Fallout Mars Doom

[Maharg67]

03-05(0068)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

The leader, of the local Followers, came to meet Granarg with some disturbing information about what was happening in Turtledove Camp.

 

She stood in a tough practical earthy orange and brown jumpsuit, being a ghouliman woman with rejuvenated smooth skin, and she spoke. “We spotted monsters in the swamps. None have come close enough to us for the defenses to become active though alarms have gone off. Our guests downstairs have stirred in response but not over much.”

 

Granarg spoke. “Elder Johan, RotideCitirca is here in Point Lookout and has brought with him-her-itself an army of biomechics, mutamutants and perhaps other threats. RotideCitirca has betrayed the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow and now serves the far less known Lords and Ladies of the Dominance.”

 

Elder Johan stroked her face, an old habit from when it had been a ravaged mess. “We, of the Followers of the Apocalypse, have heard hints of these Lords and Ladies of the Dominance but no more than that. We have not focused on such because, as you know, there are hints of many weird and wonderful things in the Wastelands and it would be pointless to try to chase all of them down to see if they were based on reality.”

 

“The Lords and Ladies of the Dominance are only too real.” Granarg responded with an expression of deep concern. “RotideCitirca is seeking ancient artifacts of power created and lost during the Light Shadow War.”

 

The ghouliman woman frowned hard. “That can not be for a good reason. I 'sense' a similarity between your companions and those hidden below.”

 

“All are zezans as transformed by the process called transzizens or, for short, zizens. Thus the results are known as transziz-superfolk or transzezans or even zezans.” Granarg shook. “These zezans also 'sensed' a sameness about them as compared to those hidden below. They, it seems, are also zezans. Now the way they were created makes sense. Clearly the Martian World Government Military Research and Development Service got hold of zezan transzizens capsules or data enough to try to construct versions of them. You have never been down there so I think it is time you went. That is if you wish to do so. It will not be pleasant!”

 

Elder Johan nodded gravely. “We will go after your group has had some food, some drink, some good quality water and a chance to rest. This will also give me, and others coming with us, time to prepare for this new expedition to come.”

 

Zezans were linked, as was UnityWay, through a basic secondary mentality, and so communications was made with the zezan force landed in the Drybone Swamps. Repairs were being made as quickly as possible on the zetan saucers but various problems had arisen such as the sheer amount of damage, shortages of resources and time constraints. Contacts with some locals had led to mutually beneficial trade including valuable information. This latter had led to the careful gathering of local resources from the Drybone Swamps. Clumps of biometal, bioplastic and other such substances were dug up. So were some atomic motorized warmachines buried in the mud or sunk in the muddy waters.

 

The strangest discovery was of ancient metallic stone caverns inside a big cave system in which were very ancient structures, artifacts in their own right, being a mixture of AncientOne and Ancient Martian creations. Those of the AncientOnes were far more ancient and far more powerful than those of the Ancient Martians. Locals tended to stay away from it and, for the moment, so did the zezans of the landed fleet.

[Maharg67]

03-06(0069)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

Granarg sipped some swamp coffee, made from very strong mutated coffee beans, and then some lightly flavoured water. The bitter strength of the coffee went well with the flavoured water. Then she spoke to the others around the big smart-concrete chamber who were eating and drinking or just resting. “Even though they are zezans, they may not be so simple to meet.”

 

JonniB1 spoke out. “We all have experience dealing with difficult distorts and basifolk. The distorts are most dangerous. We are prepared for trouble but if anybody can get through to these zezan cousins of ours, we can. I suspect the same of you, Granarg. Why did you invite Elder Johan to come along?”

 

“There is something odd about her, apart from that she is a rejuvenated ghouliman woman.” Essie spoke out from where she was eating some purified muttfruit salad. “As if there is something inside... apart from her that is still her.”

 

Granarg nodded. “Yes, you 'sense' the truth but I would not speak of this here and now. We would best speak with her present. Now soon we must head down into the depths of this terrible place. Be prepared because there are more than zezans down there. Other things are in secure status containment. Rest while you can.”

 

The group focused on resting apart from sentry duty and making some special preparations. Sister Jonah joined them, bringing with her two companions also of the Followers of the Apocalypse. These two were a psyker with some odd special abilities, being a ghouliman and a tough woman soldier with body-armour and an autorifle.

 

Then they were being led through a series of hallways, down a rampway tunnel and then along more hallways. They got deeper down through storage areas, utility basement levels, past rows of robots in rest-recharge bays, past the remains of long dead soldiers in bodybags and much else.

