Me, Myself and I

[Maharg67]

0029: I WAS THE EYE

 

The Steel Brother, a woman in regular power armor, managed to lift up the Slambang missile-launcher above the edge of the ditch and fired off a single missile with a roar of power. The Slambang missiles were designed to arc, to go up and then drop down on enemies. This one did so very nicely and there was an explosion as the projectile dropped into a supermutant ditch. Supermutants being big, to huge, their ditches had to be damned large and so were vulnerable to projectiles that dropped into them. Trouble was that the same supermutants were too damned hard to kill. With out power-armor, humans would have had much more difficult taking on the monsters.

 

Except that not all soldiers, fighting the supermutants, had power-armor or even good quality non power armor.

 

The Steel Brother dropped back into her own ditch. She heard screaming of rage, of pain, but that was a poor indicator of how much death and destruction the missile had caused. She turned her armored helmet to look at four other Steel Brothers crouched in the cleverly designed ditch. Even as she did, a hub-rotor helicopter shot low overhead, a Sisterhood of Steel machine shooting its 30mm autocannon. She was proud of how her unit, her comrades, had fought so hard in the battle. Yet she was concerned also about growing reports of strange things happening in the supermutant held areas. It was as if the supermutants were fighting something else over in their part of the Centropolis Grand Mall.

 

Then she turned in amazement as part of an elite unit, in special assault power armor, came into the ditch. Knight Captain Sarah Lyons, herself, led the platoon known as Lyons Pride. They were given special equipment but they were also given difficult tasks to carry out. Lieutenant Crispan wondered why Sarah Lyons would show up there.

 

Sarah spoke using a 2way radio link. "Lieutenant Crispan of the 44^th Platoon of the Thirty-Third Brigade! You sent in a report of strange activities amongst the supermutants. As I suspect you already know, I am Knight Captain Sarah Lyons of the Lyons Pride, now consisting of more than one platoon. More than that I am not free to speak of. We have been sent to investigate your reports which correspond with others we have attained of the area. Now, have you gained any more intel since you sent your last reports."

 

"A supermutant screamed 'get it off me, kill it, kill it before it makes me bad bad bad'. Only my platoon heard it." Crispan responded. "Which is odd because there is one other platoon fairly close being those Republican Guardsmen. I told them to withdraw because of their lack of good equipment to fight supermutants with but they would not listen to me. Pride perhaps. They are the 556^th Light Foot Infantry Platoon of the Fifth Republican Guard Regiment. Contact was lost with them just over four hours ago."

 

Sarah smiled and looked at Crispan's comrades, in their power-armor, that were all slumped against the back wall of the ditch. "Have you noticed anything odd about your soldiers?"

 

Crispan looked to the three Steel Brothers and then shook her head. "Bundy is sleeping with his head at an odd angle; he will get a kink in his neck."

 

Sarah sighed. "Bundy is dead; his neck has been broken! The others are dead also. During your last 2way radio report you sounded incoherent and then you began to scream. Then contact was lost. That was hours ago and no further contact could be made with you. It is time to take you home, Lieutenant Crispan."

 

Crispan sighed and then slumped in exhaustion. She looked at Sarah with uncomprehending eyes as the last of her sanity slipped away.

 

Sarah Lyons, and her people, examined the area and soon knew that the area has been overrun by supermutants somehow driven even more insane than they normally were, with even greater strength. They found distorted supermutants with signs of alien infestation and parasitic hybridization. Jasmine would have known what Sarah Lyons was looking at for she had seen such as vireclaw-puppets. Creatures, called vireclaws, had attacked and infected the supermutants. Yet it seemed that supermutants made poor 'puppets' and could not be controlled, went suicidal enraged, when infected. Sarah gave orders for the lieutenant to be taken, with care, back to the special outpost that had been set up. They would also take one dead Steel Brother and various other evidence. The platoon left with Sarah realizing that 'things did not add up' in what they had found there. The platoon should not have been so easily taken by surprise even by super enraged, out of control supermutants, at least not so totally as they seemed to have been. Something else had been at work there and might have had something to do with Crispan's insanity.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0030: I WAS JACKOMAN

 

The zhoulers were monstrous, powerful and cunning but they were also terrified of something and that made the more dangerous; they were not frightened of me but something else lurking out there, swarms of something in the form of fast scuttling zetan like creatures but squat, hunched like zetan versions of monkeys. They were the same as the thing that had been inside the bloated dead zhoul. I, Jackoman, found some dead twisted zhouls that were partly eaten and from which things had exploded out of. Zhouls moved in frightened, enraged packs through the area and the zhoulers influenced them as weapons.

