War of Realities in the DC Wastelands

[Maharg67]

Thank you, again, Blue Morphos

 

FORTY-TWO

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

A JUMPSTART FOR GALAXY NEWS RADIO

:cool: :ninja: :geek:

 

Galaxy News Radio was yet to broadcast anything for getting together the equipment and supplies, along with the expertise, was proving to be far more difficult than 3Dog had assumed it would be. With some difficulty he had formed an agreement with the Brotherhood of Steel, easily the largest of the Orders of Steel, to put a garrison at the tower to protect both it and the small settlement of Radiotown. In turn the Brothers of Steel gained a base of operations and the chance to spread their propaganda through the use of the GNR broadcasts.

 

He sat brooding at his work-station with the working computer terminal, the 3Daudiotapes and other items before him. The Brotherhood of Steel was starting to hint at getting impatient with the progress of the radio station. He was glad to know that he had strong support in the form of Sarah Lyons, the daughter of Elder Owyn Lyons and a few others.

 

The Union of Columbia had sent him Margaret the mature woman of a technician along with some equipment and supplies including MrDJ. MrDJ was a MrHandy type robot with some special alterations and additions. MrDJ was part technical support and part actual DJ back-up.

 

There was also a protectron that patrolled the front entrance area and another protectron patrolling to the back.

 

Margaret was in one of the storerooms full of hopefully useful stuff. She was trying hard to find something that might get part of the radio station up and working.

 

The room he was in was the actual studio with places for up to four people to use mikes and central, in the big old console, much hardware. A glass booth to one side was where Margaret sometimes sat. Now a Radiotown volunteer, a young woman called Eliza, was there.

 

MrDJ was jacked into recharging and was only semiactive.

 

He was alone and then he was not alone! He looked up to see that Eliza seemed now to be sleeping, to be slumped forward peacefully on her console-desk. Yet there was something odd about her position.

 

Somebody was standing just behind him. He had sensed this kind of presence before and he became quite cautious.

 

She spoke, youthful and very calm, almost emotionless. “Eliza is simply semiconscious. I am SEARF!”

 

At that he sighed with relief. “I was fearing you might be that other lot.” He turned to find himself looking at a lithe young woman in typical Wastelander gear including leather armour. She was holding two kittens, almost adorable and cute, that were sleeping curled up in her arms. Almost cute an adorable because each was a little on the scarred and scrawny side. “I am 2Kitty. These are Sweetfur and Sweetfangs. They tried to bite and claw me when I first picked them up but they soon realised that their fangs and claws had no effect on my skin. They tried so hard to damage me that they got all tired and slept. How lovely!”

 

“Aaahhh, yeh!” 3Dog sighed. “What would you like?”

 

She smiled. “To be your bodyguard and assistant in turn for being allowed to gather intelligence data to pass onto my people. I have brought some friends with me including my lovely little kitty cats.”

 

3Dog frowned. “What is SEARF up to?”

 

2Kitty smiled at him. “You know there is a limit to what I can say to you but as of this time we are mostly trying to learn as much as possible about what is happening in the DC-Wastelands. We are also dealing with JAGAF though carefully as they are with us since neither of us can afford to waste valuable units on foolish fighting.”

 

An identical young woman, except for her gear, entered with one kitten who actually looked peacefully asleep. She spoke. “I am 1Kitty.”

 

Then another came in, again with different gear but holding three kittens. “I am 3Kitty. We are to be identical triplets. We adore you. We will do anything for you, anything.”

 

He looked up at the supposed triplets. “Okay, the deal is on but… anything?”

 

1Kitty smiled. “Yes, companionship.”

 

He grinned mildly. “Sounds good. Time to have a group conference. Time to wake up Eliza.”

 

Eliza sat up abruptly and smiled at 3Dog.

 

3Dog groaned softly. “I should have known but your story about being a martial artist and a dancer was a good one. It explained your movements.”

 

Eliza spoke into a microphone. “I am a SEARF follower, not SEARF.”

 

The man looked puzzled. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a SEARF follower.”

 

Then a MrHandy drifted in on its fanjets followed by two worktrons and two baseline duplicant androids who had mannequin like appearances. The duplicants were in coveralls, boots and caps with webbing of pouch and tool dotted belts.

 

MrDJ became fully active and, looking around, it spoke. “MrDJ is in the house. Hhhaaa, this is good. Now MrDJ can boss around somebody like a MrHandy and two worktrons.”

 

The MrHandy replied. “This unit only responds to commands of humans.”

 

MrDJ made a rude electronic noise and somehow managed to look sulky.

 

A meeting was soon being held with 3Dogs, the Kitty Triplets, MrDJ who hovered in the background still looking sulky, Margaret and four volunteers. Margaret was a semighoul, that is human norm appearing with streaks of ghoulish ruin. She was very old and had been a teenager on Doomsday. Though classed as a technician, she was more of a technical genius. She sat quietly and mostly said nothing but she did quietly observe the Kitty Triplets at times. The cats moved around under the table, none of them hostile, and explored the meeting room as cats would do. They staid away from MrDJ because of the hoverjets.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Edited March 13, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

FORTY-THREE

BIGGER AND BETTER THAN TRANQUILLITY LANE

WELCOME TO THE LAND OF GROGNAK THE BARBARIAN

:whoops: :starwars: :mage:

 

Rose’Ama dropped about a metre into thick, greasy grass like plants and hard muddy earth, then rose up as she wished that she wore something other than city clothes and shoes. Even as she did, she sparkle shimmered and found herself wrapped head to foot in SEARF style stealth power armour.

 

The SEARF troopers, two women and a man, dropped lightly down around her. The Tron-Series robots dropped down more heavily but none fell over. They were four each of labtrons, worktrons and protectrons. Then came eight soldiers in light power armour, nine techs in jumpsuits and five scientists in labcoat gear. Last of all came three robocarts trundling along full of equipment and supplies. One tipped but was caught and pulled up before much could spill off it. Everything that fell off was reclaimed.

 

The only one that had not come through was the superclone Professor James Patriot Jackson.

 

Great flying-reptiles flew through the air while dinosaurs stomped through great fern and palm jungles in the distance. The dinosaurs all seemed to be herbivores but they were not quite right and came from different real periods of dinosaur existence. That is dinosaurs that naturally would have lived many millions of years separate from each other, were moving and feeding quite close together.

