Fallout Mars Doom

[Maharg67]

NOTES

 

FALLOUT MARS DOOM

PROLOGUE NOTE

 

Doomsday took place on the day that the Mars World Bubble was activated, the great world wrapping multiple purpose energy field that would allow Mars to be turned into a new paradise with a multitude of wonderful environments and other benefits.

 

The results were that about 10% of Inhabited Mars became the Havenlands, 20% became the Foglands, 30% became the Mistlands and the other 40% became the Wastelands. This does not include smaller odd zones or the great Outer Marslands that were never previously inhabited or even fully explored or charted.

 

Many escaped to the artificial quasinatural utopia of the Underworld but contact has been lost with them.

 

Inside the dysfunctional, entrapping World Bubble were the lower orbital space-wheels, orbital-cylinders, smaller spacestations and autorobotic platforms, plus satellites, that made up the Skylands.

 

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/ForumAddit0001-1.jpg

Edited December 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

HERE STARTS PART ONE: SEARCH FOR THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

 

01-01(0001)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: SEEKING THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

JONNI THIRTEEN

 

Jonni floated in the observation bubble chamber in her lightly armoured power space suit, or PSST. From where she floated she could see a large area of poor blasted Mars, a paradise gone wrong. Behind her there was a false inner wall covering up some paused heavy reconstruction work. Outside, in space, a security roboremote drone shot past on patrol duty.

 

The Unified Orbital Republic, or UOR, had recently recovered the small double-wheel spacestation and was slowly moving it, while upgrading it, deeper into UOR Territories. Matters were tense as the UOR's major enemy, the DomniCommonwealth, had been sending attack parties of cyborgs, androids and robots to attack UOR sites. Most of the attacks had failed badly but the small spacestation was isolated from UOR Territories, was vulnerable.

 

Jonni was a supersoldier rescued from a zetan saucerboat where she had been found in a transformation capsule. Having had her zetan programming conditioning removed, she now served the Unityfolk loyally though she was at best UnityNeo, that is on the outer edge of UnityWay and far from the central UnityPrime.

 

So why was she there, observing the world below, the bleakness of an area of the Wastelands that had once been the amazing hitech triple domed city of Marstropolis? Because instructions had come to him that her secret mission would soon be launched from the station. For the secret mission was the real reason that the small spacestation was being reclaimed, it being a viable cover story for what was really going on.

 

There was the sound of chiming and a voice spoke into her helmet of a supercomputer network-system. “Please make your way to the final mission preparation stage. Vollari wishes to speak with you.”

 

She did not like Vollari. He was one of those of UnityPrime who were heavily suspicious of anybody who was not UnityPrime even if they were of UnityWay. Unfortunately he was a powerful security officer; fortunately he had no direct jurisdiction over the mission or its personal.

 

She responded. “Inform Vollari that no such meeting will take place. Remind Vollari that if he wishes to speak to anybody about concerns about the mission it needs to be Jadekin, Ramstoe or Branston.”

 

Which was when two figures in PSSTs floated into the chamber, both holding pulseblaster pistols in a way highly illegal in such a place. One was Vollari and the other was, his female side-kick, UnoWen. The two came through an old fashioned type hatch of the old fashioned, long abandoned orbital double-wheel. They passed a deactivated old type 2Dflatscreen using computer terminal, that had some of its parts removed, as they headed towards him. They had odd expressions on their faces.

 

Vollari spoke. “You must be terminated for the safety of True Unity, of Pure Unity. Your death will be quick and painless. Please do not try to resist.”

 

Jonni turned to face the newcomers but did not bother to say anything. There was no point. Vollari and UnoWen, a capsulevat clone, were under the influence of the unknown, powerful entity that was the very reason that the urgent, secret mission was being carried out. The influence was never complete, never total, was more difficult with UnityPrime but it was proving to be a threat to UnityWay. The outside force could influence some of UnityWay some of the time but not all of UnityWay all of the time. Somehow the nature of the intruder was related to the basic nature of UnityWay itself.

 

She smiled. “Now is as good a time as any.” She spoke the code words.

