War of Realities in the DC Wastelands

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-FIVE

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

REFUGEES

:no: :yes: :yucky: :verymad: :thanks: :sweat: :sleep: :confused:

 

 

Refugees were coming more frequently in convoys from the Washington DC area closer to the Grand National Mall. But they also came from other areas where the super-mutant forces were more likely to strike and where raiders fought super-mutant forces savagely.

 

They went to Rivet City where a big old oil super-tanker was being reconstructed to house them with a Megaton style internal pattern of buildings, platforms, buttresses, rampways, walkways and other structures. Five great tanks had long been cleaned of all crude oil and many adjustments had to be made.

 

They went to Rivertane and the floating slums there expanded.

 

They went to Sugartown where the old factories were being swallowed up by the expanding settlement.

 

They went to Greyditch. Greyditch grew larger, added some walls and attracted traders and trade.

 

They went to Arefu that expanded across the great highway bridge over the Big DC-River and out from the bridge ending at the end which was not broken.

 

They went to Canterbury Commons where the settlement was expanding with newly added walls and a Free Trade Zone that included a large markets.

 

They went to Radiotown established in the massive monolithic GNR Tower but at the base and in the basement levels far below GNR Station.

 

They went to Duckstone, the settlement on the shores of a big secondary DC River, which expanded to accommodate them as new citizens.

 

All these settlements belonged to the Union of Columbia but some few refugees went elsewhere.

 

They went to DCTektown run by the growing, ruthless but surprisingly fair dealing TekCorp survivor. There they became second class citizens and so called subcontractee workers but in general they were treated fairly.

 

They went to the Republic of Dave where the women ended up inside the inner wall and the men ended up outside the inner wall.

 

Some made it to the secret settlement of Rockopolis where they lived a fairly good life for existence in a series of caves and small bunkers.

 

Some few ended in Bigtown outside of the main entrance to the Lamplight Caverns of the Lamplight Mountain where stood the mighty Lamplight Tower, a monstrous monument to the Mad President’s love of lighthouses; yes, it was a giant lighthouse complete with giant slowly revolving lights. Bigtown was not much of a choice but was better than being out there in the DC Wastelands with out shelter.

 

Some ended up in the Ormon settlement of Holy Lambs, linked to LifeVault-103 where Ormons still dwelt. They called it the Holy Vault of the Sinless Savour of the Three Books of Wisely Wisdom that were cleansed by the Pure Tears of the Divine Messenger. Mostly they just called it the ‘Holy Vault’. The refugees were welcomed warmly and then became little more than slaves in various labour camps.

 

And some went unwillingly to Paradise Falls as slaves while others ended up vanishing unwillingly with the super-mutants.

 

Others went?

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-SIX

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

MEI WONG IN RIVET CITY

:unsure: :biggrin:

 

 

The three young men ambled along the newly constructed walkway taking them across the midway of Riverhold Two. They only gazed lightly at the nervous oriental woman but she did not like even that much attention. She darted away into the crowd even as a new diner was opened right where she was moving. People had been waiting to go into what was a big metal and wooden box with a neon-sign flashing above its door. The smell of fresh cooked squirrel and molerat meat floated out through the doorway.

 

Refugees were now former refugees, had gained citizenship of Rivet City, giving the Rivet City Government a big headache in the process. The Orders of Steel, based at the DC-Citadel, had sent trained administrators to assist. The Union of Columbia had also sent assistance. Nervously, Mei Wong had applied for citizenship and, to her astonishment, had been accepted. The Union of Columbia formerly opposed slavery and on those grounds alone, as an escaped slave, she was given asylum.

 

Walkways went across the Riverholds but ended in airlock style door doors put there in case of flooding, sinking. Security guards and sheriff’s deputies stood at the doors, a couple of each, with a big deputy dog lazily sniffing at passers by. The big walkways sometimes had small electric vehicles humming across them taking people or delivering goods.

 

The young woman moved nervously out of the way of a makeshift electric bus crowded with school students, teachers and armed escorts. Thanks to poor fertility rates, children were precious in the Wastelands, indeed across much of the world, and were always a target for slavery.

 

Above her a box structure was being finalised. A big constructor robot had put the wall unit into place but that machine was now working inside Riverhold Four. Windows were completed as a worker in specialised light power armour worked a portable welder. The rush to complete work meant safety standards were not as high as they should but, amazingly enough, there had been no great injuries or death.

 

That was when she bumped into the frightened looking teenage girl, a dark brown figure with frizzy black hair, who was clutching a bundle complete with a small sleeping baby figure and the hand of a small boy with albino features. Mei Wong knew at once that they were escaped slaves. The marks on the necks of the teenager and the smaller boy were enough to confirm it to her.

 

Despite her fears she would not leave them, could not leave them.

 

The teenage girl smiled hopefully. “I am Ellen and this is Frankie. The baby girl is Gigglie, her special name. You were a slave also, weren’t you?”

 

Mei Wong nodded. “Yes, I was one of Tenpenny’s slaves. Where do you come from?”

