THIRTEEN OF THIRTEEN

[Maharg67]

0097

PART ONE: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!?

AARAA AARAO AARON AARIE OF THE ZAVID THIRTEEN

 

Amata came to them quietly, quickly and warned them that her father, Prime Overseer Alphonse Almodovar, had started to behave very strangely as had others in the ranks of the Overseer Government. The Overseer Security Intelligence Office, the OSIO, was gathering up people in a fashion that seemed almost chaotically random. Those rounded up were being brutally treated, even murdered.

 

Amata and others had begun fighting back. She and her followers had gathered up a fair sized collection of armour and arms. Yet they were no match for the far better equipped Overseer Enforcers. This elite paramilitary unit used assault power armour, battlerifles, pulselasers and miniguns. They also had sentrybots working with them, one of the few kinds of smart-robots legally programmed to kill people.

 

Butch and the Tunnel Snakes had proven to be a surprisingly effective strike team against the security forces, doing ambushes and hit-run raids.

 

Most of the vaultfolk were heavily conditioned to follow authority blindly and so now many hid away hoping that trouble would pass them by. This was not going to happen and slowly, steadily, the 'neutrals' were starting to realize this.

 

The triplets examined a fallen security officer, being one of those who had gone 'crazy' and underneath his helmet found that his scalp was covered with a strange controlcap. They wondered how it had managed to get there. Then the use of a device, and their own special abilities, revealed that the scaled creature was a quasiliving silicon thing. It was also a synthetic manifesticant of some kind, a very exotic and refined type of one.

 

There was an invasion of the vault taking place, a very insidious form of one. They sent out a warning but others had already done so; UnityNeo was fighting back not just physically but through its shared secondary mentality and its special networking. The networking was more vulnerable to take over but the secondary mentality was immune from it and in turn strengthened both the mind network and individual minds.

 

So it was that the brainbugs, as they generally became known, were defeated largely by their puppets simply closing down and becoming semiconscious or unconscious. Then the brainbugs would become semiconscious, falling into a helpless slumber.

 

The brainbugs were not killed. They were being controlled and the people were being controlled through them. They were gently and firmly removed to be placed into status-capsules. Only dead ones were dissected, that is those killed in the brief but savage firefights that erupted through out parts of the vault.

 

The invasion backfired. Too many people had died or had been badly wounded but UnityNeo in LifeVault0101A2 strengthened its unity. The Zavid Triplets were released from any form of official charge or arrest and became Special Agents of the new Overseers Office of Special Investigations.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0098

PART ONE: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!?

AARAA AARAO AARON AARIE OF THE ZAVID THIRTEEN

 

Brainbug invasions of the Subways Unified Republic and the New DC Republic both failed soon after the one of LifeVault0101A2 did. Yet the Zavid Thirteen knew very well that this had been yet another test of a possible deadly weapon, a testing of defenses.

 

A strange report came to them and they returned to the flooded subvault where they had met Lucky Eddie. It was no longer flooded, was rejuvenated almost to as good as new, was semiactive with its network-systems and the mirelurks were gone. So was Lucky Eddie. It was an amazing change and the triplets 'sensed' a strong link between it, Lucky Eddie and the mysterious deadly others that Lucky Eddie had warned them about.

 

They found that this subvault was an administration technical control area linked to two other secret subvaults. One held a very big synthetic manifesticator network-system of hard cased machinery and roboremotes. The other held a very big set of special storage centres with status-capsules, status-globes and other status containers. About half of these status containers were filled with synthetic manifesticants of various types and grades of perfection.

 

While most were the monsters, and other threats, meant to invade the LifeVault, others were of an amazingly wide variety and some were quite exotic while some were rather bizarre.

 

The process of deciding what to do with them, began, and also what to do with the complex of three subvaults.

 

Meanwhile the release of people from the Springvale University project subvault, and those put into status during the big vault crisis, was completed. The people were made welcome. The great majority of them caused no trouble, were happy to be part of the Vault Society. A few made unacceptable demands or threatened; these were placed back into status after failing to change their behavior. Yet it was the quiet dangerous ones that were of most concern. Most were quietly rounded up and interrogated, many of them being then returned to status. Yet a very small minority were on record and slipped through the net. This was expected by the OSIO, and other Overseer Government authorities.

 

There were now many new issues for the people of LifeVault0101A2 to deal with and, also of course, many older ones. It was going to be very complicated and busy a time ahead for the vault and vaultfolk.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0099

PART ONE: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!?

AARAA AARAO AARON AARIE OF THE ZAVID THIRTEEN

 

They found out the real project for LifeVault0101A2 was how the LifeVault, and its people, would deal with the various threats of the synthetic manifesticants. LifeVault0101A1 was the more isolationist version of the same, a comparative study. LifeVault0101A3 was a comparative study of the opposite kind from LifeVault0101A1 in that the vaultfolk there were in an extremely open environment. The datafiles were damaged from a crude attempt at erasure and what was left were only briefings that gave no real detail of any of the experiments of the three sister vaults.

