DC WASTELAND RISING

[dezdimona]

I'm still in awe!

indeed,this is such a great read.

[Maharg67]

Thank you, Dezdimona!

 

THIRTY-ONE

 

 

3Dog woke up from his nap on a cot in a side room from the studio, stretched and looked at the other two copies of himself. Except that they were not exactly like him.

 

The younger looking version of himself wore light power armour was picking through some Prewar books and even some Postwar published but more basic made books. He turned and spoke. “1Dog is my name and we are one. I must go soon for it is not good for the three of us who are one to stay too close together.”

 

He put the book down. “We are like Jasmine who is now Jasmine, Jade and Jas but I do not know why or how we are alike. This is really quite weird, more than a little disturbing but quite interesting. I am going to search further this bunker-complex of bunkers which so far has always had two new bunkers leading off each bunker. From the first bunker there were two bunkers and from them another four, which of course means there are now seven bunkers. There is something odd, puzzling and not quite logical about the way the bunkers are laid out. They almost appear to be taking up the same space as each other.”

 

The older appearing version of himself, but still youthful looking, wore a labcoat and other such gear. He smiled. “I, 2Dog, am going through the new GNR Archives which now is an amazingly ten large chambers big and we may discover more archives.”

 

3Dog sighed. “2Kitty is going to have kittens when she finds out about this. Firstly she learns I am from the moon, am over 200 years old and now there are three of me who are still one entity. Why is this happening?”

 

2Dog shrugged. “Bro, it has already happened but I do not know why. This way we, that is I, get to be a scientist, a DJ and a roving investigator at the same time. Some powerful but subtle force wants us to do something very badly even if they have to twist reality to get things done.”

 

At that moment 2Kitty walked in clad in a fluffy bath towel.

 

Then 1Kitty walked in clad in another fluffy bath towel.

 

2Kitty pulled off her towel and began to dry her hair. She frowned softly at 3Dog. “I don’t suppose you can explain any of this to me.”

 

1Kitty was a younger looking version of 2Kitty but still adult. She giggled. “Ooohhh, so many hunky handsome men.”

 

2Kitty sighed. “Oh behave yourself, myself, 1Kitty.”

 

1Kitty slipped off her towel and began drying her wet hair. “Poor 2Kitty had a bit of a shock when I popped up and started washing her back in the shower.”

 

1Dog grinned. “Nice to look at you two lovely young women but we have to go our separate ways. This is why we underwent the Self-is-Many Splitting Process as did Jasmine and Dogmeat. Yes, even Dogmeat the dog.”

 

At that moment DJ Bot the robot drifted in, stopped, and then spoke. “Ooohhh no, I fear that I am having some kind of computer processing breakdown. Is it my ocular circuits? Is it my central processing? Could it be my sanity clause? No, there is no such thing as a sanity clause.” The robot laughed in a bad electronic manner.

 

3Dog groaned. “I swear, DJ Bot, that your jokes are even worse than mine and you tend to mess them up.”

 

DJ Bot responded. “Quote from an old movie. The Marx Brothers of which the fourth was actually a sister. Groucho, Harpo, Chicko and Boppo. So where are folks off to?”

 

3Dog shrugged. “I am staying here at GNR.”

 

2Kitty nodded. “And I am staying with him, of course.”

 

2Dog responded. “As already stated, I am going to plunge into the new GNR archives.”

 

1Doggy nodded in turn. “Also as previously stated, I am off to further explore this amazing bunker-complex of bunkers.”

 

1Kitty smiled. “I am off to GNR Tower because I have a strong but subtle sense that there is something about that building that is very important, something that we have overlooked despite all of our years working and living there. Remember that the super mutants kept attacking GNR Tower but nobody came up with a very good reason why they should bother to do so even though they lost large numbers doing so.”

 

The others departed. 2Kitty and 3Dog snuggled up together on the bed, under the sheets and then they kissed passionately.

