It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 1.1[1]
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

Humanity found the super artefact inside the Moon (Luna), inside the vast Lunar Labyrinth that had breathable atmosphere, water and other resources along with many ancient alien artefacts (AAAs). Most of the AAAs were passive or of basic use; some were like the Telegates and Airgates that kept the LL functioning fully and efficiently. There were artefacts that were not AAAs and that, in their own way, were just as puzzling. There were a few prime artefacts of much importance. There were only a very few super artefacts.

The LL was dived into levels and as the levels went deeper the gravity gradually became heavier. Each level, of many sublevels, was divided into zones and those into subzones.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 2.1[2]

First Steps in Response

The Capits (Capitalists), Havenlanders and Soviets combined to escape through the OldEarth's energy world-bubble and to assemble a large low orbital spacestation and then a series of satellites and probes. The assembling, and limited manufacturing, in the spacestation meant that probes and satellites did not have to be launched whole from the surface of Terra; it was more efficient to launch the prefabricated sections and other resources to make them.

It was 1965AD and the super-powers had become wary allies, as they had been in World War II against the Axis Powers, only because of increasing activity sighted on the Lunar surface. Luna had low surface gravity but the world-bubble allowed an atmosphere to exist along with surface water, climate, flora and fauna in a seemingly scattered fashion; most of the fertility seemed to exist in a series of big craterlands. Then, to the surprise of the rest of the world, the mysterious isolationist Havenlanders joined the project with their more advanced technologies; the last time they had intervened openly in world affairs was at the end of World War II when they had helped to defeat both the Nazis and the Japanese Imperials. The proposed use of nuclear weapons, to force Japan to surrender, had not taken place. The World Nuclear Regulation Agreement was formed that greatly limited the number of nuclear weapons being produced; in turn the Havenlanders introduced a safer, more efficient, form of nuclear power to the world along with a way to rapidly break down any nuclear waste products into much safer useful resources. Then came the reusable atomic rocket boosters and reusable low orbital shuttles to go with them along with one way, single use, supply pods.

Captain John Armstrong, of NASA and the United States Airforce (USAF), had these and other facts running through his mind as he stood in the Challenger Moonship being made up of the mothership, the spacestation to be placed into orbit around Luna and a series of escape-pods, four one way moonlanders, two take off and landing moonshuttles, probes and satellites. There were also remotes, that some foolishly called robots, and semi-enclosed moonrovers that could close up in emergencies. Armoured moonsuits came with a variety of interesting extras, not all of which the public knew about. In theory the expedition did have a few guards and a small armoury and there were civil machines with light armour. In actual fact there were veteran soldiers with special military equipment and a few war-machines.

The superheroes had done what they could to help, as they had done back in World War Two. The superhumans had special powers but were not as powerful, as gifted, as their fictional counterparts were. The same could be said of the metahumans and the less stable powermutants. The real superhumans could not pick up ocean going ships but they did carry smaller packages, of compact hitech, up into low orbit, with the assistance of some special tech. Metahumans teleported to the spacestation, carrying even smaller parcels with them of special kinds. Superhumans had all the same kind of powers but metahumans were much more diverse as groups. Powermutants were extremely diverse, were crazy random in their powers.

More than once the tall slimly muscular man came up against the same puzzle as many did. Why were all of the superhumans, metahumans and powermutants refusing to go to Luna or even to Lunar Orbit despite growing world wide pressure on them to do so? Then there was the typical reluctance of the Havenlanders to speak of all they knew of Luna and much else. They were a damned tough, resourceful, intelligent, canny and very disciplined peoples but they seemed, at times, almost to be fearful of discussing some things. The more the captain considered such matters, the more elusive the answers seemed to be and he was famous for his trouble shooting talents, high intelligence, photographic memory and other abilities. What most people did not know was that he was actually not human for he was an aspect of the Eternal Seeker of the True Eternals.

