Me, Myself and I

[Maharg67]

0120: WE WERE THE GRANDTHIRTEEN

 

At the outskirts of NewNewYork we assisted in the healing of victims of the invasions and the savage counter-attacks by the Perfectum. The Perfectum had struck in the form of thousands of blood red and black death-machines that hovered, flew or swam. They had done savage damage to the undead invaders but they had also been prone to attacking the people be they the most basic of citizens or the elite Special Forces in power armor. So it was no surprise that a few of the wounded were of the sub-elite military, and paramilitary, forces.

 

The outpost sprawled out as a barely organized set of foam-domes, tents and vehicles along with some vehicle trailers.

 

We noted where an undead zetan saucerboat had ended up smashed into a hillside not far from a lightly crumpled farm house. We also noted that the symbols on the outside were distorted versions of those normally found on the hulls of zetan vessels.

 

The LittleFatWoman came to us, almost as if she had always been there, and stood with us. We had done much good work but even as she stood there folks resurrected, healed, awoke from waking dreams of despair. She spoke. "All that died have been resurrected. The GeniusThirteen are trying in vain to regain control of the Perfectum that they had no command of during this crisis. Yes, the zetan symbols are distorted for those, versions of zetan kind, came from the Mirror Multiverse of undeath-unlife as versus our Multiverse of life-death. The same is true of all of the invading groups plucked here but soon they will be drawn back to where they came from."

 

Then the saucerboat vanished, with a slight shimmer of displaced reality, as did all remains of invaders.

 

The LittleFatWoman gave out some small nutritional cakes and bottles of refreshing drink from a big shoulderbag. The robotic entity got a burst of refreshing rejuvenating energies. She spoke. "The reason the invaders came here was because of a ripple of reality change that took place here in Marstopia; the Perfectum has been absorbed totally by another entity of very dark, chaotic nature. It is the TwistedGod that was once an AncientLord but which is now but a distorted shadow of one. The TwistedGod was created by the same Universal Doomsday that caused the fall, the vanishing, of the AncientLords and the AncientGod that they worshiped and followed. Part of the JaeiouThirteen genetic inheritance is from the AncientLords, through the TwistedGod."

 

The JaeiouThirteen were an oddity to us. We 'sensed' we had met them before but had no real memories of doing so. It was far from the only such mystery in our lives.

 

The LittleFatWoman sighed. "The Perfectum savagely attacked the GeniusThirteen, taking them completely by surprise. In truth only eight of them survived to reach the safety of the White Castle. Five perished as even their elite bodyguards, in super power armor, failed against assaults by huge Perfectum HunterKillers along with swarms of smaller machines."

 

The machines that served the Perfectum were almost identical to those that had once served the dysfunctional, deactivated, Skynet. That was because the Perfectum, of Marstopia, was created as a copy of the Skynet that had been designed to guard Mars against hostile forces.

 

So the GeniusThirteen was very badly damaged and the survivors were hiding in the White Castle. On the surface it might seem to be a bad situation but it turned out to be a mixed blessing.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0121: WE WERE THE GRANDTHIRTEEN

 

The dead GeniusThirteen were all resurrected but they were weakened. We, the GrandThirteen, traveled to NewNewYork in a helicopter only to find that it had become a center of new stage of rebellion. Even Special Forces Troopers were turning against the GeniusThirteen, were joining the old rebel factions and forming new ones. We were soon 'sensing' UnityWays at work there and they were surprisingly strong.

 

In NewNewYork we watched large protest marches, took part in skirmishes against the few paramilitary units still loyal to the GeniusThirteen, examined a smashed Perfectum machine that was almost identical to a sleek Skynet hunter-fighter. It was a deadly robotic supersonic jumpjet fighter and yet such machines did have special weaknesses.

 

As tourists we visited the New Statue of Liberty that was many times the size of the original for it was a small skyscraper in its own right with a casino and a restaurant. We did not gamble but we did take in a dinner for thankfully the famous landmark had not been damaged in the fighting. We, the shapeshifters took on human form as quite children and I, the robotic entity, became an android in form. We were watched by UnityWays agents but they did not come forth to make direct contact with us for we 'sensed' that they were still wary of us.

 

So the Perfectum had been absorbed by something called the TwistedGod that was a twisted survivor of the AncientLords.

 

I, Roboticari, soon computed that there had to be more than just the one moment of absorption. Perhaps the distorted AncientLord had already been linked, in some way, to the Perfectum and had a bridgehead prepared for absorption. I shared my idea with the others and we discussed it but needed more data to work properly with the idea; we needed to make contact with the GeniusThirteen.

