Walkers of Worlds

[Maharg67]

12 of 4 (096)

 

THE BLOODIED DUCHY OF CARVOHAGEN

 

The real Blades, Joannie and Grognak with some of his followers, left the GROGNAK'S PRIDE and moved slowly through a burned out, wrecked village. Dead, blood drained people and animals lay scattered in places but so did the burned remains of some vampires, zombies and other such creatures. Amongst the dead were human soldiers of the Carvohagen Guard who had been, it seemed, poorly equipped, trained and paid. Yet most of them had died fighting hard.

 

In the sunlight they burned bodies as one did under such conditions and they found some survivors hidden in underground pits, being mostly some women and more children. Finding surviving animals and fixing up two wagons, they looted what they could and then began taking the survivors of the village with them to the next village.

 

The survivors had an odd story to tell. It seemed that the attackers had been vampires but that they were not those of the Duchess. Instead vampires serving the Duchess had come to defend the village only to be overwhelmed. Somehow the vampires of the Duchess had been smarter but weaker than the vampires that attacked both them and the village. To Joannie the simple truth that the Duchy vampires were false vampires, had come to her. The Duchy vampires used arcane magical weapons, arcane spell-powers and exotic magic to summon zombies with. The attackers came using their fangs, claws and powerful twisted bodies only.

 

This would go nicely with the way that the Twelth did things as it created a falsehood with some credence to it.

 

But the next village, though it had been larger and better fortified with more guards, was even worse. Only in a large stone basement chamber did they find any survivors and most of these were children. There had been an even bigger battle between the two kinds of vampires. Hordes of zombies had been summoned to fight each other but the zombies summoned by the Duchy vampires were not true zombies at all but animated dolls, making them fewer but tougher than the other zombies. Mages had helped to defend the village but they were too few and not powerful enough to make any real difference. The larger village fell and there was much horrific slaughter.

 

Joannie made her decision and she called upon the Light in that and then in the previous village. Thus it was that Joanner appeared in the first village and at once called upon the Light. In both villages the Light flashed outwards and though Joannie-Joanner felt a little drained, she felt elation and a lighening of being. Most souls moved on but a few returned as human, psychic, light or life elementors. Some animals returned as life elementors. The elementors all gathered to Joanner in the smaller village.

 

Joannie and Joanner slept in the sunlight, absorbing energy directly from the sun. Such as sunburn was not a danger they faced.

 

It appeared that the Twelth had somehow insulted some powerful force of the living-dead, if not of the true undeath. Could it have been the Thirteenth who had struck, the dark force that had called itself the ShadowElder? Joannie had her doubts but she had no real solid idea. Joanner was too new to fully make such decisions.

 

They met up briefly in a large abandoned fort and there was begun a new fortified settlement. It would be a gathering place for survivors from other attacked settlements. The Blades would become the garrison there until replacement forces came or so was the hopeful plan. For a while Joanner would remain there in the settlement.

 

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

THE THIRTEEN

 

BOBBIE, he-she

 

EDDIE, he

+ EddieRa, he

 

JOANNIE, she

+ Joanner, she

 

JOHNNIE, he

+ JohnnieJo, he

 

DIBBIE, she neobaby

 

TAMMIE

 

TOMMIE

 

TASSIE

 

THE TENTH, expression of imagination

 

THE ELEVENTH, expression of invention

 

THE TWELTH, expression of humanity

 

THE THIRTEENTH, expression of sharp emotions, of rage, of darkness

 

Edited December 23, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

45 of 1 (097)

 

LITTLE LAMPLIGHT NOT SO LITTLE ANY MORE

 

The child like JohnnieJo watched as the last of the Super87s marched into the big cavern chamber that was now the centre of their new home. Supermutants they were but the Little Lamplighters made them welcome for they were friendly supermutants willing to defend the Little Lamplighters to the death. Lucy was there, as was Mayor MacCready, Penny and Princess. The Charmed Sisters were elsewhere running errands and there were only a few motherbots and BigSibling androids in the chamber.

 

So far over two hundred Little Lamplighters had been sent to live in OrbisTransZia and some had grown into adults since they had gotten there. They were having children of their own, were making things, growing things, designing things and organising things. They sent manufactured items to Little Lamplight every time children went to OrbisTransZia, a smoother way to use the teleportation technologies. They had even been sending newer improved models of motherbots and new sisterbots and brotherbots along with popular gamebots. Tod was very popular and influential in the new settlements but he spent most of his time in the academic bubblehaven of OrbisTransZia. He had his own research team of former Little Lamplighters but others studied in the academic zone that had nothing to do with him or his.

 

Disturbing reports had come from the Greening Studies Team about Tod and his followers. Tod had carefully chosen his followers to be those most loyal to him. Then the group had become fairly isolated in one of the more obscure complexes inside the academic bubblehaven. JohnnieJo had learned quickly, through OrbisZiaMind, that the complex was the Enhancement and Extension Life Studies Centre. So Tod seemed to be seeking knowledge of how to enhance himself in various ways and even to become an immortal of some sort.

