Comic:Beautiful Skies
From CGWiki
| Beautiful Skies | |
|---|---|
| Artist: | Author:Kilre |
| Writer: | Author:Kilre |
| Characters: | Cast |
| Updates: | Sunday, Thursay |
| Began: | March 24, 2005 |
| Ended: | Ongoing |
| Art style: | Comic_Book/Manga |
| Rating: | Web MA |
| Website | Website |
This page is Under Construction! This article is NOT a stub!
Beautiful Skies is a webcomic about the future of mankind, following thousands of years of horrible mistakes and violence against the whole of the galaxy, and the human race itself. At the bottom of the page is links to the comic, and to a story in a previous time, the Empyr of Human Beings.
Contents |
STORY SYNOPSIS
By Chapter and Act
Pages 1-9
A small Geno base is attacked by a Relig force.
Major Characters: Ark Winston, Lieutenant Prysk.
Pages 10-59
Revolving around a Relig Battlerig near the destroyed Geno depot; apparently, all was not as it seemed, especially in the case of the captured Geno.
Major Characters: Ark Winston, Daniel Schroeed, Habitson Linton, Joel Rainer, Istheen Compromii, Celeste Trynt, Casper Hunter, Aime Winchester, Drughal Winchester, Dodall Whyn.
A Relig medic dreams.
A Geno soldier wakes up in the hands of enemies.
A Geno soldier remembers a destroyed home.
Pages 60-134
It all comes down to blood. What strange things have invaded the bodies of those involved in the downfall of the Geno depot?
Major Characters: Ark Winston, March Edwards, Aime Winchester, Istheen Compromii, Celeste Trynt, Casper Hunter, Daniel Schroeed.
A captive Geno soldier starts a fight.
Three Relig soldiers stare into the face of death.
Two Geno soldiers face down death; one, death becomes.
The burdens one must face when dealing with death.
Not exactly goodbye.
CHAPTER THREE PROLOGUE: VICARIOUSLY
Pages 135-138
Pages 139-193
What is life like just in front of the battle lines?
Major Characters: Gakon Ag, Garon Ragnarok, Joel Rainer, Mary Ward, Sean Ward.
A Geno civilian has trouble close to home.
Act 2: Problems With Authority
Badly timed, well-deserved punishment.
War comes to An'Qala. What will those caught in it do?
Pages 194-Present.
A return to the tale of the doomed Geno depot and its struggles.
Major Characters: Ark Winston, Daniel Schroeed, Habitson Linton, Aime Winchester, Drughal Winchester, Istheen Compromii, Casper Hunter, Celeste Trynt...
The survivors on both sides quarrel.
Bombers are sent to the destroyed depot, 33L-B.
Current act.
Beautiful Skies: Main Characters and Cast
Geno-typers
Unlike the majority of the Empyr before the First Interstellar War, most in the rebellion had had extensive genetic changes. "Geno-typers" (which was shortened to "Genos" later) was what the colonists called themselves, as most of them were Children of Lamarck.
Affiliated with Geno:
| Character | Image | Age | Species/Classification | Bio/description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ark Winston |  | 15 | Drak (Iguana hybrid)/Devastator 13 | The youngest Devastator, and the second most powerful psychic on the planet of Beautiful Skies, Ark is something of an enigma. Found wandering in the Wastes when he was eleven, his immense psyionic prowess got him shoved into the devastator program when he was twelve, and he saw his first battlefield at thirteen. Since then, he has killed countless numbers of Religs. He wants nothing other than to eradicate the Religs, and thinks of his rank as a tool to that end. First Appearance |
| Joel Rainer |  | 35 | Slith (Anaconda hybrid)/Devastator 1 | Joel Rainer was born on one of the Stations that used to orbit Beautiful Skies; his family moved down to the planet after his younger sister was born, after which his parents separated. His mother took him to Gnualla, where he would live until its destruction twenty years later. Joel is the most powerful psychic employed by the Geno navy. He has been in the devastator program since it was founded, and as such knows the most about the rest of the Devastators; however, he did not discover his Devastator abilities until two years into the war. First Appearance |
| Daniel Shcroeed |  | 18 | Drak/Devastator 31 | Normally laid-back and emotional, Daniel "Dani" Schroeed is the easy-going pacifist-with-a-gun. Born and raised in the megalopolis of Daota, a major stopping point for caravans traveling the Argentine Copse, Daniel dreamed of joining the Spacers to help colonize new worlds as a pilot. Until Barrild was nuked eleven years ago, his life had a goal. After the Religs declared war, and Daota was caught in a battle, he lost his way. Though he now fights the Religs, he also seeks to understand them. He and Ark met in the devastator training facility and bonded as close friends; it is anyones guess why such opposing views can coexist. First Appearance |
