Fallout Oblivion Wanderer

[Maharg67]

7.1[8]

 

Jack walked amongst the angry crowd of RiverCityfolk in the big public chamber in the battlecarrier. It was not very large but it was very vocal thanks to Halsome frightening people about too many refugees being accepted into the settlement. Most folks knew that, despite some security risks, that RivetCity needed a bigger population; anyway there was only a steady stream of refugees and most of them were from reluctantly abandoned smaller settlements.

 

In the expanding RivetCity Markets the Sisterhood of Compassion had set up an outpost tending to the needs of those newcomers with very little. Clothes, bedclothes, basic medical stuff and much more was given over that had been scavenged from the Wastelands. Jack had just come from there, donating a goodly quantity of emergency issue dollar coins in exchange for some useful, maybe useful and just interesting information. He would have given the donation anyway.

 

Jack strode up to Halsome and stopped. Halsome kept ranting and raving, swinging his arms around, but there was something very odd about him. His skin glistened and was flushed, his eyes were oddly glazed and he was oddly unsteady on his feet. Jack slipped out a silencer integrated assassin pistol and shot Halsome between the eyes with only a soft thudding noise. Halsome fell heavily to the metal decking and then his body began to jerk crazily, to dance, to twist, as thick green substance oozed from the hole in his forehead.

 

Stunned, the crowd ebbed away quite quickly but quietly as if not wanting to pay attention to themselves. They had been foolish enough to be tricked by a 'doppelganger', a thing of twisted urban mythologies and tales of the terrible Doomwar. The origin of doppelgangers was not often discussed but, when so, the entities tended to be linked with the zetan aliens.

 

Soon the RivetCity Sheriff's Office was involved, as were others including the DCRegulators, in careful forensics work.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

8.1[9]

 

Halsome's death, naturally enough, caused a storm of controversy but more so did the shock discovery that it was not the real Halsome but a doppelganger that had died. Were there more such sneaky beasties in RivetCity and how dangerous were they?

 

Jack, of the DCRegulators, gave out a public statement to be published in the weekly newspaper of the RivetCity Chronicle but in a special, one broadsheet, edition printed on a different day than normal. Jack stated that the DCRegulators had gained a warning, about the doppelganger, from an unknown source; this was true. The broadsheets were tacked to boards, or stuck to walls, all through the inhabited areas of RivetCity.

 

Of course certain politicians tried to use the incident to gain support for the approaching election to the Leadership Council and were promptly told to stop it by RivetCity Security, the RivetCity Sheriff and the DCRegulators along with others. Nobody needed any panic starting just to help some politicians gain more votes. The worst culprits were Brennan, the clothing shop owner, Sabbage, the caretaker overseer, and Ralsman the former RivetCity Security Commander. Brennan was power hungry and petty corrupt, Sabbage was corrupt and Ralsman was both egomanical and paranoid. According to those gambling secretly on the up coming election, none of the three had any chance of winning due to deep unpopularity amongst those who could vote. Brennan was racing to lose his seat, on the Leadership Council, that he had barely managed to keep it in the last election.

 

Jack opened up a cache, in the luxury liner near one of its mighty engines. He shook his head at the carefully preserved collection of fine wines, oil paintings, Elvis Pelvis vynle records and much else including celebration collectable bottles of NukaCola. The most surprising were a series of VaultTek bobbleheads.

 

"Thats a Babe Ruth signed baseball bat." Brennan grinned greedily. "We could divide..."

 

Abraham Washinton finished for him. "your head from your neck! Everything goes to the established collections for RivetCityfolk and to draw even more tourists and their much needed recognised currencies and valuable tradegoods."

 

Brenan frowned and shrugged. "If I give you more support, will you put up one of my advertising posters in the museum?"

 

Washington nodded. "Yes, a very good idea. Now, what do we take first?"

 

Jack scowled. "The cache is boobytrapped. Touch nothing unless you want to die. Look, you can see a very fine wire just there. Both of you leave and get hold of people, other than myself, who know how to do with this sort of thing."

 

Why boobytrap a cache, of luxuries and related items, hidden behind a false wall close to a large engine in the liner?

 

Sanshaw spoke soon after arriving with two other DCRegulators. "This was used as a troopship and perhaps also in other, more cladestine, ways by the old US Government. The obvious cache could hide something of far greater value. Or it could be that somebody was an extremely keen collector of bobbleheads and NukaCola."