 

Ellen bit her lip and then spoke. “A very dark place underground where the lights are dim, where food is horrible and water tastes funny, where showers are cold and guards are brutal if one breaks the laws. Bad things move in the dark and sometimes they drag away a slave and never more is the slave seen. Our parents hid us in a tram taking oremok to the surface and we got away from the guards, turrets and robots with..” She shrugged. “The voice in our heads that helped us.”

 

“Ormok?” The oriental looked puzzled. “Don’t you mean ore?”

 

The teenager pouted. “I know what I mean! Ormok is like soft rock that grows. It smells horrible and sometimes makes people sick, even the guards who wear special masks. They give slaves only simple masks. This place is amazing. All those big metal boxes up high and down low. Look up there, what is that?”

 

Mei Wong looked up briefly. “Cable-car! It goes above and along the big old super-tanker ship so people can travel along the whole ship faster.”

 

But when she looked down again the children were gone. She looked around in astonishment but could not see them. Yet she sensed that they were still close. She sighed and spoke. “Come back, please! I will help you.”

 

The three were suddenly there again. The teenager was pouting. “Gigglie woke up and got panicky with all the people. Look at those ramps going down. There must be many levels.”

 

“Four levels including the ground floor, which is the first floor of course.” Mei Wong found herself being studied by a pair of large brown adorable eyes as the odd little baby girl studied her intently, knuckles in mouth being gnawed gently. The little boy yawned tiredly, miserably.

 

Mei Wong picked up the boy and began to carry the child on her hip. The boy yawned and went to sleep with his head on the oriental woman’s shoulder. “Follow me. My place is fairly small and bare but it will have to do.”

 

They found a basic cage elevator and went downwards past a hotel, a small community depot and then they were walking along a walkway on the second level. They were in an area where old shipping containers were turned into huts and lined up along side each other. They walked under a gurgling water pipe.

 

Mei Wong unlocked her front and only door and soon they were inside the one roomed hut with its basic metal lockers, a simple tap-sink as the only source of water, a single bunk with a single sheet and a blanket, a much patched cushion and some boxes filled with various items.

 

It turned out that the newcomers had more food and drink than did Mei Wong. They shared foodbars, grilled fishcakes, steamed rivervish, a kind of edible water plant, and three large fresh hydroponics grown pears. They drank some tepid water from the low pressure tap. They even washed a little. Then they all went to sleep.

 

When Mei Wong awoke there were two bunks, identical to each other. Indeed everything had been not only doubled but fixed up as brand new, it seemed. Each brand new locker had brand new stuff in it.

 

Gigglie was sleeping sounding in her baby-pouch on Ellen’s chest. Frankie was reading a big colourful children’s book.

 

Mei Wong smiled. “Which of you can do the ‘duplicating renewal’ trick?”

 

Ellen was sitting on the other bunk. “We all can but Gigglie does it best of all. Gigglie can make sure that others do not sense us doing this. She is a special baby but she misses her mummy. We all miss our mummies. We want to free our people from the deep dark cold hot place.”

 

Mei Wong looked puzzled. “Tenpenny used to let me read some of his books and I learned much about the DC-Wastelands. Do you mean a vault?”

 

Ellen nodded. “There is MineVault-002 where the guards, administrators and officers live. Oh, lots of people live there but not us slaves. Us slaves live in the Slave Dormitories. Actually our quarters are just like these but much more crowded. The oremok devours our poop and piddle, which helps it to grow. We eat food that is not good tasting but which keeps us working strong and healthy. Many people up here on the surface are more hungry than the slaves are down there in Paradise Deep.”

 

Mei Wong cursed softly. “The legend of Paradise Deep. A network of different kinds of vaults designed and built by VaultTek, WestTek and FutureTek together. It was supposed to be a paradise where all lived the good life and then returned to the surface in big numbers to colonise the surface, to build a brave new world. But things went wrong and they never came up to the surface except for a few who fled dark things happening down there. They were insane and so the true story was lost. When any dared go down to investigate, even large well armed groups, they found nothing and so people stopped believing. But I know it is real.”

 

Ellen frowned. “How do you know about Paradise Deep?”

 

The woman nodded. “My grandmother was one of the insane ones that was found so long ago and ended up as a mad slave in the infamous Longbone Asylum that the Regulators and Antislavers closed down about ten years ago. Before that my grandmother died and her daughter became my mother. My mother, father and I were sold to Tenpenny as slaves because he likes to buy slave families; he thinks they are more stable workers and that family members can be used as hostages to keep other family members from escaping.”

 

The brown skinned teenager looked impressed. “Will you help us?”

 

At that Mei Wong nodded. “As much as I can.”

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-SEVEN

BIGGER AND BETTER THAN TRANQUILITY LANE

PRESIDENT JAMES PATRIOT JACKSON? HIS RETURN?

:banana: :bunny: :banana: :bunny: :banana:

 

He awoke in confusion and pain. He awoke and found himself standing and looking out from a large bare chamber and through a great armaglass window to the cityscape of NeoWashington. The room moved steadily for it was a great disk shaped one that revolved at the top of a great cylinder shaped tower. Nobody else could see in but he could see out. A large passenger vertibird swept by, moving in an odd pattern as if the pilot feared that something might attack the flying machine. In the distance circled giant eagle creatures, mutated and terrible, so the newcomer supposed the pilot was being wise. Mostly the city was peaceful, was safe, but he could sense a troubling influence of malice, of violence, that flowed through it. Most disturbing was that he knew this influence was utlimately linked to and was driven by himself.