 

I fired my autocarbine, 5.5mm calibre bullets ripping into a wall where a zhouler had crouched just seconds before. The zhouler shot out of sight and darted across a half collapsed underground chamber. In the distance I could hear zetargs, the parasitic born creatures, fighting zhouls. The zhouls were fighting berserker savage and were ripping apart many zetargs. They ripped into any zhoul that fell victim to the zetargs, falling semiconscious with something starting to grow inside them as zetarg larvae. Zhouls had quickly learned that to let the zetargs grow, to emerge, was to endanger many zhouls.

 

I leapt across the chamber with superhuman strength and agility, landed even as the zhouler hurled a psionic mind blast at where I had been. Yet the psionic blast was weaker than the last had been, the zhouler becoming exhausted. I struck out with a psionic mind stun blast and the creature dropped helplessly to the floor to lie amongst some empty NukaCola bottles, bottle-caps and some empty metallic food cans with labels showing they had once contained baked beans. Two prize-caps went into a pouch and then I was hauling away the stunned zhouler to where the other two lay.

 

The three zhoulers lay there, semistunned, cuffed and otherwise safely bound. They seemed amazed that I had not killed them but also very wary of what I would do next. They would have snarled at me but they were exhausted and semistunned.

 

=-= What now? Would you instigate a testing-transformation with these three?

 

I had little care for such concerns as the psychic-spiritual testing-transformations. Jasmine, Jack and Jakeman were more comfortable with such things, especially Jakeman. Me, I was into action and physical answers to problems. Yet I had no desire to kill these zhoulers that were but products of forces way beyond their control. It was darkly ironic that they had been 'normal humans' once though ones with high psychic potential otherwise they would not have become zhoulers; instead they would have become just zhouls at most. I looked around the chamber. A super-weapon had struck just above, boring into the ground before exploding. Much of the underground structures in the area were partly, or wholly, destroyed and many had died who had sought shelter there. Many others had ended up becoming zhouls thanks to a mixture of deadly Z-radiation and FEV along with other elements.

 

The three zhoulers shimmered and there were hunched three smooth skinned rhoulers, the powerful psionic versions of defensive aggressive, generally peaceful, rhouls. They stared at me, at each other, as if awakening from a long and terrible nightmare, which was basically the truth of it. I took off the devices confining them, putting them away, and then gave the three some food, coffu (coffee substitute) and water.

 

One, a woman, spoke with some difficulty. "I was once a basic tech-worker helping to maintain the local underground networks often by cyberlinking with roboremotes. Doomsday was a living hell! I can not remember much clearly except for the general panic and rush to find a safe place, any safe place, to get away from the savage fighting going on and then the super-weapons. Yet there were other things we were trying to escape from, things that I can not quite remember clearly but I am glad I can not do so."

 

I responded. "All those who remember Doomsday seem to do so in the same fashion that you speak of. All zhouls were created on Doomsday from humans, or a few others, and are immortal as far as general science knows. No zhouls have been born though it is said that a minority of rhouls have been born since Doomsday."

 

The rhouler woman shrugged. "Smooth skinned rhouls, yes, I have met some, and let them go. I do not know why I did not fight them. Somehow I could not, would not, do so. We know where the zetargs are coming from. That is more important an issue to deal with rather than rhouls born from rhouls. There are also other dangerous things in the same place, close to the zetan saucership that lies in a great broken chamber underground. Black glistening bug creatures with burning blood, rogue robots of strange design and things that merge with living things, take them over and transform them.

 

A zetan saucership in a chamber deep underground? There were ways that such a thing could happen! As for the dangerous 'things' they sounded to be hivaca, rogue zetan robots and vireclaws. That is vireclaws like the ones that Jasmine was confronting, hivaca like those that Jakeman was dealing with and rogue zetan robots infected with the rogue robot virus.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0031: I WAS JACKOMAN

 

We went, as four, through to where the Compassionate Ones were helping zhouls. Two zhoulers remained with them to protect all at the encampment. Sister Petrayis was grateful for the added protection, that was badly needed, and amazed by the transformations that had taken place. I assured it was not my doing, that something beyond my wisdom, and power, had done what was needed to be done. Then the woman rhouler, and I, went looking for the zetan saucership.

 

Zetan saucerships had some strange abilities and one was to teleport, in an emergency, to a safe place if the zetan crew was no longer under control and the vessel was in danger. I guessed that the saucership had done so to escape from destruction as human enemies closed in on it.

 

We moved quickly, efficiently, for the rhouler was far more knowledgeable of the area than I was. We came through the more destroyed areas and then were in dark tunnels, and other spaces, partly full of slowly flowing cold water. Things lived in the water like floating plant stuff and blind fish but also other, more mutated things. They left us alone because we were not what they would consider good food and, in some cases, may have 'sensed' our power. We came upon the first big clump of dead zhouls, their bloated bodies exploded open from things that had blasted out of them with great savagery and then had paused to eat rancid zhoul flesh before departing.

