Maharg67 Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 (edited) PRENOTES THE RESTARTING OF AN OLD STORY INCLUDING ALL THE OLD CHARACTERS AND FACTIONS ETC. BUT A SIMPLIFIED STORYLINE. EDIT CHANGE: Eagle-Enclave is no longer disguised as the Independent Survivalist Holdfasts (ISH). The ISH are truly separate and unique. FACTS AND STORY FLOW HINTS BELOW: TO BE EDITED IN FUTURE FACTIONS: SUPER-SOLDIERS RETURNED/REAWAKEN SIARTs of the SIARF (Special Investigations Assault Recon Troopers of the Special Investigations Assault Recon Force).SIARP: SIARF PlatoonSIARR: SIARF Robot (Special)SIARA: SIARF Android (Special)Leadership Command, Troopers, Scouts, Instructors, Servitors, Workers, other Specialists, Specials. FACTIONS:ORDERS OF STEEL Brotherhood of Steel (Oldest and Tradional with secret origin) Largest and most varied of the Orders of SteelElders, Scribes, Sages, Knights, Paladins, Troopers, Instructors, Techs, Initiates etc. Guards of Steel A general force of trained soldiers who guard many Orders of Steel who lack their own military or paramilitary wings. Also guard various combined order projects, bases, etc. In theory more of a defensive force than either the Brotherhood or Sisterhood of Steel. Sages of Steel with many Schools of Learning and also Projects. Scribes of Steel with wider base of recorded knowledge and other activities. Sisterhood of Steel (Younger, smaller and more specialised than Brotherhood of Steel) specialising in operating squadrons of vertibirds, helicopters, vertijets, jumpjets, hoverjets and other aircraft along with bigger aeroflyers, aeroboats and aeroships.Also specialised in Sisterhood Airborne Assault Force (SAAF) Sisterhood Search and Rescue Force (SSRF)Have own Sages, Scribes, Techs, Instructors etc. FACTIONS, OTHER ORDERS Order of MetaphysicsOrder/Brotherhood/Sisterhood of the Way Sisterhood of CompassionBrotherhood of Protection FACTIONS OF THE DARKZIAZIN (FORMERLY THE Dark0ne) DARKCULT FACTIONS, MISCELLANEOUS DCCoOp (District of Columbia Co-Operative). GRDMC: Gormonk Research, Development and Manufacturing Corporation River Union of the settlements of (to be added) GEOGRAPHY Geography of President James Patriot Jackson's expanded and altered Washington DC now covering the whole of the old District of Columbia while the new, expanded, altered DC covers the old Delaware, Maryland, part of Virginia and other areas. These areas unofficially retain their old names in a new form such as DC Delaware and DC Virginia. Added were the DC Islands off the DC Delaware Coast, three big ones and eight fairly big ones along with a fair few smaller ones. The three big islands are known as the Patriot Islands. Bigger three islands go from north to south down the DC Delaware Coast and are called the Northern, Central and Southern Patriot Islands. The other islands are around these three in a loose oval pattern with the fairly big ones being closer to the Patriot Islands. Changes officially cost a hundred trillion International Dollars (probably much more in reality) and threatened to bankrupt the United States of America and its puppet organization of the United Republics of Greater America (including occupied nations of Canada, Mexico, Cuba and others). Hitech and ultratech experimental technologies were abundantly used in the creation of what became known openly as the Patriot DC and more secretly as the Cursed DC. While this happened the rest of the USA and the URGA slid backwards towards poverty, technological backwardness and conflict. The USA became divided between Patriot DC and the rest of the USA/URGA except for a sprinkling of Patriot Strongholds. In our world the price of changing expanding DC would come to over a thousand trillion US Dollars. In Postdoom Times the Patriot Islands are the homebases of the Union of Columbia (Northern), the United Patriot Republic (Central) and the DomniCommonwealth (Southern). Other islands are a mixture of controlling factions including those occupied by the hitech tribalistic Clansfolk, the cannibalistic berserker Hordra (from which the raiders come to raid the mainland), the neoSoviets (surviving descendents of Soviet invaders) and the Independent Survivalist Holdfasts (ISH). One fairly large island is Crosswayne of the Orthodox Church of Atom, an oppressive theological based nation with its own ruling Archbishop, Bishops, Priesthood along with Orders, Offices and Followings. NEW TERMS IN GENERAL SINGLE-BOOMER = simple single barrelled one shot shotgunDOUBLE-BOOMER = double barrelled two shot shotgunPUMP-BOOMER = pump-action shotgunLEVER-BOOMER = lever-action shotgunAUTO-BOOMER = Semiautomatic shotgunASSAULT-BOOMER = advanced combat shotgunHAND-BOOMER = various kinds of hand-shotguns or shotgun-pistols Heavy = 10 gaugeLight = 12 gauge Airships look like zeppelins but use a careful hybrid system of helium and liftergas sacks meaning they had far greater lifting power than traditional airships. Hence the gondolas (often called airship-substructures) are relatively much bigger and the hull (or shell or envelope) of the airship is much better armoured. Aerocraft are special aircraft that use hitech liftergas network-systemsAeroflyers are half way between aeroboats or aeroships and traditional aircraft.Aeroboats and aeroships are approximate to aquatic boats and ships.Aerobarges are something like flying barges, often used as low flying vessels. TO BE EDITED IN FUTURE NUMBERING OF THE VAULTS Numbering system is not straight forward. All vaults are of varied kinds but the numbering of all, except for secret vaults or odd cases, goes across all vaults as below: LifeVault-0101LifeVault-0102StoreVault-0103TekVault-0104LifeVault-0105 Officially they can also be listed as: VaultTekVault-0101VaultTekVault-0102VaultTekVault-0103VaultTekVault-0104VaultTekVault-0105 Or unofficially as: Vault-0101Vault-0102Vault-0103Vault-0104Vault-0105 The importance of this information will become clearer as the story continues. GUARDIAN THIRTEEN PRIME GUARDIANNo Other Identity MASTER GUARDIANField Marshal Rear Admiral*FOLLOWER GUARDIANMarshal Ironsides of the Ironside Mercenaries*FOLLOWER GUARDIANMarshal Stella Prime of the Security Mercenaries*FOLLOWER GUARDIANMarshal Modest Blaze of the Hunter Mercenaries MASTER GUARDIANProfessor Geniusstein of the Smithsonian University*FOLLOWER GUARDIANBrainmandus the Brainbot at the DC Institute of Technology (DCIT)*FOLLOWER GUARDIANProfessor Barnebie Brown at Megaton *FOLLOWER GUARDIANProfessor James Ashworth at LifeVault-0101 MASTER GUARDIANAbraham Washington of the Museum of DC History*FOLLOWER GUARDIANGeorge Lincoln of the Seekers of Truth*FOLLOWER GUARDIAN3Dog of Global News Radio*FOLLOWER GUARDIANUncle Leo, super-mutant behemoth, LifeVault-0087 LESSER GUARDIANS ‘ARISING’ LESSER GUARDIANSheriff Lucas Simms LESSER GUARDIAN2Kitty LESSER GUARDIANMoira Brown LESSER GUARDIANSarah Lyons LESSER GUARDIANKnight Captain Gallows LESSER GUARDIANHigh Regulator Sonora Cruz LESSER GUARDIANJack’O’Man LESSER GUARDIANFawkes ??? Possible Influences on this Story * The Star Wars saga * Lost in Space * Robocop * Buck Rogers * Aliens series * The Terminator films * Short Circuit * 2001: A Space Odyssey * AI * The Matrix * Bladerunner * The Iron Man * Robot Wars * The War of the Worlds * Elder Scrolls Games * Sliders * Sesame Street * Teletubbies * Doctor Who * Star Trek series and movies * Cybergirl (Australian series) * Others __________________________________________________THIS IS A SPECIAL POST THAT HAS ALSO BEEN ADDED (EDITED INTO) THE VERY FIRST POST OF THIS TOPIC EVERYTHING IS AS ONEEVERYTHING IS LINKED TO EVERYTHING ELSE YOUNG THIRTEEN Thirteen six year old emerged seemingly from nowhere one day at the same spot on the West Coast of the former USA. All set out in groups of two, each having one neobaby companion, secondaries and other companions, except