It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 14.1[18]

First Steps in Response

Ayers Rock City was mostly like any standard modern city except with some advanced refinements and exotic extras that appeared more in some places than in others. Scully, and Mulder, went through the Ayers Rock Azorine Museum that had been built as part of an official agreement made between the Australian New Zealand Federal Government and that part of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Tourists paid extra to get in, locals paid less except for Azorines who paid nothing.

They noted great forests of Central Australia and Azorine warriors equipped with items of copper, bronze, brass and other materials including exotic tree leather. The supercontinent of Australia was amazingly big having Tasmania as a continent off its south western corner. Much of the supercontinent was yet to be fully explored, let alone charted, and a large part of it was sealed off by the United Nations and the ANZUR Government.

Senator Mickey Pigrane, of the ANZUR Federal Senate, had been driving a campaign to force the unsealing of the 'forbidden region' and the cutting back of the size of the Azorine's semiautonomous state. The racism was barely concealed beneath the surface of a good deal of cunning, high pressure, rhetoric. Mickey Pigrane was a fairly handsome man, standing right there in the museum, with some of his cronies as an entourage and a fairly large sized group of the press being reporters and cameramen.

 

The man, at the center of attention, was sweating abnormally and kept wiping at his face with a white handkerchief while sipping cold water from a large glass.

 

Mickey was speaking to the press. "In all fairness why should the Azorine people keep so much land to themselves, keep so many valuable natural resources to themselves, when it is clear they they will never fully be able to utilize such resources in a rational and efficient manner."

 

One of the reporters, an Azorine of the National Azorine Weekly, put up her hand but Mickey Pigrane pointedly ignored her and waited for somebody to hold up a hand. Nobody did and it was soon clear that he would have to field Sally Paddock's question if the press conference was to go on.

 

Sally spoke. "The statement, that you just made, could easily be seen as having racist overtones considering that the Azorine people haven proven many times that we are quite capable of utilizing 'valuable natural resources' in a 'rational and efficient' manner."

 

Pigrane bristled and went to speak. Prewarned, that something unusual was about to happen but not what, the two XFiles Foundation Agents started taking photographs of him and the press. At that moment Pigrane cried out shock, and agony, dropping the glass that failed to shatter because it was made of special safety glass. Then he fell, writhing, to the floor. The press pulled back as they 'sensed' that something was very wrong with the senator.

 

Even as Pigrane became a zombie, even as he shuddered terrible and began to make strange horrible noises, Scully and Mulder slipped out powerful semiautomatic pistols (SAPs), stepped up closer and blew holes in the undead creature's chest and head. It burned from the inside out, writhing even more as a thin stream of smoke escaped from its gaping mouth, then lay still even as the smoke ceased to appear.

 

In the ensuing confusion, the calling forth of curators and security guards, the frenzy of the press seeking a great story, and the general panic of the public, Mulder and Scully got out of the building.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 14.2[19]

First Steps in Response

It was clear, to the two XFF Agents, that Graham Maharg wanted them to observe what had happened to the racist, populist, opportunistic politician. What they had seen begged many more questions than it did answers. Mobile phones were not very common, even in more advanced nations, but the two each had one. Scully's small brick, of a phone, rang and she extended the aerial before she answered it.

 

Disguised voice: "The museum security cameras will not show you entering, being in or leaving the complex. Your visitors' signatures have been dealt with. Please be more careful with what you sign and when."

 

Scully: "What do you suggest that we do now?"

 

Disguised voice: "If something is too good to be true, especially for free, then it is most likely to be too good to be true. What is better than natural life and comes in a serum vial? If a temple is more than a temple, what could it be? See the stories of Jesus!"

 

Then the voice was gone. Scully related to Mulder what she had heard while they made their way back to their hotel and hotel room. By the time they got there they had some interesting basic ideas to where to begin a real search for answers. They had a shower together, had a short nap together and then they used their portable computer terminal, and other resources, to start more investigations. Jesus had gotten angry at the corruption of a large Jewish temple that had fallen to the vices of money lenders, pimps, games of chances and other criminality. So what modern day temple could be described in the same manner? Also what was too good to be true and came in as a serum in a vial, that is if they were the same thing?

Edited October 4, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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The Writer

All these influences and more:

 

Mysteries of the Earth, Terra, were many and then there were the XFiles.