 

The false wall came down and four supersoldiers in space power armour blazed away with multiple pulseguns, MPGs, hitting the two other figures with heavy stun pulses of energy.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-02(0002)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: SEEKING THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

JONNI THIRTEEN

 

Jonni was glad to see the two fools were not hurt but were in special confinement for the moment. She joined other supersoldiers in the mission preparation bay where the two stealth-dropships were being prepared. Hope was that if one failed to reach its destination, the other would. The Wastelands were very dangerous, partly because of the Skynet Autorobotic Defense Network of Network-Systems, the SADNNS, known simply as Skynet.

 

On Doomsday Skynet became fully activated and then went highly dysfunctional, high dangerous to those it was supposed to protect. The only good factors were that a small part of Skynet was not hostile and that large parts of the hostile Skynet had been destroyed by counter attacks on Doomsday. Trouble was that above Marstropolis was a section of actively hostile and largely intact Skynet.

 

A series of decoy attacks would be launched against Skynet that would also, hopefully, do more strong damage to the every dangerous SADNNS, or SADNaNS. The two stealth-dropships would be launched after the decoy attacks began.

 

The chamber was a big old fashioned space dock area with a few modifications and additions. Newer 3Dscreen terminals had replaced the older types. Color coded power and fibre-optic cables were stretched out over one wall where they were carefully melded to keep them secure. The work had been done in a hurry and the old spacestation was not in many ways easily adaptable to new technologies. Yet it was still worth being salvaged because of the resources that it was, that it held.

 

Marshal Jadekin skimmed over the basics. If people did not know, by now, what had to be done, it was too late to go into it. All preparations were complete. All equipment and supplies were either in the dropships or with the expeditionaries.

 

Around them the secret changes to the small spacestation were coming into the open. Force shield projectors, missile launchers, anti-missile pulselasers, pulselaser and pulseblaster turrets, special autocannons and roboremote decoy, deflector and attack drone launchers were fully activated. The spacestation would also launch a series of special attack shuttles, or SASLs, manned by specialized super-pilots and special long range roboremote attack and decoy drones.

 

Jadekin then turned to Jonni. “The enemy knows you are of special psychic-psionic nature, which was why it sent Vollari and UnoWen to attack you. Except that, as you know, UnoWen was able to resist enough to alert us through deliberate psychic leakage. UnoWen is already recovering and from now on will be fully resistant to further attempts at being mind controlled. Vollari, on the other hand, has slipped away from UnityPrime and is now UnityNeo at best. He will have to be kept in fully supervised conditions for at least a few years until his ultimate fate is decided.”

 

Nobody needed to state that this 'ultimate fate' might be termination. Vollari simply knew too much about Unified Orbital Republican secrets to be allowed to live as a dangerous possible security threat. Yet he had to be given a chance, according to UnityCoda, to become 'safer and more secure' for the UnityWay that had limited resources to deal with such problems.

 

Expeditionaries moved into the stealth-dropships even as the first long range attack was launched against the hostile Skynet battle-platforms, quad-wheels and other orbital sites. SASLs and special attack drones darted through space, silent but deadly.

 

Jonni the special sealed orders in her hidden pouch pressed against her belly. None of the normal officers knew she was a special agent. None of the other expeditionaries did, in fact, other than her own platoon of supersoldiers. Jonni did not like such secrecy and doubted very much that she would like the orders that she had been given to carry out.

 

The two stealth-dropships began their launch sequence.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-03(0003)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: SEEKING THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

JONNI THIRTEEN

 

Jonni's stealth-dropship got through, avoiding Skynet fired interceptor-droneships that spat interceptor-drones, missiles and both orbital hunter-seekers and orbital hunter-killers. The other stealth-dropship was forced to turn back, heavy damage done to one of its antigravs and part of its hull. It was lucky to escape back to the spacestation but it did so with only two injuries and no deaths.

 

The stealth-dropship vibrated and zigzagged even as it began approaching the atmosphere. The force-fields were adjusted to entry mode and then they were glowing briefly. Moments later the stealth-dropship was shooting through the Martian sky, slowing from its high velocity both steadily and slowly. Skynet did not follow it into the atmosphere for it was not programmed to do so. Its attacks ceased for it had no long range weapons in place to reach the stealth-dropship with such as pulselaser platforms.

 

The stealth-dropship began to be buffeted with Martians winds but it was a well designed PreDoomsday machine. The pilots were in cyberlinkage with the supercomputer network-systems. The machine dropped further and further.

