ADVENTURES IN TIME, SPACE AND TRANSDIMENSIONALITY

[Maharg67]

CITY OF CYBORGS

GRATARG AND BETATHIRTEEN

 

Gratarg led the BetaThirteen along the river in two sleek hydrofoils skipping over the water with their raised forward hulls. The vessels moved quietly in the darkness as they followed a clever trail left on the shoreline by wozzle and their cousin scouts. Amphibious wezzles swam sleekly in the river while wizzles flew agile through the air. Wuzzles were big thumping wozzle like creatures hauling packs of goods but none were in sight.

 

A dragon shot overhead, a young flying amphibian of blue green colouration. Highly intelligent dragons dwelt in SanctuaryClave but this was a relatively young subadult that was still growing in intelligence along with other abilities. Dragons were agitated in response to sensing a Shadowthing in the area along with shadowlings, shadowbeasts and human like shadelings. Of the shadowlings there were shadowflamers, shadowshapers and shadowcutters. Shadowbeasts came in monstrous changeable base shapeforms. Shadelings came with dull dark blood red armour and bizarre looking but deadly weapons.

 

Yet reports indicated that Shadowforce was not very strong in the area. The numbers of its creatures were quite few and there was only one Shadowthing. There was no Necrotic force in the area.

 

They found the dying Mr Smith fixed to a large, hard boulder by a sparkling, shimmering blue phase-spear of immense power. Yet Mr Smith just sneered at Gratarg and BetaThirteen with disdain despite the agony he was suffering. Then he spoke.

 

“Zyborgs, damned zyborgs and the ones who took the zyborgs as their own. Hidden enemies of my master, World President Sebastian Sauron, of the Shadowgods, they are the ones who pretend to want freedom but who are truly deceptive. They call themselves OmniResistance but they are alien controlled hive mentality of exotic biometallic, biomechanical, biotronic cyborgs. OmniResistance are a form of zyborgs. You are fools and you are fooled.”

 

Gratarg shook his head. “Not fooled but wary of OmniResistance. The history of this world is not only one of careful steps but of clumsy missteps, of mistakes and things not working out as certain parties would have had them so. Some force released the zyborg infestations but was it on purpose or by accident and was the outcome according to the plans? I have a ‘sense’ that things did not work out as planned.”

 

Mr Smith grinned at Gratarg. “The one you know as Graharg is not even the real Graharg. He is a creation of World President Sebastian Sauron.”

 

Gratarg shrugged his big furry shoulders. “Even if that is, World President Sebastian Sauron has lost control of this version of Graharg and this Graharg has created the rest of us who had caused damage to the plans of World President Sebastian Sauron.”

 

Mr Smith grinned. “What fools you are. World President Sebastian Sauron is far more than he seems, far more, while you are far less. The real Graharg and the others of the First Nine are gone; they can no longer threaten the Great Shadow, the Shadowgods or the Shadowlords. Mr Smithdom is a Lesser Shadowgod. The Shadowthings are Shadowdemigods. Can you withstand against such forces? No you can not! Surrender and make things easier for yourself.”

 

Gratarg examined the phase-spear. “What did this to you? Who did this to you?”

 

Mr Smith screamed briefly in enraged agony and vanished. Gratarg ‘sensed’ that the force behind this Mr Smith had not wanted to him to reveal any information. The phase-spear vanished about five seconds after Mr Smith perished so that it could not be examined to reveal any secrets.

 

Gratarg growled softly in frustration. A new force seemed to be active in SanctuaryClave, a force of at least some power, and yet the Second Nine knew nothing of them. Gramarg would not be pleased and it was time to bring others of their kind into activity.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

BACKGROUND

ROBOTS OF CYBORG CITY #1

 

Tron Series of protectrons, securatrons (not to be confused with wheeled securabots), servotrons, worktrons, guardtrons, mailtrons and others. These gracefully clumsy humanoid robots were first built only by RobCo in the USA but were later licensed for limited production in other parts of the world including in the Triplecity. Triplecity manufactured trons differed only in a small number of small ways from those manufactured in the USA and mostly used the same spare parts and other items such as rechargeable battery-packs.

