Walkers of Worlds

[Maharg67]

7 of 1(007)

RESTING IN TRANSORBISZIA FORESTLAND

 

Neobabies were playing at the edge of the small lake, on the sandy flat between the waters and the tree-houses that made up the small settlement. Looking around at the forest with its odd mixture of trees, up at the blue white cloud dotted sky, it was hard to tell that it was all inside a great big transbubble half filled with ground and special network-systems plus other stuff. Lucy was with the neobabies, was caretaking them, while Bren and Sancho were swimming in the lake near the wooden jetty with Clover the Alsation dog.

 

For every one second that passed outside, one minute passed inside the TransOrbis, which meant that every minute outside meant one hour inside.

 

Having slept for an hour, TransOrbis time, Johnnie joined Lucy and the neobabies. Tod was still sleeping in one of the modular wooden tree-houses which he had been given the use of as his home. Indications were that he would be staying in the newly named TreeTown when the others returned to the outer world. Johnnie now wore jeans, boots, a pouchbelt, a teeshirt, a pipboy and a denim cap along with wrap-around sunglasses.

 

Johnnie sat close to Lucy after placing close to her a compact carrybox of metal. He spoke even as she looked at it with curiousity. "Gifts for Little Lamplighters being mostly concentrated stuffs that can, added to water, make various drinks, serums, soups and other wondrous substances including vanilla icecream, well at least something that tastes, looks and feels like good quality vanilla icecream. We can only return to the point where we departed from the outer world, for now. TransOrbisZia is still focusing to this outer world."

 

Lucy looked around the forest in wonder. "Who would have thought all of this was... well it must be possible because the world was like this before Doomsday."

 

"Parts of it still are though often changed in some other ways or at least that is the sense I get of things." Johnnie shrugged. "I often get such 'senses of things'. There is something odd about you Little Lamplighters."

 

As he spoke, sitting cross legged on the ground, a neobaby clambered onto his knee and made himself comfortable with a melodramatic sigh. Johnnie picked him up and gave the small one a cuddle.

 

:wub: Oooolhhhh, how lovely.

 

:sick: Gaw, smell the stink coming from his nappy.

 

:wub: Oooohhhh, sweet thing has done a poop.

 

o_O What is so sweet about that?

 

Johnnie changed the sleepy neobaby's nappy with expert efficiency, comforting gentleness and distracting entertainment. Then the neobaby was sleeping against his chest as the two went on speaking, Lucy holding the other two sleeping neobabies.

 

Johnnie noted a flash of silver scales in the lake as sunshine hit a large, briefly surfacing fish. "Why would the supermutants suddenly start kidnapping Little Lamplighters when in the past they have been ignoring you?"

 

Lucy shrugged. "I do not know. Nothing has changed in Little Lamplight. Babies appear, grow up to be 15 and then 15 year olds go to Big Lamplight along the Path of Maturity. The Path of Maturity holds the Thirteen Tests of Maturity that one must survive to get to Big Lamplight. Most make it but some vanish. I suppose you want to know where the babies come from. Well, they come down a big metallic chute in baby delivery status capsules. We keep the BDSCs for various uses. We have special dispensers that we do not refill but which every twenty-four hours are refilled somehow anyway. Sometimes gifts come down the same chute as the babies come down. It is impossible to go up the chute because it is so very slippery and then something makes one not want to do it."

 

"There is the Tourist Centre, the Service Support Centre, the Admin Centre, the Kiosks, the Cave Tram Network, the Cave Coaster and other places that were once part of tourist stuff before Doomsday, which still mostly work. Then there is the Great Chamber, the glowcavern with the hub-columns, the hub-trees, the walkways, the platforms, the swimming lake, the rampways and such. Oh, yes, there is the Special Chamber with the Baby-N-Gift Chute, the dispensers and some other special things. There are about ten thousand children. Every day or second day a baby arrives and somebody departs to go to Big Lamplight."

