Adventures of the Wild East : Fallout Series Discussion

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:43 am

JUST ANOTHER SKIRMISH IN DC

Daring Dashwood aimed his six-shooter carefully from his cover behind some concrete stuff and fired. The gun bucked a little in his hand but it was a well made instrument of death and it blew a nice big hole in the ganger. The garish gang coloured figure, in his hornlizard leather armour, collapsed in mid warcry. Gangers were often insane with the drugs they were addicted to like Frenzit and Psycho but worst of all Beserkin. These, like most gangers, were in their old PreWar territory though the urban atmosphere had changed a lot since back then, before the Zbombs had fallen.

There was a scream as Argyle killed another ganger in the mangled, mingled madness of half collapsed buildings made of smart self-repairing materials. Self-repairing to stay as good as they were but not enough to actually erect the buildings again. Argyle didn't like to talk about it but he was once Special Forces in the United States Unified Defence Force back PreWar. Even back then, amongst the Special Forces, he was considered to be one of the deadliest of the deadly. Most assumed that this made Argyle stranger and much older than Dashwood, as well as more dangerous. They were wrong!

Daring slipped sideways with much quiet stealth of his own. He returned the big revolver pistol to its holster after topping it up with new bullets and slipped out a combat knife. A ganger, a nasty young woman with the rough pokskin of many Wastelanders, was sneaking up upon him to waste him with a machette knife. Or so was her delusion. She raced around a corner, coming out from shadow, and swung her machette through the air. The combat knife met her throat and then she was gone off to hell, along with the rest of her kind. Unlike raiders or slavers or bandits, but like tribals or survivalists, some gangers were worse than others but these BoneBiters were sheer insane nasty. Making sure not of her blood splashed onto him, Dashwood flipped the dead ganger's body onto the bulging smart concrete he stood on.

Argyle, grinning, slipped into view and he spoke. "Those who are not dead, are gone. We taught the BoneBiters a small but vital lesson about keeping to local treaties with settlers, traders and other gangers. I killed eight. You took down five."

Dashwood grinned right back. "Time to get back to the ATV6. I need some serum and you could use a beer and something reasonable tasting to eat."

SATV6 simply meant a survival all terrain vehicle with six wheels. The SATV series of vehicles were commissioned in PreWar times and built in very large numbers, varieties and subvarieties. They were greatly valued in the Wastelands for many good reasons to do with their very good design and build. When the Zbombs had come down from low orbit to explode low in the atmosphere, the often carefully stored away SATVs survived in large numbers. Many others had somehow survived partly or wholly and had been salvaged. SATV4s, SATV6s and SATV8s were the most common but there were also SATVHs that were hovercraft and SATVTs that had tracks. Least common were the SATVFs that were fliers, or low flying vehicles.

Despite his carefully built up reputation, partly created by the series of radio broadcast adventures, Argyle did not truly enjoy killing and Dashwood certainly did not. They slipped back to the SATV6 which was well hidden, including the use of a grey camonet, and guarded by a quiet, lethal young woman by the name of Samantha. She used to be Argyle's girlfriend until Dashwood had stolen her away and then she had gave up on both of them romantically. All three were now best friends. At times she 'dallied' with one or the other of them but oddly enough no jealousy arose.

Samantha sighed as she sat in the gunner's seat at the back that could control remote turrets or raise to the roof to shoot 12.7mm special calibre bullet firing heavy machineguns, two of them. In truth they were Browning Heavy Machineguns, an old but very reliable and hight powered design of weapon. She spoke. "So, what now?"

Dashwood frowned softly and after a pause, he spoke. "We return to Rockpolis and try further to work out the problem of slavers learning of its location since this time we failed to get any more valuable information out in the field."

The others didn't have a better idea so that is just what they did in the surprisingly compact big six wheeled amphibious vehicle.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:05 pm

DRIVING QUIET IN ROUGH PLACES

The angular armoured machine moved fairly quick but hummed low and quiet with its electric motors. It shot along a lightly crumpled street past two to five level prefabricated commercial office buildings, abandoned vehicles of all kinds and sometimes, shops or other kinds of structures. Radroaches and radbeetles scuttled over the street to dive under shelter. No wild ghouls were out or zhouls, even more deformed cousins of ghouls, because it was too bright and warm with sunshine. Argyle did not much like fighting under such conditions which was one reason he liked to kill by stealth; he staid much of the time in the cooler shadows where the burning sunlight did not touch his sensitive ghoulified skin. He had drunk a cool beer as taken from a status storage container and had eaten some squirrel meat and muttveg along with Samantha. Dashwood had a tube of serum. All three of them drank some cooled, purified water. Ghouls could survive radded water but did better on the cleaner stuff.

They tried to stay away from areas designated as far too dangerous. The Brotherhood of Steel had arrived about half a year before in the DC and had taken over the New Pentagon, turning it into the DC Citadel, and their assistance to the Wastelanders had begun to make fair sized areas safer for all. Then there were the Unified Settlement Territories, the UST, of a far few scattered built up and fortified settlements, each with its own defended surrounding territory. The UST Marshals were allied to the older organisation of the Regulators and both worked with the Sheriffs of both UST and other settlements. The Brother Outcasts, a splinter group from the Brotherhood of Steel, openly disdained Wastelanders but tended to assist if they came upon Wastelanders in trouble. The better mercenary groups would do the same such as the Ironsides, Reilly's Rangers and the Security Mercenaries. Others were not so good, such as the Talon Mercenaries linked to Paradise Falls and GuardTek linked to the surviving TekCorporations of the TekCommonwealth and also to its very powerful TekInstitute. There were lots of dangerous, very dangerous and extremely dangerous areas infested with wild ghouls, zhouls, mutated creatures of varied kinds, evil humans of varied kinds, rogue robots and other threats.

They travelled southwards as the solar power panels embedded into the top of the vehicle charged up reserve batteries even as the sunlight began to fade towards darkness. They turned roughly south-east as they began to curve along a length of highway. Then they were going under cover as Dashwood sensed approaching danger. The big, powerful vertibird shot overhead, big and dull dark silver metallic with two big rotors to the fore and sides. It turned in a graceful arc through the air, powerful chinguns and hardpoint weapons seeming threatening as its light armoured hull. Two more such flying monster machines went shooting through the air and they bore the symbol of the EagleEnclave, the emergency bunker based government that had been instigated when the War had begun.

It was far from a good sign. None of the three were happy. All of them had been to the west and midlands of the former US Mainland so they all had former experiences with the dreaded EagleEnclave. The Jolly Grey Giants, the type of vertibirds that had just flown over, where powerful, versatile machines and yet still had vulnerabilities. The EagleEnclave would have had to have good reasons for sending them that deep into the DC despite that the three were actually relatively close to the western edge of the DC. Dashwood was most disturbed for he had very old and strong links with the EagleEnclave and the TekCorps that with the corrupted and autocratic US Federal Government had led the world to wide spread death and destruction.

They went back to driving again after Dashwood gave some biscuits and squirrel meat to some rhouls, the more peaceful versions of zhouls. Argyle tended to some minor wounds and learned some local info. Samantha held a rhoul baby and played with it. It was the rhouls that told the three that they had seen supermutants in the area but also other things that had scared them.

» Fri May 13, 2011 1:08 pm

"Daring Dashwood aimed his six-shooter carefully from his cover behind some concrete stuff and fired."

His name is Herbert, or Hebert "Daring" Dashwood. Also 'stuff' doesn't sound good. Use 'base' or 'material'.

"Before the Zbombs had fallen."

Z-Bombs

"Dashwood flipped the dead ganger's body onto the bulging smart concrete he stood on."

How is it bulging and how is it smart. I could see 'cracked'.

***

This had some nice polish to it, like it was fresh out of Galaxy News Radio. Good job with that, and good style. I like it for the most part.