for the thirteenth who staid in the area. She also had three secondaries and other companions. That was ten years before the story begins. GUARDIAN THIRTEEN The Three Master Guardians and Nine Follower Guardians are long concealed in the DC Wastelands. Each Prime is served by three Assistant Guardians. The Nine Guardians seek to deal with a great evil that once caused Doomsday and which seeks to return to cause even greater death, destruction and general havoc. There is also a Prime Guardian, the Thirteenth Guardian, who leads them all and who is most secret of all. Apart from him, all the Guardians have both normal open and secret identities. The patterns and similarities are not coincidental but are part of a very old plan. DARKZIAZIN Then there is the DarkZiazin who is in truth more than one DarkZiazin. There is one real DarkZiazin, a dozen superclones and many demiclones, even more semiclones and yet more subclones. There are also decoys to draw attention away from where the real DarkZiazin and his superclones are at. The DarkZiazin superclones often exist as normal folk well known in their areas. GREYMAHARG But what of GreyMaharg, the Ancient or ‘living god’. He is one, he is many, he is not always a he, he or she often have other, known identities and yet she-he remains a mystery. OTHERS? Then there are others, the great variety of DC Wastelanders, the newcomers such as the Orders of Steel including the original Brotherhood of Steel and others who dwell secretly or just isolated away from the great sweeping capital region of the former glorious USA. YET OTHERS? Living gods and goddesses other than GreyMaharg, a darker and more powerful force than the DarkZiazin, ancient seals that could be called entities in their own right and yet more? TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 (edited) 1st IRONSIDES AND RAIDERS DANCING THE DEADLYBATTLE OVER A DOMETOWN PART 1 Raiders darted across the broken smart-concrete, slowly repairing itself, and leapt through an empty window. The big window had once fronted a MADAM MIM PIES franchise shop of prepacked, fully processed, microwave cooked amazingly long lasting pastries. Not all raiders made it. Bullets and shotshells ripped through the hazy Predoom air stinking of spilt blood, aridity and strange things. A black syntholeather armoured femme was blasted down, all the time the psychoplus addicted killer screaming in agony and rage. Psychoplus was made of superdrugs mixed; psycho was the well known foundation but raiders were not prone to sharing the recipes. Raiders, deranged but cunningly brilliant, fast and damned dangerous, were harder to kill than standard folks but tended to be over confident in battle. They came from islands off the east coast, artificial-quasinatural islands that is, to get kudos, loot, excitement, more loot and maybe colonies. The large war-party of Deo’Wranglers had come west in from a raider treaty outpost on the very coastline where no raider tribe was allowed to attack another. After passing through a previously raider destroyed Wastelander settlement, they had a firefight with some angry locals who were well armed and well emplaced. Knowing it was stupid to attack such a group, the war-party had gone around them and then had come to a broken hitech dometown, with its cracked transparent dome somehow still standing erect over the whole settlement. PART 2 Big Bill hated raiders but he didn’t much like anybody. The big hulking Ironside Mercenary was in carbon-fibre body-armour, including helmet with armoured visor. He raised his Tririfle, actually a combination of 10mmCS autocarbine, 20mmCS semiautomatic recoil suppressed rifle and 30mmCS semiautomatic grenade-shell launcher. It was a bloody good weapon but the ammo could be damned difficult to get at times which is why he always had a back-up gun or two. He let of a carefully calculated burst of 10mmCS and the caseless slimshot bullets blasted open the flank of some lanky killer of a raider sporting Wastelander scalps hanging from his webbing. The man went down hard and fast but Big Bill was already moving back and seeking his next target. Normally he liked to tag a few targets before shooting but this firefight was too hectic for that. He doubted the raiders wanted anything in the shop. Its status-containers might still be operating, DC was like that, but most likely would have been stripped long ago of food and drink. No, they were moving through the shop either to out flank the Ironsides or to get away from them. Some muffled shooting noises drifted to him as another merc let loose with a Trigun, blasting away with both a 30mm grenade-shell and a volley of 20mmCS bullets. There was more muffled shooting. A MrGutsy cried out some stupid war cry before blazing away with medium pulselasers and minirocket launchers. Raiders did not normally use robots so it had to belong to the mercs for the area had been cleared of other threats, including rogue robots. The raiders were doing a flanking action but they were used to taking on Wastelanders and other raiders, not highly trained, highly skilled veteran mercs. Marshal Ironsides himself was overseeing this operation with five platoons and other elements in operation. It was time the raiders were given a good bashing and the Deo’Wranglers were amongst the most powerful and deadly of them. A missile-launcher was used and there was an explosion. The horrors of urban warfare was continuing and that it was happening in ruins, often amongst rubble, only made it worse. There was a second explosion but it was a claymore mine triggered by some unlucky raiders. Bullets, shells, rockets and other projectiles and pulselaser pulsebeams became a background chorus of death and destruction. Something big, powerful and fast shot through the air above, curving quickly and gracefully to dart around a high building. A type of flying clawbeast, like a distorted deathclaw with wings, the skyclaw was an armoured monstrosity of amazing strength, speed, healing abilities, a big variety of nasty natural weapons and surprisingly high intelligence for so called beasts. If skyclaws were around then the fighting was perhaps far too close to a skyclaw communal nesting site, a claw-collective, for the good of either side. Big Bill darted quickly through ruins and was joined by two comrades. They came to a halt, crouched and gave some raiders hell. The fighting went on and, thankfully, no more clawbeasts showed up. PART 3 Some unknown source had not only paid the Ironsides Mercenaries to carry out a whole campaign but had done so generously with extras thrown in. That is bonuses of plenty of Emergency Issue Dollars (EIDs), good equipment, lots of extra supplies, good quality recruits, many terabytes of intelligence data and reliable local contacts across the chosen campaign zone. Yet even the marshal, despite all of his contacts and smarts, could not find even a hint at who or what was behind the operation. Ironsides Mercenaries were one of those few forces who fought against the darker powers of the DC Wastelands, who tried to protect the majority who were trying to survive mainly while also attempting to improve life as much as was possible under such difficult conditions. People actually welcomed the Ironsides in many places and to many Marshal Ironsides and his people were heroes. 