 

Jack gave a grinsmile. "Time to find out. We will need to examine every item there to make sure that they aren't more than they seem to be."

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

8.2[10]

 

Detriggering the boobytrap turned out to be quite easy and the items, in the ocean liner cache, were taken to the DCRegulator Outpost based in the battlecarrier.

 

Abraham Washington became an honourary DCRegulator, as did his wife and robot along with two others. In return for some DCRegulator items, and other artefacts gained by them, they would do some research work for the special law enforcement, investigation, force.

 

The Babe Ruth signed baseball bat went with other valuable Predoomsday collectibles and in the same display cases.

 

The VaultTek bobbleheads would prove to have odd, tiny, codes half hidden on the undersides of their bases but there was doubt that these had anything to do with the mystery involving the hybrid sumbarine, the ancient labyrinth and the activities of the secretive, elite, type of Talon Mercenaries.

 

The items, from the ocean liner cache, turned out to be quite normal for what they were. The wines went into a special storage room, the paintings up onto gallery walls of the centre, sculptures went into display cases and did the special releases of NukaCola.

 

Then they found it on the back of an oil painting of the rebuilt white domed TripleAssembly that had been once named just the Congress on the 'hill'. It was a map of some bunker type structure that was deep hidden beneath the inshore area of the old musuem. In that there appeared to be the exotic amphibious submarine but it was but one of such devices given only bare information on that map.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

9.1[11]

 

Jack fired his fairly akward to use EMPgun at a turret and it ceased to shoot its machinegun. It had suddenly dropped down from the ceiling in the approach area to the hidden bunker proper. The use of three makeshift EMPguns was proving to have advantages in knocking down robotic, and turret, defences but it was fairly slow going. The approach area was a fairly small but cunningly designed maze with heavily armoured-armed protectrons and turrets but also fixed laserguns shooting zigzag patterns, drop pits and explosive mines.

 

Then, abruptly, it was over. The turret turned out to be the last of the dangerous obstacles and Sanshaw made her way carefully up to the big vault like wheeldoor thus revealed. Hacking into it, by Manca, was made easier by her cybernetic side and then the big door slid back before rolling to one side.

 

It was inside like a government military style bunker mingled with VaultTech details. Most networksystems were semiactive or inactive but some basic remoterobots glided around cleaning. They passed through a security focused entrance area but found there only semiactive protectrons in bays and non reacting turrets. The air was only slightly stale, the soft humming of air regulation systems being audible.

 

The only symbol, to be seen on the walls and doors, was the same as the one that had been on the wheeldoor exterior; it was a US style star in the center of a circle that was surrounded by a kind of sunburst of what seemed like lightly undulating tentacles caught fast.

 

Jack was not pleased at the sight of the symbol. "Some very strange factions arose in the last three decades before Doomsday and one was Hydrathul being based on an ancient mythological entity similar to the more famous Culthu. Many claimed that Culthu, and other creatures related it, were real though most accounts of them were inaccurate. The DarkOnes, the DeepOnes, the OldOnes, the YoungOnes and the LightOnes were but some of the species written of along with the OneOnes and the ThreeTwoOnes."

 

Sanshaw gave him a soft frown. "Those last two?"

 

He grinsmiled. "Okay I may have made those up."

 

They found the amphibious submarine held in a cradle above water of a water dock. With its tracks, hoverjets and other features it looked most odd and yet somehow impressive. In the same great big chamber were three more variations of the amphibious submarine that appeared to be earlier versions. The chamber also five small stealth minisubmarines along with a row of amphibious power armour and lots of related gear.

 

In a way, the biggest surprise, came to meet them in the form of a group of body-armoured humans and androids who had been in status for over two centuries. With them came four dogs.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

9.2[12]

 

There were 218 humans, 156 androids, 55 robots and 25 dogs making up part of a taskforce that had been set up, centuries ago, to further investigate something very mysterious, and troubling, beneath Washington DC. The rest of the taskforce was, hopefully, in the massive USSS Trident that had been intented to carry out a very odd mission.

 

Very attractive Darna Scullie, of the XFAIA (XFiles Archival Investigation Agency) spoke to the DCRegulators. "What you tell us indicates the worst type of scenario took place on Doomsday with world wide destruction being unleashed."

