FALLOUT MARS

[Maharg67]

0146

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: CLEVER ODDIE, SOUR ELLIE, AMAZON ESSIE AND THE ANCIENT ARTIFACT (CONTINUED)

GRAHAM MAHARG #2 (GREGORY MAHARG)

 

Identifying of the destinations beyond the twelve gateways went on including confirmations of gateways already used.

 

Firstly was a forest filled landscape with a medieval style castle like city in the distance! That was proven to be of the great realm of Cyrodiil of the super continent of Tamriel of the world of Nirn. This domain was of humanity, of the mer, of wildfolk, of beastfolk, of magical and other exotic forces where 'gods' and other such entities were 'real'.

 

Second was Megaton-Springvale and Megaton from the outside. This was already both identified and used as a gateway access.

 

Thirdly was a great broken city that looked as if it had experienced a great catastrophe! This was the city of Washington DC on the Earth (Terra or Sol III) of the same Alternate, being the Earth that had suffered the first Doomsday and which the Solsystem Federation was trying to 'Terraform' with mixed results.

 

Fourthly was a very much Martian urban landscape of Predoomsday type appearances. This was most odd for it was an access to a great ultimate virtual reality domain based loosely on a PreDD city of Mars. It was no known city though and yet had features of many past cities, many broken cities, of Terra and Mars. There was activity of people but not close to the semiwilderness park that the gateway opened into to except that it was not really open. On the other side of the gateway were some soldiers in power armour and odd robots like soldiers in power armour, guarding the gateway from both anything that might go through it and that might approach it from within their own realm.

 

Fifthly was a low hulking concrete and metallic structure surrounded by large sharp red plant growths. That was the already identified access to the other Mars and to Mars Megaton in the distance, being the big, low hulking concrete and metal structure. Nothing was out there now but two exploration robots and another robot now busy doing repairs to one of the exploration robots.

 

Sixthly was a deserted appearing metropolis of perhaps World War Two vintage of the 20th Century of Terra! It was an amazing city, partly damaged but mostly abandoned only for about a year ago by the appearance. But it was not friendly. Hordes of shambling zombies, berserker insane ragers, heavily armed sociopathic ravers, vampires, ghouls, supermutants and an oppressive bunker based civilization trying to conquer the surface, were not all of the deadly threats.

 

Seventhly there was a hellish environment of savage oppressive towers often joined by strange bridges and an ocean of hot larva! This was Oblivionaedra, that is part of it, being the Realm of Oblivion known as the Deadlands as ruled by the Grand Daedra Mehrunes Dagon. Again a realm of the supernatural, the paranormal, and linked with Nirn. A realm of monsters, of the daedra, of the lesser undead and more. In its own ways it was just as bad as the Wastelands of Mars.

 

Eighthly was a utopian appearing sight of science fiction aspects where protective domes covered amazing gardens, where monocars shot through transparent tubes, where young colourful dressed adults appeared to be involved only in hedonistic activities. This was a realm that was openly utopian but actually was dystopian. Cloned humans were allowed to live luxurious lives, though they were program-conditioned, educated and trained, until they reach the age of 30. Then they entered the first of the Wheel of Fate Games. Only the few winners got to live on to 60 but with more privileges. Another Wheel of Fate Game and only the few winners got to go onto 90 and one last Wheel of Fate Game. Any who got to 120 with special privileges, were 'completed'. What happened to the losers of each game, along with the 'completed', varied but death was only one of many fates. This was also a so called ultimate virtual reality domain but its location could not be found.

 

Ninthly lay a vast fairly stark, fairly green cave chamber stretching into the distance that was topped by a thick cover of cloud (somehow she knew it was underground though not how she knew this), This was the Martian Underworld deep beneath the Marslands.

 

Tenthly there was the metallic interior of some kind of space-station that seemed unused except for some big metallic containers strapped somehow to sections of the walls. This was a space-station of the Skylands, the people in low orbit around Mars and below the World-Bubble. Now five soldiers stood guard in space power armour with big guns along with a dozen heavily armed-armoured robots.