 

Continued in THIRTY-TWO

[Maharg67]

There is no 'Thirty-Two' because it was left out by mistake

 

THIRTY-THREE

 

 

The National Mall Zone was a sea of ditches, sandbag walls, metallic fortifications, turrets, barbed wire, rotting bodies, bits of armour, broken weapons, spent bullet casings, mud, pools of stale water, scuttling radroaches and crouching super mutants. The tall Washington Monument was collapsed. Craters dotted the terrible expanse.

 

Brotherhood of Steel and National Guard forces surrounded the whole area. They relied heavily on sensors, small turrets, observers in tall ruins and observation aircraft flying over quickly to keep a check on what was happening.

 

Nobody was fighting on the surface or in the ways just below the surface. There were patrols and sentries. Scouts snuck through the area.

 

When the super mutant found the electric guitar all set up with an amplifier, he was amazed. Old buried memories came flickering through his stupid mutant mind, old skills bubbled to the surface.

 

He put down his gattling-laser.

 

He gingerly picked up the guitar.

 

He began to play quietly. At first he was not very good. Slowly he got louder and louder, better and better. His fingers flew over the strings. He jerked the guitar up and down as he played more and more wildly.

 

Then, heedless of danger, he leapt up onto a hill. Now he played for all he was worth. The amp was pushed to its limits. He was no longer just a super mutant, he was a superstar mutant.

 

At that moment three howitzer rockets hit him at once. There was a mighty explosion. Bits of superstar mutant, electric guitar and amplifier flew into the air.

 

After a long pause, a long silence, a Brother of Steel called out. His voice echoed across the battleground and all that heard his words had to agree.

 

For he said, “Everybody is a damned critic!”

 

Continued in THIRTY-FOUR

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-FOUR

 

 

Jasmine, Dogmeat and Fawkes stepped carefully out of another telebooth and found themselves in an abandoned looking vault chamber with heaped up furniture against one long wall. The metallic surfaces of wall, floors and ceilings were rusty. She had seen this effect in Vaults 87, 92, 106 and 108. Back then she had not thought much about it, had taken it as granted.

 

This time she walked over to a wall and touched it. Then she turned to her companions and spoke. “The rust effect is faked. I suspect that many ruined vaults are actually a lie created from clever special effects, clever planning and perhaps other tricks. There is a synthetic psychic effect being generated in the background that influences people to believe in what they see, to not investigate too much, to grab what loot they can and to leave in a hurry.”

 

Fawkes nodded. “Yes, it no longer feels so real as it did when I was trapped in the experimental section of Vault-87. If this is part of Vault-87 then it is not an area that I knew of let alone visited.”

 

Then she saw it, the white holotape sitting on an overturned metal desk. She picked it up and studied the front. On it was <SSS01>. She looked around and then walked over to a corner. Soon she had the holoprojector set up on a table and had it functioning after a search for some working parts. Dogmeat sat quietly in a corner with a bowl of purified water next to him while Jasmine and Fawkes watched the show.

 

Robots were busy floating around a series of hallways and chambers putting the finishing touches to what was a whole pack of lies. They were putting into place skeletal remains, pools of dried blood, gore bags and much else.

 

A man in a white business suit was looking rather smug. He turned to the Darkman, who was taller and elegantly quiet in his black Victorian gentleman’s get-up, and he spoke. “Not the best special effects that I have ever done but very good considering the short time and lack of other resources I have had to deal with. People will come into Vault-87 and experience horrors. Super mutants, radroaches, filthy conditions, stories of horrible death and cramped conditions. They will wander around in circles, find some loot, kill some super mutants, and if they survive they will leave. Then the fake vault will be fixed up for the next visitors. It is far from perfect but I hope it will do. I also hope I have more than earned my reward.”

 

The Darkman nodded. “You will find a home waiting for you in SSS01 itself and a bonus of a happy sexy wife, an adoring mistress and some daughters for you to play your twisted games with. None of them will be real but they will be real enough for your shallow little mind. Now go before I snap your neck.”

 

The man in the white business suit gulped in fear, turned and hurried off. Soon he was gone from sight.

