ADVENTURES OF BOBBY BOBALONG

[Maharg67]

ONE

CONFRONTING RAIDERS

 

Island of Columbia, artificial-quasinatural construct of the Century of Technological Miracles, a great floating super island where Washington DC had been rebuilt after the old Washington DC was destroyed during the short lived insanity of World War Three. But to look at it was just a great big sweeping island from the mountainous Jagged Highlands of the north to the marshlands of the south, Point Lookout, from the forest clad western coast to the grasslands of the eastern coast. In the centre was the great low tabletop mountain and on that was the new Washington DC with the transparent dome that rose over it.

 

Bobby stood half hidden close to the huge base of the Weeping Woman, the mighty self repairing smart-concrete statue known also as the Statue or Lady of Remorse. Carefully marked into the surface of her were the three and a half billion plus names of the people who had perished during World War Three and symbols for the many unnamed ones who had perished.

 

If THEY had not come from space, then it could have been worse. THEY demanded a price but THEY saved the world, at least at first.

 

Bobby was dressed in a set of typical DC/Highlander gear being metal armour, a backpack of strong canvas, boots, a good webbelt, with a powerful semiautomatic .308 calibre rifle over one shoulder. It was a Gerand, a World War Two vintage type weapon found now quite commonly in the Highlands though they were outnumbered by bolt-action and lever-action rifles of the same calibre. But Bobby-Bob was no typical DC Highlander. He was a Clanhunter disguised and he was out hunter-seeking prey. Raiders had been stupid enough to come northwards from the ruins of a city and they would pay the price. No, not WDC itself inside its dome but what had been a smaller, though still big, undomed city called New Richmond. The original Richmond was destroyed during World War Three.

 

There! He saw the movement of three men and a woman in bizarre raider armour moving clumsily through the semiwilderness. They were trying to be stealthy but they were noisy, smelly and otherwise drawing attention to themselves. They wore dulled patterns of ganger colours and carried an odd assortment of guns. The woman exposed one breast. It was her left breast to show she was bonded to just one raider man, at least for now. Bizarre really how even raiders tended to be attractive and youthful thanks to the transmutated 'nature' of all humans. A few non raider men had fantasies about 'doing it' to raider women but Bobby knew the truth and could not be bothered.

 

He moved with a flicker of motion and was soon slipping through the greenery. Then he did something that seemed foolhardy. He stepped out into the open in front of the three fools coming up a wide dirt track made by large moving herbivores. The way he just seemed to appear out of nowhere caused them to halt abruptly. The three of them were wise enough to do nothing. Bobby spoke then in heavily accented English of the DC Highlands. "Gangers of New Richmond should not be stupid enough to trespass into the Highlands. We have enough trouble up here with our own bandits, not to mention those damned ravers and reavers. I say turn back."

 

To his surprise the woman spoke because normally raider women were not in a gang to speak out but to be used. "We would love to but a much larger raider force is chasing us up here. We hate it up here. We want back to New Richmond down in the hilly lands. We give you useful info on them raiders and you help us circle back around them to start fleeing home. Sound good to you?"

 

But Bobby just grinned. "Very good story but DC/Highlanders are no fools. Your colours are of the FayBlades and so are those of the big raider party down there. There are only the four of you but still, there is only one of me. You could simply kill me, it seems, and that would be that."

 

The woman looked suspicious and went to speak but then a big man stepped forward. "Enough of your words, Nance; it is time for action, to put a bullet in this Highlander fool." Then the raider raised his gun but even before he could aim it properly Nance raised her .32 revolver-pistol and shot the raider man. The man folded up and hit the ground with a look of surprise on his face.

 

Then Nance spoke. "I didn't mean that group, damned you, which has raider families in it but the one behind it, a much bigger one with only male mercenaries. They aren't gangers but are raider mercs who follow Warlord HanLo. We wish an agreement!"

 

Bobby smiled. "Turn east and keep going towards the big grey jagged mound which is the remains of a once great tower. Then head north-east until you come to what looks like a ruined castle. You may halt there. People will be watching, my people, the Clanhunters. The Elders will discuss matters with you but Clanhunters will track your every move. Supplies will be traded or gifted as the Elders see fit. Be thankful that the Highlands needs people and we can use you raiders to help us against the ravers and the reavers. You may be sorry that you fled north. Do you always go around shooting your men?"

 

Nance shrugged. "He was a traitor. He was being paid off by HanLo to spy on us. We will return to our people."

 

The three surviving raiders looted the body and heaved what was left down a gully where nature would take care of it. Then they hurried off with Bobby watching them do so. Then he vanished with a flicker of motion. In moments he was with other Clanhunters, also disguised as normal Highlanders, and two big mountain hounds running quietly and smoothly through the wilderness. They slowed then and split into two teams to follow the raiders. Nance kept to the plan and she, along with her people, ended up in the big old ruined castle. It really was a castle of sorts for a wealthy family once had it built for them as a kind of fortified castle mansion which was far more hitech than its medieval looks would suggest. Its smart-materials and microbots had kept it largely in repair.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

TWO

 

THE PUZZLE OF WARLORD HANLO

 

The Warlord HanLo was an arrogant menace who would pay for his stupidity or so many said. His army was made up of brutal, experienced raider mercenaries who had come to the Island of Columbia across the waters from the mainland of the old United States of America.