 

Eleventhly there was a big rock chamber that was partly altered with prefabricated sections. This was Deimos, a Martian Moon, and was already both identified and used. The Solsystem Federation had power here.

 

Twelthly there was a thick green fog ridden glistening beautifully dangerous jungle landscape. This was Venus, the world of pointy eared Venetian humans, of hivaca monster bugs and a colony of the predavories. There were also monstrous plants, dragons, dinosaurs and other creatures that could all give both hivaca and predavories a hard time of it; in other words they were survivors.

[Maharg67]

For the moment have no constant access to the internet but this will change soon.

 

New basic feedback idea.

 

:thumbsup: = okay

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: = good

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: = very good

 

[Maharg67]

0147

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: OLD JOE MCDONALD AT JACK-N-JILL HILL AND AT LIFEVAULTAA1112, (LIFECITY)

 

Jack-N-Jill Hill was still getting over the attack by the creature, the undeathly thing that had come stumbling out of the darkness, that had only been driven off with a good deal of firepower. Old Joe McDonald did some healing, did some fixing and gave some other aide. He dared to go out into the growing darkness and cold to track the creature for a short while but its tracks had vanished for it had actually departed from that world, the same way as it had come there in the first place. This was something he did not tell the settlers.

 

The main entrance to LifeVaultAA01112, Experimental Private Subcontracted, was only a hundred or so metres from Jack-N-Jill Hill but none of the settlers knew of it. No humans in the area knew of it or even such as ghouls. Yet it had been there before the localized reality transformation had taken place though now, he 'sensed' it had changed. He alerted the settlers that it was there and coldly informed some of them that it was out of bounds when they became eager to loot it of valuable resources or turn it into an outpost shelter of the settlement. There was something about Old Joe McDonald that had these tough settlers obeying him with out question.

 

The double wheel-door safety-security-defense airlock allowed him through after he hacked the network-system but waiting inside were five damphirs, unlifen hunters of the undead, the transformed struggling survivors of the LifeVault population.

 

The damphir leader was a tall, striking, if not beautiful woman, in altered combat armour. She had a broadsword in a scabbard over her back and a mixture of guns, some loaded with special ammunition and one being a xolaser-rifle, a type of weapon that fired UV type laser beams. "We 'sensed' you coming and that you are not our enemy. There are over three hundred thousand of us in this LifeVault that we call LifeCity but also others that we brought in as refugees. Humans, ghouls, zhouls that we have tamed, rhouls, some androids, a few cyborgs and some of those false vampires. We have been working hard to create a good sound home for ourselves but we damphirs hunger to hunt the undead. Recently we began to send out hunter-assist, hunter-seeker and hunter-killer teams out into the hunting grounds. We helped to drive off the monster that attacked the settlement of Jack-N-Jill Hill, like the name, and observed it vanish to some other place. A terrible place but also one where many damphirs and other unlifen entities dwell to fight the true undead that flourish there. That world used to be like this one, is another version of Mars, and it was the basis of a grand experiment to create endless free energy but also to enable an elite of superhumans to be able to control reality, to do what they wanted, to be like living gods. We know this because our people had a brief but powerful psychic linkage with damphirs of that other world. I assumed you would wish to know this and that any invasion of undeath is going to be launched from there."

 

A soft shudder and sparkling shimmer went through everything. The very air itself seemed to shudder. Old Joe McDonald was as taken by surprise as were the damphirs in that chamber. It was a new reality shift taking place but of a very different kind from what had happened previously. Or so he 'sensed'.

 

As soon as it was gone, he reached out and shook the woman by the hand. "Welcome to the Service of the Eternal Guardian. I am but one of its avatars or aspects. Is your vault like that of a standard vault?"

