Two Steps Forward - One Step Back

[Maharg67]

0111: Of Buffy Tomkins, Dovana Roamer and Others

 

When Buffy was alone in the big chamber, she went to the great toilet structure, leaped upwards, landed on the rim and then, with sparkling shimmer, changed into light amphibious power armor. She dived into the great bowl, smoothly and skillfully, and as she did the toilet flushed her down along the pipe. For about fifteen minutes she shot along the pipe, which had safety features for anybody who dropped accidentally into the toilet to be flushed away.

 

She came up into the place that Alan Pale had wanted her to find, a big dome shaped chamber with the water flowing beneath its floor. Buffy gained access through a metre thick disk shaped hole, darting up a short ladder to look around the illuminated chamber.

 

Dovana Roamer sat on a simple plastic stool, one metre wide-high. Dovana wore a lightly armored jumpsuit with many pouch-pockets and items clipped to it. He seemed always to be ready to be setting out again. Close to him a TransCube of dark wooden appearance and three other basic plastic stools

 

“Alan Pale is not me or I him, as you can see. Alan Pale is a True Eternal and linked to Graham Maharg. I am no longer a False Eternal but something else, a UnityEternal, who was tested-transformed to become such as to start serving Unity and the Multiversal Unity of Unities. What do you know of the LittleFatFamily?”

 

Buffy sat down on another stool, facing this 'UnityEternal'. “That they were once part of the Omegusa Family but escaped from them and that they have since then tried to do as much good as they can, mainly against the TwistedGod.”

 

Dovana sighed. “Once, not so long ago, I believed the same and many other do believe this to be true but it is worse than false, it is a part truth. That is it is true enough to be very deceptive. The LittleFatFamily does oppose the TwistedGod and is trying to undermine it and its dangerous plans but the LittleFatFamily was never part of the Omegusa Family but were always powerful, loyal followers of the Omegusa Family and continue to be so. Recently you, and other Tomkins, did something very dangerous, though brave, to try to spy on the hidden intentions of the TwistedGod. Who came up with the idea?”

 

Buffy frowned. “We Tomkins did!”

 

Dovana shook his head. “The LittleFatFamily came up with the idea. You Tomkins have all been semiautonomous puppets of the LittleFatFamily and, through them, the Omegusa Family. You have been so since you were on the Home AlternateEarth so very long ago. Sebastian Tomkin broke free many centuries ago as have other False Eternals. FactionLords have never really been under any firm control. Plans did not go smoothly for the Omegusa Family. You were meant to be fully enslaved but all that was managed was a partial slavery that has been stronger some times than at others. The Omegusa Family hates and fears the TwistedGod and wishes to destroy it or even to enslave it if given the chance to do so; yet they also want to know its true nature, its real origins and to steal what they can from it that will enhance their own power.”

 

Buffy felt an upsurge of rage, of fear, and an overwhelming desire to strike out at this fool for even daring to suggest such things about the LittleFatFamily and the Tomkins. Suddenly the plastic stool, that she was sitting on, was no longer just just a plastic stool. Energies shot up through her body and she froze, unable to move, unable to utilize special abilities. Yet she was not in pain, far from it.

 

Dovana spoke. “Recently you were seen on the Home AlternateEarth with the LittleFatWoman. Unity observed you, for the local peoples are of Unity, and communications were made with, through, other Unity to the UnityEternals. We have existed in secret for good reason. It was we who recruited the UnityLords and instigated their test-transformation though we do not actually carry out those test-transformations. We have done the same with the HarmonyLife Faction of the HarmonyLords who are now really UnityLords. We have undermined many dark plans, with assistance from others that for the moment I will not name.”

 

He spoke some more. “The irony is that, in their own strange way, the LittleFatFamily have come to love you Tomkins, even Sebastian Tomkins, and though they are, seemingly, willing servants of the Omegusa Family, they are not as evil as the Omegusa Family. Indeed we suspect that they have even failed to completely follow orders in order to save lives, to lessen destruction, to free people. We suspect that the only real reason that the LittleFatFamily serves the Omegusa Family is that they have some kind of dark hold over them. We would like to free you Tomkins of your bonds but continue to act as if nothing has changed. This will be up to you but we will free you and make you stronger.”