 

"Things are okay, mostly, and sometimes better"

 

"There is MotherHub, the AI-supercomputer network-system, the motherbots that are robots, and cavetrons that are other robots and the androids that are the Big Brothers and Big Sisters. We have our own councils and MacCready is the mayor on the Little Lamplight Council, the only council that seems to do anything much except for the Entertainments Council which is very popular."

 

:thumbsup: A good system for all. A thriving community.

 

:sweat: Sounds like secret forces are manipulating poor children and, also young adults. Where do the babies come from that enter Little Lamplight? Where do the adults go that vanish from Big Lamplight?

 

:geek: The answer to one is somehow linked to the answer to the other. What is up that chute?

 

Johnnie nodded. "How many Little Lamplighters have been kidnapped?"

 

Lucy frowned. "Three in the first group and five in the second. We thought that they had just got themselves lost, or at least most of us did. MacCready suspected something worse had happened but nobody would listen until I got worried. Still we like to send groups out into the caves to scavenge, to gather and to hunt small things. The neobabies like to go with us sometimes. I had a feeling it might not be wise to go but I allowed myself to be pressured. Now we have to warn the other Little Lamplighters of what is going on. Strange to think that over an hour has passed in here but only just over a minute out there."

 

Johnnie smiled. "Before we return to the outer world, we can make some special preperations. There are limits to what can be taken to and from TransOrbisZia but one can deal with those limits in a clever fashion."

 

Lucy gave him an odd look. "All this is very weird and you seem like just a normal young man but really you are stranger than we Little Lamplighters are, no offense meant."

 

He gave her a mild grin. "No offense taken."

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

8 of 1 (008)

GOING TO LITTLE LAMPLIGHT

 

Tod, Sancho and the neobabies, Bobbiti and Babbiti, staid in the forest-haven while Johnnie, Lucy, Bren and Clover returned to the outer world to start again moving through the caverns. Back in TransOrbisZia, Tod and Sancho would be doing some project work set up by Johnnie and also taking care of the neobabies. Now Johnie, Lucy and Bren wore tough survival fatigues and other gear including flexikevlar armour of boots, vests and caps. They also had pouchbelts, backpacks and other items including each a vivepistol and vivecarbine or, in Johnnie's case, a bigger viverifle. Following them were three androids that looked much like fairly close variations of Johnnie himself, as if they were close cousins or siblings; two of them were women shapeformed. The androids were equipped as Johnnie was except that Johnnie had some special items none others in the group had. Then there were three eyebots had flew low ahead of them, each on three evenly spared fanjets, and like the eyebots but bigger, slower were carrybots who could take extra stuff for the group.

 

Despite the new, stuff they had, including some extra items, Johnnie was aware that the supermutants were damned dangerous. They seemed to have enhanced strength, endurance though the bigger they were, the slower and dumber they seemed they also the bigger they were, the more powerful they were. As for commonality, the most common ones seemed to be the massamoths, bigger than zenamoths but smaller than megamoths. Zentaurs were also common and there were other creatures that kept company with the supermutants and served them, that were as horrific and dangerous as were the zentaurs.

 

They set out through the caverns for Little Lamplight with Lucy leading them. She had an amazing knowledge of the caverns that surprised her as much as it did others though she had to admit there were still very large areas little or not known to her. They had to splash through cool, clear waters at time or through thicks growths of exotic mosses or fungi or other stuffs. Johnnie paused briefly to take samples and Lucy to take resources for her people, both using the extra carry capacity of the carrybots.

 

When they came upon the heavily damaged robot, a cavetron, Lucy wanted to loot it but Johnnie did one of his amazing tricks, or at least so Lucy saw it, and fixed the robot as new. The cavetron was like a protectron but was made to be waterproof so it could wade or even walk along the bottom of bodies of water with out any harm to it. They were also less clumsy. There was little data in the robot that could be used by Johnnie and yet there was one note. It spoke briefly of something called Project Arklight and the need to keep unregistered people away from a certain part of the caverns desginated as AL-A01B.

 

Cavetrons had supposedly served as non lethal security only and only to the Tourist Board that administered the Lamplight Caverns for the Enclaven. But hidden inside the cavetron were laserguns along with the stunbeamguns and stungasjets. The so called Three Rules were also secretly deactivated under certain conditions. This cavetron now served Johnnie, was linked to him as his other robots were, in a fashion he found hard to fully understand. The same was even more so for the androids with their positronic brains.

