THIRTEEN OF THIRTEEN

[Maharg67]

0015

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

JAEIO JAYLE OF THE BROWNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

Jayle brushed at her lightly burned jumpsuit and then brushed at her hair. Just seconds before the car went 'boom' she had teleported, taking with her a kevlar shoulderbag full of everyday and survival items. Some fatigues clad Boy Scouts were staring at her in shock. She realized that holes were burned in the tight jumpsuit showing a little too much of her warm, smooth skin including parts of her breasts, tummy and buttocks.

 

She sighed, smiled, kissed each teenager on his forehead and then tried to walk along the raised sidewalk of the secondary highway tunnel with as much dignity as was possible under the circumstances.

 

When she was able to slip to one side, out of sight of the still staring Boy Scouts with their .22LR calibre rifles, she vanished with a sparkling shimmer. Jayle did not teleport but went phantomic, ghost like, and went back towards where the car was destroyed. She was following a hunch and was trying to see who might show up to check on her 'death'.

 

There was also something odd about the Boy Scouts, something she had 'sensed' and then had more strongly 'sensed' when she had kissed them. They were there but, somehow, they were not there. The fake Danny had been the same, or so it came to her then and there.

 

The Boy Scouts were gone except for two very small lots of fine white ash like powder. She knew, somehow, that they had triggered the bomb hidden in her zipcar. The question was, how had the bomb gotten into the vehicle in the first place? Did the Donaldsons betray her? They had always been a trustworthy, hard working and loyal family.

 

Emergency vehicles and police cars were soon approaching, sirens blaring. Jayle turned and slipped away into a utility tunnel. She ceased to be phantomic because to remain so used a good deal of psionic energy and she would rather have it for when she really needed it.

 

Jayle changed her mind on what she was going to do and she teleported to the MultiTransCube.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/ForumAddit0040.jpg

 

MY VASTLY HUMBLE APOLOGIES; AM STARTING THIS STORY AGAIN.

 

TOO COMPLICATED TOO QUICK SO I WILL TRY AGAIN.

 

MADE SOME EDITING ERRORS DURING CHANGE TO NEW STORY

 

MY APOLOGIES FOR ANY HASSLES CAUSED

Edited November 2, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0016

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

DAMADA DAVAD KEVAA TEVAA REVAA OF THE DEVLIN THIRTEEN

 

The light was getting darker and it was getting colder with the coming of winter and yet some areas glowed pale with long lasting energies left over from Doomsday. A half melted smart-concrete tower block stood next to one that looked almost in new condition in comparison.

 

Davad moved quickly across the Wastelands of Amtriel, through what had been a small nature reserve now gone wild with a mixture of traditional and mutated flora and fauna. Even the 'non mutated' life had heavily adapted to the new, harsher conditions. Radroaches scuttled through the grasses. A couple of big molerats made rude noises at the newcomers before fleeing away into underground burrows. The terrible cry of a deathclaw could be heard from where the creature was warning stranger deathclaws to stay away from its pack's territories. Tall, glowing, translucent radshooms grew in thick clusters. They were dangerous to cultivate or harvest but they were very useful in some ways for survival purposes.

 

He had taken the form of a tribal marauder and was being accompanied by three follower avatars named Kevaa, Tevaa and Revaa. They were also dressed in crazy body-armour and other gear of tribal marauders, not to be confused with average tribals or gangers or even the pack-raiders of mysterious origin.

 

Tribal marauders came in from the harder, frozen northern extremes of what had been the Imperial Commonwealth of Alasiberia. There were both three Imperial Commonwealth Colonies there along with two Enclaven Enclaves but none were very large or powerful. They often had to beat off attacks by the savage war-tribes, mutants and other threats. The war-tribe marauders preferred to go south, to attack more peaceful but still tough tribals, settlers, Orders of Steel Enclaves and others including a large Imperial Commonwealth Colony.

