ADVENTURES OF THE WILD EAST

[Maharg67]

JUST ANOTHER SKIRMISH IN DC

 

Daring Dashwood aimed his six-shooter carefully from his cover behind some concrete stuff and fired. The gun bucked a little in his hand but it was a well made instrument of death and it blew a nice big hole in the ganger. The garish gang coloured figure, in his hornlizard leather armour, collapsed in mid warcry. Gangers were often insane with the drugs they were addicted to like Frenzit and Psycho but worst of all Beserkin. These, like most gangers, were in their old PreWar territory though the urban atmosphere had changed a lot since back then, before the Zbombs had fallen.

 

There was a scream as Argyle killed another ganger in the mangled, mingled madness of half collapsed buildings made of smart self-repairing materials. Self-repairing to stay as good as they were but not enough to actually erect the buildings again. Argyle didn't like to talk about it but he was once Special Forces in the United States Unified Defence Force back PreWar. Even back then, amongst the Special Forces, he was considered to be one of the deadliest of the deadly. Most assumed that this made Argyle stranger and much older than Dashwood, as well as more dangerous. They were wrong!

 

Daring slipped sideways with much quiet stealth of his own. He returned the big revolver pistol to its holster after topping it up with new bullets and slipped out a combat knife. A ganger, a nasty young woman with the rough pokskin of many Wastelanders, was sneaking up upon him to waste him with a machette knife. Or so was her delusion. She raced around a corner, coming out from shadow, and swung her machette through the air. The combat knife met her throat and then she was gone off to hell, along with the rest of her kind. Unlike raiders or slavers or bandits, but like tribals or survivalists, some gangers were worse than others but these BoneBiters were sheer insane nasty. Making sure not of her blood splashed onto him, Dashwood flipped the dead ganger's body onto the bulging smart concrete he stood on.

 

Argyle, grinning, slipped into view and he spoke. "Those who are not dead, are gone. We taught the BoneBiters a small but vital lesson about keeping to local treaties with settlers, traders and other gangers. I killed eight. You took down five."

 

Dashwood grinned right back. "Time to get back to the ATV6. I need some serum and you could use a beer and something reasonable tasting to eat."

 

SATV6 simply meant a survival all terrain vehicle with six wheels. The SATV series of vehicles were commissioned in PreWar times and built in very large numbers, varieties and subvarieties. They were greatly valued in the Wastelands for many good reasons to do with their very good design and build. When the Zbombs had come down from low orbit to explode low in the atmosphere, the often carefully stored away SATVs survived in large numbers. Many others had somehow survived partly or wholly and had been salvaged. SATV4s, SATV6s and SATV8s were the most common but there were also SATVHs that were hovercraft and SATVTs that had tracks. Least common were the SATVFs that were fliers, or low flying vehicles.

 

Despite his carefully built up reputation, partly created by the series of radio broadcast adventures, Argyle did not truly enjoy killing and Dashwood certainly did not. They slipped back to the SATV6 which was well hidden, including the use of a grey camonet, and guarded by a quiet, lethal young woman by the name of Samantha. She used to be Argyle's girlfriend until Dashwood had stolen her away and then she had gave up on both of them romantically. All three were now best friends. At times she 'dallied' with one or the other of them but oddly enough no jealousy arose.

 

Samantha sighed as she sat in the gunner's seat at the back that could control remote turrets or raise to the roof to shoot 12.7mm special calibre bullet firing heavy machineguns, two of them. In truth they were Browning Heavy Machineguns, an old but very reliable and hight powered design of weapon. She spoke. "So, what now?"

 

Dashwood frowned softly and after a pause, he spoke. "We return to Rockpolis and try further to work out the problem of slavers learning of its location since this time we failed to get any more valuable information out in the field."