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:56 am

Thank you for your feedback, Antiiv3.

The use of the word 'stuff'' was a bit lazy but I have seen smashed up concrete and other buildings. I tell you, it is hard to describe at times. I will refrain from using words like 'stuff' from now on.

As for the use of 'Daring', I simply prefer it but through out the story he will be called 'Daring Dashwood', 'Herbert Daring Dashwood' and any other variation of his name. I have heard him called 'Daring Dashwood'.

I have researched A-bombs in my time and somehow their use in Fallout does not make sense. So I call them Z-bombs instead. They are just a different, more advanced form of nuclear weapon and do more organic destruction and less non organic destruction than do either H-bombs or A-bombs. Perhaps you know about the N-bombs in our world that were supposed to do the same but turned out a failure; otherwise google 'N-bombs'.

Flipped is referring to a martial arts action. Flipping is throwing the body so that it basically flips through the air. She came at him, he killed her and used her momentum to flip her. Perhaps I worded this poorly.

Smart materials are materials are are designed to repair themselves. They are actually being researched, developed here in the real world and such would explain why the buildings of the Wastelands would last so long when in truth they would have crumbled into dust.

Concrete, believe it or not, can bulge under pressure, just as it can sink and go into other odd shapes. I have seen it. Sometimes it also cracks but not always.

» Fri May 13, 2011 8:53 pm

STOPPING OFF WITH SETTLERS AND BROTHERS OF STEEL AT HARRIETCROSSING

They stopped at a small but thriving settlement of HarrietCrossing, fortified, that was the base of scavengers, hunters and farmers. They had crops of mutt-plants, goats, brahmins and even some chickens. They also had some rhorses, mutated horses, as big as draft horses of old and amazingly strong with plated skin and horns. The settlement was also an outpost of the Brotherhood of Steel, a base for longer range patrols and exploration parties. Brothers and Sisters of Steel were their in their battle power armour with heavy assault rifles, or HARs, miniguns, flamers, 20mm autoguns, 40mm recoilless rifles and other bigger weapons adapted for use with power armour.

Daring Herbert Dashwood approached the Sister of Steel in charge, one Knight Captain Sarah Lyons, who was out of armour and in fatigues in a fortified shack packed in behind walls of sandbags, and was examining reports. She looked up at Daring Dashwood and frowned softly. "Word of you gets around. You have quite a reputation and not just here in DC."

Herbert nodded. "You and your Lyon's Pride also have a strong reptuation. We spotted three of those big EagleEnclave vertibirds not too far from here and have picked up reliable information that there are supermutants in the area."

The 'hut' chamber was fairly big and had various bits of radio, computer and other equipment including a holoprojector. A map of the DC was on the wall but it was not complete, having blank areas and some guesswork. Certain special sites were flagged such as the DC Citadel (New Pentagon), the Old Pentagon, the National Mall, Washington DC Airport, RivetCity of the aircraft carrier settlement, Fort Independence of the Outcasts and a few others. RivetCity was the capital of the UST in a loose sense of the Leadership Council being situated there with its Leadership Office. Other markers were coded.

Herbert indicated the map. "I would be happy to help you change some of your mistakes there and fill in some gaps."

Sarah nodded. "That would be welcome. My father, Elder Owyn Lyons, wishes to meet you in person. There is much that you could discuss. Perhaps we can assist you with Rockopolis. Yes, we have our own eyes and ears in the DC."

Herbert sat down on a wooden chair made of smart-wood and he was quiet for a moment before he spoke. "Rockopolis needs to be officially destroyed and better hidden underground. Argyle and I need to vanish in a few months and take up new identities for a while. In return for your assistance the Brotherhood of Steel could use Rockopolis and place there reserves against EagleEnclave aggression."

It was the start of negotiations. Sarah put aside the report that she had just finished reading anyway, and turned to him. "You assume the worst."

Herbert Dashwood shook his head. "I fear it. Those vertibirds looked altered, perhaps upgraded somehow. The some of the weapons were of a kind not previously known to me."

The attractive soldier girl frowned. "That would go along with troublesome information that we have already been picking up."

They continued to talk and a Brother of Steel brought a tray with tea, teacups and saucers along with a plate of cakebars.

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:03 pm

HERBERT DARING DASHWOOD DREAMS OF SUPERMUTANTS

Dashwood dreamed in an odd way sometimes of things he should not have known such as those in the distance, glimpses into possible futures and even clues to real life puzzzles or mysteries. After long hours of talking with Sarah Lyons and having Argyle speak with her also, he retired to a made up tent that he shared with the others. There he read for a while, a rare Prewar book he had found on philosphy that had been banned back in the Prewar USA. After snuggling into bed, a thin inflated survival mattress of actual real comfort, he dreamed.

Of walking in Wastelander survival gear, including hornlizard body-armour, through a abandoned looking VaultTek TekVault, an arid metallic environment with a few artificial plants made of smart-plastic, 3Dslogans on the walls, and some wrecked or just deactivated dumb-robots, cleaners and security observers. There were some signs of long ago fighting such as bullet marks in the metal, burn marks of pulselasers, of barricades long pushed to one side. There was the sort of basic machine extruded and replicated stuff that official Vault-Dwellers would use from mugs to cyberlink-typers to computer terminals to mops and much else.

TekVault0087, official designation recolonisation of the surface. Official population of one hundred thousand humans, ten thousand standard vaultdroid androids and one thousand brainbots, cyborged robots big and bulky on tracks. Three secondary official designations of classified nature. The information came to him but he was not sure how it did so or where it came from.

Then he found the skeletal remains heaped on top of each other in a side chamber, a storeroom, and sensed they had died violently. While most wore blue or pink jumpsuits, male or female citizen, some had security fatigues and body-armour of security guards or special colour coded jumpsuits such as scientists, medical staff and even black jumpsuit wearing security officers. Clearly there had been a savage battle and these were some of the dead.

When three big hulking supermutants thumped along the hallway, each in fleximetallic and hornlizard body-armour plus holding large weapons, somehow he was not surprised. Not only did they not notice Daring Herbert Dashwood, but they walked right through him because he really was not there at all. Stupid but powerfully aggressive, berserker mad at times, these supermutants were massemoths, being the standard size and shapeform of supermutants. Or at least this is how Daring had encountered them in far off places on the US Mainland such as California, Rhode Island and Nebraska. Like ghouls, supermutants had longevity and they wandered far further than many people guessed.

Following them was a zentaur, a monstrous once human creature moving on tentacles along the floor and with a human like face buried into its front. These could whip out with tentacles or throw globs of glistening toxic stuff. They were not smart enough to use weapons but they had strong senses and were used as guard and tracking creatures along for attacking the enemies of the supermutants.

Then the amazingly vivid dream was ending.

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:10 am

EXPEDITION PLANNED TO TEKVAULT0087

Sarah Lyons did not question the importance of Daring Herbert Dashwood's dream or the sense of urgency that it gave him that they should go to TekVault0087 that lay beneath Lamplight Mountain on the very fringes of part of the vast and intricate Lamplight Caverns cave system.

The Brotherhood of Steel had attempted to get through the main wheel-gate entrance with its two wheel-gate airlock like arrangement. An area of incredibly high toxic and radioactive levels, along with something else unknown, had stopped even people in hazmat power armour from reaching the entrance. When a robot did so it reported that the tunnel before the outer wheel-gate seemed to be collapsed. Then the robot had ceased to function. Having lost two comrades in valuable hazmat power armour and a valuable specialised hazmat robot, the Brotherhood ceased efforts to get into TekVault0087 by that route.

