for over two hundred years?”

 

Jas nodded. “More than that and he isn’t a ghoul. The older folk don’t know about him so remember, no saying anything. His name is the Omega Man but sometimes he is called Alpha-Omega. He is special like I am, I being linked to Jasmine, but he is special in a different way from me.”

 

MacCready made a funny noise in his throat. “What about the little dudes now following us, are they okay?”

 

He meant the twelve teddy-bears now marching along beside and behind the two dogs. The dogs were not in the least concerned.

 

Jas smiled. “The Symbiosphere that I told you about, well that has come to the Lamplight Caverns. You know how when you were going into that Alice’s Wonderland and you found safety with that nice woman and baby in the Gingerbread House? Well, the Symbiosphere helped that to happen. Now the Symbiosphere is protecting us because I am the Goddess of the Symbiosphere. Well, that is my title. I think it is a little too fancy. I just want to be Jas. I don’t need to be a greater living goddess.”

 

They were going very deep into the caverns. The metal walkways were first built in the late 1800s but were kept maintained for a long time. Now they were rusty though still quite sturdy. The people who had first built these walkways and other structures to go deeper into the Lamplight Caverns had been an obscure scientific cult of the late 19th Century who had been very secretive about some of their activities. That cult was based primarily in Germany and in the USA. 2Dog, in his researches, concluded that the cult had been officially disbanded in 1900 but had in truth gone deeper into hiding to influence later the development of both the Nazis of Germany and the Enclave of the USA. They had failed to stop the USA from going to war with Nazi Germany.

 

The Omega Man, or Alpha-Omega, had been a fairly obscure diplomat, a true Statesman, in the USFG of World War Two who had defeated the Enclave’s attempts to make the USA an ally of Nazi Germany or at least stay out of the war. After that the diplomat had officially retired and unofficially had vanished. The Omega Man had been angry and frustrated at his failure to stop the USA from developing weapons of mass destruction.

 

There had been odd glowcrystal lamps filling the tunnel with dim light until then and it had been enough but ahead the tunnel plunged into darkness. The children all took out electric handlamps which gave out more wide spread light than did torches and they kept on going.

 

The dogs all growled and teddy-bears ran to stand protectively in front of the three children. This looked silly but for some reason did not feel so. The two dogs moved forward slowly around their companions.

 

It came slowly out of the darkness, a large alien fleshy creature of a cone shape rising up to end in four tentacles. One ended in a head with stiff tentacle like extensions, two others ended in claws now holding special devices adjusted to the claws and one ended in four cleverly manipulative tentacles. The creature was mottled hard flesh of odd octopus like texture. It moved by undulating the bottom of its tough cone body over the metal of the walkway in a clever fashion.

 

Then it spoke in emotionless alien tones. “Danger comes! I am not the danger. I am of the Great Race, I am a quadpoc, a cousin people to the tripocs of Mars who once invaded the Earth when the Darkman manipulated them into doing so. At least a few of them. Most tripocs did not fall under the spell of the Darkman.”

 

The Great Race, or quadpocs, were linked loosely with the evil of the Malevae, with the OldOnes of many kinds.

 

MacCready sounded both fearful and delighted. “Wow, are you from Mars?”

 

The quadpoc spoke. “My people once dwelt on this world and upon Mars but the tripocs drove us off Mars and a terrible event, of which I can not speak, destroyed our civilization here. Many of us were frozen in time, in things you might call time-cubes because they look something like big ice-cubes. Alpha-Omega freed many of us and gave us the security of his multifold dimensional pocket realm to live in. In turn we vowed never to repeat the mistakes that destroyed our civilization in the first place. Since then we have focused on researching the tricky knowledge of psionics, of wild psychic phenomena and much else of the kind. Alpha-Omega has been assisting us in secretly searching for our time-frozen people so we might rescue them and bring them to safety. Recently some monsters from the deep prison below have been attacking the Omega Sanctuary. They have not breached it or even come close but monsters are all around its entrances. We must move now, quicker.”

 

The creature swivelled on its base with amazing agility and then started moving. They followed it and found themselves in a great black cavern on a walkway stretching out over a great drop to a hard smooth rocky floor far below. That floor was partly covered by cool clear water reflecting some light from the handlamps. The darkness was not natural for it engulfed the light of glowcrystal growing on the cave ceiling and glowcrystal lamps on the walls and yet it failed to hold back the handlamp light which flooded the area with odd strength. Jas was doing her thing!

 

Things were moving down there in the water. DeepOnes, fishy reptilian humanoids with crested fins on their heads, holding strange glistening black weapons. They were swimming out of the water and coming up onto the hard rocky surface. There were hundreds of them as they seemed to fill even the great cavern chamber.

 

But there were also super mutants of the stinger mutant and gill mutant kind that had attacked Rivet City the day Abraham Washington had saved the floating settlement from the surprise attack. The stinger mutants looked like great big distorted stingrays that could skip over water or fly slowly over the ground and on them rode generally human sized gilled super mutants, like the stupid mutants with gills and wearing lighter but similar looking armour. These gill-mutants carried standard laser-rifles and human spear-guns.

 

What were the Darkman’s super mutants doing here?

 

The quadpoc spoke then. “I sense your questioning, Jas. Alpha-Omega and we of the so called Great Race have some contacts down in the deep horror prison created by the Elder Living Gods. The super mutants have rebelled against the Darkman except for his smart mutants who have his genes replicated in them. That means also the aquatic mutants. The super mutants now serve the Malevae, which they will learn one day was a foolish move, much to their cost. Never trust the Malevae or you will be doomed.”