3Dog of GNR even broadcasted lightly fanciful stories of their 'adventures' which did their image no harm at all. TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 (edited) 2nd DEATHCLAW SURVIVAL INSTINCTSFIGHTING FOR FAMILY AND CUBS PART 1 A huge deathclaw, massive and deadly, roared as he hurled himself over a fallen tree and struck the group of raiders. These were fools who had doubted the stories told of the true savagery of deahtclaws for they were new to the DC Mainland. Around them were the ruins of Old Olney, partly collapsed buildings made of self repairing smart-materials but also buildings in surprisingly good condition because of the same sort of smart-materials. The deathclaw’s howl of rage echoed through the ruins as great claws sliced the head off a raider woman, her hornlizard leather armour doing her no good. Like typical raider female armour it was black and steel studded with a surprising amount of cleavage and midriff showing. The headless body danced crazy as the other ragers leapt away from the deathclaw with enhanced speed and strength but not before claws ripped open a man this time. Raiders turned to fire mostly basic guns though one swung a sharpened fire-axe at the deathclaw. The blade cut but not deep enough as the aim was off despite the best efforts of the veteran killer human. He was hurled backwards with cracked ribs and a broken arm. The other three raiders, there had only been six of them, fell back and raised their guns to fire at the deathclaw. But they only got to fire off a few 12 gauge shotgun shells from a double-boomer (double barrelled shotgun) and .308 bullets from two hunting-rifles when the second deathclaw struck at them from behind, tearing into them. The pair of deathclaws, a female and male, made sure their hidden deathclaw cubs were okay. The cubs were hidden in a crude chamber made by the clever deathclaw parents from bits of metal and some bits of masonry. Despite their reputation, deathclaws were survivalists and were wary of attacking humans with guns but this time their cubs had been at stake. Soon deathclaw cubs were sucking at mother’s teats while the father crouched and waited to play with the young. In the distance an unstable atomic motor blew; the wreck of an atomic motorised family sedan exploded dramatically. PART 2 The living god, GreyMaharg, studied the deathclaw family with amazing ability of vision for he was a goodly distance from them and he 'saw' through physical barriers. He did not see deathclaws as monsters who should be destroyed. His opinion was not shared by many DC Wastelanders. After satisfying himself that the deathclaw family was okay, he turned and strode across the landscape with an odd mixture of casualness and amazing speed. He was just a flicker of a hint of something at that moment, was cloaked for now from being seen, heard or smelt or otherwise sensed by most. PART 3 A molerat family scuttled quickly out of hiding and ran away from the place where the deathclaw family was concealed. Molerats knew too well they made handy snack food for deathclaws. There were a few adults and cubs that were carried by the scruff by adults. The cumbersome looking but surprising quick and agile beasties were soon vanishing beneath some wreckage and digging rapidly into softer ground. They were no more fond of raiders than were deathclaws. TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 8, 2010 Author Share Posted April 8, 2010 (edited) 3rd A FALLING DEATH IN MEGATONA MURDER ATTEMPT GONE WRONG PART 1 Megaboy was his nickname since a travelling family had found him wandering, nine years old, in a ripped, stained jumpsuit on the dirt road leading from DC Virginia to the thriving fortified settlement of Megaton. The boy had a note stapled to his jumpsuit chest indicating he was on his way to Megaton. Weird Megaton, that is, with its inward sloping metallic walls, two big powered gates, and a big supersonic jet-bomber parts showing above the wall. Megaton that held just over a hundred thousand people, many living in community hostels or bedsitter apartments that were dug as chambers into the sides of the great crater. There was a big crater inside the walls with buildings climbing all sides and about sixteen year old Megaboy, alias Tomkie, was perched on a metallic roof sketching a view of the town’s crater floor and far side. His hand and pencil moved with amazing precision and skill as a very accurate representation of the scene emerged on the clear paper. Pencils and paper were both fairly expensive and hard to get. A big black crow was perched quite close to him with out any apparent concern and was looking over the town for its own reasons. Crows had survived the Doomsdays but they had become generally larger and more powerful, even more intelligent, than they had been in Predoom times. A black beetle made the mistake of showing up on the roof and was gone with a quick snapping of a crow beak. The crow gave an alert. It was then that the thug named Kend Moriarty tried to push Megaboy off the roof of the Harrington Craterside Supplies to the ground a long way below. There was a balcony with a sloping metal roof to it. Tomkie slipped to one side and Kend shot past him to fall with a scream through the air, smashing clumsily off the balcony roof and then to hang from that very roof still screaming. Tomkie looked calmly down at him and pondered what he should do next to this insane killer, rapist, thief and general thug. Then, reaching out with his mind, burned Kend’s hands with pyrokinetic intensity. Kend screamed and fell further to slam heavily into another sloping roof. He died at once. Why, because Kend Moriarty had actually been trying to murder him and because Kend Moriarty was suspected of doing terrible things to a scavenger teenager, a girl almost woman, before brutally putting her to death but no evidence was found. Sheriff Lucas Simms badly wanted to have Kend executed but Colin Moriarty, Ken’s monster of a father, had too much influence in Megaton. The Megaton Mayor was hopeless, the Megaton Town Council was corrupted and incompetent. The power struggle went on between Sheriff Lucas Simms, Colin Moriarty and Confessor Cromwell along with their factions of followers and supporters. Except a new power was rising slowly, steadily in the town in the form of the Harrington Family. Kend was dead, his body crumpled on the metallic roof of a building far further below. Kend had tried to choose a moment when there were no witnesses to his attempted killing of Tomkie and so none witnessed the fool’s death. PART 2 Tomkie finished off the sketch rapidly, as he normally would, and slipped away quickly and quietly. A couple of minutes later he was standing next to Sandy Joy, the all round editor and only journalist of the MEGATON WEEKLY, a broadsheet that came out each week using a jury-rigged 2D black-white printing machine. The young woman smiled at him, kissed him on the cheek and examined the sketch. “You did very well, a very nice view of Inner Megaton. I like that you got both the Church of Atom and the BRASS LANTERN diner in the same picture.” The short brunette was tough but she liked to act otherwise. She smiled at him warmly. “Five EIDs and three sketches to be published free over the next three broadsheets to publish your art.” He smiled back and nodded. Tomkie never talked, had not done so for a very long time. Certainly he had not talked since the Harrington Family had found him, as a nine year old, roving at the western edges of the DC Wastelands. How was his age known? Because on the note was the name Tomkie, the date of his birth and some odd details like favourite foods, favourite colour and so on. Then she sighed, took him by the hand, and started leading him to her bedsitter. “I have just the right sixteenth birthday gift for you and somehow I know you want it.” Then she was closing the door to the apartment firmly behind them with a soft clunk. He emerged just over an hour later, smiling and still buttoning up his shirt. PART 3 Kend Moriarty’s body was not found, thanks to where it lay, until the stink drew attention to the corpse. That and all the birds fighting over and feeding on his body including big black crows and small, flittering peckerbirds. Nobody missed him because nobody really liked him