 

They had to go through a secret armoured door to get into the secret research and development area and even that only gave them access to both a large elevator and a big spiral rampway shaft. They went down the spiral rampway so as not to be trapped in the elevator and also not to warn anybody that they were coming.

 

Zezans came forward to meet other zezans, to meet Elder Johan who was known to them, and they were especially glad to meet Granarg. Yet they also gathered to JonniB1. There were distorts, distorted superfolk of different kinds and basifolk. Some of the distorts were full of aggressive rage but the combined influence of the newcomers even had them acting peaceful.

 

Granarg made a special decision then and Elder Johan supported it. A teleport-capsule appeared with a sparkling shimmer and thus began an exodus of the worst of the zezans to Sanctuarius, to the Greenhope Sanctuary and the growing zezan colony there. They would be rejuvenated by the journey to Sanctuarius, would arrive healthier and happier to be citizens of Sanctuarius.

 

Each time a teleport-capsule appeared it would bring zezan supersoldiers and specialists, extra equipment and supplies, androids and robots. Why? Because Granarg was realizing that they were facing far greater difficulties than she had previously assumed.

[Maharg67]

FALLOUT MARS DOOM

ON GOING NOTES: ODD FACTS

TO BE EDITED, ADDED TO.

 

FACE OF MARS

Vast face shaped (topped) flat bed mountain known as the 'Face of Mars' to be found north of the Domain of Centros. Is the face of an Ancient Martian and much like that of the face of an AncientOne in its standard shapeform. The Face of Mars is a place of exotic energies and entities. Because of this and other factors, was never explored by humans or by many other peoples who went before them.

 

MARS BARS

Famous chocolate bar that was very popular in PreDoomsday Mars as it was back on the Lost Earth. Still found in large quantities. Comes in many flavours including 'original'.

 

MARTIAN WORLD GOVERNMENT MILITARY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICE

A shadowy PreDoomsday research and development agency that officially served the Martian World Government as many other such agencies did. It was unofficially quite different than this having a secret agenda and perhaps even a secret real controller separate from the MWG. Was said to have secretive links with the Enclaven, the TekCorps and other organizations.

 

PAGI

Power Armour General Infantry

Despite the name these forces were, at the time of the NuSoviet Invasion, neither large in number or general in nature. They were categorized as 'basic elite' or the oxymoron of 'basic special forces'. Three PAGI Divisions existed on paper but only one was up to full strength. These were the 21st, 22nd and 23rd PAGI Divisions. All three divisions ended up fighting in different parts of the Marslands.

[Maharg67]

03-07(0070)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

Fifteen teleport-capsule trips were made and the remaining zezans of Camp Turtledove were sent upwards to the settlement where mainly zhouls dwelt peacefully. They took with them much of the equipment and supplies that had come from Sanctuarius but also stuff taken from where they had dwelt. Now with reinforcements from Sanctuarius, the expedition moved onwards deeper into the truth behind the facade that had been Turtledove.

 

The huge metallic chambers looked as much like torture chambers as they did research and development laboratory workshops. Dead NuSoviet prisoners were heaped in status-bodybags in large alcoves and the various strange machines often looked like torture devices; to the experimental victims they probably were.

 

The zezans remembered their own pain and many had dark responses to the place so that Granarg had to stop them from smashing up the place in fury. She needed to learn what had happened there, did not want the act of destruction to attract the wrong attention and she wanted the zezans fresh to take on any troubles.

 

Granarg, and a few others, examined machines, took recordings, took data from computers. Granarg hacked into the AI-supercomputer network-system. What she learned was sickening. It had been so bad that some of the scientists, and other specialists, had protested only to become experimental victims themselves. Nobody dared to protest after that but many went AWOL until the camp security was upgraded to stop this from happening.

 

A week before Doomsday political pressure against the experimental program was so high that the whole lot was officially closed down. In truth much of it was except for one section. That section was even deeper in the complex, deeper underground, was was the most secretive. The actual nature of what went on there was not mentioned in the databanks that Granarg accessed.

 

They found the chambers full of status-capsules, thousands of them neatly racked. A small minority were empty or had long dead, decayed bodies in them as the technologies had failed. Most had in them living creatures in suspended animation. About half were prisoners who had yet to be experimented on, many having been Martian citizens such as political prisoners but a few were just kidnap victims stolen for research purposes.