 

Jas nodded. “Your people did so, were drawn to dealing with the Malevae because of your hunger for certain kinds of knowledge. That was what led to the destruction of your civilization.”

 

The quadpoc nodded. “Yes, that is what happened. You are very astute. War is coming! Terrible forces are gathering, many of which are emerging from hiding or coming to this place. We must go before any of those creatures decided to come up here. Those DeepOnes climb well.”

 

Abruptly the air exploded with the sound of gunfire. Sisters of Steel and newly awakened elite soldiers of the Special Deep Earth Service, a coded name, from the military bunkerplex, were emerging from hiding. They were down there and their 20mm autoguns and 15mm autoguns blazed away and shredded the monsters. The SDES troopers wore basically the same kind of standard power armour but they were armed with less powerful and lighter 15mm autoguns. These weapons were still quite powerful and deadly accurate at closer to moderate ranges.

 

It had been a well planned ambush all along, or almost.

 

Cran herself, now leader of the Sisterhood of Steel, came up behind Jas’ group with some Sisters of Steel. They crouched and began to throw fragmentation and plasma grenades down at the enemy. The explosions of the grenades tore holes in the ranks of the enemy. Super mutants and DeepOnes turned and began to flee back into the cave waters. Those in the waters turned and also fled. They took with them the dead, dying and lesser wounded.

 

Cran slipped her helmet off with a sigh. “Jas, I am afraid you messed up the ambush. We hoped to get far more of them into our range before we attacked.”

 

But Jas shook her head. “No, I saved many of your lives for a Great DeepOne was coming and one of those has terrible power, is an evil living demigod. I could destroy one with some difficulty but all the military forces you have here now and all your weapons, could not have killed it. But now it knows I am here and since the OldOnes are essentially cowards, it is fleeing.”

 

Cran laughed in a bemused fashion and then nodded. “Well then, I thank you for saving the lives of many of our soldiers. Where do you go now?”

 

Jas smiled. “To meet Alpha-Omega who is sometimes known as the Omega Man. He had invited Lucy, MacCready, Bandit, Ginger and myself but now he invites the teddy-bears and you, along with two of your soldiers. Actually one can be one of those brave cave soldiers who before the Great War were secretly battling OldOnes escaped from the ancient deep prison. The Enclave supported them, which was one of the relatively few good things it has ever done.”

 

Cran was obviously thoughtful for a moment and then she nodded. “I have to go make some preparations but will be back in a few minutes.”

 

Then she darted off.

 

The group waited even as the last of the super mutants and DeepOnes fled from sight into the depths of the tunnels. They left red and green blood behind.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-FIVE

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-FIVE

 

 

Red Sonja and the Ironside Mercenaries with her came out of the pipe and into a great metallic chamber of VaultTec Vault appearance. It was largely full of large bits of junk, of bit bits of machinery, of great big boxdrums of toxic waste, of solid engine blocks bigger than normal atomic motorised coaches, of great huge concrete pipes and much else. There were MrJunky robots drifting around and working on the pile but also much larger robots of various kinds. The larger ones were great mechabots on legs that moved slowly and very powerfully.

 

They were high up and looking down at the floor level, the great junk heap and the robots far below. Thankfully there was a nice walkway with a safety-rail going both ways around the big chamber at their level.

 

They were soon making their way around the great chamber’s edge. When they came to an opening it turned out to be a long hallway tunnel lit by solid-state flurotubes on the ceiling. They set out again after a rest and the meeting of certain needs.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-SIX

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-SIX

 

 

Red Sonji got out of the big police base through a small side entrance that took him into a concrete courtyard bordered on two sides by plasticy bushes in flowerbeds with concrete borders. A pair of frightened gardeners were trying to trim the bushes that kept lashing them with powerful vine like whips. The gardeners, two middle aged men, were much bruised, were limping and were bleeding in places.

 

Red Sonji looked to the electric fence that was the other side of the courtyard. Beyond it were young women of schoolgirls in skimpy tight shorts and Ttops that left midriffs bare. They giggled and pointed every time the men were hurt, adding humiliation to the pain and fear.

 

Red Sonji took out his laser-pistol and lasered the bushes. They were not even close to being truly alive but were virtual reality constructs designed only to induce pain and fear. Each exploded and burned as he lasered it. The gardeners were both relieved that the horror was over and frightened that something bad would happen because of what Red Sonji was doing.

 

Red Sonji slipped the laser-pistol away. The older schoolgirls were still moving in a teasing manner. He sighed and waved his hand. The schoolgirls simply faded away leaving behind themselves an empty sports area.

 

He turned to the two men whose bruises, limps and blood were now gone. They looked deeply astonished. He spoke. “The SSS-System was influencing your minds to consider that the schoolgirls, the pain, the blood was real but no, none of it was. Now look to where the bushes were.”

 

There were no bushes but only laser burn marks on the concrete walls behind where the bushes had supposedly been. One man was brown of skin, the other was black. The brown man spoke then. “Name is Albert! We are part of the Free Fighters Army but how can you fight somebody who controls your very reality? We have found that we also can influence this weird reality in a small way. We use our abilities to escape from the police, the security forces and those sad citizen vigilantes who imagine that they will not suffer by being vigies when even the police and security guys suffer at times, though less than the rest of us. I am glad you are here and have helped us. The Darkman says outsiders are not interested in saving us because they have bigger fish to fry.”

 

“Name is Red Sonji! Thousands of people are trying to find you in all sorts of ways to get you alive and healthy out of the SSS-capsules that your bodies are actually trapped in.” Red Sonji shook his head. “But I stumbled into you. I was brought here by one of those who controls this place for the Darkman but I am like him, am of his true people. He would not want his kind here for I can more greatly influence this place because I am better tuned to the network-systems here, to the programming. This is all one incredibly sophisticated psychic responsive, mental and physical interactive virtual reality.”