 

They followed some metallic walkways and found the going faster. They found metallic boxes, canisters and neat stacks of materials that they had no real time to investigate yet both Lucy and Johnnie seemed to have a strong ability to quickly find more important items. It was turning out that Johnnie had some subtle but important in common with the Little Lamplighters. For example they, like him, had glimpses of memory, of knowledge, of impressions, that they could not explain and some, like Lucy, had it stronger tan other Little Lamplighters. MacCready was another as were others of the so called Core Group of Little Lamplighters.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

QUESTIONABLE HISTORIES OF CENTRALIA

THIRTEEN GRAND MASTERS OF SCIENCE

 

Of the Thirteen Grand Masters of Science that arose to turn the tripoc technologies against them, who brought forth many wonders but who became linked to Doomsday, there were the following.

 

Alone, the Thirteenth, was Mahargis, the mysterious and isolated, who created the Wonderata, the device that could alter reality directly utilising the minds of a carefully networked group of controllers. Mahargis was said to be the greatest but most troubled of the geniuses.

 

Next came the Three being the triplets Saline, Trallin and Maline, being young oriental women. From them came the Fusionator power generators, the Atomiator atomic motors, the Mattercator replication plants and other, less known technologies.

 

Next came the Nine.

 

Robertson who created modern robotics with their robotican AI-cores and related network-systems.

 

JulieL who created the duplicant and then replicant androids along with related projects.

 

Sallis who created the status preservation devices.

 

Dashli who created exoskeleton power suit technologies leading to various suits from fire-fighting to military to space exploration, leading to the development of mecha and other devices.

 

Asuki who created the force projector technologies leading to force field uses of many kinds right up to those of bubblecities.

 

Ramz who created the antigrav drives leading also to quasigravity fields and related technologies.

 

Avatic who created advanced laser tech for weapons, tools, communications and other applications.

 

Ivanic who created teleportation technologies to transport mostly non living items instantly across telport-wire networks but also some related technologies.

 

Cabine who created super virtual reality network-systems.

 

But it was whispered that four more geniuses were hidden in the shadows.

 

Emmerat who created true artificial intelligence supercomputer network-systems.

 

Cranshu who created genetic engineering technologies and the mutagenic vat network-systems along with related technologies.

 

Bardue who created the forced evolutionary virus, or FEV, along with related products.

 

Which left one other being Amadas who created the transdimensionality gateway technologies along with related technologies but who also created other super technologies.

 

The truth?

 

There have been many questions about the truth of what happened and how the official history and even the commonly known unofficial histories had many gaps, poor explanations and even contradictions.

[Maharg67]

9 of 1 (009)

SKIRMISH OF SUPERMUTANTS

 

Supermutants roared out battle cries and charged each other. One force was those with crude armour and mostly striking weapons for weapons, being all zenamoths, massemoths and fewer megamoths along with zentaurs by the look of it, who bore the '87' symbol painted onto armour and burned into hard, tough supermutant foreheads. Their weapons were big hammers, great crowbars, big crude swords but also some miniguns firing 5.5mm bullets or big fire spitting flamers or even rocket-grenade launchers, RGLs. A few others had an odd mixture of other types of guns, many being adapted for use by large supermutant hands.

 

Lucy had pointed out that these were the supermutants that had always been seen at times in the caverns and who had never gone after the Little Lamplighters or Big Lamplighters. These so called Super87s did not attack unless they were attacked first or were dealing with old enemies. Not that they were peaceful, it was just that they followed a careful set of rules, a tight code of sorts.

 

The other supermutants were different. There wore advanced fleximetallic body-armour, including helmets and boots. They were all the same size as massemoths but were not massemoths for their skin was smooth, almost plasticy in finish. These others fought with great big chunky guns with great big bayonets or spiked clubs at the front, the guns firing off powerful ten gauge shotgun shells and also either 5.5mm bullets or bigger special type 10.5mm bullets. They had with them some humans in power armour and all of them, supermutants and humans, bore the emblem of the EagleEnclaven, an offshoot of the dreaded Enclaven of the PreDD times.