 

Marstropolis, designed to be a utopian paradise supercity of hitech wonders, was stretching out below them. At least the Greater Marstropolis was that lay outside the three big domes. It was a crazy patchwork of areas that had suffered various degrees of destruction all the way from craters and rubble to smart-materials built structures that were surprisingly intact.

 

They came down in the long twilightish dawn that covered the world for six days thanks to the influence of the dysfunctional World Bubble. They sped along through the air with the cloaking field fully active, making the machine hard to detect by even very sophisticated radar, sensor and scanner network-systems.

 

They overshot a battle raging between Orderhood of Steel military forces and mutagenic mutants, or mutagenmutants. The mutagenmutants were a mixture of hulking supermutants, smaller but more agile metamutants, bizarre zenmutants and a few exotic minorities. Tracer fire laced through the sky. Explosions blew mainly brown smoke into the air. Pulselasers and pulseblaster pulsebeams flickered. Supermutants screamed stupidly savage war cries. Heavy machineguns and autocannons blazed away. Brothers of Steel in hulking power armour of differing kinds, and Sisters of Steel in faster light assault power armour, were supported by robodroids like robotic power armour and also MrGutsys with different weapon packages fixed to their hard-points.

 

The stealth-dropship was in no real position to assist the Orderhood even if orders had not strictly forbidden it to do so. It flashed over the battle scene and was soon coming into land at the designated landing coordinates.

 

The stealth-dropship came down horizontally onto a metallic platform, an old vertibird landing-pad, that was part of a fortified civil defense complex now surrounded and screened by walls of broken buildings and rubble. The dropship was amazingly quiet and it showed no lights, was pitch black now thanks to its changeable smart-skin.

 

The supersoldiers dropped out of the machine first, spreading out except for three who went ahead into the hanger where the stealth-dropship was meant to be hidden. They moved with deadly speed and efficiency, quiet and agile.

 

The hanger chamber was soon proven to be long abandoned, partly damaged despite self-repair smart-materials and microbotic network-systems. The complex was of standard civil defense contracted design, mostly likely constructed by one of the PreDoomsday TekCorporations under the umbrella of WorldTek.

 

A partly damaged, faded 3Dposter showed President James Patriot Jackson calling for the people to give their full support to the Mars Progressive Transformation Program, the MPTP. 3Dphotos showed the President himself standing before a great solid-projected model-map of Marstropolis with its TripleDome and all around it a fertile, flourishing green paradise dotted with hitech wonders. The 3Dposter seemed like a sick joke now.

 

As quickly as possible the stealth-dropship was parked. The garage was carefully sealed up after some fast repair work was done so that the doors would close properly.

 

Edited December 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

FALLOUT MARS DOOM

ON GOING NOTES: ANDROIDS

 

Standard androids are basic common duplicants, standard sophisticated replicants and very sophisticated simulicants.

 

There are even more basic mannecants, basically little more than automated mannequins.

 

There are specialized androids of various subclasses but these are surprisingly uncommon because standard android classes are very versatile. Not all of these subclasses were legal, some being either semilegal or illegal. Assassination, combat, gladiator are examples of illegal android types. Semilegal androids are such as bodyguards, prostitutes and adult entertainment specials of some kinds.

 

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/westworld-slice-1274063888-1.jpg

Edited December 21, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-04(0004)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: SEEKING THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

JONNI THIRTEEN

 

Jonni found a good reason to be by herself for a moment and she carefully unsealed the instructions, absorbed them and destroyed the special note paper by eating it. It was designed to be eaten and destroyed by tough, versatile supersoldier digestive systems.

 

As she had suspected, had 'sensed', the stated mission was a fraud. The dark influence disturbing UnityWay of the Unified Orbital Republic was not coming from the Wastelands, from the Martian Overworld of atmosphere, surface and subsurface. No, it was happening inside UnityWay itself. The real main mission was to gain as much valuable information as possible to assist UnityWay to survive, to live, to thrive.

 

The real secondary missions were more specific and more troubling.

 

She secretly gave instructions to the others and made her way into a large chamber where the others were gathered. Marshal Jadekin was there along with two other expeditionary officers, a scientist and a PsychCorps psychic officer. Jonni had never trusted the PsychCorps and was far from the only one with this opinion, such feelings.

 

The PsychCorps were part of a AntiUnity Conspiracy disguised as a bid for freedom to many who it had fooled into believing what they were doing was for the good of humanity. Others who were recruited did not care, gave into various desires for wealth, power, influence, the freedom to indulge in various dark addictions. There were also the flight crew of two pilots, an assistant pilot, two gunners, a navigator and two techies.

