Fallout Stories Epic

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
One 18.2[39]

Jane Calamity turned up, holding baby Jasmine to herself. Clearly the baby adored her and the feeling was mutual.

Graharg spoke some more. "Once I found out who was controlling your mind, James, it made it easier for me to safely break its hold on you. The original Professor James Graphin has become something other than human. You have always been a better person than your clone-father as he has always obsessively sought ancient knowledge with out any real care for the consequences. It is time for you, Jasmine and Star Paladin Cross to go to TekVaultDC101 but I want to send others with you, both just as escorts and to also live in the vault. There is also the matter of a fair deal of loot to help to bribe yourself into the vault. It turns out that DeepMegaton was also designed as a secondary storage depot for spare equipment and supplies for the United States of NewEarth. There is plenty of stuff there."

So Star Paladin Cross, James, Jasmine and four other Brothers of Steel returned to Megaton where they would go to the rooms already hired and rest. To there would go others sent by Graharg along with some valuable loot. They moved quickly away and were soon gone.

Why else did you send Professor James Graphin away, father? Jane Calamity had inherited her grandfather's, and grandmother's, canniness. What is the threat in DeepMegaton that can trick one's mind, drive AlphaOmega away and be more terrible than a fair sized group of lichs that were once Ancients.

He smiled at her. "It always pleases me when you understand me more deeply. Such lichs are called AnchaLichs. The term 'Ancha' is used with a range of entities that were Ancients or came directly from them in ancient times. AnchaLichs far more powerful than the standard lichs, with only a very few exceptions; I hope, for your sake, you never meet any."

Graharg sighed heavily. "I would rather show you what my followers, and I, have found. Not everything for some items not even my followers were allowed to examine but easily most of the artifacts and other 'interesting things' there."

All that remained were the Brothers of Steel, all but one of whom would stay outside of DeepMegaton, the two Regulators and Graharg along with his grim, silent, followers. John would remain sleeping, being protected by the Brothers of Steel.

The three went into DeepMegaton, through a power-door that Graharg sealed and locked behind them. He made sure the big power-gate was given the same treatment. Then they were entering an outer section of DeepMegaton. It was abandoned by the Followership of the Atom and still retained evidence of their habitation for they had not been able to take all that they wanted along with much they had neither wanted or needed.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
One 19.1[39]

Graharg went further and they found subbunker, inside the bunker complex of DeepMegaton, where the government people had lived along with others such as families and visitors. The subbunker served as extra defensive security measures for them and even for some animals and plants that they had with them.

Much had been taken but there was still remaining quite a lot of valuable equipment-supplies and even more stuff that was useful to the resources hungry people of the PostDoomsday NewEarth. Oddly enough it seemed that the Followership of the Atom had not even tried to loot what was there.

Then came a reason that could have explained that. For suddenly the subbunker was full of translucent ghostly figures of humans panicking or acting to deal with a threat that was not obvious. Soldiers, and security guards, came out with weapons; the soldiers wore light power armor and the security guards had on body-armor. Then the threat came more visible as ghostly figures floated out of a wall and attacked a soldier. At once the man was driven backwards even as he shot the creatures with a powerful autopistol. Oddly enough the bullets did damage the ghost like creatures and slowed down as they went through the attackers, to the fall to the floor.

The ghost like images all vanished, the attacking wranths (ghost like lesser undead entities) and the people! It had been the past replayed in vividly dramatic fashion.

Graharg spoke. “That was a powerful natural psychic-spiritual residue, impressions, but boosted to be even stronger by some kind of psychic-spiritual entity or entities. Did you feel the power of it?”

One of the special followers, a woman named EltadiRana, spoke in a strangely accented and almost emotionless voice. “It was information sent in a form that the sender, or senders, are familiar with. Some faction is attempting to communicate with us in its own way.”

Graharg frowned hard. “Those things attacking the people were wranths and they, in theory, should not exist on the NewEarth. Still, since the Doomsdays many things have changed. The very laws of nature appear to be transformed to some extent, at least. Otherwise the lichs could not exist here and psychic-spiritual forces would not be as strong or psychic related psionics. Psykers would have most likely not have arisen in the Wastelands, or more likely, the Doomlands.”