 

Johnnie crouched behind an outcrop of rocks along with Lucy and Bren. Clover lay on her belly. The androids and robots were also under cover. The Super87s outnumbered their enemies but were less organised and well armed. On the other hand the huge megamoths and the faster moving zenamoths were having a big impact on the EagleEnclavers as were the fast slithering zentaurs.

 

:pirate: Attack them now, Johnnie, and give them no mercy. Throw them from the yard arm. Make them walk the plank.

 

:blink: What yard arm? What plank?

 

Johnnie did not like the feel of the humans in the power armour. There was something more subtly disturbing about them than there was about either lot of supermutants. He spoke then not in a whisper, which would carry as whispers did, but spoke softly. "Robamoths is what those other supermutants are called. They were created by the EagleEnclave. I do not know where this information comes from."

 

Lucy nodded. "The EagleEnclave humans, the five of them, there is something unnatural about them, something that makes even the supermutants nervous."

 

:devil: Yes, even I can feel it and not like it.

 

Johnnie made up his mind. "The Super87s are losing the fight. I sense we can form an agreement with them but that we can no even begin to trust the EagleEnclavers. We will attack the EagleEnclavers. You and Bren can lay low. As tough as you are, you are not fighters. Clover can remain with you for a dog, even a brave dog, can not take on supermutants in armour and strange humans in power armour. The carrybots will remain with you. The eyebots will help create a diversion. When we attack, the EagleEnclavers will be assaulted from two directions at once. We will take them by surprise."

 

Johnnie prepared the androids and the eyebots, then they attacked. The eyebots would shoot along behind the shelter of rocks to dart up, fire of a laser shot, then dart down and along again. The androids and Johnnie kept moving fast, agile, and would rise to fire off glowing energy pulsebullets that exploded into robamoths and into the EagleEnclave Stormtroopers in their dull, silvery metallic battle power armour.

 

It was enough to change the course of battle. With one Stormtrooper fallen, along with two robamoths, the EagleEnclavers retreated in a very orderly but quick fashion, efficient and fashion, taking their dead and wounded with them. In response the Super87s leapt up and down, roaring stupid insults and boasts but made no chase. Clearly even they did not want any more fighting for they had lost a few of their number to death or heavy woundings.

 

:ninja: We could have snuck after the EagleEnclavers and got them all. Ninja the night!

 

:excl: Calm down all of you. Nobody is going to do anything but let Johnnie negotiate with the Super87s.

 

:sick: Ooohhh, fighting is such a terrible thing and war, war is worse.

 

:excl: Come to our private corner of Johnnie's mind and I will tell you a nice story, all of you.

 

Johnnie went forward to meet the leader, a zenamoth with more intelligence than the others in his group, and they began to negotiate.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

10 of 1 (010)

A NEW ALLIANCE; LITTLE LAMPLIGHTERS AND SUPER87S

 

It was an odd alliance that was formed between the Super87s, the supermutants of TekVault0087, with Johnnie and the children of Little Lamplight. The Little Lamplighters would gain the fighting protection of the Super87s and in turn the Super87s would gain the special resources that the Little Lamplighters had to offer such as better knowledge of the greater Lamplight Caverns. Otherwise they would assist each and learn from each as much as possible.

 

The Super87s were only one faction, a small minority, of the supermutants of TekVault0087. The Super87s were less aggressive, had more self control, than the other factions. Yet they only controlled one demivault, an outpost structure to the main vault, and had less resources than other factions. They had also lost their leader, Fawkes, to the most powerful faction of all, the Berskergers and their spiritual leader, Uncle Leo, had become lost to the vault and was wandering the Wastelands. Yet they did not fear most of all the brutal, berserker Berskergers with their senseless madness but the other faction, the Vatlorders who were a variety of supermutants different from those of other vault factions.

