Walkers of Worlds

[Maharg67]

16 of 2 (064)

 

GOOD AND BAD WITH THE FAMILY

 

Eddie carefully carved the wooden toy, curving any corners to make them safer and making sure that the excited neobaby, Ongry, could see everything that was going on. It was dark with night and black out conditions were on. Enclaven aircraft had not attacked the town for some weeks but nobody was taking any foolish risks. The town was very tense for strange things had been happening over the last few days. Military forces had occupied some sites. Security Police had rounded up Unified Ministry people, even high ranking people. Some had reported fighting taking place in some parts of the town and outside of it at some military and civil bases but government denied it.

 

Eddie knew what was going on. The new Unified Ministries that had sprung seemingly out of nowhere had turned out to be the work of a second group of traitors. These traitors were not allied to the Aquatic Martian invaders as the Enclaven was but were a government corporate network led by an oligarchy of wealthy family patriarchs. Problem was that most of these Unified Utopian people had managed already to get through to the ArkDomain and had gone to some place seperate and hidden from the FreeAlliance colonies there. That is in Havenaedra of Natureaedra of Oblivionaedra.

 

New ideas were arising amongst the people coming to Centralia. Now many more wanted to remain there, based in the Lamplight Caverns and other parts of Centralia, to fight the invaders. Why? Partly because they had learned of the fairly harsh conditions of the areas of Havenaedra that many of them would end up going to and partly because they learned that their were military enemies in Havenaedra also, so what was the point of running from one war only to end up fighting in another?

 

Eddie kissed Ongry on his head and pushed the new toy car to him with its wooden wheels and wooden axles. Ongry chortled with glee.

 

:whistling: Oh would it be nice if we had toy cars?

 

:unsure: Ooohhh, yeh, I suppose.

 

>:( Not fair that we don't have wooden toy cars.

 

:wub: I love Eddie, Ongry and wooden toy cars.

 

:ninja: Ninja the wooden toy car.

 

Eddie sighed and Ongry chortled, pointing to Eddie's chest. "Little voices are silly." Then the chubby muscular neobaby looked a little concerned as he sat on the big multiple purpose table to one side of the large room. "Sweet silly voices should get toy wooden cars."

 

Eddie nodded. "They will in their special place. Your mummy is coming."

 

Ongry nodded. "Me know. Mummy is nervous with Eddie."

 

The big old black dog, now younger in appearance and better in health, came trotting into the main commonroom of the quins and on her back rode a colourful parrot that Eddie had also done some healing on so that now he had most of his feather again. Then came Eddie's sister, Senniea, who was much like him in appearance. She was in a practical dress with a belt with a revolver pistol and a knife, some pouches and a special bag full of things for Ongry.

 

Then she stopped and looked at the neobaby and Eddie before she spoke. "Ongry thinks you have become better and so does mother. Mother refuses to say much about what happened to you. Maybe you had some tough times in the last three and a half years and it has caused you to be better to others. Ongry has a way of knowing things like that. Oooohhhh, soppy old dog." She patted Jassy on the head and got licked. "She will always love you."

 

He shrugged. "A few thousand years away, more or less, and a few hundred realms as a Walker of Worlds trapped between life and death. I sense your scepticism and can hardly blame you. It is a big call for anybody to believe such a thing. Tell mother I moved the special items I wish to show her to another room after I took down the second class assassins."

 

She shook her head. "Those were expensive local experienced killers."

 

Eddie was surprised. "To me they were slow and clumsy. Still, I am used to fighting paranormals, super-soldiers and such like. Got a new toy car for Ongry but he promised to give away one of his third best toys to another child."

 

Ongry nodded. "Got give away third best toy."

 

The young woman sighed. "Third best toy? Now would that be the blue rabbit that sits in the corner all not played with?"

 

Ongry looked startled. "Gooosh. Me might want to play with that next Tuesday."

 

"Next Tuesday, aaahhh." She scooped up Ongry and patted Jassy, scratched Echopolly the parrot and, to his surprise, kissed Eddie on the cheek before she vanished off through the room. Moments later in came their mother, Pearlisa. She did not seem so happy but Eddie knew it was not aimed at him. Jassy seemed to sense that it was better if she was not too close and she curled up underneath the table and went to sleep with the parrot going to sleep on top of her.

 

TALKING WITH MOTHER AND SHOWING THE ITEMS

 

Pearlisa spoke then. "There is a move in the ClanGuilds to have you and the other quins stricken from property and enholding rights. Thanks to your obvious desire to seek forgiveness and to find redemption with the Estatefolk and the ClansGuilds, along with your generosity, the move has weakened. Yet you still have enemies and at least one, powerful, hidden enemy."

 

He frowned softly. "Do you mean Eidermak?"

 

At that she shook her head. "Eidermak lost a good deal of honour and heritage rights after what happened to you and the other quins. He went away and he died helping to defend Port Argyla from the Martian invaders. They say he and three comrades destroyed a great battletripod before they were heat-beamed. The enemy have taken our territories from us. Now many of our people want to take them back and to punish both the tripocs and the Enclaveners."

 

Eddie nodded. "Then the powerful, wealthy and influential enemy must be attacking me truthfully not for reasons of honour or for personal feelings but something else. I have been making contact with people I used to know, picking up information, using up favours. Some thought I would never return and took things of mine and now they are racing to please me to stop me from hurting them. I have given a few hidden possessions away such as small businesses, properties and such like. It was done in all fairness to the families who had cared for them and worked them. I gave over a small property to the Order of Compassion."