 

Or was the truth so straight forward?

 

Contact had been made with Big Lamplight. It had been attacked by both Enclavers and Berskergers but had thrown off both attacks quite well. This was partly because a force of Brothers of Steel, in power armour, had arrived to assist the settlement. This had not only been soldiers but also some sappers and other specialists. The Brotherhood of Steel had added turrets to the defences, had improved the defences in other ways and had then hit the enemy with smartchainguns, quadlaunchers, heavy assault rifles, grenade autorifles and recoilless assault rifles. The Beskergers and Enclavers had both suffered heavily in their attacks, both being taken by surprise: the Brothers of Steel had been careful to keep themselves and their works hidden until they attacked the attackers.

 

Clansfolk had absorbed the Guidemara Tribals as a semiautonomous group but it was well known that the Clansfolk had the real power in the relationship.

 

Clansfolk forces had expanded Clansfolk territorial control in some areas and SheGaroTuill had become once more a mjaor Clansfolk settlement as they had repopulated the wall city and other caverns around it. They had also occupied the temples of SheGaroTuill but only a few were allowed to go into that place. A large force of Clansguardia was now placed in SheGaroTuill along with a whole dragon pride.

 

Lost Lamplight was still out of contact. Large groups of Berskergers were active in that direction, being heavily armoured and armed but also backed up by big clumsy but heavily armoured robots designed to fight besides supermutants. Also savage Tribals seemed to be on the warpath in those areas. Other reports came of even stranger creatures than the supermutants being active.

 

Since Johnnie had departed to go to TekVault0087, JohnnieJo had been very busy at Little Lamplight with the assistance of the Chosen Sisters but it was coming to a point where there was not much more he could do there. He planned to go to OrbisTransZia and to investigate what Tod was really up to.

 

Which was when the soft sparkling shiver went through everything and everybody but no harm was done at all.

 

Motherhub spoke to JohnnieJo through a 2way implant. "A very massive object has appeared in a very large cavern below and south of Little Lamplight. I suggest that you investigate at once."

 

THE GREAT TRANSDIMENSIONAL CUBE, A MERCHANT AND SANTA

 

So JohnnieJo got some LittleLamplighters, some Super87s, androids and robots, including some dogs of course, and the expedition set out. Tunnels had been altered somehow with out causing any harm to caverns or life. A big tunnel went straight from LittleLamplight right to the great glowcavern and in that cavern now stood, half a kilometre above the floor for it was half buried in rock, the Great Transdimensional Cube. For it was the very same one of metallic stone.

 

A Mystrya Merchant was waiting patiently there to begin selling free tradecredit stuff to the LittleLamplighters but he was not alone for SantaClause himself was there but though he wore red it was in the form of power armour and he was far from fat, being broad of shoulders. Still he had a white beard and a jolly face. His sled was an armoured hoversled and there were elf-androids on sentry duty around the hoversled. Yet he also had big sacks full of beautiful wrapped gifts, each with a name of a LittleLamplighter or another on it.

 

SantaClause was the Tenth. He laughed a rather jolly laugh and then gave JohnnieJo a big colourful wrapped box. JohnnieJo sensed it was important that he open it soon and inside was revealed a small, leather bound book with a silver metallic pen inseted into a kind of pouch in the spine of the journal. Inside were notes, diagrams and other words of Tod who seemed to be trying to work out something with much intensity but it was not the work of a lowly mortal. No, these were the works of a super genius like Johnnie himself and JohnnieJo knew who it was.

 

SantaClause and Grognak the Barbarian were both of the Tenth of the Thirteen.

 

Tod was Bobbie and had always been Bobbie.

 

But how had Bobbie managed such a trick and why had he bothered to do so? Why had he hidden the truth from the others?

 

The gift was from Bobbie, according to the tag, and had been intended for JohnnieJo himself. But the tag indicated that JohnnieJo should remain at LittleLamplight where he was truly needed and not go to OrbisTransZia for it was too dangerous there.

 

Edited January 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

46 of 1 (098)

 

DEEPER INTO TEKVAULT0087

 

In theory TekVault0087 had been built in a careful process of staged manufacture but like many TekVaults the reality had been a rush as the Patriot Government, the Enclaven and the TekCorporations realised that soon war would break out between them and the Martians. Or so went the story that most people accepted. So each TekVault was made up of one or two main vaults, subvaults, semivaults, demivaults and structures with out any real official names. After departing from the Tekkers, the three of them went through a ruined 'semisubvault' with water pouring in through a broken hole in one wall and with many areas completely underwater. Tekkers had already salvaged much of what had been there while much was ruined or unreachable.