 

Sometimes they managed to get further south and that meant the Dominion of Columbia, the DC, that they were now in. None of this was true for Davad of the Devlin Triplets or his three follower avatars. He had come seeking a strong request from the secretive Stronglife Foundation for him to find the source of disturbing energy emanations indicating that some faction was using kineticants for extremely aggressive actions. This was not on the surface and subsurface of the Wastelands but way below that in the Sublands.

 

Soon it would be time to change disguises. Being seen as tribal marauders was going to get more dangerous. They had been through a few disguises since they had set out.

 

Underneath a big CAPTAIN COSMOS CRUNCHY COOKIES 3Dsignboard, showing Captain Cosmos, and his sidekicks, holding packets of the cookies, they found a hidden cache of equipment and supplies left there by other Stronglife Foundation field agents. They changed disguises there to survivalist scavengers, folks who were half way between being truly either one or the other. Survivalists in DC were members of the Survival Network Families, the Shaggals and the Stronghold League.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0017

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

DAMADA DAVAD KEVAA TEVAA REVAA OF THE DEVLIN THIRTEEN

 

They came to a halt and hid inside a gutted shop with fragmented mannequins and some some signs of looting by scavengers and subhumans. Subhumans were not to be confused with ghouls of varied kinds. Subhumans were such as trogs, hoons, ravers and ragers but also more peaceful combers and hooters. They did not hide from subhumans but from supermutants striding along, big and muscular, ugly and sexless, being more human sized massamoths, greater hulking megamoths and just one monstrous behemoth. They were equipped with a wild mixture of armour, weapons and other items but the oddest were the scaled metallic skullcaps known as controlcaps. These supermutants were being guided, if not controlled.

 

The tough, warm, male voice spoke in his mind.

 

Damada: *More heavily guided than outright controlled or so my scanner probes and sensor sweeps indicate.*

 

Davad: *But not the wild packs of supermutants that are normal to the Wastelands, coming out of the madness of LifeVault0087A2.*

 

Davad, and his triplet sisters, had been to LifeVault0087A2 only to discover it had been one of the nasty experiment based traps set up by the rather warped WorldTek Corporation, the TekCorporate umbrella corporation to all other TekCorps be they VaultTek, RoboTek, MasterTek, CarTek, WarTek, GuardTek or others. What remained of all the TekCorps existed as part of the physically fragmented Amtriellan Empire in all of its colonies including the Greenlands that it dominated. LifeVault0087A2 was set up as an experiment in exploiting trapped refugees and converting them into supermutants of varied kinds. But, as they did in so many of the Entrapment LifeVaults, not to be confused with average LifeVaults, things went terribly out of control.

 

The LifeVault had been a crazy mess of conflicting factions of TekCorp survivors, refugee survivors who had escaped mutification, very aggressive supermutants, defensive aggressive supermutants and some surprising others.

 

Davad, Demar and Delia had together explored the LifeVault, had fought some factions, had assisted others, had discovered some dark secrets and had carried out their mission by destroying part of the LifeVault that was unknown to most, even most of the vault factions. The Stronglife Foundation had sent them there with special equipment and supplies but also specialist assistants.

 

Davad remembered that the completed mission had not turned out as well as expected as the Devlin Triplets had found evidence that the thing that they had destroyed, had been recreated elsewhere but not 'where' or other vital details. Were these supermutants from LifeVault0087A2?

 

It was then that the supermutants met another force and savage fighting broke out between them.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0018

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

DAMADA DAVAD KEVAA TEVAA REVAA OF THE DEVLIN THIRTEEN

 

Brotherhood of Steel Soldiers attacked efficiently, hard and heavy. In lighter, faster assault power armour came the Troopers and in the heavy, hulking battle power armour the Knights. Still more hulking were three war power armoured Paladins. This was no prepared ambush but more of a stumbling into skirmish of opportunity. Somehow Brotherhood of Steel Scouts had failed to detect the supermutants, not hard to do in the crazy Wastelands even for experienced specialists.