 

His mother nodded. "I know. I accept that you have changed for the better in many ways. You are our Eddie but more than our Eddie."

 

At that he paused noticeably before responding. "We quins were born on more than one world and then fused together. It is difficult to understand even for us. Gives me a mild headache when I try too hard. I would show you the special items."

 

They went to the other room, the dog and parrot following to go to sleep in a handy corner, and there were the items being each on a small square or round wooden table. There were eighteen of them. Pearlisa was visibly shocked as she studied them. Each of them was an item of great age, of much value to the Clansfolk and otherwise priceless to the world market. He began to lead his mother to the first one, the twenty-one thousand plus year old Teardrop Vase of Crystaline Love that was incredibly beautiful. Then there was the thirty-four thousand year plus old Figurine of Ivory Goddess, again a long lost Clansfolk artwork of untold value.

 

She turned to him with a frown. "These must be returned to the Arkanus."

 

Eddie shook his head. "Those who control the Arkanus long ago became corrupted by the ClansGuilds and Guidclans. We quins intercepted a big convoy of our people's heritage stolen from the Arkanus by its traditional guardians. We killed eighteen of the guardians and warned the others. No other items were taken from the Arkanus, at least while we were here."

 

Then she smiled and nodded. "We learned the truth and had the guardians executed except for five who had come forth to warn us and to seek redemption. I will call for the new guardians to come and collect this."

 

But Eddie shook his head. "When we found out that you, mother, were a member of the Grey Imperial Council trying to bring back the old Imperial Clan, the dreaded Thirteenth Clan, to existence, we were shocked. Then we considered matters more disappionately. We realised that the Estatefolk were not just linked to the Guildclans and ClansGuilds but heavily tied into them and the leadership of them. The guilds got wealthier, more influential and more powerful as the Estatefolk did. The Centralian Government, for what it was worth, fell under your influence. Indeed one could say it became your creation, your puppet, including its police, security, military and intelligence services. The Twelve Clans were increasingly pushed out into the cold, becoming more isolated, poorer and less powerful. Not only were you and others regaining the ClansImperium but were getting revenge in the bargain. So we quins did the only thing we could do, we went to the international forces, to the LeagueNations Police, to the LeagueNations Security Council and others."

 

Pearlisa looked grave. "Only to realise that we ClansGuilds had come to dominate the LeagueNations for indeed we created them so as to control the foreign superpowers and international corporations along with the powerful religious organisations. You quins were taken, along with many others, in a great purge. I did not support it but was in no position to oppose it because our family, our estate, needed my protection. Many of those of us who would have opposed the evil that was done, had our families and estates held hostage against us to stop us acting. The Grey Imperiall Council was itself betrayed and destroyed. Control shifted to a even more secretive and darker agency, the very ones who are now seeking to do you harm."

 

He turned and swept his hand across the eight incredibly beautiful artworks being vases, figurines, bowls, mirrors, musical boxes and other kinds. "Now you have your hostages. Just make sure that the evil ones do not learn that they are very clever fakes just created days ago. Take them down into one of our vault-chambers here, not the levels turned into bomb shelters, and surround them with dynamite. The real ones are safe, I assure you."

 

Pearlisa gave a look of irony. "Once I would have taken your words as a dark joke but now I believe you. I will get word to the 'evil ones' that we have something they want very badly but that we are holding them hostage."

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

17 of 2 (065)

 

FOLLOWERS ARRIVING AT THE ESTATE AND OTHER EVENTS

 

The five followers, transformed former bandits, came to the family estate and were made welcome. When it turned out they were of a special nature in service to the Light and that Eddie had been part of the process of their creation, there was much amazement. The followers were soon mingling and doing service for the Estatefolk of both general sorts and special types.

 

Eddie went and took out some special items. He soon had the special two-way radio working along with the tape player-recorder machine. Then he attached these to a special but basic looking device of a metal box with grills on all sides and a simple control panel on top. A keypad allowed him to punch in a code. Then he pressed some switches. When the strange machine was humming softly he began making adjustments.

 

He was in one of the hidden rooms, part of the deep basement hide-out that the quins had long ago found. It was a dark place of rock blocks, chains and some torture equipment when they found it but now it had paintings, carpets, lamps, cupboards, shelving and other furniture and fittings. Then he was testing the microphone. He sensed his mother quietly entering the room but did not bother to turn around. He spoke briefly into the microphone, adjusted it and then spoke more loudly to his mother.

 

"In theory you were not to know about this place, mother."

 

Pearlisa snorted. "It took us over two years after your disappearance to find it and we only did because one of our young scholars, of a very lateral form of genius, found reference to it in a long ago stored away architectural report. As it was we had to get past not only your deceptions and tricks but past those put into place by our ancestors who were also quins."

 

"They were us in past lives." Eddie indicated a seat next to himself. "I am about to make contact with another world a very long .... distance from here but more than just normal distance."

 

She shook her head. "If you are using a transcrystallic network-system tied to a warpwaver, then it will not work. They and the Others will both block your communications."

 

He nodded. "They and the Others. So often it ends up getting right back or to They and the Others. I have some other tricks here and we can but try." He tapped a button and then began to speak into it with a strange warbling language that caused his mother to cringe a little at times with its inhuman sharpness."