| Habitson Linton |  | 18 | Sheil/Devastator 33 | Habitson, or Habi as his friends call him, is a rarity amongst the devastators: his only developed talent is the manipulation of air molecules. As it is the only ability he has, he has it mastered. Habi is usually deployed where the need to protect important persons or cargo is required, as his Air Shields are nigh impenetrable. Habi is a childhood friend of Dani; they both grew up in the same neighborhood, before their outlying city was invaded. Habi is often at odds with Ark, for little other reason than Ark considers Habi a coward. |
| Lieutenant Prysk |  | 45 | Slith (cyborg)/Lieutenant | Prysk nearly lost his life in the Second Coming, but, thanks to the recent developments in nanotechnology, he was able to save what was left of his body and restart as a cyborg in the Infantry. He follows most rules to the letter, and would never disobey a direct order. However, he still likes to stick it to the man, at least behind the man's back. It is a small wonder that Ark and Prysk bonded while stationed at the doomed Geno outpost 33L-B, given their dislike of authority. |
Religs
The Fellowship (and their collective) earned the derogatory term "Religs" from the Genos, who constantly referred to the Fellowship as "the religious ones." It was shortened to Relig later, and adopted by the Fellowship.
Affiliated with Relig:
| Character | Image | Age | Species/Classification | Bio/description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Istheen Compromii |  | 30 | Kaiyot/Cardinal Commander (General) | Istheen is the man in charge of the Holy Third Army, one of the less professional of the Relig forces. He is cunning, shrewd, and kind-hearted. Many of his soldiers look up to him, and respect him; Istheen would never needlessly waste lives, unlike his contemporaries. First Appearance |
| Aime Winchester |  | 16 | Gryfonic/Angel Witch (Gens) | After having her farming village wiped off the surface of Beautiful Skies, Aime and her father, Drughal, the only survivors, joined the relig military. She has had a hard life, first going through the harsh indoctrination for being a gifted witch when she was five, having to run from the authorities when she was twelve, and stowing away with her family to try and escape the tyranny of the One Earth government, and then having her family killed when she was fifteen. She now serves as a medic in Istheen's army. |
| Drughal Winchester, Jr. | 40 | Gryfonic/Angel |
Born and raised on Earth according to the Word of the One, Yae, Drughal Winchester was the child everyone wanted to have: he was well-versed in the Words, knew several powerful preachers, and was generally well-liked...until he married a Catholic woman named Ivy Jenkins. After that, his life took a downward spiral. His friends and church denounced him, and his connections shriveled up. But he didn't mind; he was happy. When his youngest, Aime, was taken and tried for being a Witch, Drughal felt that he'd had enough, and decided to skip the planet, following hundreds of others like him for a new life on other planets. Unfortunately, he wound up farming for the armies on Beautiful Skies. First Appearance | |
| Celeste Trynt |  | 18 | Felin/Footsoldier | Celeste was born on Earth, in a Catholic minority colony on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario. Her life was closely regulated by the scriptures and the oppressive reality that the rest of the world wanted her religion dead. After a recruiter came to the colony to talk about the Beautiful Skies war, she and her brother, along with half of the village, jumped at the chance; it would be the best way to spread the faith. Her brother's transport exploded in Earth's atmosphere, victim to a faulty coolant system, and Celeste wound up on Beautiful Skies alone. Soon after, she met Aime and Drughal, and was "adopted"; Aime and Celeste found Casper a year later. First Appearance |
| Casper Hunter |  | 17 | Kaiyot/Sniper | Cassie, as she prefers to be called, is a shy Kaiyot from the floating cities over what used to be the Gulf South, hailing from the complex over the remains of Biloxi, Mississippi. After hearing about the faithless wretches on Beautiful Skies, she leapt at the chance to spread her faith; she didn't know she was in for the fight of her life. She first learned she was a witch when she was 8, after hearing someone's thoughts from looking in their eyes. Cassie has kept this a secret from everyone but Aime, Celeste, and Drughal. |
