It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 21.2[28]

First Steps in Response

The commander studied him with surprise but also obvious suspicion. "Envoy? Who has appointed you envoy? Envoy of what, who? That was a clever trick but I have heard stories of megahumans doing as much. Do you represent the Havenlanders?"

Amanda spoke out then, frowning. "Sir, Armstrong does not represent my people. If anybody does, as you know, I do."

The Russian woman frowned. "Yes, you have the Imperial Blood of the Havenlanders, you are blood related to the Empress herself. The UN is not totally hopeless in its security intelligence efforts."

Amanda sighed. "I am the Empress!"

There was a shimmering fairly close to both ships and then there was a squat saucership of sleek black and golden metallic surfacing. It was almost featureless, or so it seemed at first glance, then small ones could been seen. It was at least ten times larger than both the UNSS Challenger and UNSS AlphaEagle01 combined. Yet it had no obvious show, proof, of power or threat.

Amanda sighed again. "We Havenlanders had long ago put such craft into comfortable storage and were reluctant to put them back into service since they had more than done their duty and deserved comfortable retirement. It is not a spaceship as you know it. Like the darkcraft it is a quasiliving entity. She is the HavaKrenu of the lifeships. She was one of those that brought the Havenlanders to Terra over 100,000 years ago."

Armstrong nodded. "My other people have rejuvenated and enhanced her but now appears our major gift. It was proposed, about ten years ago, by the Progressive Space Council, that this great spacestation be built in Terran orbit but the proposal was considered to be far too ambitious. This is an upgraded, augmented, version of it."

What appeared then was a great spacestation that was a great cylinder with four great spinning wheels, in turn going clockwise and counterclockwise. Yet it looked partly like a spaceship also, which it was. It was a mobile spacestation, a spacestationship, as such would come to be known as. It was partly framework with many modular sections, smaller ships and much else.

Armstrong spoke on. "In the center of the spacestationship you will see a globular section. At that place is placed a special teleporter device of limited usefulness. Another spacestationship, identical to that one, is even now appearing in Terran low orbit and has its own teleporter. But know this. Both spacestationships belong to the Havenlanders and are commanded directly by them. Apart from that they are part of the working alliance that has formed under the auspicious of the United Nations. Both are already crewed by over a thousand entities each."

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 21.3[29]

First Steps in Response

He went on talking. "Three such limited use teleporters will have appeared on Terra and all will be owned, and run, by Havenlanders. My other people trust the Havenlanders more than they do other Terrans of the Known Ordered World. There is also the factor that only megahumans can use the teleporters safely though non living items can also be sent back and forth. The Havenlanders will have only limited knowledge of the nature of the teleporters. Sir, please do not frown at me so for it was not my decision; I am only an envoy, being largely a messenger."

A techie had checked the transformed computer and was clearly impressed. He reported that it was now a much more powerful and versatile piece of technology.

The Commander frowned softly. "I will need to communicate with the UN Command back on Terra. I am not sure just how they will take this but I have the impression they will be given little choice but to take it as given."

Armstrong sighed. "My other people are well aware of the opinions and feelings of Terran humans. Such are always taken into account, as important considerations, when it comes to any decisions."

 

The Russian woman snorted. "That is so very nice of them but we are in no position to refuse help so what do we do but accept?"

The mothership, the frameshuttle, the lifeship, were soon attached semi-independently to the big spacestationship, that is against its great long central cylinder. This way the three vessels gained support, from the newly named AhavaKana, such as water, air, electricity and much else. They also had the added security of much added firepower and other forms of protection.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/immortal2-1-1.jpg

 

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 22.1[30]

First Steps in Response

Dana Scully and Fox Mulder were not just standard humans but who were? There were those, with strong reliable credentials, who claimed that humanity had gone through some kind of transformation but that it had effected far far more than humanity. Some even spoke of the mysterious 'timespace event' that was the key of something called the 'timespace transformation'.

Dana Scully, and Fox Mulder, were powermutants of exotic abilities drawn to each other partly because of their shared biological inheritances. They both could be more than one person at once, be in more place than one, while remaining the same person.

 

So while Scully and Mulder investigated the TrueLife Order in Ayers Rock City, Mulder and Scully were in lightly armored, long wheel base, Landrovers moving along a dirt highway towards the great big rock known generally as Ayers Rock but not by the Azorines who had their own special name for it. Indeed they had more than one name but so far they had openly stuck to the common name, at least officially; that would change.