 

When zetargs came racing out of the dark, I was surprised to see some holding bits of metal as weapons. I raised my autocarbine and shot each, with one bullet, neatly in the head. The rhouler gave vent to a psionic fear pulse and it sent confusion through the zetarg ranks but effected some more than others. Then he took the autopistol, that I had given him, and shot down some of the savage zetargs. The majority of zetargs soon fled away to safety in a way that indicated they were not berserker stupid. I suspected they had only taken on zhouls, along with the three zhoulers, in the past and had not gone against guns; being shot, shot at, must have been a very rude surprise.

 

We came upon huddled groups of zhouls, and slowly moving groups of zhouls, both of which were seeking mutual protection in large numbers. They did not attack us, 'sensing' no threat from us and also our power. Also zhouls did not normally attack rhouls unless crazed enough, which was rare. The three zhoulers, now rhoulers, had been so crazed.

 

Zashrada, the rhouler, had been regaining memories and came to remember the 'other threat' that had frightened the three zhoulers. Not the zetargs but something that was not in any way zetarg, or ghoul, in nature. It was something that was shadowy a times, ghost like, and yet like solidified darkness at others. The three zhoulers at fought it once and had barely escaped with their lives though they had done it some damage. They called it a ShadowOne because that is what it had called itself when it had jeered at the fleeing rhoulers, all three of which had been lightly injured of mind, body and spirit.

 

Zashrada spoke, even as we rested in a big chamber close to a huge hulk of a great big machine. "The ShadowOne spoke of 'seeking something of value beyond our comprehension'. It bragged that only it was great enough to serve the ShadowLords, with its difficult task on-in this 'pitiful' world. It spoke of something called the ShadowGod of the Thirteen Gods, also known as the HoliestThirteen. It went on with crass words, disgusting stuff, thankfully only partly understood such as 'drinking the blood of innocence bring grand unholy holiness to the mind of madness'. It was crazed and yet coldly sane at the same time. Oddly, there is something about you that reminds me of them but you lark the darkness of them; instead you have sadness in you."

 

I felt uncomfortable at such words. I shrugged. "We will find this ShadowOne and have a word with it; perhaps we can get it to tell us of it task here on-in this 'pitiful' world."

 

The rhouler nodded. "We go on, then, but now we are going beyond my old hunting territories. We could hunt some crunchy radroaches to eat."

 

I sighed. "You hunt the radroaches and I will transform the radroach meat into something that both us would enjoy more."

 

Zashrada was curious. She darted away and soon returned with two dead radroaches from which she quickly, efficiently, got the 'meat' from. I placed the radroach meat on a clear area of stone floor and placed a foodbar on it along with four vitamin mineral pills and two food ration flavoring pills. I touched the heap and, with a shimmering effect, it became two fairly large foodbars of slightly crumbly substance. I found it to be nourishing and mildly flavorsome but Zashrada loved it, was able to finish her foodbar with big smiles and then helpfully eat half of my foodbar as well.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0032: I WAS THE EYE

 

The hulking, peaceful, Uncle Leo strode slowly and majestically across the DC Wastelands and behind the robed behemoth came a quiet column of humans, ghouls of different kinds, supermutants, animal-humans, androids, robots and others. Beside him strode a chimpman, a chimpanzee-human, who had escaped from Caesar's Empire in the Mars Vegas Sector, and who still wore parts of a strange Legionard uniform. He had thrown away the ceremonial dagger a long time ago, hurling it into a deep section of the DC River. Uncle Leo was a pysker, a psychic mutant, and yet more than that, much more than that. Some called him the Supermutant Messiah though he, himself, did not agree with such a title. He was leading his people to a hopefully safer, more supportive, place to dwell. On his back was a huge, sturdy, backpack and on top of that some ghoulified infants who would never grow bigger.The column steadily grows larger as Uncle Leo's amazing influence brings to it even such a rogue robots and an occasional deathclaw, all becoming peaceful as they follow 'him'.

 

Outside of the bustling, fortified settlement, of Canterbury Commons, the AntEmpress reached out with her exotic psychic abilities and influenced more giant ants to join her, being rad-ants of different kinds. Standard giant ants had done so along with flamer-ants but now came spine-ants and even flying-ants. Yet the AntEmpress also focused on influencing rad-ant evolution to bring forth stronger, faster, harder to damage giant ants with new, more dangerous weaponry. She also strove to create new non fighting castes. Yet none of this was as extreme, or insane, as three of her pet projects. As she worked, another was with her, a shadowy figure that assisted her in her mad desires.

