FALLOUT MARS

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/ScreenShot488-1.jpg

 

WARNING NOTE: MADE AN ERROR IN STATING THAT JASMINE FRIENDS CAME FROM BOTH LIFEVAULT0101/A3 AND TEKVAULT0101. THEY CAME FROM LIFEVAULT0101/A3.

Edited July 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0030

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

SOLSYSTEM TRIBULATIONS: SFSS ENTERPRISE APPROACHING DEIMOS

 

In the higher orbit of Mars, beyond Skynet's farest reaching weaponry, the Solsystem Federation systemship the SFSS ENTERPRISE came coasting in towards the moon of Deimos where a large Solsystem Federation fortified base was well established deep on-in the moon. Deimos was easily large enough to house the fortress base and a small civilian, scientific and adventure tourism colony.

 

The SFSS ENTERPRISE was a big ship with its main saucer hull, a single big tail-fin ending in a graceful elongated phase-drive. The ship was, based on the main saucer, a kilometre wide and at its core, a third of that thick. Yet with the rest of the body and sections taken into account, it was over two kilometres long. Below were two more such tail-fins ending in two more phase-drives. Each phase-drive could also be operated, from the fore end, as a phase-cannon. This was done because it could be done easily and it gave the ship added firepower though the phase-cannons were only secondary weapons in range and power. The SFSS ENTERPRISE had a dozen fall-back weapon network-systems, a dozen plus secondary weapon network-systems and three primary weapon network-systems. Stuck firmly to the lower hull of the big ship was a spacesaucer, a smaller ship being a Special Operations Assault Shuttle. Hidden inside the massive systemship were Marine dropships, fighterships, smaller interceptors, general purpose aeroshuttles and space only s shuttlepods. There were also robots, roboremotes and androids of varied kinds along with drones and probes. There were also long range lifeboats and shorter range lifepods. Even on the huge systemships space was a premium and what could be fitted in, was fitted in.

 

Captain Kirk was only too aware of how close the Skynet was to the ship with its big low orbital weapon-platforms, its heavily armed-armoured Space Hunter-Killers and its Space Battle Carriers that were heavily armoured, lightly armed but which carried many smaller combat space-robots and space-roboremotes. He was encased in the partly transparent, armoured bubble of his battle-chair and he wore spaceship power armour. Almost every one of the crew was in spaceship power armour and in battle-chairs except for the few crew that needed to move around, the Marines in their assault power armour and the civilians in spaceship emergency suits who were also inside security-safety status capsules. Yes, the passengers were all unconscious in status for this was a military vessel. Despite wealthy adventure tourists, scientists and other civilians coming to Deimos, it was rare that any civilian staid outside the

 

Captain Kirk, handsome and young looking though he was over a hundred standard years old with his enhanced, augmented body, communicated with the civilian who was standing out on the deck of the bridge chamber as if nothing could threaten him. "Are you going to at lest pretend to be vulnerable as the rest of us are." He spoke in the Solsystem Federation official language as developed by a combination of genius humans and true artificial intelligence. To Kirk and many others the language of PanContact was very efficient, easy to learn, but lacked any real poetic or cultural feel.

 

Graham Maharg nodded as he stood there in just a jumpsuit. "Good point, Jim!" There was a sparkling shimmer and suddenly he was wearing spaceship power armour, was sitting in a semi-open armoured chair that held him in with special belts and a force field. "Skynet is up to something. My people have detected some unusual activity of hardware and software-firmware nature. Skynet has been manufacturing more units from its bases on-in Phobos."

 

The Solsystem Controlled the smaller moon of Mars, Deimos, and Skynet controlled the bigger moon, Phobos. Phobos was closer to Mars and Skynet had established a large series of bases and other facilities there. The Solsystem Federation found it difficult to know what was going on down there as did the green skinned, pointy eared humanoids of Venus though the Venetians were in some ways more technically advanced then was the main Federation. The Venus Compact was one of the semiautomous members of the Solsystem Federation Alliance, an extension of the main Solsystem Federation. The Solsystem Federation was based on-in Luna (Earth's Moon) orbiting the ravaged home world of Terra (the Earth) that had suffered its own Doomsday about a standard century before Mars did. Efforts to heal the home world were going slowly but steadily and with mixed success.

 

Graham Maharg was not from Solsystem but from beyond, from the ever changing, overlapping dimensional and transdimensional bubbles, alternates and multiple dimensional zones that actually made up the Multiverse of Universes. Graham Maharg was a Timespace Lord, was very much an alien avatar who had taken on a human appearing shapeform that lessened his power but made it possible for him to exist more smoothly in Solsystem. Being an avatar, his main self was still somewhere else in time-space but of that he would not speak. Nor would he speak of other avatars or other kinds of agents of his people that were most likely active in Solsystem.

