*I have decided that the only way I'll get work done
on rewriting this monster is to collect some
prereaders....I'm not going to put the whole thing to
the list but I'm posting this part...more or less
finished to attract attention*
The world this story takes place in has seen its
share of great events. Some of those need to be made
clear before beginning.
Long before the advent of mankind, Carr-ock the great
is born. The last of the great dragons survives the
years of prehistory and watches with keen interest as
mankind begins to develop. Over time he began to feel
that this new species would grow to be infinitely more
capable of survival than those of his own time had
been. He gathers what drakes and lesser dragons he
can and forms a covenant of dragons to guard and
protect this new creature. Few of the creatures
rebel, but those that do torment and plague mankind.
Thus creating for the dragons a reputation of
bloodlust and ferocity.
Eventually some few humans discover the dragons that
serve Carr-ock and the Order of the Dragons is
created. This cult, and the dragons at the center,
worked from the shadows to combat threats to humanity.
Demons, evil dragons, sorcerers and a variety of
other villains run across the Cult and fell, either to
their champion, or else their plots. The Order
remains small, however, and more capable of directing
than of attacking. Within their sphere of influence
they are unmastered until the arrival of Darok later.
Around two thousand BC an alien craft crash landed on
Antarctica. The being inside, called Darok, was a
criminal among his own people. To escape judgement he
had traveled across the galaxy to this newly
developing world. For the next thousand years he
worked to convert his ruined ship into a headquarters
from which he would conquer this primitive planet. By
around one thousand BC Darok, posing as a demon, had
created the Shadow Kingdom. The followers of the
Shadow Kingdom gathered materials from which the alien
created objects of advanced technology. With this
advantage he gave his followers the appearance of true
magicians. The Shadow Kingdom slowly began to spread
through the world. True to its name it operated from
the shadows, manipulating events to its own ends. The
Order of the Dragon attempted to hinder this new
threat's progress, but had little success. The Shadow
Kingdom may have even pressed the dragons into a
battle that they could not win, but a new, and more
active, impediment to Darok�s goals appeared.
Just before 0 AD a true mage, Lithalen Darkseer, vows
to never rest until Darok and his minions are thrown
down. His entire clan had been destroyed in battle
with one of the few cyborgs, called golems, Darok can
afford to produce. Thirty years of battle follow
until Darok himself destroys the mage. The mage's
children continue the battle in hit and run fashion.
The Shadow Kingdom feels confident about crushing this
minor threat, until Lithalen Darkseer returns.
One hundred years after his death, Lithalen Darkseer
is reborn halfway across the world. The reborn mage
carries the memory of his clan's death with him and
grows to become a powerful warrior. As more of his
past memory comes to him he gains the power he had in
that first life. In addition, he brings with him
followers from the world of spirits. The souls of
those that the Shadow Kingdom had wronged. Thus
begins the secret war between the Darkseers,
Lithalen's descendants from each of many lives, and
the Shadow Kingdom. The Order of the Dragon falls
back to lick its wounds and refrains from active
participation in the world for a long period of time.
In an attempt to slow down technological discovery
and invention, the Shadow Kingdom brings about the
fall of Rome. Also during this time they begin their
scourge of mystical forces. Darok looks to the other
great realms of the ancient world and begins plotting
their downfall as well. The Middle East in particular
becomes a source of danger that does not fall
completely until the rest of the world is already
firmly in the path of scientific discovery.
The Shadow Kingdom's crusade against the mystical
proceeds much more efficiently than the attempt to
eradicate technology. All sources of supernatural
threat are targeted. The Catholic Church, among many
other religions, is infiltrated and filled with
power-seeking politicians, resulting in the
reformation and a split of beliefs. Magicians are
accused of Satanism and other such crimes. True
devil-worshippers are targeted as viciously as any
other group, one of the few good things the Shadow
Kingdom accomplishes. Masters of the martial arts
throughout all the civilized lands are tracked down
and killed. In this way the practice of magic and the
development of psychic abilities drops in frequency
from rare to legendary, though martial artists remain
relatively common.
Telepathy and magic are both officially rediscovered
to exist in 1922 by the United States government.
Technological methods to detect telepathic talent
would not be made available for fifty more years.
Telepathy is found to be trainable in some
individuals, but natural telepaths remain much more
powerful. Existence of telepathy and magic is hidden
until just after World War II, when America is in a
decidedly dominate position. Magic is generally
ignored as difficult to study, but at least two well
known "masters" of the study live in the United
States: New York City and New Orleans. These modern
masters have powers roughly equal to journeyman mages
of the Roman era. The Shadow Kingdom's attempts to
discredit these modern mystics fails miserably, there
is too much positive interest in the subject.
