DC WASTELAND RISING

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

Rivet City was quiet with only a few lights showing lest it become too easy or too tempting a target for the enemy. The aircraft carrier, a Prewar museum of a naval ship with exhibitions of both the US Navy and Marines, had lights up for the deck as VTOL and STOL aircraft took turns taking off or landing. The fairly large aircraft carrier had both a straight and a slanted flight-deck plus other space to deal with these aircraft plus elevator platforms down to two hanger workshop levels.

 

Rivet City now flew the new USA Flag, red and white stripes with a single big white star, and beneath it its own flag. Apart from vertibirds and vertijets there were short landing and take off military and civil aircraft of various kinds. There was even a medium sized airship from which people and cargo were being unloaded.

 

The luxury ocean liner had been part of the maritime museum also but not militarised except for some exhibitions on its use as a troopship in World War Two. Now its cabins, big dining areas and much else served many people as they had done for many decades.

 

As for the freighter, its holds had long been modified to fit sturdily built but rough looking decks, ramps and other features to make up workshops, the famous Rivet City Markets and much else. An area open to the sun held hydroponic buildings and power wind-wheels slowly spun in the breeze.

 

Abraham Washington strode along a deck looking out over the very wide river and at the distance bank. It was dark enough for the flashes of anti-aircraft fire to show in the air as the National Guard sent older style aircraft against the enemy. Thankfully the super mutants did not seem to have very good air defences like powerful versatile energy skyguns or SAM (surface to air missile) batteries or even skysweeper guns that could pump out great numbers of shells.

 

He was pleased that the museum had recently gained a few pieces from the newly found bunker-complex fairly close to the GNR Tower that was now being called simply Bunkertown by many people. He was not so pleased that the war was still being waged. It was one thing to peacefully and safely study history from a distance of time but to be directly involved in one was just too awful.

 

Rivet City Security Guards had all returned to the ships based settlement from escorting river convoys. National Guardsmen had taken over these duties. The security guards were bolstered by new Rivet City Militia soldiers. The presence of so many armed guards had never pleased Abraham but now the number was at least tripled and the decks of the three larger and various smaller vessels of Rivet City bristled with weapons.

 

A big mutated electric-eel flashed some silver as it rose briefly above the waves of the river. Such eels were tasty to eat but could kill an adult human in one good zap of electricity. The radiated condition of the waters had produced mutated fish and other creatures and the people of Rivet City had learned how to fish the near part of the river to gain resources.

 

Then he saw them coming as they skipped low over the water, big and strange in the darkness, terrible shaped and he sensed danger. He never considered himself a hero and the beasties were coming at him fast but for some reason he did not run. He turned, sensed nobody else had seen the threat, and looked for an alarm but the only one near had a ‘out of order’ sign on it. He cursed but then saw the emergency case. Abraham ripped it open, grabbed up a flare and aiming it roughly over the rushing monsters, he let it off. The flare was a white one and exploded into light, happily, in the right place to show up the great oddly. The next one showed up ranks following them in reddish light.

 

It was enough. Heavy machineguns, lasers and other weapons opened up from the decks of the ships. Security guards and militia joined in the shooting. The on coming creatures began to explode, to veer off, to crash into the water to flip over. Abraham Washington froze and stared at the many beasties still coming towards him. He did not think to move until he began to..

 

When the fighting was done and the last of the strange new super mutants had been driven off with out breaching the defences of Rivet City, the new commander of the Rivet City Defence Force strode along a deck. As he did he was speaking to an aid. “You say that the flares were fired in a hurry from this deck but that nobody has claimed responsibility for the action that most likely saved many lives and much destruction.”

 

The aid nodded. “Twelve Rivet Cityfolk were killed and over fifty were badly wounded by those damned monsters. Some want the big sting ray things to be called skipper mutants because of the way they moved but what of the small super mutant humanoids that rode on them? They had gills but could breathe air.”