 

The Timespace Lords had assisted the Solsystem Federation to come into being, had helped to begin the 'Terraforming of Terra' and had had given other help of limited kinds. They refused to give to the Federats anything but enhanced human technologies and some, what they called, minor basic breakthroughs of scientific knowledge. They had also stabilized the World-Bubble around Mars when it had begun to collapse but they stated that there was not much more they could do in that way. Captain Kirk was not sure he totally believed them but what was he to do about it?

 

 

0031

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

SOLSYSTEM TRIBULATIONS: SFSS ENTERPRISE PARKING AT DEIMOS

 

The SFSS ENTERPRISE was one of its kind of very big military systemwarships, or systembattleships, of the Solsystem Federation Defense Force, the SFDF. More specifically if was part of the Aerospace Force as was the SF Marine Corps. So it was a big matter for Deimos to be visited by the systembattleship. It was also a big risk to send the vessel so close to Skynet and send it alone, hoping that this would not attract as much attention as if the SFSS ENTERPRISE had gone with its own battle-squadron as it normally did. Even so the rest of the battle-squadron was not too far away, in space going terms, there being a systemcarrier, four systemfrigates, four systemdestroyers, two systemcruisers and five service-support systemships. The service-support systemships were lightly armoured and armed, even the hospitalsystemship. These systemships carried many smaller vessels.

 

The systembattleship came gliding to a halt as retro-drives and braking-rockets went into action in a carefully planned manner. It moved to be lightly clamped to a geostationary SFDF parking-rig. The big warship was lightly clamped so if it needed to it could make a quick get away by breaking through the clamps. The parking-rig was much larger than the SFSS ENTERPRISE and parked also to it were other systemships along with smaller systemboats and even smaller systemshuttles.

 

There were also, in mothballs, rows of heavy metallic grey-green military vessels that had survived the major failure of the Armada Offensive against Skynet. Only half of the military craft sent to destroy Skynet had returned to Deimos and many had coming limping home full of survivors from destroyed or heavily damaged vessels. The Timespace Lords had warned against the offensive but had assisted with some enhanced human technologies and minor basic scientific breakthroughs along with two duplicated systemcarriers full of smaller hardware including spare equipment and also a lot of supplies. Gifts of improved medical technologies, force fields and others from the Timespace Lords had saved many lives and had increased damage against the Mars Skynet. The mothballed attack-shuttles, dropships, fighterships and other craft were of older kinds that now and then were upgraded as much as was possible. There were those who insisted that the small fleet of these vessels be converted to civilian use or even broken up and recycled but the majority of Federation Citizens wanted the military force there in case of more trouble with Skynet. Many remembered the terrible battles that had taken place between the young Solsystem Federation and the Terra-Luna based part of the Skynet after Mars Doomsday had taken place, including the savage fighting against the Moonnet based on-in Luna. Humanity had won but at high cost and only because of the assistance of the Venetians, the Belters and the Timespace Lords.

 

The huge parking-rig was well defended by weapon-turrets, patrolling gun-drones and other network-systems but had been upgraded, expanded, with the addition of two big railguns that were usable for both military and civilian purposes. Force field projectors were also visible like old fashioned geoglobes but coloured grey.

 

Captain Kirk was surprised to see three strange ships parked in the big rig. An amazingly graceful Venetian Envoy systemship that, despite its looks, was probably more deadly than the SFSS ENTERPRISE, a big cluster globe of a Belter systembattleship and, even more strangely, a perfect sphere of translucent looking silvery metallic nature that was a Timespace Lordite timespaceship that was not to be mistaken for a TARDISes of the actual Timespace Lords. The Timespace Lordites served the Timespace Lords. So Graham Maharg had been telling the truth, but perhaps not the whole truth, when he had spoken of a major emergency conference taking place at Deimos. Yet he had spoken of nine peoples being represented and not just the four that already had envoys there; Kirk wondered who the other five might be.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

 

0032

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

BACKGROUND STORIES: GARY GARY GARY OF LIFEVAULT0108/A3

These stories are written to be read any time, in any order, with out interfering with the main stories.

 

The Gary clones raced madly along the metal hallway of TekVault0108 towards the sealed off larger area still controlled by antiGary forces. Or so it was that the slowly and steadily growing number of Gary-clones saw the situation. Garys were enhanced, augmented but had been made too fast and wrong. Gary-Clones were hurting and were hostile because of it. They wanted to hurt those who had brought them into a life of physical and mental anguish. They wanted to smash them.

 

The Gary-clones were supposed to be very intelligent and were so but the agony suppressed the intelligence as it did any urge to be calm and non aggressive.