 

Johnnie was leading the others along a hallway with water flowing along it about a centimetre deep, when he sensed something odd ahead. Carefully he signalled the others to slow and then he was peering around a corner and through a doorway. What he saw was a big surprise. The creature was a supermutant but was humming happily to its self and was standing, hulking, in a crude pink dress made from curtains. On the counter in front of the happy jolly supermutant were three neobabies in vault-jumpsuits. It was a nice scene but the supermutant did have a sledgehammer and a ten gauge lever-action shotgun lying on the counter also.

 

Tammie stepped into the chamber and spoke. "Hello there."

 

The supermutant turrned and after a slight pause she beamed. "Hello, I am Miss Missy. This is Podgie, Nodgie and Wodgie. We are about to have lunch. Would you care for some radroach pie or would you prefer SPAM on toasted breadbiscuits?"

 

Tammie looked around the big chamber that had water flowing over the floor but only in a shallow fashion. "What are you doing here, in this wet place?"

 

Miss Missy gave a great sigh. "Berskergers get more and more every day. Berskergers get more than they should. Professor Smarty says they should only be few for they only capture few humans. Professor Smarty says they can not use ghouls. Professor Smarty is a supermutant massemoth like me."

 

Another big supermutant strode into the chamber, splashing the water with his large boots, and then stopped to study the newcomers through large glasses that had no lens. Otherwise he wore a huge Tshirt marked MR SMARTY IS ALWAYS SMART and rough trousers. He was holding a stack of waterproof plastipaper PreDD books. Then he spoke. "I am Professor Smarty and I have been pondering many smart things. I am going to study these books, I am. Please be welcome to our humble and temporary abode. Berskergers chased us out of our real home. Others of our group are out seeking good things to eat."

 

Johnnie stepped further into the room and behind him came the Brother of Steel with his big weapon lowered.

 

But as soon as Johnnie did so he was struck by what looked and sounded like bolts of sparkling purple electricity that came out of the floor plating and through the water. With a cry of pain he was hurled backwards right through the doorway and such was the force that he took the other with him. Johnnie landed on his feet, stood up and then just sighed. He was not angry or afraid. He knew just who had attacked him. It was her, the little neobaby sister that he and the others of the Five had betrayed.

 

With a soft groan the Brother of Steel stood up and then he spoke. "Wow, what was that?"

 

"Dibbie, or at least one aspect of her. She is a neobaby but a very powerful one. She is my sister." Johnnie wondered what he should do but then decided to take another chance. This time nothing happened as he went into the room. The power armoured soldier followed more warily and Johnnie sensed he was puzzled.

 

Johnnie put his backpack on the counter and started to take out small gifts and carefully stacking them on the same counter. Tammie was smiling sweetly at him. It was then that an odd thought went through Johnnie's mind but he kept it to himself, shielded it carefully from others.

 

Tammie spoke. "Dibbie is still angry with you, then."

 

Johnnie nodded. "So it would seem but not enough to give me a second bolt." He looked around at the others and stepped over to the three neobabies that seemed sleepy, their chins resting on their chests. He picked them up and cuddled them again to himself. They snuggled against him and now they went to sleep with blissful smiles on their faces. "The Light works in mysterious ways."

 

Tammie nodded. "In many varied and mysterious ways."

 

He turned and gave Tammie a mild grin. "A saying of those who are followers of the Lord and Ladies of the Light. The Lord and Ladies of the Light serve the Light but they are not the only ones who do so and not all do so the same as the Lords and Ladies of the Light do. Interesting."

 

Tammie frowned softly. "And your point is?"

 

Johnnie snapped his fingers and both Miss Missy and Professor Smarty fell asleep standing up, their heads falling forward so that their chins rested on their chests. "You call yourself an arch-angel but I am not sure I believe you. The Lord and Ladies of the Light are arch-angels but they can not create arch-angels."

 

Tammie then smiled again. "We three are the Lord and Ladies of the Light. Tommis is the Lord of the Light. Tassie and I are the Ladies of the Light. So we are arch-angels. Perhaps you can tell me why you sent the supermutants to sleep."

 

Johnnie sighed. "Dibbie would not intentionally harm them but she can be quite demanding and they would need the rest. Did the Light make you into arch-angels or did you choose that role for yourselves? Perhaps you can tell me what Tassie, Tommie and yourself are really up to."

 

Tammie frowned. "The Light made us what we now are and what of your five, you say you serve the Light now but how did this come about and how is it that you also serve the CentroPyro? What are Bobbie, Eddie, Joannie, Leslie and yourself up to?"

 

It was not the time or place to work such things out. There was a far more immediate concern that was effecting the supermutants and the neobabies there. Was it really Dibbie or was there something else influencing the small exotic group, that was draining energies from them?

 

MAKING HER HAPPY

 

Yes, something was there and it had been manipulating the neobabies and supermutants with mixed results but it was slipping away. It was not truly dangerous or even dark, just angry, and Johnnie reached out to it for it to stay. He was gently but firmly rebuffed, was pushed back. At least there was no purple lightening this time.