 

Vance, and his 'Family', were well established in the Meresti Subway Station as biovires, or 'living vampires' created by the FEV and other exotic influences. The biovires were immortal as long as they kept feeding on good quality natural, or synthetic, blood. In emergencies they could also be sustained by other means including plasma and stimpaks. There was growing trouble been them and the settlers of the Bridge Settlement of Arefu, the settlers making a living by keeping the great bridge secure and charging reasonable tolls to those who passed over it. They also made a living in other ways, some quite amazing like drawing great big weighted nets into the river and hauling them up again with large atomic motorized winches. The 'Family' numbered over a thousand biovires but also humans and ghouls who had come to be accepted amongst them.

 

The Brotherhood of Steel, and the Supermutants, both ceased fighting to withdraw back into more secure areas so as to try to work out how to deal with the bizarre new threats causing havoc with both sides. Sarah Lyons found growing evidence of something called a 'ShadowOne' out in the area where she had found poor Crispan, who would probably never fight again as a soldier but who would be cared for by the Orders of Steel. Crispan had shown greater moments of clarity and had spoken of a tall shadow figure that had smashed into her platoon, who had killed all but her, but who had toyed with her mind while he gained information from her. The figure had called itself a ShadowOne. It had been avidly seeking something but did not reveal what that happened to be. Sarah Lyons knew she had to get Crispan, and what she knew, from the outpost they were at and to the DC-Citadel.

 

Marsclave eyebots began to float across the Wastelands, in threes so they could alert each other to danger and help protect each other, as they sprouted Marsclave propaganda with the voice of President John Henry Eden. Yet the eyebots were carrying out other tasks for the Marsclave as they carefully scanned and sensor swept the landscape around them, as they each observed and recorded everything with one prime, and three secondary, 3Dcameras.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0033: I WAS JACK

 

I moved quickly along the vent duct and then halted to look through a vent grid down into a chamber. With some difficulty I had gained access to the Megaton LifeVault and now, below me, was a chamber that was supposed to be empty except for some semijunk stored there for convenience sakes. There were voices, activity, which proved that official statement to be a lie. I carefully used my 'ESP' to learn more of what was going on down there, used my mind-eye. Elaine, my mother, was there but she was heavily secured to a chair. That is she was a prisoner. Tanya, my older sister, was standing protectively next to my mother even as she spoke.

 

"I do not know what you want! You want something but you will not say what that is." Tanya sounded both frustrated and angry. "We have gathered up as many exotic artifacts as we could including those zetanic phase-globes, those two vials of FEV, some kind of thing we had no idea what it was."

 

The 'dark thing' stood roughly below, to one side, of where I was. It emanated unnaturalness.

 

=-= ShadowOne! There appear to be more than one of them operating in the DC. This means that they are after something important for the ShadowLords or even the ShadowGod itself of the unholy HoliestThirteen.

 

The ShadowOne spoke with a voice both jittery mad and yet coldly smooth in control. "One walks beneath shadow, the true sunlight, seeing in true light of no light the true winding path of nothingness. Shagroth would have been tell you more. Orbs we seek, crystal orbs that glow softly from within, sometimes steady but sometimes pulsing. You tried to trick us, tricky tricky, but we will not cure you of vile life conditions by the use of merciful death. Orbs of transitional reality, of alternate reality stabilization, of fusions of perception, of anchoring of interactivity. The thing you gave us, the one you did not know the nature of, is such an orb but it does not glow either in a steady or pulsing fashion. It is broken. We have taken the vials of FEV, and zetan phase-globes, as tributes to our greatness and your lack of the same. You are as nothing and we are as everything; my own greatness is assured in the flowing tides of light and dark."

 

"You tricked us!" Elaine sounded more tired than angry. "You did give us the resources, as promised, to overthrow the old Megaton Town Council but then you intervened with these creature soldiers of yours."

 

Yes, creature soldiers, hulking humanoids and shorter, slimmer ones that both were in some kind of power-armor and heavily armed. They were both like, and yet unlike, supermutants. Their skin was smoother, harder, more plastic like and their bodies more standardized as if they had been stamp pressed out of some kind of machine. They were armed with Marsclave style EE33A1 autorifles and MP11A1 plasma-guns along with other weapons such as large longknives and one hand-flamer.

 

The ShadowOne spoke, showing strange emotions in its voice. "Aaahhh, one is close that is very powerful, is observing us. It is not timespace now to confront such a one. It is above us. It is Jack!"

 

There was a strange shimmering of energy patterns in the chamber below and then the ShadowOne, along with the strange soldiers, was gone. I moved the grate and dropped lightly, quietly down into the chamber, looking around with a soft frown. I could 'sense' lingering, powerful energies in that chamber. Tanya was letting our mother loose from the chair. She was frowning at me, trying to work out if she should be grateful or not. I was impressed by the powers of the ShadowOne that it could teleport both the soldiers and itself. I noted the subconscious figures of three Megaton Security Guards of the kind found only in the LifeVault and the Megaton Subway Station. With their fatigues, body-armor and security class autocarbines, they had stood no chance against such as a ShadowOne. Yes, I had met such before and I had fought them, had even defeated them."