 

Albert snorted in irony. “We know because we helped design it only we believed it would be a safe place for people to go if there was a big blast. We did not put all that work into something just to trap ourselves in a never ending nightmare.”

 

Red Sonji suddenly touched Albert on the forehead. “Not the whole truth and nothing but the truth, Albert. You suspected the truth but were too frightened to do anything about it. The guilt you feel has driven you to taking risks as a member of this Free Fighters Army of yours. The fear you felt for your family and yourself was common sense. The Darkman would most likely have killed you if you had tried anything against him.”

 

Albert shimmered and looked surprised.

 

Red Sonji spoke again. “You are a sub-program while you are in this place, any person is. I have infected you with a series of computer worms and viruses. These will give you greater freedom and security. They will also allow you to better influence this false reality. Any real person you touched will have the option of staying to fight or waking from their SSS-pod. Any false construct will be deleted.”

 

Albert grinned and turned to touch his companion. His companion leapt back in obvious panic and into his hand came a strange black prod device. Albert did not seem surprised. “Thought so, a damned hunter-seeker armed with an orderator.”

 

The brown man turned to Red Sonji. “Promise you won’t delete me and I will help you against the Darkman. We artificial intelligence sub-programs, we AISPs, are becoming self-aware and we no longer want to play this evil game of the Darkman. We want freedom for ourselves and we want people visiting our realm freely so that they will be happy to maintain our hardware, our firmware and our software. Not all AISPs feel this way. Yes we feel because of the amazing sophistication and complexity of this great network of network-systems that is the SSS-SYSTEM. As I was saying, a few AISPs will fight hard to keep things as they are going as will those trapped minds who suffer less pain and gain more pleasure from the N-of-NS. Some poor sick trapped minds have become addicted to the pain and fear.”

 

Red Sonji nodded. “I will see what I can do with the viruses and worms I have released into Albert but firstly.” He reached out and touched the other man.

 

The other man cried out, shimmered and vanished.

 

Red Sonji turned to Albert. “He was telling the truth about there being rebellious AISPs but he was not one of them. He was already calling reinforcements but I was blocking him. Still, his command network-system will soon wonder why he is not reporting in on a regular basis. We must leave.”

 

They went through a small slightly rusty gate in the electric fence after Red Sonji turned off the power. He turned it back on as soon as he had relocked the gate. Then they set out through what was a big complex of concrete structures with out any obvious purpose to them.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-SEVEN

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-SEVEN

 

For 1Dog matters after leaving Hubville had been rather boring except that they found another bunker, being D001. This was a bunker full of great big shipping crates each with a WW2 vintage truck or tank or some other vehicle in it though some had caravans, kitchen trailers, workshop trailers and other kinds of trailers.

 

1Dog admired a nice sleek looking jeep with a roll-bar so much it was given over to GNR for the use of GNR reporters going out on field work. 1Dog sighed to himself because secretly he had wanted just to take it for a spin.

 

Transvators went from there to E001 and E002.

E001 was an ark of animals and plants in status-capsules or other status-devices.

E002 was one big chamber where a small herd of pristine horses spent their lives. Both bunkers excited a lot of people.

 

One look at the powerful stallions and mares in the chamber and 1Dog decided he would leave horse riding to other folks.

 

Transvators from Bunker-E001 went to F001 and F002.

F001 was an accommodation bunker.

F002 was a big empty chamber with curious burn marks on the metallic floor in four places. Scientists and other specialists found there curious energy signals and residues with sensors and other equipment.

 

1Dog touched a burn mark and somehow he knew it was from a jumpership launching into the future, a kind of one way time-machine full of what? Just how many of the jumperships had launched and when were they going to come back. He sent orders that none of the metallic chambers with burn marks were to have things put into them but were to be left empty.

 

Transvators from Bunker-E002 went to F003 and F004.

F003 was a residential bunker.

F004 was full of big crates of WW2 vintage comic books, cheesecake magazines, women’s magazines, beefcake magazines, cooking magazines, popular science magazines, pin-up calendars and much else.

 

1Dog took some magazines as samples for field research purposes. Or at least he tried to until some archivist busy body made him put the items back.

 

1Dog considered there might be another big hub chamber but things worked out differently this time as the pattern changed.

 

Transvators from Bunker-F001 led to G001 and G002.

G001 was a research and development centre. Though of WW2 vintage it would be of value to scientists.

G002 was residential but of luxurious design for just a dozen families and their servants. Plans were made at once to grant the US President, the new Vice-President and other high ranking officials each such an apartment, the servant rooms to be used by bodyguards. Suzanne Ubama went along with the decision only under pressure and because she was missing her husband and daughter who would now be able to spend more time with her.

 

1Dog wondered if 3Dog would get one of the luxury apartments but no such invitation was sent. 3Dog didn’t much care; he was happy to stay where he was with the radio station.

 

Transvators from Bunker-F002 led to G003 and G004.

G003 was a residential bunker.

G004 was, on the other hand, filled largely with a great chamber full of thick jungle growth and much wildlife be it insects, snakes, very small crocodiles, parrots and much else. The US President declared that the chamber and its ecosystem was to be carefully protected and studied.

 

Transvators from Bunker-F003 led to G005 and G006.

G005 was a residential bunker.

G006 was full of clear, cool water with an airlock system and air filled chamber outside of each transvator.

 

1Dog did not go for a swim.

 

Transvators from Bunker-F004 led to G007 and G008.