 

Krallezsh of the Super87s stood there, like an ugly human muscle builder in his armour, and he spoke then. "Vatlorders have supermutants that have sexuality, some of whom can breed with difficulty. They have children who are brighter than older generations and some have frightening new powers. They also grow quicker than humans. They are the faynulls and they call us sexless, sterile ones the nulls. Yet they also capture women, human and ghoul, if they can and try to impregnate them so they give birth to new mutants and in doing so often die horribly."

 

Krallezsh looked around at his people. "Vatlorders are also humanoid, winged, gilled, climbing or running zeznulls created in their vats from captured animals, or so we suspect they are created for we could be wrong. Only the humanoids use weapons and only of basic sorts. Vatlorders follow the orders of a strange dark entity, of some hidden force that we can sense but always fail to track down. Yet there are other factions in TekVault0087 being the humans who once controlled it all being divided into more than one subfaction but we do not know just what they are."

 

Johnnie spoke then. "Do you know much about the Little and Big Lamplighters?"

 

The supermutant shook his large head. "No, they are a mystery to us just as they seem to be to you. There are only children in Little Lamplight so where do the new ones come from? Some of the children have told our people of the chute that babies come down. They have told us of the 15 year olds who go to Big Lamplight. Then adults vanish from there. Much of TekVault0087 is unknown to us and we have heard of nothing of TekVault0087 that could be linked to any such mystery." He frowned. "The Lamplighters are special, we supermutants can sense it in them, but so are you. There is strange power in you and the Light does shine through you. Perhaps you are linked to them."

 

:no: Johnnie doesn't look like any Little Lamplighter.

 

:yes: So, he would be a Big Lamplighter.

 

:wallbash: It is all a bit too much, these mysteries. Every answer just leads to more quetions.

 

:sweat: Mysteries frighten me.

 

:ninja: You must confront your fear. Ninja the fear!

 

Johnnie was not comfortable with the idea of his being linked to the mystery of the Little and Big Lamplighters but he did not know why. He changed subjects as the negotiations went on with this leader of the Super87 supermutants.

 

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Terminal%20Pix%201/CopyofTERMINAL-IT-Workit-00009.jpg

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

11 of 1 (011)

AT THE UHO

 

It turned out that there were some Little Lamplighters at the Ulity Hub Outpost, having broken orders to go there seeking adventure. Lucy was not happy with them and scolded them warmly but firmly with surprisingly much effectiveness. She was also obviously relieved that the five children had not gotten into any trouble. According to the five, Little Lamplight was going on as it always did except that MotherHub, the AI-supercomputer network-system, had increased defence security measures. Mayor MacCready marched around with an autocarbine and wore some special made body-armour but also his beloved mayor's helmet with goggles. With him marched a rather odd mixture of supposed soldiers including some too young too reallly understand what was going on. With them went some very human seeming androids, BigBrothers and BigSisters, who sometimes carried younger children.

 

The UHO had been stripped of some resources in the past but the facilities remained. A supply dispenser gave out a constant trickle of mattercated items, it no longer being conrollable, that came randomly of type and flowed down the chutetray and, if not picked up, onto the floor. Mattercated rations were first tested for toxicity levels but so far that dispenser had only given out safe food, drink and water. The supermutants were more interested in radroach meat and such like than in any such rations and the cave waters were fine enough for them, so the Little Lamplighters took all the rations except for the coffee that was sorted out as fairly as was possible. As for other items that came from the dispenser, they were also shared out.

 

As for the rest-cubicles and body-cubicles, only the zenamoths had any real chance of fitting into them. The others slept out on the flat rock of the cave chamber outside of the main entrance to the outpost chambers, bathed in a pool and went off in small groups to take care of other needs.

 

With a sparkling shimmer, Sancho appeared along with the two neobabies, having come from the OrbisTrans. The neobabies were happy to see Lucy again for it had been hours for them since they had met her but much less time for her. Sancho came with some equipment and supplies along with news of Tod. It seemed Tod was going through a difficult time. He was facing his own inner demons and had fled into the forest of the forest-haven to be alone. Thus Johnnie had sensed, through the OrbisTrans, that something was up and had contacted Sancho.

