Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 1.1[1]{1}

 

So the group stumbled upon the strange ancient alien artefact after the cave system suffered from what seemed to be some kind of minor earthquake. Except that the tunnel that led to the cavern chamber, where the massive metallic stone cube rested, was not on the official cave system map and neither was the chamber, the oddly evened out cavern.

 

They drank fresh, clear, cool water from an oddly regular channel that flowed down from a hole in a wall and into an oddly regular bowl shaped pool. The hikers topped up their canteens and heated up water for camp coffee, tea or hot chocolate. They found the strange alcoves that seemed to be odd designed toilet spaces. Privacy was obtained through the use of camp-sheets.

 

Handsome Johnnie stood, at the center of the big chamber, and looked around it. His backpack was at his feet, his moderately powerful autorifle was slung over one shoulder and his puzzlement showed on his feet. He took out his 'lucky tennis ball' and threw it up into the air and caught it again. He repeated this action a dozen times standing their in his tough, casual hiking gear.

 

His beautiful triplet sister, Jessie, came up to him to stand at his side. "So you noted it also, that the gravity here is too light for us to be back on the Earth. Unless, of course, this chamber is having an odd influence on gravity."

 

Johnnie shook his head. "Something tells me we are no longer on the Earth, Terra, Sol3."

 

Jessie did not argue with him because she 'sensed' the same thing. In the distance Brent, Brant, and Andie were laughing at some joke or other. Joanna, the triplet sister to Jessie and Johnnie, came out of a toilet alcove after washing her hands there. She headed towards Brent, Brant and Andie even as Andie reached out his hands to get extra food rations from the big smart, but naive, twins. Joanna arrived there in time to stop the twins from giving Andie anything and to smack him across the side of his head.

 

Andie, who had been trying to rip off the twins, backed off with a scowl and then did something very stupid; he threw a punch at Joanna. The next thing was that she had him down on the floor with a clever martial arts grip. Brent, and Brant, did not seem happy at what was happening to their brother, Andie, but they did not look terribly worried either. They were used to one of the triplets stepping in to save them but Andie's selfish charm.

 

Jessie frowned. “The twins are getting more wary of Andie but he seems unwilling, or unable, to change. Note that the twins did not go to give him anything.”

 

Johnnie sighed. “That is good! Andie is not going to be chosen! The Selections Adjudication Agency sent out restricted notifications on the morning we started the hiking expedition. I managed to get a copy and read it before destroying it. Andie will either be control cyborged or executed and his body recycled in a wide range of efficient ways.”

Edited November 22, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 1.2[2]{2}

 

Though none of the others liked Andie, it was not good news. With growing problems back on the home world there had arisen autocratic centralist government, overly powerful megacorps, and the Selections Adjudication Process that chose who had the right to live. There was a wide spread, growing, resistance rebellion against what was happening and the triplets were part of it.

 

The hiking trip was partly a disguised attempt to find some kind of hidden base for a local cell-network of the resistance rebellion forces. Now they were not even sure that they were on the home world any longer.

 

The oddest fact was that they felt strangely muffled in their feelings and perhaps had been for some time. Were their memories, of how they gotten to that place, very reliable at all? The triplets were the first, in the group, to start realising that they needed to find out what had really happened to them.

 

Andie walked away from the others, his face twisted and grim with self pity. According to Andie he never did anything wrong, ever! It was always other people who were being unfair to him. Then he was gone into one of the cavern chambers neighbouring the one with the artefact.

 

Andie always went away in the same direction and, on seeming impulse, Johnnie began to follow him and so then did Jessie also. Doing so was to lead to an interesting discovery.

Edited November 22, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 2.1[3]{3}

 

Johnnie hit Andie again even as others explored, examined, what Andie had tried to hide from them and then had declared was his property. Andie had then attacked Johnnie with crazy rage extreme even for him. Andie went down and staid down. Johnnie could have easily killed him, had killed before. Yet he wondered if he had done Andie a favour in letting him live because the other was growing steadily worse in his dangerous madness.