 

The others didn't have a better idea so that is just what they did in the surprisingly compact big six wheeled amphibious vehicle.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

DRIVING QUIET IN ROUGH PLACES

 

The angular armoured machine moved fairly quick but hummed low and quiet with its electric motors. It shot along a lightly crumpled street past two to five level prefabricated commercial office buildings, abandoned vehicles of all kinds and sometimes, shops or other kinds of structures. Radroaches and radbeetles scuttled over the street to dive under shelter. No wild ghouls were out or zhouls, even more deformed cousins of ghouls, because it was too bright and warm with sunshine. Argyle did not much like fighting under such conditions which was one reason he liked to kill by stealth; he staid much of the time in the cooler shadows where the burning sunlight did not touch his sensitive ghoulified skin. He had drunk a cool beer as taken from a status storage container and had eaten some squirrel meat and muttveg along with Samantha. Dashwood had a tube of serum. All three of them drank some cooled, purified water. Ghouls could survive radded water but did better on the cleaner stuff.

 

They tried to stay away from areas designated as far too dangerous. The Brotherhood of Steel had arrived about half a year before in the DC and had taken over the New Pentagon, turning it into the DC Citadel, and their assistance to the Wastelanders had begun to make fair sized areas safer for all. Then there were the Unified Settlement Territories, the UST, of a far few scattered built up and fortified settlements, each with its own defended surrounding territory. The UST Marshals were allied to the older organisation of the Regulators and both worked with the Sheriffs of both UST and other settlements. The Brother Outcasts, a splinter group from the Brotherhood of Steel, openly disdained Wastelanders but tended to assist if they came upon Wastelanders in trouble. The better mercenary groups would do the same such as the Ironsides, Reilly's Rangers and the Security Mercenaries. Others were not so good, such as the Talon Mercenaries linked to Paradise Falls and GuardTek linked to the surviving TekCorporations of the TekCommonwealth and also to its very powerful TekInstitute. There were lots of dangerous, very dangerous and extremely dangerous areas infested with wild ghouls, zhouls, mutated creatures of varied kinds, evil humans of varied kinds, rogue robots and other threats.

 

They travelled southwards as the solar power panels embedded into the top of the vehicle charged up reserve batteries even as the sunlight began to fade towards darkness. They turned roughly south-east as they began to curve along a length of highway. Then they were going under cover as Dashwood sensed approaching danger. The big, powerful vertibird shot overhead, big and dull dark silver metallic with two big rotors to the fore and sides. It turned in a graceful arc through the air, powerful chinguns and hardpoint weapons seeming threatening as its light armoured hull. Two more such flying monster machines went shooting through the air and they bore the symbol of the EagleEnclave, the emergency bunker based government that had been instigated when the War had begun.

 

It was far from a good sign. None of the three were happy. All of them had been to the west and midlands of the former US Mainland so they all had former experiences with the dreaded EagleEnclave. The Jolly Grey Giants, the type of vertibirds that had just flown over, where powerful, versatile machines and yet still had vulnerabilities. The EagleEnclave would have had to have good reasons for sending them that deep into the DC despite that the three were actually relatively close to the western edge of the DC. Dashwood was most disturbed for he had very old and strong links with the EagleEnclave and the TekCorps that with the corrupted and autocratic US Federal Government had led the world to wide spread death and destruction.

 

They went back to driving again after Dashwood gave some biscuits and squirrel meat to some rhouls, the more peaceful versions of zhouls. Argyle tended to some minor wounds and learned some local info. Samantha held a rhoul baby and played with it. It was the rhouls that told the three that they had seen supermutants in the area but also other things that had scared them.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

STOPPING OFF WITH SETTLERS AND BROTHERS OF STEEL AT HARRIETCROSSING

 

They stopped at a small but thriving settlement of HarrietCrossing, fortified, that was the base of scavengers, hunters and farmers. They had crops of mutt-plants, goats, brahmins and even some chickens. They also had some rhorses, mutated horses, as big as draft horses of old and amazingly strong with plated skin and horns. The settlement was also an outpost of the Brotherhood of Steel, a base for longer range patrols and exploration parties. Brothers and Sisters of Steel were their in their battle power armour with heavy assault rifles, or HARs, miniguns, flamers, 20mm autoguns, 40mm recoilless rifles and other bigger weapons adapted for use with power armour.