 

Buffy Tomkins slipped away into a peaceful fogginess and then into darkness. As she did another figure appeared in the chamber being Paddy Jackson. Dovana did not seemed surprised, or displeased, by the appearance, far from it.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/steampunk-gun_A2E7U_54-1.jpg

 

Dovana shook his head. “The LittleFatFamily came up with the idea. You Tomkins have all been semiautonomous puppets of the LittleFatFamily and, through them, the Omegusa Family. You have been so since you were on the Home AlternateEarth so very long ago. Sebastian Tomkin broke free many centuries ago as have other False Eternals. FactionLords have never really been under any firm control. Plans did not go smoothly for the Omegusa Family. You were meant to be fully enslaved but all that was managed was a partial slavery that has been stronger some times than at others. The Omegusa Family hates and fears the TwistedGod and wishes to destroy it or even to enslave it if given the chance to do so; yet they also want to know its true nature, its real origins and to steal what they can from it that will enhance their own power.”

 

(Dovana) He spoke some more. “The irony is that, in their own strange way, the LittleFatFamily have come to love you Tomkins, even Sebastian Tomkins, and though they are, seemingly, willing servants of the Omegusa Family, they are not as evil as the Omegusa Family. Indeed we suspect that they have even failed to completely follow orders in order to save lives, to lessen destruction, to free people. We suspect that the only real reason that the LittleFatFamily serves the Omegusa Family is that they have some kind of dark hold over them. We would like to free you Tomkins of your bonds but continue to act as if nothing has changed. This will be up to you but we will free you and make you stronger.”

Edited July 26, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0112: Of Buffy Tomkins, Dovana Roamer, Paddy Jackson and Others

 

Buffy came awake slowly, steadily, reaching out to Tuffy and Muffy Tomkins. They had known something was happening to her that was powerful, subtle and life changing. She was now UnityEternal and understood that the LittleFatFamily had deceived her and the other Tomkins but that the LittleFatFamily had also done much to help her and the other Tomkins. It was a puzzle that only made sense if one believed that the LittleFatFamily were being, themselves, manipulated into doing what they did and were fighting it as best they could.

 

Buffy lay nakedly on an advanced medical bed and she was covered with a white sheet that was also a multiple purpose medical device; it was not very modest.

 

Paddy Jackson spoke. “The LittleFatFamily has secretly been doing what they can to undermine the workings of the Omegusa Family. The LittleFatFamily can only do so much against the Omegusa Family for reasons they will not reveal. I am a UnityEternal and, somehow, the LittleFatFamily learned this and made contact with me. The LittleFatFamily, thankfully, have been set against the TwistedGod by the Omegusa Family and so they have generally been doing good even if for the wrong reasons of getting rid of a threat to another dark force of great power.”

 

Buffy frowned. “Am I a UnityEternal now?”

 

Dovana shook his head in wonder. “No, you are a True Eternal and your power has only just begun to grow. Muffy and Tuffy are transforming now, because the three of you are linked as semiautonomous to each other, have always been so. Seems that the Multiverse has big new plans for you Tomkins.”

 

Buffy was shaken by what she heard. She did feel stronger, clearer headed, freer somehow and yes she could find no hostility or fear in herself about the LittleFatFamily. She reached out to her triplet sisters to find that they were both in deep meditative states. She could not quite communicate with them in a more direct empathic-telepathic sense.

 

Then it came to her that she, Muffy and Tuffy were really the same entity, had always been a True Eternal. Had they ever been immortals and then artifact-entities? The answer was yes and no! They were of a form of True Eternals who could do the seemingly impossible of becoming something, somebody, else while remaining totally themselves. They were called the EvaEternals, or at least that was one of their names. Was the same true of Tammy-Tommy, of Bobby, of Sammy, of Sebastian, of Danny-Donny, of other Tomkins?