 

The damphir woman grinned. "Yes, generally so, but the madman of a general who had it made also equipped it with an amazing array of dedicated military network-systems, robots, weapons, other equipment and supplies. He also put in super virtual reality scenarios of every major human war, and many minor ones, along with some imaginary ones, going right back through Terran history. Which brings me to a special subgroup populating our vault. Combat androids, battle cyborgs, special assault-robots of a kind new to me and the general and many of his people still in status-capsules. Neither we or our ancestors dared to let him out. His name is Field Marshal Rear Admiral; a very strange name indeed."

 

"He is an aspect of the Eternal Protector and is linked with the Eternal Guardian. Another aspect of him is active in the DC Citadel where the Orders of Steel in Exile, the OSE, are settling in at his invitation. Wake him. He is mad but in a good way and he, along with his people, will prove to be both a surprise and good allies to have."

 

When they woke the second avatar of Field Marshal Rear Admiral, FMRA, he behaved as his long stay in the status-capsule had been a pleasant nap. He and his people were soon actively taking over their part of the LifeVault and were negotiating with the damphirs and others there. He called himself FMRA02 and was a taller, slimmer version of the original hulking FMRA01. He was just as brilliant and canny as the other version of himself, the other aspect of the Eternal Protector.

 

FMRA01 grinned happily at Old Joe McDonald as they stood in a big elaborate and hitech command centre. "Good to see you, old man. Good to be back in action. FMRA01 can deal with the OSE but me, well I can help deal with these undead chappies coming through from that other poor, unfortunate version of Mars. Damned fools. They tried to play 'god' but there were others also, I suppose, or all of this mess would not have taken place."

 

Old Joe McDonald smiled at his ancient comrade, who like himself had bore many identities, many shapeforms, many incarnations. They had operated together on many worlds and in other forms of realms, the Eternal Protector always serving the Eternal Guardian but in a semiautonomous manner.

 

Which was when alarms began to sound.

 

0148

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: OLD JOE MCDONALD AT JACK-N-JILL HILL AND AT LIFEVAULTAA1112, (LIFECITY) (CONTINUED)

 

Reluctantly the people of Jack-N-Jill Hill agreed to abandon their settlement, except as a surface outpost that they could work in or otherwise serve in or just visit, and to go live inside LifeCity. A few were uncomfortable with the idea of living with such as damphirs, false vampires and ghouls but there were many advantages in the move. Much of the LifeVault was empty and semiactive but still had many resources including service-support network-systems. LifeCity would also spend resources in upgrading, expanding and making Jack-N-Jill Hill more secure from threat. A tunnel would be constructed between LifeCity and the settlement but also the bunkers and shelters beneath Jack-N-Jill Hill would be converted into a proper and improved bunker complex.

 

Old Joe McDonald stood on the highest part of the settlement hill and looked out to space through the dark sky. He frowned softly for now there were more features in the sky. There were more planets, more moons, more space-stations and more spaceships. He looked with more than normal vision and realized, with deep surprise, that more than one Alternate Solsystem had been melded together in a seemingly impossible fashion and with out great side-effects, which was also amazing even for such as him.

 

Now there was more than one Mars, more than one Terra (Earth) and so on.

 

Communications came to him, then, from an identity that took him by surprise; the appearance of one Graham Maharg pleased and concerned him for such a powerful and incredibly ancient entity only showed up when there was extreme threat to the part of or the whole of the Multiverse. Unless of course he was just dropping in for a casual visit or for a longer holiday. This time, though, it was all business. The image of Graham Maharg showed before Old Joe McDonald and spoke to him.

 

"Can't spend too much time here. Takes a lot of energy to do this now." Graham Maharg smiled. "Good to see you. Have been concerned about you, the Eternal Guardian, and others including the Eternal Protector along with all those mortals, lesser immortals and so forth."

 

It was a given that Graham Maharg always had such concerns so for him to state it so meant that he was extremely concerned.

 

Old Joe McDonald nodded, smiled. "How many Alternate Solsystems are merged?"

