Gameworld Captivated Epic

Maharg67 · February 10, 2018

:laugh: :cool: :dry: 1.17[20] :dry: :cool: :laugh:

HighOverseer Alphonse Almodovar created the SIO despite some surprisingly heavy resistance from the Security Office, led by the Security Mack himself. Allen Mach was a hard, survivalist, type who was disliked by many in the demivault because of his overbearing nature and harsh, unfounded, judgement of many vault dwellers. Yet he had the support of the elitist Five First Families (FFFs) who a majority of vaultfolk had no trust or respect for; they were often pronounced as the TripleFs and the 'Fs' were given unsavoury, unofficial, interpretations.

Alphonse sat behind his large, strange shaped, metallic Overseer's desk with its built in consoles, screens and other devices. He liked the coffee maker, pristine water dispenser and some other features; he was not so enamoured of others such as the harshness of the metallic appearance or the built-in toilet of the special Overseer's chair. Had the VaultTech Executive really expected Overseers to use such toilets while dealing with other people or had it been some kind of sick joke like others in the vaults.

Alphonse spoke to Amata, Jasmine and Alisa who sat on swivel-chairs before his desk. "The inbuilt toilets, in the Overseers' chairs are bad enough but soon after the big wheeldoors closed-locked, when the majority were still in statuscapsules, the skeleton crew found dispensers of edible condoms in some of the bathrooms. I suppose that was a dark joke aimed at the population balance, and food security, problems likely to arise with any longer term vault habitation. Then there were the VaultDoom101 3Dcomics, 3Dmovies, books, 3Dcomics and other supposedly entertaining materials about TechVault101 always running into amazingly horrific, overdone melodramatic, final cataclysms; that is such as mutilation, disfiguring diseases, pack rape, mass murder, extremely violent accidents, rampant serial killers along with a whole lot others."

The HighOverseer pointed to the three glossy 3Dcomics, each a separate edition. "The First Overseer had all of the VaultDoom101 materials, that could be found, gathered up and mostly total-recycled into base manufacturing materials. A small minority was placed into highly classified storage."

He indicated the three 3Dcomic magazines. "One focuses on the glowfleas and even calls them by that name, the second focuses on savage fake humans being something called killjoyers while the third is about an intrinsic vault threat that activates hidden, killing, network-systems that then attack vaultfolk in various ways. The first turned out to be true and the others are not the only VaultDoom101 materials that might indicate hidden experimental threats against the vault. You will be sent single copies of all of the VaultDoom101 materials to your SIO centre."

Amata frowned softly. "You mean the TechVault101 Isolation Experimental Program?"

Alphonse sighed. "Why am I not surprised that you know about it; then again both James and James have been hacking into the vault computer network-systems except for the most secret ones of all that do not officially exist. All Overseers are given basic knowledge of the TV101-IEP and some, like HighOverseers and the PrimeOverseer, are given more than that. Yet even the PrimeOverseer gets far from everything."

Alphonse: "Before we lost all contact with the main TechVault101, about 54 years ago, the last PrimeOverseer assured me that she was still frustrated with the Overseer Network's lack of knowledge of the TV101-IEP. Sharon Kindler was her name and she had doubts about the reliability of the 3Dmovie briefings and datafiles that we did have. The local HighOverseer was Able Cameron back then and he agreed with her every word. It was he who sent out the first secret expeditionary group into the Wastelands."

The HighOverseer shook his head. "That expeditionary group went to the underground settlement of Rejectville, in a very big artinatural glowcavern very close to DemiVault101D, and set up an inpost there. Only about a half, of the expeditionaries returned to find that the HighOverseer had died supposedly of a heart attack but he was a very fit-healthy man and the death was suspicious. The Police Office investigated but officially declared the death to be of natural causes with out even examining the body. The new Overseer, Henry Mach, tried to crush the truth about the expedition and threw all former expeditionaries into the convict program."