 

As we looked out of the big observation window, polarized as it was, we noted a big old fashioned kind of ocean liner come into port. In astonishment we realized that it was the SS Titanic and that 'sensed' it was a perfect copy of the one that had been sunk by an iceberg on the Earth. We also 'sensed' that it had the right crew and passengers.

 

It was not very long after the appearance of the SS Titanic that a big old ship came in with KingKong imprisoned in its hold and the great airship, the Hindenburg, came sailing into city air space.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0122: I WAS THE EYE

 

The great storm began to lessen in power as soon as AlphaOmegata, the great new structure in DC, was constructed by the Q-Continuum. This was no coincidence as AlphaOmega, and his Q-Entity Followers, appeared to be trying to bring profound stability to the Marslands in many ways. The lessening of the storm was a saving to many lives but it also meant that preparations for war were soon fully underway again.

 

Marsclaven eyebots and dronebots were soon on the move again along with land crawling, burrowing, wormbots and aquatic subbots. Small DominatorLord forces scouted through areas, being of wildly varied sorts as reflecting the differing natures of the DominatorLords. The Free Alliance relied on a mixture of robotics and scouts to do the same.

 

I found the real Uncle Leo, much more earthy looking than the copy and yet more profoundly powerful in some way. The amazingly peaceful behemoth led a long column of followers, refugees and others through the DC Wastelands. They headed towards Freedoria and soon were being protected by Troopers of Steel and Guardsmen of the PDCR. Uncle Leo spoke of an entity that came to him, saved him, gave him resources but also copied him in a fashion that the real Uncle Leo was not comfortable with. Then the fake Uncle Leo had vanished away into the Wastelands. The real Uncle Leo had no idea of why it had been done but the resources given to him had helped to save many people and other life.

 

In the north-west, of DC, fighting broke out between Marsclave Pact Forces and DominatorLord units. Clearly any attempt at alliance between the two had failed badly. The fighting was savage and rather bizarre between many diverse kinds of units. Robots battled each other as cybermen fought strange cybernetic clawbeasts and power armored human clones fought each other. In the darkness the flashes, and noises, of battle could be seen and heard for a long distance away.

 

Something, some kind of 'sense' of danger, kept me going to close to the battle and yet I managed to observe amazingly savage fighting with out any mercy given. I also 'glimpsed' three powerful, twisted entities moving amongst the DominatorLord Forces as if to drive them, to direct them. Somehow it came to me that these had once been the GeniusThree, the the old GeniusThirteen, who had supposedly betrayed the others. They were twisted monsters now and I could 'sense' that they were under the controlling influence of another, darker, more powerful force than they were.

 

Then another 'glimpse' showed me that it was the TwistedGod, that had absorbed the Perfectum of Marstopia, that was the darker, more powerful presence controlling the DominatorLords. I fled away before the TwistedGod could note my presence; even as I did I knew it had spotted me but it chose not to chase me.

Edited March 12, 2013 by Maharg67

[Robert55]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :blink:

[Maharg67]

0123: I WAS THE EYE

The fake Uncle Leo was still in the Cubic Labyrinth and many folks were still with him but matters had changed for them and I was shocked by what had been done to them. For they were now inside alcoves in the metallic stone walls of that place that was outside of the Marslands but linked with them in some profound manner.

 

The fake Uncle Leo smiled at me. "Aaahhh, little spying one of the JaeiouThirteen, you do not approve. No harm has come to them but now they are preserved as part of my collection inset into the Cubic Labyrinth."

 

I usually kept back from taking part in any events but this time I 'spoke'. "You betrayed their trust in you."

 

The fake Uncle Leo shrugged. "The trust of mere mortals is nothing to me. I am a Living Goddess of the Circling Circles and I should have been the next Empress of my people but my destiny was stolen by a monstrous upstart. Once before I was he. I helped in your creation and you have part of me in you. You, the JaeiouThirteen, do not even know what you are or even the potential of your real powerful; it is all very fascinating. Still I will have to destroy you now."

 

The LittleFatWoman was suddenly there, almost as if she had always been there. "No, you will do no such thing! You can not do so for the JaeiouThirteen are of the Circling Circling and no one facet of the Circling Circles can directly attack another. Your mentality is fragmenting, is becoming lost from its moorings of the Circling Circles. Who, what, is the one that has been influencing you? Please name that one and its nature, SharaTallas."

 

ShallaTallas shimmered and now looked like a tall woman figure of golden skin and hair in golden super power armor, or at least what looked like such. She scowled, in a refined manner, at the LittleFatWoman. "Must you always interfere."