 

"Thirteen but almost half of the absorbed solar systems are actually uninhabited by any 'intelligent' species. One is heavily infested, on some of its worlds, with unlife and undeath. Three are not but will be having problems. Another three are stranger versions of Solsystem. Six are of wildlife or uninhabited even by that." Graham Maharg shook his head in wonder. "Very powerful Multiversal forces intervened to assist the process to happen and to make sure that the side effects were as harmless as possible. Still there have been some dangerous results. The Eternal Circus has shown up, hoping for entertainment, as have the Borg Empire with those damned cubeships but in balance against them have shown up the Eternal Continuum, seeking to find balance in the Multiverse and to stop the Eternal Circus from adding to the damage and danger. As for the Borg Empire, where you find the Borg, you find the AntiBorg Alliance (ABA) always ready to deal with them. Karma gets to us all, even the mighty Borg and the Eternal Circus. Their battles will not come close to the new Multiple Solsystem but they indicate just how messy matters are becoming. Will contact you soon. Be careful. Assistance will be sent to you as soon as it can be but no promises are made because of new developments. Good to be with you."

 

Then Graham Maharg was gone.

 

Old Joe McDonald went off to assist with the changes happening to both Jack-N-Jill Hill and to LifeCity.

Edited October 8, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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Edited September 16, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

 

0149

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

BACKGROUND NOTES

 

NOTES WILL BE CONTINUOUSLY EDITED AND EXTENDED OUT

 

D TO Z OF A TO Z

 

D

 

DAMPHIRS: Unlifen entities from the same Mirror Multiverse that the undeath comes from. Damphirs are also known as antivampires and feed on sunlight as one source of their power; they can also feed on true vampires as true vampires feed off living entities but this way of gaining energies carries a dark price with it. Damphirs, like true vampires, are shapeshifters with other exotic powers as well. Ironically while damphirs can gain energy from sunlight, they can be harmed by very bright, hot sunlight though they nowhere near as vulnerable to sunlight as true vampires are.

 

L

 

LUCKY EDDIE: Eddie Tyrone; one of the Tyrone Triplets adopted by Mother Compassionate Sasha Tyrone in Megaton. Special!

 

M

 

MEGATON: an outer settlement of the United Citystates of the Rimlands, the UCR. Based around, in and beneath a large crater. Is made up of Outer, Middle and Inner Megaton.

 

MOIRA BROWN: member of the Megaton Brown Family; she runs her own establishment being the CRATERSIDE EXOTICA EMPORIUM of special goods and services. Failed infiltrator clone of the Patriot Loyalist Network, the PLN.

 

O

 

OLD JOE MCDONALD: Also known as Brady Rich. Biological father to the Tyrone Triplets. Special! Runs a strange shop in Middle Megaton full of junk, semijunk and some very useful items. Known to pay poor, honest scavengers generously but it is well known that it is unwise to try to cheat him.

 

S

 

SHIFTING WANDERER: Ancient Martian, one of the few trapped on-in Mars by the World-Bubble; greater shapeshifter with other powerful abilities and the use of some Ancient Martian Technologies.

 

SISTERHOOD OF COMPASSION: An Order of the Way of the Light. The Sisterhood is linked to the Brotherhood of Compassion, to the Order of Compassion and is part of the Orderhood of the Way of the Light. Runs welfare, medical and other services through out many areas of the Marslands but not in the Doomlands or the worst of the Wastelands, along with other areas too dangerous to go to.

 

SPRINGVALE: ruined domed city roughly north of the UCR Settlement of Megaton. Citydome gives protection from wild forces of PostDD Mars but is filled with a malformed toxic biofield. Populated by gangers and mutated lifeforms.

 

SUPERMUTANTS: monstrous creatures created by FEV and mutagenic combinations. Wild supermutants exist in scattered populations across the Marslands. Cyborg-supermutants have appeared in the Rimlands.

 

SWEET ELLIE: Ellie Tyrone; one of the Tyrone Triplets adopted by Mother Compassionate Sasha Tyrone in Megaton. Special!

 

T

 

TEKVAULTS: TekVaults are major working, service-support, specialized project CorpVaults.