 

The scientists and techs slipped into light armoured hazmat suits packed into two of the fairly big robocarts. Handguns, lasers and 10mmSC autopistols, were taken out and handed around to the unarmed. The last three got dartpistols as the group ran out of other kinds of handguns.

 

In the distance was a mountain, a cliff face and what looked like an ornately carved fortified settlement carved out of the cliff face. People were moving around but were too far away to be seen clearly. Other things moved around but were too far away also to be seen clearly. There were balconies, columns, windows, ramps and other such features protected by what seemed to be some kind of sheet of transparent material falling down over the cliff face.

 

A tall lanky scientist, now in an AHST, came to her holding a dartpistol a little nervously until she took it from him and put it away in its holster at his hip. He grinned mildly at her through his visor.

 

“Professor Arnold Brim is my name. This place seems familiar somehow but not quite right. The dinosaurs are from different prehistoric periods. There was no grass back in the Age of the Dinosaurs.”

 

She nodded. “Ferns and palms but some real trees also in the distance but that cliff settlement is the real oddity.” She turned towards large clumps of odd ferny bushes closer at hand. “We have company.”

 

Up rose two muscular children in odd furs and leathers including boots and belts. Each had leather pouches, a bronze bladed longknife in one hand and a kind of shieldsword on the wrist and over the hand of the other arm. They were twins and they had similarities to both their father, Grognak the Barbarian, and their mother Ki’Leafena the Priestess. Yet they also had softly glowing emblems of power hanging on leather bands around their necks and in bronze bracelets on the wrists with out the shieldswords. They were most likely around ten years old.

 

The boy growled brave guttural spoken words. “Who is it that trespasses on the lands of our father, Chief Grognak the Great?”

 

But the girl shushed him and then she spoke while he sulked. “We are Ki’Aarie and Ki’Aaron of the Cliff People of the Ki’Konda. Now we are homeless as an evil mage and his strange army have conquered our Cliffhold of Ki’Cliffan. We squat like savages in the Ki’Mossan Caves where we normally cultivate special mosses, mushrooms, meatworms and blindfish. We came scouting for we are special, as you are, with powers.”

 

Rose’Ama responded fluently in the same language. “You are not alone but have been followed by protectors.”

 

The boy snorted. “None could…”

 

But then, out of seeming nowhere, appeared three smooth skinned young women in little more than webbing of pouch dotted belts of leather and some other items. These were primeval super-soldiers, or should that be super-warriors, known as the Jilljanes, who served Chief Grognak after he had saved their people. They were in some of the GROGNAK THE BARBARIAN comic books.

 

“Told you!” Ki’Aarie looked smugly at her brother and then at the newcomers again. “You have weirding technologies as do the invaders led by the evil Professor James Patriot Jackson who captures people, animals and monsters to do terrible experiments on them. We must return to the Ki’Mossan Caverns.”

 

Her brother whistled out into the open trotted two fairly big dinosaurs, something like peaceful heavy two legged predators but these were omnivores. They were horsesauruses and each had a saddle, panniers and other harness gear.

 

So they set out away from the captured Cliffhold and towards another, more distant mountain with another cliff face showing. A predator dinosaur darted along in the distance, just a little bigger than the horsesauruses, but came no closer.

 

Also in the distance a copper scale-armoured dragon, one of those magically evolved from dinosaurs by a variant of the Forced Evolutionary Spell, or FES, flew above the cliff face they were heading towards and then dived downwards to vanish from sight.

 

They passed an ancient ruin of a Washington DC subway entrance with a sign there, a thing of stone and skulls, warning of zhouls, giant cockroaches and other terrible threats. There had once been a great city in that land but it had been destroyed and only parts of it remained, many of them with strange monsters and other threats.

 

Then they were passing a mass of slowly rusting machinery made of smart-materials such as an atomic motorised family car, a protectron robot and a toilet cubicle. But then Rose’Ama stopped, turned and walked to the protectron, sensing something important in doing this. The robot sparkle shimmered briefly and then it was standing, brand new and ready to serve.

 

By the time they left the pile they had the following extra; two protectrons, a policetron, two shopping trolleys full of smaller useful gear being pushed by two worktrons and an eyebot being wafted along on its hoverjets with its two manipulator-arms carefully folded up. Androids, techs and scientists carried extra stuff, some grumbling, so that the others could continue to keep guard.

 

The prehistoric twins kept glancing at Rose’Ama in amazement but so did all the others except for the SEARF who had themselves experienced many strange wonders.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

FORTY-FOUR

LIFE AND DEATH IN DC-WASTELANDS

WONDERFUL FREE STUFF, WONDERFUL DOOM

:woot: :stupid: :bunny: :banana:

 

With a sharp humming noise that soon died down to a softer background effect, the big experimental NukaCola machine came to life after over two hundred years of waiting to do this very thing. Bright lights danced up and down its front. It showed up fairly clearly in a big underground shopping arcade (mall) where emergency lights lit up the surprisingly good condition area with moderate dimness. The machine was bigger and more colourful than a normal NukaCola vending-machine. A 3Dflatscreen lit up with a dancing, singing NukaColagirl in a fairly skimpy leotard, tophat and high-heels outfit of a circus routine. The noise of tap dancing and singing was fairly muted.

 

A big radroach scuttled past, only pausing to check out the dancing figure, and then raced onwards to its nest. It had smelt nothing of usefulness to its survival. Two molemice, smaller cousins to molerats, did the same.

 

Then came four raiders, gangers in their armour and colours, moving quick and seeking loot. Gangers had been driven more into isolated areas or into hiding in the DC-Wastelands with growing troubles of various kinds except for some bigger, stronger, better organised gangs. The Iron’Biters were one of those and the SuperDuperMart was their base of operations.

 

They saw the operating machine and were startled. They crept up upon it lest it was a trap. They checked carefully for booby-traps. They carefully checked the machine and found, to their surprise, that it offered free credit of $100 to be renewed every day. The image of the NukaColagirl explained, in a sweet sexy voice, that this was an experimental replication machine and that it would create its own products, never needing to be filled up by outsiders. The only thing was, at times, he might need time to fill up its inventory if too much was taken from it in a short time. The machine would also except Emergency Issue Currency in coins and cards, Predoomsday cash, NukaCola voucher-cards, NukaCola prize-cards and various credit, debit or pay smartcards. This currency acceptance list would be changing in future as would the list of items offered.

 

But wait, there was more!