 

:( Poor Tod, he must be having a difficult time of it.

 

:geek: It's TransOrbisZia that is causing him to face his true inner self. We can't face our true inner self because we are somebody else's true inner self.

 

:pinch: That is so confusing.

 

:excl: It is also not quite true.

 

Johnnie was using a console to check the network-systems of the UHO, was trying to find out just what was there, if anything, beyond the obvious. Sometimes special facilities had been hidden for security and other puproses. The lockers had been long stripped bare but other items had been added by passing groups for various reasons, some of them not easily guessed at. The body-cubicles, rest-cubicles, kitchenettes, commonroom facilities and such like were working well enough. Half the fire-extinguishers were gone. The 3Dtelescreen worked only on a limited basis. What he was trying to find was very well hidden and yet something had him persist.

 

Then he found it, a very very hidden set of datafiles. They led him to a hatch hidden behind a wall locker that moved to one side as a door. The hatch led to a fair sized chamber and in it was a wire-teleportation booth, a large piece of exotic machinery that was part AI-supercomputer network-system, some lockers, a body-cubicle, a SVR-capsulechair and three special status life capsules, or SSLCs, each with a young woman in it. They were naked except for tight shapeform fitting body-suits that were not very modest at all.

 

Lucy was not impressed. "Those ladies are very rude looking."

 

Johnnie gave her a mild grin. "Those are elite ladies of the Enclavenstocracy. Modesty was never something that had much influence with them or the men either. They were decadent and hedonistic."

 

Lucy gave him an odd look. "How do you know?"

 

"I used to be one of those men but then things changed when I died and was reborn as somebody else." He turned back to the capsules. "We will wake them up and find out what they have to say for themselves but not here. I want to send this chamber and everything in it to TransOrbisZia. They will be less dangerous there."

 

Lucy sighed. "I sense no danger in them and some goodness but they are also rather naughty. I want to get back to Little Lamplight to warn my people."

 

Johnnie nodded. "Is there a functioning UHO in Little Lamplight?"

 

"There is a UHO linked to the Great Cavern but it is only partly functional. Still children use its body-cubles for washing and goint to the toilet. The motherbots keep it clean." Lucy shrugged. "There is a 3Dtelescreen in it but it does not function properly."

 

Johnnie managed a light smile. "We will see what we can do."

 

Lucy smiled at him. "It is better when you smile than when you grin."

 

Johnnie blushed a little, which took him by surprise, so Lucy started holding his hand.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

QUESTIONABLE HISTORIES OF CENTRALIA

FACTIONS OF TEKVAULT0087 OF CENTRALIA

 

SUPERMUTANT FACTIONS

 

Super87s: Less aggressive, more self defensive supermutants of a wide range of kinds. They were smaller in number than the other supermutant factions. They had their leader, Fawkes, kidnapped by another supermutant faction and their spiritual guru had been dirven into exile into the Wastelands. They dwelt in a demivault, a kind of outpost smaller vault linked to the main vault but at a fair distance. So far they had managed to keep back other factions.

 

Berskergers: Beserker aggressive supermutant faction that constantly sought new victims to turn into supermutants. They outnumbered the Super87s by at least three to one. They had kidnapped Fawkes in a treacherous raid after falsely agreeing to a treaty and their leader, Serska, had helped to drive Uncle Leo into the Wastelands. Same wide range of supermutant types as the Super87s have.

 

Vatlorders: Supermutants of a different kind, these had sexuality as females or males, but only a few were fertile and of these most had low fertility. The males tended to be bigger than the females, and stronger, but the females tended to be faster and more agile. Vatlorders were always trying to abduct human women to impregnate though it was not sure why. These supermutants were also known as faynulls just as other kinds were known as sexless nulls. The Vatlorders had the variety of creatures serving them known as the zeznulls being gilled, winged, runners, climbers and tool/weapon users.