In the year nineteen fifty-one Jeremiah Mulligan
invented the first real personal computer. Two years
later he had improved the production techniques enough
to make the computer practical. He formed the company
Future Tech and headquarter it in Austin, Texas. It
would later be believed that he was a mutant, what
would come to be known as a class A mutant. Future
Tech thrived and Austin thrived with it, growing to
rival New York and San Francisco. Technological
progress begins taking leaps and bounds, sometimes
propelled by confirmed class A mutants,
The United States, least damaged by the war torn
state of the world, is most benefited by this and
experiences an era of expansion. By
nineteen-ninety-six the United States of America had
grown to include, in order of admission, Canada,
Mexico, Japan, France, Spain, Morocco, Portugal,
Algeria and New Zealand. Canada, Mexico and New
Zealand all enter the union for economical reasons,
but the others all enter for protection from the
vampire menace detailed below. Most of the rest of
the world is stubborn, even to the point of denying
aid for the appearance of joining the United States.
A combination of threats ranging from economic to the
vampire epidemic brings about the collapse of most
other countries in the world.
The Shadow Kingdom is unable to engender complete
control of the remaining countries of the world,
mostly due to its desire to remain secret. This
leaves America in an obvious position of dominance.
If it wished it could conquer the world, but, true to
their past, they choose not to.
In the nineteen-eighties the United States space
program had advanced fair quicker than anticipated.
The first stable moon colony and space stations were
started in the first two years and a near light speed
ship was launched for mars in nineteen-eighty-five.
Once at Mars a terraforming project was initiated that
makes mars inhabitable by nineteen-ninety-three. The
United States of America now changes its name to the
United States of Earth.
Nineteen-sixty-two saw the first confirmed report of
the soon to be named energy vampire. The earliest
reports of energy sucking zombies had been ignored.
The last of the true undead vampires had been presumed
destroyed forty years ago, it had been part of what
revealed to supernatural to the rest of the world.
Ten years after the first confirmed sighting the
situation is bad enough to warrant the creation of the
Vampire Containment Agency.
Twenty years after the VCA is created those areas
outside large cities are only lightly populated.
These are primarily volunteers who dwell in armed
camps around farms and mines. Most of the new United
States join due to overwhelming infestation of
vampires. The VCA manages to clear Japan, the fact
that it is an island makes it an easy chore. All the
land locked states still experience heavy infestation,
but the VCA brings it under control. Travel is mostly
achieved by air and the cities are in essence walled
fortresses, sealed Edens. The nation's capital is
moved from the District of Columbia to the vampire
free island state of Hawaii.
The cities do not reach this fortress state
immediately. The walls around the cities are nearly
completed before the evacuations are begun, one year
before the VCA is formed. For five years the cities
are virtual hells and disease and poverty run rampant.
Only the upper echelons of old, old money run
untouched. The population drops by ten percent over
this period. The United States is still the least hit
by these ten years of chaos. World wide population is
effected much worse. Conservative estimates say that
the population may just barely break four hundred
million. The simple fact is that the world's high
tech society is not yet able to survive without farms
and other such menial industries.
At the end of those five years the walls around
cities world wide are expanded in an effort led by the
American government. This provides jobs, room for the
crowded population, and the safe locations for
factories to produce synthetic foods. With the
volunteer manned farms and the huge increase in wild
life population food becomes plentiful. After two
years of this America had developed into a prosperous,
high-tech society in the position of world leadership.
Scientists estimate that perhaps fifty thousand
vampires are estimated to be alive and active in the
wilderness of North America alone. No cure can be
found and it is unlikely that one will be found. The
affliction is proven to be natural, in that it is not
a supernatural affliction. Rather than draining their
victim, these new vampires introduce some agent to the
healthy being which alters their genetics and inhibits
certain mental functions.
The VCA is headquarted in Atlanta with the CDC and
all captured and destroyed vampires from all inhabited
continents are brought here for study. An element in
the blood is linked to the vampiric condition, but
nothing else is discovered. Research proves that
while vampires are prone to further mutation,
including the development of telepathic powers, those
who possess such powers already are immune to
transformation. Their genetic codes seem to be more
thoroughly locked. Unfortunately this does not leave
them immune to the effect of being "drained" of
energy.
The year nineteen-seventy-two sees widespread
awakening of mutant powers. Up until this point it
had been sporadic and presumed to be linked to the
supernatural. These mutants are also found to be
immune to vampiric transformation. This fact prevents
the widespread hate and fear that would accompany this
development in other worlds. Superbeings begin
working as bounty hunters for two years prior to the
creation of the VCA.