 

Many Gary-clones wore blue jumpsuits but the blue jumpsuits were lacking so now they started to wear anything they could get or nothing at all. They armed themselves with what ever they could get their hands on be that guns or kitchen knives or just copper pipes.

 

Gary-0012 led the charge, being older and more experienced than the others. He also had a 10mm autopistol but it had only two bullets in its magazine. Ahead lay a welded closed and armoured security-safety door. Through a thick armaglass window a angry, fearful woman's face could be seen. Gary-0012 wanted to kill her brutally.

 

Her face vanished abruptly as an armoured panel slid across the armaglass.

 

Gary-clone giggled insanely and then died as 10mm bullets hammered into his body from a small roboremote turret that dropped down from the ceiling, out of a small armoured hatch way as the armoured hatch slid open with a soft humming noise.

 

The other Gary-clones were soon to die as bullets hammered into them but too soon all three would be arising once more out of the clone-vats and Gary-0012 would, sort of, live again.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0033

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: ENTERING THE SPRINGVALE SCHOOL OF HIGH ACHIEVEMENT LEARNING

 

Lucky Eddie and the others got through a well hidden but, surprisingly, unlocked hatch into the basement levels of the Springvale School of High Achievement which was not to be mistaken for the normal schools of Springvale or even other special schools. This was far more than a school, it was an ultra top secret research and development base disguised as a school. As they made their way through largely machinery filled chambers with deactivated turrets, roboremotes and robots, it was soon clear that there was much more service-support hardware there than was needed by a mere school. Network-systems were often of very specialized types and the 'normal' ones were much bigger than would have been expected.

 

Then they came into a chamber where the network-systems were all fully active or semiactive. It was here that they came upon the first twenty of the exotic virtual-reality status capsules. These slanted capsules each held a young man or woman or an even younger teen-woman or teen-man. All were showing odd life signs on 3Dflatscreen readouts. They were alive but not alive in the way considered normal. Their brains were cyberlinked to an exotic network-systems in a very non standard fashion.

 

Lucky Eddie began to examine various 3Dscreens until he came to a monitor site that offered a greater access to a wider range of databanks. Though there was some software damage he was surprised by the amount of clean secure data that he could access. The data was multiple encrypted but he shot through the encryption codes with amazing speed. Then he was learning about things that amazed, stunned, saddened and angered him. The children entered long ago entered into the school were expendable experimental subjects in a prototype ultimate virtual reality research and development program that included a 'psychic interactive' dimension and other amazing features. They had been a mixture of natural born human and various types of clones. There was very deeply secured data that was hinted at but which was held in a autonomous network-system of databanks in a very heavily secured chamber in another part of the fake school.

 

It was then that one of the Lyons Pride Troopers of Steel tried to kill Lucky Eddie but even as he raised his weapon to do so, Sarah Lyons pressed a small red button and the traitor died as a hidden bomb in his power armour exploded.

 

Sarah Lyons spoke. "We detected him as a MarsEnclaven doppelganger clone some months ago and hoped to gain more information by manipulating him and the information he gained, that is misinformation. We suspected that he might have realized that he was discovered because he behaved in a most basic service fashion. Clearly the Enclaven knows that you are far more able to get into these very sophisticated, advanced and elaborate network-systems with their many layers and forms of security."

 

Lucky Eddie frowned softly and wondered what he should do next. "Enclaven clones are programmed from before death to be totally controlled and expendable. They are victims."

 

 

0034

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: LUCKY EDDIE DOES SOME TRANSFORMING OR IS IT HIM DOING SO?

 

Lucky Eddie touched the dead doppelganger clone's forehead after removing his helmet. He followed and impulse, a kind of impulse that he had followed before but not in front of any witnesses except for his triplet sisters and the pets. There was a soft glow that flowed through the body and then the youthful looking man inside was once more alive. But it was not the same 'him'. Lucky Eddie did not claim to make the transformations as he did not claim to be the real force behind other 'tricks' that he could instigate but not too often because any such process drained his 'psyker energies'. The more intricate the trick, the more demanding, the more psyker energy was drained. He was not the psyker version of a superman.

 

The changed clone-human answered Sarah Lyon's questions honestly and accurately about every bit of data he had stolen from the Brotherhood of Steel and the two acts of minor sabotage he had managed to achieve, one which led to the moderate wounding of a comrade. The man was puzzled by what had happened to him. His whole world had been turned on its head and he was confronted with the challenges of freedom, of having a real conscious and not just the morality empty CodaPax of the Enclaven. It turned out that the clone-human knew more than he had realized and so he told Sarah Lyons of the hidden MarsEnclaven base of Raven Rock that was hidden, ironically, behind and beneath the wreckage of a military fortress largely destroyed on Doomsday.

 

Sarah Lyons spoke to the man. "You change your name, your rank is reduced to probationary private and you are no longer in the Lyon's Pride but otherwise you go on being a Brother of Steel."