The Brotherhood of Steel had learned of no other route until Knight Captain Gallows, in one of his secret missions into the Wastelands, had learned about the strange settlement known as Little Lamplight in the Lamplight Caverns close to the old Lamplight Caverns entrance. Traders sometimes went there, halting just inside the caverns and just outside the strange settlement where only children and young teenagers lived. Outside of the Lamplight Caverns, only about a kilometre from the main entrance, was Bigtown where lived only advlts that had been children in Little Lamplight. It was whispered that there was a way to get through Little Lamplight and then through part of the Lamplight Caverns known nicely as 'Murder Pass', to get to TekVault0087.

The Little Lamplighters traded a variety of strange mosses, mushrooms and other caverns grown mutated growths in exchange for tradegoods from outside. These exotic substances had many amazing qualities that made them very valuable to Wastelanders and the traders made a good profit. The Little Lamplighters would only trade with three Master Traders from Canterbury Commons who had come to specialise in dealing with Little Lamplight because the two men and one womanwould did not try to cheat the children as many traders had done, thinking they could fool 'mere children'.

Preperations began to create an expedition being the three and some Brothers of Steel plus some Wastelander scouts with experience of areas they would need to pass through.

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:57 pm

THE EXPEDITION TO TEKVAULT0087: STARTING OUT ACROSS THE WASTELANDS; CRATERTOWN OF CRATERLAKE

They were roughly north-west of Lamplight Mountain but going there was not going to be straight forward. More than Z-bombs had been used in that last terrible war and a big crater had turned into a strange toxic and radded lake full of mutated plants and animals. There were settlements around its shore brave enough to live off the exotic but valuable resources to be found there. The CraterLakers of CraterLake were a tough lot and had to be. They were about half of them ghouls because ghouls could better withstand the toxins and radiation of the lake waters. Jutting out of the centre of the CraterLake was the tail end of a mighty super-subsonic bomber, a B747G1 that was based loosely on the design of a Bo747 Jumbojet airliner or airfreighter but with anti-missile missiles, pulselaser cannons and even robotic drone interceptors. In truth the old USA had a shortage of bombers and converted some Bo747s in a hurry, partly because they could hold many defences and also many H-bombs, tactical H-missiles and even small Z-bombs.

The expedition of SATV4s, SATV6s and a couple of big eight wheeled atomic motorised ALAVs, headed along fairly rough highways and dirt roads. Local bandits and monsters were too smart to attack such a well armed and armoured convoy. Coming to the edges of the great big Craterlake, they stopped at the heavily fortified settlement of Cratertown of fairly large size. Its special harbour area was designed for the hunting and fishing of terrible mutant creatures as well as defending the town against them. Very rugged fully enclosed gather, fisher and hunter boats were coming in from the deeper parts of the lake bringing fish and other creatures along with mutated lake weed. The tradegoods produced from the Craterlake were of great value across the DC Wastelands, right up close to the DC Defence Security Boundary that was still functioning in most places. Closer to the DCDSB one got, the more likely it was that one would encounter dangerous rogue robots along with other special threats.

Argyle and Daring Dashwood took the excuse to go and visit the LILLY ALLEN SALOON as run by a youthful, attractive Lilly Allen. Apart from being old friends of her, she was also a very useful source of valuable information along with special equipment and supplies. Of course they would have to pay for the latter in cash but for the former they gave information in return. Sarah Lyons did not come with them. Instead she went off to talk to the local Sheriff. The saloon was a fine looking establishment, by DC Wasteland standards, and was made of a mixture of wood and bricks. It offered gaming tables, good food and reasonably priced and quality drinks including clean cooled water, muttfruit juice, coffee and tea.

Word had come in that scavengers had found a big load of status stored food, drink, medicines and other valuable tradegoods fairly close to the Craterside Lake. The stuff would soon be on its way and under heavy guard. It would go to the eight roughly compass direction placed Craterlake Settlements, all of which belonged to the loose alliance of settlements. They would use one of the new wonders of Craterside, the new electric railway being built slowly but steadily around the lake to link all of the settlements on its shoreline.

The two of them sat for a while looking at a big wall mural showing the Craterlake from the air, including the settlement of Cratertown, that was most impressively done. It was new and it was beautiful, showing much talent. Down in the right hand lower corner were the very stylish initials of GM. Argyle and Herbert Daring Dashwood looked to each other and both frowned softly. The initials of GM, along with that style and quality of artwork, could only mean Graharg McMaharg was in the area. This was both good and not so good.

Which was when Graharg himself showed up, dressed partly like a cowboy gunslinger and partly like a wild artist. With him came Lilly Allen who looked happier than she normally did and it was clear that she had hooked up with Graharg, much to the annoyance and jealousy of Argyle who had desired the attractive, almost petite woman for some time.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:47 pm

SETTLEMENTS OF THE UST
NOT ALL SETTLEMENTS BELONG TO THE UST
SOME UST SETTLEMENTS ARE EXPANDED GAME SETTLEMENTS
OTHERS ARE NEW

AEROVALE (NEW) (MAJOR SETTLEMENT)
BASED AT PREDD EXPERIMENTAL BASE AND AIRPORT. CONSTRUCTION OF SMALL AIRSHIPS, OF AIRBOATS AND FEWER AEROBOATS. CAN REPAIR, ASSEMBLE SOME OTHER AIRCRAFT.
OTHER LIGHT INDUSTRIES.

CANTERBURY COMMONS (MAJOR SETTLEMENT)
LINKED TO MYSTERIOUS VAULT THROUGH TRADE AGREEMENT. FORTIFIED, CUT OFF AREA OF OLD TOWN WITH CLEAR FIRE ZONES. HOME BASE OF TRADE CARAVANS OF VARIED TYPES INCLUDING THE FAMOUS CANTERBURY FOUR.

CRATERLAKE SETTLEMENTS (NEW)(SPECIAL STATUS)
CRATERTOWN, CRATERPORT, LUCKYWATERS, FISHERTOWN, GOBBLERTON, SEDRICVILLE, RAFTTROPOLIS, SPLISHSPLASH
ALL BASED MAINLY ON THE RESOURCES GAINED FROM CRATERLAKE

GREYDITCH (MINOR SETTLEMENT)
SCAVENGING, GATHERING, HUNTING SETTLEMENT BASED IN OLD URBAN AREA AND BASE OF SMALL EXPEDITIONS INTO THE SUBWAYS.

HARRIETCROSSING (NEW)(MINOR SETTLEMENT)
BASED MAINLY ON HUNTING, FISHING, GATHERING AND SCAVENGING

MEGATON (MEDIATE SETTLEMENT)
BASED IN CRATER AND FAMED FOR Z-BOMB IN CRADLE AT BOTTOM OF CRATER. OUTER MEGATON IS LIKE GAME MEGATON BUT INNER MEGATON IS BASED IN A BUNKER COMPLEX PARTLY EXPOSED BY THE CRATER. LIGHT INDUSTRIES BASED IN BUNKER. HOME BASE OF THE CHILDREN OF ATOM (CULT). ALSO HAS TANNERY.

RIVETCITY (MAJOR SETTLEMENT)
S/VTOL AIRCRAFT CARRIER, SMALL FREIGHTER, DESTROYER, WHARF AREA, AREA CONTROL TOWER. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE. PORT FOR RIVER TRADE, FISHING AND TRAVEL.

RIVERTOWN (NEW)(MEDIATE SETTLEMENT)
PORT, FISHING, BOAT BUILDING, RIVER SALVAGE ETC.

SUGARTOWN (NEW)(MAJOR SETTLEMENT)
BASED MAINLY AROUND THE CULTIVATION OF MUTATED SUGARGRASS AND ITS PROCESSING INTO TRADEGOODS SUCH AS SUGAR, BIOFUEL AND ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. ALSO HAS TANNERY.

TO BE ADDED TO

» Fri May 13, 2011 10:06 am

IN THE LILLY ALLEN SALOON

Lilly Allen sat down at the table and frowned hard at Argyle. "You silly fool, meet my father."