| Dodall Whyn | 23 | Kaiyot/Minister | Dodall came to the war to help his brothers in the Fellowship spread their message of the One God Who Gave the Words. Little did he know he'd soon find himself in Istheen's Holy Third Army, leading the charge of the holy war. First Appearance | |
| March Edwards |  | 30 | Felin/Footsoldier | March is one of those people who always ends up at the wrong place, at the wrong time. He never wanted to come to Beautiful Skies and fight for a war he didn't believe in, he never wanted to see his family die, he never wanted to shoot anyone, and he definately never wanted to come face-to-face with Ark Winston. Such are the problems of "mandatory volunteering". First Appearance |
No Affiliation:
| Character | Image | Age | Species/Classification | Bio/description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garon Ragnarok | Coming Soon | 18 | Lupus/Criminal | Garon, until recently, was a drifter. After a battle near his hometown sent a Relig Screamer crashing through his neighborhood, he wandered the world looking for a reason to keep living. He found that reason in Lisa Amanna, near the outskirts of Gnualla. Since then the two have been inseparable. Garon dreams of making it big drop racing, a sport he picked up after he met the Relig deserter, Gakon. |
| Mary Ward | Coming Soon | 22 | Felin/Sheriff | Mary Kachur is a native of Beautiful Skies. She's lived in An'Qala most of her life; she attended public schooling until the war broke out, after which her mother home schooled her, while her father went to fight. While the colleges were still open, Mary sought out higher learning, and found her old friend Sean Ward. They fell for each other and quickly married. Soon after, the colleges and schools closed, and Mary joined the An'Qala Police. She met Garon and Gakon when the youth was arrested for attacking meds. |
| Gakon Ag | Coming Soon | 32 | Drak/Deserter | Description to come. |
| Lisa Amanna | Coming Soon | 18 | Base/Civilian | Description to come. |
| Sean Ward | Coming Soon | 23 | Lupus(Hybrid)/Trucker | Description to come. |
| Creedence "Karma" Wirthe | Coming Soon | 36 | Kaiyot/Captain | Description to come. |
Beautiful Skies: History
From A.D. 2100 to the Present
REWRITING HISTORY
Timeline Synopsis
2100-2144 A.D.: Terraforming of Venus and Mars; Colonization of Moon.
2145-2151 A.D.: First Child of Lamarck: Lance; protests from fundamentalist groups; kidnapping and execution of Lance by extremist group, December 2148-2150 A.D.; Extremist group executed.
2152-2199 A.D.: Enlightenment: Christian revival; Zooist movement begins, 2152 A.D.; Persecution of scientists and clinics that perpetuate the Zooist genetic splicing; Religious sect set up in Russia, Mexico, Italy, and United States; Sect plans to start the next world war and take over in the aftermath. 2180 A.D. Interstellar Council is set up by Martian and Lunar colonists, with plans to bring Earth and Venus into the Council. Genetic splicing more prevalent in colonies than fundamentalist Earth; rift between Earth and colonies grows; colonization of Mars begins.
2200-2230 A.D.: Insurgence and War:
Earth history: Beginning of third World War, February 2200; 2202 Interstellar Council blockades Earth, shooting down ships that try to get offworld. Russia declares victory after nuking several countries into submission, 2203. War taxed resources, most countries left in poverty and ruin. New dark age begins on Earth as riots disrupt productions.
Offworld history: 2200Venus, Mars, and Lunar City supplies cut off as all resources are put into the war; Martian and Lunar supplies run thin; 2202 harvesting of asteroids for raw materials begins, production of additional farms, blockade of Earth; 2206 Colonies declare independence under the new government of the Interstellar Council; Mars set up as homeworld. 2210 Expeditions to Jupiter and Pluto to set up watch stations. 2230 Rift starts to grow between two factions of the Children of Larmarck: one to stay in the home system, the other to leave for the stars.
2230-2300: Colonial Expansion:
Earth history: 2235: Widespread diseases kill majority of the remaining world population. 2259: The boy who would begin the Fellowship is born. 2274: The Fellowship's founder starts receiving the Words and begins preaching to his village of his enlightenment.
