War of Realities in the DC Wastelands

[Maharg67]

Thank you, Herculine, very much.

 

Keep repeating it if you so desire. I far from mind.

 

:yes: :thumbsup: :thanks: :drag: :bunny: :banana: ;D

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-ONE

THE MAN FROM SEARF

BENEATH OLD McDONALD’S FARM

 

They had set up a home for themselves in the loose bunker of three quite different sections. That is Eddie’Jo, Lilly the girl, two dogs, a molerat, a dogdroid, ten robots, three androids and some newcomers. The newcomers were a zhoul held in a strong cage, a young killclaw who adored SPAM (Soynutri Processed American Meat), a thieving crow and an old brahmin cow.

 

Why he had a way with animals and why he gathered up some of them, Eddie’Jo had no idea but he tended to do just that. In the cave chamber with its bright daylight panels he tended the brahmin cow who peacefully allowed him to brush her down. She provided them with fresh milk. He wore grey-green splashwork SEARF combat fatigue trousers and boots, his slimly muscular body showing no sweat but some dirt.

 

The girl was busy reading a large colourful book to the sleepy molerat and the two attentive dogs.

 

Three worktrons were busy slowly and steadily extending the cave at the farther end.

 

Against one wall was the cage and the zhoul who was calm now, squatting and staring steadily at Eddie’Jo as if mesmerised by him. Once upon a time the zhoul had been a young woman but that was centuries ago. There were other cages that were empty, a whole row of six of them, all quite large like the one that the zhoul was in.

 

The android woman was standing in armour to one side but with her helmet removed. She looked like a ‘normal’ SEARF super-soldier. Her hair was very short cut unlike his own and could grow longer if she needed it to be so. She was examining a portable tablet-terminal. “The need to keep hidden, to avoid more smart cruise-missiles or other threats, has slowed down our exploration and infiltration efforts in the Compunetwork, as you predicted that it would.”

 

He nodded. “We have picked up subtle but important indicators of SEARF activity in the DC-Wastelands and I sense them out there. There are other official SEARF safe houses and bases to be checked, those that have surprised, but I have no idea which ones have been compromised.”

 

He paused noticeably before going on. “One site we established was most interesting. It was below a SuperDuperMart complex. It was large and in an emergency could grab equipment and supplies from the big shopping complex itself. Indeed we used the shopping complex to slip people in and out through its large crowds, changing appearances and identities of course.”

 

The android nodded. “You mean the sight roughly north-west-west from here, the one close to Mount Olympia, the false volcano.”

 

“One of JPJ’s horrible follies.” Eddie’Jo nodded. “Except that with the president one was never sure if the fake volcano hid some other, more sinister, cause. He was always very devious and loved to conceal one project with another. Then again, sometimes he just made his follies. We need to try to communicate with the hidden SEARF base there.”

 

The killclaw wondered over. Killclaws were smaller, faster, more nimble versions of deathclaws who tended to live in larger packs. The killclaw halted, yawned, and then curled up beside the young man. Eddie’Jo scratched the very efficient hunter beast with the toe of one boot and Spammy thrum-throbbed with pleasure. It was like a small engine was going inside her.

 

The android nodded. “How? The mobiphone network-systems are down. Ham radio and CB-radio are troubled as are all two way radio systems. The Compunetwork had already proved problematic.”

 

The SEARF super-soldier nodded, patted the brahmin and then walked over to a bare cave wall. The cow, the android and the killclaw followed him and watched him as he ran his fingers over the wall. Then he stopped at a patch that seemed no different from any other. He stabbed his hand into the wall and the stone gave way like it was soft putty. A moment later he had cleared away a roughly disk shaped area over what looked like a glistening metallic, vertical placed disk of softly glowing crystal.

 

He spoke. “One more bit of alien technology as stolen by the damned nomadic zetans in their ever roving motherships. Did you know about the Great Fijian Disaster of 2023?”

 

The android nodded. “It killed millions when a fusion power station exploded to unleash a series of further disasters, a domino effect of death and destruction.”

 

He shook his head. “A zetan mothership was brought down by experimental pulselaser cannons. The aliens got over confident. The mothership crashed straight down into Fiji. US forces swarmed over the islands to take the mothership and its technologies first but had to later pass over much of what it found so as to avoid a world war. Before that happened the US sent a good deal of alien tech to the US Mainland in stealth submarines and stealth air-transports. Officially the USA denied that any such transportation of goods ever took place but none of the other governments believed them.”