 

Daring Herbert Dashwood approached the Sister of Steel in charge, one Knight Captain Sarah Lyons, who was out of armour and in fatigues in a fortified shack packed in behind walls of sandbags, and was examining reports. She looked up at Daring Dashwood and frowned softly. "Word of you gets around. You have quite a reputation and not just here in DC."

 

Herbert nodded. "You and your Lyon's Pride also have a strong reptuation. We spotted three of those big EagleEnclave vertibirds not too far from here and have picked up reliable information that there are supermutants in the area."

 

The 'hut' chamber was fairly big and had various bits of radio, computer and other equipment including a holoprojector. A map of the DC was on the wall but it was not complete, having blank areas and some guesswork. Certain special sites were flagged such as the DC Citadel (New Pentagon), the Old Pentagon, the National Mall, Washington DC Airport, RivetCity of the aircraft carrier settlement, Fort Independence of the Outcasts and a few others. RivetCity was the capital of the UST in a loose sense of the Leadership Council being situated there with its Leadership Office. Other markers were coded.

 

Herbert indicated the map. "I would be happy to help you change some of your mistakes there and fill in some gaps."

 

Sarah nodded. "That would be welcome. My father, Elder Owyn Lyons, wishes to meet you in person. There is much that you could discuss. Perhaps we can assist you with Rockopolis. Yes, we have our own eyes and ears in the DC."

 

Herbert sat down on a wooden chair made of smart-wood and he was quiet for a moment before he spoke. "Rockopolis needs to be officially destroyed and better hidden underground. Argyle and I need to vanish in a few months and take up new identities for a while. In return for your assistance the Brotherhood of Steel could use Rockopolis and place there reserves against EagleEnclave aggression."

 

It was the start of negotiations. Sarah put aside the report that she had just finished reading anyway, and turned to him. "You assume the worst."

 

Herbert Dashwood shook his head. "I fear it. Those vertibirds looked altered, perhaps upgraded somehow. The some of the weapons were of a kind not previously known to me."

 

The attractive soldier girl frowned. "That would go along with troublesome information that we have already been picking up."

 

They continued to talk and a Brother of Steel brought a tray with tea, teacups and saucers along with a plate of cakebars.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

HERBERT DARING DASHWOOD DREAMS OF SUPERMUTANTS

 

Dashwood dreamed in an odd way sometimes of things he should not have known such as those in the distance, glimpses into possible futures and even clues to real life puzzzles or mysteries. After long hours of talking with Sarah Lyons and having Argyle speak with her also, he retired to a made up tent that he shared with the others. There he read for a while, a rare Prewar book he had found on philosphy that had been banned back in the Prewar USA. After snuggling into bed, a thin inflated survival mattress of actual real comfort, he dreamed.

 

Of walking in Wastelander survival gear, including hornlizard body-armour, through a abandoned looking VaultTek TekVault, an arid metallic environment with a few artificial plants made of smart-plastic, 3Dslogans on the walls, and some wrecked or just deactivated dumb-robots, cleaners and security observers. There were some signs of long ago fighting such as bullet marks in the metal, burn marks of pulselasers, of barricades long pushed to one side. There was the sort of basic machine extruded and replicated stuff that official Vault-Dwellers would use from mugs to cyberlink-typers to computer terminals to mops and much else.

 

TekVault0087, official designation recolonisation of the surface. Official population of one hundred thousand humans, ten thousand standard vaultdroid androids and one thousand brainbots, cyborged robots big and bulky on tracks. Three secondary official designations of classified nature. The information came to him but he was not sure how it did so or where it came from.