 

The clone-human nodded. "I can shapeshift to a limited degree but better than I could before. I am going to make the Enclaven pay for the way they have used and abused me but not in a way of revenge but in a way of justice. They created me as a genetically engineered sociopath with out a true conscious. They made me do brutal things. I felt nothing. I was less than nothing."

 

"The data I am giving you was in theory wiped from my brain and brain-computer but somehow the amazing transformation process I went through as recovered it. I can tell you some things about what lies in the false school. Apart from the main project, which was ultimately linked with something called RAFP that I have no real knowledge of except that it was incredibly secret and secured. There are 500 young humans in special capsules in these chambers, being 100 norms, 100 vat-clones, 100 biowomb-clones, 100 tube-clones and 100 of a type that I have gained no data on. All of these are existing, most probably, in an amazingly realistic virtual real version of the school as it was supposed to be. The scenario includes a fake Springvale and its citydome but nothing beyond the dome. Or at least that is what is expected from the data that I have."

 

He paused before going on. "Another 50 young experimental subjects are in another kind of special capsules being being 10 norms, 10 vat-clones, 10 biowomb-clones, 10 tube-clones and 10 of the mystery type. All I know is that they are linked to some kind of specialized remote technologies. I have a good deal of data that will help to damage the Enclaven, that will expose a greater evil at the core of it that many would imagine and would expose at least something of the terrible plans that it has. For the Enclaven has always been secretly linked to Skynet and it is planning to create holes in Mar's World-Bubble to allow Skynet to send an invasion force down to the world. More dangerously, perhaps, is the fact that Marsnet, a secret subnetwork of Skynet, is already down here hidden somewhere in the Martian Wastelands. It is not as powerful or as sophisticated as Skynet, being a subnetwork, and is hampered by its lack of linkage with the more powerful artificial intelligence of Skynet but Marsnet remains a threat."

 

Marsnet? In theory Marsnet was a big research and developed project concept that was never actually put into action. In theory the Patriot Thirteen had decided that Skynet was powerful enough with out Marsnet, did not need it. Question was the Patriot Thirteen really behind Marsnet because they had, before Doomsday, powerful, wealthy and influential enemies on Mars. Then again, did it really matter? Supposedly the Patriot Thirteen had been all destroyed on Doomsday, along with their powerful enemies.

 

It was then that the lightly translucent young adults float-walked into the chamber, coming right through a wall to get there.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/ForumAddit0003-1.jpg

 

WARNING NOTE: MADE AN ERROR IN STATING THAT JASMINE FRIENDS CAME FROM BOTH LIFEVAULT0101/A3 AND TEKVAULT0101. THEY CAME FROM LIFEVAULT0101/A3.

Edited July 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0035

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: SWEET ELLIE AND THE ORDERS OF STEEL IN EXILE EXPEDITIONARY GROUP

 

Brothers of Steel, Sisters of Steel, Sages of Steel, Scouts of Steel, Sappers of Steel and the Scribes of Steel were represented in the group that reached Megaton in a convoy of atomic motorized Hummers of different kinds be they gun-Hummers, troop-Hummers, logistics-Hummers or the one ambulance-Hummer. There were also two salvaged and upgraded LandLiners, the big old atomic motorized buses popular in the Martian Colonial Territories before Doomsday. The new LandTroopers had enhanced cross country capacity, added armour and added weapons. Then there were three battlebuggies, armed-armoured cross country adventure-buggies of PreDoomsday type mostly used back then for adventure tourism. Such machines had turned out to be surprisingly effective when converted to their new use and were very popular amongst man of the PostDoomsday factions. But the big surprise was the hulking sixteen wheeler of a monstrous mass-hauler, converted for its new use, of a kind used extensively during the some of the stages of Terraforming. The mass-hauler was designed to survive the infamous storms that had existed before the completion of earlier stages of the Terraforming process which was supposed to be completed with the activation of the World-Bubble.

 

Sweet Ellie and her adoptive mother, who was also Mother Compassionate Sasha Tyrone, went with others to meet with the newcomers. Sheriff Lucas Simms was there, of course, along with the Assistant Mayor since the Mayor was sleeping off an all night party at the GIRLS-GAMES SALOON. Professor Brown was there, as was Moira Brown and Lucy West who ran the small, weekly newspaper and public post-board news service. That is those who had the coinage or credit could buy a basic newspaper and others could read the news at a public post-board close to the BRASS LANTERN DINER. Confessor Cromwell and some of his people were there also, including his wife. There were also representatives of the Militiaguard and the Megaton Guard. Doctor Church was there, having come out of his clinic for once. A few others were there despite the growing cold and the approach of the deeper darkness of the three months of Winter.