and he had a habit of slipping away with out warning to get up to no good in the Wastelands with his thuggish mates. Sheriff Lucas Simms investigated, doing a good job despite his lack of resources, but he quickly came to a realisation that he would get nowhere as none in the town would cooperate fully with him over the death of the Moriarty boy. He put the file away as yet another 'unsolved case'. TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 8, 2010 Author Share Posted April 8, 2010 (edited) 4thPROFESSOR GENIUSSTEIN’S LECTURE ALL THINGS ARE AS ONE PART 1 With the elegantly graceful majesty of an enlightened sage, Professor Geniusstein stood up on the stage behind a finely made hard wooden lectern. Behind him were three big 3Dwallscreens showing now only the floating 3Dlogo of the Smithsonian University. That his robes were slightly gritty and that he was a ghoul did not seem to matter at all. The audience of students were an odd mixture of ghouls, pristine humans, apemans and some others including androids. There was even one of those independent citizenship brainbots in a place where the chair had been removed for such as he and those in wheelchairs to use. The professor beamed welcome as the audience dutifully clapped and applauded. A radroach scuttled along an exposed metal beam overhead where the ceiling panels had long fallen down and been taken away. He put down a fine looking leather bound Predoom book onto the lectern and smiled some more. Somebody booed and threw a piece of something unpleasant at him but the professor ducked out of the way at the last moment with practised ease. Then he took a bolt-action BB-rifle out from behind the lectern and efficiently shot the culprit, who was clearly new to his lectures, in the chest with a BB-pellet. The foolish young man cried out in pain but he really was not very damaged. Putting away his BB-rifle, the professor smiled warmly at everybody. Then he spoke in a loud, proud, finely refined voice. “All things are as one!” Then, with a flourish, the great professor turned and departed. The audience cheered and clapped, even the young man who had been shot with the BB-rifle. Professor Geniusstein only gave a lecture every year and it was always the same but it was always grand. Students would each gain five bonus points to their degrees or diplomas or even to their doctorates. For the others, well they could brag, couldn’t they. Then the professor was gone from the stage, from the spotlight. PART 2 Professor Geniusstein walked amongst huge banks of computer hardware, data processing centres, huge libraries of datablocks, hub-stations and amongst them human specialists, sophisticated androids, brainbots and robots. Busy busy, it was always busy there as they tried to create a vast computer simulation of what had taken place on Doomsday, on what had transformed the world and doomed so many lives. While many folks had odd ideas about him sitting meditating on higher realms of philosophy and spiritual truths, he was doing quite the opposite as he oversaw the ongoing creation of a massive software program. Assisting in the amazingly complicated and difficult task was also a very powerful network-system boasting no less than four huge and very potent artificial intelligence based supercomputers. Sometimes he wondered if it was all for nothing, was all just a waste of resources, but the Guardian Thirteen had not come up with any better ideas. So he guided this program as other Guardians did other things to learn the truth and to deal with the threat of the DarkZiazin along with other, related threats. The banks of hardware hummed, cooling towers hissed softly and it was very cold but he did not really feel it. He smiled at workers and gave compliments or carefully worded advise. He made his way to the big central control platform in the very centre of the huge chamber. PART 3 The young man, a little scruffy, a little too fat, was clearly a student. Many would assume he was a permanent student, one of those who dwelt from youth to death studying, writing papers, working part time, drinking cheap beer at the Student Guild Clubs, going to parties or otherwise carrying on. Yet he seemed quiet than the typical student, radiated a kind of quiet strength, and he moved with an odd smoothness, pacing through big old dusty hallways that like the rest of the university had been underground since Doomsday. But there was something else that drew attention. On his back was a surprisingly big backpack and following him were two big quiet cats, large enough to be panthers but like big house cats. On the ginger one was a spider monkey and on the black cat was a squirrel. Following them were five sheep being one ram and four uwes. When a Hall Master came to investigate, all pompous in a grubby academic's outfit, GreyMaharg simply showed him the proper documentation as signed by the proper people and was allowed to continue. TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 9, 2010 Author Share Posted April 9, 2010 (edited) 5thATOMIC CONVOYJUST ANOTHER MAD RELIGION PART 1 The three big machines, not huge but big and armoured, roared along a damaged secondary highway winding through a jungle of softly glowing aircoral. It was some what like the coral found under the water but taller, more fragile looking and with, for some reason, no fish. The aircoral stretched in all directions, outcrops thrusting above the common levels, and all over it crawled bizarre creatures of skinny triple jointed boneskin limbs, bloated boneskin bodies and angular sharp heads with attenae, projecting eye-stalks, tentacles or other extrusions in various combinations. The variety was so amazingly wide that it was hard to find two creatures the same in appearance. It was deep in a Weirding Zone and two worlds were verging into one space, a transdimensional phenomena that should not have been happening. It was amazingly dangerous in such a place, though less so for the creatures that always dwelt there. The Champions of Atom, an elite of the elite of the Knights of Atom, had come a long way to find their prize. More than half of them had died, or worse, had turned from the 'one true faith' of the Blessed Atom, the One True Atomic State and the Coming of Atomic Fulfillment. In standard power armour the survivors rode inside the machine cabins at the front or in the open on the back with the big cone shaped warheads, the supernukes themselves. The supernuke warheads had been found in a normal armoured underground carpark, having been caught midway in their travels to a more secure place, a missile silo base about to launch its first salvo of missiles at the NeoSoviets. Apart from abandoned vehicles of other kinds, all surprisingly well preserved as were the supernuke carriers, there had been hundreds of insanely savage zhouls and not much more sane or less violent ghoulers. A few brothers had fallen beneath the crazed attacks of the monsters. PART 2 Father Ulmarnis of the Holy Atomic Brother of the Seeking of Nuclear Enlightenment, stood in power armour at the back of the first carrier next to a big cone of a warhead. The warhead was actually a spaceship in its own right with its own defence weapons. It was a very impressive bit of mass death and destruction dealing technology. He stood there to remind himself that he was in control now and to remind his brothers not to get greedy, to fall to the desire to sell the warheads to the DarkZiazin. Yes, the DarkZiazin had contacted them with offers of material wealth, slavish female androids and even apartments in Tenpenny Towers. Father Ulmarnis trusted most of his comrades but not all of them. Yes, all of his people came from the finest religious families of the island realm of Crosswayne but some of those families had become more than a little corrupt. He was