 

TEKVAULT0100:

TekVault0100 is a major CorpVault deep below the settlement of Megaton. It was-is focused on general operations along with specialized projects such as cloning. It was linked with Marstopia but this link was cut on Doomsday. Professor Brown, Moira Brown and other infiltration clones, the survivors of whom mostly dwell in Megaton, came from TekVault0100 in service to the Patriot Loyalty Network (PLN).

 

TEKVAULT0101:

TekVault0101 is a major CorpVault deep below the small Springvale Mountains roughly north of the doomed domed city of Springvale. It was-is focused on general operations along with specialized projects such as Citizen Mind Programming and Citizen Teaching Training Hypnotic Processing. Has problem in some areas with radroach infestations including one unique variety of very dangerous radroaches.

Jasmine Ashworth and her friends came from TekVault0100.

 

TERRY BANJO PATTERSON: one of the shapeform-identities of the Shifting Wanderer, being a traveling trader, survivalist and artist-writer of books.

 

Edited September 16, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0150

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

BACKGROUND STORIES: SWEET SAD MUSIC OF TEKVAULT0092

 

Phantoms they were, ghosts trapped in one subvault of the vault, there ever playing beautiful, very old music of centuries long gone. The female and male teenager played violins beside each other in the recording studio that they experienced as brand new, clean and functioning smoothly. There were others there. The more solid ghosts and those more transparent or even fragmented. The ghost of Zoe Hammerstein was one of the pair. In the background, holding hands, were the lovers Hilda Egglebrecht and Parker Livingsteen.

 

Not all the great TekVault was lost, was uninhabited. People survived and lived in fair comfort in an area heavily sealed off against the 'white noise experiment' that they had managed to nullify in the sealed off subvaults. Sometimes the living dared to try to listen to the phantom music of the ghosts but only a few could hear it clearly. The survivalists had to be careful for the crazies were also out there, the insane survivors of the white noise project.

 

Then there were mirelurks in some flooded areas of the vault, that is in a basement subvault beneath the main vault. Not even the crazies were crazy enough to go there and deal with the mirelurks, at least not the ones that survived.

 

Then there were the things that floated through the air, the walls, the water. They were entities made of white noise but they did no harm to the living, be they survivors or crazies or even such as radroaches or the mirelurks. The ghosts noticed them but only in a secondary fashion, taking no focused attention of them. The white noise elementals were more important to the ghosts than any of them could or would begin to understand for they were protecting them.

 

Protecting them from something very dangerous and very bizarre that existed in another basement subvault outside of the main vault, but this one was not flooded and had no mirelurks in it for the mirelurks feared to go near it as did the crazies, the survivalists and such as radroaches.

 

0151

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

BACKGROUND STORIES: HALLUCINATIONS, REAL AND NOT SO REAL, TEKVAULT0106

 

There were the survivalists in that TekVault also, cut off behind sealed solid barriers, turrets, robots and their own armed guards. They controlled over a third of the main vault. Trouble was that the deadly hallucinatory gas was still pumped through the other parts of the TekVault and there ran the super strong berserker crazies, being altered not just by the gas but by the release of a specialized form of Forced Evolutionary Virus that even the High Overseer had not known about.

 

But if that madness, those crazies were bad enough, then there was the stuff that caused even the berserker crazies fear. The strange blue glowing energies that could fill a place with horrific speed and engulf one, absorb one into a terrifying series of hallucinations that could actually kill one. It was as if reality itself was altered in some twisted way. A man was shot with a pistol and would be found dead with a bullet wound, if no actual bullet.

 

The survivalists kept their area sealed off and constantly monitored their air, water and other substances. They spied on the other areas, where they could, through security camera network-systems and even some remote controlled robots but they were careful here too for just looking at the blue energies through a viewscreen could twist one's mind. So no observer was allowed to work alone and all observer teams were backed up by special trained medics.

 

Isolated from the rest of the world, these people had enough to worry about.