 

Sweet Ellie was happy to sit back and quietly observe as the machine of the OSE parked into a careful formation in an empty area in Outer Megaton where the trade-travel convoys normally stopped along with such as the traveling merchants, traveling circus, the regional magistrate, Regulator patrols, military patrols and the mobile hospital.

 

There were plenty enough buildings in Outer Megaton but a few of them were not used as they badly need repairing or even replacing. The Mayor and his cronies were under justified suspicion of stealing at least 50% of the funds put aside to deal with this problem. The sheriff was having trouble getting enough proof, though, especially as a key witness for the prosecution had been murdered by what seemed to be a professional assassin of at least some degree of expertise. Sweet Ellie knew because she had assassinated the treacherous, murderous 'key witness' who was in fact working for the Mayor. The sheriff refused to believe the truth because the witness was a favoured cousin of his and Simms had a weakness when it came to family.

 

The GIRLS-GAMES SALOON was showing all of its lights and two waitresses were outside but in coats so the sheriff would not get annoyed too much. Colin Moriarty was there, smirking and trying to get the newcomers to come to the saloon but none of them seemed to be in the slightest interested in doing so. Instead negotiations began about the Orders of Steel in Exile establishing a small base in Megaton.

 

 

0036

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: SWEET EMMIE AND THE ORDERS OF STEEL IN EXILE EXPEDITIONARY GROUP

 

Sweet Ellie sensed a powerful determinism, discipline and purpose in those people. They had come to the DC for a reason and it was an important one. They had come a very long way in difficult conditions through dangerous territories. Also this was an advance party only, perhaps only one of many such advance parties.

 

As if to confirm this a trio of dartjets, sleek black stealth machines, passed high overhead moving towards the main part of DC. She 'sensed' them though others did not notice or seem to notice they were there. She also 'sensed' a strong link between them and the advance group before her. The dartjets were most likely scout-fighterjets of the Sisterhood of Steel.

 

Once upon a time satellites might have been used but below the World-Bubble they were too close to the Skylands and of course the World-Bubble stopped them from being put into higher orbit. The Skylanders were possessive of what they saw as their territories of lower orbit and they had a tendency to destroy satellites that were not their own or belonging to one of their allies. The Skylanders were not friendly with the Orders of Steel for very good reasons.

 

Then she was turning as a woman in survival power armour, something like the survival power armour worn by Jasmine0101 but not identical, came up to her with a smile because her helmet was being held in the crook of her arm. The woman had an odd symbol that was unlike the more known Orders of Steel. Sweet Ellie had a hint of what it might mean and grew wary though he hid it quite well.

 

The woman spoke. "Please do not fear me. I am of the Seekers of Steel, not a name we chose but which was given to us as part of the OSE as an official disguise to our true purpose. We are psykers who serve the OSE but also the central purpose for why the OSE is coming here to DC. The transmigration of the OSE is a major undertaking but thankfully were were given assistance by various factions including the Orthodox Orders of Steel in California who wanted to see us gone from there for a wide range of reasons."

 

Sweet Ellie nodded. "That is very good to know but why come to me? Surely you would speak instead to the Assistant Mayor instead."

 

The woman smiled some more in her peaceful manner. "My name is Ashley Sweetflower. Your mother told me to talk to you and assured me that you would have much knowledge of importance to share if only it could be coaxed out of your or your triplet siblings."

 

Sweet Ellie lost some of her sweet smile. "Really, mother should not be so straight forward with such information to a stranger. I shall have to give her a good talking to later. I suggest we go somewhere private to talk. Please follow me and please trust me. We are going to the women's community toilets of Outer Megaton, a building that should be knocked down and replaced with something decent."

 

So that is where the two of them went.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0037

THE GREATER STORY OF FALLOUT MARS

BACKGROUND STORIES: GNRTV3D SUCCESS STORY

These stories are written to be read any time, in any order, with out interfering with the main stories.

 

The 3Dradio broadcasting had been going on from some time from the Washington DC GNRTV3D Skytower that was its own massive 3Dradio and 3DTV broadcasting tower. Now 3Dog, the wondrous DJ, investigative journalist and co-manager of the service was nervously observing as the first 3DTV program was broadcast out to the Rimlands. In his famed glasses and outfit, 3Dog looked casually comfortable to anybody who really knew him, who could read the subtle signs that he was tense, which he was.

 

It was prerecorded on holotape, was clearly an introductory program giving out a briefing on the new service and some samples of what, hopefully, was to come in future broadcasting.