Bigfoot, Yeti, Sasquatch and other big hairy humanoid sightings.

Werewolves, weretigers, wererats and other human animal changelings.

Gray saucers, yellow-white glowing orbs, purple cigar shaped vessels and other UFOs but mostly there were the 'grays'.

Blackjets, black helicopters, black clad supersoldiers, the Men in Black and so forth.

Carnivore humans gone wild, gone cunning, gone cannibalistic, gone enhanced physical abilities.

Superhumans, metahumans, powermutants and other megahumans.

Super predators, strange animals with abnormal powers.

Dragons and dragonfolk.

Vampires, lichs, zombies, ghouls, wraiths and other undead including the friendly nombies.

Ghosts, phantoms, and other hauntings of the restless dead.

Damphirs and others of the unlifen.

Witches, warlocks, wizards and others of the magefolk and rarer, more exotic mageborn.

Vanishing historical events such as the Martian Invasion, the Great Zombie Plague and others.

Mysterious vanishings of larger numbers of people or individuals including VIPs.

Krakens, dragons, dinosaurs, and other mythical monsters.

Lost cities, strange ruins, structures coming and going, the village lost in time and so forth.

The Undercities, the Sanctuaries, the 'mirror places', the Other New York, the Lost Realms and more.

The lost holy writings, magical tomes, strange power artifacts, secret ways and more.

Gateways to other realms, a magical wardrobe, a magical bed, archways, mirror gates, magically painted realms and more.

Time travelers, stories of the 'Doctor', stories of the 'Sliders', alien settlers and others such.

Fountain of youth, realms of the fae, OblivionGates, golden cities and much else.

Conspiracies, great and small, mundane and exotic, and counter conspiracies.

The Eternals, true and false.

Along with so much else!

Edited October 3, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 15.1[21]

First Steps in Response

New defense satellites were being put into low orbit from Spacestation Hope, after being assembled there, and were starting to destroy many of the menacing comet-projectiles as they raced to Terra from Luna. Many already were destroyed by the Lunar World-Bubble or Terran World-Bubble and this continued. Blackjets continued to strike down the bringers of undeath. If the comet-projectiles hit the oceans, or any big body of salt water, they were destroyed at once; fresh water destroyed them more slowly.

The first of the new orbital patrolboats launched from Spacestation Hope, being the UNSS SpaceSword, being also a frame ship made up of the mothership fixed modules and modular sections that could be altered for different mission. As the machine launched away from the spacestation, in its graceful ugliness, it began at once to seek out threats of any kind. This included not only the comet-projectiles but anything else that might danger the peoples of Terra.

On board the vessel were two superhumans, and a metahuman, in special armor. Their mission was to assist though they were still wary of getting too close to Luna; they would not say why.

Captain Joana sat in her new style command chair, wearing a shipsuit, her gloved hands flying over a keyboard and her eyes on a big console of viewscreens and other data. "Radar, scanners and sensors appear to be picking up some odd fluctuations at (ship relative coordinates). See if you can get any more precise data."

That part of space sparkled, shimmered, flickered and for almost a minute the area was filled with the translucent shape of a badly damaged, odd designed spaceship. It was big, at least ten times bigger than the patrolboat, and much more menacing in appearance. Yet it also looked like it had gone through a brutal battle. It was a squat saucer main body with three fins arching up at the back and a globe melded into the front of the saucer that looked to be the bridge. On its sides were the words EARTH SPACE GUARD FRIGATE U1B4 in the Japanese language.

 

The officer was shocked and for more than one reason. "Not only did we just observe a spaceship of unusual design, and build, but one seemingly from a Japanese animated children's television show called Super Guardian Team Rangers. I know because both my children are big fans of the show and more than once I have ended up watching them shows with them."

 

There was no disagreement with Joana's claim because the brief glimps of the strange vessel had been captured on video and other data recordings. There were also many reliable eye witnesses. The spacestation, not far away, had also picked up both video and other data on the event.

 

Its official mission aborted, the patrolboat returned to Spacestation Hope.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 16.1[22]

First Steps in Response

 

The UNSS Challenger orbited Lunar and released the first of the satellites, each going into geostationary orbit, and also probes that dropped towards the Lunar Surface. Previously chosen mission landing sites were now in doubt thanks to recent events, as were previous mission parameters and goals.