 

Jack shrugged. "The situation is not so straight forward. Along with advanced nuclear, biological and chemical superweapons were used more exotic ones. It comes down to this, there appears to have vanished away a great deal of the PreDoomsday population just before or during Doomsday. Evidence of the dead does not add up to the number that, in theory, should have perished. I say this because survivors are still trying to solve such mysteries. We could complete your mission and hopefully that might give us more answers to what took place."

 

Very handsome Foxie Mulder spoke with clear concern. "Priority is to get to the Trident submarine and to see how our people there have survived."

 

Scullie nodded. "That needs to be one of our high priorities but we need to fulfil others. We need data about what has happened to the world or at least as much as you can provide us with."

 

The big bunker had living, working and related facilities for those who came out of status including stored resources. The newly status arisen would take some days to be fully awake, when it came to the living ones, but the androids were already alert. They, along with the robots, were busy serving the humans and the dogs were busy sleeping much of the time.

 

A tunnel went from the bunker to the Trident submarine. Thanks to the XFAIA people having all of the right codes, there was no trouble getting into the massive submarine.

 

The 24 Trident III nuclear missiles, and releated hardware, having been removed gave the massive submarine far more space for entities and for special facilities. and there were more people in status, being both humans and animans (animal human hybrid humanoids). That was 200 humans, 56 animans, 55 androids and 89 robots along with lots of smaller, more basic, remoterobots.

 

It was a big shock, to the humans and animans, about what had taken place on Doomsday and afterwards. Many had lost people and vague hopes of finding those in status, or in some other way, did not greatly help. People focused on the new reality and working to both survive it, to work with the RivetCityfolk and others, and to carry out old missions just to keep a sense of purpose.

 

What helped was the discovery that the Wanderer had visited both the XFAIA Bunker and the submarine; there MrsMystery had fixed up problems, enhanced-augmented tech, added resources and had done some special extras. It was a relatively small set of changes but important including the special extras.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

10.1[13]

 

There were some odd wastewhispers (Wasteland whispers) of river vessels being stolen, salvaged, by an unknown group. RivetCityfolk operated a fair few of the smaller ships, and boats, of the museum. Groups of ferries travelled across the river in one direction to Shoretown and in another to the 2050 Celebatory Gardens now known as Gardenville. It was from Shoretown that most concerning rumours came of heavily armed vessels being seen heading for the same place and that was an old construction yard of large boats to small ships.

 

Fisherboats sailed the wide river as did traderboats and mixed passenger-cargo vessels. Increasing guardboats travelled with them that belonged to the new DCCommonwealth's Riverguardia. The DCC had approached RivetCity, asking them to become an important part of the growing nationstate. RivetCityfolk were interested but understanderbly wary.

 

Now those same RivetCityfolk were trying to come to terms with there being a whole lot of status arisers being active in the recently unknown bunker complex and massive Trident Submarine. Diplomatic negotiations, limited trading and other interactions had already begun.

 

Jack spoke in a large meeting of RivetcityFolk, DCRegulators and XFAIA leadership people along with others such as Abraham Washington, Mother Aldus Compassionate and three DCC envoys. "They are the Brotherhood of Steel being a faction come all the way from California in a great airfleet of airships, aeroships and long range aeroplanes. There are signs they have gone through hell at least once. They are now landing at the DCCitadel that was once the OldPentagon that having been destroyed during the Second American Civil War, not to be confused with the deep underground NewPentagon. The DCCitadel was well sealed up and secured by autorobotic networksystems but it opened up for the newcomers as it prepared to welcome them. Do not get this wrong; this is a large scale movement of a large well experienced, well equipped and dangerous people. Nor would it be any surprise if this is just the first group to arrive."

 

Mother Aldus spoke out. "Forgive me for breaking in but three more large groups are coming being one by land, one by sea and one beneath the ground. All will be much larger than this one. They will contain far more than BrotherSisters of Steel. This faction is known as the BrotherSisterhood of Steel, the BSoS. It broke away from the traditional Brotherhood of Steel that now calls itself the Loyalist Brotherhood of Steel, the LSoS, the term 'loyalist' implying that the BSoS and other break away factions are 'traitors'. I only got this information about five days ago through means that I will not speak of here and now."