 

He was tired of this existence, was tired of life, and he wanted to be free. But there were two at least two other aspects of himself out there who would fight him and his plans along with a whole lot of superclone and clone extensions of himself that were of concern. Then there was the darkness of self, the horrific aspects of his subconscious, along with something worse, an alien darkness somehow trapped into the super virtual realm. He had to deal with them all and in doing so he needed to make contact with various forces to form an alliance with them.

 

But there was also hope in the form of his more enlightened self and the lighter side of his subconscious. Along with something else, a source of Light outside of himself.

 

So he renamed himself Seeker James Patriot Jackson, no longer president but more basically just a seeker of truth and freedom but not just for himself.

 

He was hungry and thirsty. The young attractive woman came to him then, walking into the room in a silky orange kneedress, and she brought with her a tray of food and drink. Seeker James Patriot Jackson summoned forth a table and two chairs, basic in appearance but finely made of wood. He sat and ate a large healthy meal and drank mostly water from a large jug but also one cup of percolated coffee.

 

Yet even as he sat there his mind roamed NeoWashington and beyond to the rest of NeoDC and he began to summon various forces and other factors into place to help the people against the growing darkness. He had to be subtle, had to be careful, for he was under threat from both his own fragmented mentality and from something else.

 

Then he sensed Rose’Ama and the others in NeoLimbo and, reaching out carefully, drew them towards himself.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-EIGHT

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

DEALING IN THE GHOUL UNDERWORLD

:wacko: :nuke:

 

 

Movement! Explosions in the distance like puffs of brown smoke as Brotherhood of Steel lay down an arty barrage against the super-mutants. Willow, the ghoul and self proclaimed sentry of the Ghoul Underworld, was standing close to the entrance to the Museum of History. She didn’t like the Brotherhood of Steel but she had no real liking for the super-mutants either; even if the big brutes did not bother attacking ghouls, once the fighting began they had no care if ghouls got caught in the cross fire. Brothers of Steel did shoot at ghouls but rarely came close to hitting, which had Willow wondering if they really intended to hit any ghouls for they were fine shots.

 

Today she was not alone. Two other ghouls were helping her as sentries. They all wore metal armour. Willow had her AER9 laser-rifle, Bron had his assault-rifle and Shep had her Soviet style combat-shotgun. If anything they were far more nervous than she was because she was used to being on sentry duty up there. They belonged to the Ghoul Underworld Guard, or GU-Guard, which in truth was something of a joke amongst most Underworlders.

 

In the distance moved armoured vehicles of the UC, being a mixture of types but being led by two monster Hammerfists.

 

Shep hissed. “Why don’t the fools leave the super-mutants alone to get what they want? That way there need be no shooting.”

 

Willow frowned softly. She wondered sometimes if many of her people had suffered from rotting of the brain cells along with the skin. “What ever super-mutants want isn’t likely to be harmless and if they do get it, then they might just do something very nasty with it.”

 

Bron softly scratched his face. Ghouls soon learned not to scratch too hard against an itchy patch of rot-skin but perfected ways to relieve even a painful itch with less damage done. “Well at least from here we can see anything coming long before it gets here. Just the three of us here and nobody else, which is just the way I like it.”

 

Which was when the young SEARF man spoke from where he stood just behind and one side of the three ghouls. “Yes, it is a good place to see anybody coming but it is too exposed to you being seen and to sniper fire. I suggest you dig in and perhaps even build a small gun-bunker.”

 

The other two jumped in surprise but Willow turned around casually and looked at the youthful young face of the super-soldier. “Well if it isn’t super smoothskin. Hello, handsome boy.” She then surprised the other ghouls by leaning forward and kissing the SEARF trooper on the cheek before standing back. “I talked to the Underworld Leadership Council, such as it is, with Doctor Barrows, with Carol and with Winthrop. The last three have much more influence than do those pompous, foolish Councillors. You help us train and equip a proper Underworld Guard and we let you set up an outpost here in the Underworld.”

 

“Very good then!” The SEARF trooper smiled at Willow. “We have other offers to make, some as gifts with no expectation of anything in return. My people will be moving in now.”

 

Then a dozen more SEARF seemed to melt out of nowhere with a flicker of motion. Some carried armoured carry-canisters and big backpacks that looked far too big and heavy for them but which did not seem to slow them down at all.

 

Willow led them not through the big doors, which were normally locked heavily, into the Dante Exhibition Lobby; instead she used a smaller door to one side. In the lobby chamber was a big circular console-desk. A protectron stood guard. There were three ghouls playing bone-dice close to one corner; they looked up in surprise at Willow’s companions and edged closer to the corner. The newcomers went up a big gentle ramp but again not through the main doors but through a smaller door to one side.

 

The building shook as a big rocket hit too close to the big building for comfort. Thankfully it was both heavily fortified and made of smart-materials.

