EverEpic

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 27.1(55)

James Jamestone had vanished from Fortress Hope, stealing much of value as he did so, and Peter Daviding was dead, having been murdered in his fairly comfortable holding cell. James had stolen valuable dossiers full of information, some prototype devices and ancient artifacts kept in locked storage. Thankfully there were updated copies of the dossiers and the artifacts were not unique or of the more dangerous kind and yet damage had been done to the TPMI and also to the TPMI-SIRIO Taskteam.

James Jamestone had been the one to seduce Sallie Foremale, with the help of dark subtle magic, but had failed in the end to keep her under his influence. The thug-mercenaries had taken her to the Foremale Estate by force. As for Nicolanda, he had become little more than a thrall with a largely burned out mind. James Jamestone had done some very dark deeds, had used some forbidden magic, and Nicolanda died some hours after he was captured.

It was only then that the SIRIO people learned that James Jamestone had been secretly under investigation by the TPMI Internal Security Office. One Jack Harkness had been leading the investigation after coming all the way from the district of Wales of the New British Isles. With him had come his own people, some of them being quite exotic. They had only arrived two days before but had been researching James Jamestone even as they had been travelling and had found many inconsistencies in his official records. Before he had officially joined the TPMI, in the Hopelands, James Jamestone did not really exist, at least not under that identity.

Jack Harkness, tall and in his trench-coat, entered the meeting chamber where the SIRIO people were holding a crisis meeting. They were all their, including the elite bodyguards, and had on the table many documents, typed notes and much else. Jack Harkness was tall, handsome and emanated much charisma. He smiled at everybody and especially at the three SIRIO women being Astrid, Olivia and Scully.

Gwen, his attractive fellow agent, caught up with him and elbowed him. “Jack, we have no time for your flirtations. Anyway, you leave those poor women alone.”

Jack snorted in response and spoke to those there, including the CrystalMage Patty Vandis who was not really part of the SIRIO at all. “I am sorry to meet you under such circumstances. I am the renowned Jack Harkness, as you probably know.”

Peter Bishop, who was annoyed with Jack flirting with Olivia, shook his head. “Nope, never heard of you.”

Jack gave Peter a mild grin. “Glad to see you again, Pete! I heard you had some troubles in the Lake Cities. Really, you should be careful who you play high stakes poker with.”

Peter, who did not like being called 'Pete', shook his head. “I thought you was with Torchwood.”

Jack shook his head. “Not since the big disaster, which I will tell you about later. Torchwood is rebuilt but is no longer the kind of organisation that either of us would wish to work with.”

Peter grinned. “You mean they will not put up with your wild strategies and other antics including your desire to seduce anything on two legs.”

Edited June 13, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 27.2(56)

Olivia spoke out. “Enough, gentlemen, we have work to attend to. Jack, can you tell us anything about the man who was named James Jamestone.”

Jack spoke with obvious intensity. “Real name, the one he was born with, is James Whitelasn!”

Peter Bishop whistled softly and then shook his head. “I can see where this is going and I do not like it at all.”

Jack Harkness nodded. “You are correct, Peter, this is bad. The Whitelasn Family are firmly embedded in the Purity Path Movement that arose in the Darklands about 400 years before the TripleEmpire conquered them and turned them into the Hopelands. The Purity Path Movement professes to be ultimately good, to be the only true voice of 'the Pure God of Cleansing Light'. Yet they speak of being willingly possessed by 'angelic spirits' though any such form of possession is forbidden by any more orthodox Faiths of the Light. They speak of their own automatic superiority to others and even having the right to judge, condemn and even execute others. After a series of dark crimes, the Whitelasns were forced to go underground, along with other PPM Followers of the Cleansing Light.”

Scully spoke out. “Extremes of one kind often bring out extremes of another. Why would James Whitelasn wish to infiltrate the TPMI?”

“The million dollar question!” Jack smiled warmly at Scully, earning another elbowing from Gwen. He frowned at her before speaking on. “The dossiers he took were all about certain powerful individuals of the Temple of Holiest Truth. It is said that the Purity Path Movement used to be closely linked to the Temple of Holiest Truth but that a schism took place over 800 years ago. It was a brutal affair with over 100 followers being killed in fighting and assassinations.”

“The schism was said to be about ideological differences expressed in deviations of dogma but not all believed that. It turned out that the PPM was going with the traditional path of only limited willing possessions by very carefully chosen angelic spirits but that the Temple of Holiest Truth wanted to take a new, more radical path; trouble is we do not know what that means. The only clues were that the Temple people would desire to have deeper 'contact' with more powerful kinds of angelic spirits.”