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0034: I WAS JACK

 

Dropping into the chamber was easy enough for me, though the ceiling was quite high. I looked around to see the prone Security Guards and then turned to watch Tanya freeing up Elaine. When Elaine was free, she smiled lukewarmly at me. "Like father, like son, and by 'father' I mean your biological father and not your legal father. He could do amazing things also and, also like you, he kept much secret to himself. Thank you for rescuing us, Jack!"

 

Tanya frowned. "What was that thing? It called itself a ShadowOne, it was very powerful and yet it ran away because you are here."

 

I shrugged. In truth I was still learning, was 'relearning' it seemed, of my true nature. Our nature as I was also linked, semiautonomously, with Jakeman, Jackoman and Jasmine along with the Eye and one other yet to be named. The linkages were strengthening along with the know, or so it appeared to be.

 

"ShadowOnes are both powerful and evil! They serve even more powerful entities, known as ShadowLords, who serve a yet more powerful entity known as the ShadowGod of the unholy HoliestThirteen. There are some of them causing sneaking around the DC, causing trouble, and one of them is here. At this time there is not much more that I can tell you." I softly sniffed the air and shook my head. "A stink that is not really a smell at all; a psychic thing. To make a deal with a ShadowOne is a most foolhardy act."

 

Elaine frowned. "I was against the deal but I was outvoted. The so called Megaton Revolution is a fraud. Those locked up are but scapegoats."

 

I nodded. "The real rebellion is taking place right at this moment. True rebel forces are entering the LifeVault and the Megaton Subway Station. Reports are coming my way that the subway station is far from being the largely unusable mess that most Megatonfolk have been told it is. It is a bustling, active site with two electric subway trains humming away on the tracks. There are a lot more people down there than, officially, there should be. 'Something' tells me that this comes as no surprise to you. I have always 'sensed' something odd about the two of you linked to my own 'oddness' in some way. So, why secretly maintain a subway station unless you are linked with the rather mysterious Subwayers."

 

The muffled sound of shooting came to us but quickly died away again. I had successfully hacked into the network-systems of both the LifeVault and the subway station, along with bunkers.

 

"The LifeVault is bigger than was officially told." I shook my head in annoyance. "The 'generosity' of giving away stored away resources was not as 'generous' as it has been seen to be. A ceasefire has been called. So you are Subwayers after all. Which means that you are 'Unity', that is unityfolk of UnityMind, UnityNet, UnityCastes and much else of the kind. Many almost as one as many! My people have assisted Unity very many times in the past but have, five times, fought major conflicts with Unity. We assisted in the creation, and early survival, of the Subway Union. How long have you knowingly been part of Unity?"

 

Elaine smiled but I could 'sense' that she was wary. "About twelve years ago when UnityMind found us and awoke us to our true nature."

 

I frowned softly. "About the same time that we became more estranged from each other, mother!"

 

Elaine sighed. "I had to make a choice for Unity insisted upon it. Unity fears you, or at least UnityPrime does."

 

Knowledge was returning to me, memories were strengthening, of before I was Jack and to my shock I knew that I, somehow, was my biological father or at least 'almost so'. Me, myself and I were a multiple entity almost as one; we had some things in common with Unity but were generally quite different in nature. We, I, had become damaged somehow but how, as yest, I did not know or why or when. I preferred to answer such questions later.

 

I frowned hard at mother. "UnityPrime is but one aspect of Unity and is not totally supported by all of Unity. UnityPrime mistakenly believes itself to be the only 'real Unity' and to be the only legitimate representative of Unity as a whole. UnityPrime is mistaken in both matters. You always enjoyed power and authority, mother, and UnityPrime would have been happy to bribe you with it. All you had to do was to betray various people who trusted you, including myself."

 

Elaine lost her smile. "Thank you for saving me but I think I need to go and consult with my people. We will meet again, very soon!"

 

But that was a lie!

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0035: I WAS THE EYE

 

It was a place of metallic stone that Uncle Leo led his people to. It was a place that was both there and not there. Uncle Leo saw it easily but with out him the others would have likely walked around it or even 'through it'. The first chamber was a cube space ten metres high-wide and then the second one was twice as big but the floor was the same height as that of the first cubechamber, was flush with it. The group was amazed for entering that place was like fading out of one reality and then fading into another. Uncle Leo seemed very confident, radiated calm, but the great behemoth was always like that.