Offworld history: Colonies set up on Pluto as refueling point for starships leaving the Solar System, 2231. Over half of the Interstellar Council leaves Sol System for other worlds, using experimental engines for faster travel. 2240: mining incident in the remains of the Asteroid Belt causes an asteroid to hit Mars, sending up dust clouds that block the Sun; the gardens that still relied on solar energy (60% of them) are left dead, and the Famine of 2241 begins.
History of the Geno-typers
The Genos are the descendants of the colonists who left the Interstellar Council to rot in the Solar System, and spread out along the arms of the Milky Way. They founded hundreds of colonies, improved starship engines to travel the stars, and put plasma casting weapons into common use. After several hundred years of relative peace, the agents of the Fellowship could be found preaching to the masses on almost every colony world, excepting the trash worlds like Constantine XII. The political refugees and dregs of society watched from hiding on Constantine XII as their galaxy slowly came under the rule of the Empyr from Earth.
After Constantine XII gained it's status as a colony world, renaming itself Beautiful Skies, the Empyr took notice of the untouched souls and sent preachers en masse. It was the first step towards war. The colonists of Beautiful Skies did not like the Empyr encroaching upon their freedoms, and rebelled barely 50 years after gaining colony status. It was not long before the other colony worlds started to follow Beautiful Skies' example; however, the other worlds did not have the defenses that Beautiful Skies had spent a century constructing, while it was still Constantine XII. The Geno rebels on Beautiful Skies watched as their fellow colony worlds were burned, all the while fighting small skirmishes with the Empyr, waiting and dreading their turn at the flames.
When the Empyr's fleets finally converged on the rebel world, they were utterly crushed, to the surprise of both sides. The Empyr limped back to the Sol System, the Genos in hot pursuit with every ship that could still fly. As the Geno armada passed the Empyr's colonies on Pluto, the Jovian moons, and Mars, they returned the favor and obliterated them. Cornering the Empyr in the skies over Earth, the Genos finished off their enemy and started to lay waste to Earth. Before they could finish the job, 7 of the Genos' generals mutinied. Having to fight their own forces taxed the remainder of the Geno fleet, now reduced to a few capital ships and fighters, and they left the Sol System to return to Beautiful Skies, broken and dispirited.
History of the Fellowship
The Religs, or, as they originally called themselves, the Fellowship, have a long history going back to just after the third World War, while Earth was landlocked by the Interstellar Council. In the cold wastes of Russia, a following arose around a boy preaching a better way to live, following 10 words passed from his God to the boy. Eventually, the new religion spread around the world, but not before the boy was martyred by fearful Christians. This action caused the already tense world, almost on the verge of a fourth World War between the remnants of the Christian and Islamic strongholds, to plunge headlong into the last major war that would take place on Earth soil for more than a thousand years, until the Genos would come to burn the world in the Empyr War.
The Fellowship came out as the leading power in the Fourth War, and began seeking a way for the stars that were denied them several hundred years previous. They would take their religion to the stars. And so they did, easily breaking past the ancient, and quite dead, orbital satellites and stations the Interstellar Council had left. It did not take long for the Fellowship to subvert the many colony worlds with their Words, and thus the Empyr was born. After Beautiful Skies, then Constantine XII, a trash planet, rebelled, and the First Interstellar War began, the Empyr rapidly began to lose it's hold on the colony worlds, and, in an act of desperation burned the colonies that rebelled. Only Beautiful Skies was able to survive the onslaught, and pushed the Fellowship back to Earth. Once there, the Genos burned Earth, but left it after 7 of their generals mutinied. The 7 generals were remembered by the Fellowship, and are now the patron saints of the religion.
After a thousand years of rebuilding, the Fellowship once again sought the stars, and, forgetting the lessons of the past, rapidly colonized the Solar System and the surrounding systems, trying desperately to relieve the over stressed resources of Earth. The Fellowship took their religion with them, dutifully founding new colonies in the name of the One Who Passed the Words, the One God. Eventually, the Fellowship found Beautiful Skies, still hurting from the Empyr War. The two sides met for the first time in a thousand years; the Genos remembered their enemy, but knew relief that the Fellowship didn't remember their feud. However, that was not to last. Access to the Geno's data nets soon revealed to the Fellowship that the Genos had caused their strife so many centuries ago; not only that, but a majority of the Genos were Godless heathens. It was a double blow. In a surprise attack, the Fellowship dropped nukes on the Geno megalopolis of Barrild, killing billions. War was immediately declared on both sides, and has been raging for the past 11 1/2 years.