 

A pair of big old tramp-freighters had brought them from the Citystate of Costina on the eastern coast and had dropped the army off on the beaches close to the fortified settlement of Happenstal. After promising only fair trading, the army had treacherously invaded and levelled the settlement, killing all but young women taken as slaves for obvious reasons. Since then the army had been attacked in hit and run style by a whole range of factions be they raiders, settlers, nomads, beastfolk or ghouls or zhouls or others. Nobody trusted them and everybody wanted them gone from their area. HanLo could have passed peacefully through most of the island to get to his target but his early treachery had meant a long and difficult journey.

 

What did HanLo want? He wanted information and where did he expect to get that information? From a list of individuals living on the great floating island of Columbia. It made no sense to the various powers of Columbia be it the Justice Network or the Union of Columbia or the Semiautonomous Alliance of Settlements or DCTek or the Crosswayne Commonwealth or the DC/Highland Clansfolk or any others. Messages went back and forth even between enemies who normally only spoke to each other with bullets. From Megaton built in a crater above an ICBM silo-bunker to Rivet City the floating settlement to DCTektown to the Deep Subways to Paradise Falls and others, data was traded.

 

Genetics was the trick, was the answer! Buried into the very genetics of certain people were bits of hidden data that they would inherit from their parents. The data was secrets, was ultratech, was priceless to some, was dangerous and Nance had the data genes along with others in her raider gang. Now they were prizes and they knew it, were on the run.

 

From the castle battlements Bobby watched the distant army of war-machines moving along winding dirt tracks slowly and carefully. Mines and booby-traps, ambushes and sniping had slowed down the enemy to a crawl. There were Juggernaut atomic motorised multiple turreted battletanks of two sizes, big and powerful but clumsy in such terrain. There were battlebuggies with light armour and rollcages like monstrous dunebuggies. There were battletrucks and armacars. There were sentrybots moving ahead of the convoy along with explosives and mine detecting robots. There were eyebots moving all around the convoy.

 

Bobby was wearing proper Clanhunter stealth power armour now with the stealth field deactivated and the visor open. He was holding a big 12.7mm semiautomatic snipergun loaded with old fashion cased half inch bullets.

 

Cased bullets were more easily made than caseless slimshot ones but CSS bullets were more effective for their size. CSS bullets also worked better with special high-tech guns. The Clansfolk manufactured ammunition as did others. Also like others they kept their manufacturing capacities a secret.

 

Clanguards in power armour were moving around the castle battlements, were putting into place weapons like Heavy Browning Machineguns, ADAT missile launchers, 40mm autoguns, 20mm autoguns, howitzer rocket launchers and three 105mm howitzers recovered from a private collection of working historical weapons. The idea was not to destroy the enemy but to slow them to a halt, to bog them down in the area until reinforcements could arrive. The walls of the hitech castle were immensely thick and strong plus were self-repairing.

 

Clanhunters knew that Warlord HanLo was far from being a fool. He must have had a plan in place to come so close to the Highlands in such a way that could easily lead him into be bogged down and cut off.

 

Intelligence agents had gone seeking answers, informants had been contacted and also loyalists to the Clanking found scattered through out the Highland Clans. Answers had come in terms of suspected planned treason by various fringe clans, late comers to the DC/Highlands who had never quite fit in. But Bobby was convinced that there was more to the story.

 

Guns fired from hidden emplacements. Shells soared through the air and exploded amongst the approaching army like blasts of brown smoke. An armatruck exploded violently.

 

Only problem was the attackers outnumbered the defenders by more than ten to one. This was a seeming mystery in its own right because many of the soldiers had been killed as the army made its way from the coast and roughly north/north/east towards the DC/Highlands. Yet the general numbers had not diminished according to those who constantly followed and spied on the slowly, steadily moving army.

 

Answers had to be found and as soon as possible.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

THREE

 

WARLORD HANLO'S SURPRISE

 

Warlord HanLo revealed one of his secret weapon when the back of an armatruck opened up and the big energy weapon unleashed a pulsebeam at the castle battlements. The energy spat out in one blazing flicker and a large section of very thick castle wall, along with five Clanguards and some heavy weapons all vapourised. They were gone in a moment. It was a disintegrator cannon.

 

Realising too late that they had done just what the warlord had expected they would do, the Clanfolk began firing at the super weapon only to find that it was protected by some kind of portable force field. The metallic projectile they hurled at the force field sometimes got through but many deflected away and others exploded away from the target.

 

Again and again the disintegrator cannon fired, vaporising holes in the great wall and killing Clanguards. Then it lowered and blew three great holes at the base of the hitech castle, wiping out the heavily armoured main gates in one go.

 

Bobby aimed his 12.7mm snipergun and focused his hidden side, his powers, as secretly as he could. Was it instinct that guided him or something else? He did not know and at that moment he did not care. He aimed at one particular odd spot of the exotic looking disintegrator cannon and he fired just one large calibre bullet. The bullet glowed oddly as it streaked out of the gun.