 

“Skipper mutants, don’t like the name. Too much like a ‘skipper’ of a ship.” The commander shrugged. “Stinger mutants because of those stings they threw from their tails and the human sized humanoids, maybe gill mutants. Naming those monsters is not something I want to spend too much energy on doing.”

 

Then they heard it, the excited noise of a crowd gathered further along the same deck. They fell silent and a mixture of mostly armed guards and soldiers gave them room to move through.

 

One woman soldier spoke. “Commander, it was Abraham Washington that fired the flares. Who would have thought he had it in him to do this. Nobody thought he was much but a would be historian and museum curator that people visited sometimes when they came to Rivet City. Just goes to show you.”

 

The commander responded. “Well, I had best thank the…” Then he saw Abraham Washington and he stopped speaking. The big stinger projectile must have killed the old man at once and had driven him with such force against the metal wall that he was upright against it. There was plenty of blood splashed over one of his normally neat jumpers. His head was somehow thrown back and his eyes stared blankly at the sky.

 

The commander could not think anything to say at first and then he ordered all there, even the civilians, to salute the dead hero. They did almost as one.

 

The last ever exhibit to be placed in the museum, that had anything to do with Abraham Washington, was the display of his photograph, his medal, and written details of how he had lived, what he had done and how he had died. The last words were a written commitment that Rivet City would not only keep the museum running but that it would be expanded and improved.

 

Its new name was the Abraham Washington Museum!

 

Continued in TWENTY-SIX

[dezdimona]

wow this rocks and all in one day!...your a god! :biggrin:

[Maharg67]

thank you, Dezidimona, but truth is this is prewritten and there are at least 60 postings to come.

[dezdimona]

thank you, Dezidimona, but truth is this is prewritten and there are at least 60 postings to come.

lay em on me big boy! :biggrin:

[Maharg67]

Oh gosh, Dezdimona, you make me blush, really you do! More posting on their way!

 

TWENTY-SIX

 

Uncle Leo led the growing following through a great wide highway tunnel. They moved around atomic and electric powered vehicles, past skeletal remains and before them fled feral ghouls. That is except for some who came willingly, passively to become Uncle Leo’s followers. The followers scavenged what useful items they could as the convoy moved. There were robots, horse drawn carts, humans on bicycles, ghouls on horses, dogs, others leading pack-brahmins and much else. Super mutants, humans and ghouls now were all robed and, underneath, armoured except for the children and a few others.

 

The idea was to keep moving, to keep gathering followers and then to rest in some hopefully safe place where they could find more resources. They were in the great labyrinth of Washington DC Subway, utility tunnels and other spaces sometimes known as Undercity DC. It was a Prewar name given to hidden communities of criminals, social misfits, military deserters and others hiding down beneath the city proper. It was said there were long abandoned underground places down there like a whole set of late 1800s train tunnels and Prohibition clubs from the Roaring Twenties or even strange cult temples.

 

They came upon the tunnel entrance smashed through one wall and to a big rough but cleverly shored up tunnel beyond it. The tunnel sank downwards into the depths and one wall was actually a concrete wall still intact. At least for part of the way. Odd smells and sounds drifted faintly up that tunnel and most of the followers clearly did not wish to go that way.

 

But with out hesitation Uncle Leo led the whole cavalcade into that high wide tunnel with its clever but crude engineering. Soon they were heading deeper into the depths, deeper into the unknown. As they did they passed strange markings on the wall, many of which glowed in response to electric lights carried by the procession. The markings were not disturbing though and were quite elegantly beautiful.

 

When a follower asked Uncle Leo what the signs on the walls meant he smiled and said, “They are here to welcome my followers and myself. This tunnel was built for us and where it ends there waits for us many friends.”

 

This message began to circulate and the followers became less fearful.