Argyle would have blushed if he had not been a ghoul. Having gotten past his jealousy, he could see the similarities. There had been no 'hooking up'. He gave a weak grin to Lilly and passed one of his cool beers to her as his way of saying sorry. She snorted in mild annoyance but then smiled at him before she opened the beer and took a swig.

Greyharg ordered some bottles of beer and mead from a waitress along with some grilled fish with steamed vegies and buttered sourbread. Then he turned to the others and spoke. "It is good to see you both again. We have to speak carefully. The EagleEnclave has spies infiltrating the DC Wastelands and has also begun paying off a carefully chosen network of informers and traitors. Knight Captain Gallows is in the area trying to confirm reports on the sighting of EagleEnclave scouts in recon power armour. Those damned EagleEnclave eyebots are all over the place and they do more than sprout propaganda. They spy on the DC. We talked with Sarah Lyons just before we came here. She told us about your report on spotting those advanced looking vertibirds."

Daring Herbert Dashwood nodded and then smiled. "Argyle will not remember you as you have altered your shapeform, your appearance, since the last time we met. You were a woman back then."

Argyle looked astonished and then troubled. "But we... wow, this is tricky."

Greyharg sighed. "That was back before I rejuved fully and I shifted to another character shapeform. Each of my varied aspects is semiautonomous so the one you were with back then, in truth, is not truly me. Relax. She did the same with Daring Dashwood. Now, we need to find out what is happening in, has been happening in, TekVault0087. Your dream, Dashwood, is not the only reason for that. EagleEnclave GEVs (ground effect vehicles) were seen moving in two convoys, at different times, towards Lamplight Mountain roughly from the north-west, from outside of the DC. The vehicles were a mixture of older types with obvious enhancements and new kinds previously unknown to the Brotherhood of Steel or anybody else I gain data from. Each convoy was large, well armed and armoured, well equipped and was escorted by low flying sentinel-bots. I can not tell you how I learned of it but there were plenty of scientists, techs and other specialists in those convoys along with specialist equipment and supplies. The EagleEnclave is after something very important to them in the vault there."

Argyle snorted. "With Herbert Daring Dashwood, of course, why not? So who goes and when do we go further?"

Lilly sighed. "I must stay here and carry on with keeping the saloon going along with various projects and programs. Times are changing. There is increasing talk of replacing the loose alliance of the UST (United Settlement Territories) with a more strongly unified and tightly organised federation of some kind. Not all are certain of it and some are against it but a few like the idea while some very much want it. If enough people realise that the EagleEnclave is busy here in the DC, they might think more strongly of being more unified and at least of having a unified defence force."

The UST was defended by a fragmented cluster of militas, CivilGuards, Security paramilitaries, GuildGuards, mercenaries and the small professional force of the DC-Protectors along with the Brotherhood of Steel. Volunteers could be called upon if need be and though they were tough and experienced survivalists, they had a very hodge podge mix of arms and armour. The UST was all in the same big area but the settlements were fairly scattered, though some were relatively close to each other. New unified forces and networks of many kinds were needed.

Which was when alarm bells began to ring sharply.

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:16 pm

MIRELURKS ATTACKING CRATERTOWN OF CRATERLAKE

The mirelurks came storming up out of the murky waters of Craterlake and they were led by a strange looking humanoid of a mirelurk king who unleashed an ultrasonic burst at the defenders. But only moments before bullets ripped holes in his chest and guts, making the great beast fall back into the river. Mirelurks came swarming up the shore towards the wall in madness but some form of intelligence was directing them for they carried between them, in claws, crude but well made ladders and the mirelurk king that had fallen, dropped a large gun like an over sized revolver-pistol.

Greyharg spoke as he aimed a lever-action rifle and fired it, crouching behind battlements. "I came here because of reports of mirelurka, the various forms of mirelurks, working together and with devices in a way that should be impossible. I sense the dark intelligence out there and it seems both familiar and yet changed. It was once human and then altered human but now it is a monstrous form of unique mirelurk. It sees what the mirelurks see, hears what they hear and so on. Herbert Daring Dashwood, you have some very interesting dreams. What have you dreamed of this time?"

Arrows flew through the air from powerful composite bows and thudded into mirelurks, doing as much damage as did bullets. Mirelurks ran into booby-traps and the explosions blew them backwards or shredded them with deadly shrapnel.

Then, as abruptly as they had attacked, the mirelurks were vanishing back into the waters and taking their wounded and dead with them.

Lilly Allen frowned where she crouched. "The mirelurk monster you speak of, dad, is testing our defences. It has attacked every settlement of the Craterlake Union now. Also boats have vanished and people who were close to the edge of the Craterlake such as three hunters two days ago and some rhoul workers a week ago. It is a threat we Territorians (people of the UST) have to deal with."

Herbert sighed and then described his dream. The others listened carefully, even Argyle who had heard it described before.

Graharg nodded with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I sense a link between what is happening here in the Craterlake and what is happening in TekVault0087. Priorities have changed, though. I must go deep into Craterlake and try to make contact with the mirelurk controlling mirelurk monster with a dark mind twisted with hatred, agony and misery along with a good deal of greed and self pity. I wanted to go with you to TekVault0087. I will try to join you there as soon as I can or at least track you down if you do not reach there by the time I finish my quest in the Craterlake."

So plans had suddenly changed but that was nothing unusual in the Wastelands.

NOTE: RHOULS
Rhouls, passive versions of zhouls, did basic work for the settlements and in turn gained basic warrens just inside the outer defences of settlements, basic rations, clean water, basic medical care and extras, depending on the settlement. Often it was citizen ghouls who cared for them, worked with them, but far from always. Rhoul slavery was a terrible crime and, as was all slavery, was banned in the United Settlement Territories, the UST.

» Fri May 13, 2011 2:01 pm

MOVING ON TOWARDS TEKVAULT0087

Lilly Allen spent the night with Argyle while Herbert Daring Dashwood slept part of the night and spent the rest playing chess with and talking with Graharg. Graharg was one of the mysterious Guardian Thirteen. Indeed he was the Prime who led the three Seconds who each led three Thirds. He would not speak of the other Guardians or the twelve followers that each Guardian in turn led, being together classed as the Thirteen Thirteens. What he had told Herbert in previous centuries was that the Guardian Thirteen of Thirteens had arisen shortly after Doomsday, the final day of the Great War when the Z-bombs had fallen out of low orbit and other super-weapons had been used, some of them very exotic and some of them with mixed results.

The Craterlake Settlement leaders were soon telephoning each other to indicate what had been happening to all of them and to try to make plans but they were struck with shortages of many kinds of resources, a problem that plagued the whole UST. Not that they were the only Wastelanders to face such problems. Even such as the DC Syndicates of Paradise Falls, each which had a monopoly on a certain field of crime, often struggled to get resources of varied kinds as did the TekCommonwealth, the DomniCommonwealth, Holy Crosswayne Atomicus, the Tribal Queendom, the Primatic Kingdom and others. Trade of sorts did take place long distance with air-convoys travelling as far as Point Lookout and back or even out to the Patriot Islands, artificial constructs of the Golden Atomic Age that preceded the Great War and Doomsday. There were those who wanted their say, be they the Mayors and Settlement Leadership Councils, the UST Representatives, the Grand Guilds, the Lesser Guilds, the DC Regulators, the Sheriffs or others, including the Brotherhood of Steel and various other Orders outside of them. Even the Brother Outcasts had a deal of sorts going with the UST as did the amazonic Sisterhood of Steel, the mystical Orderhood and a few others.

The next day the group continued on towards TekVault0087. As they moved through torn up landscape, that looked to be tortured by Doomsday at times, they passed great sweeps of glowing glowshooms gone wild and amongst them what looked like giant mushrooms. Wild rhouls dwelt there who picked the glowshooms and fed on edible parts of the shoomtrees, who picked less common plants for many uses, selling some to the settlers. These were not to be mistaken for the rhouls who lived with and served the settlements.