 

What ever the answers were to such questions, she had more immediate concerns to deal with?

 

Buffy spoke. “Why did Alan Pale do the trick with the huge toilet and the hidden message?”

 

Paddy shrugged. “Apart from his odd, childish sense of humor? We do not know for sure but we suspect that there is something dangerous hidden in the TransCubeShip foundational structure with us. It would be something planted by the Omegusa Family through the LittleFatFamily who would have probably done it through manipulating Tommy Tomkins. We doubt Tommy would be aware of this. Nor would he be aware that he has unfairly trapped the AltSlider group he picked up that were traveling between AlternateEarths. He, and Tammy Tomkins, are convinced that one of them is a dangerous fraud. In truth one of them is a false AltSlider but is dangerous to the Omegusa Family and not to the Tomkins Family.”

 

Buffy thrust out her chest and sighed. “If the other Tomkins react the same way that I did, they could be very hard to take down. This would be especially true of Tammy-Tommy Tomkins. Those two are damned tough and so are Bobby and Sammy. As for Danny-Donny, well the trick is to find them..”

 

Dovana showed sadness. “We know where they are and what they have become. They are the Deathless Lord and Lady. They were never of, or to be, True Eternal in nature. They could have become UnityEternals. Instead they became of the greater undead. They have attained a kind of eternity but at a high cost. Now they serve the Great Undeath, are twisted by it and suffer the Endless Hunger just as those of the TwistedGod do.”

 

Buffy sighed. “I will return to the others.” But then she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

 

Alan Pale walked into the room, coming straight through the wall in a ghost like fashion. He stood looking at the sleeping Buffy. “All True Eternals are linked almost as one. We are travelers who go, eventually, nowhere, but who do so endlessly.” Then he grinned. “Did you like the big toilet and the flushing down the big pipe?”

 

Paddy nodded, smiled. “It was very good, very good. I don't suppose you are going to tell Unity more of what is actually going on.”

 

Alan Pale only smiled in response.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0113: Of an Observer, Field Marshal Rear Admiral and Others

 

It was the city of Moscow and it was burning, at least in places. The Observer walked along a low concrete battlements of the AlternateEarth of the 1980s, the one that Tammy Tomkins had grown up on. He wore a basic set of green combat fatigues and brown kevlar body-armor. On his back was a military style backpack.

 

Bullets flew around him but somehow never hit him though a few got very close. Except they would never touch him. Somehow soldiers noted him but did not quite notice him fully. Soldiers were crouched behind the walls, were firing automatic weapons, rocket-grenade launchers, missile-launchers and even some energy weapons.

 

They were unityfolk fighting AntiUnity elements. The Soviets were no more. Unity had risen and was fighting AntiUnity and wild human forces in a scattered fashion across Russia and other parts of the collapsed USSR. Soldiers fired different kinds of AK assault-rifles. Unity was extremely efficient and had thrown up the fortifications in a matter of a few days. In contrast their enemies were inefficient but sometimes had a wild cunning that favored them. It was not enough for Unity was slowly, steadily winning.

 

Russian battletanks fired at other Russian battletanks. Shells struck warmachines or buildings. Heavy machineguns raked the structures. Snipers moved through the buildings to pause, shoot, and then quickly move on.

 

The Observer walked down a set of stairs and turned to walk into a bunker chamber. Standing there, at a big table with a map of Moscow and lots of other information, was Field Marshal Rear Admiral. She was an eccentric commander but also one of the greatest; she was also a True Eternal. As a True Eternal she knew the OmniObserver Observer was there; this was because the Observers were also a form of True Eternal as was the whole OmniObserver itself.

 

The chamber shook and rippled slightly in a strange way. The rippling effect took away a lot of the kinetic force of explosive attacks, making it harmless so it did not actually damage the structure or hurt the people inside the bunkers.

 

Field Marshal Rear Admiral spoke with out looking around. “One hopes for military victories that will at last make for some kind of meaningful resolution in this great foolishness that is taking place. So here I am fighting for Unity, sweeping up enemy forces while doing as little death, destruction and disorder as possible. Is there a meaningful resolution in sight?”