 

Ayers Rock was a vast, single rock structure, that Azorine legends spoke of as a meteor that had slowed down to 'crash gently' into the ground, to embed itself there. Like an iceberg it was much bigger down below the surface than it was above. The great structure was riddled with a cave system, part of which was open to tourists but only in restricted numbers and in guided, protected, groups. The Ayers Rock Caves were a treacherous maze to those who did not know them and many areas were sealed of.

 

Scully was in brown gray UN fatigues of the Peacekeepers. She frowned softly as the machine bounced again. "My bum will have bruises on its bruises."

 

This drew the attention of the four ANZSAS elite soldiers, in the main cabin of the vehicle with them, all of the men giving her a mild grin. They wore UN fatigues but also enhanced kevlar body-armor including helmet, boots and other extras. They were armed with universal standard AKM16A2s, an autorifle with grenadeshell launcher used by both the Capits and the Soviets along with many others. Thanks partly to Havenlander influence it was a fine, reliable, effective type of weapon with some interesting extras such as a bottle-opener; beer drinking fighters around the known world had become most grateful for the bottle-opener.

 

Scully was suddenly aware that perhaps she had undone too many buttons in the lightly stifling heat of the cabin but she was not going to draw more attention to her exposed cleavage and she was not going to annoy the soldiers. Mulder just frowned because this situation was not new to them. In truth the ANZSAS soldiers were better behaved than many that they had encountered and some that they had been forced to teach a hard lesson to like a platoon Eastern European paratroopers that Scully had left hanging limply from quite high tree branches. That had been while chasing reports of ancient monstrous creatures coming up out of the depths of the 'earth'. When somebody went to rescue the paratroopers, from the tree, they found only chewed up bits of meat and lots of blood. The two agents had to leave the area in a great hurry.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 22.2[31]

First Steps in Response

 

The machine shuddered a little but then began to slow. The pair of agents were curious, because they were yet to reach the actual rock, and so were the soldiers who had been there before. All of them 'sensed' something was not right, that was clear enough to the Americans. The machine came to a halt and the back opened, a frowning ANZSAS NCO standing there holding his own weapon, being a special harness supported platoon machinegun. It could hammer out the same calibre cartridges as the rifles but many more of them and attached to it was a special grenaderocket launcher.

 

The sergeant spoke hard. "There is a fallen tree up ahead, blocking the road, but it does not look like any natural situation. The tree is too young and its looks cut down."

 

Scully suddenly shivered. "Unnatural things are moving out there, shambling things, but there are others opposing them."

 

The sounds of gunfire suddenly came from the forestlands around them. It was odd sounds of odd guns firing. The sergeant scowled. "F******* ghouls. Where there are ghouls, there are zombies and maybe worse. You two are exotics of some kind. What can you do that you can tell me about?"

 

Scully shrugged. "Azorine warriors are out there, killing the undead mostly with those deadly bows of theirs. Some are using blowpipes with special venom coated darts. There are not many of the undead and nothing more powerful than a ghoul, at least not that I can detect."

 

The sergeant, a rugged part Azorine (Azorine) scowled at the four privates. "You four going to sit on your damned arses all day or are you getting out here to play with the zombies?"

 

The four got out with some obvious reluctance. One spoke. "I would rather be fighting fanatical guerrillas in some damned thick South Eastern jungle than taking on these things."

 

But then the four were standing there and looking real professional. The XFF Agents slipped out, of the vehicle, with surprising speed and agility to land on the ground and came up wearing their backpacks and holding exotic, large, powerful looking revolver-pistols.

 

Scully sighed. "No, I am not just a bum and a pair of breasts. We must only be a couple of klicks from the 'big red rock'."

 

It loomed ahead, over the treetops, though it was still about five kilometres away. It really did look like a 'gently crashed meteor' that had embedded itself deeply into the ground.

 

The vehicle ahead was full of scientists, their assistants, and only two soldiers. One ANZSAS Soldier was in a semi-enclosed turret on top and was aimed a 12.7mm calibre

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 22.3[32]

First Steps in Response

Something was coming crashing through the trees and the group spread out. The soldier, in the turret, swiveled his machinegun towards the source. But it was only a big, frightened, angry marsupial forest bear. It was a cousin to the koala bear and not a 'true' bear as such like the black, and brown, bears of supercontinent North America were. Both Scully and Mulder reached out with their hands and the big creature came to a halt in front of them and sat down promptly, groaning in self pity.

The soldiers stared, in wonder, as Mulder scratched the wild creature behind its ear and Scully managed to communicate with it at some basic empathic-telepathic level. "The tylala bear saw a purple comet-projectile crash off towards Ayers Rock. When it crashed, glimmermist spread out and things shambled along with the spreading mist. Then Azorines came, deadly warriors who had no interest in hunting any tylala bears. The bear ran away."