 

So all three LifeVaults would be attacked, or had been attacked, by synthetic manifesticants. It was decided that Aaron would lead an expeditionary taskforce to LifeVault0101A1 and that Aarie would lead another expeditionary taskforce to LifeVault0101A3. Aarao would remain in LifeVault0101A2 to lead smaller expeditions to continue to explore and chart the true extent and complexity of the vault including secret areas.

 

There were delays. The LifeVault was still in some confusion. The Overseer Government was going through some changes including democratic reforms, the drafting of a constitution including a code of rights and a code of obligations. Repairs were being done. Negotiations had begun with Megaton, the SUR and the NDCR. People were being integrated or reintegrated from status into vault life.

 

Efforts began to reclaim the important subvault that had been sealed off because it had been invaded by dangerous manifesticants.

 

Yet life in the LifeVault remained surprisingly normal, by its standards, for most of its people.

 

Then, almost by accident, somebody found another hidden subvault and this one had thirteen exotic devices in it, some being more exotic than others and less straight forward than others.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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[Maharg67]

0100

PART ONE: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!?

OUTSIDE OF OUTSIDE

 

Lucky Eddie thrashed just a little inside the special designed and built capsule and yet indications were that he was not in pain. In armoured hazmat suits, AH-suits, specialists, servitors, workers and soldiers were busy reconfiguring, reconstructing, hardware through out the big metallic stone cavern.

 

The thin metallic stone tentacle was inserted into the top of Lucky Eddie's head but not in the normal physical sense. The tip of it was translucent, not totally solid but somehow just out of phase with local reality. Ghost like it went through scalp and skull to go into the brain.

 

Lucky Eddie was naked, slimly muscular but covered with small, elaborate multiple coloured tattoos that kept moving, evolving, transforming. Sometimes his two normal eyes were open but were mostly shut. The big third eye that had appeared in his forehead, that rounded one was always open.

 

A voice came over the public announcement network-system in different languages, starting with Esperanto. “Exodus Rocket-Shuttle B114 has safely landed at Moontropolis Spaceport Fifteen. B114 brings with it 215 alpha class citizens, 425 beta class citizens, equipment, supplies and special classified freight including livestock and pets. Please check agendas, rosters and reports as necessary. Exodus Rocket-Shuttle is due in the next eighteen hours with 1,311 gamma class citizens, livestock, compressed air and ice.”

 

A very gentle sparkling shimmer and trembling went through everything, seemed to go through everything, but reality did not shift. The effects on the home world of the Earth (Terra) were far more effecting. Chaos was growing there. If it had not been for the mysterious LifeProclomation aliens assisting humanity, there would be no hope.

 

The voice continued. “Teleportation receptors were open successfully for eighteen minutes and twenty-five seconds. Within this time 15,342 citizens came through along with 215 exodus haulers of equipment and supplies. The citizens came in hoverbuses, buses and a wide assortment of other vehicles including military, paramilitary, security, police and emergency classed machines.”

 

The Exodus refugees were going into the recently discovered Lunar Labyrinth with its heavier gravity, atmosphere and other resources including water. The Lunar Labyrinth was vast, had many levels, sublevels, zones, sectors and subsectors. Only a relatively tiny part of it had been explored by humanity.

 

For unstated reasons the LifeProclomation aliens stated that they were restricted in what they could do but they operated the one way network-system of teleport-senders and teleport-receptors remotely, doing what they could when they could. They also rejuvenate-duplicate-multiplied a great deal of human equipment and supplies, had given over knowledge of antigravity boosters, regenerative medical processes, subspace communications and much else. They had also remotely constructed basic infrastructure for the humans, and other lifeforms they brought, in the Lunar Labyrinth from roads to basic cities to monorails and even some statues of famous humans. A few additions seemed exotic, even bizarre, by the general human point of view.

 

The aliens refused to have any direct contact with humanity or to come into the home solar system itself.

 

Lucky Eddie lay calm for a while with tubes and thinner cables attached to many places on his naked body. Then his voice emerged from a big speaker. “Hey dudes and dudettes, anybody seen my mobile-phone, I think I must have misplaced it somewhere.”

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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[Maharg67]

0101

PART ONE: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!?

AARAA AARAO AARON AARIE OF THE ZAVID THIRTEEN

 

When the follower avatars materialized again, they were changed. They no longer chose to use individual names permanently and called them selves now prime-avatar followers. Each could now materialize three auxiliary-avatars to assist it. They were more powerful, skilled shapeshifters now and he auxiliary-avatars were the same but less powerful than the primes.

 

The triplets gained new abilities. They could still rejuvenate-duplicate-multiply items but more efficiently and called it now transduplication.

 

Any of the triplets could teleport to a position to where another triplet was or one of the avatars was, or teleport items. The avatars could do the same with each other and the triplets.

 

All could generate multiple purpose energy bubbles, pulses, pulsebeams and solid projections. The triplets were more powerful than the avatars.

 

Other Thirteen gained these abilities also and other abilities began to emerge for all of them, sometimes with as yet more randomized results.