Alarms rang through the spacestation, including the observation chamber that he had been standing in while he looked down upon the beautiful world of Terra with some soft shimmers of its world-bubble. John turned at once, in his slim spacesuit like shipsuit, and donned a bubblehelmet. All wore shipsuits just in case something went very wrong and it seemed something very wrong was going on.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 2.2[3]

First Steps in Response

Armstrong would not utilise his special abilities unless he really had to do so. Anyway he was 100% human even as he was 100% True Eternal, which was something most difficult for even him to comprehend. In his shipsuit he darted through zero gravity sections of the spacestation until he entered the first of four large spinning wheels, two going clockwise and two going counter-clockwise.

 

He stood in an observation port, in false gravity of centrifugal force, but the shutter was down over the window despite it being made of thick armoured special glass. Others stood around him in shipsuits, many feeling the helplessness of confronting far more powerful forces than humanity while being surrounded by airless space.

A UFO, a grey saucerboat, had shot past the spacestation about a kilometre away from it. In space terms that was far too close. Advanced radar had picked it up quickly but not quickly enough. None of the space-cannons, rocket-launchers or missile-launchers had been used.

Then something shot after it that was just a sleek shadow, a blackness against the largely black background of space. They were called the blackjets and they were normally 'seen' only when hunting the grey saucerboats. Radar failed to pick them up at all, most of the time, and even advanced radar only picked up a slight blip at times.

Yet the blackjets were welcome for grey saucers had caused trouble in the past, according to numerous historical records, until the blackjets began to destroy them. Blackjets seemed to operate as smoothly in atmosphere as they did in space and they were amazing fast, agile and had other very clever tricks.

The grey saucerboat exploded dramatically, disintegrating and then nothing remained. They seemed to both explode, and implode, somehow in a way hard to understand even when recorded. Then the blackjet was gone as suddenly as it had appeared.

 

Armstrong frowned for that had been the fifth, of such UFOs, to come that close to the spacestation in just the few last days. What was going on? It was time to try to get some more answers from his True Eternal side.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 3.1[4]
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

1965AD was hippies, was flower power, was the Silver-Beatles band, was flared trousers, was very interesting hairdos, was the arrival of new techs such as mainframe computers with networks of terminals, video-telephones, video cameras, compact audio-video cassettes, the rise of new cults of sometimes frightening nature, increasing social disturbances, Tripope Karl's statement that the AAAs were works of the Devil, surfie music, the white blues of Elvis the Pelvis, the creation of exotic agencies by government and private concerns, exopower mechas, hybrid-electric cars, the CocaCola PepsiCola War, the failure of LP records to vanish away, the start of small scattered wars through out the world often wrapped in government imposed secrecy, the strengthening of the powers of the United Nations, the setting up of the UN Peacekeepers and Carekeepers, the rise of McDonalds Diners across the USA and beyond, Disney animated movies, the discovery of ancient exotic ruins beneath Ayers Rock in Central Australia, odd reports of 'silent' black helicopters glimpsed flying low at night, increasing sightings of Bigfoot, the Vietnam Agreement that ended war there, launch of Playboy Magazine, a rise of feminism in the 'West', the increase of fundamentalism in the Middle East, a spate of assassinations and vanishings of VIPs, the rise of neo post industrialist surrealistic art, colour television, improved colour quality movies, 3Dglasses movies, the TV show Gilligan's Island, the creation of the Australian New Zealand United Republic, zombie movies, rising popularity of international foot boxing, the launch of the first advanced turbine helicopters, the first use of high atmosphere rocketplanes, increasing demands that Luna be open for mass colonisation and investment, the founding of the XFiles Foundation plus much much more.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 4.1[5]
First Steps in Response

Orbis observed but none observed it, at least nothing mortal. It was dusk, was growing darker, in tropical jungle where the animals had fled or gone into hiding. The amazing sounds of monkeys, parrots and other creatures made the jungle what most people knew it as but now it was disturbingly silent except for the fighting.