 

In their own sections were the monstrous ones, the shadomen, the shadorgs and the shadoborgs. Each was a form of hybridization with the 'shadowfolk' as created by the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow. shadomen were the basic ones, still deadly and most numerous of those in the capsules. Then the shadorgs were hulking monsters of varied kinds, humanoids but often with more than one pair of arms or with tentacles or both or some other combination or something else. Then came the shadaborgs like shaded black grey power armour soldiers in what looked like PreDoomsday standard infantry power armour of the Power Armour General Infantry or PAGIs. PAGI units fought some major battles against NuSoviet invaders but also other threats that arose on Doomsday.

 

They found the Lesser Shadow Sphere floating in mid air and surrounded by specialized hitech equipment. Strange black cable linked it with various human and human-alien hybrid technologies. Granarg noted human-zetan hybrid technologies amongst them, being powerful but dangerously unstable.

 

Granarg was far from impressed. As she explained, the linking tentacles would have had to be the work of powerful avatars or agents of the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow themselves. Had this been anything to do with RotideCitirca him-her-itself? She doubted it because the arrangements, the particular technologies used, did not go along with his 'MO'.

[Maharg67]

03-08(0071)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

“The lesser shadow creatures were created from human victims by the Lesser Shadow Sphere. Those doing this were the Enclaven along with something called the Martian World Government Military Research and Development Service, the MWGMRDS or just the MRDS. The MRDS was officially just another government owned, controlled and funded agency but it was in truth a rather shady organization involved in many dark secret projects; it also had links with many other shady organizations, including the Enclaven.”

 

Granarg shook her head as if responding to some hidden conversation. Then crouched and examined where the shadowy tentacles came out of the sphere. “So there is another very powerful player at work here and by that I do not mean RotideCitirca. Question was, what were they seeking? Something tells me that they were after far more than the creation of lesser shadow hybrid entities. They were seeking to understand the nature of the shadowfolk and the greater technologies of the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow; perhaps they were even seeking to understand the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow themselves.”

 

She shook her head again. “Before each prisoner became a victim of experiments they were given a long holiday session, compressed relative time wise, in a super virtual reality realm. It was as if the one that was running the experiments felt a deep level of guilt, had a very strong need to give compensation of some kind, to make.... 'itself' feel better about what was happening. Also the experiments were ended as quickly as was possible, the pain ended as quickly as possible, and experimental failures were terminated as quickly as failure was strongly indicated.”

 

Then she went on speaking. “Yet this section was not the ultra secret one that kept functioning even after the World Government closed down everything else here at Camp Turtledove. So what is down there?”

 

She stood up and looked around, her power armoured figure looking somehow both at home and yet out of place in that chamber. “I doubt that the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow knew about this place and these experiments going on. They prefer to only create lesser shadow entities under their direct control in their secret home domains. They do not like shadowfolk hybrids.”

 

A compassionate evil doer? A mad scientist with feelings of guilt? Just what was going on?

 

Granarg spoke again. “We will give this Lesser Shadow Sphere over to the Lords and Ladies of the Light and they will use it in their exchange program of power artifacts with the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow. Except firstly I have to find a way of safely disengaging it.”

 

She turned to JonniB1. “Please begin to release the prisoners from status and sending them up to the settlement.” She turned to Elder Johan. “The rhoul settlement will have to find a safer place to settle. Greenhope Sanctuary would welcome them.”

 

“I was hoping you would make the offer. Point Lookout is becoming increasingly dangerous and we Followers of the Apocalypse are finding it increasing hard to support it.” Elder Johan looked carefully at the sphere. “Such a device could never be used for good. Better that it be placed somewhere truly safe. Why should the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow have it?”

 

“The Lords and Ladies of the Shadow are deactivating and breaking down such artifacts safely. They no longer trust having such things in existence.” Granarg shrugged. “Or that is what we understand to be the case. It is no business of the Followers of the Apocalypse or the yayookas. Yes, you are of those willingly hosting a yayo, melding with it to become a yayooka. Yayooka are one of the LifeProclamation peoples though a fairly secretive one.”

 

Elder Johan nodded. “Very well but know that the League of High Mars has little appreciation for what you are doing. I will return to the settlement with my people.”

 

Then she turned and departed in a smooth, calm rush.