 

Every time a bottle of NukaCola (three nifty flavours), NukaWater (cold purified water) a NukaBar foodbar (nine) mouth water flavours or NukaSweet icecream bar (five tongue tingling flavours) was bought or a bottle of rare NukaCola Quantum, there was a ‘random’ chance of gaining a NukaCola marked toy truck filled with small goodies, a NukaCola robotic toy Liberty Prime, a NukaColagirl figure, a baseball cap, a baseball bat, a baseball Tshirt, a baseball, a five’n’one pocket-tool, a solar hand-torch, a basic solar hand-computer, a NukaCola Tshirt, a NukaCola shorts, a NukaCola bikini set, a NukaCola 3Dposter, a NukaColagirl 3Dposter or a NukaColagirl 3D comic-book.

 

But wait, there was even more!

 

Every time a product was bought there was a ‘random’ chance of gaining double the product, triple the product, a voucher-card, a prize-card, a special prize card or a special other.

 

But wait, there was even more than that!

 

Empty NukaCola bottles placed in the special chute at the side would gain credit for new purchases.

 

It was a wonderful treasure, a new source of resources but the gangers would have to guard it from others, be they gangers, other raiders, zhouls or anything else. In their excitement they did not bother to examine the rest of the machine. They did not notice the odd little black open tube sticking into the air from high above on the side opposite the one that had the bottle return chute. This was understandable for it was very small and was surrounded by grids, loops of tubing and other devices designed mostly to help conceal the small open tube.

 

They bought a six-pack of NukaCola, original flavour, and gained three six-packs. The NukaCola was ice cold. NukaCola wasn’t supposed to be addictive but it was and it helped make raiders what they were, even mere gangers. Back before Doomsday there was a large group of scientists, nutritionalists and others who fought to have NukaCola banned. They pointed out that NukaCola played upon those with certain genetic traits to cause a range of exotic and severe mental and physical reactions. President James Patriot Jackson loved NukaCola and had the group broken up after its leader was killed by a hit and run NukaCola delivery truck.

 

From the small black open tube drifted a single small patch of grey fog that glowed softly morgue light from within. It drifted down to floor level and remained close to the wall. A fast running mouse jerked rapidly to one side to avoid it. Flies staid away from it. The raiders totally failed to notice it. Instead they bought more items and the fog collected as more bits were added to it.

 

They won some Tshirts that none of them could fit but that did not matter because gangers traded with one another, often at informal meets, and these were brand new, clean and still wrapped. Mostly they gained six-packs of NukaBars of moderate nutritional value but food was always hard to get, and six-packs of NukaWater, purified water also being hard to get.

 

The four raiders hurried back to the main encampment with their loot and for a while the small patch of glowing fog followed them. Then it turned to one side, attracted by something else, and drifted against the draft through hallway after hallway until it came to a charnel house of recently dumped bits of bodies, skeletal remains and much else. Living things moved, if it could, away from it and such as moss repulsed it but soon the ghastly glowing fog was starting to feed on rotting meat. As it did it very slowly but steadily grew in size and power.

 

Strange to think that the largely buried, largely hidden SuperDuperMart complex was only a few kilometres from the Grand National Mall itself and the big conflict being waged there. Every so on there was even a minor tremor that ran through the place, causing concrete dust to drift down onto what ever was below.

 

Other Iron’Biters raced to the replication-vendor and bought other gear. They bought with them empty NukaCola bottles, EICs, Predoomsday money and some vouchers with them. They gained extra items that they bought. They won a baseball bat, a five’n’one pocket-tool and two NukaColagirl Tshirts. As they did so, they added to the size and threat of the morgue lit fog, but only slowly.

 

In theory the Iron’Biters would fight each other for prizes but secretly, making sure no outsiders learned the embarrassing truth, they held a rather peaceful raffle as they always did. Items went to many as small prizes. There was also some peaceful follow up trading. Experience had taught them that they needed every fighting fit fighter they could get and any stupid internal conflict was to be avoided. Fighting over leadership was agreeable but over a Tshirt?

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

I FOOLISHLY NOT ONLY PUT THE WRONG CHAPTER HERE, IT WAS A REPEAT OF ONE I PUT IN EARLIER. I DEEPLY AND HUMBLY APOLOGISE. :no: :yes: :ohmy: :sweat:

 

 

FORTY-FIVE

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN BRIEF

 

Fighting at the Grand National Mall continued to be brutal but casualties were limited down by growing experience in what had become a kind of urban trench warfare. Fighting had spread underground. The Union of Columbia, Orders of Steel and their allies now formed what was officially known as the Free Alliance.

 

The Sisters of Steel had adapted tactics, often launching longer range missiles from further out from the war zone proper and relying on stealth style night attacks; this way they lost less aircraft and trained, experienced aircrew.

 

The Brotherhood of Steel had been forced to accept that power armour, especial standard and heavy power armour, had special limits in such a conflict; for now they relied more upon faster, more agile trench-fighters in various types of lighter power armour, be they stealth, scouting or general light combat.

 

The Primateriarch joined the Free Alliance and sent two regiments of soldiers, chimpnoids and others, to do battle with the super-mutants. The tribals were having troubles with raiders so were unable to send assistance for now. The chimpnoid soldiers proved to be lethal trench-fighters.

 

Another trick used more often was mobile weapons firing from skyscrapers overlooking the great expanse of the mall, even some fairly big weapons. They had to move after firing for a short time so that the enemy would not mark them as targets for their longer range weapons.

 

Larger stupid-mutants were often too slow and cumbersome for close order trench fighting so the enemy began to rely more heavily on zentaurs and smart-mutants to do this fighting. Behemoths spent a good deal of time crouching and crawling in big ditches, sometimes grumbling about sore knees.

 

New mutant enemies started entering the fight with the appearance of soon to be named diredogs, super-mutant hounds of monstrous size and power, and winged zentaur like wingtaurs. Laser armed eyebots and bigger gunbots, both with their hoverjets and double-jointed manipulator-limbs, were a great defence against the fast flying and agile wingtaurs. Even bigger MrGutsys were a little too slow.

 

The super-mutants were definitely looking for something though most were fighting or simply holding ground in readiness to fight. Beneath the Grand National Mall was a large subway station that had only opened just a few months before Doomsday. The Free Alliance High Command figured the super-mutant search was probably focused there. Official 3Dmaps and other data on the huge monorail train and tram station gave no real clues to what the monstrous creatures might be seeking except for some odd gaps and inconsistencies in the data.