Alphonse: "Then came a powerful counter push. Henry Mach, a stupid bully of a corrupt man, was swept from power. His dead body was found hanging naked from the ceiling of a utility-chamber. His death was definitely suspicious. Then began the reign of HighOverseer Richard Almodovar. He sent secret expeditions to both Rejectville and to the surface settlement of Megaton. This time all but a very few returned. After he finally retired, having been a much better HighOverseer than I am, I took over so as to avoid the Mack Family from 'regaining the throne' and to hopefully keep the demivault, and its inhabitants, thriving as much as possible."

He sighed. "Try to enjoy the comics as much as anybody sane could. I have added some notes, I made after reading them, inside each magazine."

Sensing that there was more than just notes, about the 3Dcomics, inside the magazines, the young women departed. What they did not know was that it would be a long time before they met him again and for surprising reasons.

Edited February 10, 2018 by Maharg67

Maharg67 · February 10, 2018

:tongue: :tongue: :tongue: 0.4[21] :tongue: :tongue: :tongue:

Chloe's group was made up of the radhumans Tabatha, Zapper, and Teetree, the raddogs Clumps and Trembler along with the radcats Tigger, Ginger and Puddytat. All had been born in Gatewaytown, had grown up there and had expected to die there.

Yet the group had its oddities and its secrets that made it more than just a bunch of child urchins and supposedly stray animals.

Were they linked with the Gaiafollowers coming to that settlement?

What the Mysterious Stranger, was it an accident that he and his group had met with Chloe selling muttfruit juice in the Gatewaytown Markets?

Edited February 10, 2018 by Maharg67

Maharg67 · February 10, 2018

:yes: :no: :smile: 1.18[22] :smile: :no: :yes:

Chloe was digging holes in good, fertile, foodgarden soil to plant muttfruit seeds close to where sunflowers were already sprouting up. Somehow the two types of plants complimented each other nicely as they grew but she did not know how though she wanted to. Chloe had a 'very green thumb', working very well with plants, animals and other living things. Some said even 'moss' seemed to love her gardening touch so special moss crops prospered with her.

Gaiasister Gaiaselena walked up slowly, serenely, and crouched to scratch Puddytat the cat who was supporting Chloe by sleeping, curled up, close to her. The big ginger cat, sister to the female cat named Ginger, thrummed loudly in pleasure.

Gaiaselena spoke to Chloe. "The way you work with plants is amazing! Have you had any more of the unusual dreams since I last talked about them to you?"

Chloe shrugged. "I dreamt about people in a place called DemiVault101D and others, called the Arisers, who came to visit them from some unknown place. I dreamt they had a problem with big fleas with glowing bums that caused people to go crazy in the head and to get sick in the bodies. They made ways to prevent-cure what they call the Isolation Illness. That was a special type dream. I had other special type dreams, one which I will not speak of and some normal dreams but those were too embarrassing to talk about."

Gaiaselena smiled. "You do not need to say any more about your dreams, of course, but I have surprising news for you. You have a biological tag in your body and so does every other of your group, radhuman or radnimal. It has the letters-numerals of GaiaRising 1J9K8K8Y7. The the Gaiafollowers were created long ago during the Age of Scientific Madness and Miracles, the ASMM. While not all inherit Gaiapowers directly, all carry the potential across the generations. You have both the potential and the actuality of having a kind of Gaiapower most potent and rare. You will generate a mindeye that is invisible, that allows you to have seer-dreams of actual events in far off places. DemiVault101D is a real place being part of TechVault101. It is inside Mount Sunrise that is fairly close to the settlement of Megaton."

Chloe nodded, more to herself than to the Gaiasister. "That is the big settlement based in that very big bowl shaped crater and around. I have dream-seen it with that silly cowboy Sheriff Lucas Simms and that lovely silly smart Moira Brown and that smelly, horrible, Colin Moriarty; I mean his mind-spirit smell bad because he keeps his body clean for a Wastelander. What of my friends?"

Gaiaselena smiled. "All are special, in different ways, which is one reason they were drawn to you. I want you to come and meet Gaiamother Gaiafairia along with your friends. She is in a secret place below the Gatewaytown Gaiapost, just close to here."

Chloe blushed softly. "I dreamed-saw her and she knew that I was doing so and talked to me really nicely. She told me that she is my grandmother and that she will adopt all my friends and I. She has been looking for me for years since she found my poor dead mother's body and me gone, abducted by my mad father." She turned to Puddytat. "You have a grandmum!"

