Maharg67's Den (shorter works, short stories, poetry, etc.)

[Maharg67]

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 41.1[41]{41}

The group continued its journey along the Pale Pathways and travelled through a great cavern city, a maze of big wide laneways that had them having to turn back more than once. The great, ancient, abandoned city was full of very soft, almost unheard, sounds and hints of troubling smells. Things flickered at the edge of one's eye sight. The group drew in tighter and became tense.

They paused to rest at the top of a great step pyramid that was topped with a great flat square. It was the best, most defensible, position that they could find. DelentaTi spoke of ancient creatures, the TwistedOnes, who had built that city and the other structures that they had encountered in the Pale Pathways. The TwistedOnes had been evil and had practised their own brand of necromancy mixed with forms of demon worship. Then, suddenly, they had been attacked by a very powerful alliance of peoples who had destroyed them and many of their works.

DelentaTi sat cross legged with a cup of herbal tea. She took a sip and then spoke. "We Quatirans were amongst those that destroyed the TwistedOnes except in the last few centuries we have begun to doubt that all of those evil, powerful, entities were finished. Some of the undeathly magics, and evil symbolics, of the Tooze Necromancers are almost identical to those of the TwistedOnes and yet the Tooze supposedly did not emerge on these islands until many centuries had passed after the destruction of the TwistedOnes."

 

An uneasy peace was on the encampment. Extra sentries, and boundary patrols, were put into action. Magic users kept a careful 'watch' out for evil.

 

When the attack began it turned out that the great, flat topped, pyramid was the very best defensive position but was it an accident that the group had ended up being there as the swarms of monsters attacked them?

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 42.1[42]{42}

The few TwistedOnes were powerful and distorted entities but, according to DelentaTi, far less potent than they had once been. Once they had also been far more numerous so as to swarm at their enemies in great malicious waves. Now the TwistedOnes came with what appeared to be bizarre hybrids, of themselves, along with zombies, ghouls and vampires based on the hybrids. There were also undead demons such as the warped NullOnes who were bizarre mixtures of demonic and undeathly forces.

 

The defenders fought hard and hurled death, destruction and disruption down upon the enemy who were mostly coming up the sides of the pyramid. The TwistedOnes flew, as did some of the hybrids, but most had to go up the great steps that were not conducive to such attack. There were big stairways but they were far too small to carry all of the attackers and they would have made the attackers too vulnerable if used.

 

The battle was terrible and many died but the attackers lost over 100 for every defender destroyed. Magic filled the air along with solid projectiles, a few of them being magical.

 

It did not last very long! The attackers were losing too many at the gain of nothing in return. They fled back, taking their dying and wounded with them along with what equipment they could grab up.

 

Then there was only a terrible quietness that fell upon that city of the TwistedOnes. That quietness did not seem out of place, as if that city had experienced such horrors many times in the past.

 

The expeditionary force had its own dead, and wounded, to deal with.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Now, the moment, focusing on the present

fully, so fully, that it stretches outwards to be now but also the past and future

the now so fully aware that it pushes the boundaries of what awareness can be, of what awareness is!

:ohmy: :yes: :psyduck: :thumbsup: :dance:

[Maharg67]

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DC Torchwood
One 48.1[68]

Uncle Leo made a decision and pushed the idea that the DC Subway colony should join the Subwayers because only they could provide the necessary resources to keep it secure in the longer term. The Soviet created clones now loyally served the colony. The Subwayers had been most interested in studying the borgamen, the metamutants and the rhouls along with the real Coopines with their peaceful zetan parasites. The Subwayers were mostly human but with ghoulmen, smart-androids, smart-robots and beastfolk amongst them.

The Subwayers turned out to be led by an odd system of both a powerful smartcomputer supercomputer network-system (the Subminder) and the 'Pyramid of Councils' that was not strictly hierarchical despite its name. Both were part of the Subwayer Union Government.

The colony joined the Subwayers. FEAR, and the Brotherhood of Steel, kept out of the situation.

Soon after a contingent of Brothers of Steel arrived being a brigade with additional specialist elements. Though the power armoured figures offered to assist the colony, they made it clear that they were mainly their to gain resources for the Brotherhood of Steel so as better to deal with threats such as the supermutants, Enclaven and others.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Finally my computer has gone and 'died'. It has been slowly dying for some time. I am posting this post using my brother's computer. I hope to keep up some kind of posting schedule to Nexus Forums and to other internet sites that I write to. My work on trying to set up my own site has to be delayed. Anyway I will hopefully be fairly regular in posting more story posts.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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Matters, with my computer, have been fixed for now and quicker than I had expected that they would be. In the near future I will be upgrading my computer.

DC Torchwood
One 49.1[69]

The area of Juno Base, that seemed to be so 'normal' on the surface, was soon becoming more exotic in appearance. There were big hallways that looked like combinations of church corridors and shopping arcades, chambers full of strange coin operated electromechanical game machines, giant toy robots that clunked along on big single jointed legs, chambers full of bays in which were amazing arrays of more standard robots, chambers with great big partly exotic machines and much else.

