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Legacy
An alternate universe story.
What if Lois and Clark Kent had a daughter, a young woman
raised in the 21st century, her heritage that of both her father and her
surrogate mother, Princess Diana of the Amazons. But also very much Lois
Lane's daughter.
The Amazons have arisen, determined to take over Earth.
Kara has a choice... follow her birthmother's imperative and
bring peace to all mankind -- Amazon style.
Or stand on the side of mankind, and lose her father and
friends forever.
Legacy - Amazon Imperative
First Protector
Starting with the discovery of the deadly GAR weapon, and
the suspected Arion plot to remove Velorian interference from their
expanding Empire, First Protector tells the story of how one
courageous and determined Companion convinces Velor to create the mighty
Protectors, founding the Hall of Protectors with a Galen named Aphro'dite,
and then becoming Velor's very first Protector.
First Protector ties into Brantley's
Homecoming stories which can be found on the
Bright Empire.
From the age of Companions to the age of Protectors,
Velorian society and the human and Supremis universe are forever changed as
the roots of the Supremis war are seeded.
First Protector
- Parts 1 thru 4
Kara Returns
A Tribute with a Twist
What if the original Kara Zor-El of Krypton was revived from the dead
after twenty-one years, her body preserved all this time by hard vacuum,
absolute zero, the invigorating radiation of Sol and her natural
invulnerability? Now healed, the shattered parts of her body
regenerated, her only weakness is some mild memory loss as she returns
to the Earth of 2005, a world where Superman and other characters of the
DC Universe still live.
This is my retelling of an old tale, the story distinctly R-rated and
lavishly illustrated, but with my personal spin on the legend. I've
taken many, many liberties with Kryptonian history and DC Comics lore,
yet you will see many hooks into the stories and characters I fondly
remember from the 70' and 80's.
But that's what makes it fun for me, and hopefully for you.
Kara_Returns_Book01 (HTML)
Kara_Returns_Book02 (HTML)
Kara Returns,
Book03 (HTML)
Kara Returns,
Book04 (PDF)
Kara Returns,
Book04 (HTML)
Kara Returns,
Book05 (HTML)
This is not a Velorian tale. Nor is it faithful to DC Comics legacy.
This is uniquely my vision.
History
of the AU -- a working, living,
illustrated document of lore and history.
Ordinary Velorians
The wide-ranging Velorian Enlightenment
is not only made up of their premier warriors, the Protectors, or their
supporting Scribes and Messengers, there are many ordinary Velorians who
have spread out from the golden planet to live among the less genetically
privileged. They live openly and interact with various races, humans being
the most common.
This series of stories, some of which are
this page, some on Brantley's Bright Empire, tell the tale of the lesser
Velorians. The Matras and Bravas and their children as they seek to live
lives more ordinary.
Of course, given that even the least
powerful Velorian would be a match in any way you could measure for the
long-fabled Kryptonians, ordinary isn't ordinary as we know it. Hopefully
you will find these stories as fascinating to read as they have been for
Brantley and I to write. And with Andy adding his fine pen to the story arc,
its only going to get better.
The stories below are listed in rough
chronological order. Some links are on Brantley's
Bright Empire, some here on the AUOW.
See Brantley's site for more stories.
Chronology - An
ever updated timeline of events and their stories that chronicle them. (by
Brantley)
Ordinary Velorians
(by Shadar and Brantley):
OV-Part One
OV-Part Two
OV-Part Three
OV-Part Four
OV-Part Five
OV-Part Six
OV-Part Seven
High
Cruel Years
Part One (by Shadar and
Brantley)
A lounge singer
on the lower class deck of a cruise ship and a retired intelligence agent,
both of whom are supposedly dead after their ship sinks, team up to oppose
the growing threat of the Aryans and Diaboli on Riegel Five. A civil war is
threatening, but this lounge singer who secretly hails from Velor and our
Terran hero might be the ones to stop it before it starts.
 The story of a young Velorian, born P1 and destined to be a
Protector, who runs away from the Enlightenment world of Riegel Five to find a new life among the
ordinary humans on Kelsor 7.