Telepath and mutant detectors begin to be seen in
banks and on some armored vehicles. These devices
don't identify the mutant or telepath, they only
inform the user of their presence. Telepath detectors
also read out the number present, but such is
impossible for mutant detectors. In this way a
compromise between security and privacy is made.
Mutants are originally classified into two groups,
later discoveries will expand this number to four
groups. These classes are termed, quite simply, A, B,
C, and D mutants. Class A mutants are officially
classified as a subspecies of Homo Sapiens, while the
latter three classes are classified as a new species.
Class A mutants are different from normal humans in
one way, the increased tendency toward extremely high
intellect and scientific talent. Detection of a class
A mutant is so difficult that such individuals are
rarely revealed. Their similarity to normal humans
makes them even more rarely reported. Class A mutants
are believed to be the least common mutant besides
class D. It is suspected that class A mutants have
been part of the human race for many centuries.
Recent theories provide strong evidence that they are
slowly becoming the norm. The average intelligent
quotient increases by thirty points between the years
of nineteen-fifty and nineteen-ninety-six.
Class B mutants cover those individuals that appear
to be normal humans, but possess some obviously
inhuman power. The powers vary too much to
efficiently catalog them in any way other than by
effect. Energy blasts and enhanced physical abilities
are common mutations. Those mutants that possess
potentially lethal powers are required to register,
just as are skilled martial artists, but no other
stipulations are yet made to account for this new
ripple.
Class C mutants cover those individuals that possess
physical mutations. They possess the same range of
abilities as class B mutants, but physical
enhancements cover the majority of all class C powers.
Many class C mutants avoid the cities in favor of the
solitude of a bounty hunter's life.
Class D mutants are shape-changers. They have a
human body that can transform into a class C mutant
body. Many class D mutants only register their mutant
body, this was never suspected until the existence of
shape-changers was proven in nineteen-eighty. When
that occurred a cursory investigation of class C
mutants was made, but the fact was that most people
respected the privacy of these individuals.
Telekinesis is believed to be limited to creatures of
magic. Natural telepaths are thought to be an
impossibility, most are thankful for it. Telekinesis,
as exhibited by the supernatural, is limited in many
ways. It might be a spell with a limited duration and
a required incantation. It might not be able to
affect some objects, like holy items or enchanted
things. Natural telekinesis has unknown limits,
possibly no limits, a few laugh at such things. They
point out that there is no way to determine the limits
of something they don't have an example of. Still,
the occurrence of a telekinetic without supernatural
powers is unknown.
The USE military power is centered into three groups,
the city police forces, the VCA and the FBI. The city
police are the most numerous and are more than the
equivalent of any three other armies of Earth. The
VCA is best funded, concentrating on research, but
providing a fair supply of power armor for hunting
patrols. The FBI are the best equipped and trained,
the highly advanced Rattler class power armor, for
example, is restricted to Bureau use only. Most of
the personal from the military is slowly transferred
to these three groups.
Practical bionics are introduced in
nineteen-eighty-three. This gives the average
individual the possibility to replace lost limbs with
reasonable replacements. The replacements are still
inferior to human tissue, being either more fragile or
less agile.
True cybernetic enhancements exist, but are
uneconomical. All existing cyborgs are either USE
military, in an attempt to regain some glory, or
Shadow Kingdom minions. No other group possesses the
funds necessary for the production of such units. A
cyborg classified as Ironhawk goes renegade from the
US in nineteen-ninety, this is the only known
independent cyborg.
Powered battle armor becomes available to select
groups such police SWAT teams and VCA hunting squads.
These armor units, of varying designs, bring a normal
human roughly equivalent to the average energy vampire
in combat effectiveness. Some class A mutants have
developed more powerful units. Things capable of
standing toe to toe with class B, C, and D mutants.
These suits are far from economical and only three are
known to exist world wide. Most mutants forsake power
armor in favor of their natural abilities, seeing it
as a source of pride.
The existence of the Shadow Kingdom is revealed to
the general public in nineteen-eighty-two. Most
assume that it is just another Mafia-like group. The
descendents of Darkseer remain hidden from view, by
virtue of smaller size and activity. In
nineteen-sixty-six Allen Drake is born and grows to
become a class B mutant, possessing powers over his
shadow. The latest incarnation of Lithalen Drake
vanishes in nineteen-ninety-three. Without its
overwhelming technological advantage, the Shadow
Kingdom finds itself in a dangerous position. Darok,
still alive due to his race's extreme longevity,
begins acting fanatically and desperately.