 

The disintegrator cannon exploded dramatically. Raider mercs were hurled in all directions and another armatruck, probably the power source for the disintegrator cannon, also erupted.

 

But now the enemy revealed a second weapon and this was a stranger device with three great glowing lens-barrels focusing inwards together onto one distant point. It fired a big pulse of energy through the hole where the main gate had once been and where the pulse flashed there appeared four soldiers just inside the castle main courtyard. Again and again the strange device beamed more soldiers into the castle and the Clanguards were in confusion.

 

Bobby went to aim his heavy snipergun at the new device but then somebody, a traitor in his own ranks, shot him from behind. He died! An hour later and Warlord HanLo had taken complete control of the castle mansion and the resources left behind by retreating Clanfolk. He did not capture Nance or her people.

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

FOUR

 

FIGHTING MORLOKS AND SAVING CLANSFOLK

 

Three days later Bobby awoke to the sound of echoing thunder, the thunder of guns firing inside the cave system. He found himself naked and with out weapons or other equipment but even as he stood his old fail/safe, the one he did not truly understand, came to his rescue. With a soft sparkling shimmer he became dressed in Clansfolk gear of metal armour and was armed now with big revolver-pistols holstered at his side plus a lever-action rifle of the common .308 calibre of the DC Highlands. He also had other knives plus other weapons.

 

He ran through the bare barren caves, they were oddly regular as many Columbian Islands caves were, and then he saw them. Four Clansfolk warriors cornered but fighting well in a cul-de-sac where they were behind boulders. The area was dimly lit by the quasiliving glowcrystal that lit and warmed much of the so called Columbian Underworld.

 

Pale white haired ape things, morloks, attacked with berserker rage and speed, hating the light but quite able to use other senses, such as enhanced hearing, to compensate. Morloks were equipped with a mixture of basic guns and shortswords, battlehammers and compact but powerful crossbows. Morloks made their own stuff and when they could they stole better stuff. They were naked except for webbing of leather belts dotted with pouches and other items.

 

Morloks turned and charged in battle frenzy at Bobby. He raised his rifle with amazing speed and efficiency, pumped the lever and fired. The first of the powerful, long fang equipped creatures was fell, already dead, and it hit the rock hard ground hard. Soon other the other did the same.

 

But then the Morloks froze and all turned to look at Bobby almost as one. Then they turned and fled, taking up with them the two dead morloks. Bobby let them go because this was the edge of Morlok Territories. He knew where he was because he always knew where he was.

 

The Clansfolk came out from behind the boulders and they looked upon Bobby warily. They were young adults, strangers of the big Way’Clan O’Haradasa and had in them both Scottish and Irish bloodlines. In leather armour and carrying .308 bolt-actions rifles, they came forth towards him.

 

Bobby smiled. “Please relax. It is only me, Bobby!”

 

They stared at him in wonder and then all four bowed quickly in respect. A young man stepped forward. “You were killed at the false castle, were you not, Lord Bobby, Walker of Destinies?”

 

“Just ‘Bobby’ will do!” Bobby smiled. “Yes, I was by a traitor in the ranks but I know his identity now and he will have to answer to me. You have others hidden there back behind the boulders. Children and some dogs.”

 

So it was that the others were brought out being five children and four big packdogs bred and trained to carry packs but in other ways. Bobby was soon taking foodbars out of a pouch that seemed far too small to hold so many of them, and handing them out to both children and warriors. To each warrior he gave a dozen spare foodbars and a dozen stripper/clips of .308 bullets to be used with their Clansway manufactured bolt-action rifles.

 

Warlord HanLo had taken the hitech false castle and as Bobby had feared Clansfolk had risen treacherously against their own but it had been no fringe folk. Three fairly powerful Traderclans had done so, hiring armies of renegade Clansfolk as mercenaries but with them had appeared another Outlander army led by the Warlord Faylar, a very cunning and tough woman. Taken by surprise, the Clanguard garrisons and other forces had been driven back and the still loyal Clans were divided from each other. But not all had gone well for the traitors or invaders. Many Clansfolk of the traitor Traderclans had not known of the planned treason against the Clanlords, against the Clansway Government and the Clansking and Clansqueen; most of these had turned against their own treacherous leaderships and were waging guerrilla warfare against their mercenary armies.

 

Bobby doubted that this was an actual invasion. The Clansfolk greatly outnumbered the attackers and traitors combined. No, he suspected that they were after something and knowing that there were too many powerful and dark secrets hidden inside the vast floating island, he was troubled.

 

Carrying both a sleepy girl and boy infant who rested their heads on his shoulders, he followed two warriors while the other two warriors came at the tail of the group. The packdogs came up to him now and then to give him an adoring look and to lick him, their tails wagging crazily.