 

Continued in TWENTY-SEVEN

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-SEVEN

 

Jasmine found a way back to the Lamplight Caverns when she found where the new babies came from that supplied the caverns with fresh generations. The machine was inside a big half dome display as if it was just another exhibit in the amazing museum that the Darkman had set up flat against one wall. A big 3Dflatscreen showed that another baby had just been delivered to the Lamplight Caverns being a dark brown baby boy. Still be processed was a ‘protobino’ child due to be sent to some place called Paradise Deep. The next one on the que was also protobino to be sent to the same place. These protobino babies were albino like and linked to the albino folk she had seen in her vision unblocking a big Vault-87 door in the side of the cliff; or so Jasmine sensed and strongly suspected.

 

Her link with Jas told her a dark brown baby had just slid down the chute into the arms of Lucy who picked him up at once to give him a cuddle. There were adults in the big metal chamber now but they gave Lucy the honour of greeting each new baby first.

 

Fawkes stood to one side of her and he frowned softly. “What is this machine? A Cloneator? I have not heard of such a thing.”

 

“Hybrid human-alien technologies and I mean more than one kind of alien and more than one world of humanity. The Darkman most like created the blueprints for this and oversaw its manufacture.” Jasmine turned to him. “Have you ever wondered if there are too many super mutants?”

 

Fawkes nodded. “Where I was created I do not really know. My memories of that and my previous life remain broken and often missing. Yet I do remember that where I was locked away there were only empty tanks of FEV and that there were only a few stupid mutants and a few dead and living failed experiments. Oh, there were some centaurs as well. No transformations of humans into either super mutants or centaurs took place there while I was locked up there.”

 

She frowned. “We have to go back there. There are a few things that I need to check up on. I have a growing dark suspicion that somebody had pulled a great and horrible joke on the world when it comes to the VaultTec Vaults. That is a dark joke of deception on many levels.”

 

Then she walked around to the side of the dome where it met the wall and pointed to the wall there. “A secret door! I can sense it and even see it in a fashion.” She reached out and touched the wall in front of her. With a click and then a soft humming noise panel drew back and then slid to one side. “Subtle holographic projections and other trickery kept the door hidden.”

 

Inside they found a fair sized metallic chamber. There was the top of a metal chute disappearing down and out of sight. There was a bank of machinery including some computer hardware. There was a row of lockers and filing-cabinets. Behind consoles and a desk were office swivel-chairs. Inside three vertical cylinders could be seen two androids, a vaultboy and a vaultgirl, plus a security globebot.

 

At that moment the Reilly’s Ranger commander came into the room and looked around in curiosity before she walked to stand next to Jasmine. “The platoon has voted. We wish for transformation. The new platoon of former Talon Fists are ready to do something. As for the others, well I am not sure about them. We do not wish to be transformed into something like them.”

 

“I am sure you won’t be.” Jasmine smiled. “You do not need transforming. You already are because of my influence. You are physically, mentally and psychically enhanced. The transformation I am going through is increasingly influencing others around me. The sensible mutants are getting smarter and wiser.”

 

Petra gave Jasmine an odd look and then nodded. “They want all of us Rangers to fill out wonderful new forms they have created. I filled out a questionnaire about how high a super mutant would jump if frightened by a mouse. One question asked if the height would be greater if the mouse was white or brown?" She changed subject. "What of the others? That is those who did not turn into blue, green or yellow elementors and … go rushing off to help heal the world.”

 

Yes, there were the ones who failed the testing. They were transformed into puppetnoids, grey skinned and hairless humanoids who would do anything that Jasmine ordered them to do within limits of their protective code. So far they were in a hibernation like state waiting for their first task.

 

The platoon leader went on. “A harsh punishment it seems, being turned into a puppetnoid.”

 

Jasmine shook her head. “For what they did it was a very merciful punishment. Rape, torture, murder, enslavement, theft and much else. Their minds are partly here and partly in another place, divided with their spirits, undergoing other processes. That is all I am able to say on the matter. Let’s take a look around and see what is on offer in this chamber.”