 

The android nodded. “My databanks are now upgraded.”

 

He gingerly reached out and touched the device. It started to glow more richly. He closed his eyes as if focusing to control the device through his fingers somehow. Then he spoke. “Focusi to focusi! Focusing. Integrity control attained. Slipping. Control retained. Yes, I have it.”

 

He pulled his hand away with a soft frown. “I have gained tenuous psychic linkage with a device not designed for human minds to use. I suppose it is a good thing that I am not fully human.”

 

The disk shimmered and a non reversed mirror effect occurred but it reflected a far off scene. It was a control chamber of some kind a zetan aliens were moving around or sitting in chairs designed for their bodies. They seemed agitated and overly excited but this was quite normal for them. There were various castes represented with different colourations of metallic jumpsuits and symbols; there was a zeta-leader, two zeta-officers, some zeta-operators, a zeta-tech, some zeta-guards and even more zeta-workers. Only the officer and the guards were armed and with a mixture of raygun-pistols and ray-gun rifles. Service-drones and guardian-drones were also evident hovering in the background.

 

Eddie’Jo quickly changed the setting. Now there was a great chamber filled with translucent softly glowing mist. A tall figure moved there, a thing like glowing jelly, a thing with many limbs of various kinds. The thing began to turn towards the screen.

 

Eddie’Jo changed the view very quickly this time. He had misty memories of meeting such creatures and they were not good. Had he killed one of them in self defence? That was one thing he could not quite remember.

 

Then he was looking at a familiar sight. A style of bunker command chamber that he had functioned in many times. SEARF troopers and specialists were active in the chamber, a mixture of super-soldiers and androids. They seemed extremely busy. Some were in compuchairs and were either partly or fully cyberlinked. They were in armour with helmets removed.

 

A face appeared, youthful and attractive, a woman. She looked calmly at him. “Citizen, identify yourself.”

 

He responded. “One Alpha One Recognition Fifty Alpha One. Eddie Lucky Eddie. Command Four. Emergency Coda Eight. Request Alpha Beta Four. Star Marshal. Bloody Eddie.”

 

She looked mildly surprised, which meant that she was very surprised. She nodded. “Your form of communications is compromised. We are seeking you. Assist us to locate you.”

 

He touched the alien device again and deactivated it. Then he spoke. “There are SARF forces beneath the SuperDuperMart but they appear to be facing some form of difficulty though not outright danger. We psylinked briefly. Uncle Leo, a super-mutant massemoth, came to the SuperDuperMart complex and began to influence the minds of over a thousand humans, ghouls and others there. The super-soldiers had been protecting the settlers but not being very good at diplomacy, they did so in a rather heavy handed manner. Now the SEARF super-soldiers are more or less trapped in the bunker beneath the great shopping complex. Between them and the human rebels, amazingly enough, is a small army of robots and basic androids along with bananadroids. Robotic bananas.”

 

The android nodded. “Bananadroids designed for a combination of advertising potential, customer relations and practical work capacities! Do the SEARF troopers know you are here?”

 

He nodded. “Yes, but the problem will be how to reach me. They have stealth vehicles, Blackfires of various kinds and captured plus salvaged machines they have altered. There are 100 plus super-soldiers and 200 plus androids plus 50 plus special SEARRs (Special Encounter Assault Recon Robots). They have other robots. Amongst them are humans who would not attempt to exclude the SEARF troopers from the settlement, to capture the bunker, as many of them would. Uncle Leo did not mean there to be such a near conflict to arise. He advises all to live in harmony with each other but some hot heads amongst the norm-humans will not listen even to him.”

 

That was when the alarms began to ring as intruders were detected moving towards the farm house, entering the edges of the farm property.

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-TWO

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

ALL PRAISE TO THE GREAT PRESIDENT DAVE

:whistling:

 

President Dave had a strange and subtle influence over many women but not all women. Some women he repulsed and some even hated him on sight. He did not know it but he was a particular kind of strain of genetic mutation and he was far from being the only one in the DC-Wastelands though they were rare. The women he influenced would become devoted to him or, even if not devoted, they would do what he wanted of them with out any real resistance.

 

Dave had a influence of a different kind on many men. They came to follow his orders with out question but some also came to hate him and they would attack him with out any good reason. So Dave, as crazy as he was, knew he had to be clever how he ruled his little republic of some three thousand people.