 

Willow never stopped being surprised somehow every time she walked into the very big exhibition chamber just off the lobby. Armaglass cases protected mannequindroids, basic androids used as mannequins in many displays, made to look like sufferers in hell, demons, the rewarded in heavy, angels, the waiting in purgatory and many other of Dante style figures. Each case held a whole scenario with many effects and at least half a dozen of the mannequindroids.

 

There were paintings, sketches, sculptures, books and other works based on Dante’s works. There were scenes from a famous 2049 holographic movie based on it and a 2051 virtual reality realm. While some things had been scavenged, many things had been left where they were. It was as if the ghouls felt somehow linked with the mood, the story of the displays, and were reluctant to interfere with them.

 

Winthrop was busy trying to salvage technical stuff from a display so as to help keep the Underworld running well for the living. Behind him and to one side was his son and apprentice, Belgium. A MrHandy hovered behind both of them on hoverjets. Belgium, like many ghouls born to ghouls, was a semighoul with less marked features. Many ghouls were sterile or weakly fertile so only relatively few such children were born.

 

When the SEARF came to him, Winthrop stood up and looked at the newcomers with his usual dour look but Willow could sense he was surprised. Then a SEARF trooper put down a canister, opened it and showed the contents. He spoke. “These tools and modular parts are a gift from us to the citizens of the Ghoul Underworld.”

 

Winthrop grinned. “Damned it, some repair minirobots, a gravity wrench and… yes a part that I need to get the matoreplicator working. Yes, something to get the water purifier #3 functioning more smoothly. Grand indeed. Belgium, go get Hank, Frank and Tank. They are my assistant caretakers now trying to stop another system from breaking down.”

 

They left Winthrop with two carry-canisters and a big backpack worth of stuff while he carried on with dour happy astonishment. They left the big exhibition room through a service door and went along a utility hallway that ended in a stairwell. They went downwards for three levels, went along a wider hallway and then down a staircase into the main part of the Ghoul Underworld. A great basement chamber was three levels high with two layers of wide balconies and mezzanine floors. There were no exhibitions here, just lots of basic utilitarian architecture, lots of ghouls and some efforts to decorate the place that achieved mixed success.

 

Next stop was Carol’s Place where one could rent a basic bed cubicle to sleep in or pay for a shower or buy food, drink or some other items. Carol treated the SEARF with welcoming warmth, insisting they have drink and food for free. They put much stuff into Carol’s care, into her storeroom, knowing that it would be safe there. Not only did most ghouls in the Underworld have great respect for Carol, three of them guarded the storeroom at any one time just in case. That is three GU Guards with metal armour and automatic weapons or lasers. Cerberus, the MrGutsy, would also pause there in its patrols of the Underworld to make sure all was well. Distribution would take place through community meetings which were always rather excitable.

 

After that was a meeting with the newly appointed Captain Rear Admiral of the Ghoul Underworld Guard. Confused of mind in some small ways, as shown in his name, Captain Rear Admiral was none the less a fine commander and fighter with much military training. He kept saluting the SEARF, who kept saluting him back, as he took delivery of military equipment and supplies including a hoverjet lifted eyebot. He showed of his Wall of Honour with various pictures of his past reincarnations of Ceaser, Rommel and other great military leaders. For some reason he also considered that he was once the actress Doris Day but also Moony Mouse, a 2060s 3D animated mouse character. The SEARF seemed quite fascinated with Captain Rear Admiral.

 

Last visit was with Doctor Barrows who kept smiling as he examined the medical equipment and supplies he had been handed. With out being asked he handed over datafile copies of all the research he had done with his assistants, and the various conclusions that they had gained from such.

 

Barrows gave one of the SEARF a speculative look and then he spoke. “You know, your body tissue could make for very…”

 

Willow stepped forward and smartly slapped the surprised doctor across the face. “Don’t you even think of it.”

 

Nurse Graves also frowned at the doctor. He sighed and nodded. “Seems SEARF are out of bounds.”

 

A SEARF woman spoke. “We are forbidden to do as you would have asked, doctor, but we can get you other small blood and other samples of many forms of life be it super-mutant, human, zhoul, mirelurk or others.”

 

So arrangements began.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

THIRTY-NINE

TWINS IN LIFEVAULT-101

STRANGE ABILITIES AND STRANGER HAPPENINGS

:sorcerer: :banana: ;D :ohmy:

 

Aaron focused on the damaged DTL fibre-optic module on the table in front of them. Then his twin sister held his hand and did the same. They were in their bedroom but tucked away in a blind corner where the hidden cameras could not see them. The DTL module was a very special item of a kind not even common in the years just before Doomsday. Finding it underneath a filing-cabinet in a chamber they were clearing out, along with the rest of a work party, had been a minor miracle.

 

Both wondered if they were mad but what they were doing seemed somehow right.

 

They were special, had been born outside of the vault, and were different from vault born Vaultfolk. They had a far greater psychic potential and there was something else that niggled at them. Lately their extra sensory perception, ESP, had been growing stronger as they matured.

 

They had driven off the radroachaks and the radroaches, had caused the old High Overseer to vanish, had probably saved LifeVault-101 from some horrible fate.