[Maharg67]

03-09(0072)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

As Granarg carefully went through the process of disengaging the Lesser Shadow Sphere from the human-alien hybrid technologies, the prisoners were taken out of status. Most were willingly cooperative and the others were soon confronted by zezan supersoldier power. As the prisoners went upwards to the settlement, they took valuable stuff with them. Not only stuff from storerooms, armories and such like but equipment and gear from chambers. They had all been in status since before Doomsday almost none were very pleased at what had happened or how long they had been in status.

 

The expeditionaries explored more areas except those too secure to be gained access to. Granarg advised the others to wait until she could assist.

 

When the last tentacle was disengaged, the tentacles withdrew suddenly back into the sphere, vanishing into it, and then the sphere was smooth again as if the protrusions had never existed. Granarg touched the sphere and it vanished with a sparkling shimmer but then it returned, five seconds later, with another sparkling shimmer.

 

JonniB1 spoke. “Something is interfering with you sending the sphere to the MultiTransCubeShip; is it RotideCitirca?”

 

Granarg sighed. “No, the interference appears to originate from here in the fortress. I have a bad feeling that what we are experiencing is a very powerful dark artifact far more potent than any Lesser Shadow Sphere could be. We have to keep those former prisoners moving up to the surface, with as many valuable resources as they can take with them.”

 

Eddie spoke then. “They found a whole lot of basic robots and androids who are now helping to move things though they are part of the loot. I have a growing feeling of danger and yet it is not focused on the hybrid shadowfolk in status-capsules. Should we let them out of status, give them a fighting chance?”

 

Reluctantly, after a moment, Granarg nodded. “I will start the process and will communicate with the first of the awakened ones. Jonni, gather your superfolk and prepare the area for defensive purposes but make some plans for fighting retreats in various directions. I also 'sense' a threat of great power. It will attack directly but also indirectly, using things that it had created in various dark ways.”

 

Granarg did what looked like sitting meditation. A few hybrid shadowfolk were freed and though not friendly to the supersoldiers, they were not overtly hostile either. Granarg was waiting for the three chosen to speak for their people, being a hybrid shadoborg, shadorg and a shadoman. These strange part shadowlings thought, felt and communicated quite differently from both 'pure' shadowlings or humans. Granarg communicated well enough with them, though, and soon had formed a wary alliance with the hybrids.

 

Granarg later explained. “The threat we 'sense' is not of the Shadow, not of the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow and thus to the shadow hybrids it is just as much a threat as it is to us.”

 

A hundred or so of the prisoners, ex-soldiers, were prepared to fight and gained access to a big storeroom full of old but well preserved military equipment and supplies. This included power armour, battlerifles, stimpaks, shortlong missile launchers, small combat exomechs and much else. Why the storeroom was there, along with the stuff in it, was because prisoners of war had been delivered quickly to Camp Turtledove along with their captured gear. This was an attempt to help conceal what was actually going on in the location. NuSoviets gathered along with Martian Federals.

 

They were prepared to fight in hastily readied defensive areas but when the attack came it surprised all, even Granarg.

[Maharg67]

FALLOUT MARS DOOM

ON GOING NOTES: MARS? THE NEW MARS? THE REAL MARS?

TO BE EDITED, ADDED TO.

 

PreDoomsday Mars was much smaller than the Lost Earth (Terra) and its two moons were much smaller than Luna, the single moon of Terra.

 

PostDoomsday Mars was about the same size of Terra and its two moons were both a little bigger and a little smaller than Luna.

 

So how did this happen?

 

Why did it happen?

 

Why don't more people seem to consider it important, focus on it more or even know of this incredible transformation?

 

Is the PostDoomsday Mars even the same world as the PreDoomsday Mars and what about the moons, Deimos and Phobos?

[Maharg67]

03-10(0073)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

They came fast shambling in some ways like the cap-zombies but from these things sprang tentacles of purple grey energies, ever crackling, ever flickering and moving. These undead things were trying to drain the life energies of victims but also to damage them, to knock them down, to make them defenseless.

 

They struck supersoldiers hurling them back though the zezan fighters lay down heavy barrages of pulsebeams and projectiles. Granarg joined in the battle herself, using a pulsating rod of glowing light to project blazing, burning light energies. Creatures exploded, burned away, were hurled backwards but more came to replace them, far too many more.

 

Some were bodies of former experimentation victims but many were oddly shaped as if they were not even human in origin. These looked like shadorgs in their general shapeform but not alive, undead, of unnaturally fast rotting and regenerating flesh. These creatures were somehow both soulless and yet had in them entrapped souls.