 

Dave swaggered around his big office with its big wooden desk. There was a ragged edged flag of the USA with Canada and Mexico added as extra stars. There was an old plastic coated map of the DC-Wastelands. There was a deskcomputer on the desk that did not actually work but it looked good. Weapon racks on the wall held rifles, shotguns and, of all things, a speargun.

 

His follower-secretary sat demurely on her office-chair. She wore black lacy underwear, highheel shoes, garter-belts, fishnet stockings and that sort of gear including a black ribbon in her red hair.

 

He spoke with great confidence and charm. “The refusal of the Union of Columbia to recognise my natural right of rulership of the DC-Wastelands can only be taken as a deep insult to my person as the President of the mighty enlightened Republic of Dave.”

 

Actually the follower-secretary only pretended to write on a pad while an officetron actually recorded his words, being an office worker version of a protectron. But she was a lot nicer to look at than the robot or so he thought.

 

Dave sighed. In truth he was a descendent of President James Patriot Jackson but so far this was a fact he had kept to himself. While some thought PJP had been some sort of hero and most were indifferent, some would happily kill him if they knew the truth. He had inherited his strange power off the far off ancestor as had his own father who he had overthrown.

 

He sat down on his own swivel-chair and sighed dramatically, steepleling his fingers in front of himself. Through a wide, slightly grubby window slit of armaglass, he could see a good deal of his republic. It was not very large, he had to admit that much. It had a wall around it. It had four corner forts, small but strong. It had the Outer Guards of men and the Inner Guards of women. There was the wonderful Museum of Dave, a large shed with a dull coloured roof. There was the well which was well guarded. There were the dormitories for the men in the Outer Zone and dormitories for the women in the Inner Zone. There were farm crops, orchards, brahmin pens, chicken coops, workshops, a medical clinic, a school, a stables, a kennel, a windmill, the Public Square of Dave with its Statue of Dave which, he admitted, was fairly rough and small and there were other features.

 

He yawned. It was perhaps time for a nap. His powerful mind, he considered, needed recharging on a regular basis. But first a massage. He smiled at his follower-secretary and, knowing what that type of smile meant, she put her notepad down and stood up all sultry and sexy.

 

Later, as he slept on a cot in a corner, she carefully activated the deskcomputer that was supposed to not be working. An symbol of an EE inside a big eagle shape with wings spread, appeared briefly. The Eagle-Enclave wanted a report from her, a deep infiltration agent, who was not at all under the psychic influence of President Dave. She ticked some boxes, tapped out short answers, wrote down some numbers. No, the Orders of Steel had not been close to the Republic of Dave recently though Brother-Outcast expeditions had been seen in the distance seeking technological secrets. Eagle-Enclave under President Eden held the Orders of Steel and the Outcast Brotherhood in contempt but was aware that they were a threat to future Enclaver plans for the DC-Wastelands.

 

The Republic of Dave had become an important covert base of operations for the Eagle-Enclave with over a dozen agents based there while others passed through to deliver courier packages and to get resupplied. The Eagle-Enclavers were clone-humans immune to Dave’s mind influence and they found the fool to be of no threat to them.

 

Later President Dave awoke and she had a large cup of tea waiting for him along with some biscuits one of his follower-wives had baked for him. President Dave drank the tea and ate all of the biscuits. He offered her no biscuits, he was that kind of leader, but she was grateful for the delicious treats were drugged; the wife-follower was another Eagle-Enclave agent.

 

The President settled back and began to jabber on about some great plan he had to alter the course of rivers in the DC-Wastelands. It was rubbish but she dutifully pretended to write it all down while he ogled her.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-THREE

THE MAN FROM SEARF

BATTLE FOR OLD McDONALD’S FARM

:drag:

 

 

Two forces came from two directions into the long abandoned grounds of the farm, two forces both exotic and traditionally hostile to each other. From one direction came chimpnoids, gen-engineered chimpanzees, hunched forward a little and in flexikevlar body-armour. Chimpnoids had been a part of the animanoid experiments of LifeTek, a less well known but important TekCorp. Greater apes had been the first to be genned along with bottle nosed dolphins, octopuses and a select few others. Yet animanoids had only been in the few thousands in number and not seen live by most people, when Doomsday took place. One major reason was that chimpnoids, gorillanoids, orangunoids and others like them had proven to be surprisingly resistant to being controlled, as had dolphinnoids.

 

From the other direction came tribal humans that like raiders wore garish and wild looking armour but who also wore their hair in distinctive tribal fashions complete with tribal tokens and totem emblems.