 

Back in TekVaultDC087 he had tried to convince the supermutants there that they need not be aggressive, that they need not seek confrontation with others, and so they had turned against him. So Uncle Leo began to wander the Wastelands, gathering people to himself to himself with out any effort, even some very odd ones like Marsclave deserters, some Raiders cured on their insanity somehow, deathclaws and rogue robots no longer rogue. Uncle Leo had led them to that strange place and he stopped in the bigger cubechamber that, unlike the first one, was not bare. The very air itself seemed to glow softly giving light but it was not very bright. There were no shadows, which took some adjusting to.

 

There were cube shaped alcoves dotting the walls of the cubechamber, each of them with something inside it and inside glowing energies that filled the alcoves. There were big mirror like screens that had non-reversed reflections on them but most were of other cubechambers, other spaces while some showed that place and others showed exotic 3Ddatasymbols floating in space. The Followers studied the area and then noted the other alcoves, all at floor level, that were not glowing strangely as to attract attention strongly. In those seemed to be facilities of useful, but exotic, design. There were alcoves with tap-sinks that provided water at different temperatures from freezing cold to boiling hot, multiple use platforms, shower booths of cube alcoves with water coming down from the whole ceilings and much else.

 

Uncle Leo spoke to them all. "We are in the Labyrinth of ...... the Cubic Labyrinth." Why he changed names, he did not explain. "There are resources but they must be used with care. Here we will rest and adjust to the Cubic Labyrinth. Here we will prepare for the journey that is to come that will take us to a new sanctuary of hope. Now I will go and open some of the alcoves for all are screened off with invisible fields of energy. I will give instructions how to use the facilities safely and fairly."

 

I, the Eye, was becoming to understand deeply that this was not the real Uncle Leo but where was the real Uncle Leo, what had happened to him, why had he been replaced and what had replaced him?

 

One of the glowing alcoves had a strange fern growing in it, a fern-tree perhaps, and some Followers stared at it in wonder. Uncle Leo did not explain why but he would not unseal that alcove or the one with the big, crouched bat like creature in it. Not that anybody wanted him to unseal the second alcove for the bat creature both looked dangerously savage but there was a 'feel' about it that made the feeling stronger. Uncle Leo unsealed an alcove with a small farm inside it. Out, from it, he drew a cow, a bull, chickens, a family of four humans, two large dogs, two farm cats and two horses pulling a farm-wagon full of stuff. Uncle Leo organized that as many resources be taken from the farm as possible including buildings materials, soil, plants, to begin the growing of food in the great cubechamber. He explained that he would reseal the alcove and the whole farm would be regenerated to new again with missing lifeforms, and things, being replaced. It should have seemed impossible but somehow Uncle Leo made it seem just 'normal' that things should work that way.

 

Except that he was not the real Uncle Leo.

 

The Cubic Labyrinth, as the false Uncle Leo had named it, was actually far more than that but as yet I had not identified its true nature. I, the Eye, did know it was outside of the whole world of the Marslands (Havenlands, Wastelands and Doomlands). Yet it was very much linked with that realm of the Marslands, as it was with other realms. Matters were getting very interesting!

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0036: PREVIEW: MARSTROPOLIS AND THE GRANDTHIRTEEN

 

We traveled along a great wide walkway to the side, at a fair distance, to the Marstopia Main Highway Five03. We were the GrandThirteen by name but, deliberately, did not seem so grand to look at. A big old clunky robot pulled a handcart full of stuff, we three metahumans and three cyborgs, looked just like young adult humans while the neobabies were just like normal babies in appearance (on the chubby muscular side). We three big animals were shapeshifters but we just looked like an eagle, a hound dog and a gilled lizard. We six young adults carried backpacks and I, the big dog, some panniers. I, the lizard, was sitting on the handcart and I, the eagle, was perched on top of the robot, that was not really me for I was inside the robot. We, the neobabies, were each in a pouch on front of one of the metahumans.

 

We were heading towards NewNewYork from Rivercrosstown but we would need to go through other areas to get there. Above us shown the sun through the great dome of Marstopia and there was a glimpse of the two moons of Phobos and Deimos that had been enlarged by humanity and reshaped as globes. Nobody went beyond Marstopia where the Perfectum regulated 'all for the good of all'. Big 3Dsignboards advertised up and coming baseball, soccer and other sporting events including first blood gladiator fights. Others advertised MarsCola, Kentucky Roasted Chicken, GM-Ford atomic sedans with hover capacity and robotic drivers, super virtual reality game programs, budget priced rejuvenation treatments, expensive perfumes and much else. The 3Dsignboards changed advertisements at regular intervals.