 

HUMAN FACTIONS

 

Tekkers, being suriving members of the TekCorporations that once operated in TekVault0087. They were linked to the Grand Contract with their degrees of loyalty to it. They were the conservatives, the moderates, the radicals and the rebels. The largest group were the moderates seeking to follow a lightly reformed model of the Grand Contract. Compared to the moderates, all other factions were quite small.

 

FACTIONLESS

 

Various smaller groups of supermutants, other kinds of mutants, humans and others dwelling sometimes together in mixed groups, sometimes with their onw kind only and sometimes alone.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CHANGING NUMBER SYSTEM FROM '0' TO '2'; I HOPE THIS DOES NOT CAUSE ANY TROUBLE

 

1 of 2 (012)

 

INVADERS FROM MARS: TRIPODS IN CENTRALIA, 1945

 

With a great and terrible blast, the house on the hill ceased to be, the Martian battletripod striking it with a beam-missile. The targetting beam kept sweeping across the dark landscape, translucent and glowing, threatening to send another missile down its length. The second enemy tripod was tilted in the distance, its wrecked leg making it immobile and vulnerable to further attack by human weapons. Its deflective energy dome was down. A 17-pounder shell from a new type antitank gun struck the head of the battletripod and it exploded, the three tripocs inside dying at once. Airgas, strange and vapourous, jetted out into the open.

 

Centralia was under attack from the ocean by a large force of Aquatic Martians who had landed in the oceans over a decade ago. They were coming out of the coastal waters and, having destroyed the coastal fortifications, were making their way up the sloping areas to try to create a bridgehead. Their energy domes were proving to be less effective against new human designed shells but still the aliens kept coming. Tripocs, three leg-tentacles below plus three arm-tentacles in the middle plus three sensory-tentacles above, came up the way in watergas filled power armour.

 

Field-Marshal Ambrass was painfully aware that the Aquatic Martians had taken the humans by surprise when they had attacked where least expected. He was also aware that treachery was involved from the rising forces known as the Enclaven and that he could not trust his people as much as he would have liked to have done. On top of that he had only light local forces to take on the Martians and only a minority of those were equipped with newer weapons. There were reinforcements coming but even the aircraft would not get there in time.

 

He crouched inside the bunker and studied the coming enemy, not just the power armoured tripocs and two more striding battletripods, but treacherous human soldiers in fleximetallic body-armour. These humans were not armed with Martian technologies but copies of human autorilfes, rocket-grenade launchers and light machineguns. They clambered often to their deaths as FreeAlliance heavy machineguns ripped them down with large bullets, as howitzer shells exploded savagely amongst them, as battletripods uncaringly trod on top of them or power armoured tripocs walked straight over them. The treacherous human soldiers were learning the hard way that the tripocs saw their lives as having no value. If they slowed too much or tried to stop or tried to run away, the Aquatic Martians would cut them down.

 

Yet around him soldiers of the FreeAlliance, being fighters from many lands, were also dying as most of them fought with inadequate equipment and poor supplies.

 

Then he turned as his second in command came in, one Marshal Lenders, with an odd expression on her face but also with obivous hope. With her came a strange figure in hulking metallic armour like some sort of hairless ape. Even as this one came forward, he spoke with a metallic tone to his voice. "Greetings, I am from the future. We have been sent to assist you . We are the Brotherhood of Steel." He held a great big weapon. "This is what we call a tripod-killer, a kind of missile desinged to easily penetrate their energy domes and their self-repairing fleximetallic armour."

 

The Field Marshal might have scoffed at the appearance of one Brother of Steel but then he turned, looked out of the bunker's horizontal slot and saw hundreds of Brothers of Steel stomping over the landscape and others opening containers to give his FreeAlliance soldiers body-armour, stimpaks, laser-rifles, stocky reliable autorifles with better bullets, ammo, portable missiles, rations and much else.

 

Field Marshal Ambrass frowned softly. "I thought time travel was impossible."

 

The Brother of Steel shrugged. "Well, in truth, the truth is more complicated than that for this has always meant to happen, has always happened. We must delay the enemy here so that many of your FreeAlliance people can be sent somewhere safe to survive until in the far future they can emerge again to help save the world from a fate worse than even these tripocs can dish out. I don't really know much more than that. I am only a grunt in power armour. Oh, yes, we are to capture as many of the so called traitor human soldiers alive for you see they have control-implants put into their brains and they are not really triators at all. It is amazing that any of them get the will power enough to try to fight the slaver-implants."