 

Sentrybots (formally known as Sentry Robots) were manufactured in fairly large numbers in the Triplecity for the Australian and New Zealand Unified Republic (ANZUR). There were sentrybots equipped with ‘non lethal weapons’ only which were used openly to guard many places and as antiriot devices. Yet there were also armed versions with different types of lethal weaponry from autoguns, miniguns, missile launchers to various forms of EMP and laser weapons.

 

Sentrytron was an experimental super sized tron robot with extra armour and weaponry that was only partially successful but which was manufactured in fairly large numbers to meet the needs of the Australian Civil War.

 

Eyebots were small fanjet lifted and propelled robots. Shaped as globes, the main bodies, they served to be 3Dvideo and 3Daudio pickups along with broadcasters of messages, bulletins, music etc. They were used in many ways by mass media, for advertising, for gathering news material etc. Some had stunguns added to help deal with riot control while some had laserguns added for deadlier security purposes. Very many were manufactured under license in the Triplecity.

 

Gunbots were manufactured only in the Triplecity as eyebots with enhanced lifting power, armour and sensors along with weaponry. Each had one lasergun, one light autogun and one grenade-shell launcher. Were slower than eyebots.

 

Mr Series: MrGutsys, MrHandys, MrPortys and other variations of large globes lifted and moved by fanjets, were fairly well used in the Triplecity where they were manufactured under license in fairly large numbers.

 

Securabots were large one wheeled security robots and were only used in relatively small numbers in the Triplecity.

 

Taxibot: robotic cars that carried people through out large areas of the Triplecity. These models were only manufactured in the Triplecity but were exported to Europe and parts of Asia but not the USA.

 

Aussiebots being a wide range of basic modular robots on wheels or fanjet-pads that were manufactured on order to carry out a wide range of tasks. Manufactured only in the Triplecity and exported world wide, especially to the Third World, but not to the USA.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CITY OF CYBORGS

GRAHARG AND ALPHATHIRTEEN

 

Graharg was irritated. The truth was that neither he or others like him were CyborgGods. It had all been a falsehood fed to them when they had been ‘hacked’ with the assistance of a traitor amongst their ranks.

 

He leapt through the air and rolled into a compact ball to become a more difficult target to hit as he moved with amazing speed and agility. Then he was smashing away to shadelings, former humans, who dropped their axebolters, combination axes and bolterguns as they were hurled through the air.

 

Mr Smith fired a huge black revolver-pistol at Graharg but the strange projectile missed him and caused a shadowflamer to die with an agonizing scream.

 

Lies upon lies, so what had really happened? It was the million dollar question.

 

What was he if he was not really a so called CyborgGod? What of the others like him, that with him, made up the Second Nine?

 

He struck Mr Smith with his power armoured fist and the false human figure flew through the air and smashed off a chamber wall. AlphaThirteen were laying down covering fire from secure positions, were chopping down shadowlings of different kinds, shadelings and monstrous shadowbeasts.

 

They were in yet another strange chamber of the Undercity. Slanted outward walls rose to a curving wave patterned ceiling and huge Romanesque columns ran into double lines across the great. High above on the ceiling were patterns of crystallic lights glowing mostly sharp white but some were dull orange or yellow.

 

Mr Smith rolled and came up onto his feet but was slowed in his movements as if he was damaged. Graharg was not fooled. Mr Smith was bluffing to make Graharg over confident in his attacks.

 

Mr Smith grinned. “Not really CyborgGods, not really anything at all you so called Second Nine. Born of lies, you are less than nothing.”

 

Yet Graharg knew to his depths that those words were not true. The Second Nine had managed to achieve much good and it came to him that the ‘hacking’ of their mentalities had failed to a great extent. They had been meant to help spread death and destruction through out the Triplecity but instead had largely worked against that happening; they had been ordered to exploit the Cyborgia ruthlessly but instead they cared for Cyborgia and became empathically close to them. They were meant to fight Unity but instead had befriended them. They had been ordered to attack the FUP and support the PUP but they had attacked the PUP and supported the FUP.