 

The smart mutant, generally human sized, marched into view and saluted the Darkman who nodded. The newcomer wore odd black power armour.

 

The smart mutant, an officer by his ranking symbols, then spoke. “Lord Dark, the Enclave no longer responds to any attempts at communications. The new clones are refusing to acknowledge your leadership.”

 

The Darkman scowled. “Well it seemed like a good idea at the time to introduce cloning to the Enclave. Let that be a lesson to both of us, soldier. When we come to the point we assume we can’t make mistakes, than we are sure to make mistakes. This oversight is going to prove to be very troubling though the Enclave’s power is now scattered and focused mainly on the Western Coast of North America and up in Alaska. What of Professor Altman?”

 

The smart mutant officer nodded. “We have traced him into Vault-87a where he has been causing murder and mayhem amongst the humans there. Professor Altman departed before we could capture him. The VaultTec humans are now once more working productively on the SSS Program. Fifty-two humans were killed and eleven were brain killed. The brain killed ones are being cyborged back into some kind of usefulness. Clones are being made from the dead ones.”

 

The Darkman scowled. “I should have killed him instead of giving him a second chance but his powers and insanity grew far stronger, far faster, than I had assumed they could. I can only compute that the fool experimented both with FEV and the baseline mutagen as well. He played god with his own genetics and now he is paying the price for it. Keep tracking him. Return to your command duties.”

 

The officer saluted, turned smartly and departed swiftly.

 

The Darkman turned and looked straight at Jasmine and saw her in a seemingly impossible fashion; then he started to talk to her. “So, Jasmine, what do you think of my little bit of foolery. There were no people here in Vault-87 except a few workers who helped with the fakery. There were no settlers, no experiments, no suffering people. I speak to you from many decades ago. You have discovered the telebooths and you even accidentally visited my utopia of SSS01 where everybody smiles because if they stop smiling, they die! At least that is the case on Smiledays. There are many different types of days in the SSS01 Calendar. SSS01 is based on Prewar Washington DC but you will never find it again. Hello, Fawkes, you really were a rather entertaining fellow and I am glad I did not kill you. I hope the three of you will not become problematic to me. Really, there has been too much killing.”

 

Jasmine nodded. “The DC Wastelands will learn that many vaults are fake. They will go seeking the truth.”

 

The Darkman yawned. “Really, don’t be so melodramatic, grand-daughter. Yes, you are my grand-daughter just as Catherine, your mother, is my daughter. Yes, she still lives. Your father died heroically and heart broken not knowing that his dear wife Catherine was living with him in Vault-101. So far and yet so near and yet so far. For yes, you are your mother and she is you. Catherine is Jasmine, is Jade and is Jas. When he seduced you on your sixteenth birthday after you had done your GECK, well that was just too much for him. Guilt, James always carried too much guilt thanks to his stilted religious upbringing. So with out warning he stole secrets and ran away from Vault-101. Only Amata, who later betrayed you, saved your life.”

 

She nodded. “My father, James Ashworth, the man who helped start Project Purity and who sacrificed himself trying to stop the Enclave getting control of the project, came from Vault-Ormond that the Ormons call the Holy Vault. He told me this many years ago. Our relationship was a little on the dysfunctional side but so were many in the confines of Vault-101. Treat people like trapped animals and what will they act like? ”

 

The Darkman nodded. “I must go. It has been nice talking to you. This holotape will not self destruct in ten seconds but it will go blank. Please feel free to record something useful onto it. Consider it a small gift from your grandpa.”

 

Then the projected imagery went blank.

 

Fawkes shook his head. “How did the Darkman do that?”

 

She held his big hand. “Because he, like me, is a living god and in truth we exist outside of time as you know it.” She took out the supposedly blank holotape and slipped it away. “The Darkman had a reason for prompting me to keep this holotape but for now let us focus on doing some exploring.”

 

They moved out of the chamber and the door closed behind them. They turned to see it was now cleverly blended with the wall as just another panel. How many other such secret doors were in the vaults?