 

Something had turned these entities into the undead be they humans or shadowling hybrids. The flickering energies were not the undead but linked them into one great pattern and the hub of that network was the great undead entity itself, the major threat. Unlike Vance and his BloodFamily of living-vampires, biovires, this was not only a true vampire it was a VampireLord.

 

Granarg sparkle shimmered and now wore super power armour. She plunged through the vampire-zombies and the strange energy tentacles failed to touch her armour, flickered away from her. Then she was lost amongst the hordes of such antinatural creatures.

 

Minutes later she flew through the air and smashed off a hardened smart-concrete wall causing a large indent in it. Rolling to her feet, Granarg sounded surprisingly calm as she spoke. “It seems that we have a problem on our hands. Begin a general fighting withdrawal of all units. This VampireLord is too powerful for me at this moment but something tells me it has over stretched itself, that soon it will start to weaken. Unless it hopes to feed on the Lesser Shadow Sphere.”

 

Ellie was holding a powerful weapon as she spoke. “This is not RotideCitirca, is it?”

 

Granarg shook her head. “No! He-she-it is out there somewhere, just beyond the outer bounds of the fort, gathering an army of biomechics, mutamutants and anything else he-she-it can. No, if anything RotideCitirca would most likely fight this VampireLord unless something is very wrong indeed. That is if the Lords and Ladies of the Dominance have formed some form of very unwise and dangerous alliance with the Lords and Ladies of the Twilight. The Lords and Ladies of the Twilight is a name of undead entities of great power and alien nature or antinature. I fear that the VampireLord may be one of those Lords and Ladies of the Twilight for the Ladies of the Twilight are also called VampieLords.”

 

The muffled sounds of fighting echoed through the chambers and hallways of the complex. The odd alliance of military forces fought hard as they withdrew. Granarg withdrew with them, hurling powerful energies as she did so and destroying many of the vampire-zombies. The others blasted away wave after wave of the antinatural creatures but more waves followed.

 

Then, abruptly, the attack halted. No more undead creatures came and the others had burned away leaving only small amounts of strange greasy ash that soon vaporized.

[Maharg67]

03-11(0074)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

The very hidden section of the underground research and development complex was empty of the living or the undead. Chambers of status-capsules that had been full of prisoners and transformed prisoners were empty, their former contents turned into the undead, except some that had skeletal remains in them. Yet those undead were destroyed. Something had fed on them, burning them away, and then had departed with what ever it had come for.

 

Or had it?

 

After going through bizarre laboratory-workshop after laboratory-workshop, through empty barracks, past storerooms full of a crazy mix of valuable resources, they came to the big central chamber.

 

It was a huge domechamber and the dome shaped walls and ceiling were one great curved fluroflat filling the space with light from all directions. Yet the light was neither very bright or harsh.

 

In a floating sphere of golden yellow light floated a figure of a naked woman somehow modest and demure despite her lack of coverings. She glowed softly and it was clear she was not human though close to being so in at least some ways.

 

Granarg stood facing her, bowed briefly and then spoke. “Did you drive away the VampireLord?”

 

The figure spoke though the mouth did not move and the sound seemed to come from all directions at once. “You know we do not directly intervene in that way. I will say that we gave it what it thought it wanted but made sure it did not actually get what it needed to fulfill its madness of intention.”

 

JonniB1 peered at the mighty figure in wonder. “Are you one of the Lords and Ladies of the Light?”

 

The figure smiled warmly, gently. “No for in reality there are no such thing as the Lords and Ladies of the Light. The Ascension of the AncientOnes failed. The Lords and Ladies of the Shadow, Lords and Ladies of the Light, Lords and Ladies of the Twilight, the Lords and Ladies of the Dominance and the others, are all the very same entities. It is considered that there are thirteen of each kind of the Lords and Ladies. In truth there are only thirteen Lords and Ladies but each one has different aspects being of the Light, the Shadow, the Dominance, the Twilight and more.”

 

Granarg grimaced. “So what we feared is true. Yet we knew the truth. What are we, we of the Graharg Thirteen?”

 

The figure spoke again. “As you have 'sensed', as you have feared to admit fully to yourself, yourselves, you are indeed the triplet sibling of RothuaRetirwa and RotideCitirca. You are RalochsTsitra. The three of you were once the most powerful and intelligent of the AncientOnes, were a kind of consultancy leadership. You turned against the other AncientOnes when you realized that the Ascension would fail. Thirteen AncientOnes became leaders of the AncientOnes. They turned against you. They are all of the Lords and Ladies. The other AncientOnes vanished. It is up to you to find them, to find out what happened to them.”