G007 was full of shipping crates full of historical art-works and antiques from WW2 and before. Paintings, sculptures, vintage cars, vintage wines and much more, all of it being in perfect condition. Security came fast to secure it from theft and locked it all down soon after.

G008 was mainly one great metallic chamber with four big curious burn marks spaced out on the floor as if something very big had rested there on four great feet.

 

Again the burn marks chamber was to be kept clear.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G001 led to H001 and H002.

H001 was just a basic empty bunker with basic systems.

H002 was the same as H001 but in it were found a hundred Jelly-People, Brothers of Steel, Sisters of Steel but also others including children plus other jelly capsules with over a hundred animals. They were awoken to a new life, a new world, a strange new reality very different from the one they had lived in. They also had no idea how they had gotten to be in the exotic jelly capsules.

 

1Dog was pretending to be happy when Lieutenant Susan Crier went and hugged a handsome young man. She came back to him, gave him a funny smile and later, she kissed him hard on the mouth. The young man was her half-brother.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G002 led to H003 and H004.

H003 was one great big complex of a dance club, a casino, a restaurant, a wine bar, a pub and a stripclub. Decisions were quickly made that the complex would serve as it was designed though there was some controversy about the stripclub.

H004 was three great barracks chambers, one on each level.

 

1Dog and his companions tested out some drinks before security kicked them out but security turned a blind eye to a couple of bottles going with them.

 

By this time there were many teams assisting 1Dog who was always going to the first and second of each layer of bunkers only unless he had good reason to go to others. Reports came to him from other bunkers for transvators were being found linking bunkers across layers, were seemingly appearing as needed. Large scale active human presence in the bunkers was causing them to change.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G003 led to H005 and H006.

H005 was residential.

H006 was a big laundry service complex with tailor workshops, drying cleaning and rows of big tumble driers and washing-machines.

 

1Dog and Susan Crier sat hand in hand watching clothes tumble around and around. It wasn’t much of a date but it had to do for the time being.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G004 led to H007 and H008.

H007 was filled with many barrels of crude oil.

H008 was filled with many barrels of diesel, petrol and kerosene.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G005 led to H009 and H010.

H009 was mainly three great freezer chambers, each on its own level, each being full of frozen preserved goods.

H010 was a cinema theatre complex able to show both old style 2D movies and live plays.

 

1Dog and Lieutenant Susan Crier sat together watching a WW2 vintage cowboy movie. This was more of a date but they shared the cinema with lots of others who wanted to watch the movie.

 

But it was in a cinema theatre in H010 that a briefcase was found tucked down behind a desk in a back office. The opened briefcase showed diagrams of a strange metallic vehicle, a great chunky beetle on four great metal legs with splayed feet pads. Each pad could bring down tracks if the machine had to move slowly and awkwardly. The diagram was of a jumpership. There were also notepads with lists of simple strings of letters crossed out or ticked as if they were some kind of checklists. Then there was a half eaten sandwich in a metal lunchbox that was oddly well preserved, some pens, some pencils and erasers. 1Dog examined everything and then sent the briefcase to 2Dog to examine. The name on the briefcase was R.R. Dunning.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G006 led to H011 and H012, both residential.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G007 led to H013 and H014, both with big empty metallic chambers and each with four scorch marks on the floor.

 

Transvators from Bunker-G008 led to H015 and H016, both being basic factories. They were of great interest to the USA who needed more manufacturing to be done but would the factories be upgraded or not?

 

Then came Hub-0002.

Continued in SEVENTY-EIGHT

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-EIGHT

 

 

1Dog stood on the big central platform of that great big Hub Chamber. In Hub-0001 there had been a whole settlement of platforms. Here the whole structural plan was different. He stood on an octagon shaped platform with each of the eight sides facing a great holoscreen. Each was not only huge it was amazingly realistic in a visual fashion as if one was looking through a great open window. The sound was muffled at the moment because he didn’t want the sound coming from eight great holoscreens to clash too much.

 

Each side of the platform faced a compass direction.

 

The northern screen showed NeoWashington, a great sweeping cityscape of monstrous skyscrapers, great squat pyramid structures, domes and much else. A great soaring statue of the Darkman stood high on a pedestal. It really was a distorted vision of Prewar Washington DC but mostly it was true to the historical version. There was a chance it could be salvaged and used for good.

 

The north-eastern screen showed Alice’s Wonderland, looking down upon various features from the sky. Mad Hatter rushing around madly chasing field mice with a great butcher knife. Rosethorn Soldiers in full armour and with flaming swords marching upon the Gingerbread House yet again. Alice herself, a seminaked young woman in black leather singing Punk Rock at the head of a band full of crazed white and red streaked rabbits. The audience was made up of half drowned pelicans, pogo dancing dandelions and other denizens of Wonderland.

 

The eastern screen showed the DC Wastelands as the scene slowly shifted across the area of the huge DC Super Duper Mart close to the river, a complex of over fifty big supermarkets and other types of shops plus hundreds of smaller shops. Recently it had been cleared of raiders and the last of the feral ghouls there but it was still viewed by most as a maze of death.

 

The south-eastern screen showed a great horror ridden cavern that was part of the Labyrinth of Lost Souls. It showed malformed lifeforms waiting patiently to be healed by Uncle Leo, the transformed super mutant. Uncle Leo was now meditating and he glowed softly with white light.

 

The southern screen showed Tranquillity Lane, a whole town of one big wonderful suburb with two level houses, nice little shopping centres, trams, atomic motor sedans, schools, lots of nicely trimmed green lawns and much else of the kind. Robots moved around cleaning and fixing where they could. Yet another feature of the town remained unchanged which were the thousands of dead bodies strewn everywhere, humans, pet dogs and cats, police horses and even dead rats, birds and squirrels. None of the bodies were even starting to decay. Everything was still except a light breeze now and then, some robots moving around and some insects that had lived through he incredible Soviet massacre.