 

There were hallways, chambers with long horizontal windows of murky armaglass looking into them, banks of computers, rows of desks, gore bags, mediboxes on walls full of medical loot, ammo boxes full of ammo loot, lockers with other loot, a couple of clinic chambers and computer terminals. One computer terminal had a heart rending story of suffering that Jasmine now knew was totally made up.

 

A secret door led into a big chamber with a big Cloneator machine. In the same big chamber were lockers full of gear to equip super mutants except for body-armour. The big machine was designed to clone stupid mutants, complete with their normal armour, and centaurs. She smiled and she activated it again, for it had been turned off, investigated its controls and then reprogrammed in a fashion that was supposed to be impossible.

 

They went through more hallways and found secret doors to two large storage chambers full of useful equipment and supplies including rows of globebots in storage, ready to use.

 

There was another GECK in the very place where Fawkes had grabbed the other GECK and had given it over to Jasmine. That was just before she was ambushed by the damned Enclave.

 

Then they were facing three Reilly’s Rangers in light power armour who had come from the direction of the big museum like chambers. Leading them was Reilly herself who looked quite pleased to see Jasmine.

 

Reilly stepped forward. “So the telebooth took you deeper into Vault-87.”

 

Jasmine frowned. “Whole damned vault is a fraud. There were never no experiments, no turning of people into super mutants, nothing. The real Vault-87 is elsewhere, I suspect, along with Vault-87a. Fawkes was fooled, I was fooled, others were fooled. Place is riddled with secret doors. There is another GECK exactly where Fawkes found the one that the Enclave took from me. Lockers I looted now have fresh loot in them. I found a big Cloneator machine that creates stupid mutants and centaurs to replace any that are killed. It also creates false prisoners that are killed. Nobody lived here, nobody suffered.”

 

Reilly looked around with a shocked expression on her face. “Professor Altman?”

 

Jasmine shrugged. “The Darkman was behind this and other fake vaults. How many, I do not know. You have a look of concern on your face. At least know I have found a great deal of equipment and supplies, including robots, that we can use and that we may find more. Also the cloneator machine is going to produce what I call soldier mutants of and human soldiers.”

 

Reilly frowned. “We will need it all. The Sisterhood of Steel is all here now. Star Paladin Cross has now become a Sister Steel. All of us Rangers are here now. We got militia. Big Towners have come along with a few folks who once lived in Megaton. I had a talk with Moira Brown. She found that people did not respond very positively to her Survival Guide and wishes to talk to you about creating a new and better one. She is a very interesting person but did you really do all those stupid things for her?”

 

Jasmine sighed. “Moira Brown always did get at a weak spot in me. Still, thanks to her, I became more resistant to radiation and gained a few other new tricks. Now, please tell me what is up.”

 

Reilly spoke. “The Little Lamplighters are dying. Jas has been able to put them into a kind of deep sleep to slow down the sickness but she needs something more. I thought Jas would have told you something.”

 

Jasmine cursed. “It was there in the back of my mind but I was intensely focused on other matters. We need that second GECK. Fawkes, will you do the honour of going to get it?”

 

Fawkes nodded. “Also the other things that were in the same room that might help you. Fawkes does not want children to die even if some of them teased Fawkes because he is a super mutant.”

 

Jasmine smiled at him. “Jas had a word to the children about that. They will show you more respect from now on. They have come to love the sensible mutants and Lucy became very protective of them and of Dogmeat-2.”

 

Fawkes raced off to get the second GECK from the high radioactive zone.

 

Jasmine took Reilly and showed the RRs where the secret chambers were with the resources and the big cloneator machine that was busy producing its first soldier mutant.

 

They went on looking for stuff that might save the children.

Continued in THIRTY-FIVE

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-FIVE

 

 

1Kitty made her way through the abandoned settlement of Radio Town that now served as barracks for various people now working in the GNR Tower for the new USFG. People smiled at her in a puzzled way until she explained that she was 2Kitty’s younger sister.