 

After he stopped there was a pause and then a voice spoke back but it was in clear Clansfolk language though the accent was odd. "CentroGuardianship responding. This communications is forbidden under the authority of the Intervention Coda of the Proclomation of the Light. Eddie, Walker of Worlds, CentroGuardianship is concerned at your presence in this situation. We do not have the authority to remove you or to interfere in your localised activities but we will continue to observe you. Your use of a Mistrya Merchant has been noted and approved."

 

Eddie frowned. "Considering that you had no choice in the matter, I am grateful. Goodbye."

 

He ended the communications and sighed. "Well it was worth the try and it confirms that at least the Others are heavily involved in this situation though perhaps not so directly so far."

 

His mother spoke. "Do you really believe that the Others are restraining themselves?"

 

Eddie shook his head. "I simply do not know. I do know that if the CentroGuardianship is directly involved in any form of communications and transportation blockade that this situation is far worse than I had previously feared and now I know why we quins were sent for. We serve the Light now and we are sent to the worst of the worst mortal situations. We were coming home anyway, to visit, to stay, to perhaps work out a way to live here somehow, but this happening sped it all up."

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

18 of 2 (066)

 

ESTATE DOINGS AND GREATER PLANS DISCOVERED

 

Eddie watched for a while as the Mistrya Merchant came to the estate and sold items from the basic limited list of tradegoods that Eddie had paid to be expanded with sheets, cushions, toy sets, painless serum, spades, shovels, sets of paper and rolls of cloth. The matriarches of the estate were smart enough to not try to haggle with the free tradecredit given or the extra tradecredit that Eddie had paid for. There was much need for resources not just for those living openly at the estate but the much larger number of folks living secretly at the estate.

 

Then Eddie returned to helping to fix up the chicken coop. He hammered a nail and fixed a wooden board firmly into place.

 

He was pleased to be doing such basic work and he was pleased that many Clansfolk had turned against both the ClansGuilds and the Twelve Clans High Elders who had both been dark and ruthless in the Clansfolk history of that world, of that Alternate Earth. The Centralian Clansfolk Open Union, the CCOU, would attempt to create the CCOR, the Centralian Clansfolk Open Republic. They would try to defeat their enemies both internal to and external of the Clansfolk. Eddie sensed the Unity arising behind this but in this case he suspected that Unity was needed.

 

The JoNao Estate had become one of the hubs of the rise of the CCOU but it needed more security as both Clansfolk and nonClansfolk enemies were pushing against it. Clansfolk were no longer flowing through the Waygates to end up in the ArkDomain that was really one of the Realms of Oblivion. Still they had formed a large colony there in Havenaedra and had even made contacts with some peoples of the FreeUnion from another Alternate Earth that seemingly had no Clansfolk.

 

Eddie paused in his carpentry work to admire the toys of various excited, happy and sometimes grumpy children. Some fathers, mothers and other guardians were there as some jealousies broke out and some trading of toys was done. Each toy kit consisted of a hinged lunchbox filled with small toys, there being ten varieties, each with ten sub-varieties. Eddie himself was soon becoming a diplomat as he mediated swaps and donations to the big common toy boxes in the estate. The carpentry work was much easier.

 

When the chicken coop was completed, Eddie went with a small group of people, including some of his followers, to the big estate dining commonroom. There he served himself and some younger children and others who could not so easily care for themselves. The great big chamber was fairly basically furnished with big metal and wooden tables, with long serving side-tables, with basic chairs but there were many efforts to make it more pleasing and colourful.

 

As he ate, he also fed Ongry who sat in a special high-chair next to him with the parrot perched next to the neobaby and the big black dog sleeping at Eddie's feet with her head resting on one of his feet as if it was a pillow.

 

Then the attractive young woman was sitting next to him with her sharp red hair and her sharp green eyes, was placing down her tray of food and a big mug of nutcoffee. Nutcoffee was a surprisingly good coffee substitute grown in controlled territories of Centralia. It was increasingly welcome as coffee and black tea became harder to get. Elaine took a big sip of her nutcoffee and then turned to him with a nice smile. "You owe me and you left me in the lurch."

 

Eddie gave her a mild grin. "I was abducted and hardly had any say in the matter."

 

She snorted. "A poor excuse. I helped your mother find your secret base. It took over two years. Then your mother refused to give me what you owed me."

 

Eddie smiled. "What did you expect? What I owed you were fees from crimes committed and the estate needed everything it got. They took nothing from the secret place."

 

"No, they would not do that. I would have done." She shrugged. "With great care. Now I work for the new CCOU. I don't think they have any chance at all in the long term but they have surprised me a few times. The big powers in the Clans have failed to crush them on no less than five occasions. People betrayed the enemy and there were surprise allies that appeared at the last moment. I smell Unity at work but not just Unity. Many have come to resent both the ClansGuilds High Council and the Twelve Clans High Elders for good reason. Since you were gone they have torn apart any real Clansfolk government that could oppose them. The whole situation is messy. It is almost as if a third party is manipulating matters for the worse."

 

"That is the truth." Eddie nodded. "It has been the truth for many years."

 

She gave him an odd look and then they both focused on finishing their meals.