 

The lockers held jumpsuits, lightly armoured hazmat suits, some caseless bullet firing semiautomatic pistols, some 10mmC ammo in magazines and loose in boxes, a stack of hard porn holotapes, other holotapes, bottles of soft drink including NukaCola, toolkits, medikits, scrap metal, some very small robots, stacks of blank documents, pencils, refillable biros, a NukaCola toy truck and much else.

 

Jasmine stood back after the lockers were carefully emptied and examined them carefully. Three puppetnoids carried the items from the lockers in plastic carryboxes to where other useful stuff was stored. Petra was a little spooked by the puppetnoids and Jasmine couldn’t blame her for that; they were a little spooky.

 

Jasmine found the hidden control panel behind a real control panel that swung open. She carefully examined arrays of displays, switches and a keyboard before she began to act with amazing speed. Datasymbols showed up in flowing patterns on a 3Dflatscreen.

 

With a humming noise the lockers and the wall behind them slid back and then to one side to reveal another chamber, a much bigger one. At the back from them was a three metre wide cylinder shaped armaglass chamber that was nine metres high and yet did not go near reaching the high ceiling. It was on a metre high disk shaped platform that was six metres across. A ramp joined the top of the platform with the floor. Closer to them, on either side of the room, were two rows of machinery. There were computer boxes, consoles and much else.

 

Closer to them was a pile of skeletal remains in Vault-87 jumpsuits, scientist gear, body-armour and much else of the kind. There were plenty of weapons scattered amongst the lot as if this was a desperate last stand.

 

Jasmine walked to the mound and frowned softly. “Professor Altman killed these poor souls as he did those who were in the chambers running off the rocky alcove entrance in the cliff face. Except in this case he shot them down with a laser-rifle in the end. Altman was rapidly transforming, was insane with mental and physical agony, was no longer in rational control of his actions. He was a bad man turning evil. He was trying to find and kill the Darkman.”

 

She turned to the others. “The ramp will let anybody slide down into the big metal chamber in the Lamplight Caverns. This other machine is a teleportation booth, or telebooth, that will hopefully take Fawkes, Dogmeat and I back to where we were before in Vault-87, that is to where Fawkes was locked away.”

 

Jasmine walked over to a blank area of wall to one side of the telebooth and soon had another secret door opening to expose the top of a spiral rampway tunnel. “This will allow you to go to and from the Lamplight Caverns. The puppetnoids will be under your charge until she discuss these matters with Reilly. Please take care of the sensible mutants. Dogmeat-2 will stay with the sensible mutants.”

 

Petra sighed. “You mean Dogmeat has divided just as you did into Jas, Jade and yourself. Who is this Jade and where is she?”

 

“It’s best if I do not say!” Jasmine turned as Dogmeat trotted in and then rubbed his head. “Are you ready to teleport, Dogmeat?”

 

The big dog barked once, turned and licked Petra on the hand. Petra looked surprised and then she nodded.

 

Petra spoke. “Yes, I will look after Dogmeat-2 and the sensible mutants. Communications through licking… interesting!”

 

Jasmine responded. “I hope to be back here soon.”

 

The three of them went into the telebooth. Jasmine operated the controls on the inside of the booth. There was a sparkling shimmer and they vanished.

 

Petra turned and went back to the others in the odd museum. There were plenty of things to be done.

 

Continued in TWENTY-EIGHT

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-EIGHT

 

 

Jade moved quickly over the terrain, past a crumbling church, along a fragmented road and as she ran she left few traces of her passing behind. In stealth power armour the young woman then dropped to her knees behind a broken thrown up mound of rock and dirt. She peered over it in the semidarkness to the arrayed buildings and ruins of Paradise Falls.

 

In theory Paradise Falls was abandoned, the last slavers have departed, but now she was looking at a large group moving towards a secondary entrance. Marshal Hrashman and a few of his soldiers were there, marching armed and body-armoured. They had captives of ghouls and human Wastelanders. They had enslaver-collars around their necks fitted with explosive devices.

 

What was Hrashman up to? Was he selling these people but if he was, who to? Had he done such things before?