Alisa Liddel has advanced degrees in Astro Physics and her
passion is exploring wormholes as a member of a Kelsorian survey ship. But she's
also secretly a superhuman. A goddess in some people's eyes, an Angel even, yet
she's just a girl inside the golden body of a Velorian.
A girl who wishes only to be human.
Unfortunately, the universe seems to have other ideas, and she
finds herself increasingly drawn into the conflict between Arion and Velorian,
the age old war of the Supremis.
Alisa's Story - Introductions
HTML with pictures (by Shadar)
A short story about her arrival on survey ship Ander's
Flame, and a rather unique meeting with her new Captain.
Shore Leave,
Episode One - The Gwyndylyn (by Shadar)
(PDF version - 4800K bytes)
- includes pictures
(HTML version -
557K bytes) - includes thumbnails and links
A novella-length story about Alisa's encounter with a hidden and
dangerous world named Rostran, located on the distant end of an unexplored and
anomalous wormhole. She finds that pretending to be human is difficult on a
world where no one else is... human.
Shore
Leave, Episode Two - Primal War (by Shadar)
(HTML version -
550K bytes) - includes pictures
The story continues with
some fearsome battles between Durgin's Marines, their bodies augmented
by the latest in exoskeletons, as they face off against two Primes. We
learn more about Lara, and Alisa and Durgin undergo a true change of
life.
McCloud's Daughters
(by Shadar)
A new saga in the Ordinary Velorians
series that Brantley and I are writing. Ben Smith, a man from Earth who was educated on Velor, wakes up
after a battle in space to find himself on a hidden world named
Sanctuary. There he meets Ann McCloud and her four daughters. Ann was
born an Arion Prime, yet amazingly, she has undergone the Velorian Rites
to become a Protector. Her four daughters, three by a Kryp'terran
father, and one by an Arion Prime, are intent on continuing their unique
genetic legacy, cut off from the rest of the universe. In a surprising
twist at the end, we find that the world of Sanctuary and the world of
Rostran (Shore Leave) are interconnected in ways no one could have
predicted.
Part One
(PDF -174K bytes)
Part Two (PDF -99K bytes)
Author's
Imagery (PDF -852K bytes)
Blind Justice
(by Shadar)
In a story inspired by the Chronicles of
Riddick,
Blind Justice pits Naomi Kim'Vallara, Velorian
Ambassador to Reigel Five against an escaped convict from a penal mining
colony. Given that he's human and she's a Velorian Matra, you'd think this
would be an easy fight. Instead, the story depicts one of the worst moments
of her life. A time when she could not save the humans in her charge from
the most evil of creatures.
Tales of the Golden Planet - Scrumbles
(by Shadar)
Ben Shaffer is the luckiest guy in the universe.
Ben Shaffer is the most frustrated, out-of-luck guy in the
universe.
He's an ordinary guy from Earth who's been enhanced by
Xara and transported to Velor where he's attending a high school along with
three hundred P-class Velorian girls. He's got a huge crush on his math
teacher, Ms. Quiv'an, who has taken a special interest in him. She's also a
top Scrumbles player and the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, which
given his classmates, is saying something.
Unfortunately, he's failing her class, and she's never had
anyone fail her class before. She's condemned him to Mandatory Tutoring,
studying day and night, and threatening to wipe out his long planned
climbing trip in the Valken Mountains.
Even worse, his stunning classmates think he's second
cousin to a slime mold, being an enhanced Terran and all. He came to Velor
to fulfill his wildest fantasies, but so far, his eyeballs are the only
thing that's gotten any action.
Fortunately, Ms. Quiv'an has a solution, and she arranges
a trip to one of the moons in the Velorian system, a place where Protectors
are trained in full-contact combat exercises. He's going there as a reporter
from his school paper, but he's really looking for a Tanzrobian girl who Ms.
Quiv'an thinks might be just his type. She's an Aggressor... she takes on
fully-empowered Protectors as part of their training. But she's lonely like
he is, given her black skin and lack of pheromones. Neither of them give off
the right scent or vibe to be invited to participate in the Velor game of
ex'tosy.