 

The three checked the chamber and found some status stored resouces and other stored resources. There were MREs, boxcans of breadbiscuits, boxcans of CRAM, bottles of CoolaCola, three 10zz pulsepistols, a 10mmCS autopistol, coffee mugs, a NukaCola biscuit toytruck full of biscuits and some more. It was clear that a wide range of items had been salvaged from other places and had been brought there but by whom?

 

Johnnie knew that he needed to do something. He had to save Fawkes and yet he did not want to leave Dibbie by herself for she would take this as abandonment for she was lurking in the background observing his actions. When the idea came it turned out to be both complicated and yet basic.

 

Johnnie departed with Tammie, along with the bemused Brother of Steel, Ron, but behind remained the new neobaby named JohnnieJoker. JohnnieJoker was an aspect of Johnnie but he was also a happy, chubby muscular neobaby. But he was not alone for Tammie left behind TammieAe, an aspect of herself, to help with the situation of dealing with that aspect of Dibbie.

 

Edited January 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

THE THIRTEEN

 

BOBBIE, he-she

+ Tod?

 

EDDIE, he

+ EddieRa, he

 

JOANNIE, she

+ Joanner, she

 

JOHNNIE, he

+ JohnnieJo, he

+ JohnnieJoker, he neobaby

 

DIBBIE, she neobaby

 

TAMMIE

+ TammieAe, she

 

TOMMIE

 

TASSIE

 

THE TENTH, expression of imagination

+ Grognak the Barbarian

+ SantaClaus

 

THE ELEVENTH, expression of invention

 

THE TWELTH, expression of humanity

+ Duchess Elaine Tarada, vampire

 

THE THIRTEENTH, expression of sharp emotions, of rage, of darkness

+ ShadowElder

+ ShadowLord

 

[Maharg67]

25 of 2 (099)

 

WATCHING THE PIT

 

He stood on the tray back of the old farmtruck and looked out over the ocean, the young officer who had watched the dragon die fighting a few months back (017) when it seemed nothing could hold back the Aquatic Martians and their treacherous Enclaven allies. That had been just at the moment of the arrival of the Brotherhood of Steel from another Alternate Earth and the shift in the balance of power that had changed the outcome of the Battle of Golden Greens from a quick defeat to a slow defeat.

 

The lieutenant knew now fully that he was an aspect of Eddie and that Eddie had put him into the field to be a more passive observer of what was really going on out in Golden Greens. A lot of people had assumed that the best place to invade Centralia was through Golden Greens and this was true in some ways but there was one even better place and that had been ignored. So why had the Aquatic Martians and Enclaven struck from the coast and across Golden Greens towards the obstacles of the Little Lamplight Mountains and other rises?

 

Lieutenant Eddemo was disguised in farmer's gear, was with a farmtruck and was hidden in a grove of trees. Around him were FreeAlliance Special Forces soldiers of the British Imperial Special Air Service, the BISAS. They were enhanced and augmented now to be even better soldiers than they had once been. Eddemo was an aspect of a Walker of Worlds and needed no such enhancements or augmentations.

 

They were observing a great pit being dug by great heavy, slow workertripods designed not for fighting but for a wide variety of more peaceful tasks. They were digging up dirt, bits of rubble, rusting car bodies and much else with amazing speed and efficiency. Tripocs in worker power-armour were there also, were assisting in large teams, as were bigger swarms of hybrid tripoc-human tripohumans. Battletripods were doing sentry duty along with tripoc and tripohuman soldiers.

 

Eddemo was not just interested in the pit itself but in the Martians for some were exposing themselves had they had never done before. Except that these huge brain things were not tripocs. They were bigger, clumsier, and they were fitted with mindcaps. They were under the control of another force! At first he had considered that they might be using the strange webwork metallic mindcaps to control others but something, he was not sure what, told him otherwise.

 

So the tripocs were the Martians but not the only Martians of the Aquatic Martian invasion. These bigger creatures floated in big armaglass globes full of watergas and as Eddemo studied them he knew a good name for them was super-tripocs for they were like a much larger version of a tripoc. They were being controlled by another powerful entity and through them the tripocs and the tripohumans. Just what was that entity, how had it taken control of these Aquatic Martians and why was the huge pit being dug?

 

He sent three carrier pigeons to his Special Operations Command and also two soldiers on light rough road motorbikes to make sure. The FreeAlliance had to know that the old assumptions about the Martian Invaders were false, were dangerous, and that though the enemy were withdrawing from Centralia, that what was happening in that pit could easily be hazardous to the FreeAlliance.

