Ring of Rings Science Fantasy Epic Extraordinaire

[Maharg67]

21.2

 

It was about five days after the arrival, of Essie and others, in the city zone, Essie was looking out of the apartment window at the harbor and cityscape. It was darkness as Sara was seeking information from the Lunar Labyrinth Internet. They were in Sara's apartment. Sara had taken the week off and her police commander had proven very agreeable to the idea.

 

Sara spoke. “The ultra secret war, that Amandavus mentioned, would be focused heavily here in NewNewYork considering the corporate and political importance of this place to the Lunar Labyrinth Colonies.”

 

Essie nodded. “We (the GrandThirteen) already knew there was some kind of secret war going on and had even heard the names of Paxis, Puritism and Illuminati but we had not fixed those three as major players in the secret war. There is far too much information, far too many names, clouding such issues and I doubt that this is an accident. Trick is to know what the three sides actually are, what are they seeking and how they are doing so. I doubt any of them have anything directly to do with Unity and perhaps now it is a four way secret war.”

 

Sirens sounded in the distance, most of them being police followed by ambulance sirens and then by fire engine sirens. She could hear no SWAT sirens even with her enhanced hearing. Perhaps that could have soothed her except she kept 'sensing' that something was quite wrong.

 

One of the Transgates, that opened into the Lunar Labyrinth, was based at the very edge of the NewNewYork Suncavernland at a big island. People were processed there after they came through the Waygate there, from the Earth, as were animals and goods. Now the quarantine would be expanded, along with testing and other processing.

 

The other important thing to understand was that Amandavus may consider the information she gave as more accurate, more valid, than it really was.

 

Then Essie saw it in the far distance, across the waters, moving slowly into the suncavernland. It was glimmering green purplish fog moving over the waters of the great harbor bay area. Inside it were many undead things, she could 'sense' them being transported over the waters that would quickly drown, and destroy, them otherwise.

 

Then she heard the sounds of missiles and autocannons being fired from harbor fortifications and naval vessels. Yes, naval vessels for there were even more big bodies of water inside the moon than there were on the home world. Some suncavernlands were filled with large oceans though none yet had been found that were even half the size of the Pacific or Atlantic.

 

Air raid sirens began to sound across the city. A trio of subsonic jumpjets shot overhead, subsonic jets being favored for practical use in cavernlands be they STOL, VTOL or standard longer take off, and landing, machines. The subsonic jumpjets unleashed longer range missiles, turned and sped back to reload. They would not get closer to the glimmering fog until they had to do so.

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0022: GRANDTHIRTEEN; NEWNEWYORK INVASION OF THE UNDEAD

22.1

 

It soon became clear that the city had been preparing for a possible strange invasion because of the growing troubles with both the undead and the unlifen. Yet it also became clear that, from the first, the city defenses, and various services, were stretched to deal with the crisis. Other troubles had weakened NewNewYork, along with other Colonial areas, along with the whole of Moontropolis of which NewNewYork was only a part of though a large important part.

 

Commercial mercenaries soon joined in the defensive effort as did Colonial Guardsmen and local militias along with groups of volunteers with at least basic training and experience with guns. The noises of battle increased. There came the great boom, and flash, of a ship exploding even as it sank into the glimmering fog of undeath.

 

Undead threats left the glimmering fog behind them. Swarms of vamprires, twisted bat like creatures, came flying through the air along with bloated sphere creatures with three tentacles that each ended in three smaller tentacles; these new undead were of different sizes and the bigger they were, the more powerful. They were a real threat and the only good thing about them was they only numbered in the hundreds while there were only a handful of the biggest, most powerful kinds. These were globevires, the name soon spreading more quickly through the Known Lunar Labyrinth than the actual monsters did.

 

The group went to the Harborside and joined other defensive units there. Weapons, of all kinds, were being brought out of storage. They had become rejuvenated as they had come through from the Transways and much of it had ended up in the vast NewNewYork warehouse complexes, most of them being underground.

 

Scullerra, and Foxulder, had been going through NewNewYork seeking information but had not gone to the Undersafe Markets. They had attempted, as shapeshifting infiltrators, to learn more about Kenneth Irons and had gained some data, of dubious value, with much effort. Kenneth Irons had his own secret group, the Ironic Artifacts Agency, seeking out strange artifacts and antiques. The IAA helped fund itself by finding antiques and selling them at a profit. Both full time and freelance professionals worked for it.