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

FIVE

 

WELCOME TO GOLD RIGHT RA'DI

 

The underground Clanlot settlement of Gold Right Ra’Di was typical of such places. It fronted as buildings and other structures carved from a rocky cavern wall onto a great big glowcrystal cavern or suncavern. The high cavern ceiling was partly covered with the suncrystal like flat tentacles and beneath it floated a filtering mist. It was Omninetwork created, as was the whole floating island. Omninetwork was of the Age of Technological Miracles and was gone and largely forgotten or so it was believed by most.

 

The wall of carved out structures was quite wide with many platforms, balconies, rampways, walkways, statues, roadways, columns and other features. Homes, workshops, workshoptories, shops, a temple and other places had battlement balconies. The settlement had over two hundred thousand people, which was a fairly small one by Clanlot standards. It had a garrison of one thousand plus Clanguards but they were mostly local irregulars.

 

As for the great glowcavern it was a patchwork of farm crops, orchards, workyards, cattle pens often with two headed brahmins, garage-workshops, depots, some houses, entrance ways down to underground levels, areas of semiwilderness greenery and other features. It was well organised and most of it was given over to farming or semiwilderness for air quality. Underground chambers, and even glowcaverns of glowcrystal, were the place of more settlement places be they shops, homes, workshops, factories, depots or other.

 

Bobby was made most welcome by these people who were fearful of what was happening with the invaders and traitors. They also spoke of sudden increased difficulties with savage beastfolk like morloks and goblins. They had found that so many of their warriors were tied up in dealing with the beastfolk threat that they could not send any reinforcements against the main enemy. Bobby doubted that this was an accident but he suspected that the Warlords were not in control of the over all situation.

 

That Bobby had saved the group of warrior guarded children fleeing from a trouble spot, had people cheering him and clapping him on the back. He ended up sitting on a very large tavern balcony, sitting at a big table with the Clanlot Lord and Lady along with the elected Mayor and the Clanguard Garrison Captain.

 

Bobby was pointing to a large map spread out on the table as he finished eating a small buttered spicebread roll. Then he spoke. “I will need to get to here, at Grash’Ka’Gorga of the Morloka. There I will speak with the Morlok High King and the High Priestess and show them how sensible it would be for them to both stop attacking the Clansfolk and to give some compensation. I will go alone. At least I will take no Clansfolk.”

 

A big ginger cat leapt onto his lap and purring madly, she rubbed her head against his chin. He hugged the feline to himself. Normally the cat would have been unceremoniously kicked out of the area but nobody tried such with Bobby there.

 

Bobby went on talking. “From then on I will need to go north-upwards to Clancastle McBlooddane. Clanlords will be gathering there to coordinate the war to be waged against the enemy.”

 

Lady Darisha spoke then. “We have a riverboat that can take you as far as New/Edinburgh but the trip will be a long one.”

 

Bobby bowed his head briefly. “I thank you lady but I have in mind to travel by the Waygates.”

 

The response was grave for all knew that the Waygates could be dangerous to use. Each one was carefully guarded and many were kept secret. Wayguardians and Wayguards protected them. The Wayguardians were specialists and the Wayguards were elite soldiers equal to the very best of the Clanguard elite forces or even the Clanhunters. Travel was dangerous mostly to living travellers but could be dangerous also to the world if other things came through the Waygate. There was always the danger, also, of going to the wrong destination Waygate.

 

Lady Darisha nodded. “There is a Waygate just a kilometre from here, as you most likely know. When would you like to set out?”

 

Bobby sighed. “I need sleep, more food, a bath and to carry out the Pledge of Continuation with three willing, fertile, healthy and fit women. When this is done I will be able to then carry out the other side of the Pledge.”

 

The Lord and Lady both bowed their heads in acceptance. Their settlement had never had such an honour given to them before. Relatively few settlements did. Volunteers amongst the young women would be many though not all would do so, of course. The Clansfolk were gaining the genetically inherited powers of Bobby, reduced but still potent, and Bobby was continuing his people, the fate of which he would not speak of.

 

Bobby did his best to be an attentive and responsive lover, was famed for it simply because he was amazingly well experienced in such matters, but in truth did not need such things in his life. The Need of Continuation was what drove him.

 

They talked on and he learned about local affairs of the settlement and areas attached to the Clanlot as its dependent territories and smaller ‘outpost’ settlements. He would made plans to go to one of the outpost settlements to visit some of his progeny there. He knew all of his children, grandchildren and so on, by name and knew of them, visiting them as often as he could. But he also had other kinds of special links with them.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

SIX

 

DOING THE NECESSARY AND MINDEYE SEEKING

 

Bobby staid in a warm brown rock chamber dug out of rock and furnished in a Clansfolk style with furs and heavy wooden pieces. He made love to three young women after having a bigger meal by himself and reading various government and other intelligence briefings and reports. He drank plenty of water. The three women left pleased to know he would keep in contact with them and carry baskets of small, valuable gifts including leather purses of Clanpay gold and silver coins. Then he had shower bath in which he bathed while two shower-heads rained on him before sleeping many hours in the large comfortable bed. He was in a well protected chamber with twelve Clanguards on sentry duty but he put into place his own protection and detection tricks anyway.