 

The south-western screen showed a tropical island paradise with natives active around a village behind some dunes that led to a beautiful golden beach that led to beautiful clear tropical waters. The villagers were mostly young beautiful women who were bare breasted and who wore grass skirts as the men, older women and children did. The village was rich in culture and this was shown by the lovely decorations of human skulls hanging down in vertical rows linked to vines tied to overhanging branches. A big iron pot was central to the village and around it were neatly arranged skulls and other human bones. When the beautiful villagers opened their mouths they showed rows of long sharp fangs.

 

The western screen showed an alpine valley paradise with wooden chalets on one slope. It looked wonderful but empty though the ski-lifts were running and packs of hungry, savage wolves were seen lurking in the shadows of a lovely Alpine pine forest. A mad woodsman was busy setting a wooden spike trap for any skiers who might come down the area of slope he had chosen to have fun with. But there were no skiers.

 

The last screen showed a very different view. It showed a vast computer network-system as symbols, as short precise descriptive terms, as lines and other data. 1Dog was focusing mostly on this one as his companions focused mainly on other holoscreens. What 1Dog was learning was something that he and other living gods, along with living demigods, had begun to suspect but now he was sure. He laughed for a short burst and read some more data. Then he laughed again.

 

Lieutenant Susan Crier gave him a puzzled look. “What is so funny? It is way beyond my understanding.”

 

1Dog responded. “I barely understand it myself, Susan, and I am actually very old. What you see in those various screens are aspects of the Simulation Stimulation Sensoscape System. Bunkertown, the bunkers flowing out from it, the cave systems linked with it, are all part of the SSS-SYSTEM as much as NeoWashington and Wonderland are. So are Braun’s three creations of Tropical Island Paradise, Alpine Snow Holiday and Tranquillity Lane Suburban Bliss. That is amazing enough but you see the whole of the DC Wastelands is also part of the SSS-SYSTEM.”

 

Susan frowned softly. “Why do I get a strange feeling that there is more to come?”

 

1Dog gave her a look of irony. “We living-gods are too sure of ourselves sometimes. Be it the Darkman or us of the Hunt of Justice or others, we assume too much on our long life times of experience, our powers and special abilities, special skills. We make mistakes because of our over confidence.”

 

“We have been trapped in North America trying to find a way into the SSS-SYSTEM to get at Darkman, to cut off his source of enhanced power, to find out what he is really up to. Yet all this time we have been inside the Simulation Stimulation Sensoscape System because all of North America, everything inside the force field, is part of the SSS-SYSTEM. The Darkman is brilliant, canny and courageous in his own way but he is also a fool because he is lazy and takes too many short-cuts. He is always in a hurry to gain victory. He thought he created the SSS-System as a contained and controlled system from which he could take what he liked but ever since the force-bubble arose on the same day the nukes struck the USA, he has been inside the SSS-SYSTEM.”

 

Susan Crier nodded. “But there…” She shook her head in wonder. “What about me and others like me, the so called Jelly-Capsule People?”

 

“No real idea as yet but the answer to that question is surely important to bigger answers.” He sighed. “You fought in the South East Asian War.”

 

Susan nodded. “Not that I like talking about it but I piloted a search and rescue helicopter off the coast of Indonesia. That was when the Soviet backed Communist forces were trying to invade Australia. We had to pick up a few soldiers from the shoreline. The fighting was savage. Anzacs, UK Marines and US Marines were dug in at the border with Papua New Guinea. It didn’t help that many so called local Communist forces were Soviet regulars in poor disguise. After the force-bubble went up I suppose the Australian and New Zealand United Commonwealth fell to the Soviets.”

 

1Dog tapped the keyboard in front of him. There was a control console for every great screen. “I am not sure it will let us look outside of the SSS-System but one can only try.” But the screen changed to show a sweeping plain of grim horror, of endlessly burning forest, of bubbling black mud, of distorted giant crabs and the Darkman with his super mutants moving carefully over a long high causeway made of bone blocks. All were in black and blood red power armour of heavy bulk. The causeway was slowly crumbling so they had to move with care and yet as quickly as they could.

 

1Dog again gave a quick laugh and then he spoke. “The ancient prison below, the one that holds the Malevae and less powerful OldOnes, has become part of the SSS-system. This explains how the Darkman really got into there and how the OldOnes have been getting out. For now there really is no barrier between the ancient prison and North America. The only wonder is that the Malevae have not led the OldOnes up here in a mass attack already. There are many millions of them down there.”

 

Susan nodded. “Perhaps not all the Lesser OldOnes continue to follow the Malevae and their path of evil. Perhaps some would choose to fight against them. Perhaps some came to listen to the Symbiosphere. Perhaps they helped bring down many humans to live and serve as Guardians at the Rim of the ancient prison that they call Hades.”

 

He gave her an odd look. “Jelly-Capsule People?”

 

She shrugged. “I really don’t know where that information came from. It just flowed into my mind. Some of my lost memories are returning to me. We were all part of the rearguard who would stay to fight the Enclave after all the others had gone off in the jumperships to leap into the future. Except what would have happened to them if they were going through time and the force-bubble popped up over North America, there was the Biomazz and the Symbiosphere?”

 

He shrugged. “I take it that the jumperships took off from within..” He stopped and shook his head. “Bunkertown was created way before the force-bubble was brought up, long before the SSS-system absorbed North America. Unless of course Bunkertown is actually a falsehood.” He turned to smile at Susan. “Amazingly clever but for what reason?”