 

Andie had bought a whole lot of basic equipment-supplies from a generally vending-machine like mechanism, using the automatically regenerating tradecredit of the mechanism but not his own tradecredit. He had dumped the items, he obtained, and damaged some of them wilfully. He had laughed at Johnnie, had laughed at the idea that he had known something that could have done good for the group but had kept to himself.

 

Jessie had helped examine the items that Andie had obtained. She was clearly still angry but also relieved. “None of the damage is major and can be repaired. Andie's choices, of what to buy, were illogical but there are food-rations for three people for three days, five blankets, two musical horns, two lutes, four harps, a whole lot of fisher-kits, a camp-lamp, It's almost as if he was planning to form a musical group but Andie plans nothing. We will have to kill him. We three are the leadership of the group, the great majority supporting us, and must make a full quorum decision on this before the others.”

 

Andie became conscious, scowled and spat blood but failed to hit anybody. Then he cursed at them with an amazing stream of invective before he lay back and quietly died. Abruptly his body sparkle shimmered and vanished.

 

The glowing yellow figure, of Andie, appeared just seconds later. He stood there, naked but in a translucent fashion because of the energies flowing through him and around him in a visible aura. A great 'sense' of harmony surrounded him.

 

He spoke. “I am now Andrios. Harry Harold put something into my water canteen. Suspecting I had a mental instability he was 'curious to see what would happen'. He is truly a sociopath born from the arrogant, misguided and rushed NCCP.”

 

The NCCP was the New Chance Cloning Program instigated world wide by a range of organisations including the United Nations Emergency Regulation Council, large national governments, megacorporations, smaller corporations and some other agencies. While human cloning was at its core, there were also operations for restocking oceans with fish, regenerating the Amazon and much else behinds. There were also a few secret programs and projects.

 

The group of teens were all results of one NCCP project of a particular program that also ran other such projects. The Selections Adjudication Agency had kept a careful watch on the progress of clones and had terminated those it had deemed as unfit to live on. The triplets did not hate the SAA only because they were doing the dirty work for the world elites but also for the mass of frightened aging humans desiring scapegoats to bear the brunt of a cataclysm that they had helped cause. Yes, the aging, infertile, citizens in their fortified megatowers kept going by rejuvenation treatments, cyber-augmentations, smartdrugs and transplanted organs stolen from innocent human clones who were executed by the SAA. Yet there were many exceptions, hence the growing resistance rebellion to what was happening.

Edited November 22, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 2.2[4]{4}

 

The group gathered to observe the solar elemental human, that had been Andie, that was now Andrios. They were curious, were surprised but not shocked for all of them had gone through strange experiences.

 

Harry Harold looked coldly at the solar elemental human. “Wish I could run some experiments on you and then dissect you.”

 

If there was one group member detested more than Andie had been, it was Harry Harold. Except that HH, as he liked to be called, had done some good things for the group.

 

Johnnie turned to study Harry Harold with cold eyes. “Did you drug Andie?”

 

Harry Harold shrugged as if it meant nothing. “I was trying to bring him down from his madness which I did not cause. For that you have to take not of his genetic make up as created by, and made a mess of by, the damned Genius1313. Yes, I was curious to see what would happen but I carefully took notes, carefully regulated just what I gave Andie and how much I gave him. The other important fact to note is that I gained his permission first.”

 

Jessie frowned. “Andie was in no clear mental state to give you his permission. What else have you been up to, Harry Harold? We have tried to keep a careful eye on you but running the group, dealing with many other problems, has not made it easy. Yes, as much as you have helped the group, we see you as a problem. Remember we triplets are also supposed to be scientific geniuses.”