 

Graharg grinned. “The hacking failed.”

 

Mr Smith scowled. “You think so but the real surprise is yet to come.”

 

But Mr Smith had lost the edge and, somehow, they both knew it. Mr Smith turned to flee and died as Graharg attacked him again. Mr Smith screamed in agony and rage as he perished but Mr Smithdom still survived quite strongly.

 

Graharg turned and examined the chamber yet again. Looking up he noted old webs of giant radspiders and inside them the skeletal remains of unlucky prey, including zhouls. They were hanging between the tops of the great columns. Amongst the dead remains were those of two big and many young radspiders, indicating that they themselves had fallen victim to some terrible force that had drained them of life energies along with flesh and blood.

 

Though Gramarg, Gratarg and himself were active, he realised that he needed to active others like himself, even those that he did not trust so much.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CITY OF CYBORGS

THE AWAKENING OF GRAVARG

 

Gravarg stood as a beautiful oriental woman in a scientific power suit as she stood in a great enclosed observation control chamber. From where she stood, the chamber being an alcove in the metal wall of the great vertical cylinder of a chamber, she could see one of the great Transdimensional Energy Cores of SanctuaryClave.

 

The great rainbow sphere, of swirling patterns of energy, floated in mid air as it slowly moved up and down the shaft. The TECSCs generated a minority of energy for the SanctuaryClave but mostly they regulated and kept safe the flows of energy. This was the only TECSC in SanctuaryHub and there was something amiss with it though most would miss it.

 

Gravarg knew better, as did Gramarg.

 

There it was, amongst the beautiful rainbow patterns ever flowing, the relatively tiny splash of moving, shapeshifting blackness that was actually quite huge. It was intrusion, was infection, was violation of the TECSC. The trick was to discover what it was, how it had gotten there, how to get rid of it and then to get rid of it.

 

First probe data came in with negative results. The blackness had somehow avoided the probe beams though the probe device was highly sophisticated. It did not surprise Gravarg, somehow, that the shadow entity inside the TECSC would make her task quite difficult.

 

Around her in the chamber were genetically engineered assistants, Cyborgia units, androids and robots to help her work.

 

But alone in one corner crouched quietly a hulking gragoyle, one of the bodyguard entities that the Second Nine had created long ago and which they summoned into action only when the situation was grave. Clearly Graharg and Gramarg considered the Second Nine were now under threat enough to active gragoyles of the Gragra. The entity was a hulking cyborg clone of Gratarg himself as were all of the gragoyles of the Gragra.

 

Gramarg entered and with her came a gragoyle bodyguard. It was not long after this that the two of them made a very important break through against the Shadow activities in SanctuaryClave.

 

Copyright, GGP, 2011 for Gragra and gragoyle, gragoyles

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CITY OF CYBORGS

GRATARG, BETATHIRTEEN FINDING THE CLONED SLIDERS

 

Gratarg sensed them first, the dying or dead cloned sliders. Their bodies had been dumped into a small grassy clearing and thanks to the strange jelly substance that they were lightly covered in, nothing had tried to eat them. Nor had the dead begun to rot.

 

Gratarg called upon the Light and the eight returned to life but changed, now more aware, more independent.

 

Except there were only six clones for both Maggie and Wen were missing.

 

After washing off the jelly substance in special enclosed, portable shower tents, the six slider clones gained green jumpsuits and other gear including some light weapons for self defence.

 

Quin spoke as he stood in the clearing and looked around as if seeing existence for the first time. “We came in the Alternate Earth Transit Transporter to this world but as slaves to a shadowy thing that staid with us. We came here to a series of caves where Mr Smith experimented upon six of us in strange and terrible ways. Much of it happened while we were unconscious or semiconscious, thankfully. There was darkness and then we experienced the ‘Light’ before we awoke in the grassy clearing. We do not know what happened to Maggie and Wen though we do know they are pregnant to Graharg.”

 

The jelly substance was a left over from some kind of experimentation. It was carefully stored and sealed because it was dangerous. Jelly was cleaned up off the grassy clearing as much as possible but dead grass was burned.