 

2Kitty had informed her clone-sister of where she could find blueprints and other plans of the building. An architect was studying the plans for the new government to see how well the building could be salvaged for future uses. She passed National Guardsmen, men and women, cleaning weapons and other equipment. She walked through rooms full of sleeping folks on bunk beds.

 

The architect was easy enough to seduce. He was a Subwayer from that heavily organised underground society and he was a nerd complete with a pencil protector in one pocket, thick glasses and a Tshirt with a picture of a Prewar comic-book superhero on the front, Captain Patriot. The old USFG had pushed the superhero as a gung-ho super soldier both with his own special intrinsic powers and special super power armour. Captain Patriot could sniff out commies, social misfits and pacifists with his super nose.

 

Half an hour later, with Ned Young sleeping soundly on his bunk in the small room, 1Kitty was busy hacking his computer. She soon got through his security and then she was examining not just data on the building but data on Ned Young himself. He was in truth not just an architect and not just a nerd.

 

Ned Young was secretly working for DCTec, the newish DC Wastelands corporation that was quite busy in some parts of the area. DCTec was far more than a mere corporation or at least these notes hinted at it. They, like the BofS, were collecting up Prewar technologies and knowledge. They were doing so not so openly.

 

Ned Young had already managed to open a secret safe in a decrepit building manager’s office. A real blueprint of the building showed things that the official blueprints carefully hid. There was a massive great metallic spike sticking up through the building to stick out the top as a fake lightening rod. There were a whole lot of hidden rooms and extra hidden basement levels.

 

Below GNR Tower was hidden Vault-GNR but there were no details of what exactly this was.

 

In the lower right hand corner of the blueprints was the code <SSS01>.

 

The blueprint had not enough details and too many odd terms with out due explanation to what they meant. Yet she guessed enough to become very concerned. Postwar climate and weather were wild at times with great thunderstorms. Every time lightening struck the GNR Spike it drew a massive amount of electricity down through the metallic structure to the hidden basement levels. GNR and the BofS had been blithely living in the tower for decades, along with the folk of Radio Town, with out knowing how much danger they were potentially in. For even as 1Kitty looked at the design of the Lightening Spike, she was not overly impressed with its safety systems.

 

Ned Young woke up to find himself the prisoner of the newly created CSIA. Two CSIA agents and 1Kitty escorted him, dressed only in undershorts, to an empty room where they began to question him. But even as they entered the room, Ned Young grinned at them and died.

 

It was a mystery for they had searched him for secret poison capsules and other such items. It was 1Kitty who found that a golden ring could force a small pin into the finger when the face of the ring was twisted and then pushed in a special manner.

 

The evacuation of people from GNR Tower began gradually but steadily. Bunkertown was the destination for this move as it was for the old move.

 

Continued in THIRTY-SIX

[dezdimona]

* drinks her morning coffee and enjoys a stimulating read *

[Herculine]

It's embarrassing for a writer to say this, but I may be running out of descriptive words to express how good this is!

[species5478]

Bravo dear Marharg. If your aim was to impress the minds of your readers with a stimulating story, than you've succeeded. Thank you for sharing!

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-SIX

 

 

On that day they buried the girl called Princess in the Burial Chamber in the Lamplight Caverns.

 

On that same the Warlord Han and his army were destroyed by combined forces from the DC Wastelands.

 

On that same day Colin Moriarty, formerly of Megaton, was shot down when he tried to set up a new club in Armageddon Park with out getting permission from the DC Syndicates first.

 

On that same day a Wastelander was sure he saw Elvis at a ruined diner close to the hidden entrance to Vault-112.

 

On that same day the Enclave invasion of Point Lookout began with the arrival off its shore of a battle fleet of repaired naval ships, airships and big atomic powered hovercraft along with many other vessels. Amongst them was a massive double hulled catamaran style super aircraft carrier with no less than four long flight-decks and four short flight-decks. There was also a super dreadnaught, a massive battleship with great rocket-shell firing cannons and massive laser batteries. Three hours later the Enclave controlled Point Lookout except for sporadic fighting with small groups of resistors.

