As I stated last week, today’s main feature is a look at the other story series I’m currently active on, Vector Unit Regen Orphan’s War (or just Orphan’s War).
What’s that? You want to hear more about that Gabriel and Serena who have appeared in my tweets sometimes?
Patience. I’ve got a lot to say about them, believe me.
Anyway… before we get into the mech action, let’s deal with the weekly briefs.
Brennan and Riz: A Boy and a Rat update
Great news here as chapter 11 had been finished! It and the preceding chapter 10 have been sent to the beta reader (as if I didn’t, she’d probably murder me). The pair form a mini arc of sorts, focusing on the Seeley Council. I’m a bit hesitant about them being essentially one long scene but they do give answers about things… and more questions. As always I’ll keep you posted as I write more, especially since we’re now a few chapters away from Valarie entering the fray…Creator Chaos
So if you’ve been following Creator Chaos’s twitter account you'll maybe have seen that we’re launching some new content soon, the first of which is an interview style recording, focusing on one ourselves. Our first test subject, I mean, willing guest, is Peter Hartog! So if you have any burning questions for him about Bloodlines, his writing process, boxers or briefs etc then send them in through the creator chaos account and we’ll endeavor to answer as many as we can! Be quick though as recording is tonight at 7 p.m estA reminder of who Creator Chaos is:
Me – I don’t think I need to explain myself…
Kelvin Rodriguez – Fans and followers of the #vss365 tag will recognize this fellow and his creations, a master of the pun.
Zack Brooks – Author of the ‘Charlie the Cupid’ shorts and ‘The Trials of Amaford” novellas, the second of which is out now so please look for ‘How Not To Be A Scribe’ and give it a read (and if a review, assuming you get the chance!) ! A great guy and the defacto leader of our rabble.
Pete Hartog – Author of the novel Bloodlines, and currently working on its sequel. A great guy with a great taste in music and a fantastic name.
Matt Brown – A fantasy author looking to make a name for himself with his Ancient Blood series and his Valkyrie story which he serializes in his blog every Monday.
Click here to listen to all the podcasts so far and look out for us on Spotify and iTunes!
Vector Unit Regen Orphan’s War
Well I would normally update here but given I’m talking about it today, I don’t think I need to…
Brief Mentions
Liking what you’re hearing about Brennan and Riz? Click here to look at the short story collection of their adventures so far!Looking for their newer stuff? Click here for their Christmas encounter with a Yeti, or click here for the anthology containing the short ‘A Walk Through The Pleasure Gardens’, get this one and you also get a whole host of brilliant short stories as well from fantastic authors.
Click here to find me on Goodreads
And now…time for our main feature presentation…
Orphan’s War
So the origins for this series are multiple, in one part, they stem from the moment I saw my older brothers Battletech source books, and subsequently coming across both the model kits for the Robotech franchise (I forget the company behind them, or if they were just imports of the Japanese kits created for Super Dimensional Fortress Macross) and the Robotech toys. At the young age I was, I didn’t understand or even care about how two different, yet similar sounding, things could share mech designs, all I knew was, I was hooked on giant robots….Transformers would help push this one along, as did the Robot Jox movie (possibly the best movie where people use mechs to fight each other…possibly the only movie like that, discounting the rock’em sock’em robot movie, Real Steel). The real catalyst for this story idea, came when the Toonami block on Cartoon Network introduced me to a little show called Gundam Wing…
It was glorious, and it wasn’t long before I started chasing down the model kits and the other anime in the franchise (pro tip- watch 0080: War in the Pocket, you won’t be disappointed). Not long after, I turned my attention to imagining my own giant robot saga…That underwent several changes, as I toyed with all aspects of it and what the mechs would be called, at one point they were Wraiths, which sounded dramatic enough but at the same time, just didn’t seem right.