 

It was a safer future thanks to the garrison of Ironside Mercenaries in the place; some said they attracted attacks by Talon Mercenaries but that had been happening even before the Ironsides came along. Indeed the Ironsides had been drawn to the skytower by the attacks by the Talon scum. Reliable whispers spoke of the contract for the Talon Mercenaries to attack the skytower and end the broadcasting to come from Tenpenny himself, lord and master of Tenpenny Towers and the settlement of Tenpenny Town that surrounded it. Tenpenny Towers were a fortified luxury resort hotel for those lucky enough to afford to live there while Tenpenny Town was dwelt in by those exploited by the infamous Tenpenny Family.

 

2Kitty sat behind a computerized work-desk with the two cats, the ones that had caused her to have her name, curled up at her feet with heads resting on her toes, sleeping. She worked some controls even as MrDJ, the MrHandy like robot, hovered behind some other controls. 2Kitty looked like a small 'mousy' woman, as some foolishly called her, but she was tough though compassionate.

 

The ghoul woman, 1Owl, had made a fresh pot of tea and was pouring cups for the five of them in the room except, of course, for MrDJ and the cats. 1Owl's movements were smooth and quiet, as they always were, for she was a practiced yogic and martial artist of centuries of experience.

 

Through an armaglass wall one could see two Ironside Mercenaries on sentry duty in assault power armour. They were watching a 3DTV which may have been against regulations. They did hold their weapons though and seemed ready for action.

 

The 3DTV broadcast began and a big 3Dwallscreen showed what, hopefully, people were seeing through out the DC and beyond in other areas of the Rimlands.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0038

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: SOME RUDE PHANTOMIC STUDENTS

 

The student figures float-walked ghost like out of the wall and the Brothers of Steel snapped weapons at them. The five of the newcomers were in school uniforms garishly decorated and made 'suggestive' on one of the two of the young women. The others were more determined to look tough, it seemed. They spread out with big grins on their face, each holding a hockey stick reinforced with metal. Then the five of them, three males and two females, stopped in surprise. Clearly they had not expected to meet intruders in power armour. They lost their grins of triumph and looked chagrined.

 

Lucky Eddie gave a mild grin. "Phantomic actions would be repelled by the energy fields of the electronics-electrics of the power armour. Not like attacking gangers or such like, I suppose."

 

The tall, slim almost skinny young man with thick glasses, shrugged in an odd jerky fashion and spoke in a voice that was muffled oddly and yet audible enough to hear clearly. "You got surprise. We get surprised. No biggy, no diggy, no stiggy. Randy is me nick, Randy is me handle. Don't know what you mean by gangers. No, we is looking to knock down other rudies. Phants like us. We come out of UVR School for some time, like some of us can do, looking for bad ass Booga and his brats. Booga needs some justified punishment for hassling youngsters taking needed nap time. Want trade? 'Sense' in you strangeness and power like in others we meet before. Maybe more power than us. We got, you got, we give, you give, we take, you take. UVR School degrading. You help? We help you navigate through real horror school past dangers plenty."

 

Lucky Eddie considered options and nodded. "500 are in the UVR School, are they not? 100 natural borns, 100 vat-clones, 100 biowomb-clones, 100 tube-clones and 100 of another kind of clone!"

 

Randy snorted. "The natural borns all deep sleeping now. About half of the normal clones doing the same. Them strange clones, well they stay in their zone and anybody with sense stays away from those monsters. Even Booga and his brats are not stupid enough to go there. What you going to do for us? We want to go back to the normal world. We want to know why we were abandoned so cold and cruel like."

 

Lucky Eddie frowned. "First we start exchanging knowledge. What do you know of Doomsday?"

 

Randy looked puzzled. "What is Doomsday?"

 

Lucky Eddie sighed deeply. "The day that the whole of Mars was devastated by a great catastrophe that killed or otherwise doomed at least 75 out of every 100 people and almost every settlement, that has reduced much of Mars to the Wastelands or worse, the Doomlands, and where life is often difficult even in the better zones, that has isolated Mars behind a World-Bubble gone bad and that is threatened by a Skynet that has gone rogue. Apart from that there are ghouls, supermutants, ghoulers, raiders, slavers, gangers, marauders, giant-ants, deathclaws, mutabears, rogue robots, doomstorms, rogue androids and lots of other threats."

 

Fifi, the young woman in the 'suggestive' outfit shook her head. "Gosh, and I feared that things would be boring outside."

 

Her companions all groaned softly, but not in a very rude manner, as if only too used to such statements from the youthful woman.

 

 

0039

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: SOME SHOCKED PHANTOMIC STUDENTS

 

Randy, real name Bruce, frowned hard as he tried to take everything in. "So everything has gone to Hell but nobody knows about the rest of Solsystem, let alone the Earth. What about the Martian Seas? I always wanted to see them and do some surfing."