 

The group stopped just outside the secondary gate to Paradise Falls. Out of it came armed albino figures in black metallic jumpsuits, black boots, black goggles with odd green lens and strange transparent bubble-helmets on their heads. They carried squat rifle weapons that were electromagnetic railguns of some kind or standard 7.62mm assault-rifles of World War Three vintage. With them came battle globebots each with a M60 machinegun that would fire 7.62mm bullets or a flamer or a missile-launcher.

 

These albino figures, or protobinos, moved in groups of three with a robot and they soon surrounded the newcomers.

 

With amazing speed Jade moved closer, darting and slipping through the landscape. She ceasing moving where she could better hear what was going on.

 

Hrashman stepped forward and looked around with a look of arrogance on his face but he was frightened and angry also, or so Jade sensed. Then the big hulking man from Crosswayne spoke. “I bring more slaves for you to put to work down in the stinking depths of Paradise Deeps but you owe me and if you do not pay there will be no more to come. The slavers have fled to Armageddon Park and they will no longer be of use to you. The robotanks you supplied us with have begun to break down and we find ourselves unable to fix them.”

 

Then an albino woman figure stepped into view. She wore a purple metallic jumpsuit, black boots, black gloves, goggles with green lens and a transparent bubble-helmet. She smiled. “Marshal Hrashman, you sent us inferior slaves. They were sick and were soon dying on us. We suspected you might do something like this so we gave you robotanks that would break down, that you would not be able to repair. You owe us as much as we owe you. You will give us these slaves and we will give you the parts and manuals you need to repair your robotanks with.”

 

Then she changed subject. “You failed to occupy the Lamplight Caverns as we had agreed. You have still not done so.”

 

He shook his head. “Sisters of Steel in power armour! Elite veteran soldiers who could go through my forces like hot knives through butter. Now they are joined by Reilly’s Rangers. I brought my forces all the way here to the Lamplight Caverns expecting only to face resistance from children and look what happened. The place was full of power armoured women. And that Jasmine! There ain’t something natural about her.”

 

The protobino woman nodded. “Quite the opposite but I do not wish to go into that now. The Darkman is gone from Vault-87. Even the army of super mutants that he left behind under the control of one of his clones is on the way to the National Mall Zone. We will try to find a way for you to get into Vault-87 with out going near Jasmine or her various companions or allies.”

 

He frowned. “Crosswayne is becoming problematic for me. My people have started to question their loyalty to me now that I am no longer there to remind them that they need to stay good followers.”

 

The albino woman sounded disdainful. “You mean that you are not there to oppress your people any more, to demand extreme protection fees, to grab up young women to add temporarily to your harem, to shoot anybody who questions you or your puppet government of pathetic councils.”

 

Hrashman grinned. “I am a strong man and a good fighter. I protect my people. I protect Crosswayne. I deserve some rewards.” He lost his grin. “Let us get on with it. I detest the company of your people.”

 

She nodded. “The sooner we part ways the better for you are primitive, selfish and with out true cause.”

 

Jade cursed silently to herself and wondered how it was that the truth about Crosswayne had never quite reached the DC Wastelands. Or was that true? She ached to save the people being enslaved.

 

Yet there was something not quite right with what was happening in front of her. The slaves were not quite acting proper for down trodden folk.

 

It was then that Marshal Hrashman’s forces came charging from all directions in large formations. The albino folk were thrown into confusion at first but quickly they became organised in a careful retreat. Still it seemed that Hrashman had the upper hand, that he had managed to sneak up on the these strange new occupants of Paradise Falls. They brought robots with them and jeeps with heavier weapons. They rode in on horses. Then came custom built battlebuggies and bigger wheeled war-machines loaded with trigger happy soldiers and powerful weapons.

 

The protobinos fell back in a highly organised manner through the secondary entrance to Paradise Falls and then were gone from sight. The Crosswayne soldiers rushed towards the apparently lightly armoured gate.