Puddytat spoke with a little apparent difficulty. "Very nice nice nice! What is a grandmum?"

Gaiaselena did not seem at all surprised at the radcat talking because she had experienced very much! Also Puddytat had given away the secret while begging for a snack.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Maharg67

Maharg67 · February 11, 2018

:yes: :no: :yes: 1.19[23] :yes: :no: :yes:

PrimeOverseer Almodovar had vanished mysteriously inside the Overseer's Office. Security Overseer Allan Mack had then attempted to make a grab for power but the Constitutional Overseer had rejected his move. The Law Office had not even had a chance to start investigating the situation when the Arisers intervened to stop the man, and a large group of followers' from taking over the HighOverseer's Office area.

It was clear that the Mack Family had been ever ready to take control of the demivault but that was not proof enough that they knew before hand that Alphonse Almodovar would vanish.

Detective Juno O'Conner, of the poorly resourced Law Office, studied the HighOverseer's Office carefully. "What of the whispered about secret exit that is supposed to be in this room?"

Amata nodded. "Please step back from the desk, detective! Father passed on this trick, to me, when I turned ten just in case I needed to go into hiding." She moved a very well hidden switch.

The desk slid backwards, along with the chair, and exposed a rampway going downwards underneath that level. Following it down they found it led to a large network of tunnels, chambers and other features. As they moved along a major corridor, marked with red arrows on the floor directing them forward, they came upon other tunnels, with red arrows, leading into the tunnel. The Overseers all had escape routes from their offices but did anybody else.

Alisa led four other Arisers, all with guns and body-armour, until they came to where the escape route turned and went along to end at a big, armoured, powerdoor. Where the red arrows had been going was an erected barrier that had a crude sign stating: ONLY IMPORTANT PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT.

Amata frowned. "Alisa, please remove that eye sore. I want to know at least some of what the corrupt FFFs have been up to."

Effortlessly, Alisa did so! "Very lazy security efforts by an extremely over confident faction."

It was no real surprise when they found that armoured, locked, chambers held illegally stockpiled equipment-supplies that the whole demivault could have greatly used. Very soon vault workers, and robots, were emptying chamber after chamber as officials noted what was being moved.

Amata scowled. "Food concentrates, medicine, robots, weapons, body-armour, machinery parts, computer terminals and almost everything one else one could imagine."

By the time any FFFs people could have shown up, it was all gone and much of it was already being used. The elite families could say nothing openly, could not go to the authorities with an official complaint. Yet it was common knowledge that they would strike back somehow.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Maharg67

Maharg67 · February 11, 2018

:devil: :devil: :devil: 1.20[24] :devil: :devil: :devil:

The FFFs did not counter strike and a strange truth came to light. Benjamin, of the Arisers was the first to speak it aloud.

"Nobody has made direct physical contact with the FFFs for over 50 years." Benjamin spoke after a big effort had been made to investigate the FFFs and their relationship with the rest of the demivault. "The stuff we found in the Secret Network has probably been there more than 50 years. There has been no direct communications except for an occasional prerecorded holographic image or 3Dvideo that could easily have been set up automatically to be sent before they were."

Amata frowned. "Father was secretly investigating the FFFs before he vanished and Allen Mack has admitted that he only pretended that the FFFs contacted him to give him their support. A new HighOverseer will be taking charge soon while the Security Overseer has been forced to retire early from his post but with a nice bonus in vaultcredit."

The SIO was now officially running an investigation into the Alphonse Almodovar vanishing but had now, unofficially, began to investigate the FFFs dilemma. The Law Office had gained a big boost in resources, as had other sectors of the demivault network. This was due to Arisers' support, the discovery of the FFFs hidden trove and the repair-upgrade of many facilities along with the ongoing recovery of statuscapsule victims of the Isolation Illness.

What was hidden, inside the three VaultDoom101 comicmags, had been most surprising-shocking but that investigation was being dealt with inside the Arisercube for the moment.