Edited September 25, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0152

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: HORROR ATTACK FROM THE AIR

 

The creatures struck the Springvale Citydome, monstrous things of claw-tentacles, huge fang filled jaws, strange energies shooting eyes and bat like wings. They came through the citydome by some bizarre form of osmosis but as they did so, they were very vulnerable for that moment. In the dimness of the Winter, the pulselaser batteries were especially effective, striking at the creatures so they vaporized screaming in alien agony, rage and (surprisingly) shock. Missiles struck them also, along with volleys of special rockets and autocannon shells. As the monsters came through the citydome, only a small minority of them got through and met with a great barrage of firepower.

 

Then the attack was over but the people of Greater Megaton were not foolish enough to think it would be the last such attack. A few were certain that it had only been a testing of local defenses. None seemed to know what the attackers had been but all had 'sensed' the antinatural horror of them, had 'felt' the feint but awful pull as if something was trying to drain their life energies. That is except for the androids and robots, of course, yet even true artificial intelligence was somehow deeply disturbed by the presence of 'undeath'.

 

Brazen Emmie walked through Springvale Megaton and stopped to examine some remains of one of the attackers carefully gathered and put onto thick plastic sheeting. Nobody had wanted to touch it with out thick disposable gloves that were then incinerated. These were the only remains of the things that had attacked. She did not like what she learned but had more questions than answers. She made arrangements for the remains to be taken to a more secure place to be carefully examined by special means.

 

Sheriff Lucas Simms stood facing Brazen Emmie and he spoke to her with an edge of understandable fear to his voice. "Was this just a testing attack in preparation for a bigger one to come?"

 

"That could well be, Sheriff, but please do not make an understandable mistake that many have." She looked up at an overcrowded sky now full of too many planets and what seemed like extra suns. Crowded, that is, to her special vision for the sky was much the same in appearance to most people. They had adjusted to it and that adjustment was caused partly by the transformation process itself and the capacity of human brains and minds to adjust to even major changes out of sheer need.

 

The sheriff frowned. "What would that be?"

 

She turned to look at him. "That the undead think like us, act like us, make the same sort of plans that we do and have the same sort of goals that we do. Also, we can not assume that all the undeathly things are automatically one the same side, are all serving the same cause, are all under the control of one single force. You have enough to concern you, Sheriff Lucas Simms, with keeping law and order in New Megaton with out dealing with the undead. That is why people like myself are here to do."

 

The sheriff shook his head. "As you say but if you need me, just call, and I will kick some damned vampire in the a***."

 

Then he turned and strode off back towards Megaton proper, perhaps on his way to hassle somebody or even just to go to bed.

[Maharg67]

0153

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: CLEVER ODDIE, SOUR ELLIE, AMAZON ESSIE AND THE ANCIENT ARTIFACT (CONTINUED)

GRAHAM MAHARG #2 (GREGORY MAHARG)

 

So the Solsystem was now thirteen solar systems, thirteen Solsystems, in one. Fallout Mars was Mars #1. Ripley's Mars was Mars #2. Mars #3 was uninhabited by humans but had Martians though humans did dwell on Terra #3. These Terran humans were insular in their ways and had turned their backs on space travel, even the use of automated probes. Yet they had advanced technologies and were now forced to change their ways of thinking as they viewed a changed solar system.

 

The group in the Gateway Chamber found that they could now do more with the gateways, could change their destinations to some extent. Nothing alive could move through the gateways still but they communicated with the humans of Terra #3 who were only three hundred and thirty three million in number but served by limited reality changing technologies and vast multiple modular autorobotic network-systems. Thus it was that Gregory Maharg was to learn that these other Terrans had some strange and disturbing news for him.