What Ben finds instead is that ordinary Velorians are a
lot more fascinating than he'd given credit. Falling in with some 'moon
trash', a waitress in an espresso shop and her girlfriend, he finds that
they change his life. And they teach him that all that glitters isn't
gold.
Scrumbles
(500Kbyte HTML, pictures embedded) Corrididor
(by Shadar) This is my first complete
novella, and it's distinctly differently than my other work, in that it
has both a beginning and an ending. Twenty-nine chapters in eight parts
to make it easier to read, and illustrated with my visioning of my
characters as per usual.
This is the story of the most ordinary of Velorians, a
B-class maintenance technician working a dead-end job on Velor, a girl
who used to ride with a flitter-bike gang, outlaws who dealt drugs and
wandered aimlessly about Velor. But Vera has one unique talent, and
because of that she gets her big shot: a chance to go off-world. To
escape the gold field of Velor to repair the dying reactor on a distant
mining asteroid named Corrididor. She arrives to
find that Corrididor is both her worst nightmare and her fondest dream.
Obstacles lie in her way, not the least an Arion who's intent on
destroying her and a reactor that threatens to go super-critical, but
the story ends with Vera finding that thing we are all searching
for: That one true place in the universe where we belong.
Part One
(HTML 31K bytes)
Part Two
(HTML 28K bytes)
Part Three
(HTML 103K bytes)
Part Four
(HTML 65K bytes)
Part Five
(HTML 86K bytes)
Part Six
(HTML 82K bytes)
Part Seven
(HTML 15K bytes)
Part Eight
(HTML 45K bytes) End
of Ordinary Velorians... so far
Encounter on Westfold
Dr. David Morrison is a genetic researcher on a isolated,
seeded world of humans named Westfold, their genetic stock coming from both
Africa and Great Britain. He's also the mentor for a very special young
woman, a child who was found unharmed in the crash of an Arion spaceship
when she was two, but who has grown up to be the most remarkable of women.
Kyreen has no idea of her heritage, for only a few scraps of information
have reached Westfold to tell of the Arion Empire. But anyone can see that
she was born a Prime.
They are wrong.
Lieutenant Alisa Liddell and her husband, Senior
Lieutenant Andre Kalik are lost in space after their research ship, the
Flame, was sucked down a perpendicular branch of the Cygnius 275
wormhole they were researching. This branch of the wormhole has apparently
introduced either a temporal or dimensional shift in their reality.
They find but a single populated world where they pop out
into normal space. Westfold. Arriving there, they find themselves facing a
deadly Tset'lar named Kyreen.
A Tset'lar who proves that it is nurture, not nature, that
makes them the monsters they are. Or does she?
Encounter on Westfold - Genesis
(PDF)
Author's imagery (Thumbnails, HTM)
Tales
of the Valkyries -
Hana
This is the first installment of a three part
novella about a young Valkyrie named Hana, living among the mortals of
Earth in the year 2013.
It is not a Velorian story, and it
makes no reference to anything else that has appeared in my writing
except for the Diaboli, who I vaguely attribute alien connections, but
through the same pathway as the Valkyries themselves.
In Part One, we see Hana, the
protagonist of the story, as a rebellious seventeen year old who has
declared that she doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps as a
Valkyrie. In fact, its not clear if she wants to follow in anyone's
footsteps. She lives on a US Army base in Okinawa, and dresses and hangs
out with the Goths at her school, rejecting anything and everything
related to the Army. She has a foul mouth on her and a depreciating
attitude toward anyone who thinks there is meaning to life.
Then, to her own surprise, when faced with
an emergency at her place of work, she instinctively lives up to her
proud heritage and saves a soldier by the name of Sergeant Rob York. An
event she does not want to acknowledge or even remember as she slides
back into her Goth ways.