 

After lunch, Eddie approached the Merchant of Mistrya and learned that the matriarchs had bought suits of leather armour, actually of quasileather, and also fleximetallic armour. Quasileather was very bullet and shrapnel resistant. Fleximetallic armour was far more so but was also far more expensive. They had also bought a series of weapons including swords, boxbows and light crossbows. The attempt of one rather arrogant matriarch to get the alien merchant to sell more modern weapons had totally failed with the Mistryran who had calmly deflected those efforts. Eddie guessed which matriarch would be the one with out any real hassle at all. Eddie started the process of getting access to a new range of tradegoods and the Merchant-Trader departed to carry out his part of the processes.

 

He returned to the hidden area and did some more work, this time with the assistance of his followers. Soon they were setting up a small but efficient manufactory of tools, guns and other items. Eddiedid some of his tricks to fix and gain new items of importance such as spare parts and small bits of machinery. They were still working on the production lines when word came to them that the first nuclear weapon had been used in the war. A FreeAlliance experimental supersonic jet-bomber had dropped a H-bomb onto an Enclaven captured port city of North America and had destroyed a large fleet of Enclaven warships, troopships and freighters about to go to Centralia. They had also killed many slaves and others including tripocs, destroying tripoc battletripods and other mecha. Retalation was expected to happen anytime.

 

Eddie staid at the estate and EddieRa departed quickly from it so as to start on a series of small but important missions.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

QUESTIONABLE HISTORIES OF THE ALTERNATES WAR

TRIPOCS AND-OR TRIPOCS

 

The tripocs that invaded Eddie's Alternate Earth and the tripocs that had invaded Johnnie's Alternate Earth were quite different from each other.

 

E's tripocs were larger, stronger but slower and less agile, being of grey-blue hue.

 

J's tripocs were were smaller, weaker but faster and more agile, being of blue-green hue.

 

E's tripocs were more individualistic and were very militaristic, very aggressive.

 

J's tripocs were generally stronger with the group mentality and less warlike though very defensive aggressive.

 

E's tripocs relied on electromachanical technologies, on electromech tripods, heat-beamers, lifter-beams, beam-missiles and other such technologies.

 

J's tripocs relied on biomechanical technologies, on biomech tripods, shardz-launchers, wingtopers, spiners and other such technologies.

 

E's tripocs came in the green comet-ships that crashed into the sea if lucky or exploded into the land if not.

 

J's tripocs came in green biomechanical space-creatures that drifted swiftly down to splash into the oceans.

 

What other differences were there?

 

 

Edited December 5, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

39 of 1 (067)

 

THE OTHER REELS AND TALKING TO GHOSTS

 

Johnnie watched the second, third and fourth reels reporting the strange experiment, the reconstruction of the machine. As he did he noted that the images and commentaries became less and less rational and increasingly paranoid. The last scene was of a half naked man ranting about the flavours of jelly as he prepared to hang himself. Johnnie found it so disturbing that he was almost turned off his popcorn. Still popcorn was popcorn and he finished eating it.

 

He turned to the ghost of the crazy haired professor. "Where did you work on the machine?"

 

The translucent man pointed to the floor. "Below us in a hidden bunker complex much bigger than this small base. Some of us retreated up here, we being the last survivors I suppose, and here we died when something nebulous and powerful struck at us. They were black smoke figures of evil."

 

Johnnie frowned. "Normally such entities can not touch the living, let alone harm them. The machine must have disturbed local time-space conditions to allow something paranormal to get to you. Did you actually activacte the machine?"

 

The professor shrugged. "My memories are fragmented, blurred and blank in places. We completed it and it was ready for activation but then there was a rather harsh debate over if it should be switched on or not. The majority, plus myself, did not trust to activate the device considering all the strange and terrible things that had been happening but for other reasons the minority wanted the machine to be activated as soon as possible."

 

Johnnie nodded. "Let me guess, the minority were gaining from the strangeness; they were feeling younger, stronger, smarter, heathier and fitter. They were gaining exotic new abilities of varied types and strength depending upon the individual. They were getting stronger and more focused as the rest of you were becoming weaker and less able to deal with matters."

 

The ghost looked surprised. "Yes, I assumed that they were immune to the dark effects."

 

Johnnie shook his head. "No, they were causing many of the dark effects. They were becoming a kind of vampire, a type of false immortal, called the Beautiful Ones. Look around at all of the ghosts here, do you see any of the vampires here?"

 

The professor looked disturbed. "None of them are here but everybody else is. You mean these Beautiful Ones accidentally killed us?"

 

Johnnie shook his head. "It was no accident for they were deliberately feeding on the rest of you, on your life energies and your blood though in a cunning manner in order to fool you. Under normal circumstances you would likely have realised something was wrong but you were not in a normal situation. They signed an evil contract with the same dark entity that controlled those smokey monsters and in the process they became damned. So, how many of you wish to seek the Light? Though I am a Walker of Worlds, I serve the Light now."

 

Most of the lost souls there sought peace and moved on but three returned and one of those was Professor Arnold Armstrong, the genius with the crazy hair. Now all three were humanicors, enhanced humans of mind, body and spirit. With Johnnie they collected some gear for the three of them. They became Johnnie's followers because that was always part of the deal, at least at the start of what one might call a follower apprenticeship.

 

GOING DEEPER

 

Professor Armstrong led them to a secret door that went to a secret elevator and staircase. The elevator was not functioning and they made their way down into the darkness of what lay beneath. They found the secret base as spoken of, as shown in the movie reels, but the exotic machine was gone. It was a place of bare, hard concrete, of basic utilitarian structures, of pipes running exposed along the ceiling and heaps of discarded items.