Alma's Clonetroopers had been there but also some of her Cloneworkers whose secondary purpose was to fight. Cloneworkers, in 'small' working mechas and power armour, had looted some areas while Clonetroopers had guarded them in power armour or in small fighting mechas. They had been assisted by robots, androids and what seemed to be some kind of cyborgs that looked like Clonetroopers, or Cloneworkers, in power armour. The Mysterious Stranger detected that a powerful clone commander had been there but it had not been Paxton himself, being female in nature. Oddly enough it turned out that all of the Clonetroopers were 'men' and the Cloneworkers were 'women'. The reason for this was a mystery except that Pointman indicated it could mean that Alma was planning to have a breeding program instigated to gain more, fast maturing, relatively short lived clones.

Yet there was something that did not add up, something that niggled at more than one mind in the group.

Captain Jack Harkness looked around a big machine half filled chamber and spoke with a questioning tone of voice. "I have no 'sense' at all of Alma's presence having been here which is normal when it comes to her Clonetroopers having been anywhere."

The Mysterious Stranger nodded. "Yes, I agree with you. Somehow the clones, that were here, were not psychic-spiritually linked to Alma, as they normally are, through Paxton. Could they be under the command of Juno or the entity known as Biocyorg101; Biocyorg101 is thirteen entities in one? Juno could hope to take over such clones but Biocyorg101 is an unknown to us except that I know that those who created, feared it so much that they never used it."

The five cybergirls stepped into the open being silvery metallic, smooth, woman shaped in general. Clearly they were faster, more agile, than were cybermen for they had darted into the chamber with amazing speed. The Mysterious Stranger stopped the others from shooting. "Juno wants to negotiate!"

Edited October 28, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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DC Torchwood
One 49.2[70]

Negotiations began quickly enough. The cybergirls led the group to where Juno had set up a moderate sized, heavily secured, outpost just for that purpose. It was squeezed between a big water treatment complex and a big biochemical processing complex but both were only semiactive. As the Mysterious Stranger discussed an alliance with Juno, FTroopers and FSoldiers arrived as a mixed elements brigade. There were FWorkers also who were FEAR working supersoldiers and others in working power armour, both generalists and specialists; they could fight well, if they had to do so. By the time that the agreement was formed the outpost was being upgraded and expanded.

Cybermen, cyberbots, cyberdroids assisted with the work being done. Juno had transformed the whole process of creating cybermen. It was painless and, at a certain age, would be cybermen had the choice of not being cybermen. Cybermen could feel through touch plates, could taste flavours, could enjoy life, could feel emotions more. There would soon come a decision time when the 'cyber' part of the naming system would be replaced with something else because there were still coldly monstrous orthodox cybermen out there; Juno had discovered this fact through discovering deeply hidden computer network-systems and then hacking them. Juno was allied to a handful of powerful smartcomputer supercomputer networks of network-systems.

Juno spoke to the group but focused on the Mysterious Stranger. "Alma is acting insanely but this is largely because she is being constantly attacked in a powerful, dark, psychic-spiritual manner. Biocyorg101 is a very dangerous threat but I have come to doubt that it is making the attacks; it serves the entity that is making the attacks; I have not been able to identify the entity."

The Mysterious Stranger frowned softly. "I have my suspicions but Alma knows the identity, fears it, was perhaps tricked by it. I will need to communicate directly with her."

Juno responded. "That will not be easy. She is most gifted, and experienced, at hiding herself and her followers. I suspect that there has been a rift between her and Paxton but I have yet to confirm that suspicion."

Juno was told about the impressions that the group had picked up of Clonetroopers, and Cloneworkers, being active with out the 'presence' of Alma being with them. Was it a trick or had there really been some kind of schism take place? What of the female commander and the female nature of the Cloneworkers?

Edited October 28, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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[Maharg67]

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Do we really know how we are perceived by other people?

Can we rely on the feedback that we get from others?

Do we need such feedback?

Perhaps we depend too much on such feedback.

I don't have the answers but I am going to keep asking such questions.

Yet do we need to ask such questions?

Edited October 28, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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Not This Earth
One 10.1[13]

Professor Blane walked down the mobile stairs from his large private supersonic jet. It was an adapted airliner of the kind used in the 100s around the world. Older kind subsonic jet airliners were still used but most such jets that flew, supersonic or subsonic, carried cargo. International tourism was dead for many reasons and most of those who travelled did for commercial, military or other official purposes. Flights were rationed and many could not hope to get tickets, and other paperwork, except through the black market but that was expensive.

Professor Blane was a VIP exception to the rule and his rejuvenated, adjusted, appearance reflected his handsome, healthy, fit self. He was in the top 10 of the most eligible bachelors' list. He was a known genius of brilliant intelligence who never attempted to take credit for other people's work; he did not need to all all in his teams got due credit, even the cleaners.

Blane was no hero but neither was he a villain. He was an eccentric antihero.

His mistress, two bodyguards and two aides walked with him. His mistress was also another bodyguard and, in some ways, his personal assistant; she looked after his social calendar as well as providing companionship and pleasure.

Blane had a feeling that there was going to be difficulty in the supercity of Perth. Reports had been sent to him of half a dozen zombie outbreaks having taken place, of unconfirmed reports of things that were worse than zombies. Local power factions were tense, government was seeking out trouble that it often tried to ignore, growlers were on the move and super-assassins were active in the city in abnormally large numbers.

The professor wanted at least one zombie for his biotech research-development. Zombies most often died quickly, failing and falling to bits. Only a minority mutated and gained leather like skin, becoming more dangerous as they transformed. What he wanted to do was to create both an antidote and a vaccine to the undeath. This was partly to increase his fame, partly to make him even richer but also partly to help humanity.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Maharg67