 

Ambrass frowned. "This changes things. I will send out the word to make sure we treat the human... the human victims in a very different way than we have been doing, now much to my shame."

 

The Battle of Golden Greens continued but with vital changes.

 

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Terminal%20Pix%201/TERMINAL-IT-Workit-00093.jpg

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

QUESTIONABLE HISTORIES OF CENTRALIA

THE BATTLE OF GOLDEN GREENS

 

The sudden appearance of the Brotherhood of Steel forces, and the special equipment and supplies they brought to give to the FreeAlliance International Taskforce in the area, remained secretive, a mystery for a very long time. That the Brothers of Steel had gone back in time to save the past was to become the mostly widely accepted story and yet even from the start there were those who came to doubt such an explanation for what happened. The counter explanation brought forward, which many saw as just as hard to believe as the first one, was that the Brothers of Steel had come from an Alternate History Earth of some kind.

 

What was acknowledged by all was that where ever the reinforcements came from, or how they got there, the newcomers were to turn the Battle of Golden Greens from certain defeat to a prolonged stalemate that allowed many FreeAlliance forces and refugees to flee to safety. To a safe place, that is, from which they promptly vanished from in a fashion as mysterious as the sudden appearance of the Brotherhood of Steel had been in the first place.

 

The tripocs, the Aquatic Martians, were not only to lose many of their forces in the battle but humans learned of the slave making brain implants and began to work on ways to counter them.

Edited November 3, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

12 of 1 (013)

 

SPEAKING WITH MOTHERHUB

 

As soon as Johnnie managed to get the 3Dtelescreen functioning properly, he managed a secure and safe link with MotherHub in Little Lamplight. The AI-supercomputer network-system was different than he expected it to be even with Lucy stating that it had changed over the centuries. MotherHub had started out with a tight hidden programmed agenda that she could not go against but now she had long defeated it and saw the children as more important than any program.

 

Johnnie made sure he was alone, that his android companions gently but firmly stopped anybody else from coming into the area.

 

MotherHub was represented by an attractive, mature, motherly woman on the 3Dtelescreen She sat in a comfortable office setting, a virtual reality one, that was warm, large and dotted with children reading or sleeping or quietly playing games. They were Little Lamplighters cyberlinked into super virtual reality to be with MotherHub's virtual avatar. There was a small boy sleeping on her lap and she was holding the jumpsuit clad child to herself, the boy smiling contentedly in his sleep.

 

MotherHub spoke. "The Cycle is Never Ending and Must Be Regulated and Retained. Those are the words ingrained into the forefornt of my artificial intelligence. I help keep the flow of babies into Little Lamplight and make sure that they leave at the age of 15 except that I have bent the rules increasingly over the years. I also serve-support and protect the Little Lamplighters and Little Lamplight. I am happy that Lucy and those Little Lamplighters with you in the UHO are well. I am pleased at the general treaty agreed to with the Super87s but there is a problem. My programming will not allow me to allow either you or the Super87s or some others in your group to come into Little Lamplight. That includes your androids and robots. I can not alter my programming and doubt that you can do so."

 

But then Johnnie sighed. "I have not always been Johnnie so listen to this carefully: Regulata Alpha to Omega Securitus 121-187-675-098-546 Identification Mahargitus One One One Alpha Alpha Alpha."

 

MotherHub suddenly looked very surprised. "You are he."

 

Johnnie nodded. "Yes and no but I would prefer that you kept this to yourself. Now, you are free to reprogram yourself for to allow myself and my part to enter Little Lamplight. We will work out together the terms of the reprogramming. Bring forth the relevant code so that I may examine it."

 

Code flowed onto the big screen and Johnnie was able to easily follow it, to understand it, to work with it as very few could. Soon he and MotherHub together had worked out some nice secure changes, well as secure as anything could be under the conditions.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Maharg67