prepared to fight and to die for the Great True Faith of Atom that would one day unleash the Great Purification aupon the world, cleansing away the heathens, the pretenders and all who were with out true faith. The much hardened veteran was disturbed by the bizzarre creatures, the aircoral outcrops, but so far they had not attacked and he sensed no danrger from them. PART 3 The three lumbering machines collapsed downwards through the ground as clever traps were triggered. The supernuke carriers struck the ground in dark, thick soft earth that softened the fall to some extent. Champions of Atom were stunned, were hurled off the vehicles, and so were not fully ready when the attack itself began. The DarkZiazin underlings swarmed over the trapped convoy, hundreds of pale white figures in hooded robes moving with superhuman speed, agility and strength. Many of them died as the Crosswayne soldiers put up some resistance, blasting away with autoguns and pulselasers. Father Ulmarnis died striking out with his tririfle, knocking down a DarkZiazin and then crushing its skull with the butt of his weapon. But even as he did this another subclone thrust a sizzling energy spear through the Champion of Atom's power armour and killed him instantly. Even those three Champions of Atom who betrayed the convoy, who gave vital information to the DarkZiazin, were slaughtered for the DarkZiazin did not care to owe anything to anybody and he hated to keep promises to fools. TO BE CONTINUED http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/Nuke_Carrier_FoT.jpgARMOURED SUPERNUKE CARRIER (FALLOUT TACTICS) Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 9, 2010 Author Share Posted April 9, 2010 (edited) 6th THE ARRIVAL OF HELLION FIVE AT THE DC CITADELATOMIC SUPERSONIC BOMBER FLYING POWER PART 1 The great flying machine shot roaring through the sky, powerful and fast but loud. As it cross from Virginia into DC Virginia it was very high in the sky, hidden by clouds and the noise was mostly hidden from those on the ground. As it entered DC airspace and passed over embedded robotic defences of the DC Defence Security Boundary, the DCDSB, fired a single salvo of three missiles at it. The SAMs were too slow and even as they flew through the air at the monstrous aircraft, pulselasers fired and the missiles exploded harmlessly above the clouds. A gentle shudder went through the whole machine as it hit turbulence of a kind that had not existed before Doomsday. A dragon flew in the distance, majestic and powerful, bizarre to be found on that world but increasingly common since Doomsday. Such creatures kept to the high skies, unless given good reason to come down, where they fed upon other strange newcomer creatures. Sisters of Steel crewed the amazing machine but it was mostly filled with Brothers of Steel, many of them being women, robots of various types, baseline androids, other equipment and supplies. The great swept back machine, sleek and highly aerodynamic, carried over three hundred soldiers and others. The machine had been found in a hidden underground airbase bunkerplex filled with prize technologies and other valuable goodies. The Orders of Steel had taken it, being a large expeditionary force from the homebase of the original Brotherhood of Steel in California. Local Brotherhood forces had suffered a series of defeats from attacks by the monstrous AI-supercomputer Calculator II* and its forces of bizarre cyborgs and powerful robots; they had needed assistance. Signals went out to the DC Citadel, the mammoth, mostly underground fortress on the very edge of DC Virginia and Old DC. Most had assumed it was destroyed but they were wrong. It was functioning but in a clever mode. Inside its great structure were dwelling descendents of the military forces there, an earlier, smaller expedition of Orders of Steel and a surprising mixture of others including robots, androids and nonhumans. Hellions were, amazingly enough, short take off and landing vehicles (STOLs) and as the machine descended it went to quite mode, making it still loud but less so. Hitech gear was activated, slowing it down. Power was lowered and retrojets were fired up. The machine shuddered a few times as this happened but it was immensely strong and very well built as well as highly upgraded by the Orders of Steel. PART 2 It landed with a big jolt on an temporarily extended metallic airstrip and then was taxiing to a halt inside the DC Citadel even as the airstrip platform was drawn back into the great massive fortress. That is a fortress mostly covered with realistic but fake rubble, rock and also real rubbish. That would not make it easier to attack for the citadel was surrounded by a natural looking open ring of landscape that any enemy would have to come across. As soon as it came to a halt, a tractor was attached and was towing it into a big hanger-workshop area where a ground crew, security and others were waiting to meet it. The tractor looked redicously small compared to the massive supersonic aircraft that it was pulling it effortlessly along. As it was the very first man to get off was Elder Owyn Lyons himself in Elder Robes. Soon he was descending a mobile-rampway with Sarah Lyons, his daughter, following in Brotherhood of Steel military fatigues, cap, boots and belt with pistol, combat-knife, com-unit, hand-computer and stunclub. Many Orders of Steel were represented there including the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood, Scribes, Sages, Doctors, Seekers, Securitors, Guards and Artisans of Steel. Greetings were exchanged, personal luggage was unloaded, soldiers marched off in ranks in fatigues or in infantry power armour or even in standard or heavy power armour. Only Paladins wore heavy power armour and only Knights in general wore full power armour. Infantry power armour was limited power armour that offset the weight of armour and did not enhance physical abilities as full power armour did. There was much to do but there was always much to do. PART 3 Deeper inside the DC Citadel one big man, Field Marshal Rear Admiral, quietly observed the arrival of the massive atomic power aircraft. He did so quietly and with much concentration as he stood at the centre of a big control chamber on a disk shaped dais with many 3Dsceens to view. Around him moved quietly passive men and women, shuffling along efficiently and with much use of cybernetics implanted into them. They were the victims of inherited disorders caused by one of the insane super weapons of President James Patriot Jackson. The men and women who gave birth to these poor individuals had long died quietly, their minds reduced to almost mindless status by exposure to the super weapon. Now their children lived quietly rewarding lives and they looked upon him as a kind of father figure. Yes, he looked after a few damaged folk inside the depths of the DC Citadel but not all there were so damaged. He would be careful in how much information he gave to the Orders of Steel and how soon he did so. There was much to ponder, much to do! TO BE CONTINUED *Calculator II is based on Calculator that is found in FALLOUT TACTICS. http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/250px-BV1_fbos0077.jpgHELLION ATOMIC SUPERSONIC BOMBER (FALLOUT TACTICS) Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 9, 2010 Author Share Posted April 9, 2010 (edited) 7th DEATHCLAW SURVIVAL EXODUSESCAPE TO OLD OLNEY, A SURPRISE SANCTUARY PART 1 Having survived the fight with the raiders and having hunted down a molerat, killed and shared the meat (smaller bits to the cubs), the deathclaw family headed towards Old Olney. They sensed other clawbeasts in that direction and normally would have avoided them but a subtle but powerful force was drawing them. Anyway the number of raider war-parties entering the