 

On that same day the Subwayers voted in a major referendum and became officially part of the new United States of America.

 

On that same day a lowly Scribe Novice walked into a big half buried chamber beneath Lyon’s Citadel. He expected to find it empty except for some junk which he was going to check in case it might be recycled into something useful. It was no longer half buried and seemed much bigger, cleaner and almost polished. He almost fainted for the chamber was not empty. Lined up in it, all gleaming and brand new, were ten Liberty Prime robots, one hundred sentry robots, one hundred MrGutsys, one hundred MrHandys, one hundred robotanks, one hundred eyebots with lasers, ten big Jolly Grey Giant vertibirds and a whole mass of crates, canisters and other containers of related equipment and supplies. There was no partridge in a pear tree. The Novice ranted and raved into a working intercom unit so much that two Scribes raced down to cart him off to the nearest doctor. Then there were three very excited Scribes.

 

One that same day US President Suzanne Ubama signed an Anti-Slavery Act covering the whole of the DC Wastelands. It was signed at the Lincoln Memorial Centre. Considering how close the army of super mutants were, it was signed in a real big hurry.

 

On that same day the new FBI began a major investigation of DCTec and its secret activities in and beyond the DC Wastelands.

 

On that same day the first official baseball team, the Rivet City Dodgers, was formed in, you guessed it, Rivet City.

 

On that same day one Freda McManus of the new USFG Cartography Department, understaffed and under funded, began to examine old maps of the Prewar USA and North America. She compared them with newly made maps of North America, being largely guesswork, and he found some odd inconsistencies. Thinking little of it, she went through other records that he had including some Prewar school atlases. Then she focused on Prewar maps of the DC Wastelands and compared them to newer maps. Again there were inconsistencies.

 

On that same day the weekly newspaper, the Washington DC Weekly, began gathering material for its first edition. It was based in Bunkertown.

 

On that same day a giant white bunny rabbit was seen by a whole caravan of Wastelander travellers. It wore a dinner vest and had a pocket-watch. The strange creature hopped into view, cried out that it was ‘late for a very important date, and then hopped away. When hunters went after it they found weird tracks that quickly vanished.

 

On that same day Ben Bailey, a normal Wastelander, surely broke a speed record when he ran the last kilometre to Rivet City. It helped that he was being chased by over twenty feral ghouls.

 

On that same day Doctor Lesko, the scientist who created the giant fire ants that burned down the settlement of Greyditch, was put on trial for various crimes. Charges ranged from manslaughter to scientific criminality and child neglect.

 

On that same day Scientist Anna Holt, who betrayed Jasmine and Project Purity by joining the Enclave, was found by the Regulators in a Sisterhood of Compassion outpost. Since she had gone insane they left her to the care of the SofC.

 

On that same Doctor Li returned unexpectedly to Rivet City where she began to lead various new and old projects. She refused to say what happened during her attempt to travel to the Commonwealth but now she had a limp and a small but obvious scar on her left cheek.

 

On that same day all the super mutants vanished from the National Mall leaving behind only automated defences such as turrets, pressure plate operated spike-pits and flamer grills. There were also many mines and booby-traps to deal with. All robots that served the super mutants also vanished. The departure was done so quickly and cleverly that neither the National Guard or the Brotherhood of Steel realised anything was wrong until many hours had passed.

 

On that same day the Family found itself being chased by over a hundred vampire ghouls. Vance led them in a cunning and speedy manner but in the end they were captured except for two Family members who were killed. Before they were captured, the Family eradicated eight of the powerful vampire ghouls.

 

On that same day Uncle Leo and his followers walked through part of the Labyrinth of the Lost Souls, a vast and alien underworld of caverns, tunnels and smaller chambers. There Uncle Leo is met by many thousands of deformed lifeforms that were once normal people, animals and plants. He begins to heal them as best he could.