 

Armstrong noted that priorities had become focused on dealing with the bombardment of the home world by the bizarre comet-projectiles and the unnatural threat that they represented. He was once more in his cabin, was going through his own summations of valuable data.

 

The voice spoke deep in his mind and was True Eterniatas, the secondary joint mentality of all of the True Eternals. It was not to be confused with True Eternius, the greater whole of the True Eternals. "It is most important that the bombardment, by the comet-projectiles, of Terra be halted."

 

He already knew as much. "There are many factions already attempting to do such. What can be done that is not already being done?"

 

Eterniatas: "There are two large factions of light gravity peoples fighting each other on the surface of Luna. The Protomatyr are trying to get rid of dangerous orbs of undeathly toxins by launching them at the home world. The other, the Wayomatyr, are trying to stop them from doing this and other crimes. Both are of the fragmenting Lunatyr mass-faction and this is a civil war raging."

 

Armstrong shook his head in wonder. "They called him Mad Man Mathew Mapelton. He was an eccentric wealthy man living in Canada in the late 1800s. I researched him because he spoke of a crazy cult who traveled to the moon (Luna) in five big metallic spheres using some kind of gravity drive. He spoke of the cult leader being his twin brother Mike Mapelton. According to Mathew's writings, his twin brother met a rather unusual stranger who gave him the resources to construct gravity globes large enough to take him, his followers, resources and a 'tribute' to pay for the kindness of a group known as the Lordtyr. The Lordtyr were on great power, wealth, influence and authority. They ruled the Lunatyr with a heavy hand having destroyed its previous leadership councils of limited democratic nature. The bigger launches of such globes are better known about but smaller launches, of smaller numbers of globes, are far more numerous."

 

It was becoming evident that the number of gravity globes, that had been built on the home world and sent to its moon, was far larger than had previously been assumed by most. The smallest number of globes launched was one and that was the most common number sent at any one time. It seemed that every launching was linked to a mysterious 'stranger' providing resources and some kind of mysterious 'tribute'.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 17.1[23]
First Steps in Response

They were skinnier, taller, versions of Terran humans but were stronger than they looked despite their angular, stretched out appearance. Their human heads, hands and feet were the same as those of Terran humans. They were the Tyrmans, or Lunar Overworld humans. The platoon of Tyr soldiers darted across the low gravity landscape, that to them was normal gravity, past a river of undulated water flowing with odd effects.

 

They were seeking to stop the launching of more of the purple-black capsules at the Earth, that was also known as Terra or Sol03. They held big, long, bolt-action rifles that looked flimsier than they were, just like their users. Each rifle ended in a big long sharp bayonet. They wore brown fatigues and boots, webbing of pouch dotted belts and strange leathery body-armor including helmets.

 

They passed a great bowl shaped impression in the ground where, a long time ago, a globe had arrived of foolish humans, others, plenty of resources and their dangerous 'tribute'. Had those humans fallen into the trap set for all of their kind or had been one of the factions that had been cunning enough to know that the offer was just too good to be true? The globe was long gone and most likely had been taken by one of the Lunar Overworld Peoples, perhaps even by the Tyrmans. The Tyr Central City utilized many gravity globes and stuff looted from them.

 

The Wayomatyr soldiers were facing difficult obstacles for their enemies were equipped with automatic weapons and even some rocket-grenade launchers. But the Wayomatyr were much better soldiers facing mostly frightened, poorly trained, holy conscripts of the Protomatyr who had strong links with the demented religious Puritisa13.

 

They went to ground and climbed up the fairly steep side of a hill, their long arms and legs making the task easier. Then they were on a kind of ridge dotted with vine-bushes, straggle-grass and wild mogsberry bushes. They aimed their guns at the strange shape of the glimmerpod launcher and started to mark targets.

 

Then they stopped for the great big cannon like launcher, the barrel of which would be normally pointed at the sky, was laying on its side. A big wheeled motowheeler was abandoned. There were dead bodies of enemy soldiers scattered all over the area and the automatic weapons lay with them. But none of the newcomers were keen to rush to loot anything there. The glimmermist was there, clinging to the ground, and low gravity humans were not humans any more but were zombies.