Vietnamese, American and other soldiers fired upon the oncoming threat with enhanced augmented AKM16A3 autorifles. Those were the Combined Special Forces (CSF) in kevlar armour suits, enclosed from head to foot, firing off bullets and grenadeshells of standardised calibres. The shambling things kept on coming, being unlike those in the movies, and not all were falling to pieces. The failures were slower, easier to hit, easier to kill by striking head-nodes or chest-nodes. If the neck-tentacle was cut, destroyed, death would also follow. The zombie failures often fell on their own heads, killing themselves. The others were increasingly less human in appearance and, though increasingly more dangerous, it made them psychologically easier to deal with.

Some civilian, high powered, bolt-action hunting rifles had been bought along by the Vietnamese and the sharpshooters were blasting down the zombies with great skill and efficiency. Military snipers used guns that were much the same except some using special 12.7mm bolt-action rifles that literally blew apart zombie heads, sometimes killing more than one zombie at the same time.

The zombies had been a very isolated Vietnamese minority infamous for cannibalism, dark ritual magic, human sacrifices and much else that repelled other people in the area. The North Vietnamese Government had sent a well armed police expedition to deal with them, at last, because of the sudden burst of dark stories from the isolated highlands area.

Half naked native tribal people used powerful shortbows and shot down zombie after zombie; they acted as if they had done such things before and it was likely that they had done so. Stories from the brief French Vietnamese War had spoken of zombies, of tribal zombie slayers, but very few chose to believe in them. Yet some had done so and a few of those were VIPs who could do something about it. Not everything had gone smoothly thanks largely to human apathy and supposed modern rationalism that refused to believe in anything outside of its own cramped thinking. When the Soviet Premier, and US President, had personally confronted zombies, much had changed. Zombies tended to effect people quite deeply, especially when in a cage close at hand while they tried to bite them.

More zombies were coming and some were far more transformed with bizarre retractable translucent fangs and claws. Other zombies were former Field Police of North Vietnam. Not all had been killed and some had escaped but all survivors were in heavy lock down quarantine under United Nations Special Investigations Agency (UNSIA) studies.

 

Bright, hot, sunlight damaged or even killed zombies but it was getting darker with the sky filling up with stars. The CSF unit was designed for rapid response missions and the officers had growing concern that the taskforce could not really deal with the threat facing them.

 

But then, out of the very sky, came superhumans firing elemental fireballs and elemental solar pulses that destroyed the undead in wide sweeping actions. It was as if the strangely armoured, disguised, superhumans had done it all before.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 5.1[6]

First Steps in Response

The UNSS Challenger launched away from the spacestation, its frame superstructure containing the fixed modular main mothership and all of the detachable other items being sent to orbit, or to land on, Luna. Since the last grey saucerboat had shot so close past, had been destroyed by a blackjet, the mission had been delayed as new deflector reflector energy field projectors were added along with pulselaser and pulseblaster cannon turrets along with other tech.

It had come as no real surprise to a few, but to most, when the Havenlanders revealed that they owned and operated the blackjets. Yet the answers they gave begged more questions. The Havenlanders gave solid-state modular tech to the spacestation, and the moonship, including weapons and defences, but Havenlanders operated it and it was designed not to give its secrets away.

When faced by world wide demands to share their higher tech, the Havenlanders refused and stated that most non Havenlander humans tended to be chaotic, misleading, warlike and untrustworthy by nature. They also pointed out that Havenlanders had already been boosting science, and technologies on the rest of the world; they had been doing so both openly and secretly. Thanks largely to them recycling, reusing and repairing were a primary part of the generally prospering world economy. Pollution had not only been cut back but large projects were fixing up past damage as much as possible. While a great number of co-ops, small corporations and collectives profited so did fewer large transnational corporations.

Armstrong stretched even as he took off his focus learning helmet. Such Havenlander devices had to be used carefully but when that was done they were a very efficient way of gaining knowledge quickly. As a human avatar, of the Eternal Seeker, his learning was even more enhanced.