 

Somebody had looted the base of many of its resources, leaving very little except for furniture, fittings and stuff they had obviously not found to be useful.

 

But Johnnie found something of surprising value being a set of encyclopaedias that spoke of an Alternate Earth that had a World War Two ending in the American's bombing of two Japanese cities with two nuclear weapons. Even as he handled them he felt a strange tingle of energies running through his body. The set of thirty-four books held a key to just what was happening. He sent them to OrbisTransZia and to the academic bubble-haven there where Tod was setting up various research projects.

 

The professor faced Johnnie and he spoke with obvious puzzlement. "You were one of those in the capsules."

 

Johnnie nodded. "Yes, in that Alternate Earth and others I was one who became part of various exotic, dangerous experiments. Help me get any other documents of the Alternate Earth that you used to belong to, the one that had no alien invasion of any kind to end World War Two."

 

So it was that Johnnie sent a calander, a science journal, a novel and a match-book to OrbisTransZia.

 

As for the shadowlings, the Beautiful Ones and the dark master entity, there was no sign of them except for a weak psychic trace of violence and other dark acts. Still, Johnnie called upon the Light and it cleansed that place just in case it was needed as shelter by others in the future.

 

Before they went from that place, Johnnie replicate-regenerated guns, knives and other useful items for his new followers. Only then did they set out with the professor holding his tommygun now with more confidence and skill than he had ever had before.

 

Soon he was once more in Murder Pass and they were on their way to TekVault0087.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

X-FILES REPORT (BRIEFING REPORTS) HISTORIES

X-FILE #789/551-ZQ2 R/REPORT INTERVIEWS, CONFIRMED 18 APRIL 1944

 

Interviews carried out with one hundred and twelve witnesses of 'relativity shift' experiences in which the individuals, most alone at the time but some in small groups, reported seeing and otherwise witnessing scenes from what can only be described as Alternative Histories or Alternate Earths. The experiences were not only amazingly vivid so as to be sharply remembered by the witnesses but were very consitant. These experiences were of mainly three worlds.

 

The first world, Alternate History-Earth #1, was another world that had been invaded by Aquatic Martians, tripocs, to cause the ending of World War Two and the start of a new global war. Yet there were important differences exposed even from the limited experiences and information gained from the witnesses. Unlike our own experiences, the tripoc invaders of this other world appear to be divided into two distinct forces of which one attacked humanity and the other fought against the invaders. The tripocs were of a different nature and utilised a different range of technologies than the tripoc invaders of our world are. The age of this world was about three hundred years after both the invasion and about two hundred years after a terrible catacysm called Doomsday. The period of history between the final victory of the tripoc invaders and their Enclaven allies appeared to be one of technological wonders and great progress but from the small amount of data gathered this can not be confirmed.

 

The second world, Alternate History-Earth #2, was a world invaded by two alien forces towards the end of World War Two, the zetans and the votans who were cousin peoples. They became each allies of a large and powerful faction of humans. The zetans became allied to the Nuclaven and the votans to the FreeUnion. As with our own world, there was a great exodus of peoples to what we call the ArkDomain with the assistance of an unknown alien force that created a series of teleport gates. On our world this exodus is still in the process of taking place but on that other world it was completed and the world was seemingly abandoned of all human and even alien life. Again the limits of the gathered data makes this last accessment questionable.

 

The third world, Alternate History-Earth #3, was a world where no alien invasion took place in the 1940s. Instead World War Two finally ended when the Americans bombed the nation of Japan with two atomic bombs. The world was in an era about sixty years after the end of World War Two where there had been many technological advancements and amazing achievements such as super fast jet aircraft, amazing thinking machines, a city built on the moon, a city built deep beneath the sea, advanced medical drugs, coloured 3D television and much else. Yet this world was also being invaded but this time by a multiple of bizarre and deadly forces. Again the limitations of the gathered data make it hard to assess just what was going on but there were witness reports of shambling hordes of zombies, of strange flying burning skulls racing through the air and great towering monsters. Yet witnesses also noted these creatures, as factions or as individuals, tended to fight each other as much as they did the humans of that world.

 

Note: Rest of briefing report lost.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

7 of 3 (068)

 

INTO THE 3D MAZE OF TRAPS, TRICKS AND TESTS

 

Leslielee found the entrance when the back wall of one of the hidden archival alcoves swung backwards slowly and to one side and then stopped, projected into a great big stone chamber lit by glowcrystal globes fused into the ceiling in a simple grid pattern. She stepped carefully into the big chamber and then walked across it. The floor was dotted with square holes fitting neatly into an invisible grid pattern and each with a ramp vanishing down beneath. It was evidently the entrance chamber to a large maze of some kind according to the symbolic maze symbols dotting the walls along with some basic explanations in the same language she had previously been reading.

 

:pirate: Aaahhh, there could be treasure hidden here

 

:sweat: Ooohhh, is it really worth it. I mean all those traps, tricks and tests

 

:yucky: Yeh, I hate traps, tricks and tests

 

:ninja: Ninja the traps, tricks and tests

 

:excl: Now please let Leslielee focus

 

Leslielee smiled for she liked the voices, the special voices that refected special entities. She walked around the edges of square pits and examined carefully small symbols, pictures and other clues. Sometimes what seemed just like a crack or a stain at first would turn out to be something of far more importance. She was not surprised when the entrance door closed behind herself. Then the many circular holes began to open in one wall, hundreds of them until each was one metre wide exactly. From these holes began to vomit jets of black insect creatures, each about the size of her hand, but there were hundreds of them.