 

DEEP CONCERNS

 

The response from command was surprisingly quick and forceful. Marshal Monty Montgomory, the Commander of the BISAS, came himself and brought soldiers, specialists and some odd folk like some Clansfolk scouts and small, fast, agile scout-dragons. It was the Clansfolk who spoke of the pit going down into a far edge of the great known Lamplight Caverns, she called them the GoddessLight Caverns, and towards an ancient city of nine great pyramids that one Professor Quartamain. The Nine Pyramids of the Grand Golden Caverns could easily be taken as tombs or temples, as were found in other parts of the world, but they were not. No, they were an ancient form of power generation system but not of electricity; they generated a kind of synthetic psychic energy that was supposed to have given its controllers, its users, great powers and immortality. Instead it had turned them into monsters who had soon gone savagely insane, turning on each other and butchering each other. Thankfully the secret of how to activate the pyramids had long been deliberately lost and yet why would the controlled Martians be going down to the pyramids if they could not activate them.

 

Now the strong possbility of the Aquatic Martians being puppets of some other power had arisen, the FreeAlliance Government and High Command was forced to reconsider policies and stratagies. The Clansfolk also had to decide what to do. The big break through was that now many people realised that too many assumptions had been made about the Martians and the Martian Invasion. What did this say about the Enclaven?

 

Military forces of the Clansfolk already existed at the Nine Pyramids of the Grand Golden Caverns but they were hardly large enough to drive off such a large force as was burrowing down towards them through the ever expanding pit. Reinforcements had to be sent at once.

 

Eddemo was promoted to rank of Captain for this and other successful missions. He should have been promoted a long time ago but he had caused jealousy and foolishness amongst some of his surperior officers. Now he sat drinking a tin mug of tea but with nothing showing he was a captain because he did not want to make himself into a favoured sniper target. From where he sat he could see the Martian pit in the distance. Strangely enough the Martians were poor soldiers in some ways. They never seemed to put out scouts or patrols but relied on their large forces simply overwhelming anything that might surprise them. The Enclaven fought in the traditional human manner and were damned good soldiers.

 

Which was when he heard the odd sound and looked up to see coming down out of a sky a great big alien flying-saucer. Not as huge as a zetan mothership or as small as a zetan saucerboat, it was a saucership large enough to be called a daughtership. It was identical to a mothership but was a third of its size. What were zetans doing there? Just what was going on?

Edited December 23, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

26 of 2 (100)

 

BATTLE OF THE PIT

 

FreeAlliance aircraft attacked the daughtership in careful formations and were blasted from the sky until they learned to come in more wild, zigzagging and taking the imagination lacking zetans by surprise. Jets were still fairly few but new missiles struck the side of the great big saucer and some got past the deflection fields. Problem was the daughtership was heavily armoured and dotted with small to huge robotic ball-turrets spitting disintegration beams.

 

Zetan interceptors, Z-interceptors, were sleek looking saucers but they were designed more to work in the vacuum of space and were a little clumsy flying through the air. Their deflection fields and rayguns, along with fairly heavy armour, did not stop them being shot down in such large numbers that the zetans stopped sending them out. FreeAlliance troops arriving on the ground captured some lightly crashed Z-interceptors and their zetan crews only to find that the zetans were wearing metallic webwork mindcaps, that they were enslaved.

 

Eddemo led a large force of BISAS and other soldiers across the broken landscape on the edge of the pit. Fighting was already going on there and it was not until they came upon Clansguardia troopers in power armour and savage fighting dragons, that they understood who were attacking the enemy forces on the ground. Zetans were there, pouring out of teleport-pods in silvery spacesuits and firing raygun pistols or rifles. With them came floating dronebots firing either one heavy raygun cannon or two lighter raygun cannons. With the zetans came zetan-human abominations now programmed to wear body-armour and to use basic weapons like strange looking axe-guns.

 

Martians were there fighting, of course, be they tripocs or tripohumans, but a madness had taken them and they were fighting the zetans as along with everybody else. If some dark PuppetMaster force was controlling both the Martians and the zetans, it was doing a poor job of it.

 

Eddemo shot down a zetan with his submachine that fired special 9mm calibre bullets. Then he grabbed up its dis-rifle and struck down two more zetans. For all of their advanced technologies, zetans were not a very skilled military people. They tended to use adapted tools to fight with and went to battle in the same spacesuits and shimmersuits that they worked in. Even the rayguns were adapted tools used in mining and construction projects.

 

Then, briefly, he saw the other Eddie, not the real Eddie but a mirror reversed Eddie, standing over three dead Clansguardia soldiers in his own blood red power armour and holding a massive swordgun that he had killed the Clansfolk with. The false Eddie leered at Eddemo and spoke in a distorted voice. "The game is not over yet. The game has only just begun. In the cube is the cube that itself is in the cube. Break the cube and billions will die. Play the game and loose to the real Thirteen."

 

Then the ShadowEddie was gone.

 

The fighting continued for five seconds and then the Martians all began to collapse and the zetans to escape. Commands rang out and the humans let the zetans go back to their daughtership. Then the daughtership was soaring off into the sky.