“Angelic spirits, the real angelic spirits, do not possess anybody even if they are asked to.” The CrystalMage was clearly disturbed, though generally calm. “The Temple of Holiest Truth has five actual temples across this part of the Hopelands but also its own temple-town of Purifana. They have relatively few followers and most of them came with the faction when they moved into the area over 100 years ago. They have kept themselves to themselves, have caused no trouble and law enforcement has had no good reason to investigate them. Then, recently, as you know that fake demonic killing took place of a petty criminal in a laneway right next to the temple in Hopeville.”

Samsha had been standing back, quietly observing what was going on. Now she spoke, changing subjects. “Beneath the long abandoned temple, where the Doomlordic monsters came from, is a chamber with an ancient alien artefact that you will find most interesting. Beware though for there is also a pool there with tentacled monster of some kind that is quite powerful and aggressive. I suggest great care in approaching there.”

Edited June 13, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 27.3(57)

Jack Harkness turned, with surprise, to look at Samsha and then he looked startled for a moment. “There is something very... unusual about you.”

Olivia nodded in agreement. “Samsha exists but does not exist and yet she is more natural than you are, Jack Harkness the man who can not die. I say that we send a smaller team to investigate the ancient alien artefact.”

Jack only shrugged, having heard this sort of thing many times in his very long past.

Samsha spoke again. “I have something more to speak of.”

Then she told them of the events at the Foremale Estate being the attack of the mercenaries, the dark seduction of Sallie Foremale and that seduction being done by the man named James Jamestone who turned out to be really the man named James Whitelasns.

Samsha went on speaking. “Sallie Foremale is unable to say what she was sent to do by James Whitelasn. Nicolanda Foremale died from the way he was brutally used, using dark magic, by the same James Whitelasn. The surviving mercenaries know nothing of any real use. The strange soldiers, that killed one of the mercenary platoons, remain a mystery.”

At that moment there was an exotic, subtle shimmering shivering that went through everything and when everybody looked around there were elevator doors in one wall. They were identical to the ones that had appeared in the Foremale Library and the ones that had already been there.

Next to the elevator doors, and door frame that had a control panel, was a metallic object that looked vaguely like a vending-machine typical of the UCI more than the TripleEmpire. Yet it was clearly neither for it was also much like known ancient alien artefacts. It had a very big chute tray and controls of a keyboard with a square mirror like screen that was now acting mirror like. There were symbols on its front being noticeably weapons and tools of differing relative sizes and shapes along with other objects. What made it more odd was a downward running chute, dropping out of sight.

Marshal Prishana Strongbow came from her office where she had been overseeing local TPMI operations including the establishment of the TPMI inside Fortress Freedom with all of its various demands.

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 28.1(58)

The inside of the teleportvator, not an elevator as it looked like from outside, was a cube shaped chamber that seemed to be made of the same material as the elevator doors and frame. It was no empty chamber and had some odd features one would not expect to find in an elevator or even a teleportvator (teleporting elevator). There was a silvery door in each wall other than the one that had the elevator doors and in each corner was an exotic looking locker dispenser combination.

Phanto awoke to find himself lying on a cushion-bed against one wall and a young woman in a tight leathery leotard who was Rosie Rhodes.

She looked at him, with a soft frowning smile, and spoke with warm concern in her voice. “Through the big door, at the back of this chamber, is a 'special way' that leads to Samson's Fatedomain. Somebody has an odd sense of humour for this is called the Fatevator.”

Phanto spoke of the chamber where he had found the capsule in the archway and a set of Fatevator doors along with the pool from which the tentacles had attacked him. Then he continued to speak. “Why are we not in the Fatedomain?”

Rosie shrugged. “Perhaps Samson has to give you permission, personally, to enter the Fatedomain because for now it remains locked to you but not to my sisters or myself; he gave us permission. Knowing Samson, I suggest strongly it is simply something he has to get around to doing. Or perhaps he does not trust you totally because Phanto is more of an antihero, than a real hero, in his novels.”

The elevator like doors opened and in came Samtha. She looked filthy in her military type gear and went straight to a corner to get herself some cool, clear water in three litre sized bottles. She kept one and passed one to each of the others. They all drank all of the water, slowly and steadily, before dropping the bottles into a recycling chute.

Samtha spoke with a tone of bemused irony. “Elevator doors, with framework, appeared out of nowhere in front of me as I was making my way through the countryside towards Hopeville. There was some military activity despite most people having left the battle scene when the Doomlordic invaders were gone. The whole area is agitated and who can blame them, especially the three Estates and one village that is fairly close to the abandoned temple.”