Azorine Slayers came out of the forest suddenly, smoothly, wearing little more than webbing of leather belts dotted with pouches and other items. They wore shorts as well but were otherwise naked including the fewer women amongst the men. All carried both traditional shortbows, scabbard-quivers but also a variety of guns as backup to the bows and other weapons that they had.

One youthful woman stepped forward, frowning softly at the ANZSAS Soldiers pretending not to lightly ogle her, she being slimly muscular-voluptuous as surprisingly many young women were of humanity, including the exotics. She spoke. "You soldier boys can stop staring and start listening. We destroyed all of the undead in the area, the sunlight burning away the glimmermist and making things easy because the shamblers became weaker."

The sergeant frowned. "I wasn't staring! I grew up as an Azorine in this area. You must be daughter to OldSamWa. I have heard good things about you. This is Scully, and Mulder, from the USA. They are exotics."

 

The woman nodded. "My general name is Shella. I have done some reading into the famous XFiles Agents. You two used to work for the FBI but you got fired for some reason."

 

Scully sighed. "Yes, and no! I will give you some details later of what is a very complicated story but it would be accurate to say that we found it more comfortable to be attached to a new establishment dedicated to the XFiles. The FBI actually turned over all XFiles Office resources to the foundation and, more importantly, added some because the 'office' did not have many."

 

They would have talked longer but the expedition soon set out again after the Azorine Slayers helped to move the tree trunk. None knew who, or what, had cut the tree down though it was figured to be some of the smarter undead ghouls. The Azorine warriors vanished back into the forest but they, like those in the five vehicles, failed to detect the shadowy, robed, figure observing them. In one pale, oddly long fingered hand, he held a two handed tree axe.

 

The bear wandered back into the forest, curled up in a shallow cave, and went to sleep.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/immortal2-1-1.jpg

 

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 23.1[33]

First Steps in Response

 

The comet-projectiles ceased to strike at Terra, from Luna, and yet the fighting in the Lunar Overworld continued. The Wayomatyr Tyrmans had been fighting as one big Lunatyr faction splintering into civil war created smaller factions but the nature of the war was changing thanks to the undeath.

 

Hand operated mechanical machineguns, crankerguns, were firing volleys of bullets from the semi-enclosed battlements of low hulking walls with steep sloping walls of great thickness. Breech loading howitzers, and cannons, fired shells from the same battlements. Soldiers worked bolt-action rifles with great expertise.

 

The enemy was not the traditional one, at least not strictly speaking. In the glimmermist, that protected them, shambled former enemy soldiers as zombies and faster shamblers were armed ghouls. Ghostly, glimmering, wraiths drifted with the glimmermist as it moved against the breeze. The breeze slowed it but did not stop it. There were more dangerous undead things in the glimmermist that did not show themselves so clearly.

 

Shells fell into the glimmermist and exploded dramatically, hurling dirty brown blasts up into the air. Shambling figures fell and fragment-burned in a strange manner. Sometimes bigger shambling things were glimpsed and sometimes faster, flittering, things were glimpsed.

 

Which was when the first missiles came out of the sky, through the Lunar World-Bubble, and erupted as big bright flashes of power in the glimmermist. Tremors went through the ground as more missiles struck. Again, and again, they struck until there was no glimmermist and no surviving undead things. The missiles then ceased to strike.

 

The Wayomatyr Commander observed the empty area where the glimmermist had been, along with the lesser undead, and then had a message sent by field-telephone to the courier outpost. Couriers would ride loperbeasts to the nearest Wayomatyr settlement that was a mixture of civil, military and spiritual concerns. The message was coded so that hidden by a general military message, of a kind that would be expected to be sent, was a secret one. The secret message declared that 'the Terrans were at last coming, as had long been predicted'.

 

The clan military officer was not sure how she should feel about such a coming event. Had it not been the Terrans who had caused the undeath in the first place but then again, not all of them. There was also the factor that the ancestors of the Lyrman humans had been Terran humans.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/immortal2-1-1.jpg

 

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 24.1[34]

First Steps in Response

The altered moonlanders came down with burning retrojets, and then open low gravity parachutes, to land carefully in an area where supply modules had already dropped. Lunanauts, in armored moonsuits, slid down slides even as they came down and deployed with special adapted autorifles and other weapons. The armored moonlanders had their own weapon ports and turrets.