 

The tall, beautiful, and male-female figure of Lord TarryNotus stood in quasiliving silken robes that rippled unnaturally over his-her decadent reality sculptured body of golden velvet scales. She-he smiled and showed rows of polished silver shark teeth. "One has to look one's best this kind of year, which is any time of the year. The Patriot Thirteen came through a transdimensional rift and they stole some of our reality alteration technologies, wounding one of our devoted guardians in the process. Our beloved multimodular autorobotics chased them off, the fools. Really, if they had just asked, we would have given them the technologies. We know karmic laws well enough to know this would have served some positivity or other. In stealing they did not take all of the necessary safeguards, did not take the warnings, all of the vital knowledge of how to operate such technologies. All of this we would have given them. We decided not to expand out in space simply because we wanted to minimize the chance of our reality altering technologies falling in the wrong hands. We have fun with it ourselves but keep to strict guidelines and true reality anchoring customs."

 

Gregory Maharg nodded. "The Eternal Guardian knows of your people, your ways and your apparent decadence but actual strong discipline. You have much in common with the Ancient Martians though your origins are human and their origins are ancient tripoc. You know of the great crisis that faces the Multiverse."

 

"We do and we have already decided to assist as best we can to solve the crisis. Now we face our own problems though. Our nightmares are threatening to become solid reality." Lord TarryNotus shook his-her head tiredly. "We suppose it is due to the great reality shifts that have taken place, throwing our safety-security reality buffers out of kilter. Suppose that is but some of us fear it is some kind of attack taking place on us, subtle but deadly. If so we intend to turn the attack on the attackers by drawing them deeper into an offensive and thus drawing much of their resources away from attacking Mars #1 that seems to be the real focus of what is going on."

 

Gregory Maharg smiled and nodded. "Very excellent! I must take my leave of you now. No doubt the growing Solsystem Federation and its allies will contact you, including the Centro and the Ancient Martians. They will try to assist you."

 

The gateway changed destination and the communications ended.

 

Gregory Maharg shook his head in irony. He turned to Sour Ellie, Clever Oddie, Amazon Essie, Ripley and the others, including Gorman and Bishop the android. "Despite what you just heard, the truth is that the RealityLords of that version of the Earth are quite insane and can not be trusted. Their so called true reality anchoring customs failed them centuries ago. They have degenerated and become totally addicted and absorbed into false realities that to them are total reality. Now it is suspected strongly that the Patriot Thirteen caused the mental destruction of the RealityLords when they attacked with out provocation and stole vital reality stability network-systems. The Patriot Thirteen caused the suffering of the RealityLords but were they free in doing what they did? Were they acting under their own will? We do not know. But now we have a very strong clue as to what really happened on Mars Doomsday and what led to it to happen the way it did."

[Maharg67]

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[Maharg67]

 

0154

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

THE ETERNAL WANDERER: VISITING CANTERBURY COMMONS WITH FRIENDS

 

The Eternal Wanderer led the transformed zhouls, all human now but enhanced, across the dark lands and the undead things out there did not approach them. They came to the settlement of Canterbury Commons, the mercantile centre for the Trading and Merchant Guilds along with the Independent Trading Caravans that had become quite famous. The latter were Crazy Wolfgang, Crow, Doc Hoff, Lucky Harith, Lucile Balla, Salmoneus and Handsome Henry. The last was a ghoul who specialized in trading with other ghouls, they being more open with him than with normies, and he being honest with them and fair with his prices.

 

Canterbury Commons was allied to the United Citystates of the Rimlands but was not a member. It was large, fortified, quite wealthy and it had problems. The sounds of machineguns, pulselasers and pulseblasters could be heard even at a distance. The Mechanist led robots were fighting AntAgonizer led giant ants that spat acid, flames or spinedarts. The robots were a mixture of protectrons, sentrybots, MrGutsys and some odd ones made by the Mechanist himself. The real reason that the battle had begun was long forgotten; now the two transformed leaders were out to win just because they had come to hate each other.

 

Some mysterious force was supporting both the mutated AntAgonizer and the cyborged Mechanist with equipment and supplies, including special hitech and even exotic items. Crazy Wolfgang had spotted a convoy of armoured armed 4x4 trucks delivering stuff to the AntAgonizer such as special food for her ants and strange metal cylinders with stranger markings. The figures of the convoy wore either battle power armour or labour power armour. Then one Adrian Schultz had witnessed an identical looking convoy delivering different kinds of equipment and supplies to the Mechanist. Of course the people of Canterbury Commons were far from pleased about this.