They exchanged stories. Rosie told of some projects she had been doing in the Fatedomain but did not go into much detail. Phanto spoke of his experiences in the temple with the Democultists, and razorbi, fighting the Doomlordic entities. Samtha spoke of her experiences fighting the Democultists and then dealing with the freelance doppelgangers spying for an unknown faction. Samtha also spoke of the testing-transformation of a TriGuard.

Samtha invited Phanto to come into the Fatedomain and so he did but somehow all three knew he could only be there if one of the others was there with him. Phanto was annoyed but no more than that for he was used to being treated in such a manner. Anyway there was always going to be at least one other there or so it was planned at the time.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

EverEpic Zero

 

Have changed name of TripleEmpire capital city from 'Imperiarna' to 'TriImperiarna' to try to fit it more firmly into the empire's naming system.

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 29.1(59)

Samson gained access to the whole mansion and estate. He led a small expedition to find the 13 Diamondafa Vaults. The basic map, that had been hidden inside the cover of the tome in the library, proved to be fairly useful but did not show how to get past certain deliberate, cleverly designed obstacles.

The group stood in a big stone chamber, typical of the architecture of the surviving Foremale Castle. Along one wall were great big wooden barrels raised up on metal platforms. If properly treated they would prove to be very useful to the Estate. Nobody had been there for many centuries and in one corner lay the skeletal remains of very long dead warriors along with bits of rusting armour and some weapons. The very dry air of the chamber had helped preserve things over the centuries.

'Sensing' that there was something about the chamber that was disturbingly unusual, though not obvious, Samson signalled the group to do nothing but remain still. Perhaps not noticing, out of keenness to record what was there, a young woman, a scholar, took a black-white photograph using a flash bulb. As soon as the flash went off, lids began to fall off the barrels and the monstrous things came clambering out.

Squat, quasiliving things of clay-flesh, they bore the symbols of the dreaded Darkjover mages and alchemists. Five came out and three failed to do so, their magics having failed over the centuries. The golemites were fighting versions of hulking, worker, golems being endowed with great claws and other inbuilt weapons.

They surged into attack at once but they were slow, cumbersome, thanks to the part failings of their magics. They had not been attended to by alchemists, and mages, who would have recharged them as teams. Yet as great arms swung great big clubs through the air and great square feet clumped upon the stony floor, they were still very dangerous.

Samson had prepared himself for such as he drew out small glowing crystals and threw them before the attacking golemites. As each monster struck the crystals, it crumbled in an explosive fashion, the bodies disintegrating with some force. Other clay-flesh entities were struck with bullets and large shotgun pellets.

An Estateguard was struck down but not heavily even as fusillades of bullets caused the attacking golemite to be destroyed dramatically.

Samson turned to the nervous photographer but he only smiled. “Please take care to ask permission before taking photographs from now on, especially if using flashbulbs.” Then he snorted softly. “Sampha, welcome to existence my special sibling.”

Sampha was like a younger version of Samtha or Samsha. She smiled. “Really, I did 'sense' something in the barrels and considered wise to have them come out while we were still checking out the chamber as new. The light-bulb was special and drew out the golemites to attack. There is an obvious closed door over there but look to the back of the barrels to see where we really need to go and what the golemites were supposed to guard us from. They took a good deal of trouble to guard it, to conceal it, but I expect there will be more Darkjover barriers before we can get to what they left here.”

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 29.2(60)

Those golemites were just mounds of glistening clay that was no longer clay-flesh. Samson sprinkled some powder onto the mounds and, with some brief sizzling effects, it became harmless clay substance. Otherwise it would have remained dangerously toxic.

Rashma, the woman lieutenant, in charge of the Estateguards, looked upon the door yet to be tried. It was almost identical to the one they had come through. “What of that? Is it a trap?”

Sampha shook her head. “Just a door leading into another castle deep basement chamber. To make it a deadly trap could too easily draw too much attention to this room. Better to have intruders, explorers, head past the fake barrels with out taking too much attention of them.”

They checked it anyway, Sampha not being offended for she would recommend that this be done, and it did turn out to be a big old castle deep basement chamber dotted with big columns, barrels, heaps of semijunk and much else.

They went carefully through the fake barrels that went through the wall as crawl tunnels before opening into a great stone chamber. It was another space typical of the extremely old Foremale Castle except for some special Darkjover added features. There were tables, chairs and other fittings, and furnishings, typical of any Darklanders but also Foremale wall tapestries that had been rudely torn down and dumped into a corner along with Foremale coats-of-arms. Darkjover wall tapestries, beautifully gruesome, had replaced them along with savagely graceful Darkjover coats-of-arms.