But then out came the civilian specialists, the envoys, the science-officers, the scientists, and others along with multiple skilled workers. The task was to dig in as soon as possible, to get secured, but also to begin to study the area. The moonlanders would not return to orbit so the retrojets were being soon taken out to put into moonflyers. These first moonflyers were multiple purpose low gravity flying framecraft built of assembled modules and were known as MoonEagles.

The boundaries were made secure with low, squat walls of foamcrete, more gun emplacements and turrets along with radar, sensors, scanners and other devices.

 

A cave chamber was found inside the boundaries and it was fortunately empty of local fauna. There were softly glowing mushroom like growths that biologists were soon being most excited about as they studied them in varied ways but always with great care.

 

There was much activity and amongst it all were Armstrong and Amanda who had been made increasingly unwelcome in the UNSS Challenger thanks to the attitude of the Russian Commander. Yet they had also come down to the surface, of the Moon, mainly because they had always intended to do so.

 

Amanda lowered a big supply canister to the ground that she could never have even lifted back on Terra, even though she was a metahuman. "Odd to think that the non-Havenlanders find it hard to accept that the Havenlander Empress is actually more than one woman."

 

Armstrong added another supply canister to the growing stack of them. "Just as odd as Americans seeing me as some kind of alien infiltrator despite all the attempts I have made to convince them that I am quite loyal to my home nation."

 

It was an odd situation with Havenlanders looking out for the pair and some other Terrans watching them sharply. Most folks there were intent on getting their work done and no more than that. They went to get another pair of supply canisters, doing grunt work when they should have been with the officers, when a two way moonshuttle landed. The high ranking Havenlander officer, who got off the vessel, was soon having his say about how Armstrong and Amanda should really be treated.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/immortal2-1-1.jpg

 

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 25.1[35]

First Steps in Response

Mulder, and Scully, in Ayers Rock City moved carefully through the temple building that they had infiltrated. The back door had been armored and heavily locked but not immune to some of the hitech tricks that they carried. They went past a door, in the long, wide, high hallway. Muffled grunting noises came from behind it. The pair of XFF Agents stared at the door, as if looking through it, and then both winced.

Scully spoke softly, not whispering for whispers carried. "Very perturbing. I suggest it is something that the SWATs can deal with."

Last time the pair worked with any SWATs was to track down young fools making false SWAT alarm calls through the quickly expanding, evolving and advancing Internet. Two young men had been tracked down and were now in juvenile prison doing lightly labor work and enforced educational studies; ironically they were both doing computer hardware software units.

SWATs were Special Weapons and Armor Teams. Two were working with Mulder, and Scully, in Ayers Rock City. It showed how important that the ANZFG (Australian New Zealand Federal Government) saw the mission. The ANZFG ruled the city, and surroundings, as a Federal Protectorate.

They kept on moving until they came to a second door and then began to 'sense' something was very wrong. The door was slightly ajar, which they suspected it should not be. Despite being made of strong steel, the door had been smashed open inwards.

There was a muffled screaming noise followed by a series of gunshots as from a standard semiautomatic pistol. The pair moved quickly into the typical office room, saw the thing attacking a young woman who was half naked, that is wearing only a loose fitting white Tshirt with the word TRUELIFE printed across its front in big letters. She was firing her 9mm calibre pistol at the big hairy humanoid who was not in the least harmed by the bullets or who seemed in any way really hostile. Instead he seemed quite puzzled. The young woman's eyes were glazed, as if she was drugged. Then she collapsed even as the big hairy humanoid caught her.

 

Bigfoot! Humanoids that migrated between Alternate Earths, or AltEarths. The Bigfoot turned to them, cradling the woman in his arms, even as Mulder spoke in a language he would know, being TransAltic. "How come a traveling big man, of fine hair, came to be here?"

 

The big hairy figure, with his webbing of leather belts dotted with handy items, growled softly in puzzlement. Then he spoke with a soft gruff voice. "Was passing between the Ways, using the Wilder Ways and not the Waygates, was tracking some loose goots, when I got 'pulled here'. Somebody here is up to no good. Those bullets hurt but not badly. Young human woman is drugged and is in a bad way health wise, mind-body-spirit. You famous Scully, and Mulder, imprinted into Bigfoot shared memories. You have saved our people from evil humans on two occasions. We can assist each other to find out what these fools are up to."

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 25.2[36]

First Steps in Response

They extracted the bullets, from the Bigfoot, after he lay the young woman on the desk. Apart from the desk there was a set of two metal filing-cabinets, a row of five lightly padded chairs typical of a waiting room setting, some temple posters full of propaganda, and large glossy photographs of seminaked young men, and woman, also on the walls. The posters, and framed photographs, made it clear that the dream of attractive youth was being sold in that place.