 

The uncommon sharp-mutants, that is the truly ‘smart’ smart-mutants, and the even less common psyker-mutants, seemed to be focusing mainly on the search. Somehow realising their cover had been broken, they did not bother to act like common smart-mutants when they led units in the fighting.

 

 

In NuHopeland of Orbis, NuHopetown was moved totally except for a small monument, to an area where it could expand more and gain access to more resources. This generally pleased most NuHopetowners. A fair few ended up being punished and some were terminated for the hostage taking incident at the school and for a bigger planned crime that had not been instigated; that is, amazingly enough, the nuking of NuHopeHub itself by a makeshift weapon made up of mininukes. The plan would never have begun to succeed.

 

Eddie’Jo remained in NuHopeland with his people there. A steady stream of SEARF people, including specials, androids and followers, began to come through to the NuHopeHub from the DC-Wastelands. No more troublesome incidents took place but the mystery of how the raiders had gotten into Orbis from the DC-Wastelands was not solved, let alone that of the evil superclone and the JAGAF super-soldiers.

 

The phoney war of SEARF and JAGAF ended as the super-soldiers began fighting in a series of raids and counter attacks against each other and others. Yet very few of the super-soldiers actually died such was their fighting skills and recovery abilities. JAGAF seemed keen on stopping SEARF from learning what actually was happening down in the depths of the Grand National Mall.

 

Aarie and Aaron, the twins in LifeVault-101, used their new ability to replicate a few select valuable items. They were careful to sell items to traders of the secret market with good reputations for being discrete. The twins identified themselves as being only go-betweens as they pretended that a trader was using them to courier goods and payments or return goods in trade. They researched how they could learn more about Sector Thirteen, the subvault that officially did not exist. Otherwise they lived their normal vault lives as expected by society and the Vaultgov.

 

High Overseer Alphonse Almodovar tried to gain an increase in power but only succeeded in a few small, non vital changes. A reformation of the Vaultgov began with the rise of a Elder Triad of High Overseer, Secondary Overseer and Guardian Overseer. Then there was the Grand Elder Council of Senior Elders, there were Junior Elders, Coordinators, Supervisors and various Offices and Services. Sector Ten was finally cleared and totally sealed off.

 

Jack’O’Man was reunited with his wife after she spent some time away. The Antislavers won a series of victories as they learned how to tell real convoys to false ones. They also found some slavers willing to sell valuable information for high quality tradegoods and Emergency Issue Coins. The flow of slaves into Paradise Falls began to lessen but not due, Jack’O’Man had to admit, to the Antislavers. The slavers were running out of people to enslave with Wastelanders abandoning smaller settlements and going to safer areas along with increasingly more areas becoming too dangerous for slavers to operate in.

 

Captain Jane Eye of the UCCS Lucky Eddie picked up whispers of the return of the infamous Bloody Eddie of the SEARF to the DC-Wastelands. People around her noted how she became quieter and more troubled. Her friends decided to keep an eye on her. They failed to note the SEART moving with them except a couple on the rivership who sensed something, including Jane herself.

 

Under the influence of the strange young girl child, giant ants began raiding any settlements or even attacking groups of zhouls they could find along with anything else they could kill and drag home. Her toxin and stinger giant ants were joined by mutated flying-ants working together under various queens who all were under the influence of the child. They were north-east of Canterbury Commons but far enough away for the attacks not to effect the settlement yet. When survivors fled to the settlement, their warnings were ignored because they seemed to fantastical to be true and because Canterbury Commons was a quite well fortified settlement.

 

Deathclaws, killclaws, skyclaws and biologically close related types of creatures continued to gather together in Old Olney, to work in cooperation with one another, in a way that was most strange. As if guided experimentally by some hidden mentality, they captured molerats and kept them in herds to use as reserve food stocks. The confused molerats adapted to being ‘livestock’ because they had no other choice but now and then one would simply vanish but the claw-beasts seemed not to notice.

 

At Megaton arrived two teenagers, a baby boy, a horse, two dogs and a young cat that staid in a basket. They had been the only survivors, it seemed, from a settlement overwhelmed by a great attack of giant ants. With some generosity from strangers and some good luck, they made it to Megaton alive with three young women. The latter were well armed and quite tough though youthful. In reality they were SEARF. Sheriff Lucas Simms was wary of the three young women but he gave into public sentiment, who loved the story of the strange young group surviving the Wastelands. So they ended up getting a new house built for them, much to the anger of families who were on the waiting list for houses.

 

Abraham Washington continued his activities in Rivet City along with his comrades of the Orders of Steel.

 

Mei Wong lived peacefully in Rivet City with her new, rather exotic, family.

 

3Dog and his people, with SEARF help, made some more progress with GNR but were seeking a radio tower of some kind to help increase broadcasting range.

 

Daring Dashwood and Argyle travelled across the DC-Wastelands with their new SEARF comrades. They travelled quietly and carefully, only having one adventure when Argyle got unfortunately drunk and took on a dozen or so gangers by himself. They were slowed down by the need to avoid JAGAF super-soldiers who were still searching for them.

 

Rose’Ama made her way, with the local tribal people and those that had come with her, through the homeland of Grognak the Barbarian. It soon became very clear to herself that this realm was another super virtual reality zone as was NeoDC. It was real enough to be dangerous. Luckily enough all the special extra tricks that worked in NeoDC also worked in Grognakia though some with varied effects.

 

The Iron’Biter gangers continued to gain resources from the now functioning replication-vending machine. They gained a good deal but even as they did so, the glowing fog continued to grow very slow but steadily.

 

The hunt for the super virtual reality realm was on and a way to get to President James Patriot Jackson who was trapped there. Some were enemies, some were friends or followers and some were?

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

PLEASE READ AGAIN THE POST ABOVE AS PREVIOUSLY I PUT THE WRONG ONE (A REPEATED ONE IN) WHILE TIRED LATE ONE NIGHT.

 

FORTY-SIX

MAN #2 FROM SEARF

TO THE SUPERDUPERMART BUNKER

:thumbsup: :ninja: :wub: :down:

 

Eddie-Jon, who was really Eddie-Jo also, appeared with a sparkling shimmer close to the SuperDuperMart that was in turn close to the great fake Mount Olympia volcano and the Olympic Games complex at its base. The SuperDuperMart was partly buried beneath the rubble of a half collapsed hotel complex.