 

Then he found the skeletal remains heaped on top of each other in a side chamber, a storeroom, and sensed they had died violently. While most wore blue or pink jumpsuits, male or female citizen, some had security fatigues and body-armour of security guards or special colour coded jumpsuits such as scientists, medical staff and even black jumpsuit wearing security officers. Clearly there had been a savage battle and these were some of the dead.

 

When three big hulking supermutants thumped along the hallway, each in fleximetallic and hornlizard body-armour plus holding large weapons, somehow he was not surprised. Not only did they not notice Daring Herbert Dashwood, but they walked right through him because he really was not there at all. Stupid but powerfully aggressive, berserker mad at times, these supermutants were massemoths, being the standard size and shapeform of supermutants. Or at least this is how Daring had encountered them in far off places on the US Mainland such as California, Rhode Island and Nebraska. Like ghouls, supermutants had longevity and they wandered far further than many people guessed.

 

Following them was a zentaur, a monstrous once human creature moving on tentacles along the floor and with a human like face buried into its front. These could whip out with tentacles or throw globs of glistening toxic stuff. They were not smart enough to use weapons but they had strong senses and were used as guard and tracking creatures along for attacking the enemies of the supermutants.

 

Then the amazingly vivid dream was ending.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

EXPEDITION PLANNED TO TEKVAULT0087

 

Sarah Lyons did not question the importance of Daring Herbert Dashwood's dream or the sense of urgency that it gave him that they should go to TekVault0087 that lay beneath Lamplight Mountain on the very fringes of part of the vast and intricate Lamplight Caverns cave system.

 

The Brotherhood of Steel had attempted to get through the main wheel-gate entrance with its two wheel-gate airlock like arrangement. An area of incredibly high toxic and radioactive levels, along with something else unknown, had stopped even people in hazmat power armour from reaching the entrance. When a robot did so it reported that the tunnel before the outer wheel-gate seemed to be collapsed. Then the robot had ceased to function. Having lost two comrades in valuable hazmat power armour and a valuable specialised hazmat robot, the Brotherhood ceased efforts to get into TekVault0087 by that route.

 

The Brotherhood of Steel had learned of no other route until Knight Captain Gallows, in one of his secret missions into the Wastelands, had learned about the strange settlement known as Little Lamplight in the Lamplight Caverns close to the old Lamplight Caverns entrance. Traders sometimes went there, halting just inside the caverns and just outside the strange settlement where only children and young teenagers lived. Outside of the Lamplight Caverns, only about a kilometre from the main entrance, was Bigtown where lived only adults that had been children in Little Lamplight. It was whispered that there was a way to get through Little Lamplight and then through part of the Lamplight Caverns known nicely as 'Murder Pass', to get to TekVault0087.

 

The Little Lamplighters traded a variety of strange mosses, mushrooms and other caverns grown mutated growths in exchange for tradegoods from outside. These exotic substances had many amazing qualities that made them very valuable to Wastelanders and the traders made a good profit. The Little Lamplighters would only trade with three Master Traders from Canterbury Commons who had come to specialise in dealing with Little Lamplight because the two men and one womanwould did not try to cheat the children as many traders had done, thinking they could fool 'mere children'.

 

Preperations began to create an expedition being the three and some Brothers of Steel plus some Wastelander scouts with experience of areas they would need to pass through.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

THE EXPEDITION TO TEKVAULT0087: STARTING OUT ACROSS THE WASTELANDS; CRATERTOWN OF CRATERLAKE

 

They were roughly north-west of Lamplight Mountain but going there was not going to be straight forward. More than Z-bombs had been used in that last terrible war and a big crater had turned into a strange toxic and radded lake full of mutated plants and animals. There were settlements around its shore brave enough to live off the exotic but valuable resources to be found there. The CraterLakers of CraterLake were a tough lot and had to be. They were about half of them ghouls because ghouls could better withstand the toxins and radiation of the lake waters. Jutting out of the centre of the CraterLake was the tail end of a mighty super-subsonic bomber, a B747G1 that was based loosely on the design of a Bo747 Jumbojet airliner or airfreighter but with anti-missile missiles, pulselaser cannons and even robotic drone interceptors. In truth the old USA had a shortage of bombers and converted some Bo747s in a hurry, partly because they could hold many defences and also many H-bombs, tactical H-missiles and even small Z-bombs.