 

They showed up at the docks where the others were preparing for the on coming threat. In the distance were more explosions as people chose to blow themselves up rather than face a fate worse than death inside the glimmering fog; that is they would not allow themselves to join the ranks of the undead. Some escaped down through structures leading to hard ground and then underground. A submarine slipped away through the water, protected by the water itself, even as it fired off the last of its underwater to surface missiles and its last smart torpedoes.

 

Only a minority of folks owned private transport and the people fleeing from the fog, often into bunkers but, more often, away were using public transit networks and emergency transit networks.

 

Explosions flashed at the edges of the oncoming fog and others were happening inside the fog but being hidden by it.

 

Then something strange happened for the flying undead turned and began to fly back to the glimmering green-purple fog and the fog itself began to reverse, to pull back out of the great NewNewYork Suncavernland. It had begun attacking but then, for unexplained reasons, decided not to continue with the onslaught on NewNewYork. It was good, for enough lives had been lost but many more would have been, not to mention those who would have been 'turned' undead.

[Maharg67]

22.2

 

Soon helicopters were racing out to the rescue of those who had been trapped by the fog but had managed to keep it out. Ships, boats, a flying-boat, all were drifting on the waters and fortifications were sealed up. The undead had vanished, including newly turned undead. Many undead had perished, having been destroyed by a determined resistance.

 

Essie stood looking out to see as, around her, the city celebrated the fact that disaster had been averted. There was much relief but some were already demanding that new forms of security, and defenses, be established for NewNewYork.

 

RingMind: The glimmering fog was not meant to invade NewNewYork but is making its way to the amazing Gateway Chamber. It blundered into NewNewYork, decided it did not want to risk being greatly damaged or even destroyed, and made a retreat. The glimmering fogs have an intelligence, of sorts, though a far different one than humanity has.

 

Essie: The glimmering fog, of undeath, took a wrong turn? It was a wrong turn that cost many lives and fates worth than death.

 

RingMind: The situation would have been far worse if the glimmering fog had not turned back.

 

Essie: Where does the glimmering undeath fog come from and what is it?

 

RingMind: Somehow it develops out of the undead themselves in a process that is amazingly bizarre and hard to comprehend. Yet it mostly appears as weaker mist and not as fog so something else is happening inside the Lunar Labyrinth that is not so easily explained.

 

Essie frowned. The GrandThirteen needed to focus, needed to try to deal with one, or very few, quests at the one time. Yet she 'sensed' that all the quest objectives were somehow linked, as were the quests, as were various events taking place in the Lunar Labyrinth.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0023: FIELD MARSHAL REAR ADMIRAL: THE COMING OF DRAGONS

23.1

 

The decision was made to not only allow the unlifen, and undead, hordes to reach the Triple Waygate Chamber but to 'assist' them to do so in both passive and aggressive ways. The passive was to get out of their way and the aggressive was to attack them if they went the wrong way. Much of this decision making was made by Unity and its allies but far from all. 'Friendly' undead and unlifen were ordered to be left alone as future possible allies, assets, to humanity. The same was to be done with those who were alive but no longer human, as long as they were classified as 'friendly' or at least 'neutral'.

 

Field Marshal Rear Admiral found that he was soon fighting no major battles but carrying out careful military actions to 'steer' both unlifen and undead in the right direction. He had formed unofficial fighting, and other, units but now unlifen, undead and muties were formed into official units as part of his new Strategic Special Strikeforce, the SSSF. The SSSF was busy tracking the undeath horde that almost invaded NewNewYork along with one other such big undeath horde that was vanishing in the Crossenways Zone. One unlifen force was vanishing away in the same area. Strangely enough the unlifen, and undead, there were not fighting each other so intent were they in going somewhere through various Transgates. Another two forces, of unlifen, were soon to reach the same zone and probably to vanish.

 

The vanishing of the undead, and unlifen, was far from being any real solution to the long term threat of such to humanity and others. Field Marshal Rear Admiral was convinced that some kind of expedition had to go through the Transgates to find out just where the hostile undead, and hostile unlifen, had gone and why they had done so? What link did these events have to do with the ill fated OverFuture Program, Project and Agency? What had happened to all of those people who had gone through Transgates only to never return, the Transgates being locked from their side? Also why were Transgates now open so as to allow so many hostile undead, and unlifen, to go through them?

 

It was not hard to smell some kind of powerful, subtle, cunning manipulator behind what was happening but also not hard to be needlessly paranoid.