 

The LittleFatWoman shook her head, with a sad warm smile. "We do what we must by our very nature. We are what we do and we do what we are! Some extremely powerful, and darkly dysfunctional, force tried to create a set of conditions that would allow it to do something most terrible and destructive but self defeating. It failed and the current troubling situation came to be. Now I will do what is in my nature to do."

 

She snapped her fingers and, with a sparkling shimmer along with a howl of rage, the Living Goddess, would be Empress, vanished. The LittleFatWoman turned to me. "You must go now and never return to the Cubic Labyrinth unless you get a very special summoning to do so. I have much to do here to undo the foolishness of the Living Goddess."

 

So, I departed!

Edited March 14, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0124: I WAS THE EYE

 

AlphaOmega and the LittleFatMan communicated simply by standing and looking into each others' eyes, or so it appeared to be; I 'sensed' that much more than that was going on. Though it did not go for long it 'seemed' to go for much longer. When it was done, when the LittleFatMan had departed almost as if he had never been there, AlphaOmega seemed rather shaken up. Then he went back into the AlphaOmegata.

 

Savage fighting broke out between Free Alliance, and Dominator, units to the west of the DC Citadel. Troopers of Steel waged war with combat androids while robots fought robots. Subwayers sent power armored soldiers, androids and robots to assist.

 

More parachute-canisters fell from the sky. Five groups of five canisters floated to the surface of the DC Wastelands.

 

A man, in a helmet-backpack outfit from a canister, healed people in Sugartown. A woman turned atomic motorized wrecks into brand new working machines of various kinds, in Uptown Centropolis, and gave them to the Free Alliance. A man, in the settlement of Freetoria, made bad food into excellent food. A man lurked close to the Tenpenny Towers-Town and murdered anybody he could using fire and electricity; elite Talon Mercenaries were soon hunting for him along with Regulators and bounty-hunters.

 

Small groups explored the huge museum complex beneath the National Mall.

 

Air-sea skirmishes took place in, above and beneath the ocean to the east of DC.

Edited March 16, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0125: I WAS THE EYE

 

Benjamin Washington stood in the middle of his office and stared into nothingness. It appeared as if he was communicating with some kind of very hidden presence. Spittle formed on his lips and his eyes seemed glazed.

 

He spoke. "Is not the situation to your pleasing? Have you not set matters up as you wished? The main players, of your grand game, are here in the DC Wastelands."

 

Then he shuddered visibly, just a little, with fear.

 

Benjamin spoke again. "If matters have not worked out for you it is your own fault; you take too much and give too little. You promised the safe return of my parents and yet where are they? Do not threaten me! It does not good now as I am dying anyway. I now do what I always should have done; I defy you! I say go into extinction as you should have long ago. We all must go in the end. Everything changes. The Greater, and Lesser, Cycles insist upon it. Even one such as you must cease and return in another form."

 

Again he shuddered and he closed his eyes, his expression being one of somebody who knows he is doomed and expects there to be no rescue.

 

The LittleFatWoman suddenly stood there, almost as if she had always been there, and smiled. "You have been very brave, Benjamin Washington, and you have done the best thing you could have." She snapped her fingers and suddenly Benjamin Washington was his normal self looking at her in wonder. She pointed to a very large box. "A good deal of very good condition historical artifacts for your museum and your health is now returned to fullness, as is your fitness. Your parents will be contacting you soon."

 

They sat down at a table and ate biscuits, sandwiches and scones with fresh cream, as provided by the LittleFatWoman, along with some fine tea, milk and iced water. As they sat there, Benjamin spoke of many things and gave out much more information than he realized.

 

Somehow, I do not know how, I ended up curled up comfortably on the warm lap of the LittleFatWoman.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0126: I WAS THE EYE

 

It was a scattered, sporadic conflict across parts of the DC Wastelands. None of the three sides seemed to be able to establish a strong campaign strategy though they tried. The DominatorLords were more chaotic than the others. There were, thankfully, few big battles and they did not last for very long. The, much anticipated, big clashes did not take place.

 

One reason was the lack of vital resources by all sides and the need to not expend too many of these resources or to leave them vulnerable to destruction or theft.

 

Lordclaw attacked Megaton with a force of cybernetic deathclaws, led by a sub-commander. The creatures swarmed at Megaton, howling and firing energy weapons built into arms and heads. They also had armor plating. Yet they were used badly and were slaughtered needlessly as they approached the outskirts of the settlement. Caught in a savage crossfire they blundered into mines and remote controlled turrets. They managed to kill only some cannibals they caught skulking at the very edges of the settlement, cutting them down with their enforced deathclaw claws. The Megatonfolk were frightened but the attack was a costly defeat for the DominatorThirteen.