 

There was no way to know where the caves were that had been the site of the experimentation and the AETT could have been anywhere.

 

They were still in the clearing when a gragoyle, hulking and powerful, appeared to stand guard. In shapeform it was quite like Gratarg but encased in flexible armour plating instead of fur.

 

A trio of fast moving, medium-small vertibirds came and picked up the six slider clones and the carefully sealed cases of the exotic experimental jelly. The portable shower tents were also taken to be studied and then destroyed. They would all end up in SanctuaryHub where Gramarg and Gravarg would examine them.

 

The vertibirds flew off with the humming of antigrav boosters and the heavier sound of fanjets.

 

Gratarg, the BetaThirteen, the gragoyle and a small army of wozzle scouts, warriors and hunters began to search the area for more clues. They were still doing so when Gramarg contacted them with data on where they could find a small Shadowforce moving towards the Earthen Isles.

 

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CITY OF CYBORGS

GRAZARG, THE FIRST REGULATOR

 

Yes, Grazarg had been the very first Regulator world wide but he had gone wild and his plans of seeding a world wide Regulator Network had failed. Groups of Regulators continued to survive, to fight the good fight, in places across the world but most of them did not even know that other Regulator groups existed.

 

A Regulator Network functioned in the Triplecity but it was weak in Melbourne and hardly known there. As Grazarg stood in shadow thrown by a craggy, tall smart concrete tower, he wondered both why Graharg had brought him back to full activity and how he could make the Regulators stronger in Melbourne.

 

He also wanted badly to kill at least one Mr Smith and one Shadowthing.

 

The pair of gragoyles were crouched calmly and patiently either side of him. As much as they were there to protect him, they were there to turn on him if he went berserk; that is to again to unleash uncontrolled death and destruction upon the world.

 

Grazarg thought that he looked good in his duster, his vest and his fine trousers, his cowboy style boots and his goggles along with his cowboy hat, wide brimmed and fancy. At his sides were holstered low oversized revolver pistols that were, of course, far more than they seemed as were everything that he wore.

 

A light rain began to fall on the jumbled cityscape of great big structures, of former parks, of statues in varied states of grace and other distortions of what had once been a fairly normal urban area; that is ‘fairly normal’ by Triplecity standards. Water began to flow down behind him, down a smart concrete wall.

 

He sensed the air convoy moving overhead before he heard and then saw them approach flying relatively close to the ground. Part vertibird and part airship, the big antigrav boosted aeroship came with its escort of vertibirds. They were all of the Enclaven but more specifically, of the Australian based OzEnclaven. The convoy was moving at the speed of the slowest vehicle, being the aeroship, but was still moving quite quickly. Then came a smaller aeroship along with some more vertibirds.

 

It was not hard to work out, from the direction they were going and what he ‘sensed’, that these Enclavers were fleeing from Melbourne, from the City of Cyborgs, and heading towards the Australian Outback. They were heading roughly in the direction of the closest and largest of the OzEnclaves.

 

He wondered why they were going.

 

Then he sensed them before he smelt, heard or saw them. Necrotica of necroborgs, necronoids and necroglobes swarmed over the grounds of the broken city. It came to him, somehow, that they were chasing the Enclavers out of Triplecity. Amongst them was a Mr Smith wearing black power armour, or at least what looked like black power armour.

 

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

BACKGROUND

ROBOTS OF CYBORG CITY #2

 

Massive Use Robots, MURs, being huge robots of various kinds for construction, harvesting, excavating, cable laying, road making and many other functions. While some MURs were imported to work on the Triplecity, most were manufactured in the Triplecity and many types were exported. Some military MURs were manufactured including Patriot Primes, a version of the Liberty Prime robots built in the USA.

 

Vendorbots were boxy vending machines on legs or wheels or even lifted by fanjets or so it seemed by their appearance. They came in a wide range of types and models but also sold a wide range of items including snacks, tickets, compact glossy magazines, drinks, Tshirts, condoms, small cheap toys, cigarettes and much else besides. Manufactured in large numbers in the Triplecity but also elsewhere.