But life has a way of seeking out heroes,
and when Hana's father, an Army Apache helicopter pilot, is captured by
the insurgents in Iraq and threatened with beheading, she seeks out the
one man who she thinks can help her save her father. Together, she and
the man she saved, Sergeant Rob York, secretly travel to Iraq to try to
rescue her father, and land right in the middle of the thirteen-year
long Iraqi war. Lots of military
action as she and Rob take on a group of Iranian insurgents armed with
the latest Russian tanks, their sole objective that of rescuing her
father and the other hostages with him.
Part One
(PDF) Part
Two
(PDF) Part Three
(PDF)
Part Four
(HTML)
Earth - 2050AD
A new story that takes us back
to the Banks family, back to Xara (Dani) and Kara (Lisa), along with
Dani's boyfriend, Neil Sandecker.
Set in the year 2050, it depicts a
possible future of Earth and the warring Supremis powers who want to
conquer or defend Earth.
Mandi Olson, one of my most compelling
and lethal villains, also joins us, as she attempts to unite Earth under
a single government ruled by her. Unfortunately, she finds that elements
of the US government are more than willing to stand by her side.
The wide-ranging story features many new
characters, including Sharon Best and her daughter, Kitja, and Sharon's
lesbian spouse, a Kryp'terran woman named Andrea.
Author's
Imagery
(HTML) A collection of
images from the various chapters of Earth 2050AD.
Prologue: Extremes
(HTML 114K bytes) A new story that takes us back
to the Banks family, back to Xara (Dani) and Kara (Lisa), along with
Dani's boyfriend, Neil Sandecker. A complete story in six chapters that
details one of the pivotal moments in Dani and Neil's evolving
relationship. Sexual behavior, the differences in Terran and Velorian
morality, and how that affects the way the two of them feel towards each
other, plays a key role in this story. Of course, what would an AU story
be without bad guys, and I won't disappoint you there.
Earth2050, Part 1-1
(HTML 34K bytes) A new series begins. Sharon
and Mandi are in cahoots, or so it seems.
Earth2050, Part 1-2
(HTML 62K bytes) Mandi is up to her
lethal mischief, and its now clear that Sharon's working for her. but of
her own free will? And Xara is not having a good day.
Earth2050, Part 1-3
(HTML 106K bytes) Fred Durst declares
war on Mandi, and Sharon suddenly winds up back home on a stage, a week
of her life gone. Earth2050, Part 1-4
(HTML 125K bytes) Mandi makes a
powerful group inside the US Government an offer they can't refuse. Then
we are introduced to Kitja Best, Sharon's daughter. Fred and Tami
Walkters, his friend from Omega, begun hunting down Sharon so as to use
to to go after Mandi.
Earth2050, Part 1-5
(HTML 102K bytes) Kitja comes to the
aid of her professor, who she has a big crush on. Fred and Tammi find
and meet Sharon in Boulder, and wind up trapped by a blizzard with
Sharon and Andrea at their house in the mountains.
Earth2050, Part 1-6
(HTML 140K bytes) Kitja finds that
even she's not immune to the forces of love, and Mandi visits an old,
Scalantran trader in deep space to begin her collection of weapons to
arm Valkyrie7. She very nearly doesn't return, but when she does, she
brings a weapon that nobody expected, including her.
Earth2050, Part 1-7
(HTML 143K bytes) Another rocket goes
down as Mandi begins to tighten the noose on Earth, Kitja and Eric have
an encounter, and Andrea winds up making Eric an offer he can't refuse.
Kara takes out an Arion lab in the Alps, and then begins a fight to save
Tyrell Pharmaceuticals from a hostile takeover. Her ace in the hole to
convince the Board of Directors is none other than her daughter, Xara.
Earth2050, Part 1-8
(HTML 85K bytes) Crystal begins
working on a very special project of her own, and Fred had a meeting
with Kara before returning to Mandi's underground complex. There he
finds himself handed over to a girl young enough to be his daughter,
their shared mission that of taking out some very crooked cops.
Earth2050, Part 1-9
(HTML 101K bytes) Fred and Lucia work
together to take out some Arions, and a new alliance is born of those
desperate to escape Mandi. Admiral Sadler has to accept the truth about
Azriel... that she's not nearly as human as he'd dreamed.