 

Very shortly after that Lordclaw vanished and replaced by a new one, or so spoke dark whispers that ran across the DC in the amazing way that they had of doing.

 

More odd resources were appearing for people, not the parachute-canisters, and there were reports of white shimmering translucent globes that glowed pale crystal, that seemed somehow both indistructable and fragile at the same time. They also brought healing, fixing and other assistance. Some whispers even spoke of short term 'resurrection'.

 

The Ringdom was no longer sealed off from the Marslands. The others, of the JaeiouThirteen, became active in the Marslands once more and new general operations were begun to assist people.

 

The folks, that the LittleFatWoman had rescued from the false Uncle Leo (Living Goddess), ended up in one of the Domelands of the Ringdom where they found a new, good life.

 

Again I was surprised just how many folks had simply gone back to their old way of life, even if they did so in larger, better protected settlements or in deeply concealed ones. What had changed was that Wastelanders had abandoned many areas once used by them.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0127: I WAS JACK

 

Getting into the CacheVault was not easy, it was better secured than any TekVault, but I managed it with the assistance of my new abilities and some transformed supersoldiers. Once past the double wheel-door chamber, that we went through, we were in a big complex designed to sustain only a relatively small population. They were there but all were in status-capsules.

 

The 'cache' was in the form of subvaults full of top secret data and experimental prototypes. There was even a variation of the massive LibertyPrime robot, a failed bid for a government contract. There was a captured zetan saucerboat, an amphibious submarine, an atomic cannon, a submarine-vertibird and some other amazing machines.

 

At first I found no mention of any AlphaKey but then it turned out to be a matter of getting past secret code to the true meanings of data menu titles. Where the AlphaKey was supposed to be was a small vault that looked fine on the outside but that was strangely burned on the inside. The 'sense' of malignant power there was almost overwhelming.

 

When Sarah Lyons arrived, along with Lyons Pride, she came with others of the Orders of Steel. The contents of the CacheVault were soon claimed by them, in the name of the Free Alliance, since I made no move to make any prior claims.

 

So who, or what, had taken the AlphaKey? Had it been he-she-it? Somehow, for reasons I could not quite define, I had doubts that it was so. Perhaps because he-she-it was far more likely to smash a way into a vault then to somehow take the AlphaKey the way it had been.

 

Sarah was more interested in the rest of the 'treasures' of the CacheVault though she wondered how the Free Alliance might use some of the stranger prototypes in the CacheVault. All I took was some data before I returned to the RingBase with the supersoldiers.

Edited March 20, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0128: I WAS THE EYE

It happened with surprising speed and left behind a vacuum in the conflict. The DominatorLords left the DC Wastelands, traveling westwards to do so. The darkness that controlled them, went with them. The departure left two powerful forces facing each other in a possible war, that being the Marsclave Pact and the Free Alliance. Yet nobody was fooled into thinking that the DominatorThirteen, or that which led them, had ceased to be a threat.

It came to me that something had frightened them off, though they were powerful forces led by the TwistedGod. Except that a message was left behind that the 'TwistedGod' was not the real TwistedGod but a TwistedDemigod serving the real thing. Yet the TwistedDemigod had been decided to seek independence. Anyway the TwistedGod, proper, did not seem to want it, or the DominatorThirteen, in the DC. Was it really 'independence' that drove the TwistedDemigod or sensible fear?

Vaultburg was abandoned by the CloneCEO but badly looted. Survivors began their push to survival by joining the Free Alliance. Refugees were invited to dwell in Vaultburg, which had much space for them.

President Allman also departed but he, and his followers, did so in a rush as driven by a UnityWays guided rebellion. UnityWays defeated Allman's mind control. Allman took some vital resources with him, along with some special artifacts. It was at this time that the Subwayers Union became part of the Peoples DC Republic, the PDCR. Republicia was to become the PDCR's capital but only after much work was done on it.

The Free Alliance and Marsclaven Pact drew back from each other so as to factor in changes and to form new strategies except for recon and other such secondary operations; skirmishes continued to take place but were infrequent and short lived. The whole situation was now changed.

The AlphaOmegata was still being used to try to stabilize the Marslands, now in a careful and subtle but effective manner. Slowly the climate, and weather, were becoming more evened out and friendlier to local life. AlphaOmega was paying for something bad he had done and trying to do it very well while not getting more directly involved in what was happening. The LittleFatMan had somehow made sure it would be that way.

It continued to amaze me just how very few Wastelanders had any real idea at all of the historically important events that were happening around them; for them life went on as it had been for decades.

Edited March 21, 2013 by Maharg67