 

The Observer smiled. “We do what we do to alter the unbalances that threaten the Greater Multiversal Balances. What can one say clearly using such primitive verbal means of communications? Unity needs to send at least half of its humanity, and others, to some kind of sanctuary. The HavenEarths that exist are already sustaining large populations. The Greater Sanctuary is not meant for mortal unityfolk and neither is the 13of13.”

 

“The more negative factions appear to be outnumbering the more positive ones. Others are doubtful in their intentions. At least commanding unityfolk is less frustrating than trying to command wild humans.” Field Marshal Rear Admiral snorted. “Soon Moscow will be ours and other Russian cities will soon fall to us. Russian unityfolk are still used to taking orders. Trying to get them to think independently is the big trick. We will soon be constructing antigravity launchers to send capsules to Luna to the new Lunar Colonies that Unity plans to build there.”

 

The Observer smiled and then passed to the commander the backpack he had been carrying. “Inside is bigger than outside, of this backpack, and there is very much in it for you to use. Be warned that a large AntiUnity army is marching at you from the direction of China, will soon be entering a part of what used to be the USSR. I warn you because it has been bolstered with rejuvenated, enhanced, upgraded warmachines manufactured on this world and thousands of suits of basic, fairly clumsy, power armor called uparmor. That is all I can tell you except that there are some other unpleasant surprises coming with the army. I must go. Perhaps it is time to bring some of your special people in, along with some other of your special resources.”

 

Another shudder went through the chamber. The enemy had some big guns well positioned but very soon those cannons would fall to friendly forces. Hopefully the big guns would be captured in good shape so they could be used against the enemies of Unity.

 

The Observer vanished. Field Marshal Rear Admiral check out the backpack, and its contents, and he smiled a rich, unpleasant smile.

[Maharg67]

0114: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

When Bobby Tomkins came out of his meditative state, in the BT-TransCube, he did so with a renewed vigor and at once began leading an operation to find the Leatherneck hostages. This time he, and others quickly found stronger clues and were soon making their way as teams through previously unknown parts of the complex. It was as if the others were deeply inspired, even energized, by Bobby.

 

They found the former laboratory chambers, valuable resources but also much dark evidence of terrible experiments that had taken place there before Doomsday. Experiments into creating so called synthetic zombies, into turning humans and animals into monster soldiers, into longevity treatments and much else. Soviet and American prisoners had suffered there, along with animals. In the end there had been a rebellion by scientists, soldiers and others, including released prisoners, who had become sickened by what was going on. The rebellion had won, the scientists had been killed along with some mysterious others who had directed what was going on but others had escaped.

 

“This was not part of the fictional mod that I made for a game that existed only in electronic form.” Peter Bishop walked through a laboratory chamber dotted with the caged remains of distorted animals that had been mercifully killed by the rebels. “I had bad experiments done here but not to this degree of evil and no mysterious outsiders directing them. Where did the rebels go?”

 

It was a good question and there were no simple answers to be had. Bobby, and his special prime followers, went with amazing speed through surviving computer databanks.

 

Peter Bishop came up with a possible answer to what they found. “I was always open, as a modder, to having people further mod my mods as long as they stayed away from certain changes and acknowledged my original creativity and the official copyrights of the gaming corporation. Not all followed that pattern. One NukemNightmare, I only found out his modder's name, stole mods, modded them and then claimed he had done all of the modding and tried to sell the mods instead of freely passing them on, as was normally done. He did the same with some of my mods. The fool even claimed he had created stuff that the gaming corporation had. After some time he vanished. People figured that the increasingly powerful, and nasty, corporates sent people out to get him. He only altered some parts of this 'mod' and added a few items but claimed the whole thing was his and I stole it from him.”

 

Bobby turned to Peter. “Did he add the TransBaseCubes transformation to the complex?”

 

Peter looked surprised. “I think that he did. How did he know about TransBaseCubes? How would he know about TransBaseCubes?”