 

The pale skinned young man nodded. “Yes but you are too emotional, too 'empathic' as some would say. Nothing should get in the way of the advancement of scientific knowledge. What you do not know is that while Andie came here, he did not come here alone. I came here also, sometimes with him but sometimes just by myself. I found an artefact here, small enough to pick up and even to put into a large pouch. It has some interesting abilities. I will use it to kill you triplets and then I will take over the group.”

 

Harry Harold slipped a hand into a big pouch and then pulled out a fair sized stone. He looked startled and even more so when Johnnie pulled out the ancient alien artefact from a pouch of his own. He aimed it at Harry and out of it spat a pale, pulsating, beam that struck Harry. Harry froze in an almost comical fashion. Then he vanished but all of his gear remained behind to fall to the stone floor.

 

Jessie smiled unpleasantly. “So he is there in that device.”

 

Johnnie nodded. “So far as I can tell, yes, that is the case.”

 

Andrios shook his glowing head. “Somehow you knew that Andie would not just die and that the artefact would swallow up Harry Harold. How?”

 

Jessie smiled at Andrios. “In time, all in good time, sweetie. For now let's leave it at the idea that we are in contact with an exotic source of information. Harry Harold is being tested-transformed by ancient forces tied to the artefact, that is ancient forces beyond those that actually created the artefact. It gives me a headache to think too much about it.”

Edited November 24, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 2.3[5]{5}

 

They explored to find antechambers of toiletrooms, bathrooms, kitchen-dining chambers, laundry-workrooms, storerooms, multiple purpose rooms and others that seemed to have more obscure purposes. There were chambers with box-vendors and box-dispensers. There were a healing chamber. There was what seemed like small one chamber apartments with many facilities.

 

The box-vendor sold items from one menu, at first, of an odd list of survival camping items plus some odd items like musical instruments. The box-dispenser gave out a short list of basic substances but only in a limited amount over time.

 

The box-duplicator duplicated items, at cost, but was limited to what it could do.

 

There were other devices, either inactive or semiactive, whose purpose remained a mystery.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

Zero 1.1 [1]{6}

 

Energies streamed through space and great quasiliving ships defended themselves with great fields of deflection, diversion and return fire. Attacking shadowships burned away in flames and-or solar glowing light. Phase pulsebeams decimated them and demonic creatures of vast size. Everything was of vast size and power but the attackers were desperate for they were losing the fight though at high cost to the defenders.

 

The True Eternals came to the rescue of the AraAncients, and with them came more forces of the LordLadies of Light. It was the Hub Pivotal of the Multiversal Waynetwork but also more than that. It, a moon orbiting a planet of secondary importance, was far more than it seemed to be for it was far more than a moon. It had been made to seem like a moon to help hide it from the Great Enemy along with its deluded followers, distorted minions and enslaved others. It was treachery that had exposed the truth to the Great Enemy, that had almost led to terrible consequences.

 

The battle raged on close to a world that would one day be known as Terra and its moon that would one day be known as Luna.

 

Prehumans looked upwards at what was happening, fearfully huddled at the openings of caves, clutching spiritually important tokens or clubs, stone-axes and other such weapons. They were watching possible danger but looking in the wrong direction for something was drifting through the air, something very tiny and very deadly, and they were breathing it in.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 3.1[6]{7}

 

Box-vendor items were easy enough to understand, in what they could do and not do, but not all were directly applicable.

 

Still, for instance, tent kits were full of resources to be used for other purposes and backpacks came with a small number of odd extras.

 

The musical instruments were played around with much enthusiasm and mixed levels of talent but with people learning fast.

 

Fishing kits provided not only hand-fisher devices but lines, hooks, sinkers and some bait. There were knife kits, each with five knives of different kinds.

 

Axe kits had, each, both a hand-axe and a bigger timber-axe. With blankets came sheets and odd inflatable head cushions.

 

There were camp-lamp kits, and hand-lamp kits, along with lamp oil for both.

 

There were tool kits with hammers, screwdrivers, chisels and some other tools. Then there kits that were linked with them being of screws, nails and other such items.