 

They focused in a way that felt right but logically made no sense. The damaged DTL fibre-optic module vanished with a sparkling shimmer. Then two almost identical copies of it appeared except they were no longer damaged.

 

Gingerly, as if it might vanish at any moment, Aaron picked up one module and examined it carefully. Aarie did the same with the other. Then they looked at each other and smiled.

 

They tested the two modules carefully before slipping one into the special device they had been making to help them further infiltrate the vault compunetwork. The machine began functioning and then they were putting it to use. In minutes they were hacking into the network-systems in ways they could not do before but they did so with very great care.

 

Thus they found out about Project New Flavours, which had nothing to do with new flavours, that was testing captured radroachaks and doing autopsies on dead radroachaks. The same was being done on radroaches. Scientists and others were busy working on the project including their father, Professor James Ashworth. Lab techs, some vaultdroid androids and labtron robots were also there.

 

They found out that the main vault was in twelve officially used sectors. One was Vaultgov political and administration. Two and Three were commons, that is services used commonly by all. Four was security, defence and policing. Five and Six were general residential plus other services. Seven and Eight were technical service and support plus manufacturing and maintenance. Nine was agricultural. Ten was stripped, abandoned and sealed off. Eleven was storage depots, service-support, workshops and miscellaneous other. Twelve was prison, the zoological centre, the botanical dome, a research-development centre, the virtual reality hub and miscellaneous other.

 

But Sector Thirteen was unofficial and in that zone was a large research and development centre that was much bigger than the official one in Sector Twelve. That was not all. There was a residential centre with services, what seemed to be a garrison barracks of some sort, a prison, a manufacturing and maintenance centre, a VR hub and much else. Sector Thirteen was big enough to be two official sectors and it was not in the main vault, was not inside the main vault’s hull. It was a true subvault. Much of it was filled with something called special security status storage or SSSS but with no data on such.

 

They learned in a general manner what was going on and then their new device beeped a warning and stopped the hacking. Some form of security program had detected their infiltration of the vault compunetwork and had begun to hunt down the source of that infiltration which was, of course, the twins.

 

Aaron spoke. “Project New Flavours is taking place in Vault Twelve, in the official research-development centre, but we did find his (father’s) fingerprints in an unofficial area.”

 

Aarie frowned. She inspected the module that was not in the hacking device. “There is a link between the brainabugs and the radroachaks but what is it?”

 

Her brother stretched. “Brainabugs were further developed from brainworms as found by the zetan aliens on a distant world. Radroachaks were developed from radroaches, or so we have come to believe. The link could be…”

 

She nodded. “The means used to develop both further. Perhaps a form of mutagen or even a variant of the FEV.”

 

Aaron nodded right back. “A catalyst of amazing change.”

 

Suddenly, with a sparkling shimmer for each object, a black ring appeared on the middle fingers of each twin. Each had a black disk shaped front. Each left hand ring had a golden shield emblem and each right hand ring had a golden sword emblem. The rings felt naturally in the right place.

 

Aarie examined her rings. “Like just what happened now?”

 

Aaron examined his rings. “Couldn’t think of a better example.”

 

They had much to learn about the amazing new rings and what the possibilities that they promised.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited March 12, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

FORTY

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

THE MAD PLAN OF DESPERATE HEROES

:ninja: :cool: ;)

 

The big old powerful motorbike came screeching to a halt inside the vacant building and Argyle the ghoul switched it off. Grateful quiet fell in the cooler shadow as he leapt off and went to peer out of a window through a hole in its closed storm-shutter. As for Daring Dashwood, he was clambering painfully out of the sidecar thanks to his wounded left leg.

 

Argyle crouched next to a hole in a wall and looked out over a grey ruined landscape hoping to see the ones chasing them. He was special, he had always known that, a rare kind of ghoul who was enhanced and who could take more damage than most others. Yet he had barely got DD and himself away alive from the damned fast moving figures, superhuman fast and agile.

 

It was Dashwood who wanted to investigate reports of odd activity around a abandoned (of course) VaultTek office building in the Virgin Woods ruins. Virgin Woods was a city area made of tough genetically engineered trees that grew high and wide as living buildings. Somehow most of them had survived Doomsday but had become mutated, some more than others. Now distorted hometrees were spread thickly across the area. But the VaultTek office was a block tower made of smart-materials, an older type structure, now lost in the plant madness.

 

They were at the very edge of the bizarre forest of massive trees. They stretched upwards and outwards. From one branch hung a cluster of armchairs that also grew out of it on thick vines. Argyle saw a flicker of something darting along the branch and the vanish into a tangle of shower cubicles.

 

Argyle picked up his MXM16A2 assault-rifle with its 5.56mm2025 enhanced calibre bullets. The assault-rifle could take older type 5.56mm cartridges but the 2025 version were far more effective, especially against such as power armour. He had to admit it, he felt fear.

 

Dashwood sighed and sat with his back to the wall. He held a 10mm submachinegun with a high powered calibre version that sometimes made the gun more difficult to aim; but it was damned more effective in other ways.

 

Something darted across in front of them, a flash of black and grey. They were toying with the pair of mad adventurers, who and what every they were.