 

Why enemies? Because the Primateriarch Colonies and the NuNarli Tribals wanted to dominate the eastern coast of Delaware and its access to ocean resources. It was a foolish petty war, especially because there was more than enough resources for both groups and if they cooperated they could utilise those resources better. But Wastelanders were so used to struggle and competition, with seeing strangers as enemies, they often could not see a positive alternative.

 

The Primateriarch was to the south and the NuNarli from the north. Even as they approached the farm to make the fatal encounter, the sky was darkening, the wind was whipping up and a small rainstorm seemed to be coming in. Lightening flashed in the distance.

 

The tribal warriors and chimpnoid soldiers entered a wasteland of farmland machinery, mutated farm crops grown wild, broken ground and the ruins of various buildings, walls and other structures. They slowed as a light rain began to pelt down. They tried to keep an eye on each other. Both sides sensed danger. Their groups were forced to break up thanks to the messiness of the landscape with all of its obstacles. This made them more vulnerable.

 

Then they began to vanish, one by one. At first none of them really noticed but when they did, they began to worry. Orders were sent out by those in command. The fighters bunched closer together. Another disappeared and then another.

 

Stunflash and dazer-smoke grenades exploded amongst both groups. Figures flashed into both groups with amazing speed and agility. Where they went, chimpnoids or tribals fell.

 

Only one short was fired and the bullet from a tribal’s hunting rifle went wildly off high into the air.

 

Then the farm was back to its old ruined self, peaceful except for the coming storm. Some molemice scuttled along, carrying a last lot of gathered food to their burrow before the rain came down harder. A big jagged-eagle settled in under the eave of a partly collapsed building.

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-FOUR

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

SUPER-MUTANT ASSAULT ON RIVET CITY

:starwars:

 

Rivet City was made up of a big old maritime museum including a large jetty, tourist terminal, administration and other buildings, an aircraft-carrier, a luxury ocean-liner, a monster of an oil-tanker and some other vessels. Underwater robots and divers in SCUBA gear or even amphibious power armour kept the hulls under good repair. Other structures had been added and original structures had been altered. Rivet City had over 500,000 people and was most important to both the DC-Wastelanders in general and the Union of Columbia in particular.

 

The aircraft-carrier was developing as an airport for smaller aircraft and airboats (small airships) going between UC settlements but also now to the DC-Citadel. Aircraft were mainly home built or reclaimed older type aircraft, prop driven monoplanes and even some biplanes. They were basic, rugged, dependable, easier to repair and fairly easy to fly. Airboats used helium gas.

 

Rivet City was having troubles as under the cloudy sky on a late afternoon it was attacked. Union Guardsmen ran along the jetty in partial power-armour and light power armour as covering fire was dealt out by 20mm autogun hard-towers. With the soldiers went protectrons and mulebots, the last being lightly armoured, semi-enclosed four wheeled machines with roboturrets set up on their tray-backs. Some came in lightly armoured armajeeps, each of them semi-enclosed and armed with twin 12.7mm Heavy Browning Machineguns.

 

A force of super-mutants had appeared suddenly too close to the settlement for comfort and had started to snipe at the jetty and vessels with various weapons including small missiles and rocket-grenades. Rivet City security guards joined in the defence of the aquatic settlement. 40mm shells and 100mm shells were hurled at the stupid-mutants coming through the broken buildings across a cleared open ground from the jetty and its buildings.

 

Then as abruptly as they had appeared, the attackers vanished, even taking their dead and dying with them. They also took such as weapons and ammo from their own deceased comrades.

 

A squad of Union Guardsmen set out after an hour or so and apart from finding some dead raiders close to a subway station entrance, they located only a few tracks of the vanished monsters. The raiders were looted of weapons and ammo but not of radaways that no super-mutant would need. Many Rivet Cityfolk were confused but some considered that this had been a testing of Rivet City’s defences.

 

While many quickly forgot about what had happened, a few decided to better prepare the settlement for future trouble.

 

TO BE COMPLETED

[Maharg67]

TWENTY-FIVE

THE MAN FROM SEARF

SEARF MEETING BENEATH OLD McDONALD’S FARM

:thumbsup:

 

The knocked out chimpnoids and tribal humans were in cages in the cave chamber with its bright daylight panels. Their weapons were gone but were heaped neatly in two sections, tribal and great ape. Eddie’Jo was there with three SEARC super-soldiers who had come seemingly out of nowhere. They had been scouting the area and had followed the tribals into the area. There were also androids standing close to the troopers and the girl was sleeping on a inflatobed along with two dogs, the molerat and the dogdroid.