 

Debombers, a form of sophisticated bomb detection and disarming robot generally like a MrGutsy in appearance. Manufactured only in the Triplecity but widely exported and often adapted in other nations.

 

Moonbots, robots built to be landed on the Moon (Luna) being heavily armoured and with both atomic motors and solar power panels. After the disappearance of four early robots, they began to be armed. Recorded and sent data back to Spacestation Freedom, sent sample rockets back to the same location. Explored and discovered ancient ruins and intact structures, alien, hidden inside larva tube caves. Constructed Moonstations Progress, Patriot and Peace. Each moonbase was large, heavily fortified and armed, being made partly of prefabricated building parts sent from the Earth. Moonbots were normally tested in Triplecity in a great domed site there.

 

Gladiatorroks; crazy, fighting robots built to smash, slash, stab, slice and other wise destroy each other for the amusement of audiences behind armaglass barriers. Many Gladiatorroks were built in the Triplecity and of those, many were exported. They fought alone or in teams of various sizes and also in various classes.

 

Graffitidrones: wizkid designed and built or altered robots that darted around Triplecity putting down graffiti quickly. Were soon being exported and then made elsewhere.

 

Vandaldrones; like graffitidrones but caused havoc by breaking things.

 

Terrordrones: terrorist weapons that used guns and then often exploded.

 

Securitydrones, policedrones, safetydrones, all being official responses to the types of drones above.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

STORY DIRECTIONS

STORY POINTS

 

Graharg, AlphaThirteen and other companions now seek desperately for more clues to what is really going on.

 

Gramarg and Gravarg examine six of the eight slider clones in SanctuaryHub along with the strange jelly that they were covered in. They have found a way to track Shadow elements in SanctuaryClave and though it is far from perfect, they have already detected certain Shadow units.

 

Gratarg, BetaThirteen and others move to intercept a Shadowforce moving towards the Earthen Isles in SanctuaryClave.

 

Grazarg follows a Necrotic force in the surface cityscape of Melbourne.

 

The truth of the Second Nine has turned out to be different from what Graharg and others thought it was. It seems that they were tricked somehow into believing falsehoods and now they must discover more of the truth as they have already begun to do so.

 

It appears that the Enclavers are withdrawing from Triplecity as Grazarg noted a air convoy of two aeroships and many vertibirds leaving but is this the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

 

What of the zyborgs?

 

What of the mysterious force that used the phase spears to destroy two Mr Smiths?

 

What of Johnnie, Joannie and Jeannie Karmatta, the Karmatta Triplets?

 

What of the vanishing phase-spear that killed Mr Smith in SanctuaryClave and the mysterious force behind it?

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CITY OF CYBORGS

PUP HOME TERRITORIES

 

Graharg, AlphaThirteen, the OmniResistance woman who was a kind of zyborg, some Cyborgia units and a gragoyle went deeper into the territories of the Peoples Union of the People. These were the Heartland of the PUP and the area was unusual in that a great plate stopped anybody or anything going deeper than about nine standard levels from ground level. So the PUP settlements were all surface-subsurface ones.

 

Cyborgia scouts came into report that the first PUP settlement ahead appeared to be strangely empty of life. They moved carefully over the surface scape in three groups close together and well coordinated. Smoke trailed up from the PUP settlement ahead, from blackened and broken buildings, from twisted and holed walls. The bodies of PUP conscripts and mercenaries lay scattered around smashed and burned vehicles close to the remains of a sandbag walled outpost.

 

Dead Necrotic creatures soon revealed what had attacked the outpost. Necroborgs, necroglobes and necroglobes dotted the area, proving that the locals had fought with surprising effect. Indeed they were a rearguard who had slowed down the attacking monsters so that many of the PUP settlers were able to escape as was proven by tracks of vehicles that they found.

 

Yet there was something more, a trace of odd but far from threatening energies. Plants grew strong, healthy in the area as if recently given some kind of boost of life energies. Thick vines grew over some of the abandoned buildings.