 

A clumsily graceful saucer, of an aeroship, passed slowly overhead. It bore the MarsAir logo of that quasigovernmental corporation. Big supersonic jets were used only carefully, and in small numbers, in Marstropolis. We wondered, considering the direction that the aeroship was coming from, if it held refugees from the Distorting that officially did not exist. That is the Distorting that was creeping slowly, steadily, across Marstopia being followed by the Disintegration. It was said that the GeniusThirteen were working hard to find a solution to the slow, steady devouring of Marstopia by the Disintegration that was the cause of the Distorting. So far only bout than 0.31% had disintegrated but considering that Marstopia was vast, that was a good deal of territory. Yet there were other major problems, that faced Marstopia, other than the Disintegration.

 

The LittleFatMan had sent us seeking after some ancient alien artifacts of smaller, more portable size. Of the list of eighteen we had found six of the artifacts, that being more than the LittleFatMan had expected we would gain. Finding the artifacts had been hard but trying to get the original owners to give them up, had often been much harder. The AAAs, ancient alien artifacts, were too dangerous for humanity to deal with. The LittleFatMan had a safe place to take them. He had given us what assistance he could, as always, and ahead of us awaited a place where he would find more of it.

 

Out, further from the highway, were semirural farms, ranches, orchards, plantations and other such agricultural establishments including service-support centres for agriculture. A small electric monoplane, wing over top, hummed softly through the air. Most Marstopians had only relatively basic technologies to work with. Only the elites, and the sub-elites that served them, had access to more advanced tech. The secret government, of Marstopia, was far too security paranoid to have it any other way. Thus they made matters worse for both themselves and Marstopia in general.

 

None of it was 'really real'. It was somehow linked to real reality and to other realms based on Mars. The LittleFatMan had mentioned, briefly, something called the Marslands where the savage Wastelands dominated. He had also spoke of the world of Nirn, that like the Lost Earth, was mostly made up of oceans.

 

Then we saw the place we were to find assistance at, which was a farmhold, a fortified cluster of farms with some service-support and community centres. At least that was its official role. We, the GrandThirteen, knew it was much more than that for we had been there before.

[Maharg67]

0037: I WAS JASMINE

 

I, Jasmine, ducked quickly as the Security Guard tried to punch me and then threw him across the room. He was the last one and joined the other three of them groaning as they lay on the hard metal floor. A woman, and three men, they had been sent by Overseer Alphonse Almodovar to lock me up so that I could not go on the expedition, so I would be forced to duplicate-rejuvenate an endless stream of items for DemivaultDC101E. I was angry at the Overseer's treacherous cunning and his aggressive use of his security thugs but more so at his narrow minded, short sighted, focus on things.

 

We were in a general, semiopen space close to my apartment and the security thugs had caught me heading towards the expedition departure area. I had been wearing a heavy backpack of gear and I put this back on, having quickly dropped it for the fight. The Security Guards glared at me but were too frightened to try anything. They were best at dealing with frightened vaultfolk who would not, could not, fight back.

 

My father came into the area and smiled coolly. "Just like your mother, you can surely throw people around."

 

My mother could throw people around? This was not like anything he had said about Catherine before. No, he had spoken of her warmth and sweetness, her brilliance as a scientist and amazing creativity as an artist. Not that he had ever spoken much about her.

 

"Is the expedition ready to go?" I sighed. "If so, I suggest we depart before the Overseer sends more thugs to get me."

 

"I should have known he would be so stupid." Professor James went on speaking. "We are good to go!"

 

So we set out in a series of golfcars with some robots hauling special trailers full of stuff. It was odd to be racing away from the demivault where I had spent most of my life, my having come there as a baby from the Wastelands. The demivault had seemed to be very large, most of my life, but had shrunk down as I had grown. Yet it had never seemed like a prison to me and still had areas to be explored, to be chartered. As we moved steadily along the roadway tunnel, it soon became a rather quiet trip with the tunnel staying much the same. Some areas were dimly lit with emergency lights, others in the dark, but the expedition had more than enough lights.

 

I awoke from a sleep with a start, to the realization of the golfcars halting and gunfire breaking out. In seconds I was up at the front of the convoy blazing away with my compact autorifle, shooting down vireclaw-puppet after vireclaw-puppet. The oncoming monsters were made up of more common underground critters and there were no human ones. With every single shot I dropped an attacker but thought nothing of it. I just knew where to shoot, how to get the target, when to shoot. Sometimes I deflected a bullet off a wall in order to hit a vireclaw-puppet. I halted shooting to note others staring at me in wonder.

 

My father sighed. "You shoot like your mother also and seem just as surprised when it amazes others around you."

 

I shrugged. "My shooting ability is of no importance. What is important is that the vireclaws may be cutting off the demivaults from each other or, hopefully not, have taken DVDC101D. Something tells me the latter is not the case though I am not sure what. I suggest we pick up a couple of sample bodies of different kinds of distorted creatures and then move on."