There had been a great battle fought there with many skeletal remains of Darkjover warriors and battlemages being there.

Yet there was something there that was of no Darklanders' making. It was an ancient alien artefact of a disk shaped base, an archway and vertical capsule with a partly obscured naked humanoid in it. It was identical to the one that Phanto had accidentally found in the chamber below the temple where the battle had taken place between demonic forces and then also other forces. Except here, thankfully, there was no pool and no tentacles.

Samson had a terrible 'sense' of danger but also of dark familiarity with the figure inside the vertical capsule. He cursed softly in an ancient language that no others knew there except for Sampha.

Sampha sighed and shook her head. “Such language, Samson, such language but understandable under these circumstances. We hoped very much that we had destroyed this one the last time we met in battle. That is when we led the TriLegions into the Darklands, for many reasons, but mainly to destroy the Darkjovers and the too many others who were like them. Except that the Darkjovers were amongst the most evil and, amongst the most evil, were easily the most powerful. Indeed they were feared by powerful factions across the Darklands.”

Yes! Samson scowled deeply and then spoke. “I now have a very good idea what has been causing all the troubles through out this part of the Hopelands and even in other parts of the world. I suspect I know what has been drawing the demonic to here though I hope that I am wrong.”

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 29.3(61)

Samson stepped up closer to the capsule and stared intently at it. “Yes, it is Samvil in there. When we were the GeniusThirteen we were One Prime, Three Secondaries and Nine Foundationals. I was the Prime and Samvil was one of the Foundationals. Samvil was one of the traitors who....” He rubbed his forehead. “My memories are still a mess. It was almost 2,000 years ago that the Breaking of the World took place and during the TriImperial conquest of the Darklands that we last battled Samvil and others of his kind.”

He stepped back from the ancient alien artefact. “Humanity found the ancient alien artefacts firstly inside the Lunar Labyrinth, itself a sealed off maze of atmosphere filled cave systems, caverns and much bigger glowcaverns, suncaverns and suncavernlands along with other spaces. Ancient aliens, known generally as Extraterrestrial Entities, had created the so called AAAs. They had dwelt there for an extremely long time, with so called lesser peoples, and then a great disaster had taken place and they had vanished. The lesser peoples still dwelt there and knew better than to try to interfere with the AAAs, let alone the biggest, most powerful ones. Most humans felt the same but some thought they knew better.”

After another long pause he shrugged. “Interference led to another great disaster and the Breaking of the World.”

Which was when a feint voice, full of despair and pain, came from the capsule with much apparent effort and even stress. “Help us, Samson, help us before it is too late for us all. Please forgive us for our stupidity....”

Samson sighed. “You said that about centuries ago but when I partly freed you all you did was to betray others and myself yet again, trying to destroy us. So I shoved you fully back into a prison that you created for yourself though with the help of others.”

Samvil spoke again but this time his tone of voice was full of arrogance and rage though still with stress of effort. “Damned you, damned you, if you had only gone along with the plan then we all would have gained from it but you were too 'above the rest of us' to go along. I will escape and I will destroy you and yours.”

Then the voice was gone. Seconds later the whole AAA vanished with a sparkling shimmer, including Samvil inside the capsule. The disappearance exposed a big pair of thick ironwood doors with steel reinforcing. Darkjover magical wards and emblems were marked on it but their magical charge had long faded away.

They found themselves in what seemed to be a hidden Darkjover complex built, and used, before the TripleEmpire had invaded. It was very large and complicated with at least two main levels and many man sections along with subsections. There were barracks, kitchens, armouries, workshops, laboratories, training areas, dining chambers and much else. Though the complex carried out many functions the main one had been that of tracking down the 13 Diamondafa Vaults.

Edited June 19, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 30.1(62)

Somehow it did not surprise Samson when a mysterious 'elevator' was found and out of it stepped the TPMI-SIRIO Taskteam, with its new members, along with Samsha. The Fatevator opened into a great central chamber to the long abandoned Darkjover complex. The Fatevator would only operate if certain individuals were there to use it but it became very important in moving people and items between places.

Something exotic, and important, had been found in the complex. The CrystalMage had examined the AAA that was a great metallic octopus like entity of a statue, each of the nine tentacles coming out of a great orb and ending in three smaller tentacles that each ended in three yet smaller tentacles. Each was wrapped around a crystal orb that was three metres wide and high. Inside, mostly obscured, was an entity of some kind. There appeared to be a range of them.