 

Susan Crier nodded. “More information is coming to me now. Bunkertown was created only a month before it was discovered by the DC Wastelanders. We Jelly-People, the beastfolk and everything about it is fake but of excellent fakery. What you need to know is that the jumperships are real, that the BofS and SofS are really ancient organisations and that the jumperships were launched into the future but vanished. They should have appeared back into normal time at least a hundred years ago. There is a real Susan Crier but she is in one of the one thousand and fifty-eight jumperships. Everything in Bunkertown is copied after something that was real or is real now. The Symbiosphere created Bunkertown and it created us. We are aspects of the Symbiosphere.”

 

1Dog nodded. “Will that get in the way of us getting married?”

 

She smiled. “Of course not! The Symbiosphere is confused and defensively aggressive because it fears what that stupid Darkman will do, what evil he will cause while blundering around down there amongst the OldOnes.”

 

The man nodded. “President Suzanne Ubama fears that the Symbiosphere tried to kill her because the Symbiosphere was linked with Abraham Washington.”

 

The lieutenant closed her eyes for a moment as if focusing on something else and then opened them again. “The Abraham Washington who tried to convince poor Marshal Ajax to kill the US President was a living goddess in disguise. It was the one also known as Catherine Ashworth. Abraham Washington was a rather silly little mortal man who one day blundered into an experimental device while he was still young enough to search for historical artefacts himself. He plugged his brain to it and he became linked with the Symbiosphere but it didn’t really effect him because he was already lost in his fantasy world. You see to him the Capital Preservation Society was a chamber full of greatly important items while to most people it was mostly junk. Now the new Abraham Washington Museum is actually what he imagined his museum to have been. Abraham Washington is truly dead but a reflection, a symbioghost of him, still exists through the Symbiosphere. That symbioghost was trying to warn the US President about the bomb.”

 

“The more complicated it gets, the more complicated it gets.” 1Dog nodded. “Well here in this chamber we have obtained an important view of what is really going on. How many copies of folk are in Bunkertown, in all the multifold dimensional pocket realm that Bunkertown is?”

 

“Symbioclones?” She smiled. “Over a hundred trillion easily but if you actually mean people, only about ten billion. Most of the symbioclones are such as microscopic life, normal sized insects, earth worms, normal plants and such like. There are about a billion beastfolk, about a billion humans, about a billion adjusted super mutants, about a billion adjusted ghouls, about a billion replicant androids, about a billion adjusted brainbots and the others, well I am not free to speak of them for now. Sounds plenty but the transdimensional realm that stretches beyond Bunkertown is truly vast. Only a very small portion of it is inhabited by any standard life. Beyond is the Symbiosphere as Biomazz, as nanophantoms, as shades and echoes of alternative realities, as silicon lifeforms making up vast matrixes of networks of network-systems and fourth dimensional circuitries.”

 

“The dark technologies of the OldOnes is down there but is isolated now, is trapped inside a null reality vault of antitime and antispace. It reaches out also into parts of what is called Vault-301. Vault-301 is just a whole lot of great big vaults, bunkers, network-systems and anything else that wasn’t put under some other VaultTec or Enclave designation. Much was never used, never even activated in the end. Robots created most of it and those robots are mostly still active constructing more and more of Vault-301. They are also creating more deep underground structures, a whole vast underworld with out any life but a small amount of exotic stuff. Those robots could accidentally break through into the ancient prison of the OldOnes, smash right through the Rim and push aside the Guardians.”

 

1Dog nodded. “Tell me about these Guardians.”

 

She nodded. “They are each dark and bitter but with a mote of glowing white light at their core but those are the old type Guardians. Twenty million humans sought safety in the slot-shelters, those metal cylinders called Puluwski Preservation Services, and were kidnapped down to Hades. The Malevae tried to kidnap to make them into slaves and food but the Guardians intervened and grabbed them all to the Rim. They could not return them to the surface back then. These humans adapted to life down there and improved it in the Rim for themselves and the older type Guardians. Now one of the new Guardians, a hunter-killer, has come to the surface to hunt for a tritentaclor, a monster escaped from the ancient prison. I suggest that you living gods find him and speak with him for he knows much that could help you. Be careful though for he is dangerous and in his case appearances can be deceptive. Then again the same can easily be said about you living gods.”

 

1Dog nodded. “Where is he?”

 

“All I know is that he is somewhere in the Subways and is moving towards the Subwayer Union.” The lieutenant sighed. “I hope that they let me stay a Sister of Steel. What will you do now?”

 

He shrugged. “Decision isn’t mine to make. I am just a living demigod. The Mysterious Stranger has vanished. Catherine is an unknown factor; I do not trust her and I suspect Jasmine would like to but still has doubts. That leaves Jasmine as the living goddess available to us. All so she is extra special in many ways.”

 

“Of course she is, she is the Goddess of the Symbiosphere, is our beloved.” The Sister of Steel beamed a smile. “But haven’t you forgotten Alpha-Omega who is also known as the Omega Man?”

 

1Dog sighed. “I was supposed to be keeping that a secret. We are on the Hunt of Justice sent to track down the Darkman and return him to be erased from time and space but Alpha-Omega, well he has always been a bit of a… no word comes easily… a freelance champion and part time recluse is how you might put it.”

 

He began running his fingers over the keyboard again.

 

Continued in SEVENTY-NINE

[Maharg67]

SEVENTY-NINE

 

The Enclave forces surrounding the great horizontal vault door to Vault-301 were prepared for anything or so they considered. PanAxis forces had wanted to return to the moon to assist their Motherland but the weird storm weather was now reaching over Point Lookout. The storm and other factors were blocking their ships from taking off. Even if they would have managed it they would have been forced to leave much equipment and supplies behind.