Beautiful Skies: Planet Information
Beautiful Skies is located in a double star system called Proxima Beta, roughly twice the distance to the Sol system as the Sirius system. The stars, a white dwarf and a yellow star, make havoc with the magnetic field of all three planets in their system; as a result, there are frequent periods of increased cosmic bombardment of the surface of all three planets. Beautiful Skies, the third planet, and farthest, receives only a third of the radiation the other two planets, and so simple life was able to form. By the time of colonization of the planet, in the early days of the Empyr of Human Beings, lifeforms on the planet had reached the evolutionary level of dinosaurs, with giant, vicious alien animals roaming the surface of the planet. Within a few decades after the planet declared itself a colony, all but a few of the more violent species were still alive in the wild, due in major part to the fact that Earth diseases and poachers from the Sol system are merciless killers. The druktakt, a giant centaur-like alien dinosaur, is still alive by the time of the Last Enlightenment War, mainly because of the amazing viciousness and the fact that it does not bleed out when left to die. That, and the druktakt have litters of fifteen every few months.
The entire planet, once removed of all of the garbage that once covered it, is ringed by enormous lines of trees, called Compass Trees by the locals. They grow along the magnetic field lines of the planet, and are the only stable source of magnetism on the entire planet. For many hundreds of years, the lines of trees were used as transport highways. After the Empyr War, cities tended to stay near or on the equator, negating the need for any sort of major highway north or south of the central belt of the planet. Small farming communities still exist outside of the cityline until the time of the Last Enlightenment War.
The planet itself is hollow, a construct built long before any human habitation. Normal planetary functions, such as the flow of the magnetic field, and the changes in the weather, are completely a byproduct of the makeup of the interior scaffolding; the planet tips regularly in it's orbit, moving from an axial tilt of 5˚ to an axial tilt of 20˚, causing regular shifts in the weather patterns.
The entire surface of the planet is held up by a series of giant pillars made of a hyrid of iron and silicates, heavily metamorphosed. It is not known at this time whether the columns are the result of whatever made the planet, or whatever made it hollow. An extinct volcano ring near the souther pole is testament to the fact that at one point, there was some kind of volcanism, but the real reason as to why the volanic mountains formed eludes scientists.
Before the Empyr War, scientists were worried that all the weathering and erosion would eventually cause the planet to be worn down to just a collection of giant pillars floating in space, as the surface would surely be destroyed if new crust was not added continually. Recently, before the Last Enlightenment War, it was discovered that the pillars operate as agents of tectonic forces, as well as the instigators of the magnetic field lines; the surface, unlike Earth's plate structure, flows like slightly warm plastic, still very brittle and prone to cracking. The underside of the surface, though, is molten in many areas as it flows from folded cracks in the upper surface back to the interior columns.
Definition of Terms
ANGEL: A relig soldier, usually male, with wings and the ability to use them to fly. They are specially trained for aerial combat, and are proud of their high status in the relig heirarchy.
BATTLE RIG: A mobile weapons platform, originally manufactured by the genos before the Last Enlightenment War, but in the opening stages the religs captured the only plant of battle rigs on the planet. Battle rigs are now used exclusively by the religs, which also helps genos with distinguishing targets. Battle rigs are immense treaded vehicles, designed to be troop and regiment carriers, as well as an aeroplane launch and a rocket base.
COMPASS TREE: A bioform native to Beautiful Skies that grows along the planet's magnetic field lines. It closely resembles the trees of Earth, but only visually. Its cellular makeup is closer to that of a rock than Earth plants.
CYBORG: Simply put, a fusion of organic and inorganic components, with the inorganic parts consisting of machinery and/or computer parts. However, like lycanthropy and vampirism, cybory is , contrary to popular belief, a viral contamination of a host organism. Invented before the Last Enlightenment War, the virus is a colony of nanomachines (nanites) that convert portions of the host organism into mechanical aparati. The nanomachines are programmable, but only by psychic interface; devastators carry nanomachines in their bodies that repair flesh and generate biological components, of course using their own cellular makeup to do so. Regular cyborgs are people who have either had a debilitating injury, or are reprogrammed criminals.