Time moved on and I started writing seriously (as seen in the blog a few weeks ago when I talked about the Terrorform story.) I didn’t return to the mech idea till after I had just finished the third Daemon Soul story and was planning the fourth. I had the urge that all writers get when they yearn for something new, and then I rediscovered the word files from my old thoughts. Reading through them I started adding new ideas to the list, which slowly changed the world, morphing it from a futuristic one with the mecha as mass produced weapons of war and where life is cheap to a world where war has taken its toll on the world and the mecha are relics of an older era that the new generations have reengineered.
This is the world of Vector Unit Regen (the Orphan’s War tag came much, much later on). I settled on the concept of the Domes as being the refuge of the rich and the lucky, places where technology was used to combat the changing environment and make controlled paradises. Of course not everyone was going to be able to live in such splendor, and this where the Silvers come in, the idea that because of the environmental changes that everyone outside the Domes are born with Silver eyes.
So, I had a setting, with some world building done. The question turned to characters, and for a story like this, I was going to need a large ensemble cast, so I set to work on deciding the principal cast, the antagonist(s) and all the help they would need. This led to Drake Vern, who emerged as the main character viewpoint. I created the backstory for him and made it tragic, giving him a reason to hate the enemy. Though people who have been reading through the story as I’ve posted it will probably ask who that enemy is, given that he’s working for the Atlantis Empire. You see originally, I was going to begin the story with Drake already a fully fledged resistance fighter, his family victims of the Empire. This changed to Drake’s sister being his responsibility and her death, more so. That’s right, Ava was doomed to die in the original version, with the Empire hiding her and a dozen other prisoners they just want gone in a building that they then order Drake to fire upon, and which he does not realizing straight away. I abandoned this for a simple reason, it didn’t make sense.
No matter how I approached it, it was simply easier for the Empire to just kill it’s target themselves and somewhere in the chaos, dump the bodies. So readers of the series on Royal Road, relax as Ava’s fate has been changed.
Then came a big change, instead of starting out in the present (or what passes for the present in the future) I dialed back a bit and settled for telling Drake’s story from an earlier point, explaining how he got his piloting skills and why he fights against the Empire. Ava went from being a character that was destined to die, to being the second main character alongside her brother, though she wasn’t the only female character feature prominently in the story.
Melody Moon came about as I wanted an another view point in the story, someone who wouldn’t be fighting in a big robot, someone who had a different set of skills entirely. Going back to anime mecha shows as inspiration, I took a leaf out of Macross’s book, and made Melody a pop idol, one that the Empire used in their propaganda. Why she did this would be simple, she had no over option as they owned her. I went quite dark with her background, a lot darker then I have ever done previously with a character.
At the beginning she’s broken, and through the story, hopefully you’ll get to see her grow and find the strength that hides in each of us.
Elements of the previous versions bled through, most notably characters like Tina, but I can’t say much more on her for now as that would be a spoiler for the next couple of chapters for Orphan’s War.
You may notice I haven’t spoken much of the antagonist (the Empire is evil but it’s far from being the antagonist) and that’s deliberate as just like any good Gundam anime, the true villains don’t often make themselves known at first. Suffice to say I’ll have more to say at a future date.
Now all that’s left to talk about is the mechs themselves, heavily inspired by Mobile Suits from the Gundam franchise. Well there’s not too much to say on the basic ones, but I do plan on dropping hints to the more powerful machines lurking around, in fact the full title gives one away if you pay attention. Vector Unit Regen Orphan’s War. So Vector Unit is the name of the mechs in this universe, which of course means that Regen must be a Vector Unit….What is Regen? Well readers, you’ll be waiting a while to learn more about it or what it can do (a hint, Regen is short for something, Regenesis).
It was due to make its appearance about a third of the way in, going by the original schedule, but now it will have to wait longer then that…
That’s all the time I have this week, thank you for sticking with me while I talked about this Mecha story, and I hope you have fun reading through it! Next week I’ll be looking at short story writing, and the things I’ve learned about it.
Remember you can Click here to read Orphan’s War over at Royal Road, and till next time, may we all dream of owning a giant robot….
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