 

On that same day people swore that a youthful Daring Dashwood, with his faithful ghoul servant Argyle, were seen riding a motorbike with sidecar across the DC Wastelands near Rockopolis. Argyle rode the bike and Daring Dashwood was in the sidecar. On that very day Daring Dashwood, old and retired in Tenpenny Towers, died of a heart attack.

 

On that same day the AntAgonizer was seen eastward of Canterbury Commons but this time with many human warriors dressed like herself in strange armour and many terrible giant ants that spat savage jets of napalm like flames. The witness watched the AntAgonizer destroy a large force of raiders before they fled from the scene as quickly as they could.

 

On that same day Doctor Zimmer arrived at Rivet City on the same airship that brought Doctor Li. He came with no android bodyguard this time and he begged for political asylum. FBI agents picked him up and put him in a cell.

 

On that same day in Megaton Billy Creel and Lucy West got married. Her brother Ian West was best man. Maggie was also there, of course, as were many other Megaton people.

 

On that same day Butch DeLoria opened his barbershop in Vault-101’s new market.

 

On that same day Ellen DeLoria, Butch’s mother, joined the newly founded Vault-101 Alcoholics Anonymous Association branch and took a vow of abstinence.

 

On that same day Charon bought his own contract, became his own employer, and became truly a free citizen.

 

On that same day Commander Jabsco, commander of the Talon Mercenaries, learned that the Darkman controlled Armageddon Park and from then on the Talon Mercenaries, including the elite Talon Fists, would serve only Lord Dark.

 

On that same day Confessor Cromwell took the followers of the Church of Atom and departed in outrage when learned that the new USFG planned to bury the Megaton atomic bomb in special glass. The cult would soon set up in the abandoned monastery in Springvale.

 

On that same day Doc Church of Megaton was found dead in bed having taken an overdose of powerful pills. There was a suicide note but it did not clarify why he took his own life.

 

On that same day Gob, with Nova as company, returned to the Ghoul Underworld and met his mother, Carol, for the first time in many years. This time he and Greta would get on far better than they did in the past.

 

On that same day Doc Hoff was killed in a firefight with Regulators trying to arrest him for dealing in illegal drugs of a very new and dangerous kind obtained from the DC Drug Syndicate.

 

On that same day a small out of control fire began burning in the Pitt. By the next day it was a raging toxic smoke shrouded firestorm. Explosions shook Pittsburgh. Refugees fled in the thousands towards the DC Wastelands. Thanks to the Brotherhood of Protection and the Sisterhood of Compassion, most survived. As for the trogs, it seemed that they all perished. The firestorm would burn for over a month and when finally it was done, so was the Pitt.

 

On that same day Deputy Weld was rewarded a long service medal. He continued to guard the Megaton Inner Gate but now his position was more of an honourary one than a practical one.

 

On that same day Elder Owyn Lyons got a very special long distance message from the Brotherhood of Steel Elders on the West Coast. The Elder Council at Lyon’s Citadel began a long secret meeting.

 

On that same day Evan King, formerly of Arefu, retired to Tenpenny Towers.

 

On that same day Gary Staley of Rivet City Markets brought out his new cookbook, 101 Easy to Cook Meals for the Hungry.

 

On that same day Flak and Shrapnel came out of ‘the closet’ and no I don’t mean they were hiding in the closet in the first place.

 

On that same day Knight Captain Gallows showed up, amazingly alive, and held a secret meeting with Sarah Lyons. They had much to talk about.

 

On that same day Grandma Sparkle and her sons were eaten by Yao Guai. Some saw this as poetic justice.

 

On that same day Gunny of the Brotherhood of Steel first tested the new super power armour that was double the size and power of but slower than standard BofS power armour.

 

On that same day, in an amazing twist of fate, Jericho of Megaton joined the Regulators.

 

On that same day eyebots again began to float across the DC Wastelands broadcasting the messages of President John Henry Eden and the propaganda of the Enclave. The new eyebots had powerful cameras as well as lasers.

 

On that same day Lucky Harith became the Director of the Canterbury Commons Corporation and moved into his newly refurbished double storey house.