 

He darted across the big carpark and three SEARF followed him. Even as he did, other SEARF came out to meet him in the bright, warm sunshine. Then all of them were dashing through a shopping complex power-door left partly open. The whole complex was kept looking abandoned and run down. The armaglass of the front of the shops were grubby.

 

Inside though people were busy. Many were standard human or ghoul Wastelanders. There were also many bananadroids and a few other robots. There were others that had come with Uncle Leo the peaceful super-mutant including other super-mutants who he had influenced to change.

 

There were workshops, working areas, small meetings taking places, some militia soldiers doing drills.

 

Children ran past the newcomers, staring in wonder, clutching books and other school gear. A teacher, a tall man, tried to get them to slow down with only mixed success.

 

The SEARF slowed and moved in formation focused on Eddie’Jo and protecting him. The formation paced smoothly and quietly deeper into the complex. Word seemed to get around of what was happening, very quickly. Bananadroids showed up in steadily increasing numbers. They chattered noisily with each other in short bursts but were quiet most of the time. Tron Series robots and shopping robocarts also began to follow. Eddie’Jon was quite startled and amused that the robots had become, somehow, attracted to the SEARF.

 

Humans and ghouls were not so delighted as robots moved away from where they were working.

 

A tall pale white man, almost an albino in looks but with ginger red hair and blue eyes, openly cursed the SEARF and the robots. Suddenly he fell down but was slowed as he hit the floor, to lay there unharmed but semiconscious.

 

Uncle Leo was out in the semiwilderness with some followers and so Eddie’Jon did not meet him at the start of his stay at that place. The robots dispersed as he and some of his SEARF went into a SEARF only used elevator and went down to the bunkerplex.

 

Through armoured corridors he went passing SEARF androids, special robots, other robots, troopers, specialists and followers. There were bananadroids all neatly newly painted bright yellow.

 

Removing his helmet, he kissed many a trooper, android and other on the cheek or on the a metallic head. This was his blessing to his people, the SEARF, was the blessing of Lucky Eddie.

 

The great big control chamber was dome shaped with a disk podium in the centre. 3Dwallscreens showed 3Ddatasymbols and views, other data. He stood in the centre and looked out over the displays. Much was cleverly coded, even the maps. He noted the SEARF operations of various SEARTs across the DC-Wastelands. Plans were going well. The battles with the JAGAF were going as predicted.

 

The rescue of Herbert Daring Dashwood and Argyle was a bonus as was the agreement with 3Dog and GNR. There was the outpost established in the Ghoul Underworld. Other outposts were separate and more secretive.

 

Then there were those SEARF semi-isolated in some kind of exotic realm who the other SEARF could sense but could not fully communicate with or locate.

 

He noted odd bits of data that could be important and then froze in surprise. A fishing rivership was called the LUCKY EDDIE. It had its home port in the settlement of Rivertane on the Big DC-River. The woman in charge was one Captain Jane Eye. He gave orders for a SEART to be sent at once only to learn it had been done months ago. He was most pleased with his people for this and because the SEART was simply observing and protecting his mother. He confirmed that she was not to be harmed.

 

Other operations were active or were soon to become active.

 

Operation Positioning Preparedness was coming to its later stages.

 

Operation Rock Renovation was going strong.

 

Operation Way to New Hope was strongly undertaking early stages.

 

Operation Multiple Targets was ready to go. He activated it. SEARF special teams, known as SEARHs, or Special Encounter Assault Hunters would go into action against a variety of targets. Friendly captures to hostile engagements would happen, depending on the nature of particular targets and prescribed goals.

 

An old term, Special Encounter Assault Recon Special Trooper, or SEARST, was put into place along with SEARSR and SEARSA, the first being for special robots and the latter for special androids. New terms were instigated. SEARSF was for special followers.

 

The SEARF were getting steadily deeper to the hub.

 

Eddie’Jon turned and went to a command session with SEARF officers, android aides and follower advisers. An AI-supercomputer network-system also had its input. The first stage of Operation Hunting Ways was instigated.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

FORTY-SEVEN

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

JAGAF STALKING, OUTCASTS WALKING AND A BIG SURPRISE

 

JAGAF super-soldiers shot across the gravel and light rubble covered highway in the dim lit conditions and leapt over the dead sprawled bodies of gangers. Something had torn through the low class raiders with horrific force but had not bothered to loot them. A battlecar, more of a sedan than a true battlebuggy would be, had been hurled onto its side.

 

The super-soldiers vanished almost magically into an area of heavier rubble and a half crumbled building. They were in the Washing DC Docklands as created by President James Patriot Jackson’s transformation of the District of Columbia. The Docklands was a large area of fortified, largely automated warehouses, depots and other commercial buildings. The massive bulk of the US Customs Service DC HQ stood next to the cracked dome of a US Coast Guard complex.

 

A moment later a shudder ran through the ground. Then it came, a massive mechawalker being a shipping container lifter-loader. It strode along on two massive legs with a polarised armaglass cabin big enough for three human sized figures. It bore the banners and symbols of the Brotherhood Outcasts. Weapons had been added in the form of roboremote turrets bristling with miniguns, flamers and launchers along with two big 40mm multiple purpose autocannons. It carried a modified shipping crate, armoured and bristling with guns. Moving at ground level were Brotherhood Outcasts in standard power armour marked with their colours and symbols.

 

But it was not the battle-mechawalker that had wiped out the raiders. The strange marks on the ground were of the wrong kind, as if something had slammed up through the ground but then had, crudely, covered itself up again. It had smashed into the raiders, crushing them. There were also pools of water and what seemed to be salt at the edges of them as if the water had partly evaporated to leave the salt behind. It had not rained recently and the area was dry.

 

The Brotherhood Outcasts were overconfident and in too much of a hurry to get their loot back to their nearest base, the big Outcasts Docklands Outpost. That is except one soldier in power armour who noticed something wrong with the dead raiders, the lack of looting and the manner of death. He gave warning! He noted the odd way the road was upturned and overturned, was sagging down in some areas, along with the pools of water. His second warning was heeded for he was a finely skilled and much experienced scout.

 

The big battle-mechawalker halted and then backed up away from the strange area. Then from the very ground, the odd patches and sunken areas, exploded great powerful octopus like tentacles. Salt water splashed off it and out of the holes as the beast partly exploded out of the great underground submarine tunnel that ran beneath that part of the Docklands. A US Naval tunnel for its submarines and submersible robots, it had played a big part in the final years of the conflict before Doomsday. The monstrous tentacles were armour plated with great big scales.