 

The cooking utensil, and camp cutlery, kits were very useful.

 

Coils of rope were most welcome.

 

So were sets of basic clothing that included shoes, gloves and hats. Boots came separate. All were fitted to customers, to some extent.

 

There were also waterbags, full of water, sets of bright burning torches, that did not burn hot, multiple use sacks, basic climbing kits, rolls of special bandage, lighting-devices, odd colour coded wooden stakes, reams of parchment like paper, writing kits, food ration packs and special vial-packs of amazing healing serum.

 

It was Joanna who first voiced the idea that the selection of items might not be random but might be part of a test to observe just what the group would do with the items, how would they use them, and perhaps more than that. It was an unusual idea but, considering the strangeness of their situation, nobody rejected it.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 4.1[7]{8}

 

Harry Harold neither remained in the device or came back to the caverns; instead he was sent somewhere known as the Living Purgatory of Sanctum. There he would gain a tough second chance to redeem himself, to become a more aware person.

 

The triplets revealed that they had been gaining 'empathic-telepathic' messages of multiple sensory nature; that is audio, visual, odours and much else. The messages had been brief but had given helpful information to the triplets that they had used to help the group survive. The messages had warned that Harry Harold was the real threat and had spoken of Andie being given another chance.

 

They were unable to say why they had not told the others; it was as if some kind of powerful, but subtle, pressure had stopped them from doing so.

 

Joanna walked around and asked each of the group members to write down memories, impressions of their pasts, using paper and writing kits that she gave them. Some were more reluctant than others, as if fearing to face their pasts, but also did as asked. The triplets had that kind of influence on the group.

 

They had a meeting and came up with the fact that generally the memories, the impressions, were consistent with one another but that individuals had unique memories and impressions. The most unique were those of the triplets, who had written down their own accounts.

 

The triplets also realised that a powerful, but subtle, influence was keeping the group in harmony and to the area of oddly regular shaped caves.

 

It was Jessie who said, “We know we are being influenced but we can not seem to fight it or do we even want to do so?”

 

She sat on a bed that was also part of a wall. Next to her were stacked all of the accounts written by group members.

 

Johnnie sat on the floor, back to a wall, and he gave a start. “How many written accounts are in that stack?”

 

Jessie gave her brother a puzzled look. “One per group member; 106 accounts!” Then she also looked startled. “But there are only 101 people in the group. I asked each to identify themselves, with the accounts.”

 

They went through the accounts together and found four that appeared to be written by individuals who did not even belong to the group, who did not even obviously exist. Before Harry Harold had been 'taken', there had been 102 people.

 

The names of the mysterious individuals were Abe, Eve, Ivy, Ono and Uzi.

 

Johnnie shook his head in wonder. “Something tells me that the names are more than they appear to be. Perhaps they are some kind of code?” Then he shrugged because it was just a guess or was it?

 

Edited November 24, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 4.1[7]{8}

 

It was Wulee who made a special discovery, studying an ancient alien mechanism that was a metallic stone cube with an odd pattern of holes on its front. It was in its own chamber. Being an avid maker-player of puzzle based computer games, a lover of puzzles of all kinds, the young oriental woman worked out that the holes were in three sizes and she remembered that the fishing-kit hooks came in three sizes.

 

She stuck hooks into holes, the hooks fitting well, and when nothing happened she played around with using cut pieces of fishing line and sinkers to pull them down. The triplets came to observe and Joanna staid to assist as did Katrina and Bargo. Every time a hook, with the right heaviness of sinker, was inserted then there was a tiny clicking noise.

 

Others were experimenting with something called soil-foam, from the three box-dispensers, and lay it out to fit shallow hollows in the floor of the cavern that were seemingly designed to take the substance. But what to grow in it?

 

Food-foam was used to supplement other rations, being fairly bland but nutritional. It was soon discovered that sauces, found in the box-vendor food-rations, seemed designed to go with and improve the flavour of the stuff; this was something that everybody was grateful for.