 

Leslielee chose a pit, one of four closer to her, and jumped into it. She slid down the rampway even as the top of the pit closed up above her as a slab of metallic stone slid across quickly. Then she was making her way through a long tunnel that sloped downwards gently. The woman had escaped the slasherbees but somehow she knew it would not be the last time that they would threaten her. What was the purpose of the maze? She did not know as yet but clearly somebody had done a lot of work to put it into place.

 

The rampway ended in a great chamber walled one one side with a great NukaCola poster painted into the stone itself somehow. NukaColagirl was racing along in her kneeskirt and torso showing Ttop as she rode skates to serve folks in cars. On her tray was a icy cold bottle of NukaCola Original and she had a big wonderful smile, smooth warm skin and a slimly voluptuous body more tuned to an android than a real woman. But the smiling teenage boy in the car was a ghoul with horrifically distorted skin and in the background a nuclear mushroom cloud was rising into the sky. If that was not enough to deal with, a Martian battletripod was seen to be in the distance heat-beaming a building into a flaming explosion.

 

Fused into one wall was what looked like a normal NukaCola vending-machine complete with NukaColagirl holding a NukaCola Original in one hand and a glowing NukaCola Quantum in her other. Except that NukaCola vending-machines had all been mattacators, had seemingly created drinks, snacks, prizes and other items from energy combined with something called mattagen. Too bad they had also created nasty, highly toxic by-products.

 

Circular holes opened in the floor closer to the vending-machine and out of the three holes popped three teenagers who looked identical to the young roller skating waitress in the wall mural. They came fast at her, abnormally fast, and instead of trays with drinks they held .45 calibre tommyguns that they were holding with easy expertise. Leslielee sensed oddities in these creatures for though they existed, they did not live and yet they were not androids or the undead or anything else like them. No, these were projectons, or projections of quasireality. The three worked as one, two of them attempting to flank her as the middle one went straight for Leslie.

 

Leslie stood still until the very last moment and even as three tommyguns unleashed bursts of bullets at her, she leapt straight up into the air and drawing out a degeneriser rod with each hand, dropped down in a whirling motion to slash through each projection in turn. With a sharp, brief flash they each vanished away in a few seconds. Such devices were the most efficient way of destroying projectons.

 

There was a clapping noise and she turned just in time to see the black clad, pale skinned, Jumping Jack Flash vanish with a sharp smile and a mocking bow.

 

But an fair sized cube shaped alcove had appeared fairly close to the NukaCola mattacater and in that was a wire-teleport booth of the kind found on Johnnie's world. With a sparkling shimmer three of the Unityfolk appeared and hurried to her to make sure she was okay. They came with weapons and body-armour but there was no longer a threat in that big chamber. The Unityfolk were astonished by the big, strange mural and by the odd vending-machine. The circular holes in the floor had closed up.

 

She was reading some symbols she found at the bottom of the great mural as the Unityfolk bought up drinks, snacks, baseball caps, Tshirts, beach towels, inflatable NukaCola bottles, NukaColagirl figurines, NukaColagirl posters, NukaColagirl action-figures, NukaColagirl comic-books and NukaCola toy-trucks each full of a selection of small toys, sealed biscuits, a pen, a pencil, a writing pad and a random item. Why did they get all of this? Because they could and because they needed everything they could get and did not know what they might need in future.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

8 of 3 (069)

 

INTO THE JOINT INVESTIGATIONS, RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION CENTRE

 

Leslie gained some good kudos when she stopped the alien bomber but she also gained some suspicion from some who wondered if she was part of some kind of plot. Despite this she was given full access to the JIRE, the Joint Investigations, Research and Exploration Centre. The centre was a series of antechambers based around a big central chamber complete with raised platforms, rampways and hundreds of cubicles, archive storage units, bookcases, desks, computers, microfilm readers and much else besides. People from three worlds were there from Scribes and Sages of the Brotherhood of Steel to FreeAlliance and New FreeUnion specialists and also others.

 

The new FreeAlliance settlers and forces were focusing on populating the area known as the Savage Hopelands, a large area of the Great Northern Land and some big islands plus a small continent. Though large parts were arid or semi-arid with rock and ice, there were the strange volcanic warmed regions and almost tropical Basinlands. There was a small colony of people called Cyrodilins whose ancestors had come from a super continent far to the south known as Tamriel. They came from part of it known as Cyrodiil. These people had quasimedieval culture and technologies but also strange 'magical' abilities. Their ancestors had been an exploration expedition seeking secrets of the far north and somehow they had become both cursed and trapped in the far north.

 

It turned out that looking up at the skies, one could see two great moons of that world but also two celestial spheres. One of the moons were daedric domains but the spheres were gateway zones to yet other realms of Oblivionaedra but also to other realms of time-space including various Alternate Earths. The other moon was the domain of the Doomlords and the kaedra, ancient former daedra who now were great enemies of the daedra.

 

Mulder and Scully escorted Leslie parts big map-tables, past some people making models of the moons, down a corridor past many research cubicles and then past people examining the bones of various local creatures. Every body was busy and there was much quiet excitement in the air of people doing something that they enjoyed doing. Yet there was also pressure and tension for the specialists and their assistants were being pushed to find answers to many questions as quickly as they could with relatively few resources.