 

The triplets transduplicated now one three metre by three metre cubecanister of goods, often both the canisters and many or all of the goods being damaged. They could 'sense' what were in the cubecanisters and were angered by attempts to exploit their talents by corrupt vaultfolk who wanted to gain luxury goods or even restricted or forbidden items to sell on the secret market. They quickly made enemies of vault criminals and corrupt vaultcrats who they had convicted and sentenced to convict labour in stark grey jumpsuits marked with red targets on the back and front.

 

The three of them went with the expedition to the strange chamber that had been found with its thirteen exotic machines. The machines were not alone but were surrounded by network-systems that serve-supported them in a range of ways such a power generators, stabilizers and external observation consoles.

 

It was hard to understand, at first, the logic of such machines and why they were there in the vault and why there were together in that one chamber. It did not help that the subvault was of different design and construction than those designed and built by VaultTek and other TekCorps. It was all prefabricated and modular as if it had been manufactured elsewhere and then assembled as a subvault on the spot. The main vault and other subvaults had some prefabrication and modular design to them but this was far more advanced and sophisticated.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0102

PART ONE: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!?

AARAA AARAO AARON AARIE OF THE ZAVID THIRTEEN

 

There was a strict pattern of types of machines and the numbers of them. There were nine machines called Auxiliary WonderTek, three Secondary WonderTek and one Prime WonderTek.

 

Three of the Auxiliary WonderTek Mechanisms generated basic mattercation gel, matgel, from energy and certain raw materials.

 

Three of the Auxiliary WonderTek Mechanisms mattercated basic solid items from template programs, energy and base-matgel.

 

One of the Auxiliary WonderTek Mechanisms converted base-matgel into nutritional food-gel only to be used by special quasilifeforms.

 

One of the Auxiliary WonderTek Mechanisms converted base-matgel into refined-matgel.

 

One of the Auxiliary WonderTek Mechanisms did intensive testing routines on different kinds of matgel, selecting out the best and recycling the other into raw-matgel that could be turned into base-matgel.

 

All of these auxiliary mechanisms produced deadly side products known as toxic-matgel and mutagenic gel.

 

One of the Secondary WonderTek Mechanisms mattercated basic working mechanisms from refined-matgel.

 

One of the Secondary WonderTek Mechanisms converted refined-matgel into pure-matgel.

 

One of the Secondary WonderTek Mechanisms converted toxic-matgel into various specialized, dangerous to use, matgels.

 

All of these secondary mechanisms produced deadlier side products known as super toxic-matgel and super mutagenic gel.

 

The one Prime WonderTek Mechanism mattercated advanced, sophisticated mechanisms and other products from pure-matgel.

 

The Prime WonderTek Mechanism produced a wide range of very deadly side products.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0103

PART ONE: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!?

AARAA AARAO AARON AARIE OF THE ZAVID THIRTEEN

 

“WonderTek? No such TekCorporation is in any of the known databanks or has been found in any other data medium.” Aaron looked around at the vast chamber and the huge mechanisms. “There is something distinctly disturbing about these WonderTek Mechanisms. It is a 'sense' that they are not normal machines, that in some way they are quasiliving but not as silicon lifeforms are or manifesticants or certain kinds of androids.”

 

Amata frowned. “I also 'sense' something wrong with this place. UnityNeo does. We have already chosen to put heavy security both inside and outside of the whole subvault except that we have failed to get into another section of the subvault.”

 

They began to examine the chamber and its hardware more closely. As they moved carefully through the chamber, in three smaller groups, they were careful of security or even booby-traps. Nothing such happened.

 

The holographic image projected into mid air of a tall, handsome woman in a black business dress of knee length, black fine mesh stockings, black mid-heel shoes, black silken shoulder length hair, black eyes and albino white skin. She smiled to show rows of fang like teeth. This one was a greytori hybrid of some kind but neither a dreaded PaleOne any other known kinds.

 

The woman smiled and spoke in the language known as Esperanto in a voice tinged with ice. “Perfection welcomes you. The Perfectus Thirteen of WonderTek, of voluntary greytori hybridisation, we present you with just a small part of our amazing achievements. If you are followers, please prepare to serve us. If you are allies, please prepare to gain from our alliance. If you are clients, or would be clients, please prepare to negotiate a grand bargain that you will certainly not regret. If you are intruders, or worse, enemies, then prepare to be destroyed.”

 

Aarao smiled. “We are the Zavid Thirteen. Would that make us your enemies?”

 

The woman avatar projection smiled some more. “One suspects that the answer would be 'yes'. Yet one will not attempt to destroy you. One is bemused by the prospect of your investigating this chamber and its contents so that you may more fully comprehend our greatness and your coming doom. Please take care not to harm yourselves for we, the Perfectus Thirteen, wish to keep the pleasure of destroying you ourselves.”

 

Then the perfect holographic projection vanished.

 

Aarie snorted. “The Perfectus were never good at diplomacy once they transformed. Pity, before that they excelled at it. Perhaps this place will give us some real clues to what changed the amazing Modestia Thirteen into the monstrous Perfectus Thirteen.”

 

The knowledge that the Perfectus Thirteen had chosen the extreme distortion of greytori hybridization, not something the greytori themselves had willingly agreed to, was fairly wide spread. What was not known was if the hybridization was part of the change to evil or if it had come later as a result of the change to evil.

 

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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