 

More clicks followed until, with a soft humming, a whole area of wall vanished, being the back wall of an alcove in the big main chamber. Inside, in strange semitransparent solid jelly capsules were seedlings, small animals and some other items not so easily identified.

 

A moment later all of the fishing hooks popped out of the holes, that they had been in, and fell to the floor along with the bits of fishing line and sinkers. The holes vanished and, seconds later, a new pattern of holes appeared but some were larger than those that had taken the fishing hooks. Another puzzle had been set up to be solved but who, what, was behind such doings? Was the group being observed?

 

As for the box-duplicators, it turned out that they need to use foam-plastic, foam-metal or foam-wood that were exotic materials, taken from the box-dispensers, to create basic duplicates of certain items. The box-duplicators could be worked with to create some variations in the duplicated items from the items being duplicated.

 

Planted into the soil-foam, the seedling were soon growing steadily when given some diluted food-foam and watered.

 

The group was relieved that life was getting better, survival more certain, but they had also gained some pride in how they had worked the ancient alien artefacts. Even as they did so, they were learning that there was the promise of opening up further functions, further possibilities, but what was it all leading to?

Edited November 24, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Post Redone

Epic Survival (From Lesser to Greater)

One 5.1[8]{9}

 

It was Jessie who was led to find the pair of runaways, a most curious pair indeed. She found the furry squat wozzle sleeping, exhausted, with the chubby muscular neobaby in her arms. The two were dirty, scruffy and yet adorable. She lay down with them and hugged them to herself.

 

What had led her to the newcomers, she did not know, but it had been powerful and subtle; it had also been of a 'psychic-spiritual' nature.

 

Johnnie, and others, came to be with them and when the wozzle, and neobaby, awoke they were astonished to find themselves surrounded by friendly people. They were carried, still tired, to the main cavern and their given water, food and warm drink. Then they were washed, dried and given a place to sleep; except that they ended up sleeping in the arms of group members.

 

When the pair awoke again, they were refreshed and curious. They were not at all fearful. They were in one of the healing chambers with Joanna, the healing chamber having a rejuvenating influence on life-forms in it.

 

The two quietly studied Joanna, while sipping warm drinks, while she quietly studied them back. Every so often she stroked one's cheek.

 

The wozzle spoke in a language that, in theory, Joanna should not have known but which she understood fluently. “Me is Woogles and this is Onkles. We is big strong warriors from the land of wonderful fairy folk where everybody loves us and fears us and gives us lots of good things to eat and nice places to stay and lots of cuddles and lots of other thingies.”

 

Joanna smiled very warmly, not revealing that she knew it was a made up story created by the furry humanoid to make the two seem to be important. Then she spoke, in a language that she had not even known she could speak moments ago. “How wonderful you are and how wonderfully lucky are we that you ended up coming here to be with us. Its not every day one gets big strong warriors, from the land of wonderful fairy folk, to come visit for how ever long they want to stay. Why you would be welcome for ever and ever, if you wanted to stay with us.”

 

The neobaby, now in the arms of the wozzle, nodded sleepily. “We stay for ever and ever.”

 

Johnnie walked in and crouched close to the newcomers. “How would you like to have a nice sleep and then we can play some games.”

 

The two nodded sleepily, the carefully administered sedatives having done their job. Soon they were sleeping. Johnnie took out the alien device and spoke. “Have you confirmed what we fear, that there is something inside each of them, that is something that should not be there?”

 

Joanna sighed. “This mindeye business is tricky but, yes, they appear to be some kind of dangerous parasitic creatures. They are very slowly consuming their hosts from the inside out. As yet they are relatively small.”

 

Johnnie crouched next to the pair of newcomers and focused. He closed his eyes to focus more tightly on, through, hid mindeye. This was his true guidance in trying to use the ancient alien device to extract the dangerous parasites.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Maharg67