 

The Brotherhood Outcast unleashed all the firepower they could do as quickly as they could. The big battle mechawalker stepped backwards even as it kept firing madly away, the 40mm autocannons pumping special armour piercing high explosive and other types into the monster. The creature screamed in agony and rage, alien sounds, and wounds exploded and gushed blood along with small chunks of rubbery flesh. But then a tentacle whipped down and smashed a soldier through the air, killing her instantly, despite her power armour.

 

The other soldiers scattered as fast as they could in standard power armour. Another was struck down but he was mostly just shook up, his suit being damaged so one arm would no longer function properly.

 

The JAGAF were not meant to fight such enemies as giant tentacle monsters and, in theory, the Brotherhood Outcasts were their enemies. So, also in theory, they should have attacked the power armoured soldiers fighting the monster. The super-soldiers assembled from parts that all of them carried a special, very well designed and advanced launcher. Two used it, put into it a mininukes-missile, aimed, and fired it at the octopus monster.

 

The great octopus like beastie roared and the ground shook. A nearby building, already partly collapsed, did so further. Then it slipped down rapidly into the ground, vanishing with amazing speed for its size. It left behind it gaping tunnel holes in the ground this time and much spilt salt water. Some small fish splashed dying and there was some lightly glowing mutated seaweed.

 

The JAGAF changed position with amazing stealth and speed.

 

The Brotherhood Outcasts picked up some clues, the fish were dumped into salt water and the seaweed was taken, recordings were taken, and then they hurried off. They did not make even an attempt to find the ones who had fired the mininukes-missile. The commander quickly guessed that they would be impossible to find unless they wanted to be found. She just wanted to get the loot, including the mechawalker, home and to warn her HQ about the monster.

 

The five JAGAF coldly watched the Brotherhood Outcasts leave and then they went back on the move as they hunted for more errant monsters.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

FORTY-EIGHT

TWINS IN LIFEVAULT-101

NEW ALLIES AND OTHER POSSIBILITIES

 

The twins hurried through the fairly isolated and deserted corridors of that sector where they had their secret club. They were worried and angry. Their friends were in danger. A self declared crime boss, one Boris Zronsky, had decided that he wanted the fine small goodies that the twins were trading. Not for free, no, but for insultingly low prices. Zronsky had been making enemies and he was due to fall but before that he had found the secret club and had taken hostages of Amata, Google, Colaboy, Trent, the Bran Twins and DJ-Girl.

 

They came to the turn which, by accident of computer design, was odd and could easily hide a small side-corridor from people going through the area. They shot down the side-corridor and saw ahead of them the club entrance. Light flowed from it being from electric lamps.

 

The thug was standing watch. He wore a slightly stained blue jumpsuit and held a baseball bat in his hands. He was just like one of the so called criminal low life who dwelt in the Damp Sector where they had become exiled by both law and society. But when he turned to confront the oncoming twins he did so with impressive speed of a trained and experienced martial artist. He grinned mildly at them and held up his hands to indicate no threat.

 

“I know you are extraordinary fighters, especially for your age. Some say you have knocked down full grown adults as if they were children but I am no danger to you. Right now Zronsky wants to talk with you and no, it isn’t about trade goods on the secret market. That was just to get you here. Your friends are safe and will stay so.”

 

The friends were quite safe and relaxed. The so called thugs were spread amongst them. A tall, slim woman was sitting at a computer terminal with Google, named after a popular old time internet search engine, who was obviously enamoured of her. She was quite beautiful.

 

The heavy set, thick shouldered man seemed most likely to be Boris. He was standing close to the door.

 

Amata was frowning softly and looking around at the three men and one woman with some wariness though she seemed relaxed enough. On her lap was a sleepy adorable Umo Bran, a neobaby. Colaboy was clutching a reusable can of sodacola made by vault commoners. Trent and DJ-Girl were cuddled up close together and had the neobaby Omu Bran, the male twin. All seemed peaceful but sleepy. None seemed talkative.

 

But it was the woman who turned around and spoke to them first. “I am the evil Boris Zronsky. Or at least I created him. In truth he does not exist and neither does any of his henchmen. We are part of the new rebel cell-network based largely now in the Fringe Caverns. We know you somehow create items by renewal replication and this does not surprise us because amongst our people are three who can do the same. Truly a mystery most likely linked with President James Patriot Jackson and his own amazing powers to do the same and more.”

 

Was it some kind of genetic inheritance from the amazing and insane super genius of President James Patriot Jackson who demonstrated his strange powers many times before large live audiences. Many always assumed hitech trickery but others knew better. Some how the Mad President had gained what seemed to be super powers of various kinds. Some said it was something to do with the strange black rings he wore, one on the middle finger of each hand, that had on them a golden sword and shield. The twins had recently heard snippets of this legend but had failed to obtain more data.

 

The woman went on speaking. “We made contact with the curious folks of the I’Free Caverns and I’Free Town with those amazing but disturbing brainabugs. You met the woman Shandy, mother to Lucy, Stella and Tom. Also the brainabug named Wally. Wally says hi! Quite a friendly if ugly little dude. The family was forced to rush away from Charlie’s secret place. It was found by one of the ‘Special Patrols’ that you didn’t know existed.”

 

“We know, we found it stripped of everything that indicated what it really had been.” Aaron responded as he walked over to the refrigerator against one wall where there was also a basic tap-sink, a refrigerated water-dispenser, a 3DTV set and some other stuff in shelves. He took a reusable pop-top can of sodacola out and tossed it lightly to Aarie. She caught it, opened it and took a few small gulps.

 

Then Aarie spoke even as Aaron got himself a can of sodacola. “Have the I’Freefolk joined your cause, Boris?”

 

The woman nodded. “My name is actually Katrina, which I think suits me more than the name ‘Boris’ does. They are considering matters but I am confident we will join in some kind of future alliance. For now, though, we would like you to renew-replicate these items.”

 

She pulled out of a pouch a small silvery box, opened it and showed a neat display of very advanced microchips being true artificial components as linked to what had been called ‘super positronic’ brain development by WestTek and RobCo in cooperation. Yet it had been a small specialised TekCorp known as RoboTek that had carried out much of the specific research and development.

 

Aarie nodded. “What do we get in turn?”