There had been the scattered skeletal remains of many Darkjovers, not just warriors but such as mages, alchemists, artisans, workers and scholars. Clearly the Darkjover people had been studying the ancient alien artefact when something had attacked the complex, killing all of the Darkjovers and destroying their clay-flesh and reanimated puppets. The Darkjovers had reanimated crude and fairly clumsy zombies.

Patty Vandis spoke and her voice was heavy with curiosity and anger. “The Darkjovers were arrogant fools meddling with that which no mortals should interfere with, at least not in the way they did or for the reasons they did so. It was this great device that unleashed death upon all of those in this complex including the zombies and clay-flesh creatures. Most seem to have perished, if not all, of that evil Estateclan. Yet the Darkjovers did not consider this device to be one of those linked to the 13 Diamondafa Vaults even though those AAAs do shift locations at times. They tried their best to activate it and yet the last records left by the Darkjovers indicated that they were failing to do so; so there may have been another cause of the activation of this ancient alien device.”

Then she went on after quickly looking at some notes on a clipboard. “From this device is emanating part of the transdimensional energies flux, the patterns, that are causing so much trouble. That is the drawing of powerful demonic forces into this world. Some faction has activated this AAA, and most likely others.”

Samson spoke then as he studied the AAA intently. “You are looking at a NineVitoAza of the AncientLords, more accurately known as the TerraniAza. It has many primary, and secondary, functions but can develop temporary functions if needed. While I accept your great knowledge, wisdom and experience, Patty, such AAAs can be triggered in ways not so straight forward as a faction doing so. How they are activated is just as important as they being activated, if not more important.”

Patty nodded. “Something tells me that you know a good deal more about such things than myself. Do you mean that the...” She became silent for a moment before continuing. “Yes, it is difficult even to start to really define what these truly ancient devices do.”

“They should never have been created!” Samson rubbed his head. “They should have been destroyed but, instead, there was a terrible disaster and the AncientLords vanished, along with the AncientGods that they worshipped as living gods and goddesses.”

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 30.2(63)

Samson frowned. “I could try to deactivate this AAA but something tells me, some instinct or buried memories, that to do so could easily lead to more trouble than good.”

The problem was solved for him, and the others, when the great NineVitoAza vanished with a sparkling shimmer. One second the massive, eccentric appearing, mechanism was there and the next it was gone.

Where it had been, before hidden but now revealed, was an oddly designed disk shape melded into the floor. It was metallic and had two cured strips around part of its edges. There were ancient patterns across it but this was no product of the AncientLords but of the PreBreaking superhumans who power-artefacts could also be found across the NewEarth but especially, with only some exceptions, in parts of the Forbidden World.

Samson frowned. “That is a slide-inverter-entrance. The curved strips lower down into curved rampways and one slides down them but this is far more than an entrance to long slideways to get to some place place below. The slide surfaces are almost frictionless and the person going down the slideways will quickly build up much speed and kinetic energies. Then they pass through an energy barrier into what might be crudely called a dimensional inverter field. The name is for convenience and not scientifically accurate. One travels a very long distance in a few seconds and comes out into a slide-inverter-exit, the slideways slowing one down and ended in a special cushioned chamber. None of this makes sense unless...”

Samsha smiled and then spoke. “Unless the reason that the Darkjovers could not find the 13 Diamondafa Vaults was that the AAA materialised above that entrance, there, to hide it from them. That could be the way to the 13 Diamondafa Vaults.”

“But what is it doing here?” Samson responded with much focus showing on his face. “This castle was once very old even in the PreBreaking city it was in. It was the Edinburgh Castle, in the city of Edinburgh, in the land known as Scotland. It became damaged during the Breaking of the World and was repaired by survivors who were to become Estatefolk as the centuries passed.”

Sampha shook her head. “There goes many popular historical theories about the past history of the Estatelands in this area.”

Jack Harkness shook his head. “I think that will be amongst the least of our concerns. I was alive back on the PreBreaking Earth, as Samson was. I heard of some group called the GeniusThirteen who were going to draw the United Solar System Nations into a glorious new age of endless energies and other vital resources. Matters did not quite work out that way.”

Samson shrugged. “No, they did not, and though I was the Prime of the GeniusThirteen I opposed the whole project. Did you oppose the Miracle Project, Jack?”

Jack nodded. “I was part of the Rebel Survival Networks that went as far as destroying research development network-systems and centres. For our efforts the USSN Government, and Transplanetary Corporations, hunted down most of us and killed us.”

Samson nodded, as if to himself. “I secretly assisted the Rebel Survival Networks.”