 

Jonni nodded to the other supersoldiers. They raised their weapons and prepared to kill everybody there before them.

 

The platoon weapon of choice was a 3B1carbine being a pulseblaster, a recoilless assault carbine and a grenadeshell triple-launcher. The carbine fired 10mm caseless slimshot bullets of different kinds from a triple-magazine. The triple-launcher fired 30mm caseless grenadeshells of different kinds, often being loaded with more than one kind of grenadeshell. The triple-launchers could also fire special shotgun shell like shotshells and special flare-shells. A triple-launcher be separated from the carbine to be used as a separate weapon once a special attachment was used.

 

Then, for the first time in her existence as a supersoldier, she paused before carrying out her orders. Something was wrong, did not feel right. She was becoming concerned, even agitated, which she was not used to being. Then she felt the strange buzzing, heard it with her enhanced hearing, and felt a strange weakness going through her body.

 

Even as she collapsed to the smart-concrete floor, the other supersoldiers were doing the same thing. She managed to soften her fall using her special reflexes, though she was clumsy and slow compared to her normal self.

 

She lay there as people came into the chamber that were not supposed to be there. There were humans, genetically engineered animal-humans, androids and smart-robots. A brainbot moved on its tracks, its electric motors humming.

 

A tall, angular man stood in a long trench-coat straight out of history. He was very cool, cold almost, and he had a hawk curved nose. He looked around and studied the dropped supersoldiers with a look of intense interest.

 

The other supersoldiers were safely semiconscious and, like her, were pretending not to be aware of what was going on around them. They even went into a mode that helped to trick psychic abilities of others.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-05(0005)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: SEEKING THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

 

The tall, angular man came over and crouched next to Jonni. He smiled warmly, sadly, at her and spoke in UnityTrans. “Jonni, it is time to free you from that which has enslaved you for so long and which, through you and others like you, has held control over Unityfolk of the Unified Orbital Republic. You were not the only form of control. Sorry about the pain to come but it will be worth it.”

 

He reached out and placed a small disk against her forehead and there was a moment of sheer agony then she was sinking into a dark troubling dream. She dreamed she was fighting in semidarkness, in a nightmarish landscape, was doing battle with slithering tentacles. At first she struggled with out hope but then, slowly, she began to win and joined forces with other superfolk around herself who were also fighting hard. Not just supersoldiers but superfolk of other kinds from super-servitors to super-cyborgs and even super-specials.

 

She awoke to a throbbing headache but also to a free mind and a sense of unity with others of her kind. Jonni was in a hospital bed, one of a dozen in a ward. The hospital was white painted and it was dotted with a mixture of medical machines and other devices. Medical androids moved around the place. A replicant nurse gave her a hyposhot with a hitech device and the headache began to clear away with surprising rapidity.

 

The tall angular man came and sat on a chair next to her bed. “Jonni, you feel strange being free of the mind controller implanted in your mind.” He held up a transparent hard smart-plastic case and inside a small bioplastic quasiliving entity was moving around slowly in a blue green heavy liquid. It was lazily grabbing up bits of gunky substance and 'happily' devouring them.

 

Jonni spoke. “Good, as I 'sensed', Jiggles is both alive and contented. Neither of us face the constant secret struggle against the controlling presence. Yes, we superfolk were fighting the controlling presence all of the time and the brainbugs joined in the struggle with us. Some of us have become freed. They are already down here in this area but you already know that, Graharg.”

 

Graharg sighed. “Good, then you are cleared and clarified. The unityfolk have settled in their outpost here. They want to track the source of the controlling presence but they are wary of you superfolk because of how you were used to suppress them. I have pointed out that unityfolk were used to suppress superfolk as well and that superfolk, like unityfolk, have been waging secret psychic rebellion against the enemy. Despite this they have begun to expel all superfolk from the Unified Orbital Republic.”

 

Jonni snorted but she felt elation at what she was realizing was happening; that is the drive to real freedom for her people. “So the controlling presence is defeated.”

 

Graharg shook his head. “Not fully but it no longer controls the UOR, had been losing control for years now. Now it controls only a dozen or so AntiUnity Factions and other forces that are being rapidly and efficiently attacked, isolated and dealt with. UnityPrime is behind the expulsion of the superfolk but there is growing resistance to the move from the larger, general non UnityPrime population of UnityCommons and UnityNeo.”