 

The woman pulled out a second slim box and opened it by unlatching it with her thumb, causing it to spring open. Inside it was a beautifully elegant broach of electrum (gold silver alloy) and a finely made but strong chain of the same material. Embedded cleverly into the front was a coloured 3Dphoto of their father’s face. “This belongs to your mother. You can have it anyway, no matter what your choice, but there is important information that goes with it. You will need to pay for that. These microchips are damaged; they were sabotaged by a traitor who has since been buried somewhere in the Fringe Caverns, causing a nice thick growth of moss.”

 

Aaron nodded. “We always replicate at least two renewed items replacing one. We keep one set and you take anything else.”

 

Katrina frowned. “Very well! We need these microchips badly.”

 

Amata spoke out. “Don’t trust them. They sedated the others. They tried it on me but it didn’t work.”

 

A tall, almost thin man, adjusted his thick spectacles and then he spoke. “Not sedated by gently mind influenced. We are special humans, perhaps a subspecies. You, Amata, are one of us as is your mother. She would have been here today but she could not leave her work place with out rousing suspicion or even contact you to warn what was coming. Actually the neobabies are just sleeping because they wanted a nap. They feel no threat from us.”

 

Amata visibly relented. “Okay, I sense a link of sorts.”

 

The pair did their trick and five brand new copies appeared of the box of microchips. Katrina smiled and took her four copies. Aaron picked up the other and then frowned softly.

 

Aarie spoke with a note of concern in her voice. “This stuff is dangerous to use. Each of these is a brainchip designed to program-control but also to leave open a human brain-mind for remote control of some kind. Odd thing is that they seem to be linked to some kind of super virtual reality technology as are the brainabugs. What are you trying to do?”

 

The woman frowned at the children. “So you learned about the items you renewed replicated even as you did so, amazing! Perhaps we should trust you. I trust you but many of my comrades do not. We are searching for answers to many puzzles. There is more to this vault than you know.”

 

Aaron shrugged. “Sector Thirteen, the subvault beneath the main LifeVault, with all of its secrets.”

 

Aarie nodded. “Secret other sections like the one beyond Sector Ten where we found a human cloning machine along with a dead, well preserved young clone man.”

 

Aaron continued. “Mad Charlie’s secret base of operations since found and stripped clean by others.”

 

Katrina arched her eyebrows at them. “We stripped Mad Charlie’s secret base. He was a friend of mine. He vanished on the day of the fateful explosions that did so much damage to LifeVault-101. There is a maze of chambers, corridors, rampwells and vent shafts where the cloning machine is. We have explored only part of it because not only it is amazingly intricate, it is very big and, it seems, designed to change over time; walls shift, doors appear and disappear and there are other tricks, most of them being very clever illusions. It is the sort of place that President James Patriot Jackson would design. The Special Patrols go there and can be hard to deal with but there are other threats like amok security robots and turrets. In that place we found your mother’s broach. On the front is a 3Dphoto of your father but open it up and see what is inside.”

 

Aaron did so with Aarie watching. They were both shocked. There were two opposite facing 3Dphotos of themselves, their faces, at around the age of two or so they guessed.

 

Mother, apparently, was still alive as they sensed, as they had vividly dreamed on some nights, dreaming of meeting he with her in a big old fashioned looking mansion. It was a most strange landscape around the mansion and its own orderly Victorian British style gardens, its own high spiked red brick wall. The landscape was a bizarre twist of the normal and the exotic, like Wonderland. Mother was always dressed in the pseudo 1950s style clothing fashions of the 2060s and 2070s as enforced by the Mad President. President James Patriot Jackson had been infatuated with the 1950s of the USA as shown by mass media and had imposed it onto the USA during his despotic rule that was thinly disguised as a great democracy. They would swim in a big old ornate tiled swimming pool, play tennis, have tea with cakes or biscuits or scones, play chess, listen to music or do many other such things. They did not talk about anything about the history of the world after 2000AD. They did not speak of secrets or dark things.

 

The twins knew they had to go beyond Sector Ten to the maze but how? Could they trust these people, these strange rebels who seemed to share some kind of joint secondary mind that Amata was somehow linked with? They had heard of such things in the form of so called shadow whispers but such stories also spoke of UFOs, immortality serums, shapeshifters, vampires, two headed babies and much else.

 

The others were stirring. DJ-Girl looked kissed Trent, who grumbled, and then awoke to kiss DJ-Girl back. They would have started smooching except that they noticed everybody else was watching. They smiled at everybody in a puzzled, lightly embarrassed fashion.

 

Colaboy awoke, took a few gulps of his sodacola, grinned mildly at everybody and tried to hide his infatuation for Amata with his normal total lack of success. He fidgeted with his toolbelt dotted with tools, pouches and other items; many of them had been made or altered from the originals by him.

 

Aaron and Aarie were the geniuses of the group.

 

Amata was the organiser of the group and very down to earth practical.

 

Google was the experimental type replicant that most people did not know was an android because he was growing almost as a real child would. He had many skills and much knowledge as did the older twins and Amata.

 

Colaboy was practical and inventive, being amazing with anything he could gets his hands on from robots to robotypers to 3DTVs to?

 

Trent was tough, fast and was a born navigator, scout and scavenger.

 

DJ-Girl was fairly tough, very pretty, had lots of freckles and a way of charming people. She was good at ‘soft’ martial arts styles. She wanted badly to be a DJ of some kind.

 

The neobaby twins were cute, adorable, drippy, sometimes grumpy, surprisingly strong and highly empathic.

 

None of them had been fully accepted by vault society or Vaultgov except for Amata but even she had a brown mark on her record because she was a close friend with the others.

 

Katrina’s pipgirl buzzed and she looked to its screen. “We must go. In truth we did not even know that such a thing as Sector Thirteen, a subvault, existed. We found the brainchips in the same chamber as the broach, a small storage vault full of oddities. We must communicate soon and exchange data; very soon! Security guards are on their way here, led by a security officer.”

 

The rebels, or freedom fighters as they would call themselves, departed in a hurry. Soon after they were gone, the security team entered the small clubroom and found just some teens and two neobabies having some peaceful fun. Despite this they took everybody off to the Central Security Offices where it was officially stated that the clubroom was permanently closed; not only that but the teens would all be punished with nasty community duties on top of their normal work duties; the neobabies were deemed innocent, of course.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[Maharg67]

FORTY-NINE

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE DC-WASTELANDS

PSYCHIC AND OTHER METAPHYSICAL DEVELOPMENTS

 

Knight Sergeant York of the Brotherhood of Steel stood behind a well made battlement of sandbags, metal and other materials including basic dirt and rubble. He was in standard power armour and was holding a 20mm autogun. His people were not lighter armoured trench-fighters but they had fought back many super-mutant attacks anyway, picking off the monsters with guns and launchers plus grenades.