 

Radroaches scuttled madly for cover, vanishing into the rubble of what had been a McBurgers Family Diner.

 

Bullets zipped through the air along with autocannon shells, missiles and rocket-grenades. There were a few pulselaser-guns and pulseblaster-guns being used but they were less common than the other weapons because the Orders of Steel had shortages of such technologies. Many other factions did not even have them at all.

 

A Paladin was blown backwards by a supermutant's shortlong missile even as a megamoth died screaming in rage as it was struck by a volley of 20mm shells. Troopers and supermutants blasted at each other with different weapons, the Troopers using mostly M6161A5 heavy automatic battlerifles designed to be used with power armour. A supermutant shouted incoherent war cries as it blazed away with its AK97A10 battlerifle.

 

A massemoth struck at a Trooper with a powered super-sledgehammer, smashing her backwards.

 

Damada and his follower avatars changed aspects and came out fighting in stormer power armour, bulkier and more powerful than battle power armour but less so that war power armour. They came firing non lethal weapons at the supermutants that, this time, caused their controlcaps to give them jolts of overly intense pleasure and pain at the same time. The supermutants clutched weapons, or dropped them, as they turned and fled back the way that they had come. Soon, with impressive speed and much pounding of big booted or bare feet, they were gone.

 

A big crow made a noise as if disparaging the supermutants.

 

Damada made gestures of peace and the wary Brothers of Steel commanding officer came forward in her battle power armour. It was disguised as a regular set of battle power armour so that she would not be singled out by enemies such as heavy weapon snipers. She was Knight Captain Sarah Lyons, famed fighting commander and daughter to Elder Owyn Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel. Her father was also in the Elder Council of the Orders of Steel of the Dominion of Columbia, the OSDC.

 

They were an exiled offshoot of the more traditionalist Orders of Steel of the Western Coast of the Wastelands, extremely far to the west of the DC that was itself close to the Eastern Coast of the supercontinent. That was in Calibraska where the Orders of Steel struggled against the New Calibraskan Republic, the NCR, a large Enclaven Colony, a weakened Enclaven presence and a small Amtriellan Imperial Colony along with the insanity of the animal-human Legions of Caesar's Empire.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/13-00051-1.jpg

 

MY VASTLY HUMBLE APOLOGIES; AM STARTING THIS STORY AGAIN.

 

TOO COMPLICATED TOO QUICK SO I WILL TRY AGAIN.

 

MADE SOME EDITING ERRORS DURING CHANGE TO NEW STORY

 

MY APOLOGIES FOR ANY HASSLES CAUSED

Edited November 2, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0019

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

DAMADA DAVAD KEVAA TEVAA REVAA OF THE DEVLIN THIRTEEN

 

Sarah Lyons frowned softly at the Davad and his three comrades. She, like they, still wore power armour but with her helmet removed. She spoke. “Supermutants wildly rampaging out from LifeVault0087A2 are bad enough but we have no idea where these ones come from. They are not greatly equipped, these controlled supermutants, but better than the wild ones. These controlcaps also give them better discipline, coordination and some enhancement of intelligence. From what we have observed we have concluded that the controlcaps are far from totally successful in controlling the supermutants which is why they more guide than enslave.”

 

She indicated the controlcapped head of a dead massemoth that was sprawled nearby. “We have tried to remove controlcaps from captive supermutants but they always self destruct. They do so automatically when a supermutant dies. That one is melted down inside. So our Scribes and Sages have failed to record details or to analyze these devices.”

 

Davad looked thoughtful. “The Stronglife Foundation can provide you with blueprints and other data of a standard controlcap but I suspect these have been modified in some unknown fashion. Standard controlcaps would probably not work on supermutants at all. These controlcapped supermutants did not seem to have zentaurs (centaurs) or zentoids or zenverns with them.”