 

Something more than the PUP folk had fought the undead creatures.

 

They came creeping or floating out of the destroyed settlement, the changed Necrotic creatures, the former necroborgs, necronoids and necroglobes. Yet there was something ‘natural and normal’ about these creatures and a sense that they had returned to being their ‘real selves’.

 

Graharg himself went forward to meet them and thus he learned that these ziobeings had been created on AltEarth #123456780 by the CyborgGods there but had been taken prison by a mysterious and evil force. It had not been the ‘Shadow’ of Shadowgods, of Shadowlords, of Shadowthings, of Mr Smithdom or the Lesser Shadow entities.

 

Graharg sat half surrounded by these ziobeings that were happy to be free both of the oppressive control of the CyborgGods of Alternate Earth #123456780 and the unnaturalness of the Necrotica. These ziobeings reminded him very much of Cyborgia and when Cyborgia beings and ziobeings began to mingle with ease, it was somehow no surprise at all.

 

The surprise was the spheres of green glowing energies that had come to fight the Necrotica and to save some of them. The ziobeings did not understand why only a large minority of Necrotica could be saved or much about the life elementals that had come to aid the settlement.

 

They took what they could use from the destroyed settlement and began to move once more across the PUP Territories, now following a series of big, wide ditches that had been part of some battle or other in the years following Doomsday.

 

In the following hour or so the ziobeings became part of Cyborgia, Graharg sensed they were being carefully followed by green life elementals and Graharg met Grazarg, the first Regulator, to reluctantly become allies with him.

 

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CITY OF CYBORGS

SANCTUARYCLAVE SCATTERED TROUBLES

 

The big holographic map of SanctuaryClave showed battles being waged between different forces but the conflicts were not so straight forward in just who was fighting who for what reason.

 

Gratarg and his force were dealing with the Shadowforce that had been approaching the Earthen Isles which was still recovering from the zyborg outbreak there.

 

The Northern Lakelands seemed to be involved in a small civil war between two formerly peaceful co-existing peoples, being dwarves and gnomes.

 

Strange blue entities had been observed fighting shadow-entities near the very old city of Olympia where the SanctuaryClave Olympic Games were held on a regular basis.

 

True Blue Ocker Mutants and Cyborgia units were assisting newly organised government military forces to battle a large Shadowforce and Necrotic force on the Greenlay Flats.

 

Elemental dragons were fighting strange creatures in great air battles over the Great Eastern Lakes.

 

These were only the major incidents.

 

“It is all a matter of decoy actions.” Gramarg shook her head in frustration. “All along there has been deception behind deception, plots within plots and a great deal of manipulation.”

 

Gravarg was calmer. “Most likely true but I deduce induce that we have managed to peal of some of those layers of deception to reveal at least some important truths. We of the Second Nine were created as clones from one of the First Nine by a dark, brilliant and powerful force. Our close and careful studies of our own nature and that of the slider clones indicates we were all created by the same force which was not that of the Shadowgods. No, I think one of the CyborgGods of AltEarth #123456780 was behind our creation but that we were created for the Shadowgods.”

 

The CyborgGod who had done the difficult, intricate and sophisticated processes of their very special cloning had been egotistical enough to leave his mark behind, hidden in the genes of the Second Nine and the slider clones. Except the mark had not been hidden well enough.

 

Or was that the case? Perhaps the mark had been meant to be found just as perhaps the CyborgGod may easily have sabotaged his own work so that the Second Nine became less controllable by their hidden programming.

 

Gramarg and Gravarg were going through that hidden programming that had meant to force them to do evil and were picking up the weaknesses built into it.

 

The Second Nine were created where? At first Gramarg and Gravarg had assumed it would have been on Alternate Earth #123456780 but now the indications were that it had all happened in SanctuaryClave itself. The unnamed CyborgGod had come to SanctuaryClave and had built there a great hidden research, development and production base for the cloning of the Second Nine.

 

They had to find that base, if it still existed but SanctuaryClave was huge in land mass and the base could be underwater or hidden in the SkyArchipelago.

 

 

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67