 

Jasmine sat with her helmet removed and she spoke. "Of the eight major and sixteen minor Martian Seas, over half are very dangerous now, a quarter quite dangerous and the others are considered quite safe by the standards of PostDoomsday Mars. As for the rest of Solsystem, well there are lights right up there but they are the Skylands and Skynet mostly and both are dangerous. The Skylands are made up of the low orbital spin-drums, space-wheels and platforms belonging to the old Mars Federal Government and the TekCorps. They were taken over by a revolution of some kind and since then have been rather isolationist in nature. Skynet is down right aggressive as is the Enclaven and the TekOrder but they are not the only ones. I come from a TekVault. Before the World-Bubble was activated it was decided by the Patriot Thirteen that the various vaults and bunkers would be made, along with other underground safe zones, and that many people would be down there or be able to go there in a hurry if anything went wrong. Lots of folk thought they were being paranoid but they must have saved easily over a hundred million people from death or deformation or fate unknown. The true number is unknown because of the scattering and isolation of many survivors."

 

Jasmine was quite beautiful, as was Sarah Lyons, and Randy was clearly overwhelmed to the obvious annoyance of Fifi. Jasmine did not seem to mind Randy's foolishness but Sarah was mildly annoyed. Lucky Eddie was amused by it but kept his feelings hidden.

 

Lucky Eddie nodded. "A great sadness to consider that such much has been lost, that so much has been malformed, that so much has been vanished. There is too much suffering on-in Mars now, far too much suffering. Five hundred and twenty years ago there was the Doomsday on Terra, the home world. About three hundred and fifty years ago there was the Doomsday here on Mars. There is much to inform you of but we need first your cooperation. I will do my best to send you and the others to something called the 'Secret Sanctuary' if you want to go there. Now, please tell me more about this UVR School of yours."

 

It was the other young woman, Ursula, who spoke this time. "When we are there, we are solid and so is the school. We do all the normal things. We are alive. Well we think we are because we do not remember being outside of the school reality except when some of us come out here. Only some of us can go phantomic. School once had teachers, tutors, carekeepers, caretakers, techs, mechanics, special companions and pets. They all faded away about a hundred years ago when something went wrong with the UVR network-system because all of them were real AIs. All the normal borns sleep now cause they gave out on being alive so long when we, none of us, have had it easy getting normal sleep since when the 'fading' happened. Things have gotten a little wonky since the 'fading'. The exotic clones starting going weird after the 'fading', I mean weirder than before like some kind of control was removed from them."

 

Lucky Eddie nodded. "What about the other young folk in the other kinds of capsules?"

 

Ursula scowled. "They are secured in some fortified self-supporting chambers. They operate through out the fake school here in remote-android form but they are kind of weird. Hard to trust them. We trade sometimes and we have an uneasy alliance. There are about 400 of them being normal borns, tube-clones, biowomb-clones and vat-clones. There are some other remote-androids out there but they are dangerous and they fight the bigger lot of remote-androids. They are from the weird clones."

 

At that moment alarms of various kinds began to go off.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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Edited July 22, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0040

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: LUCKY EDDIE AND TROUBLE WITH BOOGA AND BRATS

 

Booga and his eight 'brats' were laughing as they smashed things against the armoured panels of the true AI-supercomputer that was important in keeping running the network-systems that kept many young people safe and healthy in their capsules. Booga had a twisted grin of triumph and hate on his face. But his laugh ended when Lucky Eddie smashed into him and the brats, sending them flying in many directions. He was not phantomic but somehow he struck them as if he was.

 

Booga flew-ghosted through the air and through a bulkhead wall. Others did the same but a female and male smashed into power fields and screamed in muffled sounds of pain and shock. Then they vanished as they returned instantly to the ultra virtual reality zone of the school.

 

Booga came rushing back through the wall, holding a hockey stick with metallic spikes and armour alterations. He charged right at Lucky Eddie while the other six brats hung back in sensible fear. Clearly Booga was quite insane and controlled his followers largely through force and fear. Lucky Eddie grabbed the phantomic entity and it transformed with a sparkling shimmer. Booga cried out in astonishment and vanished back to the UVR school realm but something was different now. There was no more Booga.

 

Lucky Eddie had gained a burst of information from the transformation, as he did sometimes, and knew that a surprised and now mind healthy former Booga was now trying to come to terms with renewed health and fitness along with enhanced abilities. Booga's body had vanished from his status-capsule and now somehow existed totally inside the ultimate virtual reality zone. Somehow this made the zone itself more stable just as Booga could not have easily been taken from the capsule in any other ways. None of the more standard clones could though the natural borns could. As for the exotic clones, now Lucky Eddie knew they were human-alien hybrids that were part zetan and part human in genetic makeup.