 

It was not known then but the Martian Invasion was over. Across the world the Martians had collapsed and lay dying. Many were killed in revenge attacks by humans or by animals or exposure but realising the Martians had been victims, the FreeAlliance tried to capture as many as possible and spread the truth. The Enclaven captured many Martians and began to experiment on them or put them away into storage in big banks of status-capsules. They openly stated so to the FreeAlliance, showing no loyalty to the Martians as they had showed no loyalty to humanity.

 

Eddemo began to call upon the Light for healing and even for the rising of elementors.

 

MELTED PYRAMIDS

 

While the FreeAlliance, including the Clansfolk, were diverted to the surface with their main effort, nine strange figures had entered The Grand Golden Caverns of the Nine Pyramids and had destroyed the The Nine Pyramids of the Grand Golden Caverns. The few Clansfolk and others there had managed to get away as the nine gathered together and evoked first three other entities and they in turn had evoked yet another. From them had come terrible destructive forces and the great pyramids had melted downward and outwards from them.

 

It had been an incredible use of an amazing amount of raw destructive power.

 

Why the ShadowOnes had done this was far from obvious. No attempt at all had been made to use the dark, twisted powers of the ancient pyramids.

 

The Clansfolk were not sorry to see the Nine Pyramids destroyed for now none could use them. They also admitted that the Nine Pyramids had once been taken over in more recent years, about three and a half years ago, by a strange force of intruders, including what seemed to be teenagers, who had activated the Nine Pyramids just briefly. It had only been for a few seconds but the energy released had been amazing. Yet after the intruders had vanished the Clansfolk had come in stronger numbers to find that nothing had apparently changed.

 

Eddemo stood in the great cavern and as he did so he knew that it had been the Nine who had forced their way into the cavern, had forced the Clansfolk to leave, and had then run and experiment with the Grand Nine Pyramids. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but it had somehow gone very wrong. It came to Eddemo also that the Nine Pyramids had been destroyed in an attempt to hide the truth but that in this case the attempt had not only failed, it had backfired.

 

Eddemo sighed sadly and then he requested the major intervention of the Light. There was a great 'explosion' of the Light, a great sweeping glow that did the opposite of harming anybody or anything. Eddemo had asked for a great deal and as the Light swept through him, he paid the ultimate price and ceased to exist.

 

The Nine Grand Pyramids of the Light glowed translucent crystal and hummed softly. They had a new purpose now and nobody could control them even as they did what they had to do. That is they began to help to undo the damage that had been done but not by the teenagers or the one neobaby. No, they had been but puppets of some ancient, far darker force.

[Maharg67]

27 of 2 (101)

 

EDDIE FACING UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS

 

"So none of it was true." Eddie carefully painted the soup-bowl as he sat in the pottery workshop of the estate. He was doing it in what was called a neoClansfolk style. "And yet it was true. We have been away for three and a half years in a kind of isolated real but not real reality. Walkers of Worlds, yes and no. Arch-angels, yes and no. Dibbie of course, also. I miss him."

 

His mother sighed. "Dibbie has been here always in the form of Ongry." She indicated the neobaby who was happily trying to hammer a square wooden peg into a round hole; he knew it would not fit but was having fun anyway. "You say there are the false mirror opposites of yourselves so perhaps it has been the false Dibbie who has been attacking you."

 

"Do not know." Eddie finished the beautifully done bowl, he had painted it but others had made it on a potter's wheel, and put it down carefully. He then picked up Ongry and blew into his belly button causing much waving of legs and arms, along with some chortling noises.

 

The war was over and the demand for everyday domestic goods was growing but such bowls were being given to the many refugees living in the Lamplight Caverns below Lamplight Town. The Enclaven had declared it was interested in dominating Europe, North Africa and Britain only. It had chosen to rule the very same territories as the Roman Empire had plus Ireland. The Martians on the land were now being gathered up as mostly corpses but rogue triphumans were starting to be a real problem. The Martians in the oceans had suffered greatly when the force that had been controlling them, turned against them for some unknown reasons, but the survivors were building a newer, more peaceful civilization that wished to join the FreeAlliance.

 

Except Eddie had a strong sense that the troubles were not really over and the Enclaven and FreeAlliance seemed to agree for they were keeping up strong military forces, were going ahead with many research and development programs though those were not all about weapons, far from it. Aeroships were now being constructed in Centralia and by the Enclaven. The gateways in Centralia were still open to what had falsely been called the ArkDomain and was now known correctly as Oblivionaedra but now the flow had lessened and was going both ways.

 

Ongry was put down next to a sleepy Jassy and was licked by the black dog.