 

As he slept he dreamed normally both REM and non-REM dreams but then he had a mindeye experience in which his awareness moved out from himself and flowed through out the settlement of Gold Right Ra’Di. The settlement had been founded because of the discovery of a big node of golden biometal but mining was suspended for a few years while the node regenerated with some Clansfolk assistance.

 

He kept out of private places, tried to honour people’s personal space, but was driven by the need for survival. So it was that in a small farm on the other side of the great big suncavern from the settlement proper, he found two prime enemies. These were highly trained, much experienced members of the Shadowclan. They were well disguised as a nice young farming couple who had moved into the farm a couple of years ago after the previous owner, an old man, had suddenly died of a heart attack. The small house was semi-underground being one level above and two below but the secondary basement chamber was new since the new couple had arrived.

 

In the big chamber was a small armoury in lockers, a workbench, some basic furniture and fittings along with a small Shadowclan alter against one wall. Symbols written in dried blood, sprayed with a coating of preservative substance, were all over the wall up behind the alter. It was the usual Shadowclan pseudo/scientific, distorted reality of Shadowclan teachings and rhetoric promising immortality, power, wealth and special mystical abilities plus other perks. The two humans were no longer truly human but were heavily possessed, were demon/seeded.

 

A small nasty machine sat on a crude metal pedestal in one corner. It was demonic, a blood/twister, with a quasiliving demonic creature hidden in its metal guts. Blood was fed into it and the creature fed on half of it but processed the rest into various serums of twisted nature, hence the name of the machine.

 

In two crude but sturdy steel reinforced wood cages were captive a girl and a furry womble, both being about a metre tall but the womble being full grown with its now messed up fur and its long nose. The two were weakened by blood loss and sat back to back in mutual misery. Once upon a time wombles had only existed as characters in fiction but like others, such as the morloks, had been made real in the Age of Technological Madness. Wombles were generally peaceful just as morloks were generally savage but both could be terrible fighters with retractable claws, fangs, various weapons and powerful muscular bodies hidden by fur. Wombles were part of the Clansway with their own clans but morloks were Outsiders because of past consistent inability to be good citizens.

 

The girl was not Clansfolk, was from the south, from the settlement of Twinhigh named after the two big squat towers that centred it. These smart-materials built structures had been the saving of the town which was on the western shoreline of the great flowing river that flowed off the great flat tabletop DC Mountain. It used to be called BigTown but another settlement close to Lamplight Mountain now had that name. Lamplight Mountain was topped by the massive, still intact Lamplight Tower. The little brown girl was the young sister of a woman called Lanena, a community nurse in Twinhigh.

 

Bobby picked up enough to know this and more. He reached out gently to touch the minds of both the girl and the womble adult male. He alerted them that help was coming and gave them comfort but warned them to act miserable.

 

Then he acted.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

SEVEN

 

KILLING CULTISTS AND SAVING FOLK

 

Bobby darted across the front garden before the small farm house and noted that while from a distance it looked fairly well tended, that closer up one could see neglect. One gained the impression that what had once been a well tended garden was dealt with only enough to not draw too much attention. A garden gnome had been smashed off its small pedestal with ugly force and thrown into a small ditch along with cracked clay flowerpots. The neighbours did not like the new couple but did not see much evil in them either except for one local wise woman, a hedge witch of sorts, who proclaimed them to be of truly dark nature. Except that nobody had listened to her.

 

It was she who told Bobby that a local Lawkeeper constable had been seen sneakily visiting the farm house at night and that two nights ago two strangers had appeared pushing a two wheeled cart. Locals had begun to become more interested in what was happening at the house and a meeting was being held that very night.

 

Bobby sensed danger! He halted before the door and was still paused there when a killclaw leapt at him from the roof of the building. Killclaws were smaller cousins to the mighty deathclaws but what they lacked in bulk and strength they made up with in speed and agility. The creature was trained and it was savagely fast.

 

Bobby dropped and the killclaw shot through the air, turned with amazing speed and agility, took one look at Bobby and dropped down to the ground and flattened in a position of passive acceptance of his authority.

 

Bobby removed the control/collar from the creature while talking to her quietly in an odd language and then she was standing while he scratched her behind the ear.

 

He punched his way through the front door so that it flew into splinters and leapt straight into the main room. One man leapt up from where he was sitting in a basic wooden chair, cursed in Shadowclan fashion and when to fire a shotgun at Bobby. The killclaw, now on Bobby’s side, leapt through the air and sliced open the man’s throat.

 

A second man raised a 9mm submachinegun and let rip with a volley of bullets. Bobby dived to one side and the killclaw to the other. A throwing blade thunked into the Shadowclanman’s throat and he died, dropping backwards.

 

A hatch crashed open, a mistake, as a woman came rushing up a wooden ladder. Bobby dropped a stunflash grenade down the hole and there was short sharp blast. Two thumping noises followed as two bodies hit the basement chamber floor.