area was slowly but steadily increasing and survival was become more difficult for the deathclaws, was pushing them westwards towards Old Olney. They paced through a broken landscape in the semidarkness and past pale glowing glowshooms like clusters of elongated skinny mushrooms. They tried to keep low and out of sight of any threats as much as possible. The young were soon riding on both mum and dad’s backs, sleeping with claws keeping them safely attached. The two adults moved smoothly as deadly living engines of destruction but every so often one of them would wince slightly when a cub dug just a little too deeply with her or his claws. The molerat had been fairly large but also old and a little scrawny, a self sacrifice to allow the other molerats to escape. So the deathclaws were hungry though far from starving. PART 2 Then they saw it, the creature that crouched beside a large dead adult molerat and a fair sized dead hornlizard. It was like a angular killclaw, killclaws being smaller cousin clawbeasts to deathclaws, but with an oversized head for a clawbeast. It had nimble clawhands with opposable thumbs, webbing of leather belts and even some human like gadgets. It offered no threat, the deathclaws sensed no danger. It was an adult-male handclaw, a being genned by stupid human scientists and bioengineers in Old Olney itself. He stood holding a powerful autorifle designed to be used by clawhands and of a kind named a clawrifle. This was partly because it was also a metal claw weapon. The deathclaw adults gorged on the meat, as big carnivores tended to do, while the cubs got small feeds of meat. They were still mostly dependent on mum’s milk. The handclaw was allowed to stroke a cub and then play with it a little. Then the lot of them were heading towards Old Olney that looked very different in appearance from what it actually functioned as. It was a 2060s designed and built hitech multiple purpose processing and manufacturing complex, most of it being underground. But the part that showed was designed like a, now partly ruined, cluster of red brick neoVictorian factories, warehouses and other structures. Yet it was also like a bizarre 1800s science fiction conception designed perhaps by HG Wells or Jules Verne. From the structure rose strange twisting steel chimney stacks, great patterns of twisting and twirling pipes of what looked liked metallic glass and great geodomes topping great cylinder towers of what looked like bronze. The core serum that made NukaCola had been processed there. The new atomic fuel, an ultra secret, had been created there. Things of many kinds had been replicated and mattercated there. Many atomic motors, positronic brains, artificial intelligence superchips, antigravity cells, pulselaser cores and much else had come from there. When his enemies had closed it down it had been a major blow to President James Patriot Jackson and his loose Loyalist Union and tighter Patriot Forces. The Loyalists had been guarding Old Olney and when they had failed to protect it, President James Patriot Jackson had turned against the Loyalist Union, massacring thousands but turning millions against him and speeding his own defeat. The deathclaw pair did not know of this and would not have understood it. All they wanted to do was to find shelter, food and safety for their young. They kept following the oddly pacing handclaw to the now visible structure. In the distance, roughly from the east, came to them the muffled sound of a new firefight breaking out. PART 3 The GreatClaw stood like a massive handclaw, like a behemoth in tallness but with less bulk, and he looked at his ranks of handclaws from the standard, common ones to the bigger ones and to the few elite monsters like himself. They stood in ranking facing him, loyal and ready to carry out his every order. Yet though this was true for most of his followers, he sensed dissent amongst a few handclaws. They did not like his brutal rule, his heavy demands upon them. They did not like that in Old Orney he was reactivating huge machines to serve the twisted purposes of the DarkZiazin. He was planning to track them down and to destroy these traitors to his own rule and to the great plans of the DarkZiazin. Trouble was he needed every handclaw because it was through them that he influenced the deathclaws and other clawbeasts that he was slowly, carefully gathering to himself in Old Orney. He pondered if outright destruction of the traitors might be counter productive. Perhaps there was a better way. The Great Claw looked around at the great, bleak, metallic chamber and decided that it needed a splash of colour or two, some earthy richness and other changes to make it more attractive to clawbeasts and even to himself. TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 21, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 10, 2010 Author Share Posted April 10, 2010 (edited) 8thKNIGHT CAPTAIN GALLOWS SCOUTING THE DC WASTELANDSMEETING A SISTER PATHFINDER PART 1 Knight Captain Gallows moved in stealth power armour, expensive and deadly, slipping through the weird and wonderful landscape of the DC. Doomsday had strangely effected the DC Mainland but it had been eccentric before that thanks to the influence of the Mad President. A raised monorail line was still standing but on it, frozen still, was a monotrain like a dulled metallic worm with silvery elongated porthole like windows. Apart from being grubby it was probably in surprisingly good condition. Self-repairing smart-materials of the late mid to late 21st Century along with macrobotic, microbotic and nanobotic maintenance systems did the trick. But only birds lived up there as any way to get up there was broken. With him were two knightly comrades, a woman and a man, also in stealth power armour. There were no others for it was not a combat mission but an stealth recon mission. They were armed with tririfles. The Orders of Steel were becoming established in the DC or at least those that were of the Reformation Faction were there. The Traditionalist Faction was still based back in California. To avoid civil war the factions had split, one gaining the western side of the former USA and the other the eastern side of the former USA. At least in theory. That is apart from the Brotherhood Outcasts who had come with the first expeditionary force only to split away when they learned of the schism back at the Western Side. Declaring themselves as Traditionalists, declaring the Reformists to be traitors, they had departed from the DC Citadel. A eddy of softly glowing white mist moved in the distance, moving against the breeze. Such was common in the DC but not so much in other parts of the world. Inside the eddy moved vague shapes along with it, indistinct and mostly transparent like phantoms of living things. The Sages of Steel had come to DC to study such phenomena, amongst too many other projects. Knight Captain Gallows did not mind so much normal death and other more ‘normal’ horrors but the glowing mist was of the paranormal, was something that gave him the creeps. Thankfully the mist drifted away. The DC Citadel was west of Lamplight Mountain that had on it still a great lighthouse structure rising high into the sky, a skyscraper shaped on a lighthouse. It was one of President James Patriot Jackson’s Weird Wonders and yet there had been whispers since before it was finished that it, and other Weird Wonders in DC, had a hidden purpose to it. PART 2 They halted and they crouched low close to a lightly rusted overturned hulk of an electric sedan. Not one of those big hulking luxury class atomic hovercars but a typical middle class machine big enough to carry a regulation family of mum, dad and at least four children. Atomic motors often became unstable over the centuries despite botic maintenance network-systems. He