 

Dashwood sighed. “It looks like the end of the road, my good Argyle. Perhaps now you can tell me of your real nature. That is what you were before you became my ‘stalwart ghoul manservant’.”

 

The title was a false one allowing Argyle to move more easily with Dashwood in areas where ghouls were less accepted.

 

Argyle grinned. “Didn’t believe my story about my amazing natural fighting abilities.”

 

Herbert Daring Dashwood nodded. “At first but that day you dropped three super-mutants so fast I didn’t see it happen, well on that day I knew better.”

 

“SEARF!” Argyle shrugged. “First Generation Special Encounter Assault Recon Force. Super-soldier converted with much burning agony from a five year old child. Nearly half of us died horribly and others went insane or became Specials. They are out there, the SEARF super-soldiers. I meet with some of them now and then. They are amazed that I became a ghoul. It is supposed to be impossible for that to happen. I never introduced them to you directly but you have actually met some of them disguised as young people.”

 

Dashwood grinned. “Like the pair of young women we met at Tiffany’s Club in Rivet City that time or the young man and woman who travelled with us all the way to Lamplight Mountain that other time. Sensed something different about them and others, something that reminded me of you.”

 

Argyle snorted. “What about your confession?”

 

Herbert Daring Dashwood lost his grin. “Well, my fine Argyle, I am what one might call a mystic psyker. I sense things, I glimpse future possibilities, I have other tricks that I do not always appreciate. I came from a secret settlement of such people many years before I was fortunate to meet you and steal your girlfriend, turning out to be a mistake that I regretted for more than one reason. I escaped from what you might call a damned strange psychic spiritual personality cult. The main reason that I always moved around so much adventuring was to make it harder for the psyker hunters to find me; yes, they are chasing me but there are only few of them and I am a more power psyker than any of the hunters.”

 

The ghoul did not seem in the least surprised. “You talk in your sleep, mostly in some strange language I do not understand but sometimes in English.”

 

Dashwood nodded. “Perhaps, secretly, I wanted you to know the truth as did you, for you also talk sometimes in your sleep.”

 

There was some odd sounds from outside, short cut of cries, scuffles. Something crashed against a wall. A wall shuddered slightly. There was fighting going on outside that was carried out by super-soldiers.

 

Dashwood snorted. “Your friends are fighting those cold minded killers who were chasing us.”

 

“Fighting JAGAF super-soldiers!” Argyle shook his head in wonder. “They are striking at each other but they do not seem too intent on killing each other.” Then he stood up. “We have to go now. There are SEARF troopers out there but they are outnumbered by the JAGAF.”

 

But Dashwood was already getting up. Argyle helped him get to the sidecar and then he was riding out of there as fast as he could. Soon they were racing along a hard packed dirt road.

 

Dashwood was smiling in a particular manner and that could only mean that none were killed, either SEARF or JAGAF. How did he know? Well the ways of Herbert Daring Dashwood were often a mystery.

 

They halted about a kilometre up the road and shortly later three figures in stealth power armour came flickering out of nowhere. It was then that the pair learned that they would need to disappear and do so in such a way that they left behind a realistic cover story. Dashwood would end up, supposedly, as a man suffering early dementia retired in Tenpenny Towers, his accommodation and other services being paid secretly by wealthy admiring fans. Supposedly Argyle would die and his body would be found in the attacked and destroyed Rockopolis, the secret settlement. Except it would not be the real Rockopolis. The real Rockopolis had a special secret beyond that of being a secret place for slaves and ghouls to flee to.

 

It was the only way to stop JAGAF endlessly hunting for them to find out what the pair had learned of JAGAF activities. If they caught the adventurers, they would most likely torture both of them to death to make sure of matters. Or so they were told.

 

In reality the real Herbert Daring Dashwood and Argyle would go on to do other things in another, special place.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited March 12, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

FORTY-ONE

MAN FROM SEARF

TROUBLE AT THE SCHOOL

:unsure: :sweat: >:(

 

It would be painful but he would do it! He would become three as one as three. Eddie’Jo would remain in NuHopeland for now while Eddie’Jon would return to the DC-Wastelands. What of the other? Eddie’Jan, the female version of himself, would go to the DC-Wastelands but to a different location.

 

Eddie’Jo would remain with Lilly and all of her companions as her daddy. The decision was, in a real sense, already made. They were moving to NuHopeHub to live and others from NuHopetown were also going, including Lilly’s friends and their families. The move was being made because of the troubles in NuHopetown caused by the majority who, for a variety of odd reasons, had turned against the SEARF.

 

Mayor Sharon Rock, the new mayoress, had even tried to have the NuHope Guards banned from the town. Her attempted ban against both the SEARF and the NuHope Guards had failed badly. Now the NuHope Guards had a larger garrison in NuHopetown made up of people who did not come from the area. SEARF kept a tight watch over the new NuHopetown Independence Party, the NHIP, and its followers. The creation of a NuHopetown Guard, little more than a bunch of poorly trained NHIP thugs, was a further matter for concern.

 

As Eddie’Jo came to pick up the girl for the last time from the NuHopetown Combined School, he sensed tension but also trouble of another kind; it was linked to his daughter, Lilly.