 

The expedition of SATV4s, SATV6s and a couple of big eight wheeled atomic motorised ALAVs, headed along fairly rough highways and dirt roads. Local bandits and monsters were too smart to attack such a well armed and armoured convoy. Coming to the edges of the great big Craterlake, they stopped at the heavily fortified settlement of Cratertown of fairly large size. Its special harbour area was designed for the hunting and fishing of terrible mutant creatures as well as defending the town against them. Very rugged fully enclosed gather, fisher and hunter boats were coming in from the deeper parts of the lake bringing fish and other creatures along with mutated lake weed. The tradegoods produced from the Craterlake were of great value across the DC Wastelands, right up close to the DC Defence Security Boundary that was still functioning in most places. Closer to the DCDSB one got, the more likely it was that one would encounter dangerous rogue robots along with other special threats.

 

Argyle and Daring Dashwood took the excuse to go and visit the LILLY ALLEN SALOON as run by a youthful, attractive Lilly Allen. Apart from being old friends of her, she was also a very useful source of valuable information along with special equipment and supplies. Of course they would have to pay for the latter in cash but for the former they gave information in return. Sarah Lyons did not come with them. Instead she went off to talk to the local Sheriff. The saloon was a fine looking establishment, by DC Wasteland standards, and was made of a mixture of wood and bricks. It offered gaming tables, good food and reasonably priced and quality drinks including clean cooled water, muttfruit juice, coffee and tea.

 

Word had come in that scavengers had found a big load of status stored food, drink, medicines and other valuable tradegoods fairly close to the Craterside Lake. The stuff would soon be on its way and under heavy guard. It would go to the eight roughly compass direction placed Craterlake Settlements, all of which belonged to the loose alliance of settlements. They would use one of the new wonders of Craterside, the new electric railway being built slowly but steadily around the lake to link all of the settlements on its shoreline.

 

The two of them sat for a while looking at a big wall mural showing the Craterlake from the air, including the settlement of Cratertown, that was most impressively done. It was new and it was beautiful, showing much talent. Down in the right hand lower corner were the very stylish initials of GM. Argyle and Herbert Daring Dashwood looked to each other and both frowned softly. The initials of GM, along with that style and quality of artwork, could only mean Graharg McMaharg was in the area. This was both good and not so good.

 

Which was when Graharg himself showed up, dressed partly like a cowboy gunslinger and partly like a wild artist. With him came Lilly Allen who looked happier than she normally did and it was clear that she had hooked up with Graharg, much to the annoyance and jealousy of Argyle who had desired the attractive, almost petite woman for some time.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

SETTLEMENTS OF THE UST

NOT ALL SETTLEMENTS BELONG TO THE UST

SOME UST SETTLEMENTS ARE EXPANDED GAME SETTLEMENTS

OTHERS ARE NEW

 

AEROVALE (NEW) (MAJOR SETTLEMENT)

BASED AT PREDD EXPERIMENTAL BASE AND AIRPORT. CONSTRUCTION OF SMALL AIRSHIPS, OF AIRBOATS AND FEWER AEROBOATS. CAN REPAIR, ASSEMBLE SOME OTHER AIRCRAFT.

OTHER LIGHT INDUSTRIES.

 

CANTERBURY COMMONS (MAJOR SETTLEMENT)

LINKED TO MYSTERIOUS VAULT THROUGH TRADE AGREEMENT. FORTIFIED, CUT OFF AREA OF OLD TOWN WITH CLEAR FIRE ZONES. HOME BASE OF TRADE CARAVANS OF VARIED TYPES INCLUDING THE FAMOUS CANTERBURY FOUR.

