Eternal Game of Games: the Human Focus

[Maharg67]

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EGG: HF

Eleven 1

One 7.1[10]{13}

Gamesemilord KaTakatanaKa mentally shuddered at the way the gross humans bumped into him unintentionally. He would have properly smote them down, probably killing them, but he was infiltrating into the gameworld; it was a gameworld that, in theory, should not have existed. Drawing the humans into the EverGame had supposedly been part of the Great Solution but he was sceptical of that conclusion; not that he dared say so, him being a mere gamesemilord. That was in a hierarchy where even much more wealthy, influential, and powerful Gamelords had trouble being heeded by the Gamegods.

Through the same side street, blocked from traffic except for a few bicycles, moved behind him two disguised Gameforcers. The cold, hard, killers cared nothing him but they cared everything for their duty, their honour, and lastly their own lives. If the Gamesemilord died, the two of them would be executed. The only concession for a good record of duty, for each of them, would be a fast merciful death.

Badtropolis should not exist, at least not that version of Badtropolis with its connections, and stark similarities, with the Wastelands. So the Gamelords had sent him, both because he was proven to be excellent at such things and because he was expendable, to investigate. They rationed him some extra resources such as the two Gameforcers, some special tech devices, and things yet to appear to him. What with the Great Troubles besetting the Gamegods, he wondered if even the Gamelords knew what would end up being sent.

That was not there where damned humans kept bumping into him. Then it got worse as a bigger supermutant unintentionally shoved him to one side. The Gameforcers nimbly darted away from, around, the hulking humanoid, and annoyed KaTakatanaKa. He needed a nice big mug of coffee; it tasted better every time he drank it laced with whiskey. The Gameforcers did not approve of him drinking alcohol but he did not give a damn about how they judged him.

A cold-hot electric shiver of energies shot up his spine, as if coming out of the very ground itself. He sensed that the Gameforcers experienced the same sensation but not so strongly. They looked annoyed because they had no obvious threat to deal with; this was something that they were not program-conditioned, or trained, to deal with.

Those, around the three, had felt some light reflection of the same sensations. Yet they kept on moving as if they had experienced such before, were used to it.

He decided that he needed to send a report to his superior, a Gamedemilord, who would send a report to her superior, a Gamelord. The Gamelord would, of course, attempt to send the report onwards to the Gamegods but there was a growing chance, even if it was not bounced back, that there would be no response. The Gamegods were increasingly bound up in dealing with the Great Troubles and lesser troubles caused by them.

He needed to find somewhere quiet, solitary except for the Gameforcers, to go into a proper mental state so that he could try to send a report to his superior. KaTakatanaKa did not envision there being any difficulty in doing so. He was incorrect in assuming so.

Overhead flew a great advertising airship showing the Vaultboy Vaultgirl logos promising special, comfortable, protection in VaultTek LifeVaults if disaster struck the supercity. Even those not on special lists were promised budget priced sanctuary in the Third Class LifeVaults. The Gamesemilord only bothered to give the advertisement a glance which was most likely a mistake.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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EGG: HF

Twelve 1

One 8.1[11]{14}

Sandra found herself drawing the others towards a particular destination in the slums. The group, of supersoldiers and Steeltroopers, halted in their cultist disguises to rubber neck at a crime scene. They were but part of fairly large crowds of onlookers kept back by a row of annoyed or bored, often tired, Civil Police Constables in blue fatigues and black body-armour.

There were Civil Police there but also some nastier looking black clad Security Police, some being Security Police Troopers in power armour. There were even some blue coloured police protectron robots either standing still with odd rounded head moving back and forth or stomping around in a gracefully clumsy manner.

Three had died, had been murdered horribly, and seemed to be one main figure with two bodyguards. The infiltrators found this out by easily picking up police radio communications and breaking through their rather basic coding. Yet details were scant as if the senders of the information were very aware of the generally insecure nature of their transmissions.

Sandra felt a sudden, small, sharp pain in her head and then she spoke. "A Gamesemilord, and two Gameforcers bodyguards, were killed rather brutally."

Sarah Lyons gave her a strange look. "What are you talking about?"

Sandra frowned. "I am not sure you would believe the truth but you deserve to hear it. This world, of worlds, is real and appears to be getting more so. While we do come from space, we are also players of a vast gameworld made real by the Gamegods."

So it was that Sandra told what little she knew. Sahara was surprisingly not surprised. "I have always considered there to be something 'unreal' with our reality but more recently that began to change. Everything was becoming more 'real'. You say your memories, of being players, are fading as if you are being merged into this reality; perhaps you were tricked, were sent here to be so absorbed? Perhaps those, like myself, had the same done to us. Sometimes I have odd, disturbing, dreams of being somebody who played games based on the world of Sarah Lyons, a player of a world that could easily be the one of the Gamehaven."

Tricked? Used? It was not a pleasing idea at all.

Sandra frowned softly. "We are in gameworlds made realer but they are still gameworlds and we could take advantage of that; you must know of 'cheat codes' and 'weaknesses' in games that can be exploited."

Sarah smiled wickedly. "I have heard stories of the mysterious 'Reality Consoles'; they are difficult to find, tricky to use, but they can do small things to change 'reality'. When the mysterious ones find the 'consoles' they close them down, make them vanish, only to have others appear. Until this moment I considered such stories to be typical Wastelands nonsense but now... well lets go and find one. We can then use it to help us, perhaps to get us to Megaton or even more directly to beneath the 'mall'."