Earth2050, Part 1-10
(HTML 39K bytes) Eric makes the
mistake of getting drunk with Andrea, and gets more than he asked for in
the bargain. Kitja makes a move, but the object of her fancy turns out
to be a big surprise.
Earth2050, Part 1-11
(HTML 68K bytes) Kitja decides to pay
Kerry back for humiliating her, and comes face to face with a Tset'lar
in the process. When the dust settles, she's not quite the girl she was
before.
Vignettes and random wanderings of a fertile mind
(Which might have something to do with my entering
the phase where we turn to fertilizer, but that's another story)
All Supremis Team
Some jobs are more interesting than others.
Aryan Pride?
I don't
know if this should be called Aryan Pride or Arion Arrogance or
something in between. But this one photo from the local newspaper and
the article that accompanied it made for some reflection on a Sunday
morning. Addicted
Sometimes even a Protector proves to be weak, and falls under unholy
influence of the yellow metal. And as a lonely miner finds, man and
superwoman were not designed to share all things.
Joe's Bar - 2am The 21st
century rendition of Supergirl isn't sweetness and spice like she was in
the 20th century. She drinks, smokes pot, and hangs out with older men
until all hours. But she's still a good girl at heart. This short story
was stimulated by a piece of commissioned art that the artist Rocinate
made, and is featured in this story.
Paix des Femmes
Background:
The Arion Empire and the Velorian
Enlightenment, homes of the two Supremis races, destroyed each other in
Earth's 19th century. It's now 2019, and the first two decades of the 21st
century have been difficult. Nuclear and biological terrorism have blighted
portions of the world, and the United States has become a global dictator,
fighting desperately to hold the world together and prevent terrorism. Most
countries fear the US, but they also need its protection and its trade to
survive. The era of the Ugly American has returned with a vengeance.
Out in the wider universe, the Pactrel, a
spider-like race of traders and merchants, are now the true power, replacing
the Galen who have disappeared completely. Given that they are pathologically afraid of physical injury (they live to
be thousands of years old), the Pactrel enlist agents to prepare
new and dangerous worlds for
profitable commerce.
The Pactrel turn to the planet
Aurora, the last gathering place for the rag-tag survivors of the Turning
(the last battle of the centuries long Velorian/Arion war). Populated by
both Arions and Velorians, their swords buried, Aurora is the home to a
dying population who have been either sterilized from the fearsome genetic
weapons used in the Turning, or are too badly injured to survive
childbearing. The Pactrel make the Supremis a deal. Consign your next
four generations of offspring to work for us, and we'll revitalize your
genetic heritage. A pact with the devil that only those with a hopeless
future would sign.
The still proud Supremis take the deal.
Unfortunately, even with the Pactrel's help,
the working stock of Supremis DNA has been too badly damaged for any
offspring to be born with full Supremis abilities. The Pactrel
compensate for this by implanting Vendorian BioMech devices that bond with human flesh.
The Pactrel call their new agents Shaadar, which in their language means 'Powerful Servant'.
They aim them at Earth, their next conquest
in the quest for ever more profitable trade.
The first book, Pax des Femmes, deals with the Shaadar's attempt to
prepare Earth for the coming of the Pactrel. Their first task is to end all war on Earth. They do
that by selectively targeting the leaders of the world's military
forces. Also, any political leader who advocates the use of military
force. In 2019, that means they are mostly targeting Americans.
In a turnabout that is truly Machiavellian in
origin, the young Shaadar on Earth do not realize that the first product the Pactrel
will offer the Terrans will be Vendorian weapons that were originally designed to kill
Supremis. Those weapons include powerful androids who were designed
centuries ago to defeat Arion Primes in hand-to-hand combat.
As some of the Shaadar are killed
by the now empowered Terrans, Aurora
is compelled to
send more agents to Earth to complete their mission. And the Pactrel
happily provide more weapons to stop them. Thus they begin a spiraling
need for more and better weapons and technology. If unchecked, Earth will ultimately
sell its soul to the Pactrellian Merchantile.