 

CRATERLAKE SETTLEMENTS (NEW)(SPECIAL STATUS)

CRATERTOWN, CRATERPORT, LUCKYWATERS, FISHERTOWN, GOBBLERTON, SEDRICVILLE, RAFTTROPOLIS, SPLISHSPLASH

ALL BASED MAINLY ON THE RESOURCES GAINED FROM CRATERLAKE

 

GREYDITCH (MINOR SETTLEMENT)

SCAVENGING, GATHERING, HUNTING SETTLEMENT BASED IN OLD URBAN AREA AND BASE OF SMALL EXPEDITIONS INTO THE SUBWAYS.

 

HARRIETCROSSING (NEW)(MINOR SETTLEMENT)

BASED MAINLY ON HUNTING, FISHING, GATHERING AND SCAVENGING

 

MEGATON (MEDIATE SETTLEMENT)

BASED IN CRATER AND FAMED FOR Z-BOMB IN CRADLE AT BOTTOM OF CRATER. OUTER MEGATON IS LIKE GAME MEGATON BUT INNER MEGATON IS BASED IN A BUNKER COMPLEX PARTLY EXPOSED BY THE CRATER. LIGHT INDUSTRIES BASED IN BUNKER. HOME BASE OF THE CHILDREN OF ATOM (CULT). ALSO HAS TANNERY.

 

RIVETCITY (MAJOR SETTLEMENT)

S/VTOL AIRCRAFT CARRIER, SMALL FREIGHTER, DESTROYER, WHARF AREA, AREA CONTROL TOWER. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE. PORT FOR RIVER TRADE, FISHING AND TRAVEL.

 

RIVERTOWN (NEW)(MEDIATE SETTLEMENT)

PORT, FISHING, BOAT BUILDING, RIVER SALVAGE ETC.

 

SUGARTOWN (NEW)(MAJOR SETTLEMENT)

BASED MAINLY AROUND THE CULTIVATION OF MUTATED SUGARGRASS AND ITS PROCESSING INTO TRADEGOODS SUCH AS SUGAR, BIOFUEL AND ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. ALSO HAS TANNERY.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

IN THE LILLY ALLEN SALOON

 

Lilly Allen sat down at the table and frowned hard at Argyle. "You silly fool, meet my father."

 

Argyle would have blushed if he had not been a ghoul. Having gotten past his jealousy, he could see the similarities. There had been no 'hooking up'. He gave a weak grin to Lilly and passed one of his cool beers to her as his way of saying sorry. She snorted in mild annoyance but then smiled at him before she opened the beer and took a swig.

 

Greyharg ordered some bottles of beer and mead from a waitress along with some grilled fish with steamed vegies and buttered sourbread. Then he turned to the others and spoke. "It is good to see you both again. We have to speak carefully. The EagleEnclave has spies infiltrating the DC Wastelands and has also begun paying off a carefully chosen network of informers and traitors. Knight Captain Gallows is in the area trying to confirm reports on the sighting of EagleEnclave scouts in recon power armour. Those damned EagleEnclave eyebots are all over the place and they do more than sprout propaganda. They spy on the DC. We talked with Sarah Lyons just before we came here. She told us about your report on spotting those advanced looking vertibirds."

 

Daring Herbert Dashwood nodded and then smiled. "Argyle will not remember you as you have altered your shapeform, your appearance, since the last time we met. You were a woman back then."

 

Argyle looked astonished and then troubled. "But we... wow, this is tricky."