The Doomlands were infamous even by the standards of the Wastelands. Thankfully they made up only a relatively very small part of the territories beneath the Skydome, being the Skydomelands of continents, islands, oceans, seas and other geographical features. Unfortunately the Havenlands, including the Green Havens, were also just a very small part of the Skydomelands. The Wastelands dominated but running second were the better Hopelands and the worse off Deathlands. There were only a few special designated areas of relative smallness or so it was generally believed.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
One 19.2[40]

Calivada was part Doomlands and that was infamous for the relatively large number of powerful psykers that had arisen there, along with other types of mutation. It was also was where the Exiles of Steel had come from, to come to DC, along with the Outcasts of Steel that had broken away from the Exiles of Steel. Mr House was in NewVegas that was also in Calivada. Calivada was sometimes mixed up with the neighboring eastward territories of Calibraska which in turn was a western neighbor of Americanada. All three were roughly northwards of DC.

There were some robots in special bays that they activated to have them help search through the rest of the subbunker. Eyebots, like smaller versions of MrBots, were quietly lifted with their fanjets, into the air. The globular machines drifted through the air with functioning 3Deyes, special 3Dcameras, sensors and other devices including each a laser-gun. The others searched, as a group, and then they found something most surprising and disturbing.

Three naked humans were in semitransparent purple jelly capsules, not green jelly ones such as James Graphin was found in close to RivetCity. They were a man and two women. They also looked shrunken as if suffering from moderately malnutrition. Running from the capsules, to vanish in a small hole torn at the bottom of the nearest wall, were purple jelly tubes. One of these ran from each capsule.

Graharg scowled as he crouched and carefully touched one of the capsules. “Another reason that the Followers of Atom would stay away from here! Feeder capsules very slowly feed of the life energies, liquified flesh and blood of capsuled victims. These poor folks have been here for centuries in subdued pain, most likely suffering strange disturbing dreams.

He closed his eyes, focused his powers, and the purple globe shimmered and vanished along with the person inside it. He did the same with the other two. Then he slowly stood up, with a small visible effort. “Their suffering is ended! They are in a sanctuary where they will be healed slowly and carefully. The entity, or entities, feeding on the three are no longer doing so and have lost a very small portion of the parasitic stolen living resources that they have been taking from victims. The three were Followers of the Atom but they were not the only ones to vanish in this subbunker; Followers of the Atom came here centuries ago but after over a dozen vanished, wisely enough they stopped doing so. They did go into other parts of DeepMegaton with out getting into trouble and gaining valuable loot. I wonder why that was so. We need to investigate further to find an answer to why this subbunker became so dangerous.”

Jane Calamity frowned hard. “I have never heard of such things before. Would the lichs be feeding through such purple jelly capsules? I have heard of dark whispers of undeath, especially being linked to the Doomlands where any form of life struggles to exist except for the very toughest; something called unlife also exists in such places being a kind of opposite unnatural force to undeath. Thankfully we Regulators do not have to deal with such places and have never done so.”

Edited May 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
One 19.3[41]

“No, they feed directly upon victims or gain life-energies by sharing with other lichs or taking tribute from other kinds of undead such as vampires, wranths and zombies.” He snorted. “As for AlphaOmega's necronoids they are more than just normal zombies altered by him. They are close cousins to typical berserker crazed zombies, being called nombies. Nor are they the very passive yombies that are totally none aggressive even to the point of not defending themselves. Nombies are normally only defensive aggressive.”

Jane Calamity spoke again. “How did the AnchaLichs come to be here in DeepMegaton?”

“I have no idea but when I first came here they were hidden from me, as was so much else!” Graharg sighed, a habit of his. “I am starting to suspect that DeepMegaton is actually much larger than the areas that I did explore. The feeder-capsules indicate a far more dangerous, ancient and exotic threat than even the AnchaLichs are.”