 

Bobby responded. “NukemNightmare is mentioned in the databanks of this complex. Is was set up that he would modify a version of your mod and thus help make certain changes to this place. Others have come here since this sector was abandoned by the rebels. The rebels took many resources and fled to find a place to survive in that had less painful memories, less of a history of horrors to it. The NecroSage came here, with some of his followers, and took some resources but left some data behind.”

 

Olivia Dunham spoke up from where she was examining a cage with the remains of what had once been a large chimpanzee. “The NecroSage was seeking something that was added here by the mod. I think he found it. It may have not been known about by those who were formerly in this sector on Doomsday. It was secretly modded into the... very structure of the complex. A hidden power-artifact of some kind. I just gained a whole lot of impressions including a trail of where the NecroSage went next.”

 

The team followed Olivia Dunham and they moved through tunnels until they found the Leatherneck hostages. They were alive, if not fully healthy, in status-capsules. Nothing drastic had been done to them except keeping them in poor conditions. The rogue NecroSage Ovantarisa had departed in a hurry, along with his followers, but had left behind some curious things.

 

One was a 3Dmap of the remodded modded bunker complex that came in a solid state 3Dtablet.

 

Another was a collection of Fallout3D robots being four protectrons, a sentrybot, five MrHandys, two MrPortys (carry robots), five protectron like worktrons, eighteen eyebots and a MrDoctor, a special medical version of a MrHandy. There were also lots and lots of robotic spare parts, rechargeable batteries and small atomic motors. Overwhelming them all, in size, was a prototype LibertyPrime, a huge and impressive robotic humanoid.

 

There were some androids, mostly being twelve basic duplicants little more than fancy mannequins in appearance, four more advanced and sophisticated replicants and one simulicant. They were in android rest-recharge cubicles, there being many empty cubicles.

 

Then there was a young woman wrapped inside fields of swirling energies inside a curious transparent crystalline globe.

[Maharg67]

0115: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

All of the thousand plus Leathernecks, their working pets and livestock, ended up in status-capsules inside the BT-TransCube. This was because most of them were in a very weakened condition and could be healed slowly, steadily in status while the others rested, waiting for them to be ready to revive.

 

It turned out that the people in the settlement, CanDoTown, above the bunker had long ceased to think of themselves as being Leathernecks. They had come to consider themselves to be true settlers. Friction had been growing between them and the Leathernecks. Upon learning the fate of the Leathernecks, the CanDoTowners tried to seize ownership of electric fanboats, robots and other equipment and supplies in stored in the settlement. Bobby Tomkins put a stop to their plans.

 

Instead a deal was made. Bobby made it clear that there could be something hidden in the bunker complex that many powerful factions held to be very valuable. They would come looking for it. With out the protection of the Leathernecks, the CanDoTowners would be very vulnerable. He spoke of the Enclaven but also the TekCorporations surviving in the TekRepublic along with the League of New Republics and the Brotherhood of Steel, amongst others. The CanDoTowners agreed to also go into status-capsule storage. Bobby would try to find them, and the Leathernecks, a new home. All equipment, supplies, animals, plants and more would be brought into the TransCube.

 

The young, mysterious woman, in the energy fields, was identified as 'NukemNightmare' but even he doubted that was her true name. She had put photographs of herself on a website, just once as a mistake, but he remembered the face.

 

Bobby stood examining the young woman for a while and then he smiled. “That young woman is an artifact-entity. I suspect that she was the very artifact-entity that the NecroSage rogue was seeking and clearly did not find. What did he find, I wonder.”

 

The young woman opened up her eyes. “I was at the core of the creation of the QuasiAlternateEarth, based as it is on a popular computer game called Fallout3D. I stole mods and modded them but only to make my mark on the creative process. I falsely claimed ownership, creativity over, mods to further strengthen my imprint in the historical flow of events. I wanted you to remember me, Peter Bishop, because I knew we would meet. You make very good mods, though some of them are.. well they have certain interesting facets to them. I am a very power artifact-entity who was at the very centre of the creation of the Great Sphere, the Great Sanctuary, the 13of13 and other such. I am AlphaAlphaAvona by true name. That foolish NecroSage rogue was seeking me so I had a false artifact-entity waiting for him. Even now it will be vanishing away from his control.”