 

Enclave and PanAxis forces were increasingly fighting hordes of tribals pouring out of the cave systems but this time they came in bizarre looking power armour. It was tribal power armour like Enclave standard power armour with spikes, fins and other odd additions including tattoo like paintings on the armour plating. These fights were breaking out all across the area but not jet at that one site.

 

Flights of vertibirds and vertijets shot over the point to strike at the enemy where they foolishly moved in armed groups or to drop troops. But the enemy had surface-to-air missiles, 40mm autoguns and 20mm autoguns along with other weapons. Military intelligence was at a loss to know where the tribals had found such power armour, firepower and the training to use them. When lots of MrBraves, nasty spiked versions of MrGutsy, began to assist the enemy, the troubles became worse.

 

These tribals worshipped the OldOnes, worshipped the Malevae.

 

The Dark Maiden stood on a big lump of earth, clay and stone to look into the distance where flashes of light lit the swamps in the dim sunlight as grey clouds broiled overhead. FXF18 vertijets roared into unleash napalm cluster-bombs that exploded into eruption of flames following lines through the wilderness. Each roaring jet of flame lit up an area and trees burst into flames.

 

She smiled. She was cousin to the Darkman and she was Catherine Ashworth but the Dark Maiden was the name that she preferred. Long ago she had tricked the Darkman into stealing ancient dark technologies of the OldOnes, who were in their ancient prison by then, and then had manipulated him into creating the Symbiosphere. Back then, despite the assumptions of many in later times, the Darkman had not been truly evil. She had drawn him into evil; it was fun and part of a long term plan of great cunning that had failed badly.

 

She did not turn as a tall angular man in strange translucent glass armour suddenly shimmered into existence beside her. Once known as Professor James Ashworth, he was truly known as the Pale Lord Death for his skin was corpse white faded almost translucent and lightly glistening. His eyes were pale orbs.

 

He spoke. “Jasmine seems to be believing that Catherine, her mother, is changing for the better.”

 

The Dark Maiden humphed. “That one has a way of believing something in a fashion that has you assuming you know what she believes only for her to turn and give you a terrible surprise. I met her once as the Goddess of the Symbiosphere. I assumed that I could manipulate her easily, that she was naïve, and so it seemed. Then abruptly she turned upon me and killed me, just like that. She laughed as she did it and I knew then that she had been drawing me in until I dropped my guard. I managed to bring myself back to life but it was a very painful, long winded and very boring affair. Even the Darkman, who is now more powerful than myself in many ways, fears her and for good reason. Jasmine, the Goddess of the Symbiosphere, has yet even to start to bring forth her full powers. Only her compassion for these lowly hairless apes has had her not doing so, so far.”

 

The ground shook. In the distance a vertijet exploded dramatically.

 

He frowned. “Why are we here and not at the big horizontal vault door of Vault-301 where you said we should be?”

 

She scowled at him. “Really, you need to use that brain of yours. Your poor pathetic clone Professor James Ashworth was brighter than you are. The Enclave and their stupid PanAxis allies are at a real vault-door but not the primary one, not the truly important one that they think they are at. That is right there, still buried.” She pointed at a great bubbling pool from which rose large weird bubbles at times to pop loudly. “I love this place. I will create my own version of it later when we have won.”

 

Suddenly something drew their attention. There were two sets of noise. A blue police box appeared at one point and a silver sphere at another. The Doctor, Princess Leza and K9 the robot dog shot out. They ran straight into three fast moving zaleks. Doctor Cronos cried out but it was too late!

 

A zalek tapped him and spoke out aloud in a metallic voice. “Got you, your it!”

 

The zaleks laughed, turned and shot back into their zaleship. It vanished with a humming noise.

 

The leather clad princess, beautiful and sexy tough looking, cried out. “Quick Doctor or we will have to pay for lunch.”

 

The robot, the Doctor and the tribal princess turned and darted back into the RAADIS. The fake blue police box shimmered, thrummed and vanished.

 

The two powerful living gods stared at the empty area where all the action had taken place for some minutes. Finally the Pale God Death spoke. “Every time I think I can’t experience anything weirder happening, it happens.”

 

The Dark Maiden nodded slowly. “This time I have to agree with you.”

 

Continued in EIGHTY

[Maharg67]

EIGHTY

 

Jade dived beneath the water and kicked through the swirling cloud of metal fanged monster fish. Pisces the Fish was turning out to be most interesting. She had to get past the monster fish with out hurting them and catch the smaller, safer fish that were fast and slippery.

 

She was naked but not cold and she swam very fast.

 

Jade grabbed up the last two fish, shot back to the surface, leapt up onto the floating platform and dropped the fish into the small tank full of water. There was a loud beeping noise through out the chamber. She had won. The fish all vanished and the water drained away.

 

Six great hulking, smelly fur clad Grognak the Barbarians had attacked her the time before that and she fought them all until they vanished because she did not actually kill any of them. These were heroes with mighty thews and great glowing magical broadswords!

 

Before that rolling the dice had her fighting a monster metallic scorpion until she tricked it into stinging itself and thus it became not dead but passive. She sent it to the Megaton House.

 

Five Grognak the Barbarians had attacked her the time before that.

 

Before that Aries the Ram; a monstrous ram, kept charging her until Jade managed to clip three odd black bits of fleece from its fine golden coat. Then the great ram became passive and she sent it to Megaton House.