They found four more feeder-capsules with four more naked Followers of Atom but this time they looked much healthier and it seemed they were being 'fattened' up' for later feeding on. Graharg explained that the resources used to do so would not come from the entity, or entities, that fed off the victims for that would make the whole process a pointless one.”

Graharg rescued the four encapsulated victims in the same odd way he had done the others.

Then they found the remains of an AnchaLich that had been fed on, that had burned away upon death as the undead often did. The process was often like accelerated spontaneous combustion. Graharg examined it and soon came to the conclusion that some form of more powerful undead had destroyed the AnchaLich; this was disturbing because the AnchaLich itself had been very power according to psychic-spiritual emanations.

After that they went through a security-safety airlock of double heavy armored power-doors. Beyond lay a network of chambers, corridors and other features dedicated to a general service-support network of network-systems. In a big corridor humming quietly with machinery, where large gurgling pipes ran horizontally along one wall, they found yet another lich. But this was no AnchaLich but a weaker, more common type of lich. It also had been fed upon also but had probably been an easier victim.

In a big corridor they found the dead thing that was like a tall humanoid with scaled leathery skin and tentacles for arms, each tentacle ending in three smaller tentacles, they knew that they were getting into the realm of the very strange. The eyes were black orbs, the legs were thicker tentacles ending in three thick, short tentacles.

Graharg frowned. “Not undead but unlifen. Unlifen can choose to feed in the same way that the undead do but most undead suffer from the 'hunger' and must feed upon the living or the unlifen. The unlifen prefer to feed upon the undead rather than upon the living for they get more from doing so and find the undead 'tastier' than the living. It is a tentaculan. They are most dangerous creatures but AnchaLichs got to this one but did not feed upon it.”

Edited May 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
One 19.4[42]

He went on speaking. “They would have had to have good reason not to feed on the tentaculan. I suspect it was a hit and run style strike. I get the impression of their having been more tentaculans here along with some other forms of unlifen. The AnchaLichs may be fighting a guerrilla style war against what ever faction it is that is their enemy.”

A weird screaming noise suddenly echoed along the big corridor. The eight people became more cautious, preparing to use weapons, but kept moving along. The five special companions had oversized exotic looking pistols of different appearances.

A terrible shiver went through the corridor, perhaps through the whole base.

They found the former battleground filled with dead creatures both unlifen and undead. None had been fed upon but just killed as quickly, as brutally, as possible. There was the remains of one burned away AnchaLich but of six lesser lichs. There were five dead tentaculans along with four partly burned albino human like necropires of the unlifen.

Graharg quickly examined all of the dead bodies but gained much information from doing so. Jane Calamity, and Dan Sanders, observed him carefully and learned from doing so; this was something they were getting into the habit of as Graharg could gain information from a scene with far greater speed, and efficiency, than they could. If the situation had not been so grim the pair would have been directly involved in examining the scene. As it was Graharg spoke to them briefly at times of what he was doing and why.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
Zero 4.1[41]

With out explanation the Talon Mercenaries, in Springvale, were being recalled to Fort Bannister. All were to go there, elite and thug-mercenaries alike, taking all of their equipment-supplies with them. The AntAgonizer had not returned but seemed to have abandoned her attempt to get into the tunnel that led to TekVaultDC101.

Eagleson was relieved though he was not sure why. His unease about the mission had grown increasingly stronger. Though he was been told to make haste, it was to be cautious as well. Fort Bannister had gained reports of increasing supermutant activity closer to the Lamplight Mountains where it was said the TekVaultDC087 was hidden. One of the mountains had been badly damaged by an attempt to destroy some kind of base, perhaps TekVaultDC087 itself, with a nuclear weapon. The great rock slide had led to the destruction of the main way into the vault but there must have been other ways for supermutants to leave the place.

Pakraiders had also been increasingly active in some areas of DC but so far had been focused in only some more central areas of the major city of Centropolis. Where they looking for something? Nobody seemed to know what the berserker killers were up to.