 

The transformed former zhouls looked like tough Wastelanders but they were enhanced of mind, body and spirit. With the Eternal Wander leading them, they came upon the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer forces in surprise. Canterbury Commons Guardsmen had been shooting at the two exotic armies from behind fortifications. Fearing the Mechanist would take control of them, they had deactivated their own robots. This was no foolish fear for taking over enemy robots was one of the Mechanist's tricks though it did not always work and if it did, not with all robots.

 

Despite the newcomer force numbering over a hundred Wastelander humans, along with some androids and robots, battlebuggies and battletrucks, everybody but the Wastelands Wanderer were surprised by what happened next.

 

The Mechanist and the AntAgonizer turned and fled away, taking their bizarre armies with them, and were gone in an amazingly short time.

 

Though he did not say so, the Eternal Wanderer knew they had fled from him and because he had 'told them' to leave.

 

Canterbury Commons welcomed the newcomers as heroes and yet somehow the Eternal Wanderer was not the main focus of attention. He slipped away and sat in the corner of the main room of Porters Cafe where he quietly drank some cool ginger beer and ate some purified muttfruit salad, that is pieces of muttfruit in fruit juice. The newcomers would quickly become citizens of Canterbury Commons, taken as human normies and not the zhouls they had been.

 

He had been sending more people to the Secret Sanctuary than ever before and others to the Martian Underworld but the demand to do more was only increasing. He had also been transforming zhouls (feral ghouls), ghoulers (ghoul raiders) and ghouls into enhanced normies to join various settlements of the United Citystates of the Rimlands and its allies. Yet he was only one entity, even if he could be in three places at once. He knew that he needed more resources which meant doing something he did not want to do.

 

0155

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

THE ETERNAL WANDERER: VISITING CANTERBURY COMMONS WITH FRIENDS (CONTINUED)

 

He was about to order coffee when two of his big direwolves came into the chamber and yet somehow most people did not notice them, not really. They settled down next to him. The small boy came over and peered at the Eternal Wanderer with big eyes through thick glasses. He patted a direwolf and got licked. The Wastelands Wanderer turned and smiled at him. "You and your family can go to the Secret Sanctuary any time you wish. I will be waiting for you there. You are a grandchild of the Patriot Thirteen and linked with them in a special way."

 

Thomas climbed up onto a chair and a direwolf lay his head on the boy's lap, engulfing it, but the boy was happy. He spoke to the Wastelands Wanderer. "The Patriot Thirteen are not the very bad baddies that people think they are. They are trying to make things better but they are frightened of some terrible bad thing. They are hiding away, sort of. There are those pretending to be the Patriot Thirteen, or their followers, who are not so... except the followers are tricked. They think they follow the real Patriot Thirteen. Stupid secret things are happening. Horrible undead things are out in the darkness of winter. I draw pictures that... come from my bad dreams."

 

The Wastelands Wanderer nodded. "I know! I was one of the Patriot Thirteen, the real Patriot Thirteen that is. I was Patriot Thirteen. I was a great fool who made many mistakes. I have been trying to fix things since then. The others, who were of the Patriot Thirteen, they will not communicate with me, will not meet with me. Now everything has changed yet again. You must have seen the skies. You can see those same skies from the Secret Sanctuary. I will make sure you have a telescope to use when you go there with your family."

 

The little boy smiled richly and then he vanished quickly, becoming increasingly transparent until he was gone.

 

The direwolves were unhappy, restless. The Wastelands Wanderer comforted them. His poor little grandson was doomed, like far too many others, to wander the Zone of Lost Souls. Yet he fully intended to save Thomas and his family, to send them to the Secret Sanctuary. It was too bad he had no idea just how he was going to do that.

 

He ordered a coffee and did not order any whiskey despite a sudden, strong urge to get blind drunk.