 

The undead thing that curled up in the mist had come from a glimmerpod, a bizarre kind of egg, and the tentacular stirred as if 'sensing' the newcomers. Then its tentacle tip pointed in another direction, indicating that it was detecting something else.

 

The blackjet shot overhead, more visible but still little more than a sleek, deadly looking delta shape of blackness. The newcomers dropped back down behind the hill as fast as they could and went to ground. There was a series of 'booms', the blasts sending tremors through the ground.

 

The platoon studied the craters, that flowed into one another, in amazement. Very little was left of anything that had been there and nothing remained of the undead things, including the antinatural glimmermist.

 

The blackjets had come to fight inside the Lunar World-Bubble at last, bringing terrible firepower and brutal determination with them to destroy the undeath and other 'listed abominations' The soldiers were not sure if that was a good thing or not. They were annoyed that they had gained no good loot from their enemies.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 18.1[24]

First Steps in Response

The Temple of TrueLife did not stand out much in the street crammed with spiritual bookshops, small churches, exotic odds-ends shops, temples and even some more common type diners, shops, cafes, clubs and more. Going along a sidewalk, through flowing light crowds, reminded the pair of Americans that most of the world was still going on as it always did despite a rising tension amongst the people.

The white robed men, and women, at the Temple of TrueLife were an attempt of an appearance of purity, perhaps, but the women wore translucent robes and evidently nothing beneath. Sex sold and the women were young, beautiful, the men being young and handsome.

They passed out leaflets promising that the Temple of TrueLife was seeking to bring 'purity of true immortality' to any who became its truly faithful followers, who unquestioningly followed the great TrueLife guru Mandis Jones. What was promised was endless youthfulness, great health and fitness. TV screens, in the windows, showed white robed followers having a very good time in beautiful gardens.

VIPs were given special treatment, especially celebrities such as actors, singers and politicians. One of those VIP Followers had been Senator Pigrane. An Australia New Zealand Security Intelligence (ANZSI) agent had died to gain that and other information and since then the TrueLife Movement had been under tight scrutiny in much of the world. Links had been discovered between the movement and UmbTek but nothing substantial or useful in a court of law.

 

They stood gawking, holding hands as a newly married couple might do, and were soon being given a standard sales pitch but a beautiful, sexy, young woman. There was something odd about her, about her eyes, that was quite disturbing. She appeared to be drugged in some fashion, her eyes lightly glazed, her face oddly flushed.

 

They hoped to learn something by entering the temple, which they were welcome to do, but it was generally a disappointment. They got to drink some lukewarm coffee, to eat some slightly stale biscuits and to sit through a 'holy presentation' as presented by two drugged attractive adults, one of either gender. Both had the feeling that the audience was under tight, hidden, scrutiny and was being carefully assessed. It seemed one had to pass some kind of test, to be trusted to some extent, before one got any further.

 

Though a very few visitors were approached and led away, the two 'tourists' were ignored.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 19.1[25]
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

The world is huge, is dotted with five supercontinent and one super-supercontinent (megacontinent). There are over a dozen continents and three super archipelagos along with many archipelagos. There are also the Underworld and the just as mysterious Skylands and Sealands. As great as Terra is, there are many areas that are not occupied because they are too arid, too otherwise hostile, forbidden or even forbaden. A very few areas are forbaden, more are forbidden, more than that are restricted and even more than that are regulated. There are non regulated, or wild, areas.

There is a story that speaks of the transformation of previous worlds into new worlds by their increased size and the appearance of world-bubbles along with other features that could be classed as ancient alien artifacts (AAAs).

Other worlds are world-bubble wrapped, and larger than they had been, such as Mars with its deserts, super canals and oasis lands. Such as Venus with its mass of steaming jungles, dinosaurs and dragons, its large wild oceans teeming with great monsters. Such as Mercury, the hot world but also the cooler polar regions. Such as Skaro the world of seemingly endless war. Such as the vast worlds of Jupiter, Saturn and Massintis. Massintis is bigger than Saturn and Jupiter put together. There are planets, moons, moons of moons, moons of moons of moons and even moons of moons of moons along with other bodies. Sol, the sun, is orbited by over 1,000 large stellar bodies of which at least 100 are planets but most are far from friendly to supporting human life, even those with world-bubbles.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 20.1[26]
First Steps in Response

To the United Nations Council of World Oversight went representatives of the metahumans, the superhumans and powermutants. The huge, elegantly strong, impressive structure of the UN Council Centre was based on the grand island of Centrolis. There were secondary centres around the world but that was the largest and most important but also the most controversial one choked with political faction fighting, red tape and some corruption. The island was beautiful, as was the one city, but security concerns meant that only a relatively few tourists got to go there.