The Talon Syndicate was pulling back to defend other DC Syndicates, and itself as a DC Syndicate, for the mercenary corporation was not a massive army. As it was most of its soldiers were thug-mercenaries and security guards.

Talon Guards helped to protect the notorious Paradise Falls that had once been a mixture of deluxe apartment blocks, a big shopping complex and other features for the wealthy including a large cluster of underground shelter bunkers. Though the DC Syndicates had taken over, there were still original Paradisers in the heavily fortified settlement. Talon Guards could also be found at the infamous Tenpenny Towers and other places linked to the DC Syndicates.

Eagleson ran through the current positions of Talon Mercs through out DC.. The syndicate only worked in a relatively small percentage of the very large DC Territories. He noted, to himself, that the biggest concentration of Talon forces were at Fort Bannister. There were only much smaller forces in other places.

He was standing in an area outside of Springvale proper, just outside of its cracked dome. The howls of muttbears, almost as dangerous as deathclaws, could be heard as adult males fought over the right to mate with adult females on heat. Springvale was oddly quiet for the recent conflict had driven any life away or underground. A mutant vine-tree grew up the side of a office block and some of it went through a blasted hole in a wall.

As he climbed into his hover command vehicle, he wondered why he had a growing conviction that much more was happening with the Talon Syndicate than he had been informed about. True he was never told everything because he was always at risk of being captured and what he did not know, he could not tell. Yet the recent security paranoia, of the Talon High Command, was far worse than ever before.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
Zero 4.2[42]

For a moment he wondered what was in DeepMegaton that was so important that the DC Syndicates wanted to risk so much to get into it. Was there more to the ending of the mission that the need to deal with rising threats to the DC? He wondered if he would he would ever find out. His bodyguards climbed into the machine.

Soon the Talon Force was heading back towards Fort Bannister. As it roared away, not even bothering to try to be quiet, exotic eyes peered out at the convoy from the hole in the wall where the vine-tree went into a building. The yellowish, oddly round eyes, took in everything and they never blinked.

The local gangers were already straggling back to take back their old territories. They came in small groups of poorly body-armored and armed figures. The elderly, the very young, the handicapped and crippled, were cared for so the irony was that the supposedly low gangers cared for their people more than many supposedly superior factions did.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
One 20.1[43]

Much of DeepMegaton, like any such complex, was devoted to the more mundane aspects of keeping such a place functioning. Much of that was autorobotic service-support network-systems being of general or specialized nature. So they encountered some functioning robots, most of them dumb-robots guided by unseen smart-computers network-systems. Some robots were semiactive, being stopped away from there bays, but most would have returned to their bays automatically to remain there until matters improved.

They came to a main computer terminal and, unlike in the subbunker, were able to link with the smart-computer network of network-systems or ZAXDM111. The designation was not of officially standard nature and was not on official open records.

ZAXDM111 spoke to them. “Welcome, what can I do for you? Be aware that I am not at full functional status at this time.”

Graharg responded. “Why are you not at full functional status?”

ZAXDM111: “I have no full diagnosis on the current situation except that deliberate interference has taken place by more than one unofficial influence. My sensors have been picking up some kind of lifeforms that go against my the conclusions of my databanks: they do not compute.”

Graharg touched a part of the console, there was a shimmer and he spoke. “Now you know of many more things than you did, of the undeath, the unlifen, of AlphaOmega and much else including what has happened to the NewEarth outside of DeepMegaton.”

ZAXDM111: “DeepMegaton was not truly a WMD Base (Weapon of Mass Destruction) but HighMegaton was. HighMegaton was almost destroyed when the crater, that Megaton is now based on, was created from the blast of a D-warhead (disintegration warhead). A smaller outpost base was destroyed. I suggest you take a look at HighMegaton.”

Another hidden base? Somehow, considering how events had unfolded, it made too much sense.

Graharg frowned. “What was DeepMegaton's purpose?”

ZAXDM111: “I have lost access to much of my data but there were a series of experiments being carried out under the disguise of DeepMegaton being a WMD base, as linked to HighMegaton and the destroyed outpost base, Outpost Megaton, that was designed as an official way into and out of both other Megatons. It was fairly large with administration, public relations, security and other such functions. Some of my most important network-systems were based there and their loss did me damage.”