Behind the filing-cabinets they found a wall safe, the filing-cabinets being movable to one side in a very clever fashion. As a doctor, Scully had quickly examined the young woman, and had found her to be lightly malnourished, with some light bruising hidden by the Tshirt, and drugged in a way hard to easily diagnose. Her heart beat was oddly fast but not overly so. She had recently had sex but that was, somehow, no surprise.

The safe revealed some booking keeping stuff, indicating some low level tax cheating had been going on, bottles of whiskey, sealed cans of biscuits, lots of boxes of condoms, full magazines for a 9mm calibre pistol, and a few other items including some awful glossy hard porn magazines.

The filing-cabinets had lots of neatly ordered files and they were all fake, being designed to mislead rather than to assist. There was a lightly layer of dust, on the files, indicating that the cabinet drawers had not even been opened for a long time.

The second search, of the safe, found a false floor and a hidden space. There was a journal with some VIP names of disturbing identity including high ranking politicians, corporate CEOs, priests and others. There was an enclosed rack of vials of some kind of serum that disturbed the Bigfoot greatly so that Shazbig would not touch them; that was the name he used with such as humans for his real name could not easily be translated and was private. Scully, and Mulder, 'sensed' something wrong with the contents of the vials. Yet they knew they had made a very important find that brought with it some very disturbing implications.

They were going to leave when the two SWATs came through outer doors, each being 13 troopers including three specialists, and before them went fast moving armored remotes on wheels; they were not armed with lethal weapons but had plenty of detection devices on them and could launch flashbang, gas, and-or smoke grenadeshells.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/immortal2-1-1.jpg

 

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 26.1[37]
Choosing a Dark Path

The Ayers Rock City Cathedral of the Thirteen Divinities was one of the most impressive, and largest buildings, in the city but not as old as its outward appearance might suggest. Large statues, of the Nine Divines, of older times stood in the semi-enclosed side area but the individually unnamed Divinities were given the actual Cathedral. The Nine Divines had their own chapels along with their Demidivines, Semidivines and Subdivines.

How many people were truly devout in their faith? The Cardinal stood in a big semi-enclosed balcony that hid him while allowing him to look over much of the city. He was frowning at the thought that not enough were truly faithful but that was simply because, to Barringja all must be faithful. That is 'normal' people and not those impure megahumans and damned aliens. The Templedom barely tolerated the Cardinal and he had come close to be expelled with his demands for expulsion, from the faith, of all those that he considered to be 'impure'. That is he and his growing army of followers.

 

He spoke to the black robed figure hidden in shadows that were unnaturally deep even for that time of the evening. "The appearance of zombies, in the city, is a clear indication of the Great Divinity's displeasure at the unfaithfulness of the masses. They go once a week, often only once a month, to their chapels or to such cathedrals such as this grand fake. Where is their true faith?"

 

The Shadowman spoke colder than cold. "I care nothing for such things, Barringja, nothing! You have a proposal to make to the Shadowlords; get to the point and make it?"

 

The Cardinal scowled softly. "Together we can get rid of the megahumans..."

 

The Shadowman laughed, harshly, coldly. "Why would we do that? They are your imagined problem, not ours! You will do something very foolish, my elders know it, so we will be observing you. Perhaps we will propose an alliance in future, perhaps not!"

 

The Cardinal, who had promised there would be no trickery if the Shadowman came to him, drew out a hidden lasergun and tried to shoot the dark figure but it was gone by the time he could aim it. There was a feint, harsh, laughter and then a force struck the man, hurling him onto his back. The middle aged Barringja landed with a heavy grunt of pain.

 

The voice spoke again. "You are too treacherous to trust! We will spread the word to those we know including the GrandDaedra. Foolish mortals, like you, never seem to understand the need to keep your word, to be aware of the balances'. You are a fanatic and you can not see beyond your own blind convictions. Know this, if you try to do us harm, we will punish you."

 

Then the Shadowman was gone!

 

Barringja stood up and glared at the place where the entity had been, at the shadows that seemed less dark now. A fit of anger, at being rejected, had done his cause harm and he vowed, to himself, that he would be more careful from then on.

 

Seconds later he was surrounded by angry priests, priestesses and DivineGuards for the presence of the Shadowman had been detected. The Cardinal was led away and his protestations of innocence were clearly not believed. Soon he was no Cardinal at all, at least not officially.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67