 

Jade reached out with her mindeye and she noted a larger force of Crosswayners attacking the main gate. They also were rushing at it in a crazy mixture of atomic and electric powered machines.

 

It seemed that Hrashman would have himself another victory through deviousness and smart planning.

 

Which was when the Martian mechatripod rose above the Paradise Falls buildings on flexible long telescopic legs that used force-fields to become supportive when needed, and unleashed a much improved heat-beamer. That is much improved over the ones that the Tripoc Martians had used in the invasion of the 1890s that had been mainly focused on the United Kingdom.

 

The heat-beam swung across the attackers and they simply disintegrated with red hot flashes, leaving little more than black ash behind. Vehicles exploded. Soldiers turned into screaming living torches who were mercifully shot by their comrades. The Crosswayners turned weapons up against the hulking hood and the rest of the rounded off structure of the mechatripod’s cabin. Despite a flickering of force screens, lasers did burn marks on its hull. Bullets and even 20mm calibre shots, bounced off it. A missile exploded and the mechatripod shuddered horrible and a big dent was left behind.

 

But then the mechatripod was unleashing two secondary weapons. A multiple missile launcher began to fire the same sort of standard missiles the attackers were using but lots of them. A big 20mm six barrelled gattling-autogun unleashed a storm of 20mm shells.

 

It was then that parts of the buildings facing the enemy fell open and from those opening began to be fired a wide range of weapons. Heavy machineguns, missile launchers, rocket-grenade launchers, laser weapons, plasma weapons and many assault-rifles.

 

Marshal Hrashman died as a heat-beam disintegrated him even as he screamed out a furious battle cry.

 

The survivors fled as best they could, taking the wounded with them if they could or killing their own as a merciful act. Soon the Crosswayners were gone except for scattered bodies, burning vehicles and other remains.

 

The defenders ceased firing, the mechatripod sank smoothly out of sight and the buildings went back to looking normal again.

 

Jade was stunned at the quickness of Hrashman’s total defeat, at his death. Hrashman had turned out, it seemed, to be a brutal man hated by his own people, a man who thought only of his own power and wealth. Yet Jade sensed she should check out this story before she accepted it. She was also amazed by the sudden shock appearance of an active Martian mechatripod right there in Paradise Falls. The Martians had sabotaged their machines as they died and even when fixed humans had never quite got the hang of properly controlling one. There were only a scattering of mechatripods that had survived the invasion in the 1890s and many had perished in World War Three as they had been in museums or private collections. Still there were plenty of whispers of mechatripods and other Martian tripoc technologies being hidden away for research and development purposes.

 

Tripocs were the actual Martian peoples who had invaded; poorly translated Martian data found with the dead invaders had hinted at the existence of other kinds of Martians in a great underworld.

 

She slipped away into the night.

 

Continued in TWENTY-NINE

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-NINE

 

 

Jasmine, Dogmeat and Fawkes stepped out of the telebooth and stopped in shock. They were in Central Washington DC but this was no war ravished and feral ghoul haunted place. No, this was a pristine clean, wonderful place full of flowing crowds in Prewar clothes moving along wide sidewalks. Peaceful robots were in the plenty such as vending-bots selling icecreams, to striding policetrons and roving eyebots with stunguns instead of lasers.

 

Nobody seemed to mind that Jasmine and Fawkes were heavily armed let alone that Fawkes was a big hulking super mutant. The humans kept bustling past shops with big armaglass or holographic display windows. Some schoolchildren hurried past in uniform. Then some happy go lucky soldiers wandered past on leave in uniforms with out armour or guns.

 

Trams and buses were plentiful on the wide streets as were both atomic and electric cars. Three wheeler vehicles hummed along on wheels or floated through the air just above the street surface. There were combooths with computerised communications and in the distance another telebooth.