The USE is concentrated on the vampire problem and
this is one of the factors that enables the Shadow
Kingdom's continued survival. Embattled with the
Darkseers already the Shadow Kingdom would not long
survive a protracted battle with the military giant of
the USE. Darok takes the most desperate action he can
think of. He experiments with sending word back to
the underworld of his people, seeking reinforcements
for his battles. Soon after, the USE Mars colony
begins detecting approaching radio signals of an
artificial nature. Whether this has any connection or
not with Darok's call for help is unknown, of course
few even know of the calls.
The USE's air force jets are replaced with vessels
capable of leaving the Earth's atmosphere on their
own. This newly formed space fleet is incredibly
superior to the old jets, but there are still serious
doubts to their capability when compared to the
theories of the unknown ships that have been detected
heading in Earth's direction. This becomes the fourth
branch of the USE's new military. The overall failure
of the traditional military's cyborg program is the
final straw that completes the change of power. The
official USE forces are further supported by the
various chartered superteams that exist.
In nineteen-ninety-six approximately ten thousand
citizens of the USE are classified as superbeings.
This classification includes B, C, and D mutants,
beings of supernatural power, telepaths and a few of
the more skilled martial artists. How accurate this
statistic is remains unknown. Many of these
superhumans form organizations known as superteams.
USE superteams operate under charters granting them
status as near police. The existence of the
self-funded groups eases some of the pressure on the
government to protect the population from the new
breed of supercriminals. The charters fall into three
basic categories: protection, intelligence and bounty
hunter. Despite all efforts to the contrary, bounty
hunter teams make up the majority of charters. These
teams while on the surface wholly independent answer
to various organizations in the government itself.
Bounty hunters are under the VCA jurisdiction, the FBI
handles the intelligence charters, and the local
police forces have the task of dealing with protection
charters.
Bounty hunter groups are given the right to hunt down
and capture known criminals and threats. Vampires are
always an easy source for income for these teams,
though the existence of superpowered criminals also
creates an attraction for this charter category.
Bounty hunter teams vary in terms of attitude, some
are duty minded individuals while others are little
more than hired killers. The presence of unscrupulous
bounty hunters has in a way created the Hunter�s Code.
This is an unofficial set of rules the breaking of
which removes a bounty hunter�s support from all
others in his or her line of work. The Code is quite
simple, first no bounty hunter will interfere with
another once a capture has been made. Second, bounty
hunters do not fight bounty hunters. Lastly, bounties
are too the letter, and most bounty hunters take pride
in their ability to recover opponents alive.
Intelligence charters are created to aid officials in
investigating crimes of a superhuman nature.
Telepaths and magicians, working with crews of skilled
detectives, and other superbeings with more stealth
based powers, fill this category. Intelligence
charters rarely have much combat ability, depending on
the authorities, bounty hunters and protection
charters to back them up should hostilities arise.
These charters are more similar to government
organizations, though the fact of private funding
keeps them out of that status. Private citizens also
hire out the investigation units commonly, for a
variety of purposes traditionally handled by private
investigators making up a grand total of ten percent
of the industry's profits.
Protection charters are the most desirable from the
public's point of view. Protection charters, as the
name implies, perform mostly protection based duties.
They actively patrol cities and protect caravans from
assault by vampires or bandits. Unlike bounty
charters, do not receive payment for those they catch.
This produces the phenomena that most of those in
protection charters have a duty-based mindset.
A fourth group of superteams is uncharted by the
government. This fourth group is made up primarily of
martial artists and ground-based mutants, flight is
considered too unbalancing a power. This fourth group
exists primarily for entertainment purposes. They are
not given any police powers and are treated exactly
like common citizens. These teams face each other in
televised battles similar to old style boxing matches.
These are sarcastically called streetfighter charters
due to the popular video game of the same name.
The Seal is built as a prison to hold superpowered
individuals. Its operation is given to the hands of
the VCA, who are already experienced in containing
dangerous superbeings. It is built in Denver,
Colorado, giving it the isolation preferred for such
an installation. Most civilians leave Denver for
other cities, making it into a military town. It is
heavily armed and protected, surpassing even Atlanta
where the vaults are kept.
In Austin, Texas nineteen-ninety-six there are six
charted superteams and eighty known superbeings.
Three of these charters are bounty hunter teams, two
are investigation and the last is Dragon Team. They
are Austin's single protection charter. This is the
story of its members and how it came to be formed.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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