 

Then they were moving on through a hallway, past armed guards that both Mulder and Scully flashed IDbadges at, and then they were in a big chamber facing a metallic stone wall that was a portion of the kilometre high and wide cube. This was a part of the wall covered with a story of sorts but in the centre of it now was a darker square that was exactly three metres wide and high. It had appeared not so long ago and some it had been studied but so far nothing had been found about it that made it any different from the metallic stone area around it. Theories were little more than guesswork.

 

But as Leslie walked into the area a whole set of darker symbols began to emerge onto the surface of the square. They were a set of squares each with a pattern of dots and-or horizontal and-or vertical dashes in them. They filled a neat grid pattern that went a hundred boxes across and a hundred boxes down. Some of the small squares were actually empty.

 

Leslie walked right up to the symbols and scanned them but not from left to right horizontally and top to bottom row by row but top to bottom horizontally row by row going left to right. After a short moment she turned to the puzzled Mulder, Scully and some other specialists.

 

She spoke. "I helped to create this language. It is known as Squarego. It can be read it many ways. It can hold more than one message. It can hide truths behind falsehoods. It is a very flexible form of code but it is for writing and reading only. It started out as an amusement but it became part of various deadly games that led to much death and destruction. Now it is here and it shows that... I am not sure what it shows except that this is a door that can be operated by myself and a few others. It leads into-not-into the transdimensional trans-alternate cube. It can take us directly to the world where Jonnie is or land where Joannie is or to where Eddie is but so far not to where Bobbie is. Very interesting, very puzzling and clearly placed here for me to read."

 

Mulder spoke to her then. "What else does it say?"

 

Leslie sighed. "I am not going to say, not at least until I have had a chance to think about it. This door could easily be a nasty trap, a trick or even a weapon. Though I do not think so, I need to take care for the sake of your people, for the FreeUnion folks and for others as well as for myself. I need to sleep and then to meditate but firstly I will pass out some gifts."

 

So from her backpack she gave out compact, rounded off AVcubes of solid-state nature that recorded, played on one side as a screen, images and other data. She also handed out small containers of coffee powder, tea leaves, sugar, salt, butter, cocoa powder, wholemeal flour, milk powder and foodbars along with chocolate bars. Everything edible or drinkable was actually made from the same highly nutrional substance but was very realistic.

 

She had some foodbars, water and coffee before she slept and then sat meditating.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

9 of 3 (070)

 

SPEAKING OF THE CUBEGO MESSAGE

 

Leslie spoke to a carefully chosen group of people including Mulder and Scully. There were also people from other organisations including agents from Fringe of the FreeUnion folks. "The votans that invaded your world were not of the mainstream votan people. They are a rogue faction of criminals who their people and others are hunting for. They made a secret agreement with the zetans so as to invade, to carry out a mock war of sorts, and to drive all humans of that Alternate Earth to the so called ArkDomain. But these ubro-votans soon realized that they were being betrayed as the zetans kept destroying their flying-saucers. The zetans seemed to assume it was okay for them to destroy the votans but not for the ubro-votans to strike back. The ubro-votans not only began to strike back, destroying many zetan flying-saucers, but also decided to become truer allies and to come to Oblivionaedra to dwell here as they hope to hide here from those chasing them."

 

She went on. "Problem is you can not trust these ubro-votans as you could mainstream votan factions or their centrality, which is their form of factional focused government. You must keep a firm watch on them and never forget about their advanced but rather eccentric technologies."

 

Captain Olivana Dante of Fringe then spoke. "We have watchen them constantly. Fringe is one of those agencies that had the shared task of doing just that. We also gained captured items of their technology and other items from them but we had little luck in getting anything from them. Most of them self destructed."

 

Leslie nodded. "Zetans are less inclined to make their mad technologies secure but the votans are smarter and more logical, which would not be hard. The votans would always use technologies that are locked from being back engineered or otherwise having their secrets taken by others. You can more easily break into zetan technologies but as you may have discovered..."

 

Ovliana nodded. "That to do so is damned dangerous. Yes, we lost a few good people and a few greedy fools before we became more careful with zetan stuff."

 

Leslie went on speaking. "I can open a window instead of a door so that we can take a careful look before daring to open a gateway to anywhere."

 

There was some discussion and it was decided that Leslie should open a window onto a section of Centralia on the abandoned Alternate Earth that the FreeUnion had come from. So she did but as the square became a window like view of that world they were soon looking upon a landscape that was returning to wilderness where there was a scene of slowly crumbling buildings and a road becoming overgrown with greenery.

 

But then, suddenly, a four wheel drive machine came racing along the road with human soldiers in it and even as it did they were firing back at something chasing them with a heavy machinegun that chattered away. Yet there was something strange about the soldiers, something that was disturbing about the men and women. Then they all died as a great burning pulse of white-fire energies struck the machine and it vapourised in a very controlled blast of energy.

 

The CentroNeo globe of swirling yellow-white energies drifted swiftly through the air and halted to hover over the destroyed area. Then it began moving again as it on the hunt.

 

Somebody spoke. "It murdered those people."