CYBORY: A disease normally caused by out-of-control nanomachines in a host body. In worse cases, the host body suffers severe biomech changes that disrupt their normal functions, thus killing the host body. In rare cases, cybory is a sudden and rapid biomechanical change of the host body that alters it to some other, functional, form.
DEVASTATOR: A highly trained, elite kinetic soldier. Used by the Genos as a last-ditch effort to even the strengths of the two sides. Devastators are trained in the use of their abilities for the sole purpose of using them in combat situations, to great effect. In addition to being able to use their minds in combat, devastators are implanted with nanomachines, which they use to repair their bodies, among other things. Devastators are armies unto themselves, capable of decimating entire forces. Until recently, the devastator program was a closely guarded secret within the Genos.
EMPYR OF HUMAN BEINGS: Simply called the Empyr by many, this was the first interstellar and extrasolar government of the human race. It reached several thousand lightyears in diameter at it's height in 2940 A.D. (G 981). As with all goverments, it rotted from the inside over time, and was overthrown by one of it's colonies, Beautiful Skies, in A.D. 4305 (G 2346). The reason that it remained in power for so long was contributed to many factors, the most important of which was that almost all of the citizens, until Beautiful Skies rebelled, were of the same opinion and religion.
FURRY: Derogatory term for those with mammalian traits. Typically refers to a Relig.
GALACTIC DATE: Denoted with the unit G, the galactic calendar started in 1959, when the first man-made object landed on the moon. This dating system is used primarily by genos, and is the standard on Beautiful Skies. Religs use the Anno Domini dating system.
GEN: Slang used to describe an individual who can cause organic objects to grow, and move, with his or her mind. Most Gennis are used as medics, to regrow limbs, organs, tissues, nerves, or bones. Gennis before the war were considered master gardeners.
KINETIC: Slang used to describe an individual who can move objects with his or her mind. Typically large objects, such as spacecraft or cargo boxes. A special class of geno soldiers, the Devastators, are combat Kinetics; they are trained to use their ability in a combat situation.
LAMARCKIAN: Style of evolutionary theory, now defunct. The Lamarckian theory of evolution was that an environment actively changed an organism during its own lifetime, and the changes were passed on to the organism's young. An example of this is the giraffe, who would stretch it's neck to reach higher and higher leaves, and the neck would remain stretched. Therefore, Lamarckian evolution is a change in one organism over one lifetime that can be passed on to the next. An easier example is thus: if you run fast, your offspring, by Lamarck, should also sport long legs automatically, and be able to run fast off the bat. Of course, Lamarckian evolution does not affect the gametes, so compromising an early stab at evolutionary theory. However, it is Lamarckian theory that first surrounded genetic splicing; the hardest part was changing the gametes to carry on the new genes, thus making Lamarck's theory partly true. All animal-like humans existing now are "Children of Lamarck".
NANOMACHINE: A tiny robot, smaller than a nanometer, which operates on the molecular level. There are three classes of nanomachine: infectors, factories, and converters. Infector nanomachines are the basic cybory unit, similar to converters. Factories are common to both cybory and regular nanomachines: they produce more nanomachine from any nearby available materials; the factories either run out of material or are ordered to stop. Converters are the basic nanomachines common to medical units and devastators; they convert nearby material into a material designated by a controller.
PSYCHIC: An individual who can manipulate objects on the quantum level with his or her mind. This can also have two subclasses: Kinetic and Gen.
SCALY: Derogatory term for those with reptilian traits. Typically used to describe a Geno.
WITCH: A psychically gifted woman, usually burned at the stake in past times, but now used by the relig armies as advanced medics. Witches undergo extreme prejudicial training before reaching a battlefield. Many young relig girls kill themselves than go through the "indoctrination" training. Many do not even make it through the training itself. Those that do are immediately shipped to Beautiful Skies.
ZOOIST: Term used to describe the supporters of Lance, the First; Zooists often were Children of Lamarck. The Zooist movement ended after the fourth World War, and Earth was blockaded.
RELIGION
REWRITING RELIGIOUS HISTORY