 

She turned to Bobby. “Everybody stumbling around, not quite knowing what is what or what they would do. Not even the TwistedGod truly knows its true path to take. The Omegusa Family are arrogant fools but they are frightened and aggressive. The Great Undeath is here to take back what has been stolen from it and to find some kind of relative balance. Then there is the LittleFatFamily, the GlowingMist that counters the GlimmeringFog. Elemental beings, the undead, the unlifen, the FactionLords, the False Eternals, Unity and much else. Oh, the True Eternals, can not forget them or the Lords and Ladies of the Light.”

 

She went on speaking. “Now is the time to stop messing around. The real trick is to learn more about what really has happened in the past and to gather as many power-artifacts, and artifact-entities, as possible. Gather them all up into a very secure place. Know, though, that that secure place may not be one of those that you are used to thinking of as secure.”

 

She sighed. “You are going to have to incorporate me, centrally, into the TransCubeShip being constructed by the Tomkins. As yet I am not sure why this must be but it 'feels' right. I gained advise to do this but can not quite remember from whom. It feels right!”

 

Bobby Tomkins was not sure what to do next. He focused on the immediate tasks of getting all the lifeforms, and things, including the powerful artifact-entity, into the TransCube and stored away in status as alive or, if not alive, in some form of efficient compressed form. It was a busy time and yet he also let his mind run free, hoping it would come up with some new ideas.

 

Then it happened and a big decision was made for him.

Edited July 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0116: Of Bobby Tomkins and Others

 

Bobby Tomkins, Peter Bishop, the two Olivias, Jacko, Kate and others stood looking at CanDoTown, abandoned and largely stripped. The bunker complex was gone from beneath and replaced by a large but more basic one, design wise. The more sophisticated base, made up of three TransBaseCubes, was now compacted and inside the BT-TransCube in a way that Bobby would have previously considered impossible. Yet it had been done.

 

The small group climbed into electric fanboats, three of them, and sped away through the swamp-jungles. As they did they became aware of the sound of aircraft passing overhead, of a whole lot of Enclaven vertibirds from fast agile air-to-air fighters and ground-attack machines to the huge, powerful but cumbersome troopships and gunships. Many were moderate sized multiple purpose machines, about half the size, power, armor and speed between the smallest and biggest.

 

Bobby spoke. “The Enclaven will not be happy at what they find but they will gain an outpost base, both the settlement and the bunker complex, along with many other basic resources. I suspect they will turn this into some kind of forward base for future operations in Point Lookout.”

 

Bobby Tomkins was to turn out to be correct in so far as his predictions went.

 

The way they had come to the QuasiAlternateEarth was closed for it was starting to turn into a real AlternateEarth; the merging zone, a hybrid between place, was gone. They would need to find a way to get to one of the primary AlternateEarths involved in what was going on.

 

They came to see Turtledove Detention Camp in the distance. It was huge and where many enemy POWs had ended up during the last big war that ended with Doomsday, as much else did. Many of the prisoners from Camp Turtledove had ended up going to the bunker complex for experimentation, the one 'modded' by Peter Bishop.

 

Even from a distance the heavily fortified Turtledove Detention Camp looked formidable. It had been modded heavily from the much smaller, more basic game version but not by Peter. Yet he did know much about the mod, had used it many times.

 

“This is all very strange and confusing, this weird relationship between a fictional game, the mods linked with it, and this whole world becoming increasingly more real.” Peter Bishop frowned hard. “AlphaAlphaAvona must be very powerful to do all of this.”

 

Bobby shook his head. “AlphaAlphaAvona is only powerful enough to create QuasiAlternateEarths. Other forces are making this one more real. Tell me more about Turtledove Detention Camp! Was it ever modded by NukemNightmare?”

 

“Yes it was!” Peter frowned. “Don't tell me you want to go there.”