 

The three women SEARF troopers had their helmets removed, as Eddie’Jo did, and were quietly listening to him.

 

He was speaking in SEARF battle-language. “We talk with these fine folks, when they wake, and find out anything we can from them with out resorting to any nasty type interrogative techniques.”

 

The sergeant nodded. “As you will.”

 

He sensed her doubt because was he not Bloody Eddie who was infamous for breaking prisoners during interrogation?

 

He sighed. “My memories are far from perfect but the zetan aliens caught me, along with a few folk including zetan aliens from another faction. There were even some Patriot Guards amongst us and fifteen of our comrades. Normally the zetans that raid Terra for prisoners, and what ever else their weird little minds are attracted to, belong to the Zeta’Zool or Zeta’Zaku Factions. They and their motherships are amongst the middle ranks of zetan factions when it comes to technological advancement, power, wealth and influence.”

 

“No, the ones that caught me that day were much more dangerous and they had much more advanced technological tricks to play with. They were the Zeta’Zoosh. I say ‘were’ because they were destroyed. It seems the zetans serve, with an eternal contract of some kind, a kind of coalition of aliens known generally as the All’Moom’Laa. The zetans gain user friendly motherships and other technologies. In turn they supply the coalition with most of what they gain or do various tasks for them. The Zeta’Zoosh, as at least one zetan faction does every century or so, tried to cheat the All’Moom’Laa. The Zeta’Zoosh were doing contractual forbidden experiments with captured technologies they tried to hide from the All’Moom’Laa instead of handing them over.”

 

The sergeant nodded. “You were captured by the All’Moom’Laa.”

 

“Thankfully, no!” He shook his head. “All’Moom’Laa are linked with the Greys, both the Greynari and the Greytorv. They are even more fallen, more insane, then the zetans themselves. Zetans are Greynari-human hybrids.”

 

He shrugged. “I got taken by the Centro, the ancient enemies of the All’Moom’Laa and the force that is slowly, steadily destroying them.”

 

The sergeant suddenly struck a fist out so fast the movement was invisible. He effortlessly deflected it. It was a test and soon the three SEARF women were throwing attacks at him. He effortlessly deflected every one of them and did not attempt to attack in return.

 

Until Lilly got up and the girl cried out in anger. “You leave my daddy alone.” The dogs and molerat looked up and all began growling, the molerat in its odd way.

 

The three women stopped, turned and looked at the girl in surprise. Then they bowed their heads and the sergeant spoke again. “Forgive us, Lilly, for being so foolish. It was a test. We were not trying to hurt your daddy but to measure his fighting reflexes. He is now even a greater fighter than he used to be and he used to be amongst the best. He is also deeper to the hub.”

 

Lilly frowned tiredly at them, humphed and went back to bed but as she went to make herself comfortable, gently pushing the molerat to one side, a device landed softly in front of her. The animals settled down again quickly. She picked it up and found it was a small multitool with a torch, a small blade, a toothpick, small fold-out scissors and other items. She looked up in surprise.

 

Eddie’Jo smiled. “A gift from these soldiers and I.”

 

Lilly nodded, smiled back, slipped the device into a pocket in her teddy-bear, and went back to sleep.

 

The sergeant spoke. “What did the Centro do with you?”

 

He sighed. “Sent me to various worlds, various dimensional planes and altered me in various ways after gaining my permission to do so. They always got my permission to do most things. Then they did something I can not remember, but I gave them permission to remove my memories, and sent me back here.”

 

The sergeant frowned. “What of the other SEARF troopers?”

 

He shook his head a little. “I do not know! The zetans who captured us, sent us to different motherships. They ended up on another one. At least I do not remember meeting any but the renegade Rashnar and the last I remember of him was throwing him off a catwalk. He fell out of sight and I never saw him again. Rashnar was trying to do unpleasant things to a young man he had taken captive. The mothership I was in was being destroyed and outside Centro and Greynari forces were fighting. The Centro were Rainbowzari. They were wiping out the Greynari easily but those Greys had at least a hundred of their motherships for every rainbow-orb that was there.”

 

A SEARF private spoke then. “Greys seem to keen to throw away their lives.”

 

Eddie’Jo turned to her. Once he would have punished her for speaking out of command but he simply answered. “The Greys are fundamentally insane as are all of the All’Moom’Laa but they differ in the way they express it. Greynari are amazingly suicidal but also amazingly prolific in their reproduction.”