 

Brennan snorted. "When it rains, it storms; when it storms, it floods; when it floods it drowns. Old Wastelands Saying from the DCWasteland Chronicles as written by my grandfather, Benjamin C Brennan."

 

Araham Washington spoke. "I would like to speak to you about your fairly infamous grandfather."

 

After that odd little diversion, a surprise to many there that the merchant Brennan was linked to that other Brennan, the meeting went on.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

10.2[14]

 

As the 'interesting' meeting went on it was clear that some kind of regional defence alliance had to be formed between various factions. There was the Union of Semiautonomous Settlements that RivetCity, Megaton, Rivertown and other settlements belonged to, a few of them just barely large enough to be called such.

 

The slowly-steadily expanding DCCommonwealth had swallowed up some settlements and territories being mostly 'across the river' from RivetCity; it was outside of WashingtonDC and the great dome.

 

The DCRegulators were a special case needing a special agreement as did the Sisterhood Compassionate and the XFAIA. Then there were the newly arrived BrotherSisterhood of Steel, the Sisterhood of Steel and many smaller factions that could be very useful allies.

 

The DCSyndicates were a total no no as they simply could not be trusted as the 10Families could not be who ran the 10 DCSyndicates. The Talon Mercenaries were linked to the 10Families including the most powerful Tenpenny Family and also could not be worked with.

 

When the meeting was completed the only real decision made was that more information had to be gained, more meetings had to be held and the BSofS had to be approached.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

11.1[15]

 

Jack spoke as he sat, leaning back in an office chair, studying a makeshift map of RivetCity on one wall. "The USSS Patriot is the battlecarrier, the USSS Stalwart is the battleship, the USCS Delights is the luxury liner, the USCS Samson is the containership and the USSS Scientific is the research ship. The smaller, but still large, submarine is the USSS Deepwaters being a stealth-attack boat. The bigger Trident submarine has the imaginative name of the USSS Trident. Then there are the various display buildings, warehouses, workshops and so forth long ago changed. Now there is the newly discovered bunker complex with its amphibious submarines and stealth submarines."

 

Then he changed subjects. "The various groups of vessels, using the river, have their own guardboats so why would the DCCommonwealth, that we know too little about, want to use its own guardboats to do the same?"

 

Sanshaw stood half nakedly before a big mirror. "A good will gesture helping to convince various settlements to join with them! A chance to openly recon the river while having an official excuse to do so! A chance to give their RiverGuardia personnel live training and more experience! We know very little about the DCC."

 

Jack frowned softly. "'Something' does not add up, something is niggling at me."

 

Then he took out the rainbowsphere he had held before, that had somehow transformed and brought back Mantca to life. Nothing amazing, at least nothing apparent, had happened with the exotic artefact since. He realised, with a shock, that he had not done much thinking about the artefact or what it had done. That, in itself, was most odd. Did the Rainbowsphere has some kind of self protective influence on the minds around it and if so, why so?

 

Then he turned to Sanshaw. "Why are you bare from the waist up?"

 

She sighed. "I have been trying to seduce you for a long time. Subtly does not work with you so here I am!" She began to remove more items.

 

Jack smiled. "I fully agree to being seduced and you are truly gorgeous and sexy." Then he began to undress.

 

Sanshaw smiled. "Flattery will get everything."

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

12.1[16]

 

The new alliance was firstly formed between the DCRegulators, the Sisterhood Compassionate and the XFAIA.

 

That was officially so but unofficially the FreeRailroad did the same that helped escaped androids, and other TriInstitute escapees, along with such as enslaved radghoulmans. One of the DCSyndicates specialised in radghoulman slaves but there were other slavers out there in the Wastelands.

 

Captain Harkness met Jack, and Sanshaw, in a semienclosed upper deck overlooking the flight deck once dotted with display aircraft long ago taken into storage. Small dirigible vessels, airboats, landed at the flight deck. They came mostly from the DCC bringing with them trade, doing so in guarded airconvoys. RivetCity had three airboats and a small flyingboat with one of the airboats being prepared for patrol duties as part of the RivetGuardia.