 

“Not 'want to' but we may have to go there.” Bobby frowned. “Lots of radghouls around, I can 'sense' them. How many robots?”

 

“Lots of three wheeled sentrybots but also improved super-sentrybots that hover, heavy security androids and improved eyebots that rove the area directly around the camp. The improved eyebots coordinate not only with the robots and androids but with robotic gun-turrets on the low, broad super-concrete perimeter.” Suddenly Peter grinned. “There is a way in through a hidden tunnel that was meant to allow the US military to escape if they had to do so. No such luck for the prisoners.”

 

Peter looked around. “We need to find a great collection of PreDoomsday atomic motorized army trucks, and other vehicles, surrounded by thick, high super-concrete walls. Inside that is the way into the secret tunnel. It's called Camp Truck Junk.”

 

So they set out to find Camp Truck Junk.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Forum%20Additives/zoawithg36candglock17zx3.jpg

[Maharg67]

0117: Of the OmniObserver and the Observed

 

The TransCity, at the basis of the Great Sphere, became known as HarmonyTransCity, which was kind of logical. Even as this took place the HarmonyLord Faction began to fracture. The HarmonyBalance Factions became the only HarmonyLords, the HarmonyLife Faction became openly UnityLords and the HarmonyPurity Faction became UndeathLords or FactionlessLords who would not become of the undeath.

 

SamWaSam made preparations for his various missions to come. Sammy Tomkins began to study HarmonyTransCity as a major project. SihiSihiLo assisted SamWaSam as a UnityLord.

 

Major fighting had ended but there were skirmishes in many parts of HarmonyCity, most of them in the HarmonyUndercity, between a wide range of forces.

 

Nobody knew just how, or when, it began but when semihumans, subhumans, muties and others began to swarm into HarmonyCity proper, they did so as refugees and were welcomed with what resources could be spared. There were still strong divisions between them and many humans but Unity was still rising and unityfolk did not care about such things so much. Life was going to, being taken to, HarmonyCity proper as a sanctuary and fighting in that, and other areas, to keep it safe.

 

Inside the TransCubeShip the Tomkins, the other Eternals, kept busy on the major project. Muffy and Tuffy became EvaEternals, as they had always been, but secretly so. They had a secret meeting with Graham Maharg who, to no real surprise, knew what was going on. Alan Pale, and he, had communicated as True Eternals. Plans were made to capture Tammy-Tommy Tomkins, to convert them to the truth.

 

Alan Pale made special bathrooms appear through out the TransCubeShip. This was followed by lots of what looked like suits of knight armor, complete with shields and weapons, on mannequins and in niches; they were more than that, were both decorative and were emergency robots that could be activated if needed to help defend the TransCubeShip and its contents. The robotic knights were found in areas where there was a generally medieval appearance, rich wall tapestries, great synthetic fur rugs, big oil paintings, weapon displays on walls and much else of the kind.

 

Bobby Tomkins continued to try to get into Turtledove Detention Camp with as little trouble as possible but he, and his people, kept running into obstacles that slowed down their progress.

 

The Eternal Empress kept up her covert investigations but had to slow them down because she 'sensed' growing threat around herself, 'sensed' something was increasingly wrong in the 13of13. Instead she began to make moves to strengthen her power base and to create a powerful alliance to deal with what was going on. To her surprise she found that Unity was rising in the 13of13.

 

Professor Cosmos kept working to help people in London of the AlternateEarth that the TimeLord was on. He was also doing other investigations.

 

Field Marshal Rear Admiral kept up his military campaign on one of the AlternateEarths. He fought to defend Moscow, and a large area of Russia, from a great enemy army that arrived from China with surprising speed.

 

On the TwistedEarth, the TwistedGod danced a twisted dance!

Edited July 28, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0118: Of SamWaSam and Others

 

SamWaSam was in HarmonyCity again but it had changed in the 'feel' of it though much of it was the same in appearance. Gone was the feel of enforced harmony. People were no longer behaving along rigidly program-conditioned lines. Unity was arisen. Subhumans, semihumans and muties moved freely amongst the crowds of humans though clearly not all humans were happy about this. There was more crowding and resources were even more stretched.