 

The sergeant frowned. “Why did you not punish the private for speaking out of command protocol?”

 

Eddie’Jo responded. “Times and conditions have changed and so must we. We must be more open, more flexible with each other and be more diplomatic with non-SEARF folks in order to survive and to thrive. A great threat is returning to this world. We must deal with it. First we must deal with ourselves and the DC-Wastelands as they are. We must keep our real nature largely hidden while also sending out envoys and groups to communicate with and better understand these Wastelanders and others we might encounter. I have learned much since my rather exotic return but I expect that we need to share data.”

 

The SEARF sergeant was grave. “SEARF is strong in many ways. The SuperDuperMart bunker is important but only an outpost. In truth we have taken over a LifeVault that fell into trouble thanks to a horrific experiment and we have mad this our home base. We share it with the Vaultfolk survivors and get on surprisingly well. We have also taken over a dozen other places as outposts and three others as central sites. We number close to twelve thousand in number as super-soldiers with about twenty one thousand others including cyborgs, androids and norms.”

 

Then she went on. “We have gained evidence that President James Patriot Jackson did not truly die. That on the moment you shot him that he escaped into some kind of amazingly complicated, sophisticated, advanced and bizarre virtual reality realm. We have only bits and pieces but enough to know that it is made from a bizarre and, most likely, unstable jury rigging of alien, human and human-alien hybrid technologies. Oh, also alien-alien hybrid sciences. The realm is known as NeoDC as in Neo District of Columbia and it is centred by NeoWashington, a more or less accurate copy of Washington DC. But there are problems. Some force discovered our infiltrating of the Compunetwork and other activities to find the truth and they have been hunting us.”

 

He did not at all like the idea that his father had survived. “Like the smart-cruise-missile that destroyed the SEARF safe house that I was in.” Then he told them about what had happened.

 

The sergeant nodded. “We were forced to abandon all covert SEARF sites, that is official ones created before the war but we fear they have learned about some of our unofficial ones. There has been treachery amongst our ranks.”

 

He shook his head. “Careful about such conclusions. There may be a simpler and less disturbing, less dangerous answer. We are changing, getting deeper to the hub.”

 

The three other super-soldiers nodded.

 

The sergeant spoke. “We are hunted by various super-soldiers much like ourselves but some have exotic powers and weaknesses unlike our own. We have not learned much about them except that they serve something called JAGAF. We think that they are clones, as we are. Well, most of us. They may have come from a similar experimental program but they differ in some ways from us. They can shapeshift and they act as other factions either as whole groups or infiltrators in normal groups. We can sense them. We call them doppelgangers of which there seem to be various kinds.”

 

At that moment the tribal warriors and chimpnoid soldiers began to awaken and to sit up, to look groggily around in confusion and wonder.

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[shadowmadnezz]

each chapter keeps getting pretty intense :) I expecially like chapter 18, Lucas simms was kickin some ass

[Maharg67]

Thanks, Shadowmadnezz, for the feedback. I enjoyed writing about Lucas Simm's shootout at the OK Barbershop!

[Herculine]

Your writing always brings a smile to my face. :biggrin:

[Maharg67]

Thank you yet again, Herculine.

 

TWENTY-SIX

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

A MEETING OF ELDERS IN THE DC/CITADEL

:thumbsup:

 

 

Elder Lyons turned away from the big 3Dwallscreen and towards Elder Carvina of the Seekers of Truths. A small, specialised Order of Steel, they worked covertly in trying to find information from the local populations, from ruins, from the Compunetwork at various isolated locations. Yet they also carried out some security-intelligence work along with the Sisterhood of Espionage. Elder Carvina was a handsome woman of mature age, her life extended by genetic inheritances and regen-rejuve treatments. She wore the robes of a Scribe. She was of light brown skin, hair and dark brown eyes.

 

Then she was halting in the small multiple purpose chamber and was frowning softly. “We have confirmed it. There exists somewhere in the vast madness of the changed District of Columbia a huge network of network-systems that function as some kind of amazing form of virtual reality domain. We have confirmed its existence but we do not know where it is, how we can get to it. The vast network of network-systems is not only designed cleverly to serve and support the super virtual reality domain, it is cleverly designed to conceal it and, we figure, to protect it.”

 

The chamber was part meeting room, part office-library and a door led to a small bedsitter apartment for this was where Elder Lyons often spent time working things through, making decisions alone or just resting. A protectron robots stood in one corner and a young woman android stood demurely in another.