 

Harkness frowned. "RivetSecurity is what folks call us. Not sure that I like the name but it has grown on me. Despite having a secondary programmed personality to call upon generally, I am a replicant android but not a synth. I escaped from the NewEngland Commonwealth, from both the old TriInstitute and the NEC Government that is heavily under its influence through various means. The Minutemen gave me some help but it was mostly the FreeRailroad that assisted me along with some, well, everyday people. The TriInstitute is officially based mainly in a oversized vault that is mostly of VaultTech design but with some interesting secondary features. Like many I suspect that they have at least one secret complex of far greater sophistication and advanced technologies. Androids come from the TriVault but synths come from somewhere unknown even to most TriInstitute people. There is not much else that I can show you."

 

Jack nodded. "Perhaps the RCRDA (RivetCity Research Development Agency) would want to take a look at you."

 

The replicant shook his head. "Horace Pinkerton knows far more about androids than do the boffins of the RCRDA, or the Rivetboffins, as they are often called. The Rivetboffins are producing fresh, healthy, crops of fruit and vegetables along with healing processes. They are fixing up RivetCity in various ways. Horace Pinkerton is in exile deep in the levels of this vessel, being very close to the bow. He gave me the special programming that helps to conceal my true nature. I go there, sometimes, to keep him company. He can't abide most human company but enjoys mine. We play chess or just exchange intellectual banter. It is generally believed he vanished because of growing disagreements with Doctor Madison Li but this is not true. It was the growing threat of the TriInstitute, and its varied kinds of agents, that caused him to go into hiding. Madison goes down to talk with him, now and then, to discuss matters for Pinkerton still has some standing with the RCRDA and is secretly a Rivetboffin."

 

Harkness went on. "Pinkerton has some kind of past links with the TriInstitute, having spent time in NewEngland, but he has not spoken much of it even with me. What he has told Madison is unknown to me."

 

Sanshaw spoke. "I am a cyborg with replicant aspects to my body."

 

Harkness did not seem at all surprised. "I suspected something but Jack, well you mystify me."

 

Jack shrugged. "I am just Jack the DCRegulator. Will you take us to see Pinkerton?"

 

The android nodded. "With his permission, yes!"

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

13.1[17]

 

White labcoat wearing supergenius Walter Bishop was examining the 3Dblueprint for the amphibious submarine. It had the official code of SAV111222333 but it had been given the unofficial name of the USSS Deepseeker. The other, earlier, prototypes had been given no such name. "This was the work of very brilliant but eccentric individuals, such as myself. Bell, and I, worked briefly on what might have been an early phase of the same program. That is before I focused on creating generally cheaper, but efficient, bionics for veterans and others needing replacement limbs or organs or both. Bell considered that I had become weak in removing myself from more troubling research development programs such as the..." He shrugged. "Such knowledge was removed from me as a price for my freedom and being able to sleep better at night. Too bad the idea did not work as well as I had hoped it would. I was at one time naive to the dark side of William Bell's character but now it would not surprise me if he had done more than agreed with my poor brain."

 

They were in part of the massive submarine already set up to be an investigative chamber.

 

The tough, attractive, Astrid studied the 3Dblueprint with him wearing her own white labcoat. She had turned out to be quite brilliant, in her own right, and had picked up a good deal of learning while being Walter's assistant. "It seems to be that after the mission, that went into the ancient tunnels, that there were some modifications made that strengthened it defensive and even offensive abilities. The medical, and other service, bays were also enhanced-augmented as were the instrument arrays. Yet there is something 'missing' in those 3Dblueprint. I get the feeling that this might be the official one."

 

Walter nodded. "Excellently done, Astrid! The amount of power generated by non emergency means is not explained properly unless one introduces electricity hungry technologies. I suggest a deep phasescanner and even some kind of phase isolation field projector. The people who actually worked on this project, who had vanished before we came along, were both very intelligent and highly skilled but they may have been pushed to their very limits by what challenges that faced them."

 

The XFAIA Taskforce had arrived in time to find an empty Trident Submarine and base, to carry out just over almost a year's work before going into status, and other kinds, of capsules. They had no memories of doing so and, indeed, the last two months of their being in the bunker and submarine.

 

Walter frowned. "It appears we, of the taskforce, have been manipulated in a most mysterious and frustrating manner. It is time for a nice cup of tea and some flower power rockinroll of the '60s'."

 

Astrid smiled. "We have some of those fruit nut biscuits that you like so much."

 

Walter beamed. "Traces of true civilisation have survived after all."

Edited January 10, 2019 by Maharg67