 

Graharg was UnityWay but not of any of the standard factions of UnityPrime, UnityCommons or UnityNeo. He, and others like him, had made secret psychic contact with elements both of the superfolk and unityfolk. UnityPrime, despite its posturing, had been the major focus of the controlling presence, and had no real justification in hitting out at the superfolk.

 

Suddenly Graharg arched his eyebrows briefly, as if in reaction to some other communications, and then he gave a mild grin. “The expulsion of the superfolk from the UOR has not only ceased, it is being reversed. Even elements of UnityPrime are supporting this change. It seems that certain factions of UnityPrime were cooperating with the controlling presence while not being under its control. These are now being rounded up.”

 

It was good news but Jonni was not fooled; the controlling presence represented a very powerful and dangerous enemy that they had to track down and deal with.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-06(0006)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: SEEKING THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

 

Jonni, and her platoon, were soon doing some recovery routines from the trauma of the freeing process. The brainbugs were soon perched on the upper backs of supersoldiers inside their new stealth power armour as supplied by Graharg, by what he called the Graharg Thirteen. The brainbugs offered no harm, gained no harm, but were part of a cooperative biological partnership that benefited both 'partners'.

 

The supersoldiers did some practice and meditation while undertaking a series of light rejuvenation regeneration treatments. Very soon they were at peak condition again.

 

Briefings sessions and meetings were undertaken in three secondary chambers. The brainbugs were analyzed but when a scientist suggested one be killed and dissected, he was almost killed by a supersoldier. Only Graharg's intervention, amazingly fast and powerful, saved the life of the UnityNeo biologist. A new code of behavior was quickly given out to all members of the investigation team from the Martian Skylands.

 

Jonni led the supersoldier platoon out into the complex, going into previously lightly explored areas at first and then into unexplored areas. They found salvageable items worth picking up, including a pair of deactivated protectron robots, an electric carriercart, a supply of stimpaks, canned food and even some PreDoomsday bioplastic 3Dbooks. There were some rhouls, feral ghouls of defensive aggressive type only unlike the berserker savage zhouls. Jonni injected each one with a stimpak and gave each some vitamineral capsule-pills to swallow.

 

The Unified Orbital Republican Outpost grew stronger as UnityWay used its one of its secretive special abilities to teleport small amounts of valuable resources down from orbit. For each teleport delivery they gained, they sent an delivery of equal mass; this made the teleportations more efficient somehow and allowed a fair exchange of resources. The teleported goods, sent into low orbit, went to the transformed double-wheel spacestation that was now called the UORSS EVA JONNI. Jonni was impressed until she learned that she was not the 'Jonni' that the station was named after. Superfolk did not get spacestations named after them in the UOR.

 

It became clear to Jonni, and to many other superfolk, that the UnityWay was still very wary of them, was still not going to try to incorporate superfolk fully into the mainstream of the republic. This was the start of the real split between the two peoples, despite the ending of the expulsion of the superfolk from the Unified Orbital Republic. The momentum was increased when it was realized by the superfolk that far too many unityfolk saw the superfolk as expendable, as a way of saving unityfolk lives by getting the superfolk to carry out the more dangerous duties.

 

Jonni led the platoon out into the open and they moved quickly in the twilightish light, darting along using as much cover as possible and relying on their stealth power armour with out activating the cloaking fields. The rhouls had given them a lot of surprisingly useful information about local conditions; rhouls were far smarter than many other kinds of Wastelanders assumed they were, were generally far more so than their berserker insane zhoul cousins or the very passive yhouls.

 

Radroaches scuttled big, but fast and agile, through the semiwilderness. A pack of giant molerats went into hiding. The territorial cry of a deathclaw adult male, most likely on sentry duty, echoed through the area from some distant point. No Wastelander humans seemed to dwell in the area be they such as ghoulified humans, ghoulimans, or patchskins or even clearskins that looked like PreDoomsday humans but were not.