They came proudly and with mild disdain of the international politicians and crats who had summoned them. The summons had been because of the growing concerns, of the world, that such megahumans had not been doing enough to protect the Known Ordered World. There was no legal action involved, just official and semiofficial concern shown, but there was plenty of politicking going on.

The was the elegant powermutant, the so called Lady of Mutations, who stepped up in her elegantly efficient armor and who showed her golden, softly scaled face, to the world. In response to a question she answered. "You say that we have not been doing our fair share but, in truth, the opposite is true. We have been fighting threats in the wild areas of the world, in those areas where the UN has no authority, no power or even any real data of existing conditions. We have been doing so with the help of allies, of which we will not speak of at this moment. If it was not for such efforts, the Known Ordered World would be in much greater trouble than it is today, including the Havenlands. We do not ask for more resources from the peoples of the Known Ordered World because you are facing many problems already that are stretching your resources. What would be best would be more cooperation between the two 'concerns', more communications and coordination."

Then she spoke of the Islands of Chaketitotu where a big undeath outbreak had been crushed by a combined force of locals and megafolk along with others. The fighting had been brutal but most of the island life had been saved from fate or worse. She refused to give any real details but did promise such information would be coming soon in the form of a series of international press briefings.

Then the megahumans departed, leaving much confusion and excitement behind. Yet there were those who took in the news more coolly and calculatingly while there was a very small minority that was not surprised by the information at all.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 21.1[27]

First Steps in Response

The UNSS Challenger moonship released the mission mothership that went into geostationary orbit and became much smaller in modular form and longer, skinnier, in the middle. The framework mothership held the rest of modules that were to do with the moon mission.

The UNSS Challenger continued onwards to orbit Luna to do a surveillance sweep before it came back around to the mothership. It would continue orbiting, and doing its own tasks, until it was decided it would pick up the mothership and return with it to the home world or to carry out other orders.

Armstrong, and Amanda, were no longer in the UNSS Challenger. Officially the name of 'moonship' had been replaced by that of frameshuttle. In years to come the term 'moonship' would gain new uses. So the UNSS Challenger was now a frameshuttle that had brought a mothership all the way to the moon, the mothership being a type of 'frameship' as the frameshuttle was.

The UNSS Challenger was still visibly moving away from the EagleAlpha01 mothership, when a comet-projectile shot up from the Lunar Surface but exploded as it struck the world-bubble of the moon. It had been aimed at the mothership. Another came racing through the world-bubble and towards the mothership. Defensive missiles shot through space, from the EagleAlpha01, and the alien projectile exploded harmlessly.

But it was enough to change mission plans and the frameshuttle was soon returning to support the mothership, going as far as to park in geostationary orbit next to it linked by semiflexible tubes for people and goods to go through.

Armstrong, and Amanda, found themselves in a busy command centre that had been hurriedly fixed up to take on an extended role. Officers, specialists, and guards were there in the false CF-gravity. Viewscreens showed views of space, the ship interiors and even the ships from small drones in geostationary orbit near them.

The commander was speaking, the middle aged Russian woman looking concerned. "We have been informed by the United Nations High Command that a second frameshuttle has been launched towards us, from Spacestation Hope, and is bringing new resources of many kinds. It is the UNSS Revital . That is all that I have been told officially but I have picked up unofficial whispers that concern me."

Armstrong spoke out, which was something that he should not have done according to protocol. "The hidden nuclear weapons have been neutralized by my people, that is my other people. They have sent an assistance package that will materialize soon in geostationary orbit close to both of the ships. There are strict limits to how much can be done, what can be done and when it can be done. I, Armstrong, will be envoy between Terran humanity in general and my other people who will not be identified. As envoy I can also assist in a basic fashion. I will enhance something."

He aimed his fingers at a computer and a beam spat out from his right hand. The computer shimmered and when the shimmering was gone, it was bigger and more impressive looking.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67