 

When they were awoke they were firmly tied to chairs and Bobby was feeding the killclaw a can of SPAM. The big female creature happily gobbled up the meat and then a second can of SPAM. Specially Processed American Meat was found as millions of boxcans in great big preservation field chambers or PFCs. Many people were not sure if this was riches or a curse that was left over from the past. Along with MREs, C/rations and other such items they had been made for rations during the times leading up to the War of the Worlds. The killclaw loved the taste of it but killclaws did seem to have iron cast stomachs.

 

Bobby had freed the womble and the girl who sat on chairs at a small table, having washed at a tapsink, eating foodbars and drinking canned fruit juice from recently cleaned glasses.

 

The Shadowclanners scowled hatred at him but could not disguise their fear for they knew who he was thanks to their quasidemonic nature.

 

Bobby spoke. “The Shadow cast on this universe of the Multiverse stains and degrades life, threatens the basic natural balance of existence and causes much evil. Yet you worship it for the darkest of reasons, for desire for falsehoods such as immortality and so called great mystical powers. The Shadow is not spiritual, as you claim, but a natural force of the Counter/Multiverse of a very different nature from our own Multiverse. As antimatter is to matter, the Shadow of the antilife is to life. Why did this happen? Not because of some spiritual awakening but because of the use of dangerous ultratechnologies that smashed a rift in the barriers between the two Multiverses. The Shadow simply took advantage of that rift to come to a place it did not belong but it was driven back again except for some cut off fragments.”

 

The woman scowled at him. “The ultratechnologies were but the tools of the fools that the Shadow manipulated to bring forth the new way of wonderment. We are his servants and he will bless us. We will tell you nothing except that the Shadow has a bridgehead here now and it will return.”

 

Demons were natural creatures that actually existed physically on other planes but some had invaded through to the world through the rift. They were drawn to and fed on high levels intense emotions, especially negative ones such as rage or agony or terror. They were linked somehow to the creation of the mutagens and of FEV, or Forced Evolutionary Virus. They could only last in that universe by seeding themselves into willing human hosts or by a few other means. Such demons had been on the world since the rift had closed, trapped there.

 

In other words demons were quite natural entities but were feral in that universe; they didn’t belong. Demon-seeded humans were harder to kill than normal humans by normal means but had some exotic weaknesses; they also lived longer than normal humans. Some had come to worship the Shadow, to follow its very alien and very exotic intelligence. Others hated the Shadow and its followers.

 

Bobby sighed. “This world has enough troubles to deal with without the Shadow showing up again. I know you will tell me nothing but the balance must be kept.”

 

Then he thrust his hands at the two demon-seeded humans and burned away with brief cut off screams as if by very fast spontaneous combustion. He had already burned away the other two dead demon-seeded men.

 

Bobby turned to the womble and the girl who were staring at him in awe. “So I take Wo’Wallace the womble home soon and then, you, Sandy all the way home to Twinhigh.”

 

Sandy shook her head. “People in Twinhigh say I am a witch/child. They say I have the Third Eye, the Invisible Hand, the Healing Touch and the Way of Glows. My sister used to be nice to me but she got married to a stupid man and he made sure I could not live with them. I had to live in the common house but women there were kind to me though they were supposed to be low life nobodies. Then my sister’s husband and some other men kidnapped me in the middle of the night. They had guns and the women of the common house could do nothing to help me. They sold me to the Shadowclan.”

 

Bobby nodded. “Well, I will find a place for you to stay while I go and visit Twinhigh. Maybe your sister couldn’t help you. Twinhigh has a rough reputation. I have to do some thinking. Do you both want me to chill another can of fruit juice for you to drink?”

 

The girl frowned softly in thought about her sister but then she and the womble nodded eagerly at the suggestion of the drink.

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

EIGHT

 

SOME DEATHS, SOME LOOT AND SOME INFORMATION

 

Bobby left the womble and the Wastelander girl upstairs now guarded by a tamed killclaw who was now friendly with both the others. There was also a pair of wary Clanguards who knew too well the fighting ability of both wombles and killclaws. Wombles were smaller than killclaws but they also had claws and fangs plus they could and would use bladed weapons in melee action in a deadly fashion; a battle between an experienced womble warrior and a blooded killclaw adult was normally a close bet. It was a good thing for both that they normally avoided each other.

 

Wombles made real were not quite like the wombles of ancient fiction except they still collected stuff and they made often amazing things out of it. They were a tad larger than their fictional ancestors.

 

Down in the bottom basement level Bobby investigated the blood-twister machine and then he freed thee demonic creature inside. Since it was trapped against its will in that dimensional plane, it vanished but first it gave to Bobby a burst of knowledge in crude telepathic form. Demonic pride and a twisted code of honour would not allow it to leave with out making some kind of genuine payment.

 

Bobby found hidden inside a wall cavity something that his mindeye had failed to detect because it was well shielded. It was a communications device of perverse design and make, a baseline telepathic sender/receiver that would give a normal human user at least a huge migraine headache or even kill him or her. Again he freed a trapped and enslaved demonic creature and again he was rewarded with valuable data before the creature vanished.