 

Elder Lyons scowled. “President James Patriot Jackson?”

 

The woman nodded. “We fear that Bloody Eddie did not manage to kill the mad president but that JPJ escaped at the moment of death into the SVR domain that we speak of. Which brings confirmation of other points of concern. SEARF is alive and well in the DC-Wastelands. Bloody Eddie himself has been briefly sighted. The Eagle-Enclave is active covertly in the DC-Wastelands though we do not know how extensively. Super-mutant activity is again on the increase and they seem to be testing the fighting capacity of various factions and defensive capacity of various settlements.”

 

The Elder shook his head in wonder. “Bloody Eddie has returned, SEARF is on the rise and the Mad President has escaped to some sort of incredible virtual reality domain. SEARF will be hunting President James Patriot Jackson. They turned against him for a more than one reason, as you know.”

 

“He was going to betray them, to use them as an expendable suicidal death squads that would destroy as many of his enemies and others he simply did not like, including supposed allies and even friends.” Carvina stepped closer. “What will we do now? My suggestion is that my order attempt to track down the location of the super virtuality domain and that the Sisterhood of Espionage attempt to track SEARF, Eagle-Enclave and super-mutant activities. How are the various more important projects going?”

 

“We continue to have troubles with Liberty Prime’s power supply.” Elder Lyons responded dryly. “We continue to live in hope. We have discovered fire fighter power armour suits, over twenty of them, but we will leave them for use against fires that break out in the DC-Wastelands. We continue to explore the deeper levels of the Pentagon that were greatly expanded under the rule of the Mad President. It is a vast maze down there and it seems designed to cause confusion and to hide secrets as much as to assist people to use the levels. We find mostly standard military equipment and supplies, network-systems and robots but sometimes we gain more exotic discoveries. That includes a Compunetwork Subcore that indicates that the Pentagon was far more deeply linked into the Compunetwork than we, and many others, had previously assumed.”

 

The woman nodded. As President James Patriot Jackson had grown increasingly insane and alienated from his own people, he had retreated to the Patriottium, his own amazing hitech semi-underground fortress. The White House and the ‘Hill’ had been taken over by rebels but the Pentagon had turned into a battle ground. Yet it was suspected that JPJ did actually spend time in the deeper depths of the Pentagon even closer to the time of his death and the unleashing of terrible death and destruction upon the world. The discovery of a Compunetwork Subcore could go a long way to confirming that such was true for the Mad President often worked with and through the amazingly big, powerful and sophisticated computer network of network-systems. Indeed he had been one of the team of brilliant minds behind its creation. The Compunetwork Subcore was not shown on any official interior 3Dmaps of the Pentagon but a good deal wasn’t.

 

Unknown to most, Bloody Eddie, also known as Lucky Eddie, the son of JPJ, was also a genius and had helped to design the Compunetwork. He had been an unofficial consultant whom the president had regularly referred to.

 

“We must find Bloody Eddie, must capture him.” Elder Carvina spoke. “Though how one would capture a SEARF super-soldier gone to ground in the DC-Wastelands, is almost beyond me. Such an environment would be ideal for such people.”

 

Elder Lyons nodded. “We may have to form an alliance with him and his people. In the end they turned against the Mad President and they almost stopped him from destroying much of the world and its people. They paid a high price for doing so for over half of them were killed. They saved many lives because they delayed the JPJ’s last insane act and many were able to escape into deep bunkers or by other means who otherwise would not have been able to make it.”

 

She frowned. “By other means?”

 

Elder Lyons nodded. “It is time you knew more of the Prime Classified Secrets. People escaped in many rocketships, aeroshuttles and by other means to the L5 Orbital Colony and to the Lunar Colonies. Then there were the might Arksubs, mighty atomic powered submarines seeking safety in the very depths of the oceans. Others will remain secret from you, for now.”

 

At that she nodded. “I have picked up whispers of something called the Masstrains.”

 

Elder Lyons turned to her with an odd smile. “Massively armoured, fairly fast moving monorail trains that would hopefully avoid trouble by moving through great underground railway tunnels. A Soviet concept but not one, I think, that appeared in the USA. I could be wrong.”

 

 

She responded. “I must return to my duties.”

 

They parted ways.

 

Knight Captain Gallows paced quietly into the room in light power armour, moving very gracefully and predatory. He halted and then he spoke. “What do we do with her?”