 

Paul Tranth, a Security Guard from DVDC101D, studied me carefully and shook his head. "Only such as the Mysterious Stranger are known to shoot that well. Oh, yes, Captain Cosmos and his Cosmic Followers."

 

I stopped in surprise, half expecting that Paul Tranth was joking when he spoke of Captain Cosmos as if he was real but it was not so, the man was not joking at all. The others all nodded as if it was well known that Captain Cosmos, and the Cosmic Taskforce, were a real part of existence. My father also seemed puzzled but then he sighed and spoke quietly. "So it is still happening, reality is still shifting."

 

Yes, I 'sensed' it that there was some relatively small, but important 'reality shift' taking place. I wonder what else had changed.

 

After gathering up samples we moved onwards and, after turning left at a fork in the road tunnel, were speeding more directly towards the destination demivault; that is 'speeding' as fast as the golfcars could 'speed'.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0038:I WAS JASMINE

 

I wanted to know how my father had known about 'reality shifts' and what he meant by them 'still happening' but he dodged any questions.

 

We were very welcome at the other demivault. They had been assaulted again and had learned about the brainbugged infiltrators amongst their group. All infiltrators had been weeded out. Vireclaw-puppets had been driven back with heavy losses to them. Some big old industrial tripod-lasers had been modified into weapons and turned out to be very effective against the bizarre enemies. The vaultfolk of DVDC101D were pleased to know their own expedition had made it safely to DVDC101E. In turn they had good news, of sorts. The main vault had been attacked by a massive force of vireclaw-puppets but three of the subvaults, along with four of the subvaults, remained under the control of vaultfolk. Brainbugged vaultfolk had caused great trouble before ways were found to detect them more easily. It seemed that a 50,000 volt electric shock would kill a brainbug-puppet that would knock down but only hurt a human.

 

It seemed that some vaultfolk had been taken by surprise by some kind of dark entity of unknown type but I soon came to believe it was a ShadowOne at work. Some had been turned into brainbug-puppets, some dying for it seemed not all survived the process just as not all survived becoming vireclaw-puppets. It was they who had helped lead a surprise attack against the vault. Yet it was another mysterious entity, a glowing entity, that had helped to protect TekVaultDC101 and who had even converted some of the vireclaw-puppets into powerful, more graceful, more sane and positive entities including human like ones from human puppets. It came to me that they had faced a GlowingOne, one of the ancient traditional enemies of the ShadowGod and a follower of the GlowingGod of the HolyThirteen. The HolyThirteen were not to be confused with the unholy HoliestThirteen.

 

It was not good that such 'Living Gods, who were neither truly male or female, were so heavily involved in the Marslands. In truth they belonged to another world, with two moons, known as Zarz. Zarz was a very exotic and dangerous realm of a very different nature from Mars of the Marslands.

 

We were given the use of a dormitory and other facilities. I slept and had one of my special dreams in which I visited Catherine, my mother, in a large communal settlement where there were kind, strong peoples of many kinds, pets, working pets and livestock along with plenty of kinds of plants. The great Domeland it was in was very different from the Wastelands. Much of it was semiwilderness though there was one major city, three secondary cities and nine towns. There were also villages, hamlets and thorpes along with farming, mining and other collectives. I had had these amazingly realistic dreams since I was a child but never remembered them when awake except that I was more at peace with myself after I had experienced one.

 

We had a picnic on a green lawn while some neobabies played games of throw-kick-roll-the-ball. The name had arisen to stop small chubby muscular figures from becoming overly grumpy, sulky, over which name would be used. Neobabies, like typical infants, tended to be 'hot cold' with their emotional states.

 

Catherine sat next to me in a flowing, green gown of translucent material. "When you awake this time you will remember the dream and all of these special dreams for they have not been dreams at all but dreamlinking. I am really your mother and I belong to a special entity as you do; we are semiautonomous entities of the same entity. We are many almost as one, as you, and yours, are."

 

Somehow I was not surprised but then again I had become used to strange revelations. "Father said you vanished soon after I was born, after you had health difficulties from the birth."

 

She frowned softly. "James has been under a kind of 'possession' for a long time now. With out knowing it, he sabotaged Project Purity and then he tried to kill me. I vanished because it was the only way to save my life. I dreamlinked with you, with your older sister and half-brother. James is only one of your biological fathers but of the other I will not speak of now."

 

Half-brother, sister? Yes, they were there but they were 'sleeping', which meant they were awake in the 'real world'. My half-brother was Jack and my sister was Jakeman. We were also 'me, myself and I' as semiautonomous aspects of one entity. It was confusing even for me but I supposed it would become less so over time.

 

We talked quietly for a time and I learned a good deal as did she. After a while I had a lap full of two sleeping neobabies and a sleeping puppy.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Maharg67