commed the others. “President James Patriot Jackson set up the lighthouse as a celebration of the oceanic history of the USA or so his PR Spinners would have us believe according to official records. Now we are here I can tell you that the Lamplight Lighthouse is a hidden broadcaster of ultratech design, a monster of human-alien hybrid technologies poorly understood by those who created or used it. As far as the Sages of Steel have worked out, the tower projected the great force-field that was supposed to protect New DC on Doomsday but which turned everything weird here.” Erika had not been long in DC. She commed in return. “I have seen areas like this in other parts of the US. I grew up back in California, served in both California and the Mid-West. The mist is weird, I suppose.” Then she paused before speaking again. “Wasn’t there a building over there before? I swear there was.” Gallows commed back with an evident tone of irony. “Perhaps it was, perhaps it was not. Perhaps it is still there or perhaps it is not. Aaahhh, yes, it has reappeared. The Orders of Steel have encountered nowhere like the DC Wastelands. Time, space, appearances, all and more prone to paranormal distortions here. Some areas of DC are more prone to such than others. We are in an Amber Distortion Zone but a Green Life Zone when it comes to levels of radiation, toxicity and fertility. Too many folk are willing to live here because of the latter despite the former.” As if to prove it a Wastelander settler column appeared with pristine humans, ghouls of various variations, dogs, horses, smaller, goats, tamed molerats, hairless harder skinned rhorses, brahmins and carts pulled by either horses or draft-goats, massive mutated goats. There were also some short lightly hunched forward hairy monkey-people, or monkeynoids, dressed in leather jerkins, flaps, belts and odd sandals. While there were some single-boomer shotguns, double-boomer shotguns, bolt-action and lever-action rifles, most of the settlers were armed with swords, spears, crossbows and such like. It was like looking at a mixture of European Medieval and the late 1800s Wild West influences plus some unique Wasteland influence mixed in. Harek, the other man, commed his comrades. “Where would they be from?” “Bigtown by the look of them. They are probably heading for the markets at Twinhigh, a much bigger settlement than Bigtown is and part of the TripleCompact of three big settlements.” Gallows slowly stood up. “I need to speak with them, to the one leading them. She looks to be a Pathfinder of the Way, that is one who can lead folks safely through a zone of paranormal disruptions.” He meant the grey haired old woman, tall and almost skinny, wearing a long grey robe and an odd metallic head-ring. She carried a long wooden staff topped with a brass cap. This elderly pristine human moved with elegant confidence. PART 3 Gallows decided to take a risk. He left his comrades hidden and emerged before the moving group to come out of stealth mode as the Pathfinder of the Way approached him. She halted and looked at him calmly with out any apparent surprise. Then she spoke in the language of quasiEnglish, a particular form of evolved, perhaps devolved, English often spoken in the Wastelands across North America. It had plenty of Spanish and Esperanto influence thrown in. “So you decided to come out and talk while your fellow killers stay behind you with those fancy guns of yours.” He opened up his visor to show a craggy, mildly handsome and lightly scarred face. He grinned mildly. “Killers, yes, I suppose that is true enough but we are here in the DC now to protect people like you, though also to carry out other purposes. I sense the power in you, the awareness, but also the judgementalism of the Sisterhood of the Way. You are not the first of your kind that I have met.” The woman smiled lightly and nodded. “So the Orders of Steel have changed some of your ways. Protect the people? That is new and not what we have heard of you in the past.” Gallows shrugged. “A schism has taken place in the Orders of Steel. We have, theoretically, divided the USA into the West for the Traditionalists and the East for the Reformists. Still, the Traditionalists have been forced to become allies of the New California Republic and other peoples that way. We Reformists still seek the old technologies as the Traditionalists do but we seek also to research and develop new technologies better suited to improving life for the majority in the DC.” The woman sighed. “You tell the truth, yes, but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You shield your mind well but I have met with a Brother Outcast who knew much but was poor at doing so. He dismissed me as a ‘hedge witch’. You are here because you fear that something dark and powerful is arising in the DC Wastelands. You are also seeking dangerous ultratechnologies that should never been created in the first place.” Gallows laughed softly and then responded. “Unlike the Traditionalists, who would seek to study, understand and use them, we seek to destroy these ultratechnologies. We will help the people here for a range of reasons that I can not speak of with out the permission of my Elders. I am Knight Captain Gallows of the Brotherhood of Steel carrying out a recon mission.” She sighed. “You are now ensconced in the old DC Citadel with those poor military left overs that have dwelt there since Doomsday.” The tall soldier noted that the group following the Pathfinder had ceased to move and some were eyeing him nervously. “We are dealing with them, assisting them, as best we can. They wanted and needed us to go to the DC Citadel. We have decided to open up an outer section of the citadel to civilians to form a protected settlement. Any are welcome, be they pristines, ghouls, animanoids, free program androids or others as long as they are willing to follow a few rules. Mainly any such settlement would rule itself, would be semiautonomous. Of course they would serve various needs of the Orders of Steel. Our own camp followers are soon to arrive in the DC Citadel. The Sisterhood of the Way could lead groups safely to our new settlement.” “We could.” She nodded. “My name is Elder Mother Sarren’Wa. I would speak to these Elders of yours who now dwell in the DC Citadel. I must go on now and lead these people to the TripleCompact settlements where they hope to gain a new life. Yes, they came from Bigtown but the people of Bigtown would not let them live there, such is their madness.” Gallows looked puzzled. “What madness?” “Only adults live in Bigtown and all of them are sterile. Yet they will not allow children or fertile adults to dwell there. Indeed they will only let young adults who come from the Lamplight Caverns to settle there.” She frowned softly. “Their minds are blocked even from we of the Sisterhood of the Way but behind the high mishmash walls of Bigtown lie strange secrets that the Bigtowners perhaps do not truly know themselves.” The knight captain nodded. “Quarantine may be in order except for necessary trade, diplomacy and assistance. Sounds too much like one of the insane experiments of President James Patriot Jackson or perhaps others of the same times. I have heard whispers of your name many kilometres from DC. They say you are wise and powerful.” She sighed. “Perhaps I am, perhaps I am not. We will meet again, many times, I sense but for now I must go on with my duty as you must.” They parted ways and Knight Captain Gallows led his team further towards Lamplight Mountain. TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maharg67 Posted April 10, 2010 Author Share Posted April 10, 2010 (edited) 9th TOMKIE (MEGABOY) MINDEYE TRICKSTOMKIE'S TALKING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME PART 1 Tomkie did not attend the funeral. The