 

Other supersoldiers emerged out of the wrecked cityscape, having come down from orbit some months ago along with other superfolk. They had escaped the controlling presence and some had brainbugs with them. There were super-animals of enhanced dogs, sleek and deadly. The other platoon had learned a good deal about the local Wastelands, being more than just survival related knowledge.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

FALLOUT MARS DOOM

ON GOING NOTES: UNIFIED ORBITAL REPUBLIC

 

The Unified Orbital Republic is unityfolk UnityWay based. The unityfolk emerged in the Skylands population after Doomsday to gain control of five large orbital-cylinders, seventeen big quad-wheel spacestations and many smaller spacestations, spaceplatforms and other important orbital resources. The UOR was at first dominated secretly by the controlling presence.

 

A generally small but important set of minorities amongst the UOR population were the superfolk, the genetically engineered chimpanzees, cyborgs and more sophisticated types of androids.

 

The defeat of the controlling presence did not mean the ending of all threats to the UOR. There were other Skylands Factions that were a danger being the DomniCommonwealth, the SkyPirates and the OmniNexus. There were also the friendlier Skylands Peoples Republic and the League of High Mars along with the SkyGypsies.

 

Skylands survival would not have been viable in the long term with out the appearance, after Doomsday, of the exotica resources in low orbit. These proliferated and became both a savior of the Skylands and a source of both tensions and outright conflict.

 

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/SpaceStation.jpghttp://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/SpaceStationV.jpg

Edited December 21, 2011 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-07(0007)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: SEEKING THE CONTROLLING PRESENCE

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

 

“The controlling presence was not after longer term domination of the Unified Orbital Republic.” Graharg stood in the briefing theatre where a holographic projector was showing a scene of a big spinning orbital cylinder guarded and serve-supported by various spacestations and spaceplatforms. “The controlling presence was after something from the Skylands and it appears that it gained what it wanted. That is valuable data in the form of highly classified PreDoomsday secrets. Not only did the controlling presence steal a lot of data, it deleted much of that data, making it quite difficult to discover just what was taken. Difficult but not impossible.”

 

He then changed the image so that it showed a map of the Wastelands. “It was a dedicated team of unityfolk psychics, of the PsychCorps, that tracked the source of the controlling influence to this part of the Wastelands. That is the Domain of Centros where Marstropolis is situated. We calculate that the actual source is only about a hundred kilometres from here, at most.”

 

Graharg paused before speaking again. “My fear is that this has been too easy, that this is a trap. I state this especially because the controlling presence has been, in most ways, a most cunning enemy so why be different in this way? We must be extremely cautious in our approach to the stated coordinates. Now, who is going, apart from me?”

 

A unityfolk officer spoke out from where he sat in an old office chair. “We were assuming that a platoon of supersoldiers would go in to scout the area first. You do not need to endanger yourself, Graharg?”

 

Graharg frowned. “So, you would have the supersoldiers endangered with out my very important assistance. I am needed to deal with the 'controlling presence'. Marshal Jadekin, you may see me as too important to put at risk but I see myself as to important not to put at risk. I expect you will be sending at least three unityfolk specialists with us.”

 

Marshal Jadekin went to say something, seemed to think better of it, and then nodded. “The PsychCorps psychic officer, a field scientist and a UnityNetwork specialist will go with you.”

 

Graharg smiled. “Along with a platoon of soldiers, a medic, a techie and five of those wonderful hoverbot robots. Do you really think that I did not know about the extra people and equipment that your faction has been smuggling down here using teleportation.”

 

The Marshal frowned but then nodded. “Of course but let it be noted that we are aware that there are many more superfolk in the area than officially there should be. Perhaps a fair exchange of knowledge is called for.”

 

Graharg nodded and spoke. “There are approximately 32,000 superfolk and 12,000 unityfolk now in this area, having come from low orbit, from beneath the World Bubble. Wastelander unityfolk had joined the unityfolk, being some 10,000 plus more and over 20,000 rhouls, patchskins and ghoulimans have joined the superfolk. Superfolk, with the help of others, have also began to capture and process zhouls, healing and converting them into rhouls. The work is dangerous and difficult, is helping only a very tiny population of the over 1,000,000,000 zhouls roaming this world. I suggest unityfolk start to help them and benefit from that work in many ways.”

 

The problems, the dangers, of Doomsday Mars were overwhelming. Yet much of Mars was now either uninhabited wilderness or uninhabited semiwilderness. The very air of the Wastelands seemed to smell, at times, of desolation, of desperation.

 

They got down to planning the mission, to working out the basics of the operation. They began by going over what they knew about the challenges of the mission and the resources that they had available to them.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Maharg67