Jasmine spoke where they stood in the SIO command chamber, that still looked rather hastily put together apart from basic fixtures and fittings. "We have to go into the FFFs' subvaults but that is heavily secured. The whole situation is crazy. Why would the FFFs ever come to have so much dominance in the first place? Our investigations have uncovered a lot of explanations that do not make total sense and that are often contradictory to each other. The FFFs' subvaults, all three of them, do not even show up on the official 3Dmaps of the subvault. Over 50 years ago, only a very few of the elitists would ever leave that place to visit only the HighOverseer. No common vaultfolk, as the FFFs liked to call the rest of us vault dwellers, including the Overseers, ever got to go into the FFFs Sector."

The FFFs dilemma had always been there but none had either dared to solve it or had been just too busy with other problems to try to. Yet there was something else stopping most vaultfolk from solving the mystery and that was a subtle feeling of dread.

Amata spoke. "Over 50 years ago, during the decade before the halting of any real communications, and people leaving, the FFFs Sector, 255 vault dwellers vanished in the subvaults neighbouring the FFFs' territories. After a very brief investigation, those subvaults were officially abandoned and sealed up. The FFFs' Sector was removed from the official 3Dmaps except for a few stored away or just lost in the systems. I know where to lead us for father showed me a real 3Dmap and warned me, when I became HighOverseer, to not allow people near it. He was very grave, and even frightened though he tried not to show it. A few of those who vanished were two heavily armoured-armed search-rescue teams, the second being twice as large as the first one though the first one was big."

Soon the decision was made. Six Arisers, along with auxiliaries, would go with the investigation team to the FFFs Sector. The others would be Jasmine, Amata and Dogmeat. No security officers, or guards, would go with them or even vaulttron or other vault robots except for three trolley remoterobots carrying extra stuff. The new VaultMilitia was still being constructed and trained by some of the Arisers.

Soon the expedition set out.

Maharg67 · February 11, 2018

:hurr: :hurr: :hurr: 1.21[25] :hurr: :hurr: :hurr:

Champ, the chimp humanoid, spoke from where he was hunched on a chair in front of a table. "The stranger the demivault gets proven to be, the stranger is promises to be with further investigations. DemiVault101D may not really be DemiVault101D. If it is fake than there may be a real DemiVault101D still existing out there and are there any more fake demivaults out there? Fake DemiVault101D is set up for the Isolation Illness Project of the bigger research-development program. Who made the VaultDoom101 may have been part of the nasty experimentation or they may actually have been trying to assist people with warnings or both. Yet the other experiments may be set up to function in other fake demivaults."

3Dcomics, books, holotapes, calendars, 3Dmovie videotapes, even a board game and much else were careful spread out over the big table's tabletop. There were Arisers there who were preparing to back up Alisa and her people while others did other tasks. Former vermin, now pet-companions, were also busy in places but most were taking very necessary naps.

Tanya nodded agreement-interest. "I suggest we send an expedition to Rejectville."

Champ sighed. "Something tells me that the expeditions, going outside this demivault, did not really happen. I found a couple of large Emails, lost in the system, that speak of all expeditionaries going into SSVR capsules to carry out training missions before they left the demivault. The way they speak of this is odd, as if heavily hinting that those missions including deceptive SSVR use in which the SSVR users were tricked into thinking what they thought of as real, did not actually happen."

"Excellently discovered, Champ!" The Mysterious Stranger stood there as a woman in a trenchcoat outfit like that of a 1940s AD PanAmerican private detective such as Marion Bardo, big time actor of the silver screen. She had been the sister, and partner, of a male private detective actually played by her brother Marlin Bardo. Except that the female Mysterious Stranger was a gorgeous redhead and not a blonde as Marion Bardo had been.

The MS also stood there as if she had almost always been there. It was a side effect of cross dimensional travel by so called higher entities into moral realms or at least that was as good an explanation as any.

The MS went on speaking. "There is a real TechVault101 where there is no isolation experiment. It is a part of a program of vaults to preserve those, and their resources, who would later rise to colonise the Midworld. Or so ran the theory back before the Doomswar did so much terrible damage and 3Doomsdays struck. It is not very far from here but closer is the rest of the fake TechVault101 that is actually named the QuasiVault101, including the other four fake demivaults. The use of the term 'fake' is problematic for all of the vault is running mostly well as a genuine TechVault would."