Graharg had a bad feeling about what he was going to hear next. “What was the nature of the experiments being carried out in DeepMegaton?”

Edited May 13, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Fallout Stories Epic
One 20.2[44]

ZAXDM111: “DeepMegaton was built up around a glowcrystal cavern with a series of large Ancients' artifacts being only partly identified and even less understood. A Waygate was found like those used to allow humanity to come from OldEarth, to NewEarth, during the Great Exodus. Unlike the other Waygates, this one had not been sealed up so that it could not be used again.”

World President Graham Maharg had made sure that the Great Exodus Waygates had been sealed up so none could return to the OldEarth. Like the loss of memories, and other changes to those who had come through those Waygates, the reasons for doing so remained a mystery to the vast majority of people.

ZAXDM111: “World President Graham Maharg at first did not know about the highly illegal experiments based around the Ancients' artifacts, mainly the Waygate. When he found out he attempted to have them closed down but that was just before the Doomsdays began and he had to call the mission off. Instead the very last of the government people were meant to leave but they did not manage to do so. I do not know what happened to them finally but I do know that I have been unable to find them since I 'woke up' after a long 'black out' of awareness that I suffered during the Doomsdays.”

Before the Doomsdays had come all artifacts of the Ancients had to be registered with the USNE Federal Government but, despite generous awards offered along with the threat of harsh punishments, sometimes this did not happen. Government teams, and contracted teams from the private sector, were constantly looking for such artifacts, along with other special listed items, but NewEarth was huge, was bigger than the OldEarth.

Graharg, his followers, and others allied to him had found and sealed off a fair few Waygates, even the majority of them that were inactive. Before a Waygate could be sealed, it had to be made inactive and only the Ancients could do that such as Graharg.

Jane spoke. “The Followers of Atom went into some glowcrystal caves.”

ZAXDM111: “Yes but the cave system is very big and is also outside of DeepMegaton. The Followers of the Atom went to caves outside of DeepMegaton to gain resources for their foolish zetan-human hybrid technologies. They also did some small scale farming there, fished the cave waters and hunted for more harmless kinds of animals. I have spoken with high ranking, high caste, Followers of Atom, and also John the Mad. He first named himself by that term so I do not use it to offend. There is something that I want you to observe directly for yourselves; I will direct you to where there is special equipment-supplies that you will need before you go to the designated destination.”

 

My apologies but I was tired when I posted this chapter and forgot to put the last story post in. It is in the next post!

Edited May 13, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

My apologies but I was tired when I posted this chapter and forgot to put this last story post in; you may need to go back and do a small amount of reading to make more sense of the added writing.

 

Fallout Stories Epic
One 20.3[45]

A robot led them through main transit corridors designed to take electric traffic. It was ironically understandable that pedal-vehicles, mostly bicycles, became often used in such places because of their durability, non use of energy resources and the fitness boost they gave to those who did the pedaling. Shallow rampways, designed for robotic and small electric vehicles. They went past neat cycle racks with bicycles, including a couple of tandem bicycles, then a quadcycle machine like a small light weight golfcar.

Graharg wanted to go to the vault of special artifacts that John had spoken of to his clone-father James. Trouble was ZAXDM111 did not even know it existed, let alone where it was, thanks to damage done in the past to many of network-systems and loss of access to databanks. ZAXDM111 did have the other impression it had known about such matters before it suffered from a 'black out'. If ZAXDM111 could regain access to sundered network-systems it could regain data such as that on the trove of artifacts and related items.

ZAXMD111 had some surprising information. “AlphaOmega admitted to me that he found a secondary archives of special artifacts and other items, that it was there that he found what I now know are undead creatures of AnchaLichs. He was tricked, somehow, into bringing out of status the creatures otherwise he would have left them in there heavy secured status-cells. The undead creatures, the unlifen creatures, have left my network-systems alone including my robots.”

Edited May 14, 2014 by Maharg67