 

FMRA strode, in power-armor that made him look much like any other power-soldier, amongst power-armored figures constructing a new base that was founded on a large underground bunker complex. Prefabricated sections, often modular, were being added including weapon turrets, sensor turrets and even some holochambers, elevators and other mechanisms. Hovercraft moved across the terrain as did advanced tracked and wheeled vehicles. Hub-rotor helicopters moved through the air, their armored bodies bristling with weapons and other devices. Not all were fighting machines being lightly armed carriers, medivacs and even such as air mobile workshops.

 

The Suncavernland was unpopulated by humanity and mostly wilderness. FMRA had decided most of it would remain untouched, protected, of flora and fauna. Yet there had been outposts built there in the past, two of which were of great interest to FMRA and to the SSSF, along with others. Yet he would not send his standard people there or even his 'regular special forces'. No, he would send FEAR being First Encounter Assault Recon. FEAR Troopers were supersoldiers with special psionic abilities that made them most dangerous but they had to be used with care because of their slightly unstable nature, psychologically speaking.

 

The large underground base, beneath them, was not of concern. It had been a standard government outpost designed for discretion and to do minimum harm to the local environment, along with safety and security. The special outposts, that FEAR would deal with, where not on that great big island but across a great wide channel on-in a small continent. Both were linked to the BigFour and to something called the OverFuture Program including related Project and Agency.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

23.2

 

Then something happened that changed matters yet again. In the distance a dragon appeared, graceful and reptilian in appearance, a kind of transformed dinosaur, legs folded up beneath as it shot gracefully through the air. In truth the wings could be used more traditionally but also more exotically for dragons were 'paranormal' entities beyond the bounds of general nature.

 

Dragons meant trouble or at least they could do. He wondered if it was Imperial, Royal, Tribal or of another of the major Dragon Factions.

 

The LittleFatMan was suddenly standing there almost as if he had always been there. “Dragons also came here a long long time ago after they suffered as part of the War of Fragmentation. They have good reason to fear, to hate, the undead and the unlifen, though less so. That is an Imperial Scout and he is not alone but is with other male drones and a leading female, of course. You could fight them but I doubt you would choose to do that.”

 

“No, we would be allies as I have allied myself with dragons in the past though not often with Imperial Dragons. I take it they have an empire here.” Field Marshal Rear Admiral shook his head in wonder. “Yes, I will reach out.”

 

Then came flying towards him the female dragon with an escort of two, smaller but still big and powerful, males. He noted the power-devices attached to them, the energy weapons, sensors and other things including enhancements to natural armor.

 

He sighed and realized that the LittleFatMan had already arranged a meeting. He half expected that the LFM would have vanished but no, the LittleFatMan was still there. It was odd that 'he' would choose to be part of any negotiations and showed that matters must be very serious indeed if he chose to be so.

 

He ordered all construction work to pause, for all but a few of his people to withdraw underground or away. Dragons could be very skittish at times, even relatively disciplined Imperial Dragons, and he wanted there to be no trouble at that critical meeting.

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0024: GRANDTHIRTEEN: TROUBLES IN THE RINGBASE DOMELAND

24.1

 

They were gone, the unlifen and undead hordes, though there remains still some hostiles of both kinds to cause trouble. Crossenways was returned mostly to normal, at least as 'normal' as Crossenways could ever get.

 

RingBase had many new people living there, along with saved animals and plants. There were also friendly undead, and unlifen, there. The GrandThirteen were there also and were very happy to be so. They managed to do much, including the neobabies and exotic hybrid-animals. Time flowed twice faster inside the RingBase Domeland than it did 'outside',

 

More refugees were arriving every day even as more androids, robots and roboremotes became active in the RingBase and also outside of it in the Domeland.

 

Essie, who was also in NewNewYork, made her way along a paved secondary highway in a antigrav hovercraft of a kind known as a hoversled. She was not alone as Pussydog was with her along with an assortment of humans, including clones, and some androids. There had been some trouble in the area and the hoversled was lightly armored and moderately armed. A second hoversled followed with humans in power-armor and combat androids. There were also five roboremote combat-drones flying low overhead, hovering ahead, hovering to either side and to the rear of the hoversleds. These were heavily armored-armed.

 

Trouble? Some of the RingWalled Settlements had suddenly decided that they would take actual ownership of territories, not just of the settlements, but of the local areas. They had been granted limited stewardship, no more, and other folks were far from happy. The rebels were oomans, smooth skinned hairless human like people, whose ancestors had been given sanctuary on compassionate grounds; the ancestors had fought for good but the oomans had a streak of territorial aggression that they had always been forced to guard against. In this way they were like the worst of humanity. They were amazingly loyal to each other, far more so than humans had been on many occasions.