They passed through ruins of commercial office buildings, small shopping complexes, motor service garage-workshops and other structures including some of the big, grandious statues that were constructed in the Golden Atomic Age to glorify the supposedly democratic rule of President Jack Patriot James who had been elected president for life after he scrapped the constitution and the bill of rights. They passed atomic powered sedans, delivery vans, landliner public transit buses, triple-wheeler electric cars and many other vehicles but they were all not functional and those that had atomic motors were no longer safely stable. There were certain professional salvagers and not so professional scavengers who dared to attempt to take goodies from such a source but most did not.

It was as they began to enter an area of thickly clustered buildings with skybridges joining them over the streets that Herbert Daring Dashwood sensed danger. Sarah Lyons gave orders and the vehicles dispersed into defensive positions, halting and weapons sweeping around to find targets. Then the threat came boiling out of a open manhole. Giant stinger-ants, soldiers leading workers with low flying drones being in this case sterile males. They swarmed in madness, indicating that the expedition was far too close to the Queen ant, the eggs and larvae.

Firing weapons madly, the expedition beat a hasty retreat. They would be delayed but they would be better off going around the stinger-ant nest. If nothing else they would save valuable ammo by doing so.

» Fri May 13, 2011 12:05 pm

FACTIONS (IN OR 'CLOSE' TO DC) To be further edited.

UST: United Settlement Territories being a loose federation of settlements and the territories that they control.

Brotherhood of Steel based in DC Citadel and allied to the UST. Made up of Elders, Scribes, Sages, Sappers, Troopers and others. Tightly allied to the UST.

Sisterhood of Steel, amazonic offshoot of Brotherhood of Steel. Loosely allied to the UST.

Outcast Brotherhood, breakaway faction from the Brotherhood of Steel based in Fort Independence. Loosely allied to the UST.

Orderhood being made up of Orders of Compassion, Protection, Healing, Teaching, Learning, Enlightenment and others. Loosely allied to the UST.

TekRepublic being surviving restructured TekCorporations (TekCorps), including the contracted public service GovTek. Ruled by TekHighCouncil. Also TekInstitute as linked to DomniInstitute. Part of the DC Coalition.

DomniCommonwealth being surviving elements of one of the Thirteen Commonwealths. DomniGovernment (DomniGov), DomniCorporation (DomniCorp) and other. Also DomniInstitute as linked to TekInstitute. Part of the DC Coalition.

Peoples Republic of DC: hidden 'nation' of descendents of Soviet invaders, infiltrators and US followers.

Ghoul Underworld being a network of underground hidden settlements with the only open settlement being in the National Mall in one of the museums there.

Point Lookout Alliance being coastal settlements linked by patrolled coastal road and sea routes.

Republic of Dave: Bemusing and amusing but sometimes annoying.

EagleEnclaven: powerful and dangerous survivors of the worst elements of the old US Federal Government that have evolved and expanded, advancing new technologies in hidden bases and Vault like Claves. Linked with even more secretive backing power. The EagleEnclaven is based in three actual territories known as EagleEnclaves.

OTHERS TO BE ADDED

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:52 am

BRUSHING WITH DANGER; EAGLEENCLAVE SCOUTS AND SOMETHING MORE MYSTERIOUS

The expeditionary group went around the area of the giant stinger-ants and the stinger-ants made no further aggressive moves, which was the doing somehow of Herbert Daring Dashwood but nobody brought up the issue. They crossed what had been a wide parklands of green lawns and ornamental flowerbeds with many small statues of common citizens. Many of the statues were intact and the ground was largely bare but areas were mounded up with mutated grasses and other plants.

It was Argyle who asked Sarah to have the convoy halt and who departed to slip into the surrounds with two BofS Scouts stripped down to fatigues. Standard Brotherhood of Steel (BofS) power armour was not easy to sneak around in at the best of times. They reached about twenty metres from the carefully arrayed vehicles when they ran into the EagleEnclave scouts who wore special recon power armour. For a moment the two trios stood staring at each other, old enemies for sure, prepared to try to slaughter each other. But then a silent decision was made and the Enclavers quietly backed away to vanish into the exotic semiwilderness. Both sides had little to gain and too much to lose in fighting each other.

Argyle and the others returned to the formation. Argyle met up with Sarah and Herbert crouched close to a temorary set up where soldiers were sorting out some hot coffee. Coffee came from an odd variety of sources including mutated coffee plants growing with surprising success in some areas of the North American Wastelands including the DC.

Argyle was concerned but not surprised. He had been in the Special Forces. "Would be surprised if the Enclavers did not send out scouts. They are excellent soldiers even if they svck as human beings."

Sarah snorted in irritation. "Yes it makes sense but it makes our task of getting to TekVault0087 even harder. Of course they will report back to their people. It will be a surprise for them that the Brotherhood of Steel is waiting for them here in DC."

But Dashwood grinned mildly. "The EagleEnclave scouts were not surprised. They were expecting to find your people here, Knight Captain Sarah Lyons. I sensed this in a general fashion and can not explain why they were not surprised. I would suggest that the Enclavers want to know what we are up to, what we know, what our interest in TekVault0087 is. By letting us alone but watching us, as they are attempting to do, they hope to gain more valuable data. We will need to either mislead them or give the enemy the slip. I have a plan but it is dangerous."

Sarah shrugged as if to indicate that this was no surprise.

Herbert Daring Dashwood took a sip of hot, black coffee from a plastic mug and then spoke. He was drinking mutated stuff that supposedly could grow hairs on the chest of a suit of power armour. "I am having flashbacks of what happened in TekVault0087. It was a research and development base for mutagenics, for the FEV, that was based on captured zetan technological data and samples of zetan experimental biologics. It was a large TekVault and in theory should still be functioning strongly. I dreamed only of part of it, a subvault, and there easily may be Vaultfolk survivors there. Though fragmented and frustrating, my flashbacks have alerted me to the existence of a series of emergency transit tunnels constructed by VaultTek that lead into TekVault0087. I suggest that Argyle and myself go find those tunnels and see if we can find a way to the Lamplight Caverns, even if we do not manage to get as far as the TekVault itself."

Sarah spoke after a pause. "Very good then. We will take your vehicle since I expect you will be moving on foot."

Argyle responded this time. "Yep but you look after her. I put a lot of work into that machine."

Sarah gave the ghoul a look of annoyance. "The BofS does know how to take good care of an SATV." Then she gave a mild grin. "We will have two troopers try to look like you two but can we find somebody to be as ugly as Argyle is."

Argyle glared mildly at Sarah Lyons. "Bloody rude, smoothskin, but I like it; nobody can be as handsomely ugly as Argyle. I suppose we will be moving out..."

Then he noticed that Herbert Daring Dashwood had gone into some kind of trance state and was staring into space with great intensity. Argyle was and looked concerned. He knew the signs. Herbert Daring Dashwood was involved in some kind of battle that was beyond his understanding, that he did not want to understand, and with something out there that he had no desire at all to meet. As if sensing the same, Sarah at once made efforts to make sure all of her scouts and sentries were okay.

It was not long later that her scouts brought in the three EagleEnclave scouts they had briefly encountered before but now the Enclavers were quite dead and yet there were no physical marks on their bodies or on their special recon power armour. Sarah was excited by the chance to send the advanced enemy equipment for the BofS Scribes and Sages to examine, to even back engineer, but she was now deeply concerned for the health of her people, forgetting her own safety as she often did.

» Fri May 13, 2011 8:45 pm

NOTES:

ROBOTS

NOTE: Brainbots are only found indoors and, as cyborgs, in control of other robots, roboremotes and other hitech hardware-software. Robobrains are outdoors versions of brainbots having no bubble brain exposed at the top but being bulkier, better armoured and more heavily armed.
Robobrains can exhange weapons for tools or other devices. Like brainbots, robobrains are not truly robots but are cyborgs of a special nature.
Exception to the rule is when rogue crazed brainbots wander outdoors but they tend not to survive very long.