 

Yet SamWaSam liked that the place was getting to look more colorful, more mixed up in nature, as the newcomers had their influence along with the rise of Unity. As for the breings, they moved more openly amongst others and SamWaSam realized that they were aware of him as he passed some of them but none made any efforts to stop him, to communicate with him.

 

The breings had always, it turned out, had an exotic 'unity' of their own. They supported the rise of Unity, had allied themselves with the unityfolk, with the UnityLords. HarmonyLords still had much power and many loyal followers who were not of Unity. The HarmonyGovernment, the HarmonyPolice, the HarmonyArmy and other such institutions still supported them. HarmonyGuardians, and the HarmonyGuardmark of HarmonyGuards, both openly supported the arisen UnityLords of HarmonyCity. There was no trouble between the two factions.

 

AntiUnity elements had arisen to strike at Unity but fighting had not lasted very long. SamWaSam rode in a hovercar past a wrecked, half burned out, public building where AntiUnity fanatics had struck but had not survived very long. It had been HarmonyPolice Troopers who had dislodged them, who had shot them down, not Unity as such.

 

The old facilities were still being used, along with the public network-systems such as public transportation but changes were being made out of necessity. SamWaSam turned his vehicle from a main street, past where construction was being done on a high tower to support an extension of a new raised monorail network that would carry monotrains on top and smaller monotrams below. There were always two monorails, side by side, for two way traffic of both monotrains and monotrams.

 

After carefully parking the hovercar in a prearranged spot, he went to a door where stood a disguised HarmonyGuardian. The woman did no more than nod slightly. The HarmonyGuardians, with HarmonyGuards in attendance, had tracked down the place that Sammy Tomkins (when he and SamWaSam were one) remembered taking something special to. That was a compressed data-orb full of gathered data from a special station where there had been dead HarmonyWatchers, along with a MiniTransCube and a small notebook with strange symbols.

 

The big warehouse complex housed thousands of strange polarized status-capsules but they were open now and empty, not sealed tight with something 'sensed' inside them. SamWaSam had 'sensed' dark, powerful entities inside the status-capsules but there were only faint psychic residues left of them. SamWaSam went to the concrete block like TransCube and found he could open it. A UnityLord had failed to do so but did not seem surprised by it.

 

Marshal PayaZoPar was there, now revealed to be a UnitySublord. She had been involved in commanding fighting in the HarmonyUndercity and, later, in HarmonyCity proper. The HarmonyGuardians, and HarmonyGuards, had proven to be very effective fighters against both enemies in the Undercity and in the Overcity. Yet the Marshal clearly knew that the danger was far from over.

 

She spoke to Star Marshal SamWaSam, who was now her superior. “We found five of these big, well hidden warehouse complexes in all but only three were full of the status-capsules while one was half full. As far as we can tell, only about seventy percent of the capsules had anything in them but that meant thousands of large, powerful, undead creatures were here. We did not know what they were until we found some dead ones in a small antechamber. We suspected it was not meant for them to be left behind but that a mistake was made. With them was a document with some admin codes on it, a simple signature and a few words making little sense. Except they are called 'frankies' as in Frankenstein's Monster, and they are some kind of reanimants rather than the usual undead types. We strongly suspect that HarmonyPurity elements were secretly trying to create an army of the undead and only partly succeeded in their rather ambitious plans.”

 

The Marshal went on speaking. “It is still surprising, and disturbing, that they could get away with such a large project with out the majority of HarmonyLords learning the truth.”

 

SamWaSam frowned softly. “We may find that we have more unpleasant surprises coming to us.” He reached out and touched the fake concrete block, that fitted in neatly to the wall of big concrete blocks, and the TransCube opened up for him. It was, of course, much bigger inside than outside.

 

At that moment a strange, disturbing, shimmering trembling effect went through everything, even the people there. It lasted only a few seconds but it was to be only the first of many to come, each one being just a little stronger and longer lasting than the one before it.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Maharg67