 

The trouble had begun when, and why? Nobody seemed to know except that three strange strangers had appeared in the RingTown of Stophisburg, had begun to influence the Oomanic Elders Council that was based there. The strange strangers had provided five oomanic elders, and their followers, with more advanced military style equipment than they had had previously. Then the fighting had begun, had ended with the imprisoning of three elders.

 

Essie had made contacts with local oomans opposed to the rebels, along with other people opposed to the rather offensive ooman plans that would see other peoples pushed off their lands. Hairy wozzle warriors, stocky dwarn (dwarf) soldiers, and others were moving in columns into the area. Loyalist ooman soldiers had faced off against rebel ooman soldiers but with less powerful equipment. Still, loyalists outnumbered the rebels by more than three to one.

 

Essie, from the start, 'sensed' there was more to what was happening then was on the surface. The strange strangers, she worked out, could gain little by starting what would be a short lived local rebellion. One way, or another, the rebellion had to fail. So what had the 'strange strangers' really been up to, what were they after if they had not already gained it?”

 

The column slowed as from the distance came the muffled noises of gunfire and small explosions. Thick forests muffled the noises more than did the actual distance. The fighting sounded sporadic. Then the column reached the edge of the forest and it ended. Word came quickly. The rebels had surrendered abruptly upon learning that the three strange strangers had betrayed them.

[Maharg67]

24.2

 

Feeling very stupid now, the five 'rebel' ooman elders sat forlornly on wooden chairs. They were two women and three men. They could not explain, understand, how they had so easily, so quickly, fallen under the influence of the strange strangers but Essie knew. They had been confronted by powerful, subtle, deadly psychic manipulators who had played upon the fears, hopes and other facets of the elders' natures.

 

Essie sat on a chair facing the elders. “Fools yes, and a small number of oomans have died because of your foolishness, but you fell under the influence of ancient beings well versed in manipulating people like yourself, mortals as you are. So most of the plastic crates of equipment, and supplies, given to you turned out to be full of junk. What did you give them in turn? That is why they really came here for so please speak and be honest.”

 

AvanTisha spoke, she being shamed of honor that she would never be elder again or of any high level of leadership amongst the oomans. “We gave them an artifact that had been found in the local forests. It was a small orb, of crystal material, that glowed softly. We have digital recordings of it in 3D. We tried to run scans on it, to probe it, but all such attempts failed. I voted we turn it over to the RingBase, especially after you came to be there but then I began to have strange dreams. In the dreams somebody told me that if we kept the artifact then we could exchange it for some treasures that would allow us to regain our ancient territorial pride as oomans.”

 

The 3Dvideo recordings of the sphere concerned Essie greatly. She was looking at a RingOrb, a power-artifact linked with the RingOfRings and a key to various facets of the RingOfRings, to various secured hidden sectors of the RingBase itself. She felt furious with the foolish oomans for passing over such a dangerous device to the 'strange strangers' and yet became focused on doing something about the problem rather than punishing the ooman elders, and their followers.

 

Essie launched an investigation of just what had taken place and of the three strange strangers. The GrandThirteen began a wide searching sweep across the RingBase, and its Domeland, for any other power-artifacts that might be out there along with anything else of interest.

 

The big puzzle was how such a power-artifact had gotten out into the Domeland when, officially, they were all carefully locked away inside the RingBase. The mystery deepened when it was proven that all official RingOrbs were still safely stored away, along with other official RingArtifacts. The only explanations seemed to be that more RingArtifacts had been created than was officially recorded or acknowledged.

 

Such answers led to other questions, to many other questions, especially when Essie found heavily secured datafiles referring to something known as the GrandThirteen; the datafiles were ancient, were far older than any known human civilization of the home world. The frustrating fact was that the references came with no strong information at all. Datafiles referred to datafiles that were missing from the databanks as if they had been very carefully erased.

 

She also found references to the Witchblades, and related artifacts, but the main datafiles referred to had also been carefully erased. Indeed a great mass of data had been carefully destroyed. Yet Essie did not give up hope for she also found references to both open and secret data back up network-systems. Perhaps not all important data had been erased.

 

The rebellion over, it could never have even begun to be successful, the search for the strange strangers was launched from many points across the Domeland. Yet Essie had a strong feeling that they would not be found for the whole plot had been too well planned for that to happen.

[Maharg67]

I have decided to redo this story as part of the Me Myself and I story topic.

 

If you do not like this idea then you will need to tell me so and if enough of you do not like it I will continue this story as it is.