NOTE: Soviets unleashed robots into the DC being marauderbots, strikerbots, sneakerbots and others. These are of various levels of threat. Old robots are getting repaired somewhere and newer robots are being built in small but consistant numbers. The place remains a mystery.

VEHICLES

NOTE: Along with the big atomic motorised Landliner coaches, there can be found Landfreighters being the same type of vehicle altered to carry freight or even livestock or special tanks for liquid or gas. Landliner variants were also created being fire-engines, SWAT vehicles, special ambulances with extra equipment, mobile 3DTV centres, armoured bank-trucks and much else. The military forces used a variant of Landliner called the Landtrooper that had roboremote gun-turrets.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:49 pm

AFTER THE STRANGE BATTLE

Daring Herbert Dashwood took a vial of serum, some water, and a stimpak before he went to sleep. The invisible battle with a mysterious enemy, the same one that had killed the EagleEnclave scouts, had taken its toll of him. He slept for a few hours while the Lyon's Pride took the chance to take a rest. Sarah Lyons had made plans with her officers and they knew where they would head for in order to decoy away the EagleEnclave. They had to be seen to be still going towards TekVault0087 but in a fashion that made it seem they were getting lost to at least some extent. As for the invisible enemy, that was something that Sarah Lyons doubted she or the Lyon's Pride could deal with.

With Argyle at his side, Herbert awoke and sat up looking surprisingly refreshed. He was on a made up military bed on the floor. He looked around the tent and then at Argyle. "That dark, hateful mentality out there is very powerful but its hatred, its desire for revenge, weakens it. The EagleEnclave was the main reason came it came here for the EagleEnclave was behind the agony of its creation and existence. In the end it relented to some extent and I was able to give it some soothing, some healing. It knows how we can get to TekVault0087 past the EagleEnclave but firstly, it states, we must go to Bigtown and then to Little Lamplight inside the Western Lamplight Caverns. It would not tell me why but I sensed fear in it. The entity might or might not come with us."

Samantha walked into the tent with a tray with three messkits with very warm tea, foodbars, made up powdered soup and cleansed muttfruit gathered locally along with a metallic lid-jug of clean, cool water. She was not at all surprised by Herbert being awake and ready for food and drink; Argyle knew this was because Herbert had reached out to Samantha or so he assumed.

Samantha sat on a folding chair and sighed. "Sarah Lyons and her people want to move out soon. Are you ready to set out on foot?"

"More than ready." Herbert frowned softly. "I fear that something dark and dangerous exists in TekVault0087 and that the foolish, greedy, arrogant and aggressive EagleEnclavers are going to stir up dark forces beyond their control. We will head for Bigtown. We will have to set out soon, as will the Lyon's Pride, for other dangerous forces are moving into the area in big numbers and I mean more than the EagleEnclavers."

The other two had learned to trust Herbert. They finished the food and drink, it was often wise to consume it when you had access to it, and then Samantha went off to speak with Sarah while Herbert and Argyle started preparations to move out on foot. They had to cut down the amount of equipment and supplies they carried but they did have some special resources to assist them in such matters.

» Fri May 13, 2011 8:27 pm

THROUGH EMERGENCY TRANSIT TUNNELS

Not only were the emergency transit tunnels in surprisingly good condition, they were sealed off from threats. Samantha, Herbert and Argyle managed to get into the tunnels through a small hub-station and sealed the secret door carefully behind themselves. If they had thought there were anybody in the area that were both friendly, or at least non aggressive, that could and would use the tunnels, they would have left them open. They did not want the EagleEnclavers to find the tunnels or what ever else threats were out there that Herbert could sense.

Not just savage zhouls were out there but berserker ghouls with weapons, somewhere between greater deformed zhouls and normal ghouls, known as ghoulers. There were muttbears, mutated monster bears, diredogs and other things including rogue molerats, most molerats being passive escapist unless cornered or with pups near them. wild dogs tended to be the same as molerats and did many other critters. More often than not such critters were the victims of human or ghoul aggression, not the other way around.

There was also that other threat out there, the more exotic, more hidden and deadly one.

They made good time through the tunnels past semiactive robots inside rest-recharge bays. They took only some of the supplies in the tunnels so as to use them and to keep in reserve those that they carried. So from a CafeTek vending-machine they got mealpaks, bottles of filtered water labelled FineWaters along with CafeTek coffee in self-heating cupcans. All containers and packaging went into recycling-chutes not just for any goodness but to leave as few traces of there having been there as possible.

The only problem was that the tunnels did not lead directly to Bigtown and so they had to depart earlier from the tunnels than they had previously planned to do. Soon they were in a series of rugged seminatural caves that were partly extended and augmented by artificial means. The huge cave network had been a storage area for both the military and various big corporations along with various RDNGOs, research and development non government organisations.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:22 am

FIREFIGHT IN THE STRONGHOLD STORAGE CAVES

Argyle crawled along between metallic containers, trying to get closer to the group of ghoulers, that is feral ghouls not zhouls, who had attcked the trio. Samantha raised a sniper-rifle and shot down a screaming ghouler, insanely beserk, rushing towards her with a tire iron clutched in one distorted hand. As for Herbert Daring Dashwood he was using a kind of non lethal weapon, was sitting quietly and was causing ghoulers to become confused. Some were lying down, curling up and ceasing to fight. Others were hiding. A few were hugging each other.

They were surrounded by an amazingly large array of metallic box containers, cannisters, drums and other kinds. Machines were stored on special platforms and inside special wrappings, including some transports. It should have been a magnificant target for salvagers, scavengers and others but the Stronghold Caves were full of danger. Ghoulers were only one of them and far from the greatest. The three of them feared that the ghouler attack would attract one of those greater threats.

Amongst the caves moved rogue military robots being wheeling securitrons, larger triple wheeled sentrybots, fanjet lifted eyebots, larger fanjet lifted gunbots, even larger fanjet lifted MrGutys and walking humanoid droidbots that looked like humans in battle power armour if some small but important changes in detail but which were definately robots.

If that was not bad enough, Herbert sensed Enclave Scouts out there, trios of them, moving through the caves but this time with small, hoverjet robots. The enemy teams seemed to work in trios as if covering each other, as if the EagleEnclave had now come to know of the new threat against their people, that had killed three of their scouts. That is at least three for the same dark force might have killed other EagleEnclavers that they did not know of.

There were also radroaches, radrats, shamblers, radspiders, radscorpions, flamer-ants along with other creatures but also something worse, something even less natural.

The ghoulers stopped attacking. They gathered quietly and Herbert Daring Dashwood spoke to them compassionately, listened often, patiently answered questions, and did healing. The Light worked through Herbert at such times and the healing was deeper, stronger, more profound in its effect. So when they set out again they had new companions not of ghoulers but of ghouls who knew less pain, who had much skin healed, who were less confused and who could see hope though it was hope full of challenge.

It was odd to think that they had once been normal humans or was that the case?

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:59 am

CONTINUATION THROUGH THE STRONGHOLD STORAGE CAVES

With eighteen ghouls moving quietly with them, zhouls or ghouls or ghoulers could move with surprising quietness if they so desired to do so, the group continued towards Bigtown at a fair pace. Sometimes they picked up the muffled sounds of distant fighting going on or the signs of robots or even EagleEnclave Scouts having passed through an area.

At a point where a burned out sentrybot was still warm with its destruction, Herbert Daring Dashwood took them straight to a container full of well preserved, status container held MREs, or dreaded military Meals Ready to Eat. The ghouls had eaten far worse and enjoyed the taste of the MREs very much while Samantha, Argyle and Herbert ate one MRE each to preserve their own rations. They moved on with the ghouls having packed into their gear as many MREs as they could carry.