But the Pactrel didn't take one thing into
account. Humans are known for their insatiable sense of curiosity and creative intelligence.
No matter whether a person was born Shaadarian or Terran,
in the depths of their hearts and dreams, they share the desire to right any
wrong or injustice. They yearn to be free, and are often willing to give up
their lives for that freedom. Even to fight against hopeless odds, or
impossibly powerful foes.
Pax des Femmes
Project
Archangel
Book One, Part One
(paix_femme_bk1_pt1b.pdf, 368K)
(Pictured:
Major Tala Laut, Commander of the Shaadarian pacification effort
on Earth.
Book One, Part Two
Book Two, Part One
Book Two, Part Two
As the Book One opens, the Pactrel have decided that Earth is finally ready
for intergalactic commerce. They have only to eliminate the risk of war,
terrorism or militant action on Earth, and to give the Terrans a reason
to pay their exorbitant fees for goods that they will suddenly find
themselves in desperate need of.
A wondrous universe of advanced technology opens up
for the Terrans, even as they discover too late that the oldest curses
of humanity are not unique to their world.
Other Stories
First Blood
A story of the first encounter between Tset'lar and
Saray'en.
Last Man
A short story set back in
the early days of the Companions, depicting Velorians before the concept
of the Enlightenment and Protectors were established in Velorian
culture.
Fools
Day - 2006
A silly little April Fools
fantasy
For the love of
Trina (PDF)
For the love of
Trina (HTML)
Not everyone thinks
Velorians wear white hats and Arions wear black. War respects only
death. Love is where you find it. This short story is about love, death,
good guys and bad, but not necessarily in the usual order.
Relic
Hunter
by Shadar
A fan fiction story
regarding Lara Croft, written as part of a writing contest theme that
dealt with 'ordinary' heroines suddenly gaining unusual abilities and
facing new challenges. In this story, I've blended the Lara Croft
heritage with a Kryptonian timeline involving Kal El having a Velorian
wife and a daughter. His cousin Kara Zor-el appears as well. Think of it
as Lara Croft meets Superman's family, but all told from an AU
perspective. Which means it has a bit of spice too.
The Commandant's
Wife
by Shadar
Set more in the old AU than in AUOW, this one explores
what happens when an Arion male and a Protector decide they have common
goals. The salvation of Earth. A fools errant.
Feline
Imperative - Classic AU by
Sharon Best and JH A blast from the past. An old AU story, continued by
JH with some edits from me. A couple of cool picts from JH too. Those
who liked the original AU will like this one.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
(HTML 90K bytes) (**NEW**)
Kara finds out how kinky at Scalantran big shot can
be; Sharon takes the first step toward her marketing career; and the
Betans show off.
Aurora Universe - Redux
by Shadar
I decided to try my hand at writing my first ever Aurora
Universe chapter, but from the perspective of my preferences today. It's
a totally new story, borrowing only the concept of introducing the
seminal character of the AU... Aurora (Fairchild) Zor'El. I poke some
fun at some current events while I'm at it.
The Quality of Mercy
by Shadar
An alternate universe story set in the current time, with
the Supremis war infecting the societies of Earth. Yet in the midst of
this carnage and duplicity, inside the deceptions of the Empire, the
uniquely human quality of mercy still lives in some hearts.
Gypsy
(PDF 530K bytes)
by Shadar
The universe is a
stranger place than we know. And that sanity isn't always what it seems.
A short story about a teacher and his wife, their relationship already unusual
enough, and the ways in which they are visited by a woman who changes the future of Earth. Peace,
prosperity, and the end of war and violence. A look into a possible
future. Illustrated.
Evan'ya
(PDF)
Author's imagery (Thumbnails,
HTM)
A chance meeting in Amsterdam changes one
man's life, and gives meaning to a very special lady.
Possible Future
Stories
Other Velorians - Andros Family
Other
Velorians - Elsa
Other
Velorians - Freedom Fighter
Other
Velorians - Ettas
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