 

Greyharg sighed. "That was back before I rejuved fully and I shifted to another character shapeform. Each of my varied aspects is semiautonomous so the one you were with back then, in truth, is not truly me. Relax. She did the same with Daring Dashwood. Now, we need to find out what is happening in, has been happening in, TekVault0087. Your dream, Dashwood, is not the only reason for that. EagleEnclave GEVs (ground effect vehicles) were seen moving in two convoys, at different times, towards Lamplight Mountain roughly from the north-west, from outside of the DC. The vehicles were a mixture of older types with obvious enhancements and new kinds previously unknown to the Brotherhood of Steel or anybody else I gain data from. Each convoy was large, well armed and armoured, well equipped and was escorted by low flying sentinel-bots. I can not tell you how I learned of it but there were plenty of scientists, techs and other specialists in those convoys along with specialist equipment and supplies. The EagleEnclave is after something very important to them in the vault there."

 

Argyle snorted. "With Herbert Daring Dashwood, of course, why not? So who goes and when do we go further?"

 

Lilly sighed. "I must stay here and carry on with keeping the saloon going along with various projects and programs. Times are changing. There is increasing talk of replacing the loose alliance of the UST (United Settlement Territories) with a more strongly unified and tightly organised federation of some kind. Not all are certain of it and some are against it but a few like the idea while some very much want it. If enough people realise that the EagleEnclave is busy here in the DC, they might think more strongly of being more unified and at least of having a unified defence force."

 

The UST was defended by a fragmented cluster of militas, CivilGuards, Security paramilitaries, GuildGuards, mercenaries and the small professional force of the DC-Protectors along with the Brotherhood of Steel. Volunteers could be called upon if need be and though they were tough and experienced survivalists, they had a very hodge podge mix of arms and armour. The UST was all in the same big area but the settlements were fairly scattered, though some were relatively close to each other. New unified forces and networks of many kinds were needed.

 

Which was when alarm bells began to ring sharply.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

MIRELURKS ATTACKING CRATERTOWN OF CRATERLAKE

 

The mirelurks came storming up out of the murky waters of Craterlake and they were led by a strange looking humanoid of a mirelurk king who unleashed an ultrasonic burst at the defenders. But only moments before bullets ripped holes in his chest and guts, making the great beast fall back into the river. Mirelurks came swarming up the shore towards the wall in madness but some form of intelligence was directing them for they carried between them, in claws, crude but well made ladders and the mirelurk king that had fallen, dropped a large gun like an over sized revolver-pistol.

 

Greyharg spoke as he aimed a lever-action rifle and fired it, crouching behind battlements. "I came here because of reports of mirelurka, the various forms of mirelurks, working together and with devices in a way that should be impossible. I sense the dark intelligence out there and it seems both familiar and yet changed. It was once human and then altered human but now it is a monstrous form of unique mirelurk. It sees what the mirelurks see, hears what they hear and so on. Herbert Daring Dashwood, you have some very interesting dreams. What have you dreamed of this time?"

 

Arrows flew through the air from powerful composite bows and thudded into mirelurks, doing as much damage as did bullets. Mirelurks ran into booby-traps and the explosions blew them backwards or shredded them with deadly shrapnel.

 

Then, as abruptly as they had attacked, the mirelurks were vanishing back into the waters and taking their wounded and dead with them.

 

Lilly Allen frowned where she crouched. "The mirelurk monster you speak of, dad, is testing our defences. It has attacked every settlement of the Craterlake Union now. Also boats have vanished and people who were close to the edge of the Craterlake such as three hunters two days ago and some rhoul workers a week ago. It is a threat we Territorians (people of the UST) have to deal with."

 

Herbert sighed and then described his dream. The others listened carefully, even Argyle who had heard it described before.

 

Graharg nodded with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I sense a link between what is happening here in the Craterlake and what is happening in TekVault0087. Priorities have changed, though. I must go deep into Craterlake and try to make contact with the mirelurk controlling mirelurk monster with a dark mind twisted with hatred, agony and misery along with a good deal of greed and self pity. I wanted to go with you to TekVault0087. I will try to join you there as soon as I can or at least track you down if you do not reach there by the time I finish my quest in the Craterlake."

 

So plans had suddenly changed but that was nothing unusual in the Wastelands.