When they came to a place where the ghouls could go into friendlier, emptier caves that still had good resources and even glowmoss to light them, the groups departed to go off and to find a new life for themselves. They were sad to leave Herbert Daring Dashwood and he was also sad but he had promised to try to find them later and to bring with him gifts for them all.

They came upon three more destroyed robots and then, soon after, two smashed robots. Herbert grew more concerned the deeper into the Stronghold Storage Caves they went for the dark entity in the background had destroyed the robots and seemed to be stalking after the small group though it had not quite found them thanks to HDD himself. They looted what useful items they could from the robots including a lasergun that Herbert assurred them would come in very useful despite its fair size and weight. Argyle took the lasergun and adjusted it to his use as much as was possible. Both Argyle and Samantha had learned to listen to HDD when it came to such advise.

When they came upon three EMP knocked out droidbots that looked like Brothers of Steel in power armour except for some basic differences such as to the visor and some other places, Herbert did one of his tricks and soon the three droidbots were part of their group, were marching along with them as quietly as any droidbot could do. One droidbot had a 20mm autogun, one had a 10mm minigun and the other hand a heavy pulselaser rifle, HPR. In accessing the databanks of the robots, Herbert had learned that the so called rogue robots in the Stronghold Storage Caves were not rogue at all but were programmed to generally act as if they were while in truth following the orders from a secret central point. New orders came in broadcasted data-packages every so often and the robots had not gained new orders for over a month.

They kept on moving steadily, making fairly good time.

» Fri May 13, 2011 10:41 am

FIRST SECRET FOUND IN THE STRONGHOLD STORAGE CAVES

Again it was Herbert Daring Dashwood that led them to the hidden find but this time it was far more an important and dangerous discovery than a big lot of MREs. There were special triple armour contained containers of powerful mutagenic gel semiliquids and special quarentined status containers of vials of FEV. That is there were over a thousand litres of the mutagenic gel and over ten thousand vials of FEV being five colour coded variants of FEV. The datachip documentation found with the container, inside a solid-state databox fixed into an FEV container side, stated that the FEV and mutagenic gel had been meant to go to TekVault0087 but somehow they had failed to get there. Instead, by accident or on purpose, they had been diverted to the Stronghold Storage Caves and into hiding.

Herbert suspected it had been a purposeful diversion, a form of theft, and that sooner rather than later that somebody would be coming to pick it all up.

They still had to get to Bigtown, let alone to Little Lamplight or TekVault0087. There was nothing to be done with the FEV vials or mutagenic gel except that Herbert took some vials and a small amount of the gel with some difficulty. So they set out again soon and made their way past stacks of carefully stored monorail sections, past stored constructor robots, past drums of biofuel, past crates of ammo, past much else besides. As they did, Herbert was thoughtful as he had made a realization.

He spoke to Samantha and Argyle even as they kept on moving. "Somebody has placed here the means of creating a whole new well secured research and development base but I suspect it needs to have an already base to upgrade. Perhaps some force intends to take TekVault0087 and to transform it. Question is just how long have these items been stored here? I suspect it has been a long time but it was brought here after Doomsday took place."

"After everything went to hell." Argyle looked surprised. "Now that would have been difficult."

Herbert nodded. "Except that there were subway networks that were not destroyed by the super weapons and other forms of transportatin, like those emergency transit tunnels we went through earlier and these caves, the Stronghold Storage Caves. The destructive effects of the Z-bombs and other super weapons seemed to be almost haphazard in effect. The dark presence is still strong in the background and I sense a link between it and both the FEV vials and the mutagenic gel that we found."

Samantha snorted softly. "You found them. We would have walked right past them."

A ghoul spoke then. "Not ghouls! Ghouls know when stuff like that is close. Nasty stuff."

They kept steadily on the move and though Herbert sensed growing danger from the dark presence, he said nothing for it would have done nothing but frighten the others. The ghouls could sense it anyway and the robots were, of course, unaware and unconcerned about such things.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:32 am

SECOND SECRET FOUND IN THE STRONGHOLD STORAGE CAVES AND THEN?

The second big secret that Herbert Daring Dashwood found was even more disturbing than the first one had been. They found hidden inside big armoured shipping crates of the kind used to move atomic motorised cars in the PreDD times, exotic and very advanced machines. One was a cloner, a maker of clones. Another was a cyborger, a maker of cyborgs. The third was a mutagenic shaper, a supermutanter or maker of supermutants. The devices were prototypes and designed to be copied or used. They came complete with much useful data on how to manufacture copies of them, how to operate them in various ways or how to adjust them to other possible uses. Somebody had been setting up to make an army of cyborg supermutant clones but it seemed something had gone wrong with the plan for the units had been there a long time.

Sensing increasing danger, Herbert Daring Dashwood began to move again and the group made good time as they threaded along mostly empty laneways going between carefully stacked containers of various kinds. They passed big forklift-robots, carrier-robots and other robots meant to work in the storage caves. They then cave to an area where there were hundreds of odd metallic cylinders, squad and metallic, painted green, each with a small window at the front. Each was filled with translucent green liquid. The ghouls, Argyle and Daring did not like the feel of the strange containers with the strange markings on them. They began to peek inside containers and in those that they could see something they saw the disturbing sight of what looked to be rotted human corpses but these human corpses kept jerking just a little and their eyes moved as they watched anybody peering in at them. These were zombies of some kind, were of the undead, as they were sunk into some kind of mutagenic fluid quite different from those that were used to make the supermutants or those that were part of the ghoulification process.

Zombies, Herbert Daring Dashwood did not like zombies and yes, he had dealt with them way back before he was actually 'Herbert Daring Dashwood'. Soon he found a datachip fused to a container, something that perhaps had not meant to be left there, and it spoke of something called the Forced Reanimation Virus and the reanimation mutagenic gels. The idea had been to make an army of zombies out of fallen soldiers, dead civilians or just people massacred to be available for the task. It was a grim and evil concept.

Herbert Daring Dashwood would have tried to destroy the zombies or make them somehow harmless except what ever was coming after him and his group was getting closer. They kept on moving as quickly as they could under solid-state lights that filled chambers with dull light and made many dark shadows.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:36 pm

ARRIVAL AT BIGTOWN

Bigtown was where the advlts lived who came from Little Lamplight once they turned sixteen. It was based partly in caves and part in an old resort area of office buildings, houses, motel cottages and other structures. There were brahmin pens, small farm crops, a couple of pump windmills to draw up water from caverns below, a single power windmill and the defense-security barrier where nervous guards paced. Bigtown had been suffering from raids from slavers, raiders and supermutants lately. They had hurt the attackers a few times but had suffered losses.

First thing that Samantha, Argyle, Herbert and some of the ghouls did was to help fix up some defense-security turrets, both pulselaser and 20mm autogun types, and also help repair an old sentrybot. The sentrybot added nicely to the defensive capacity, as did the turrets, but more so to the morale of the Bigtowners.

Pop spoke quietly with Herbert, Argyle and Samantha to one side. "We need Red back. She is our one and only doctor. The supermutants took her and Shorty, not so useful to Bigtown, to a place called Germantown, the the big police complex there that must have been the regional HQ or something and partly a jail as well. Supermutants seem to be using it as a kind of staging post where they send captives before the captives are sent to who knows where. We know this because Phelps and Colin, two of our people, followed the supermutants as far as the outside of the Germantown police complex. You get her back and we will give you some genuine Lamplight Caverns Tshirts. You can't get genuine Lamplight Cavern Tshirts from anywhere else but Little Lamplight. We have box loads of them and other things like Lamplight Caverns Ttowels, mugs, beach towels, bowls, lamps, torches and much, too much else. Oh yes, toy trucks just like the NukaCola ones but with different colouring and logo-symbols that are full of biscuits. We do not even know where they come from, they just keep on coming."