 

The school project was a pathfinder at first, an initial lead in to a much bigger and more hidden project, but had gone on to be continued in its own right until Doomsday had changed everything. The dead clone workers and soldiers had been part of the secret staff hidden in the basement levels which were actually a self supporting bunkerplex in its own right. Other clone workers and soldiers, along with specialists, were in sleeper-capsules in their own armoured chamber complex. Yet others were still active though information on them was very basic.

 

The voice spoke in his mind for the first time in many months.

 

:wallbash: It is difficult to know what to do sometimes, especially when faced with limited or fragmented data. Half truths can be very dangerous.

 

Such was true but he did not need the 'inner voice' to remind him or was that true? Lucky Eddie frowned softly and started to go over just what he knew. Was he missing something or making dangerous assumptions? Then he went back to an original question, concern? What was the SupermutantLord doing at the school with his cyborg-supermutants and why were the giant acidtoxin-ants were there along with the entity that controlled them? What were they after?

 

 

0041

FALLOUT MARS: THE MARSLANDS

MEGATON TROUBLES: LUCKY EDDIE AND NEW PLANS

 

New plans were speaking to Sarah Lyons about creating a special outpost in the bunkerplex they were in, an outpost linked with the OSE, with Megaton and the UCR, the United Citystates of the Rimlands but also with the young adults of the capsules that would choose to join in an alliance.

 

The six other brats had fled back to the UVR School, perhaps to track down the former Booga that they did not know who was changed. The five other students were there now, all of them pleased how Lucky Eddie had dealt with Booga because in truth they had been rather frightened of the maniac. They were surprised by how Booga was no longer Booga but was now his old self of Brendan. Brendan had been a fine person but had become corrupted, as had others.

 

Lucky Eddie stood with the phantomic five in a large common chamber while the others, in two teams, searched the bunkerplex. Sarah Lyons was with one and Jasmine0101 Ashworth was with the others. Lucky Eddie was with the doppelganger now named Eshrin and one other Brother of Steel, a woman named Ash. Ash staid firmly in her assault power armour and stood a little away from the others as if she was wary of them, as she was.

 

Lucky Eddie spoke. "You can face transformation but I do not know what will happen to you. I do know that the more of you that are more fully integrated into DemiMatrix ABE1198DMTX0011 of something called the Grand Matrix, what ever that is, the more stable, safe and livable will become the UVR School, the more positive changes we can make to it. This information was given to me but it is limited and I do not know why the transformations will help the way they will."

 

Ursula frowned. "Then why should be take the risk?" She paused to think and shrugged. "On the other hand, things are getting bad so why not take the risk?"

 

Fifi nodded. "I want to study the physics and higher mathematics of this DemiMatrix thingy. I am very good at physics and higher mathematics. My adjusted ICP is 193-134-111 with an adjusted boost in physics and higher mathematics of +28 to intelligence making it 221. I think that's lovely, don't you?"

 

Lucky Eddie nodded. "Very lovely. Who would like to go first?"

 

Ursula shrugged. "Okay, me. I want to improve the school, I want to bring back the teachers, tutors and the others, even those guards, but most of all I want the pets back. Also I want to sleep properly with out going into deep sleep like others did, like all the normal borns."

 

Lucky Eddie touched them one by one and one by one they vanished and their bodies vanished from the capsules that had once held them. Each time he gained a 20cm high-wide cubebox but they appeared now inside his backpack. Something odd had happened to his backpack, he 'sensed' it. For one thing it was somehow lighter but felt somehow more solid. Yet he knew now, somehow, that it was bigger inside than outside, which would perhaps have been stranger if he was not already faced with many strange things in his life.

 

He took out a cubebox, placed it on the ground with a enough space for the transformation, and it expanded to a 3-metre high-wide cubebox. From it he took special items that he slipped into his pouches or the backpack but then began to unload the Marslands type equipment, supplies and other items. There was Brotherhood of Steel stuff in the expanded transshifter cubebox and somehow that failed to surprise him. Private Ash was pleased by this, or so he 'sensed', and she became a little less wary of him but no less wary of the doppelganger clone. She took up a specialized laser-torch, a combination of laser tool and back up weapon. There was also a portable smart-turret that could be carried and a small fanjet hoverable carrybot that could haul it. More importantly were spares for standard gear for the Orders of Steel in Exile.

 

After that Lucky Eddie went back to studying the network of network-systems of the bunkerplex, including a few that he had not found before because they were well hidden and clues to the existence of yet others. Like much the Patriot Thirteen had been behind, the bunkerplex was a bundle of secrets behind secrets, tricks inside tricks and dangers leading to more dangers.

 

Soon he found datafiles that indicated strongly that the real nature of the Springvale School of High Achievement was linked strongly somehow to the bunkerplex beneath Megaton that was now called Inner Megaton and the data indicated that there might be far more to the Megaton bunkerplex than Megatonfolk had discovered.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Maharg67