 

Eddie’Jo slowed down the electric zipcar, fairly sleek but also very practical, and parked it outside the school. In the back were two dogs, a molerat and the dogdroid. Above, high above, was the dome of the NuHopeHub. Lilly clambered into the front passenger seat in the semi-enclosed vehicle, got a kiss and a hug from daddy and licks from three dogs and a molerat.

 

But Lilly was upset and angry. At the door to the school was hovering a couple of NuHopetown Guards in their new black and red fatigues, the red markings looking impressive but making very good targets. The thugs carried automatic weapons, basic local manufactured submachineguns of a kind called stenguns. They were a type of World War Two vintage weapon.

 

A sheriff’s deputy was there but he had been disarmed and was handcuffed to a bicycle rack. He was fuming mad.

 

But next to him were two SEARF, a young man and woman, and one was undoing the cuffs. The super-soldiers were calmly threatening and the two thugs were obviously frightened.

 

Eddie’Jo invisibly signalled the SEARF troopers and one came over to guard the zipcar, Lilly and the others. The dogdroid climbed out and took up sentry position. As Eddie’Jo passed the thugs to go into the school, he touched each thug and they vanished with a sparkling shimmer. His ‘powers’ in Orbis were growing slowly but steadily but he had to use them with care. The two NuHopetown Guards would already be floating unconscious but safe in security status capsules in NuHopeHub, naked and with their gear inside evidence lockers.

 

Some fool shot a pistol at him. The 9mm bullet did not even hit him. He plucked it out of the air after slowing it. Then, moving so fast as to be invisible, he hit the shooter. Captain Oren Boyle flew backwards, his metal armour doing him no good, his gun flying from his hand. He was a big man but was thrown as if a small child. He vanished before he hit the floor.

 

A young looking but mature woman screamed in horror and rage. She was dressed not as a NuHopetown Guard, they only had men in their ranks, but in the minidress uniform of a NHIP woman party worker. She went for a pistol but then vanished with a sparkling shimmer.

 

He freed the receptionist who was tied to a wooden chair. She was badly shaken. “The thugs came in and took the children hostage except those of party members and supporters. One of the teachers was helping them. Also a caretaker. Everybody else was taken prisoner. Then two thugs took Lilly and went to walk her outside. None of us could do anything. It seemed helpless.”

 

He smiled, sort of, at her. “Lilly is safe outside. SEARF troopers intervened. Go out the front and…” Then he stopped speaking and studied her carefully. He reached out and made her vanish with a sparkling shimmer. Physical and mental impressions he gained did not add up with her story. She had willingly gone along with the thugs and her being tied up had been a falsehood.

 

Vanishing with a flicker, he slammed through a doorway and into a big common room. As he smashed into two thugs, other SEARF troopers came down through the ceiling and SEARF androids came through other doors. This time those thugs who tried to surrender were made to vanish, the others were terminated.

 

He had already been gaining data from the SEARF Hubmind of the situation in the common room including layout, positions of everybody and other important information. The data had even included what thugs were seemingly more dangerous and more willingly there than others. Body language and other clues were used in analysing the thugs such as amounts of sweat, heart beats and surface mind impressions.

 

He slashed his finger, chopping style, through one throat and twisted the body away so the blood spurted away from him. Even as he did so he drove his elbow into the solar plexus, through his metal armour, of the other NuHopetown Guard. Both bodies hit the floor even as he was gone from there.

 

The children witnessed none of this because they were all lying on mats with their eyes blindfolded. The teachers and other school employees were tied to chairs and wore blindfolds except for a male teacher and a woman in a caretaker jumpsuit who held weapons. But even as he noted this the thugs were falling or vanishing.

 

Eddie’Jo punched dead another thug but made three more vanish, each with a sparkling shimmer. Most of the thugs had been reluctant hostage takers, it seemed, driven on by the fools leading them.

 

After some moments the dead bodies began to vanish, each with a sparkling shimmer, as Orbis claimed them. All were thugs. The SEARF had not even come close to being hurt. As for Eddie’Jo, he was as deadly now as whole SEART, a Special Encounter Assault Recon Team of at least four combat squads and other elements.

 

OrbisMind spoke to him and only he heard it. “Why did you kill and not interrogate them or have me do so?”

 

Eddie’Jo responded only to OrbisMind. “We picked up fifteen party members, including five armed thugs. All of their minds were found to be under the influence of some kind of dark psychic and powerful but subtle force. I scanned the minds of those here in the school and found the same state. None have any idea that they are being secretly controlled let alone the actual identity of the controller. You already know this.”

 

OrbisMind: “I need, at times, to hear your feedback and your ideas. Orbis is great and powerful, sophisticated and versatile, but functions less well on a more mundane mortal scale than it does on a grander world scale. The illegal ways opened to Domeland are small so far, the biggest being the unwanted appearance of the rebels in NuHopetown, but Orbis fears bigger ones will occur and greater threats will come through. Some force is undermining OrbisNetwork.”

 

Eddie’Jo began undoing a teacher’s blindfold. Something was wrong with all of the captives, adults and children. It was as if they had been mind stunned. They were in no real danger. He doubted that the thugs had been able to effect the minds like that. Below the town was a SubHub of the HubNetwork that was in turn part of OrbisNetwork. One way to access it was through a secured utility hatch in the lower of two basement levels of the main school building.