 

Zentaurs were glistening globular fleshy tentacle equipped creatures able to use them as weapons and able to spit toxic gunk to do more damage. Zentoids were like zentaurs but more like chunky biped humanoids and they attacked just with big flexible extending whip tentacles. Zenverns were clumsy flying creatures, better at gliding attacks from higher points, who spat toxic slush and could attack with powerful tentacles.

 

“They never are.” Sarah paused to take a drink of water from her canteen. “Perhaps because the controlcaps may not work on zenmutants. We have to move on soon. We appreciate you repelling the monsters but, failing to kill them, they continue to be a problem.”

 

Davad nodded. “The Stronglife Foundation will pay for any captured supermutants and zenmutants, even if they are wounded, with resources of value. That is enhanced duplicates of your standard equipment and supplies. That includes your standard energy weapons and other devices you have in not so great numbers.”

 

Sarah snorted. “We have shortages of almost everything. The difference is how great the shortages are. Nobody in the DC seems to have an abundance of many of the important resources. Still, I suspect you already know this. The Orders of Steel DC do not condone dark experimentation on even such as supermutants. It was one of the reasons we broke away from our comrades in the very far west from here.”

 

“We know your story.” Davad responded. “You have done well despite your difficulties. We do not intend to carry out any kind of terrible experimentation. That is not our way and we do not have to do so. We already have forms of reconversion working on captured supermutants, ghouls and other such transformed entities. None can be returned to what they were but they are more peaceful, happier and less damaged. The problem is that each reconversion process is problematic, long and takes a good deal of resources. We hope to make the reconversion processes more efficient, effective and faster. We could also give you resources.”

 

Sarah frowned harder. “You could have helped us before.”

 

Davad gave her a mild grin. “The big underground base you found largely full of aeroships, big long range vertibirds, five big atomic aircraft, lots of other equipment including roboremotes, robots and androids, the Stronglife Foundation not only made sure you found it, they put it all there in the first place. The sudden decision of various peoples to let you fly over their territories, that was the Stronglife Foundation, and Sister Foundations that shall remain unnamed, intervening to ask favours, bribe, threaten and-or call in old favours.”

 

He went on. “The way that the DC Citadel was devoid of occupation forces, of any real threats in the form of mutants or other creatures, was again no coincidence. The hidden storage vaults inside the DC Citadel full of guns, ammo, spare parts, food rations, purified water, stimpaks, basic robots, roboremotes, holotapes and much else, they were put there for you. Other things were done for you, many that will never be spoken of. The Sister Foundations, between them, spent over a $100,000,000 in Emergency Issue Dollars on your move to the DC and your successful establishment here. You owe us nothing but that you continue to do what you have been doing, what you do best.”

 

She frowned. “You could have told us.”

 

Davad shrugged a little. “We told a select few, such as your father, Owyn Lyons.”

 

Sarah looked angry. “That father told me nothing of this does not surprise me. We must head out soon on our search and destroy mission for threats against our people and local folks such as citizens of the New Dominion of Columbia Republic, the NDCR. We will go with you to the nearest usable, safer Subway Station Entrance.”

 

She looked thoughtful before she continued. “The large settlement of Megaton has a subway station below it and also LifeVault0101B1. It is based in a great big crater.”

 

“I have been there but not for many years.” Davad responded. “I wonder how the Brown Family are going and the cowboy sheriff.”

 

Sarah sighed. “Sheriff Luca Simms is going fine.”

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0020

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

DAMADA DAVAD KEVAA TEVAA REVAA OF THE DEVLIN THIRTEEN

 

The four of them went with the Lyons Pride elite fighting unit, moving deeper into the DC. In the distance the Washington Monument Tower reared up, partly damaged, into the sky. The OSDC controlled the tower for a number of reasons, one being as a practical communications position, an observation post and even a secondary command base. From that direction came the distance and building muffled sounds of miniguns firing, the multiple barreled weapons being used by Guardsmen of Steel against supermutants attacking the Washington Monument Tower.

 

Controlcapped and wild supermutant groups had been busy in the area, often attacking each other as much as they did other factions.