In his shipsuit, with out bubblehelmet, he studied the young woman who was intruding into his cramped personal cabin. 'Cabin' was something of a joke term as 'cubicle' would have better gone with its small volume. As it was he got a slightly larger one because of his tallness and need to stand fully and sleep stretched out in the fake gravity of centrifugal force. The impact of moving mass, on the moonship, was why two of the four wheels moved clockwise and two moved counter-clockwise.

The attractive young woman was quite naked, being slimly muscular-voluptuous, and chosen partly to be seductive. The redhead eurowhite smiled at him. "I am of the metahumans and we know you are far more than you appear to be. The metahumanic elders wish that I breed with you, become pregnant, and that our children gain new abilities. In truth we gained mysterious communications promising us special resources if we did so. I suggest we make it as pleasurable as possible. You are a very handsome and caring man with a good deal of love making experience!"

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 5.2[7]

First Steps in Response

Armstrong smiled. "I have a few requirements of my own, some for the expedition and some for myself that I will keep more secretive. That is resources for the expedition, megahumans of some kind coming with the expedition, and a revealing of the true relationship between the Havenlanders and the megahumans. As for myself, if you do not mind, and you are a member of the crew who has been spying on me since you joined the mission as a Havenlander, I would like us to marry soon, Amanda."

Amanda smiled. "That would be very sweet but only few will learn about the true relationship between megahumans (superhumans, powermutants and metahumans) and the Havenlanders."

He accepted and they made love!

When it was done, they had to report to duty, both being considered late but both being given only a light slap on the wrist for doing so.

On the home world the United Nations accepted special membership status from the Havenlanders and their mysterious Polar homelands. Some areas of the Outer Havenlands were further opened up, or opened up, to outlanders but with many regulations imposed. It was revealed that Havenlanders had been secretly taking in many refugees, over the centuries, including over 1,000,000 Jews. It was largely due to Havenlander intervention in World War Two that the planned Nazi Holocaust had mostly failed though it remained a crime that about 500,000 people had been mass executed, about half being Jews.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 6.1[8]
First Steps in Response

Ayers Rock City had arisen as a special research development site but had enlarged with tourism and indigenous art craft industries. Then had appeared there some special industrial centres. None of his meant much to Hank Williams, who was being cool in his flared colourful trousers and flashy button-shirt that glittered softly with sequins in certain kinds of light. He had sideburns that joined together under his nose to form a moustache. He strutted along the laneway with his manbag over one shoulder, his disco jacket, whistling softly a popular disco song. Or at least it had been popular about two years ago.

Odd thing was that Hank Williams was not clear, in his memories, of just how long he had been there going between disco clubs trying to 'pick up chicks'. Looking back on that idea, he was not sure why he wanted to attract women. As it was he had no real attraction to the idea.

Sometimes there would be strange banging noises that he thought might be car engines backfiring but there tended to be many of them and with variations of loudness. Ideas, odd ones, nagged at the edge of his muzzy mind. Like something strange had happened to him when glimmering mist had come spurting up out of a crack in the floor of the disco club he was in. He was doing some kind of shady deal buying drugs, what ever they were. He was the black sheep of the family, which puzzled him now because he was sure sheep were woolly animals of which he was not one.

 

There had been shock, then fear, then panic as the glimmering mist caused people to start choking and to fall. As they did, inside the mist came greenish purple glimmering things that entered the dying bodies. He remembered choking, not panicking at all much but peacefully thinking that at least his horrible life was over, and then waking up to find the club empty except for a few dead bodies.

 

There had been a young woman there, living normal maybe, who had first aimed a pistol at Hank but who had then just laughed. She called him a 'nombie' and said something odd about Hank's personality being improved from the selfish monster that he had been. She had given him some potato chips that he had gobbled down. By the time he was finished eating, he looked around and she was gone.

 

Hank had filled his manbag with snacks, a bottle of sodapop and had emptied out some odd small bags of white powder stuff, leaving them on the club counter. Then he had felt prompted to take some new international dollars from somebody, a corpse, who clearly did not need or want it any more. In his misty mind he felt the urge to pay for past bad things that he had done to his 'family'.