 

“She is not a proven traitor but she is holding back important information from the DC Elders Council.” Elder Lyons. “You yourself have found no link between her and such as the Eagle-Enclave, the DC-Syndicates or even such as the SEARF. Have you found any more clues to what she is holding back on us?”

 

The other nodded. “Data on mutagenic virus types from a small semiautonomous university research cooperative of the Canadian Commonwealth before it was conquered by the USA. A breakthrough, it seems, on understanding some aspects of wild mutation patterns in FEV. It appears to be linked with ghoulification.”

 

Elder Lyons smiled. “Then it is as we suspected. Elder Carvina is a demighoul, a ghoul who is overtly a norm human.”

 

He turned and pressed a green button three times. Then he turned again to look at the door this time. After a few minutes Elder Carvina returned but with her were two Elder Guards in standard power armour suits.

 

Carvina frowned. “So you found out I am a demighoul. Will you shoot me as you do the ghouls in the street or will the infamous Knight Captain Gallows cut my throat?”

 

Elder Lyons sighed. “Neither! Firstly, while the Orders of Steel sometimes shoot towards ghouls, no ghouls are shot. Ghouls tend to be damned stubborn and will not listen to being asked to leave an area. Yet that is not the only reason for the shooting. We wish to keep up the pretence of hostility because of Project Trasher. It is a project named after its founder and hard working scientific director, Professor Gordon Trasher.”

 

He turned to the 3Dwallscreen that had was showing a map of the DC-Wastelands including the eastern coastline with the Atlantic Ocean. He took out a remote control unit from a pouch and tapped some buttons that showed on a screen as numbers and a password. The 3Dwallscreen changed and now showed a very large chamber, a great laboratory where dozens of scientists, lab assistants, lab techs and other moved around including robots and androids obviously marked as such. At least half the people working there were ghouls.

 

Lyons spoke. “Beneath the DC-Citadel is a hidden settlement with over 13,000 people and at least half are ghouls, semighouls and demighouls. They not only work in this and other RD projects but they help run workshops, factories, warehouses, hydroponic farms, recycling plants, training centres, a hospital and much else. Now, who were you intending to send the data to that you held back from us?”

 

She was looking shocked. “Doctor Barrows in the Ghoul Underworld.”

 

He nodded. “Doctor Barrows has a fine mind but he is eccentric and not dependable. Still we have traded data with him through a third person who is actually an agent of the Sisterhood of Espionage. I would like you to take over the role of being a liaison between Doctor Barrows and our operation here.”

 

Elder Carvina. “I will gladly do so. What other secrets have been held back from me?”

 

Elder Lyons frowned. “Many and they will most likely continue to be held back from you as many are held back even from me because no one mind can afford to know too much lest the individual be captured or compromised or turn traitor. Now, you are much older than you pretend to be. Who are you really. Be honest enough and you, along with your small Order of Steel, will benefit greatly. The Seekers of Truth Order is made up of those, like you, who we needed but could not fully trust because your stories did not quite add up.”

 

Carvina frowned. “You used us.”

 

“Of course but you also benefited.” The Elder did not look at all apologetic. “Being an Elder means that I must often do what I least want to do. I have always admired your intelligence and dedication. Now, who are you? We suspect somebody from Stratscidev.”

 

Stratsci was the basic name for the Strategic Scientific Network of the USFG, or United States Federal Government. It was an umbrella agency for many project organizations, agencies and other units. As President James Patriot Jackson’s power base crumbled both in the USA and internationally, Stratsci turned against him. This event was part of what many called the Secret Civil War of North America. It was fought between three major factions and many minor ones. The three were President JPJ and what was called his Patriot Empire, the Eagle-Enclave and the rebels of the Free-Alliance. It was darkly ironic how much of this history was never made open or official and how many Americans never really knew what was going on. All most people knew was that the economy was crumbling, they were hungry and that many people were dying.

 

There was the virus, of course, as developed first by WestTek.

 

“Professor Asher Carvina Trent of the FEV Biological Regulator Program set up by the break away US Federal Government that was based on a rebellious congress and the rule of the famous, sometimes infamous, Vice President Sharon Bane.” The woman shrugged. “Many of my extended family were not only famous scientists but were involved with Stratsci. We tried to deal with the FEV with only mixed results.”

 

Lyons nodded. “I suggest that you continue with your current duties until we call you forth to attend a special meeting. You will learn more then and there.”

 

The woman nodded. “There is much for me to do.”

 

Then she turned and departed.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited February 21, 2010 by Maharg67