 

In a short time he was moving down a stairwell to the lower basement. Students were not allowed this far. Indeed most school staff were not. Eddie’Jo used a special master keycode to get into the basement. SEARF super-soldiers followed him as did some SEARF combat androids and robots that flew low through the air. The robots were sleek brown and grey machines, saucer shaped with a pop-up and a pop-down weapons turret plus other tricks. All the SEARF wore stealth power armour now, except the robots of course.

 

They found what was left of a dead caretaker down in the lower basement level, a single big elongated chamber of metallic nature and much machinery. In one of the big wide hallways, there were two going in each direction, was the skeletal like body of the victim whose organic substance had been devoured along with his life energies. It was a horrific form of cannibalistic vampirism. Eddie’Jo had seen such things before but, thankfully, not too many times.

 

The JAGAF super-soldiers came dashing out of the ambush but failed to take the SEARF troopers by surprise. Fighting was damned quick, agile and deadly. Bodies flickered from place to place. The SEARF androids and robots pulled back to allow the troopers more freedom to fight. There was a scream of enraged pain. A SEARF trooper fell and a comrade whisked her away before she could come to more harm. A JAGAF super-soldier bounced off a metal wall in a way that would have instantly killed a standard human but came up fighting. No weapons but bodies and power armour were used. It was an unwritten agreement based on the fact that as soon as one side started using weapons, the other side would also do so.

 

Somehow it failed to surprise that there were JAGAF troopers in Orbis, in NuHopeland.

 

As fast as they had come, the JAGAF retreated, vanishing through three recently made holes in the floor of the basement chamber. Eddie’Jo knew then that if he and his forces went any further that there would be JAGAF ambushes and other threats waiting for them.

 

Which was when Orbis intervened indirectly through OrbisMind and OrbisNetwork. Silvery orbs floated through the air, a metre across or ten centimetres across, each glowing translucent. There were nine of the bigger ones and eighty-one of the smaller ones. Then came three even bigger ones, each being three metres across. These were OrbisOrbs and they were multiple purpose.

 

The armoured hatch to the elevator and rampwell that led down to the SubHub below was blasted open and hung against a wall. The smallest of the OrbisOrbs darted through the entrance and down the holes in the floor in glowing clusters though many also remained with the main group.

 

Eddie’Jo reluctantly split his forces in half. One half went down through a hole in the metallic floor and the others went with him down a big gently sloping spiralling rampway. It was not long before the other SEARF force was fighting JAGAF in a maze of smallish tunnels and chambers carved out of the rock in a crudely useful fashion. The OrbisOrbs did not directly attack the enemy super-soldiers but slowed them down, highlighted them as targets and muddied their senses. The JAGAF turned and fled except two that were captured and were soon floating each inside a three metre wide OrbisOrb. The stealth power armour clad figures were quite safe.

 

Eddie’Jo’s group was met by a wave of radroaches and radroachaks. They flowed up the rampway, giant cockroaches and the even more monstrous chak-creatures. Super-soldiers, androids and robots formed a defensive line, with some keeping guard at the rear, and unleashed firepower at the on coming creatures.

 

But the SEARF leader had the strong impression that the roach creatures were expendable attackers being used to slow down the group’s movements so that others could achieve something. This could simply be them getting away.

 

But the OrbisOrbs began to act and to capture roach creatures while the smallest ones zipped amongst the radroaches and radroachaks, confusing them, panicking them and sending many of them fleeing. Then they were all fleeing away, running away as quickly as they had charged in the first place.

 

Half an hour later Eddie’Jo sat in a hastily abandoned SubHub chamber with computer and other hardware neatly stacked up, with colour coded cables trailing across the floor, with a big console-desk made from three portable rigs and other gear left behind. Cables led to the ancient SubHubInterface itself.

 

All of the SEARF forces were now in or close to the big chamber as were all of the OrbisOrbs.

 

The grimmest remains though were five drained skeletal remains of soldiers in scout power armour of Patriot Guards. Elite enhanced soldiers, super-soldiers of a different kind than the SEARF or JAGAF, but something had done the same vampiric cannibalistic trick on them as had been done on the caretaker.

 

Eddie’Jo scowled. “I sense a superclone of President James Patriot Jackson. The superclones were bad, very bad, but were like many of the Mad President’s ideas, especially during the collapse of his regime.”

 

How had such an amazingly bad event taken place as a superclone of President James Patriot Jackson appearing in the supposedly safe Orbis itself?

 

Just what was going on?

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Blue Morphos]

I find you to be an excellent writer. Your ability to capture my interest in your stories is amazing.Have you ever concidered publishing any of your works?

[Maharg67]

Thank you Blue Morphis and yes, I have tried to publish but my writing has improved since then and I am trying to get published now.

 

Thanks! :thanks: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[Blue Morphos]

Thank you Blue Morphis and yes, I have tried to publish but my writing has improved since then and I am trying to get published now.

 

Thanks! :thanks: :banana: :banana: :banana:

then I wish you best of luck on your endevor