 

He hunkered back against a wall, hunching down a little, as two savage things shambled quickly past growling strangely. They were both like him and yet unlike him. They both sniffed at him briefly, strangely, but them moved on as if not interested. He was very grateful for that!

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 7.2[9]
First Steps in Response

Black clad figures raced past Hank, oddly quiet and swift for humans, and holding odd black compact rifles that they fired off with only soft thudding noises. They were going after the two zombies. Yes, Hank now remembered hearing whispered stories of horrors called zombies that either failed, to fall to pieces, or became more dangerous. There had been stories, also, of glimmering mists and other horrors. He had arrogantly dismissed the idea, at the time, or at least openly so for inside he had been very frightened.

Two of the black clad soldiers were suddenly facing him. One slipped an odd shaped wristband around his nearest wrist and read a small display on the odd solid-state plastic unit. By the tightness of the black armour both were seen to be slimly muscular-voluptuous women. They had utility-belts, black of course, dotted with black pouches and other items.

The one examining the device spoke. "Nombie, for sure! We will take him into a nice, wonderful, place where they are kind to nombies."

Hank hoped the woman was telling the truth but they were very nice to him as they led him away, though they asked him to say nothing when he felt so much like having a friendly chat. When he tried to brag about his fashionable clothes, and moustache, they kindly told him that he was filthy and that he stank, that that would need to clean shave him and get rid of his gear but that they would try to get him some new ones if he wanted them to do so, which he did.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 8.1[10]

First Steps in Response

The UNSS Challenger fired off pulselaser pulsebeams at a grey gysaucerboat as it shot past. The UFO fired back pale shimmering disintegrater beams and all but but were reflected away by reflector-deflector fields. One struck a large section of armour that burned and buckled. One good thing about a spaceship, such as a frame-craft, was that it was able to take extra sections of armour. A pulselaser pulsebeam struck the grey gysaucerboat and its energy bubble flickered but then it was gone.

 

It had been the fifth such attack since the moonship had left the international spacestation. Word had come that the spacestation had officially been named Spacestation Hope and that the spacestation would focus further missions on launching assembling and launching ships, probes and other space devices. Other spacestations were being planned including a series of low orbital forts.

 

Armstrong observed the vanishing gysaucerboat using a big viewscreen. It was odd that the grey gysaucers only attacked one at a time and only used gysaucerboats when the Havenlanders had spoken of the Graynari as having bigger gysaucerships and much bigger gymotherships. Havenlanders spoke of theories that the Graynari might be keeping track of the human Moonship while testing it also but they also admitted that the 'greys' were truly hard to comprehend for they were truly 'alien aliens'.

 

Then he swivelled in his office-chair, as bolted down to the deck, and carefully examined an open notepad that was clipped to the desk. With the attacks, by the Graynari, special procedures were in place that every item had to be held down in place unless being moved. Armstrong was wearing seat-belts. The CF-wheels were still spinning and were still proving quasigravity.

 

The XFiles Agency had sent him some security sealed, and coded, documents through tight beam high frequency radio communications. Being a security specialist, he had first view of the documents, or so went the theory. He was looking at some very interesting historical reports such as the vanishing of a large number of people in Great Britain, in the 1880s, including no less than thirteen renowned genius scientists. The British Empire had attempted to suppress all information of what had happened but whispered stories had circulated of antigravity globes, strange beastmen, reanimated corpses as workers and much else of the same. That included the attempted intervention of a super secret British Imperial organisation known as Torchwood. One whisper, of great interest to Armstrong, was that the Genius13 had been intending to go to Luna to set up a colony there. On the night of the vanishing strange sightings had been made, on the English Moors, of hundreds of glowing dull metallic globes shooting up from the ground and into space. A very few had exploded dramatically.

 

The stories had been officially dismissed by governments, and other influential institutions, around the world. Except that a part of the English Moors had been isolated by the British Government since that time, being guarded by the elite Military Security Force.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Maharg67