 

Granarg looked troubled. “Was it we who did the terrible experiments in this place, who caused so much suffering?”

 

The figure nodded her head but then shook it. “Yes you did so but you were under the subtle but lethal influence of another entity, an entity that helped the Ascension, of the AncientOnes, fail. You must find the true identity of that one and then what to do, how to do it. I must go now! I can do no more here and now. Be careful, be aware and be compassionate.”

 

Then the sphere, and the figure in it, was gone.

 

Where it had been was a strangely alien flying-saucer. Though it was not threatening, or unnatural, it was hard to focus on, hard to define totally, as if somehow it did not belong there and then. On its side, in the language of Esperanto, were the words UNITED NATIONS TRANSDIMENSIONAL AGENCY. TRANSD EXPLORER ALPHAOMEGA.

 

The realization came that though the saucer looked about nine metres across that by the size of portholes, hatches and other features, it should have been over nine hundred metres wide.

[Maharg67]

03-12(0075)

FALLOUT MARS DOOM: POINT LOOKOUT POSSIBILITIES

GRAHARG THIRTEEN

JONNI THIRTEEN

JOHNSTONE THIRTEEN

 

“This is not Mars that we are on-in.” Granarg walked around the strangely distorted appearing flying-saucer. Subtle but powerful fields of energy surrounded it, shimmering very softly so that they were almost invisible. “This is a new world altogether. The original Mars was totally destroyed on Mars Doomsday, which was linked with Earth Doomsday. The Known Marslands only cover a large minority of Mars, perhaps two thirds. Many assume that this is not the case, that the Known Marslands cover most of Mars. That is those on the surface or in the subsurface areas. The Skylanders know better as do some others, a relative minority.”

 

She stopped and turned to where JonniB1, the Johnstone Triplets and some others were gathered, including Elder Johan.

 

“The new Mars was created transdimensionally from a number of Alternate Mars in a way that was most incredible and yet has left dangerous instabilities of the timespace contradictory continuum.” Granarg spoke. “This vessel was launched from one of those Alternate Mars, one doomed by a great natural disaster that destroyed its whole solar system.”

 

Eddie spoke. “So it is not the space-time continuum?”

 

“That is one way to put it but a more relevant way is as timespace contradictory continuum.” Granarg paused before talking some more. “That ship, right there, should not exist at all, let alone here and now. Somehow it picked up something on its transdimensional journey, as it traveled impossibly through various transdimensional phases and dimensional zones, through the ever flowing transforming bubblespace. Bubblespace is what 'space' really is. Space is not a vast expanse of... almost vacuum.”

 

Eddie spoke again. “Are you really this one called RalochsTsitra?”

 

“We will need to consider such matters more importantly before any of us can answer such a question.” Granarg took out a globe from a pouch that looked like a flowing silver, gold, copper glowing shapeform and then threw it lightly towards the strange saucer. The small sphere halted in mid air, spun crazily for a moment and then exploded, disintegrating with a flash. Seconds later it reappeared in Granarg's hand. Granarg examined it for a moment and then put it back into her pouch. “The only data obtained by that method was that no valuable data can be obtained by that method.

 

She looked frustrated and worried for a moment, an unusual thing for any of the Graharg Thirteen, then she regained her normal calm appearance. Granarg then spoke again. “Hopefully now we can get that Lesser Shadow Sphere to where it is needed.”

 

But then she frowned. “A ShadowLady just materialized and took it. Still, it would have ended up with the Lords and Ladies of the Shadow anyway and better there, I hope, than with RotideCitirca. She had taken all of the hybrid shadowfolk with her, they going willingly with her. One problem seems to be solved. I want the lot of you to go to the Drybone Swamps, taking all with you including those of the settlement. I will remain here to try to discover more about this device.”

 

Graharg himself appeared with a sparkling shimmer and with him was a male of the Graharg Thirteen being Grakarg who appeared very much like Graharg himself except that he wore super power armour. Graharg wore only a jumpsuit of dull, dark gold with many pouches and slipboots. He spoke. “I will assist you here, Granarg while Grakarg goes to the Drybone Swamps with the expeditionaries and migrants. This is in case RotideCitirca chooses to attack the group.”

 

So it was decided.