 

A big airship passed overhead in the close distance with a large cabin beneath and advertisements flashing big on the sides of its dirigible hull. Beyond that, high in the sky, drifted a great metallic disk of some kind of skyship. There were commercial, police, paramilitary and military vertibirds and vertijets. Low flying aircars moved in their own lanes. Skycars flew higher and many were police vehicles, deadly and heavily armoured with many weapons.

 

Skyscrapers were very thick and often pyramidic. Jets of burning methane gas exploded high into the sky.

 

It was raining steadily but the rain pattered off a transparent plastic cover above the sidewalk with water flowing down clever channels to vanish into a drainage system of hidden pipes.

 

The clothes were Prewar like but less modest with hems being halfway to the knees and often cleavages being exposed. All people were attractive. There were no old looking people, no crippled people, no sick looking people.

 

It looked like a wonderful Utopia because everybody was smart looking and they were smiling, always smiling with bright shiny eyes.

 

Then she noted everybody, even the children, wore hats.

 

Then she noted there were no animals, no dogs being walked, no police officers riding horses, no pigeons begging for crumbs and no petshops.

 

Then she noted that there were many heavily armed police officers with police power armour and even more heavily power armoured paramilitary order officers with even bigger guns. There were very many policetrons and turrets. There were very many eyebots.

 

Too many smiles! No anger, no sadness, no nothing else but smiles.

 

Dogmeat whined softly. Fawkes grimaced and shook his head. Jasmine made her decision. She turned and nodded at the telebooth.

 

They all three stepped into it and soon vanished with a shimmer.

 

Seconds later a large force of order officers swarmed into the spot that the three newcomers had been in. But the paramilitary troopers stopped in frustration as apparently they could not go into the teleportation device.

 

Continued in THIRTY

[Maharg67]

THIRTY

 

 

Stupid mutants stomped along a big, wide tunnel beneath the National Mall that was amazing in appearance. Along either side of the elegant hallway were great Roman style pillars and between each one a great sitting stone figure. The stone figures were of strange humanoids in big stone throne chairs for each had four arms and each arm was double jointed with two elbows. Also each figure had two heads, one looking friendly with a big smile and the other looking angry or sad.

 

There were great burning torches that burned brightly and yet constantly with very little flickering and no smoke at all.

 

The tunnel was very old like much of the mysterious Undercity that most Postwar Washington DC folk would have been shocked to know was beneath their feet. The Darkman had built his army of super mutants and now they were invading that ancient hidden realm that was there long before the first Europeans arrived on the North American continent or even before the first Native American Indians had arrived.

 

The stupid mutants were heavily armed and a few had new improved body-armour. With them scuttled spider mutants and centaurs. With the moved robomules, four wheeled robots that just carried things of use like nice crunchy radroach meat, water, ammo and SM-serum. SM-serum was stuff that healed super mutants faster and made them live longer. With out SM-serum sometimes super mutants suddenly died for no apparent reason or they went berserk and attacked everything in sight.

 

They passed through an intersection of tunnels and the sounds of battle drifted to them from one big side town down the sides of which grew dark rubbery plant vines in thick abundance.

 

Leading the convoy was a behemoth with new type body-armour and a big 40mm autogun. He turned and aimed his gun down the side tunnel. Something was coming fast up that tunnel and it was not friendly to super mutants. The behemoth screamed outrage that anything should dare challenge him, dare to try and frighten him.

 

Then he let rip with his big gun and it thundered away. The bizarre attacker, a flickering shape that was constantly changing and sparkling, screamed in agony but kept coming. It was disturbing to look at because it kept almost looking like familiar things but never quite totally looked like anything at all. The more one tried to focus on anything to clarify it, the less clear it became. Blood and gore spouted from it.

 

Other super mutants started shooting their weapons at the same threat. They fired off laser beams, plasma pulses, missiles, rocket-grenades, bullets and jets of flame.

 

Then it was gone but left behind was a heap of bits of super mutant, of weapons, of other things that had once been another super mutant group.

 

Continued in THIRTY-ONE

[Herculine]

I'm still in awe!