Champ spoke. "So the Isolation Illness, and the glowfleas, were meant for the demivault."

The MS responded. "As one of three linked subprojects of this subvault's project, which are all brutal though some are more so than others. You may call me RiverSong so as to differentiate me from other Mysterious Stranger avatars. The main MS now has the name of ElectraFalcon named after a centuries old movie of the same name as based on a valuable statue called the ElectraFalcon that holds a terrible secret. Here are some special gifts given through the MS13, and partly by one, to you."

13 colour coded metallic cubecanisters materialised with a soft sparkling shimmer. All were 3mx3mx3m in proportions and there were one golden, three silvery, and nine copperish ones.

RiverSong smiled richly. "Those are respawning cells that slowly respawn the items that you first take from any of them. Even the MS13 do not know exactly what will be in them when they activate, in turn, for you except that the golden has more powerful-sophisticated stuff than do the three silver and they in turn have items more so than the copperish cubecanisters. They will activate in response to what is happening to the Arisers and those they are trying to assist at the time."

A shiver went through everybody-everything but perhaps not the MS standing there. "There are now nine 10mx10mx10m cubechambers making up Arisercube/1. I would like to stay here for three days, being one day in outside terms."

That was very acceptable with everyone there including the radroaches.

Maharg67 · February 11, 2018

:pirate: :ninja: :pirate: 1.22[26] :pirate: :ninja: :pirate:

Chloe's group went into the bunker below the Gatewaytown Gaiapost and there was Gaiamother Gaiafairia sitting up in bed with her gaiaghoul companion sitting next to her on a chair. Puddytat leapt up lightly onto his lap, curled up comfortably, and studied the Gaiamother carefully. The gaiaghoul was most pleased and rubbed the cat's back; his name was now Rojet.

Gaiafairia studied the newcomers being Chloe, Tabatha, Zapper, Teetree, Clumps, Trembler, Tigger, Ginger and Puddytat, the last being on Rojet's lap.

Then she spoke. "Chloe, you are of the Gaiafolk whose exotic homeland is deep below in the Gaialands of the Underworld, a most fantastic and horrific realm, and you have the mindeye seer-dreaming power. Tabatha you are a powerful radhuman woman linked to the tribefolk of the eastern DC coast and having amazing abilities of holding your breath. Zapper you have inherited the power to gain, store and discharge high voltage electricity but we do not know what your origins are but we have encountered other sparkfolk. Teetree, when you meditate sitting you come up with surprising-amazing ideas and insights. Clumps and Trembler are excellent as snifferdogs. Tigger is an amazing rattercat, being strong and powerful. Ginger is slim and stealthy a mousercat. Puddytat talks and is strong, fast and agile, being able to report on what he has observed."

Chloe nodded. "Very good! Do you want us to join the GaiaOrder?"

Gaiafairia smiled. "We will are considering your future. For now, all of you look around this chamber and tell me what you experience in doing so."

Tabatha frowned. "At least those statuscontainer people are not in here. They give me the creeps. There is that very large 3Dposter of NewYork city with its Central Park. It must be of the mid 20^th Century or something like that. There is something odd about that painting."

Chloe spoke. "A large bookcase nearly overflowing with all sorts of things, even books. Is there a secret door behind it? I would put one there."

Gaiafairia smiled. "Except, sweetie, that wall is between this chamber and the one with the statuscontainer victims in it. Perhaps it has something to do with the big, amazingly accurate looking, 3Dposter?"

Teetree sat on the floor and began to meditate even as he looked at the 3Dposter.

Clumps, and Trembler, sniffed around the chamber going from dressing table to inbuilt closet to a door to a cramped bathroom with shower and toilet and the two bookcases full of items. Out of curiosity, Tigger and Ginger also looked around while Puddytat staid with Rojet.

Rojet pointed to the 3Dposter and spoke for the first time since he had become a gaiaghoul, doing so with some obvious difficulty. "That is not just a 3Dposter!"