Pop wore a Lamplight Caverns BIG FUN AT LAMPLIGHT CAVERNS Tshirt with a cartoon picture of a young woman, slimly voluptous, wearing very short shorts and a tight Tshirt. It was lightly stained and needed cleaning and ironing or maybe just replacing.

Herbert smiled. "Show me where the endless supply of items is situated."

A chute came out of a wall and there were clever devices to stop anybody going up the chute. Down the chute, randomly, would come various items and would drop into a big wheelcart that the Bigtowners had there. Bottles of LamplightCola filled up shelves along with Lamplight Cookies and all the other mentioned items plus some. Herbert examined some of the products, peered up the chute space, examined the wall that the chute came out of, put his ear to the wall and seemed to listen for about ten minutes.

Then he stepped away from the wall and spoke to the others. "A mattacator is working there that makes items from energy plus what one might call proto-energy and protomatter. There is no danger but I suggest that Bigtowners consume less of the food and drink from here and drink more water when you do consume it. We will go and try to save Red and Shorty from the supermutants in Germantown. What is wrong with Shorty?"

Pop shrugged. "He has never been popular, not here and not in Little Lamplight. Nobody wants to be with anybody on the non-popular list."

Samantha frowned. "Well if we save Shorty, that is going to change, right. No more non-populars. From now on everybody will be on the popular list."

Pop looked surprised, as if the idea had never occurred to him before, and then he shrugged. "What ever you say. I would go to Germantown with you to help save Red and Shorty but I am too scared to."

Argyle groaned softly and shook his head. "These Bigtowners are an interesting lot. I think I will have me two of those Tshirts and a beach towel."

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:16 am

RESCUE MISSION TO GERMANTOWN

The expedition to save Red and Shorty from the supermutants at Germantown set out at once. This time they went overland, moving as quickly but as stealthily as possible. Herbert, Argyle, Samantha and a ghoul named Fred went on foot as they travelled through broken landscapes, avoiding built up ruins, detouring around one toxic dump and making their way past a subway station entrance with out going into it. At the toxic dump site they saw figures in armoured hazmat suits with polarised visors so that nobody could see into them. Samantha wanted to speak witht hem but Herbert quietly cut off the idea and informed her they were not humans at all but a unique form of ghoul that was very dangerous. These superghouls wore the hazmat suits to trap extra toxins inside with them. They carried long tube of copper with them.

Once they avoided a pack of deathclaws.

Germantown was not very far from either the Lamplight Mountains or from Bigtown but they were glad to see it. Yet they did not go straight into Germantown. Nobody smart rushed into built up ruins in the Wastelands. So they did some scouting first around the edges and then approached carefully through a big sewer tunnel. They came out into the open again close to the big old Germantown SuperDuperMart shopping complex. There was an old emergency encampment there of tents, most of them long collapsed, prefabricated portable huts and lots of skeletal remains of long dead National Guardsmen and Civil Corps workers.

They approached through the encampment, long looted of most useful items, a sad reminder of Doomsday and the efforts of a shocked and overwhelmed people to survive. They had not survived and many of those who had not died had become ghoulfied.

But Herbert Daring Dashwood found a hidden solid-state computer and there the journal of a young woman doctor struggling to keep the emergency encampment going as people steadily died, as the medications ran out and she, herself, slowly fell victim to the radiation. Herbert carefully put the computer back where he had found it though it had good value to it.

At last they came to the Germantown Police complex and they studied it from the second floor of a building across a wide street from it.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:16 am

GERMANTOWN POLICESTATION, SUPERMUTANT INFESTATION

Argyle ran along the top of a counter and avoided the swinging blow of a sledgehammer as swung by an enraged supermutant. He twisted with impressive speed and shot the same supermutant with his 10mm autopistol, killing the monster at once. But there were other supermutants and also other human captives, Wastelanders. Radroaches scuttled through the place but were more interested in fleeing than attacking anybody. Samantha was crouched where she could, and did, shoot down on coming supermutants with her sniper-rifle.

Herbert Daring Dashwood was busy examing data on a partly functional computer terminal as data flowed across its screen. He then froze the screen at a layout map of the police station including the basemant level. There was the prison area, the interview area, the offices, the showers dressing rooms and other facilities including a fairly big armoury. The police station had garrisoned its own SWAT team but also a special dog squad, bomb squad and even a sniper team along with a police helicopter. Why? Because Germantown had seemed to be a focus of an unexplained wave of acts of aggression, including murder, by roving gangs of what used to be fairly normal teenagers.

Herbert Daring Dashwood stood up and frowned. He spoke even as the last attacking supermutant hit the ground. "Apart from saving Red, Shorty and any other Wastelanders that we can, we need to find some very important data that is hidden somewhere in this place. This was more than a normal police station, both openly and secretly. There is a bunker of some kind hidden below basemant level. I only gained bits of data on any of this. There is the armoured door here which seems to lead to an evidence room."

The armoured door had been broken and much of the contents, such as consficated illegal weapons, taken by others who had looted the place long before the supermutants showed up. Yet Herbert Daring Dashwood found the very cleverly hidden safe beneath the floor safe that had been found. One had to remove the floor safe but the press of a well hidden button did this. What they found were two prototype 10mm rocket-bullet (rocklet) recoilless pistols, ammo for the two guns, some highly classified datadisks and some samples of NukaCola with some hard print-out files.

Herbert Daring Dashwood then led them to finding a good condition computer terminal so he could view the datafiles. At the same place he would check the other items except the guns and ammo that he gave to Samantha and Argyle.

» Fri May 13, 2011 12:41 pm

GERMANTOWN POLICESTATION, MORE SUPERMUTANTS

They shot it out with some more supermutants, the rocket-bullet guns proving to be not so accurate but very effective at close range against the bulky targets of supermutants, even with their armour. The supermutants seemed to be poorly organised and scattered through out the complex. So big was the polic complex and with so many surviving sound-proofing layers, that the supermutants failed to hear any battles taking place with comrades. As for the layers of sound proofing, Herbert Daring Dashwood had no doubt that this was due to the police not wanting others ot overhear people being interrogated though one sound proofed area was a firing range and another a ballistics forensic laboratory.

Argyle fired his rocklet autopistol and a dying supermutant fell back, still screaming a stupid warcry in rage.

Two other supermutants were coming fast, one with a 5.5mm harnessed minigun and the other with a sledgehammer. The minigun most likely would have been used by the Germantown SWAT if it had been found in that place. Except that as Herbert accessed more data using more computer terminals and some datadisks he found, it turned out that in truth there were five SWAT Teams in Germantown and not just the one that had been officially there. It turned out that NukaCola addiction was turning some teenagers into savage, brutal freaks who would one day be called 'raiders'. Actually to become fully raiders, the teens needed to also consume another drug called Psycho. They also tended to become addicted to yet another drug called Jet.

Samantha shot down another supermutant and dropped below an armoured counter as the minigun fired a volley of bullets through the air where she had been. Germantown Police Station had been totally rebuild just before Doomsday and seemed to be designed to resist a heavy attack. Had the authorities feared that the prototype raiders would attack the station in large numbers? Argyle killed the supermutant with the minigun, shooting him in the forehead with the rocket-bullet pistol despite its relatively poor accuracy; any weapon was lethal in Argyle's hands.

Red, Shorty and other prisoners were proving to be harder to get to than they had hoped it would be. But then they found both a rampway downwards to the prison area and some prototype policetron robots that were close cousin robots to the more common protectrons. The gracefully clumsy chunky humanoid robots came stomping towards the intruders firing pulselasers and even rocklet-pistols, the laser pulsebeams and rocket-bullets sizzling and zipping through the air of the police station.

Herbert Daring Dashwood pulled out an electromagnetic pulse pistol, an EMPP, that he had been working on and knocked the first policetron out.