 

"Now that we know that what we thought of as being real is... not so real... we have to rethink things and form new plans." He shrugged. "I will remain here at the Estate. EddieRa will continue to carry out various missions in and around Lamplight Town with the help of Hanna. Oh, Hanna is actually an aspect of Bobbie as was Tod." He paused and picked up a clay figurine, examining it to see how he would paint it. "The Arkanus has always been part of OrbisTransZia."

 

Pearlisa nodded. "We Clansfolk know of OrbisTransZia and that the Arkanas was part of it. We have always known that we had become part of what was not a total reality, that we were not totally real and that the same was true for the worlds we dwelt on and other aspects of those worlds. Yet it was not just nine teenagers who did all of this. You were manipulated into doing so except that both the Dibbie and Bobbie had more doubts than the rest of you. Tammie, Tommie and Tassie were too eager to make the world into a better place. Joannie, Johnnie, Leslie and yourself just wanted to prove yourself to a world that largely misunderstood and feared you for your super genius and other amazing talents. Bobbie sent us this and other information. That is he-she sent information to some of us and helped turn us against the madness of the Twelve Clans and the ClanGuilds."

 

Then she sighed. "The CentroGuardianship and CentroPyro really do exist as does the whole CentroCentrollis. They stepped in at the terrible moment when new worlds were created by interference with various natural forces. They created Centralia and they restructured and solidified the falsely created Alternate Earths created by the Nine in that foolish moment. There were created Nine Alternate Earths but one was destroyed and one was abandoned by the FreeUnion to be taken over by CentroCentrollis. The Brotherhood of Steel who came to intervene in the Battle of Golden Greens came from the Alternate Earth that was destroyed. Then there is this Alternate Earth and the Alternate Earth that Johnnie is on. We have little knowledge of the others except that one seems to be an Alternate Earth that was never invaded by aliens, be they Martians or zetans."

 

Eddie put the figure down and studied a row of paint jars to figure out just what colours he would need or if he would need to do some mixing. "There are three other realms and then one other. Oblivionaedra is one of the Three."

 

She nodded. "Yes! CubeTrans is another and OrbisTransZia is yet another of the Three. The Thirteen Realm remains a mystery."

 

"Bobbie has indeed told you much. Too bad he did not tell us this." Eddie frowned and then shook his head. "No, that is unfair. Bobbie tried to tell us the truth but we ignored Bobbie. Something bad happened to Bobbie and Dibbie."

 

His mother shook her head. "Bobbie would not or could not tell us the whole of what happened but we did get the impression that the ancient dark force manipulating the nine of you, attacked Dibbie savagely and Bobbie moved between them, got the great brunt of the attack. Despite this, Dibbie was badly hurt. The rest of you were also harmed but you became deluded and lost as both Bobbie and Dibbie did not. Dibbie became very angry with you and some aspects of him still are. We have to get you back to being normal teenagers, including a teenage neobaby of course."

 

Eddie looked puzzled. "So why were we Nine brought back here in such a way?"

 

Pearlisa shrugged. "That is a question that I have no easy answer to."

 

AN UNEXPECTED ATTACK

 

EddieRa sat on the grass of a small public park in Lamplight Town and opened a bottle of iced tea. He took a long drink, sighed and turned to look at Hanna. She was opening the picnic basket and was looking through its contents, which were invisible to him. They were in a secluded spot and alone. He was happy for it to be so. He had seen more than enough mixing with folks recently and a break was gone.

 

He spoke. "So you are an aspect of Bobbie?"

 

Hanna nodded. "Yes, an aspect of Bobbie." She took out an apple and put it on a small mat that was on the grass. "I did not even know the truth myself until recently. It took some time to get used to the truth. It changed my life. My marriage ended when my new abilities forced me to see what a cheating monster my husband was. I was drawn here, to Lamplight Town, and left behind my friends and my family."

 

Eddie nodded. "You could return to them."

 

She shook her head. "No, the Enclaven killed them when some of their jet-bombers struck the refugee camp that my people were in."

 

"That is sad." He looked around at the trees. "There has been too much suffering. Could you pass me an apple, please."

 

But instead she took out a small box with a thin cable leading back into the basket and on the box a single red button with a safety catch over it. Hanna had lost her smile. "Really, who ever said I wanted to be an aspect of Bobbie or really wanted to come to Lamplight Town. I should have died with my family and friends. You are not Eddie, only EddieRa, but this will teach you all a lesson that you badly need."

 

EddieRa sighed. "This is a meaningless and negative gesture that indicates your mind is being manipulated by some other force. This indicates that Bobbie really must be in a bad way."

 

Then he leapt with amazing speed and agility towards Hanna but all she had to do was to press the button and to detonate the two mininukes stored in the bag of the kind found on Johnnie's Alternate Earth. There was a horrible small nuclear explosion, killing some trees, some small animals, some grass, but amazingly enough not anybody else. Being fusion weapons, the mininukes created no fallout. But EddieRa and Hanna were both vapourised.

 

Eddie fell into a coma, dropping but being caught by his mother.

