Stories by @bradleywestmann

Vaxis - Act II: A Window of a Waking Mind

Five years after Vaxis is born, Nia and Nostrand broke into a pharmaceutical company established by House Doxt on Crosif. They stole several vials of drugs still in development. They also encounter several creatures being experimented on, including a Scolorustia—a mythical monster with a centipede-like body and a skull-like head. They get caught, but in breaking the Scolorustia out, they are able to escape. Back aboard their ship, the Rixen Freckle, they greeted their assistant droid, ARP-51, who began analyzing the vials they acquired. We then cut to the Five Houses of Star Supremacy, focusing on House Doxt as he enters the Seed, a free-floating structure built around a captured star that acted as a kind of head quarters for the five Heads of the houses. We learn that the five Heads all had various attributes that kind of defined them and that together, they combined these traits to enact their supremacy over the worlds. They discuss a few important things: They are aware there is a connection between Windows and Quintillian Speakers, and that Mr. Wish used to be a Window under HOSS control, but he escaped. They employed a Doctor Helix Warey to not only study the aforementioned connection, but also conduct experiments to try to merge the two in the hopes that the event or resulting being would be able to restore their decrepit bodies.

Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures

We begin on the deck of a ship called The Gavel with two prisoners in front of an officer. Outside the ship's viewscreen, we can see The Dark Sentencer, a prison planet created by the Five Houses of Star Supremacy (also known as HOSS) after, "The Great Crash." The two prisoners, Nostrand Crane and Otto Cruger, are sentenced to be wards of the planet below. Before the pair are unceremoniously dumped into a space tunnel, Cruger tells Crane that he blames him completely for their situation and if he finds him, he will kill him. The pair belong to a criminal gang called the Unheavenly Creatures, and were joined by a third member, Nia Worn, who was killed in a bank heist gone wrong. Crane was in a relationship with Worn and wouldn't leave without her body, but Cruger forces him to do so under the threat of killing the innocents. Crane tries to explain that Worn was everything to him and the circumstances of her death didn't add up. He never saw her body and a guard shouldn't have been where he had to be to have killed her. Cruger admits he was the one who killed Worn, just as the pair are thrown into the compressed space between The Gavel and The Dark Sentencer. Wanting to kill each other, but passing out from the lack of proper air, Crane and Cruger fall to the planet.

The Afterman

We are introduced to Sirius Amory, an astronaut and scientist obsessed with learning about the Keywork. His wife, Meri, is not thrilled about his upcoming trip into the beams, but he leaves anyway. Once there, he checks in with his AI assistant, All Mother before entering the Keywork. Inside, he encounters various Entities who attempt to possess him. After three leave him completely worn out, he is protected by a fourth who is kind until someone can rescue him and get him out of the Keywork. Meanwhile, Meri has mourned him presuming his death, and tried to move on.

The Amory Wars: Year of The Black Rainbow

This chapter in the series focuses on Leonard Hohenberger, a scientist with a specialty in biology and bionics, and his family. His wife, Pearl, is also a scientist with a focus on animal biology. At the beginning of the book, we discover that it is, in fact, Pearl who creates the syringa dragonfly. The book opens with a kind of summary of The Mage War, a long battle between newly appointed Wilhelm Ryan of Sector 6 and his main foil, Covent Marth of Sector 4. Marth has the ability of premonition and immediately calls out Ryan for being scheming and says he will ultimately be the downfall of The Fence. After Ryan's victory and the subsequent death of Leonard and Pearl's son, Joseph, the couple vow get justice for him. A Black Rainbow appears in the sky, and most people are actually pretty happy with Ryan's rule viewing the phenomena as a sign from God.

The Amory Wars: No World For Tomorrow

The story opens with Red Army soldiers surrounded around Ryder's charred remains. They believe they've killed the Crowing. A white gash is slashed across the sky above House Atlantic. Cutting to Wilhelm Ryan, he thinks back to the Black Rainbow which he viewed as a sign against him by God, but now he feels as though this is a sign FOR him. Ryan reads through the Ghansgraad's description of the Crowing and Vishual prophecies. He is pleased, thinking it all fits him just fine. He is interrupted by a Cardinal. Cutting to a blue-eyed Mayo Deftinwolf who walks through the forests and battlefields on Kalline. Dragonflies still litter the skies stinging people and there is a wide mix of humans, soldiers, and Narrows, some dead, some running in fear, some still engaged in battle. Internally, Inferno changes Deftinwolf's blue eye to a red one to disguise his takeover. His comlink goes off as he collects a bomb from a dead solider. He answers a furious Ryan, trying to victoriously announce he's defeated Inferno, but Ryan cuts him off to announce the death of the Crowing. Ryan orders Deftinwolf to return to House Atlantic while Crom goes to find the Vishual.

The Amory Wars: Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV

Claudio Kilgannon "The Son of Coheed and Cambria" Whose Advancing Physical Powers are Making It Hard For Him to Deny Speculation That He is The Crowing. God's Chosen One Prophesied to Destroy The Worlds of "Heaven's Fence" If It's Guardians Fail to Protect It. The Seemingly Inevitable Path for Kilgannon and His Small but Powerful Squad to Take is to Welcome Their Apocalypse Destiny - But Who Says They Can't Try Without Going Head to Head With Tyrannical Dictator Wilhelm Ryan Working to Thwart His Efforts at Every Turns? Meanwhile, In a Parallel Reality A New Advisory Emerges. A Writer Is Dangerously Slipping into Schizophrenia After Being Left by The Love of His Life, Erica Court. He Begins to Literally Lose the Plot to his Opus as His Characters Start to Act Upon Their Own Free Will, No Longer Following the Story He Had Planned for Them. He Is Driven to The Brink of Insanity Where His Subconscious Comes to Life in the Form of a Demented Ten Speed Bicycle Who Is Convinced That Peace Will Come About Only with The Death of the Character that He Based After Erica.

The Amory Wars: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

Claudio Kilgannon Has Lost His Family and Crumbled Under The Weight of His Grief. But in the Universe, Things are Happening, and Wilhelm Ryan Marches Unceasingly Toward His Goal of Total Control. Is Claudio Ready to Accept His Destiny? Will He Be Able to Fight off Dangers From Outside Forces and Threats From Unexpected Places. To Fulfill the Prophecy of The Crowing?

The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade

Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon's Lives Are In Shambles. They've Been Faced With Making the Inconceivable Decision of Devastating Their Family and Everything They Love...Or Saving the World and Millions of Innocents Along With It.