Teetree opened his eyes. "It is a vision of a great realm that is real but not real, that is kind of a copy of the United States of PanAmerica in the 1950s. The images slowly move. There are 1950s automobiles flying through the air. There is that big advertising 3Dsign showing long lines of people going into TechVault101 through a big wheeldoor in the side of a mountain. Beneath the Vaultboy, that is across from the Vaultgirl, the words are fairly small that say 'For Ever Isolation Paradise TechVault101, a unique vault experience!'"

Chloe spoke. "If one bookcase has nothing behind it, being against a shared wall, what about the other?"

Gaiafairia smiled and snapped her fingers in an odd pattern. The other bookcase slid to one side to expose a heavy armoured metal powerdoor except that it was already open. There stood five Gaiaguards with armour over fatigues and AKM16A2 autorifles. Beyond them was another open powerdoor and it showed part of a very big chamber. There was a big cylinder structure at the center dotted with curved powerdoors.

Gaiafairia spoke. "The GaiaOrder sent people here to find you but also that! Its an instant way to get to TechVault101 and to other places, or so is the theory. It will only respond to certain genetic signatures and it has amazingly high security that we have not been able to get past."

Rojet spoke. "Before I became a shadoghoul I could have opened that phase-teleport network-system but even after becoming a gaiaghoul it will not respond positively to my altered genetic signature. I once served the insanity that was the 1Gen1 as one of 13Gen13. I was one of those criminally insane, enslaved, bioengineered Superprofessors and in my case I was of the 7Gen13 that focused on the Ever Isolation Paradise Project that was centered partly in a fake TechVault101 as a testing experiment. I do not remember how I became a shadoghoul but it had something to do with a very evil entity coming out of one of the phase-teleport gates there, an entity that I brought fourth in my selfish panic to escape death. Those in the statuscontainer were trying to escape that entity."

Gaiafairia spoke. "Teetree can activate the phase-teleport doorways and take a group to the fake TechVault101 but, more importantly, to fake DemiVault101D. There we can be part of turning that demivault, it is real enough on a practical level, into a safe, secure, prosperous home for many people and other lifeforms; that includes Gaiafolk and your group."

Edited February 11, 2018 by Maharg67

Maharg67 · February 11, 2018

:pirate: :ninja: :pirate: 1.22[26] :pirate: :ninja: :pirate:

Chloe's group went into the bunker below the Gatewaytown Gaiapost and there was Gaiamother Gaiafairia sitting up in bed with her gaiaghoul companion sitting next to her on a chair. Puddytat leapt up lightly onto his lap, curled up comfortably, and studied the Gaiamother carefully. The gaiaghoul was most pleased and rubbed the cat's back; his name was now Rojet.

Gaiafairia studied the newcomers being Chloe, Tabatha, Zapper, Teetree, Clumps, Trembler, Tigger, Ginger and Puddytat, the last being on Rojet's lap.

Then she spoke. "Chloe, you are of the Gaiafolk whose exotic homeland is deep below in the Gaialands of the Underworld, a most fantastic and horrific realm, and you have the mindeye seer-dreaming power. Tabatha you are a powerful radhuman woman linked to the tribefolk of the eastern DC coast and having amazing abilities of holding your breath. Zapper you have inherited the power to gain, store and discharge high voltage electricity but we do not know what your origins are but we have encountered other sparkfolk. Teetree, when you meditate sitting you come up with surprising-amazing ideas and insights. Clumps and Trembler are excellent as snifferdogs. Tigger is an amazing rattercat, being strong and powerful. Ginger is slim and stealthy a mousercat. Puddytat talks and is strong, fast and agile, being able to report on what he has observed."

Chloe nodded. "Very good! Do you want us to join the GaiaOrder?"

Gaiafairia smiled. "We will are considering your future. For now, all of you look around this chamber and tell me what you experience in doing so."

Tabatha frowned. "At least those statuscontainer people are not in here. They give me the creeps. There is that very large 3Dposter of NewYork city with its Central Park. It must be of the mid 20^th Century or something like that. There is something odd about that poster."