 

On that same day the Mechanist, would be superhero of Canterbury Commons, was spotted leading a small army of robots across the DC Wastelands on the river shore opposite from Rivet City. He still looked like he had an upturned bucket on his head.

 

On that same day Nathan wandered, half dead, back into Megaton and into the arms of his highly annoyed but grateful wife.

 

On that same day, in Rivet City, Paulie Cantelli died in the Rivet City Clinic of causes that were an open secret amongst Rivet City folk.

 

On that same day Pinkerton ceased to be a recluse and rejoined the Rivet City community as a scientist.

 

On that same day a slaver merchant from Paradise Falls, named Pronto, was found dying just close to Paradise Falls. Before he died he spoke of strange albino humans living deep in the ground who secretly bought many slaves from Paradise Falls. He mentioned a place called Paradise Deep but died before he could give any details.

 

On that same day the Crosswayne folk voted in a referendum to join the new United States of America.

 

On that same day strange flashes of light were seen on the surface of the moon that were so bright they could be glimpsed even by day.

 

On that same day a small group of explorers entered Vault-112 to find that everything was returned there, replaced, brand new looking from brainbots to VR-loungers and everything else including many other vault facilities. But the place was occupied by Vault Dwellers who offered to sell virtual reality holidays, safe and cheap, to the explorers. They could choose from Tranquillity Lane, Swiss Alps Holiday and Tropical Island Paradise. Given the reputation of Vault-112, the explorers fled except for one who took a holiday. Three days later he emerged quite happy and a little poorer.

 

On that same day Sergeant RL-3, the MrGutsy robot, officially became a protector of Canterbury Commons.

 

On that same day the woman called Silver, an ex-prostitute, returned to live in Megaton.

 

On that same day life went on all across the DC Wastelands.

 

It was a busy day.

 

Continued in THIRTY-SEVEN

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-SEVEN

 

1Kitty pushed aside a broken couch and carefully checked the wall as the two Central Security Intelligence Agency agents, a man and a woman disguised as typical Wastelanders, watched her in action. She then noted an odd bump under the decaying wallpaper and pressed it. There was a small sharp clicking noise and the panel slid to one side with a soft humming noise.

 

It was the bedsitter apartment of a lowly manager’s assistant with enough privileges to have a place to stay in GNR Tower. There was a 3Dphoto of her face in a fame on the bedside table.

 

The secret door revealed a big chamber and taking up one wall was the gently curving side of the outer layer of a thick safety barrier that sleeved the Lightening Spike proper. The room had desks, electromechanical typewriters, computer terminals, big computer mainframes, metallic console machines and some odd hardware.

 

The protectron gave no warning but fired its laser weapon. The woman CSIA agent was shot in the left arm. She cried out as she was shoved backwards by her comrade. 1Kitty moved with impressive speed as she pulled out her powerful .44 Magnum revolver pistol and fired into the robot. It shuddered, sparked and fell motionless.

 

Cursing softly, for protectrons normally gave audio warnings of hostile intentions, she slipped into the room for further investigating. There were no more security robots but there was a slowly decaying body in a merc’s outfit on the floor with a laser-rifle next to him. It was lying face down with the face turned away from her. Clearly somebody had gotten into the secret room before her.

 

The CSIA man spoke from the entrance to the room. “I have to get Sandra to the nearest medical assistance but I will try to be back soon.”

 

1Kitty nodded. “You stay with her since you have been partners for a few months now and send me somebody else. I should still be here.”

 

As soon as they were gone, the young woman carefully began to examine the dead mercenary. She turned the body over and when she saw the face she was startled. For the face was identical, apart from the decay, to that of Ned Young. This could have been Ned Young’s identical twin but the more logical conclusion was that both this dead merc and the dead architect were clones of the same batch. That would make them clone-brothers.

 

She further checked the area but while the chamber held a few useful stores in lockers it did not hold the keys to any secrets.

 

Continued in THIRTY-EIGHT