 

NOTE: RHOULS

Rhouls, passive versions of zhouls, did basic work for the settlements and in turn gained basic warrens just inside the outer defences of settlements, basic rations, clean water, basic medical care and extras, depending on the settlement. Often it was citizen ghouls who cared for them, worked with them, but far from always. Rhoul slavery was a terrible crime and, as was all slavery, was banned in the United Settlement Territories, the UST.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

MOVING ON TOWARDS TEKVAULT0087

 

Lilly Allen spent the night with Argyle while Herbert Daring Dashwood slept part of the night and spent the rest playing chess with and talking with Graharg. Graharg was one of the mysterious Guardian Thirteen. Indeed he was the Prime who led the three Seconds who each led three Thirds. He would not speak of the other Guardians or the twelve followers that each Guardian in turn led, being together classed as the Thirteen Thirteens. What he had told Herbert in previous centuries was that the Guardian Thirteen of Thirteens had arisen shortly after Doomsday, the final day of the Great War when the Z-bombs had fallen out of low orbit and other super-weapons had been used, some of them very exotic and some of them with mixed results.

 

The Craterlake Settlement leaders were soon telephoning each other to indicate what had been happening to all of them and to try to make plans but they were struck with shortages of many kinds of resources, a problem that plagued the whole UST. Not that they were the only Wastelanders to face such problems. Even such as the DC Syndicates of Paradise Falls, each which had a monopoly on a certain field of crime, often struggled to get resources of varied kinds as did the TekCommonwealth, the DomniCommonwealth, Holy Crosswayne Atomicus, the Tribal Queendom, the Primatic Kingdom and others. Trade of sorts did take place long distance with air-convoys travelling as far as Point Lookout and back or even out to the Patriot Islands, artificial constructs of the Golden Atomic Age that preceded the Great War and Doomsday. There were those who wanted their say, be they the Mayors and Settlement Leadership Councils, the UST Representatives, the Grand Guilds, the Lesser Guilds, the DC Regulators, the Sheriffs or others, including the Brotherhood of Steel and various other Orders outside of them. Even the Brother Outcasts had a deal of sorts going with the UST as did the amazonic Sisterhood of Steel, the mystical Orderhood and a few others.

 

The next day the group continued on towards TekVault0087. As they moved through torn up landscape, that looked to be tortured by Doomsday at times, they passed great sweeps of glowing glowshooms gone wild and amongst them what looked like giant mushrooms. Wild rhouls dwelt there who picked the glowshooms and fed on edible parts of the shoomtrees, who picked less common plants for many uses, selling some to the settlers. These were not to be mistaken for the rhouls who lived with and served the settlements.

 

They passed through ruins of commercial office buildings, small shopping complexes, motor service garage-workshops and other structures including some of the big, grandious statues that were constructed in the Golden Atomic Age to glorify the supposedly democratic rule of President Jack Patriot James who had been elected president for life after he scrapped the constitution and the bill of rights. They passed atomic powered sedans, delivery vans, landliner public transit buses, triple-wheeler electric cars and many other vehicles but they were all not functional and those that had atomic motors were no longer safely stable. There were certain professional salvagers and not so professional scavengers who dared to attempt to take goodies from such a source but most did not.

 

It was as they began to enter an area of thickly clustered buildings with skybridges joining them over the streets that Herbert Daring Dashwood sensed danger. Sarah Lyons gave orders and the vehicles dispersed into defensive positions, halting and weapons sweeping around to find targets. Then the threat came boiling out of a open manhole. Giant stinger-ants, soldiers leading workers with low flying drones being in this case sterile males. They swarmed in madness, indicating that the expedition was far too close to the Queen ant, the eggs and larvae.

 

Firing weapons, the expedition beat a hasty retreat. They would be delayed but they would be better off going around the stinger-ant nest. If nothing else they would save valuable ammo by doing so.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Maharg67