 

Field Marshal Ambrass, Field Marshal Rommel and Professor Oppemhamma also fell into coma states.

 

THIS IS THE END OF STORY #2 BUT EDDIE WILL BE RETURNING

 

[Maharg67]

IT WAS LIKE WAKING UP FROM A DREAM THAT, WHILE ONE WAS DREAMING, SEEMED GOOD BUT WHEN ONE WAS AWAKE AND LOOKING BACK AT IT, DID NOT SEEM SO GOOD AFTER ALL.

[Maharg67]

16 of 3 (102)

 

BACK TO CUBETOWN

 

Leslie had felt the attack on Eddie, through EddieRa, and was not pleased. She returned to Cubetown only to learn that the FreeAlliance there had fully and finally absorbed the FreeUnion. Frostfall Bay was conquered by FreeAlliance forces. Field Marshal Ambrass had been a major reason for this important victory against the Nuclaven but he was now in a coma for reasons unknown to FreeAlliance medical specialists. They were sending him to Cubetown where a large underground hospital with many specialist wards was being established. Leslie intended to help the Field Marshal who was an aspect of Eddie himself.

 

Hordafolk had been seen moving, in barely organised war-parties, across the icelands to the east. They were of varied kinds of creatures, including odd humans, and they were amazingly aggressive, fanatically loyal to their gods and on the surface of it seemed primitive with riding animals, swords and such like. But when FreeAlliance military recon forces had encountered them, they had soon learned of magic and the power of exotic monstrous creatures.

 

American Marines and Anzacs were fighting to defend the FreeAlliance Outpost of Frozen Luck against Hordafolk. The Hordafolk soon learned to fear heavy machine fire, rocket-grenadees and soldiers in power armour armed with heavy-autorifles that fired the same 12.7mm calibre of bullets as did the heavy machineguns. Despite this and the use of other weapons like howitzers, cannons, medium machineguns, autorifles and flamers, the outpost was under heavy pressure. Italian and Canadian soldiers were being sent to reinforce it but bad weather was slowing their progress.

 

The votans had vanished away to somewhere.

 

Nuclaven escapees, refugees, were still arriving in FreeAlliance and still bringing bad news. The Nuclaven was busy creating new forms of soldiers and weapons, along with other technologies, but also forming a twisted dark alliance with the Hordafolk and other dangerous forces to be found there in Havenaedra or who would invade Havenaedra as part of a treaty. They were killing off their old human soldier forces by sending them as cannon fodder against a mysterious set of enemies of great skill, power and cunning. Except the dark enemy was capturing as many Nuclaven soldiers as possible and was freeing them, learning from them and converting them to a new cause. As for other humans under Nuclaven control, the lucky ones came as refugees to get to FreeAlliance Territories.

 

As for where the Unified Ministries forces had escaped to who had gone from Eddie's Alternate Earth, nothing could be confirmed but dark whispers suggested they had attempted to join the Nuclaven only to be betrayed by the PuppetMasters and enslaved as the Nuclaven had been.

 

Leslie was forced to rethink matters thanks to what had happened to Eddie and his other aspects, especially to poor EddieRa.

 

NEW PLANS

 

Leslie had confirmed that the so called 'Friendly Archipelago' south of the great continent of Frostfallandra was not so friendly at all. Neither were the Green Islands. Oomans of the Hordafolk dominated the archipelago and lesser daedra of the Hordafolk were masters of the Green Islands. These daedra were like those that dwelt in the Deadlands of Mehrunes Dagon but were differently organised. Did they worship the Daedric Gods. Perhaps but not, it seemed, Mehrunes Dagon.

 

Of the Citystates, each gaining heat and power from great thermal pools, they were to the north-east and were known as the WarCitystates for these monstrous fortified cities were for ever at war with each other or anybody else too close to them. They had been at war with each other for so long that the reason that the fighting had started was long forgotten. Each of the Nine Citystates had its own warlike poeple and they were the cybermen, the daleks, the sultarans, the clonemass, the dominators, the autons, the zylons, the cylons and the demonaedra. Then there were three Citystates that provided them with a seemingly endless supply of equipment and other resources. Last of all was the one Citystate where the Nine Citystates would hold futile peace conferances, savage war conferances and such like.

 

The best idea for the FreeAlliance was to stay clear of the Thirteen WarCitystates and the unfriendly lands to the south.

 

Except that the new FreeAlliance in Havenaedra was hungry for resources, hungry for fertile land and hungry for space. Millions of humans had come and were busy building mostly underground cities and other settlements. Fishing fleets were setting out into harsh Frostfall Sea under the protection of gunboats. Aeroships were moving in convoys between new Citystates carrying cargo, people and other tradegoods. Mines were being opened to mine the amazing regenerating minerals of Havenaedra. Plantations of exotic cold resistant plants were already proving successful.

 

But something was not quite right.