 

Leslie sighed. "Those were not people but a kind of thinking zombie, a form of nasty lesser undead often called zombs instead of the typical shambing zombies. Zombs do not think like the humans they were. They are basically weak vampires that drink blood, eat flesh and drain life energies. But it seems that on that world the CentroNeo are burning them away. Zetans are hybrid Greytorv and humans, though not your kind of humans, and Greytorv are undeath genetically distorted folk. Where the zetans go, there is a good chance of undeath infection. Zetans themselves sometimes fall to this horror and are killed by other zetans or their own technologies such as robots."

 

Mulder spoke then. "Do the votans hold the same threat?"

 

Leslie shook her head. "Long ago the Greytorv came from the people known as the Silvertorv when the Greytorv, through their own arrogance, became genetically infected with the undeath. The Silvertorv created the votans to help them battle the Greytorv and the zetans, as well as to serve them semiautomomously. The votans still see the Silvertorv as their beloved parental leaders, or so goes the translation. One of the reasons I came to suspect the votan involvement in the invasions of that world was that the Silvertorv would not approve so any votans who did so would need to be 'alienated' from the Silvertorv. Please reveal yourself."

 

With a sparkling shimmer the votan did so and stood there for a few seconds before speaking. "It does not surprise us that you can detect us even in my-our trickeries of concealment. You are a Walker of Worlds. These humans do not begin to understand the implications of that and of your power and your vulnerability that is also a danger. We have learned, to our cost, that we were manipulated into becoming criminal deviants by the same force that wanted so many people brought here to Havenaedra to carry out a function. When we turned against the zetans, and vowed to make amends for our past crimes, to our surprise the Silvertorva contacted us. They told us that our supposed crimes were illusionary, that we had volunteered to be deluded so as to trick the manipulating force. We are now happily in full linkage with the Silvertorva again, blessed celestial parents."

 

Leslie nodded. "I have often visited with the Silvertorva and have worked with both them and you votans in the past."

 

"First you were our enemy and then you were a prisoner in the deepest of living hells but then you began to serve the Light." The votan nodded. "Silvertorva and votans do not directly serve the Light but we will work with you now and will choose to trust you."

 

Leslie nodded and then pulled out her pistol and shot the alien three times. The creature shuddered and fell dead to the floor. Everybody else leapt to their feet or cowered down. Leslie stood up and walked over to crouch next to the alien. She examined it carefully and then she cursed softly in a language unknown to the others.

 

Then she stood and, turning to the others, explained. "I was wrong! This is bad news. These are not just ubro-votans but but amazingly well crafted biologically synthetic copies of votans or votan replicants something like human-replicants found on the world of the Brotherhood of Steel but more advanced."

 

Sage Brother Traken spoke then. "We have developed ways to detect replicants but we did not detect these votans as being biologically synthetic."

 

Leslie shook her head. "Hopefully it should not matter. They were far fewer, I think now, than you were led to believe as inside their fake votan flying-saucers and other mechanisms there are most likely just zetans in control."

 

But she was wrong!

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[AliasTheory]

Hi, just commenting to say don't stop writing. I really like the varied chapters in between; they spice things up.

 

One thing that particularly bugs me is the incredibly similar sentence structure in certain portions, namely your conversational parts and dialog.

 

Leslie nodded. "Zetans are less inclined to make their mad technologies secure but the votans are smarter and more logical, which would not be hard. The votans would always use technologies that are locked from being back engineered or otherwise having their secrets taken by others. You can more easily break into zetan technologies but as you may have discovered..."

 

Ovliana nodded. "That to do so is damned dangerous. Yes, we lost a few good people and a few greedy fools before we became more careful with zetan stuff."

 

Leslie went on speaking. "I can open a window instead of a door so that we can take a careful look before daring to open a gateway to anywhere."

 

Johnnie frowned. "Normally such entities can not touch the living, let alone harm them. The machine must have disturbed local time-space conditions to allow something paranormal to get to you. Did you actually activacte the machine?"

 

The professor shrugged. "My memories are fragmented, blurred and blank in places. We completed it and it was ready for activation but then there was a rather harsh debate over if it should be switched on or not. The majority, plus myself, did not trust to activate the device considering all the strange and terrible things that had been happening but for other reasons the minority wanted the machine to be activated as soon as possible."

 

Johnnie nodded. "Let me guess, the minority were gaining from the strangeness; they were feeling younger, stronger, smarter, heathier and fitter. They were gaining exotic new abilities of varied types and strength depending upon the individual. They were getting stronger and more focused as the rest of you were becoming weaker and less able to deal with matters."

 

The ghost looked surprised. "Yes, I assumed that they were immune to the dark effects."

 

Johnnie shook his head. "No, they were causing many of the dark effects. They were becoming a kind of vampire, a type of false immortal, called the Beautiful Ones. Look around at all of the ghosts here, do you see any of the vampires here?"

 

The professor looked disturbed. "None of them are here but everybody else is. You mean these Beautiful Ones accidentally killed us?"

 

It is very redundant and although concrete, not very specific. How do they nod, for example? What are they doing while they are talking? Hand gestures, walking around maybe? It makes the characters seem very robotic and stiff if you know what I mean. Some added description to breathe some life into the characters would be nice. Your justification for this may be that you want to focus on the story they are trying to tell rather then themselves, but regardless I think this trend may need to go.

 

I prefer this overall story much more than Planet Fallout 13. I am a fan of the cyberpunk genre and you have a ton of great ideas with all this terminology. In this story you slowly ease the reader in, though in 13 you toss it in all at once. That threw me off.

Edited December 6, 2010 by AliasTheory