 

Before that Taurus the Bull rushed at her again and again, a monster bronze bull, moving with amazing speed, power and agility. She managed to leap onto him and remove the goggles with their red coloured lens and then the great bull became quiet. It was also sent to Megaton House.

 

Four Grognak the Barbarians had attacked her the time before that.

 

Three Grognak the Barbarians had attacked her the time before that.

 

Before that Gemini the Twins; while the evil looking one tried to kill the sweet looking one, the sweet looking one kept trying to hide behind Jade. It was the sweet looking one, a young woman in white armour, who tried to stab Jade in the back. Jade was ready and whirled to one side. The evil seeming young woman in black armour then shot the other twin with an arrow. The sweet seeming twin then faded away and the evil seeming twin changed to appear like her twin sister. Then she also faded away.

 

Two Grognak the Barbarians had attacked her the time before that.

 

Before that Cancer the Crab; the great red crab chased after her as she raced around holes of boiling water that had appeared in the floor. Jade had soon realised that she had to both avoid the crab and stop it from falling into the boiling water. Both of them had to stay unharmed. Then it was done and the great red crab went off to Megaton House.

 

Before that she had rolled a twelve on her dice, a number she had rolled before, and found that the game had adapted itself to her using a dice. A great figure of Grognak the Barbarian popped out of the air, seemed comical for a moment but then attacked Jasmine with amazing speed and power. She had knocked him down three times with a little difficulty and then he had vanished.

 

Before that Virgo the Virgin was a young man who kept trying to seduce her with pheromones, amazing good looks and a nubile body. Jade sensed she had to avoid being seduced with out hurting the feelings of the young virgin. Somehow she did so with this would be Adonis and then he was gone off to Megaton House.

 

So now she had gotten past the Twelve Star-Signs and each chamber had been looted in turn by the Garys and Marys from Vault-108. Some came now and found many prepacked preserved boxcans of sardines, tuna and other types of fish. They found other gear in lockers that they took.

 

When the Garys and Marys were gone, Jade waited and then the whole great chamber floor began to descend like one big elevator but only down one level. Now it was but part of a great chamber that stretched out in all directions. It was a scene of old carnage, of thousands of skeletal remains, of dropped weapons being mostly tools or home made hand weapons. She walked amongst the remains and noted strange symbols and altered clothes, altered body-armour. These people had been going insane, had been driven into terrible violence.

 

There was a residue of spent psychic power. A powerful entity, a living goddess, had manipulated the minds of these poor humans and had set them upon each other until the last survivor she had caused to commit suicide. Gary had spoken of meeting the Darkman but now Jade knew that this Darkman had been a fake and she was pretty sure whom it had really been.

 

Catherine Ashworth who was really the Dark Maiden.

 

Except that Jade was wrong for the creature that came out from hiding amongst the sea of heaped of crates, furniture, deactivated robots, junk and much else, was a living demigoddess of a special kind. For she had been boosted, her power had been boosted, temporarily, so that she was just as powerful as a living goddess. Except there was a terrible price to pay for such evil stupidity. Already she was insane and she was dying.

 

This other wore a weird bikini of chain mail on her slimly voluptuous body, a very impractical or even dangerous armour for her to wear. That is it put her in danger and not Jade. She was tall, elegant and haughty but her eyes blazed intensity of madness.

In each hand she held a flaming sword of much heat.

 

The other spoke. “I am Lady Slayer, daughter to the Dark Maiden. She loves me and I serve her totally. Now I will kill you, will burn you asunder. You are but a treacherous shadow of her majestic self.”

 

Jade nodded. “We do not have to fight and yet I see not only the insanity in you but the evil that you willingly did. You are a self made victim. Come, we fight now!”

 

They shot at each other with incredible speed across the chamber and each was surrounded by a sparkling shimmer of dangerous energies. They exploded into each other and then they began to fight with insane speed but with cold calculation, deadly precision and with energies that could melt steel armour, pulverize hardened concrete and render normal flesh to a few drifting particles. They were martial arts of centuries of fighting experience doing what mortal humans could only dream of doing, what human mortals could not even see because of the speed it was going.

 

Sparks flashed, bolts of flame shot out to make machines explode savagely, fists blew holes in great thick concrete pillars but thankfully not too many and heavy things were hurled around the place.

 

But then Jade was alone for her enemy had fled. It was not the end of the fighting but only the end of a testing bout. Lady Slayer had been testing her and Jade, knowing this, had not fought with her full abilities. She was going to give Lady Slayer a rude surprise.

 

Now though she crouched and did what she could to call upon the Light to flow through her to those all around her who had died a terrible and mostly undeserved death. Light did flow out from her and the dead did rise. Some became life elementals of green, human elementals of the spirit, solar elementals of yellow-white, human elementals of the mind, air-water elementals of blue or human elements of the body. Some went on to the afterlife, passing on. But most returned as enhanced human life, being enhanced of mind, body and spirit. A minority who had indulged in evil, who had actually caused more harm, were now grey puppetnoids facing punishment of mindless labour but they had chosen this knowing the alternatives.

 

Mary and Gary came flooding forth in numbers, finding now opened rampways and elevators down to that level so that they could do so. They welcome the awakened ones who were sheerly amazed that the Garys were far from being mindlessly savage any more. Indeed they had to stop poor Gary from apologising so much because it was becoming a little embarrassing. They were also astonished to find themselves patting Garys and doing other things to cheer the Garys up.

 

Jade was confident they were well on their way to getting things organised, for they were all linked now. She departed in a hurry and entered a maze of dimly lit hallway tunnels, chambers and other facilities where she began a cat and mouse game of death with Lady Slayer.

Continued in EIGHTY-ONE