 

The Shadowclanners had been in contact with Warlord HanLo’s people, passing on coded messages from the Lawkeeper constable that in turn came from an unnamed but high ranking traitor in the settlement of Gold Right Ra’Di. Examining coded messaged once stored by the once trapped communicator demon and data passed on by the other once demonic creature, he soon suspected who it was. Others by have been shocked but not Bobby. For the couple of traitors had taken in exchange for their treason serums made by the blood-twister machine. As yet he had no idea why they would take these particular serums as payment which all had to do with health regeneration and longevity.

 

Bobby destroyed the bizarre demonic machines and other things he found in that second basement level. Yet he also found loot that he kept including a holotape projector, holotapes, valuable Prewar books, Emergency Issue Coins or EICs, stimpaks, MREs, boxcans of SPAM, automatic weapons, ammo and more. He made them vanish into what he called his Inventory.

 

Then he returned to the upper chamber to find that the two Clanguards were dead. Between them the womble and the killclaw had done them in when the two Clanguards had suddenly tried to kill the two creatures and the little girl. The womble had expertly used the .32 revolver-pistol that Bobby had given him and the killclaw had ripped into the other man with amazing speed and power. For the womble and killclaw, along with the fast hiding girl, had been prewarned.

 

 

Now that the two assassins, the two false Clanguards were dead, the real Clanguards entered with their commander. She stood there listening quietly to what Bobby had to say and then she spoke.“We questioned the Lawkeeper constable who, unfortunately, died during the process.” The Clanguard Captain sighed. “What we learned from the fool confirms your own information. Bobby, I would like you to accompany us but what of your companions?”

 

The false Clanguards had been sent by the corrupted pair who had paid them.

 

He smiled. “Send them to the outpost settlement of Danny’Dia and to the Clamer Family there and tell them that Bobby sent them. Make sure that they know the killclaw is safely tame now but a can of SPAM now and then might help. I will send some SPAM with them. She (the killclaw) loves SPAM.”

 

The Clanguard Captain sighed. “Well they do say that killclaws can eat anything.”

 

Bobby nodded. “I found loot here in the building. Your garrison can have some.”

 

She shook her head. “Unless its very special indeed, you can have it because I think you will need it. If somebody can corrupt two such fine people then we face a terrible dark force and we need you.”

 

Bobby nodded. “The lord and lady are waiting. Let us go to them.”

 

So Bobby departed with a group of soldiers in military vehicle, a small six wheeled troop-carrier truck of a kind called a ‘beep’ that was based on a WW2 vintage vehicle. The womble, girl and killclaw went in another direction with two not so pleased Clanguards. The killclaw lay with her head on the girl’s lap while the girl told her all about plans to sow new dollies for the killclaw and the womble.

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

NINE

 

KILLING AND BURNING IN GOLD RIGHT RA’DI

 

Bobby aimed his autorifle along the hallway and unleashed a volley of bullets. A false Clanguard fell, dropping her own weapon as her combat armour was punctured by the special projectiles. The chambers and hallways of the Leadership Chambers were surprisingly intact but the bullet holes in some walls, the dead bodies and pools of blood along with many spent bullet casings, were a good hint of trouble.

 

Lord Bruce was dead, was draped over the platform of the official chairs of state. He had died fighting but he had also died as a traitor. The dead mayor had shot him and even as the other man had fallen but it had been the loyal bodyguards to the real Lord Bruce who had killed him when realising fully this was no longer their real lord.

 

Scattered muffled sounds of shooting came to the big room as the last of the Shadowclanners were killed off. There would be no surrendering and no mercy shown.

 

Bobby cursed softly and draped his gun over a shoulder. Then he wiped clean the blade of his big combat knife after pulling it out of another corpse. He slipped it away even as he saw the drink. He took a couple of gulps from a bottle of wine even as more soldiers came into the area.

 

The secret threat to the settlement of Gold Right Ra’Di was gone. Real Clanguards, many secretly alerted by Bobby himself, had destroyed the enemy. Womble warriors had literally sniffed out hidden enemies and caches.

 

He looked out a big open window and the big cavern was in darkness except for a scattering of lights, the suncrystal being in its night stage, and burning fires. The bodies of the foe were being burned as bagpipes played a traditional lament. A big military vehicle, armoured and heavy, was still burning as it lay on its side.

 

Gold Right Ra’Di was safe once more but the price had been a great one. Yet Bobby had a strong but unexplained impression that the enemy had suffered a terrible blow and now he was keen to learn more.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

TEN

 

TALKING AND WALKING IN A BUNKERPLEX

 

They found the big bunker complex, or bunkerplex, hidden not far from the settlement’s outer most western-upper outpost. The smart-materials built bunkerplex was built in 2056 and had an odd mixture of technologies in it from the World War Three vehicles and weapons carefully stored in one chamber to the Age of Technological Miracles ultratechnologies.

 

There were AbramX1X main battletanks or MBTs, early style field exosuits, FESTs, equipped with both tools and weapons, Bradley armoured fighting vehicles, big eight wheeled amphibious Land Armoured Vehicles and many other machines including battlebuggies and experimental hoverbuggies. Big long heavy tonnage eight wheeler haulers stood each packed with equipment and supplies.