 

He was proud and confident that nothing or nobody could get past his battlements, not even a molemouse let alone a blundering stupid-mutant. He had bragged about it to his troopers, all Knights in standard or, a minority, in heavy power armour with special heavy weapons. They were used to their bombastic sergeant so not even the lieutenant bothered to say anything.

 

The ground shook with another tremor. Smoke drifted over the smashed up landscape that had once been so beautiful and peaceful, a place of quiet contemplation and not so quiet celebration. It was oddly dim that day with grey clouds drifting overhead like smoke haze. It had rained but only very lightly. It was horribly humid and nicer to be in internal environmentally regulated armour.

 

There was a flicker of movement in the distant, just a tiny flicker. Long experience had him pick it out where newbies might easily have missed it. He raised his weapon and gave the signal for preparedness. Other fighters began to get ready for trouble. It could be a full attack or just a hit and run by zentaurs or wingtaurs or both together. The new monstrous diredogs only attacked along with stupid-mutants.

 

Another flicker!

 

He aimed and others did the same with launchers, more autoguns, gattling-lasers and even a single 75mm recoilless rifle of Twentieth Century design. But no enemy showed, only a flickering and a growing feeling of oppressive dread.

 

The sergeant felt it but it only annoyed him until he realised that many of his soldiers were getting jittery and even panicky. It came to him that his unit was under some kind of dark psychic attack, that the psyker-mutants were at last attacking the Brotherhood of Steel. But the Free Alliance High Command had feared such would happen and preparations had been made. Would they be enough?

 

He pressed a special button and a special alert went through out his unit but also to the nearest FA Field HQ. Yet it also went to others. Soldiers pressed or stabbed at buttons and were injected with a short term effective specialised drug except those, like the sergeant, who were immune. Calm came but some got sleepy and they could not fight.

 

Then they came, as promised, skimming along on a semi-enclosed hoversled lifted by hoverjets, as promised they would. They were of the Sisterhood of Metaphysics, an order that actually embraced many forms of ‘fringe science’.

 

The sergeant was of the Sisterhood of Metaphysics though they were also of the Orders of Steel. Like a few Brothers of Steel, the sergeant thought that the Brotherhood of Steel should absorb or get rid of the other Orders of Steel to become the only one under its own name. Most in his order rejected the idea, believing that the Brotherhood of Steel was best left as it was and that the other Orders of Steel were needed. Nor would the other orders go along with such ideas, thus causing damaging rifts.

 

More flickering!

 

A psyker-mutant came into view, running with a light assault autogun of a kind not often seen and known as a LAAG-A11a. Yet he seemed intent on using another weapon, a blazing ball of energies flying in the air above himself. Then came stupid-mutants, big and mean, but they seemed wary of the psyker-mutant and his bizarre weapon.

 

The Brothers of Steel who could so, fired their weapons. The psyker-mutant looked surprised as he was blasted dead but he hurled his energy ball. It shot towards a Knight Private and blew him backwards with terrible force as it exploded. Medics in their specialised power armour came racing to the rescue, along with a tech to get to the wounded if that had to be done with damaged armour. But the poor private was already dead and his power armour was burned out useless so that it was just a hunk of junk.

 

The stupid-mutants proved to be not so stupid this time as they turned and fled back, most of them reaching safety of their own earthworks.

 

The sergeant spoke to the newcomers. “So the psyker-mutants attacked us at last.”

 

The Sister of Metaphysics crouched next to him in her own specialised power armour with much extra exotic technologies and she spoke. “Psyker-mutants have been probing our ranks and those of our allies trying to pick up information. They have been sending nightmares, panic attacks and other forms of nastiness. We have been busy trying to deal with all of this.”

 

The sergeant was forced to reassess some of his assumptions. “Yes, some of our troopers began having difficulties awake and asleep but then they came to an end except for the typical horrors of what we call normality these days.”

 

She nodded her armoured head. “You know this area well?”

 

He nodded his armoured head right back. “Damned too well for my liking. We have defended this point well but have made no ground for far too long.”

 

The woman paused before responding. “Have you found any grates, grate-hatches, utility hatches or other ways underground?”

 

The knight sergeant pointed. “Nice thickly armoured horizontal hatch over there we can’t open. We have been waiting for a sapper team to get here and open it somehow but sappers are in short supply these days and such armoured hatches can be found through out the Grand National Mall.”

 

But she had him lead her to it. She crouched next to it, a three metre wide circular hatch embedded in a thick reinforced square of smart-concrete that was six metres across. There was a typical smart metal dataplate with names and codes. At a glance they seemed normal enough.

 

Sister Doctor of Metaphysics Ursula Lyons, cousin to Elder Lyons, studied the dataplate and then carefully pulled up the bottom of it. Hidden hinges allowed the dataplate to fold up and over to reveal another dataplate with no names but plenty of code. She spoke. “Jackpot! It is disguised as a normal utility hatch but it should take us right down to the big Grand National Mall Hub Subway Station.”

 

He nodded and then he gave a start. “What do you mean ‘us’? We have to guard this position.”

 

She responded. “This position was cut off from our own lines just minutes ago thanks to the latest psyker-mutant attack which largely failed. There are enemy forces now in all directions. We go down into the underground, lock the hatch behind us, and the Sisters of Steel and the arty can blow this area to dust and bones. Hopefully, if we run into a barrier, we can then come back up to find the enemy gone. No, it was not planned by the Sisterhood of Metaphysics and no, I can not read all of your mind, and yes I look something like Sarah Lyons.”

 

With some trickery he did not understand, the Sisters of Metaphysics opened the hatch and the whole force reluctantly went down underground. The hoversled was put in a ditch and buried under earth and sandbags to protect it as much as possible. Brothers of Steel went down into the underground in power armour, the heavy power armour being a little clumsy and annoyed.

 

The hatch locked behind them, they went down a sloping corridor tunnel of metal plating, flurolamps lighting up the area dimly. They came at last to a hub after some two hundred metres and then they turned down another one. Soon they were entering a labyrinth designed, it seemed, to confuse and get people lost.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[gormonk]

ultra cool, good work :thumbsup:

[Maharg67]

Thanks, gormonk!