 

New DC Republican Guardsmen were also in the area in lightly armoured, heavily armed brigades and more dispersed platoons. NDCR Guardsmen and the Defense Orders of Steel were wary of each other but the NDCR and OSDC did have a basic treaty in operation. The NDCR was less militaristic and expansionist than its cousin in the far west, the NCR, but still sought to gain more territories, wealth, power and influence in DC.

 

Just to complicate matters, Enclaven eyebots were moving through the area spouting propaganda supporting the surprise new Enclaven President John Eden Patriot; they were promising the appearance of Enclaven forces to 'cleanse the Wastelands' of dangerous mutations and other threats to the civilized. The Enclaven had once been linked closely to the surviving Amtriellan Empire but the Enclaven had changed and the two forces were now at cold war status with each other.

 

It rained hard and short with very lightly toxic rain. Rainfall, and other sources of water, had been improving since Doomsday. They went to shelter just in case the rain turned 'super acid' even though that did not happen but rarely in those days. Then the rain turned pristine for a while before it came to an end so that the soldiers collected rain to use. They would treat it just in case but it seemed fine when tested.

 

Very high overhead passed a great flock of migrating geese going southwards for the winter. They were tougher than PreDoomsday geese. With them flew a trio of guardian droneplanes but they were hidden by cloaking fields, at least at that distance. The Devlins knew they were there but not the Brothers of Steel. The GreenLife Foundation, Sister Foundation of the Stronglife Foundation, took care of such matters.

 

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0021

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

DAMADA DAVAD KEVAA TEVAA REVAA OF THE DEVLIN THIRTEEN

 

They spotted three of the Enclaven eyebots, each lifted by a quiet fanjet beneath the base of its globular shaped body that showed only as a ring of small curving vertical slots. They each had a basic lasergun to defend themselves against small threats. Each was broadcasting propaganda about 'good old gladiator recreations', 'baseball games', 'good citizenship', 'healthy family values' alongside barely hidden threats to kill lots of lifeforms and to conquer the whole of the supercontinent.

 

Sarah was frowning as the group rested in a fairly well concealed place. “Damned Enclaven was always weird but now its gone insane. Lots of Enclavers are deserting, are running to the Fragmented Empire with horror stories about new humans who are not really human, about purges, about controlcaps being used to enslave even loyal Enclavers. Battles have broken out between old and new Enclaven forces. Some smaller, more isolated Enclaves have switched over to the Empire or gone independent or have formed alliances with others but not the Orders of Steel. There is something extra twisted about the new Enclaven that is like an enhanced version of all that was weird and bad about the old Enclaven.”

 

Davad responded. “I have been away from Amtriel for a few years. I can not say where I was, or why, but it seems I have some catching up to do despite a briefing I was given before I arrived here with my comrades.”

 

“There is something odd about your comrades.” Sarah looked at the three of them in their power armour crouching quietly and observing the Wastelands in different directions. “They do not act like normal soldiers. They do not speak. They do not complain. They do not sweat. They do not seem to tire. There is hidden power about them. They are just like you. Are you of the Immortal Ones?”

 

Davad paused before answering. “Yes and the reason we are here is to face a possible threat far greater than those normally produced by the Wastelands, a much more ancient and terrible threat that should not even be here on-in Amtriel. On the whole I would rather be home in my favourite armchair snacking and drinking beer while watching old shows on 3DTV.”

 

“Sounds good to me.” Sarah smiled. “Sounds very good to me at this moment.”

Edited November 30, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/ForumAddit0039.jpg

 

MY VASTLY HUMBLE APOLOGIES; AM STARTING THIS STORY AGAIN.

 

TOO COMPLICATED TOO QUICK SO I WILL TRY AGAIN.

 

MADE SOME EDITING ERRORS DURING CHANGE TO NEW STORY

 

MY APOLOGIES FOR ANY HASSLES CAUSED

Edited November 2, 2011 by Maharg67