 

But there were also protectrons, MrGutsys, sentrybots, gunbots and other robots with positronic brains and some cyborg brainbots with cloned human brains.

 

Standard Combat Power Armour Suits, or SCPASTS, were encased carefully be they standard trooper, support gunner, tech, medic, radio, ADAT, flamer, minigun or others.

 

Bobby strode through bleak metallic hallways lit by flurotubes that came on when needed and switched off otherwise to conserve electricity. He was not focused on the huge treasure of valuable goodies but something was leading him past huge storeroom after huge storeroom. Yet he and those with him did read the basic and efficiently written information on the doors.

 

Clanguard Captain Elsie Flanagan, ancestors from Ireland, spoke as she went past a door. “An interesting mixture of stored items; antiques, toilet paper, butchers paper, basic field sowing kits, tires, toolkits of many kinds, DADs, DVDs, holotapes, books, laundry liquid, army issue women’s special needs kits, combat fatigues, coveralls, motor oil…. A true treasure.”

 

Bobby nodded. “Fine goods for a renegade army that could supply tradegoods as well as more immediate needed resources. Fine wines, ceramic figurines, chess sets, oil paintings in wooden frames, deskcomputers, portable computers, electric wheelchairs, electric golfcars, MREs, boxcans of SPAM, more books, CVDs, 3DTV sets, 3Dradio sets, survival weapon kits, lightly armoured hazmat suits, office furniture, socks, shoes, boots, gloves, nutritional supplement drink powder.”

 

Flanagan snorted. “Perhaps also stuff to set up some kind of base but why so much World War Three stuff?”

 

Bobby sighed. “The world had gone through massive death and destruction. I remember walking through the ruins of Old Washington DC about a month after it was destroyed. Yet the secret underground manufactories were untouched as were great big vaults of equipment and supplies. Those N/bombs disintegrated people, made them literally vanish except for the finest of ash. OWDC had only an indirect hit by conventional fusion warheads but a small N/warhead struck closer. Most of the leadership had been taken by surprise, had died, but one man rose out of the rubble of that city. Or at least he arose in a great big network of bunkers, subways and other structures deep beneath Old Washington DC. It would have been better if he had died.”

 

Flanagan nodded. “President James Patriot Johnston!”

 

Bobby snorted. “His real name was Harold Johnston and he was the Vice/President because it was the easiest way to deal with him with out giving him too much notice. He changed his name, he gathered a whole lot of confused and frightened people around himself, and he gained control of terrible secrets that somebody like him should never have even known of.”

 

Flanagan shrugged. “Save the world with JPJ! Matter duplication, regeneration-rejuvenation, cyberlinkage, positronic brains, cloning, androids, true robots, antigravity drives, orbital habitats at L5, advanced medicants, laser weapons, power armour for workers and soldiers. Oh, this great floating island of Columbia complete with the New Washington DC on its tabletop mountain and inside its great big dome.”

 

“Bubble actually because it goes underground also, which is why nobody has been able to enter or leave it since Doomsday!” Bobby shrugged. “My point was that President JPJ did not only let power go to his head, it changed him utterly and left him open to the dark influences of certain shadowy figures. They played on his ego, on his paranoia and his various fetishes. Columbia Island was to be his personal paradise where only his devoted followers and various forms of slaves could live. The island was to be mostly populated by carefully programmed clone-slaves, cyborgs, androids and robots but mostly with roboremotes controlled by AI/supercomputer network-systems. But before that there was a massive drive to produce goods, a vast network of great industrial and special processing bunkerplexes began to pump out a mass of processed goods. The production process started about the decade after WW3 and began with WW3 vintage stuff. Much was used but much was also stored away in places like this.”

 

Flanagan nodded. “The stories say he was a noble man who was betrayed.”

 

“The stories are false.” Bobby shrugged. “He was a monster, a dreaded dictator, a cult of personality who lived in a bizarre amusement park like estate. He took control of much of the world through the New World Patriot Party, the new World Protection Progress Network, the WorldTek Corporation and the Enclaves. Except he didn’t really control WorldTek. The Eagle Enclave was given North America to rule as part of the WPPN. All citizens belonged to the NWPP. In the Age of Technological Miracles many crazy events took place. WorldTek, with its many daughter corporations and other agencies, openly split away and took over its own territories around the world. Rebel movements arose. Then somebody killed President JPJ, shot him many times with special projectiles because the president was now a monstrous cyborg. I killed him!”

 

She looked at him briefly. “Most people I wouldn’t believe but you I do believe. The transdimensional rifts were opened and the Great Madness broke out. Stories say it was because President James Patriot Johnston was killed.”

 

“No, it would have been worse if he had lived.” Bobby stopped suddenly at a big armoured power door. “He was planning to do something almost unimaginably insane but only he was aware of all of the details of the plan. Killing him stopped the project dead in its tracks. We are here.”

 

Flanagan spoke. “What was the plan?”

 

He shook his head. “It was so terrible that even I locked away the truth from myself.”

 

Bobby walked to the control panel next to the huge armoured door and began to examine it.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited May 8, 2010 by Maharg67