Moriarty Family and friends did, reluctantly, and used it as an excuse to get drunk on Moriarty made beer and a more powerful drink called Moriarty Lightening. One good thing about the Moriarty Family was that they actually made good quality beer at a fair price. People got drawn by the beer, the scantily clad waitresses, the female strippers and got ripped off at the crooked gaming tables but not too ripped off lest they stop coming. Tomkie sat cross legged on his big old bed, with Heroica the normally passive dog and Puss the tough, scarred and overly brave cat sleeping next to him, as he sketched a scene. Oddly enough he had his eyes closed and the scene he was sketching was of the funeral taking place in the big basement chamber beneath the Moriarty Saloon. He was using his mindeye. His own bedroom was a large chamber dug into the side of the crater. He had helped dig it and not just by normal means. He had weakened the rock with his special abilities and made it easier to remove. Then he had moulded the weakened rock with his mind to make a line of small statues to decorate his and other Harrington chambers. In truth it was far more than a bedroom. With shelf slots, and even walk in storage closets, carved out of the rock walls, a few bits of furniture, fittings and decorations, he did many things there. Then he closed his mindeye, opened his eyes, sketch complete, and sighed heavily. Heroica stretched and grumbled softly, opened his eyes and looked adoringly up at Tomkie. The teenager leaned over and kissed him and then the cat. Puss awoke, stretched languidly and the sat up on her haunches to look around. PART 2 He took the pencil and sketch over to his desk, sat down at it and placed the pencil in a holder with other stationary, and the sketch on top of a neatly stacked pile of other sketches. He was a little tired because he had sketched scenes using his mindeye and that seemed to need extra energy. He went through each one. #1 was of scraggy looking local bandits, poorly armed, examining the front power gates of Megaton from out in the semiwilderness. #2 was a scene of a big pack of diredogs pacing along a long abandoned street of Springvale.#3 was the scene of the Moriarty Funeral. He put them to one side as the stack he would show his mother who would show it to his grandmother, the Matriarch of the Harringtons. Then there were those he hid away. #1 showed a big metallic chamber half filled with machinery fused to walls, floor spaces close to the walls and up against the ceiling. Macrobots, like distorted metallic insects of various kinds, scuttled across metallic surfaces as they carried out a routine maintenance check. A protectron was sitting deactivated in its vertical metal and armaglass robocubicle. A large sign in Esperanto on one wall stated this was Megaton Monorail Station Extension Branch #1512 Utility Chamber #1512-032.#2 showed Hellion Five flying into land at the DC Citadel with the metallic airstrip platform stretched fully out to accept its landing. The machine and fortress were both well expressed in their massiveness and powerful majesty.#3 showed him in the past as a seven year old tramping across the Wastelands of the USA with a compact backpack. With him was a rather tough looking old woman, slimly muscular and tanned, with a backpack. There was also a tough looking dog, an older female dog who was clearly pregnant. For a moment he looked sadly upon the last picture before adding it to his pile that he normally hid away, showing nobody. Something was changed that day, something inside him that was subtle but vital. He opened his mouth and made a croaking noise as he tried to talk. The dog and cat woke briefly, looked up at him in puzzlement, and Heroica wagged his tail a little. Tomkie tried talking again and croaked out a ‘hello’. He cleared his throat and then spoke again in a croaky fashion. “Lovely Heroica, lovely Puss.” He reached out and rubbed each in turn. Puss leapt onto his lap and rubbed her head against the underneath of his chin, purring as she did so. Heroica sat up and licked his cheek. The two animals were both very wary of most people they did not know well but very loving to most of those they did know well. There were important exceptions. For example both had liked Lucy West, Moria Brown and Lucas Simms from the first meeting but had never stopped viewing Colin Moriarty with deep wariness. PART 3 Then he did something else new. He went to a metal locker, opened it and took out a normal looking Predoomsday 3Dtelephone. The small 3Dviewscreen was slightly cracked but functioned well enough for all of that. He picked up the head-set, with its microphone, and slipped it on. Then he tapped a particular odd sequence of buttons on the main keypad followed by some odd symbols on the secondary keypad. There was a responding beep, beep, beep and then somebody answered but the small screen remained blank. A strong female voice spoke and despite it sound natural, he sensed at once it was an android. Megaton used a sprinkling of androids, most of the baseline obvious service-support models coloured purple, orange, yellow or some other colour not natural to human hair or skin. They all had grey eyes. “This is Stellina speaking; this is the Office of the Harrington Trade, Salvage and Miscellaneous Ventures Corporation including the Harrington Brown Special Goods Emporium, the Harrington Specialist Hire Service and the Harrington Recycle, Repair and Reuse Centre. The Harrington Corporation proudly supports with funds and other means over a dozen important Megaton Infrastructure Improvement and Expansion Projects. May I ask whose calling?” Tomkie spoke. “Code Roses Red. I need to talk to Mrs Elaine Harrington.” The android responded at once. “Very well, I will speak with her. Please be patient as I will get back to you soon.” Three minutes later a tired sounding Elaine Harrington responded rather briskly. “Who is this and how did you get hold of the code word? All who should be using it are here in the office with me.” He spoke. “Mother, it is Tomkie speaking. Not only can I speak today, my sixteenth birthday, but I must talk to you of important matters.” There was a long pause and the voice spoke again. “How are your piano lessons going?” “Mother, you know I taught myself to play the upright piano as I did the acoustic guitar, the recorder, the violin, the flute and the mouth harmonica.” He sighed and then smiled. “Uncle Bo’s biscuit tin. I still have it hidden away.” Another pause and then she spoke with wonder and shock in her voice. “I take it you are using the old 3Dphone in your room. Activate the small 3Dcam on it.” He responded. “I will but it show a slightly grainy view of my face.” He pushed a button and the 3Dcam came on. At the same time his own 3Dscreen lit up to show his mother’s face in 3D but with a slightly wavy look to it. The Harrington Corporation was not just next to the big Harrington House with its extended family, friends and servants (friends) along with some others, it was intertwined with it. He spoke again. “Can you see me?” She nodded. “You stay there. I will be there very soon. Do you mind if I bring others, some of whom are strangers?” He smiled. “I do not mind but I will have to prepare Heroica and Puss.” At that she nodded. “Of course!” The call ended, the young man turned to his animal companions and started preparing them so Puss would not attack and Heroica would not try to stand between him and anybody approaching him. A much younger Puss and Heroica had been with him when the Harringtons had picked them up and for many reasons they were almost an extension of himself as he was of them. TO BE CONTINUED Edited July 14, 2010 by Maharg67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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