Sandra frowned softly. "Who, what, are the mysterious ones?"

Sarah shrugged. "Nobody seems to know; why do you think that they are called the mysterious ones?"

Superman passed overhead and with him were Supergirl, Superboy, and Superwoman; it seemed to be a family outing except that all were grim faced and had strange, exotic, very deadly looking devices. They were off to carry out some serious sort of business.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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EGG: HF

Thirteen 1

One 9.1[12]{15}

 

Gamesemilord KaTakatanaKa was sickened upon learning of the brutal death of another Gamesemilord, and her two Gameforcer Bodyguards, in Badtropolis. Even his Gameforcers were disturbed by the savage way that the other three Gamegods Followers had died. The three had known a threat was approaching, had been prepared to defend themselves, the bodyguards ready to defend their charge, but in a mere few seconds all were slaughtered. All this information came from stolen forensics data taken from the Badtropolis Civil Police computer network-systems. The data had been obtained by other Gamegods Followers in Badtropolis who serve-supported those of their kind.

 

KaTakatanaKa observed three hulking cyborg Robocops 'stomp quietly', with fair speed, along a wide footpath through the big green park. He sat on a bench with one Gameforcer sitting next to him and one standing opposite of them. All three of them had changed their guise, were moving their base of operations. So far he had obtained scant communications, about the killings of the three, from the Gamelords which was annoying but not very surprising. What was surprising was that his immediate superior, a Gamedemilord, had not responded to any of his attempts to report the situation to her, to obtain fresh orders.

 

Just what was going on?

 

Overhead drifted a gracefully bulky advertising airship that broadcast the availability of spaces in three different class levels of vaults, be they budget, standard or luxury. He had seen such 3Dvideo adds a few times and not just on the strange airships. Yet, for the first time, he truly began to wonder if there was something truly significant about the advertisements. This sparked off a whole new chain of thoughts in his mind and that led to his strengths of an investigator. He truly began to utilise his inductive-deductive side and was soon going back everything he had learning about Badtropolis.

 

Which was when public announcements spoke out, from big 3Dscreens and 3Dradio speakers, that emergency practice exercises were to begin and that all citizens were to go to their assigned, or temporary, local shelters. Then came the alarms as robots, police, civil defence people, and others moved to their posts while most civilians sought shelter.

 

The Gamesemilord, and his Gameforcers, were soon heading towards a 'temporary allocated shelter'. The doing, of this, did not stop KaTakatanaKa's mind from going through its investigative process. Soon the three were part of a stream of foot traffic going down underground to one of many heavily fortified, underground, subway linked shelters.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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EGG: HF

Eight 1

Zero 4.1[4]{16}

Scullie, Mulder, and some XFIA staff supporting them, checked out all of the identities that had appeared in the mysterious tome. They even ran back checks on themselves, they being in the tome. Copies were taken by 3Dvideo, and 3Dphoto, recording the tome. Computer scanning did not seem to work so well.

Five identities were known to the pair but were not fully of the agency; the Lone Gunmen, who were actually five females and four males, had a permanent subcontract to the XFIA. They had transformed, becoming rejuvenated youthful, fitter and slimmer, healthier with all others. They were a team of very clever, highly skilled, and canny hackers with other useful skills and experience.

Scullie, in a Tshirt and jeans, spoke out from where she was sitting at a table in the research library of the temporary base. "The Lone Gunmen could assist us but they are just as needy of a permanent base as we are. While more powerful organisations gobble up too many resources, the others are left struggling to get enough; nothing has really changed!"

The Gamehaven Unified Government had arisen into existence with much fanfare. A new President, and her family, lived in the newly reclaimed White Castle fortress structure along with those that served her in a public and private fashion. Parliament had been through its first sessions of the three houses. What was arising were the old power houses of big government, big corporations, big organised religion, big organised crime, and some other powerful institutions.

The identities had somehow spread through out the tome, each one gaining its own page with added information except much of that data led to more questions.

Mulder was examining some 3Dvideo being played on a 3Dflatscreen. "There are people here from FBI Fringe Division before the FBI became swallowed up by the USFSA (United States Federal Security Agency). Professor Walter Bishop has been cured of his illnesses but is still quite eccentric, according to some folks that I have spoken to."

The USFSA was also gone as was much else of the OldEarth.

Scullie was thoughtful. "We could use their help since they now operate as the Fringe Agency. They have gained funding from the mysterious Maharg Foundation." She did not openly speak of the fact that her husband, and herself, knew what the Maharg Foundation was. "Perhaps we will also obtain funding from them."

They would get such funding but the 'game' had to be played out.

Mulder nodded in response. "This one is Director Rand of the Future Technologies Progress Department of the new Ministry of Science. Rather pretentious but very clever; more of a systems player, a politician, than an academic. He has links to many influential factions and to some very shady ones."

So it went as the identities, shown in the tome, were steadily identified, checked into further, and placed into an ever changing pattern of relationships to each other, to factions, and even to events. The checking was in fact a third rechecking.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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Beware the 'radtubbies' of the Wastelands!

They might look, act, cute and adorable but do not be fooled!

They will cutizize you in seconds!

I can not remember who photoshopped this picture but it still amuses.

I will do some research into the matter.