"A Storm of Steel" (Synopsis)
May. 27th, 2022 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"A Storm of Steel"
4/3-4/10/1984
[This was a lengthy story which I'm not likely to rewrite and revise to fit it into the modern canon. Forty single-spaced typed pages with almost no margins, it's really violent with a lot of emphasis on both Asian martial arts and advanced Western weaponry in drawn-out battles. The prominence of John Robert Chase as a well-known fighter in the Midnight War is also incompatible as he has since been depicted as a mysterious seldom-seen puppet master working behind the scenes. There are many other contradictions, such as John Grim being an accomplished telepath.
In the original manuscripts, "A Storm of Steel" introduced Andrew Steel and Shiro Mitsuru to the main narrative. Originally, I intended to keep them in their own little universe and wrote a novel PLAYING AT WAR and a few short stories. But this was resolved by placing the Steel tales in the 1960s and early 1970s, earlier than the main narrative of Jeremy Bane.
Finally, the writing style is so dense and clumsy that I'm embarrassed myself by re-reading it now. But this story DID take place in the Midnight War series, and its events are sometimes referred to. So here is a synopsis to keep the details straight.]
In 1984, John Grim was tricked by the KDF into a war with the rival empire of Wu Lung. Jeremy Bane had planned this for months. He divided his KDF team and their allies Andrew Steel and Shiro Mitsuru into two strike groups. The group disguised as Wu Lung henchmen attacked a John Grim outpost, while those posing as John Grim soldiers attacked a Wu Lung facility, both strikes causing loss of life. Already suspicious of each other after an earlier confrontation, Grim and Lung launched full scale war against each other which ended in disaster for both crimelords. The forces of the Grim organization used technology stolen from the Trom: small two-man attack helicopters, troops wearing motorized armor and armed with hand-held multiple-barreled cannons. The army of Wu Lung relied on traditional weapons of bows and spears and swords, but they were accompanied by winged Garmiri Dragons, semi-intelligent spiders big as dogs and the Burning Bats. The slaughter was horrendous on both sides. Wu Lung lost vast amounts of men and materials, and was forced to flee as a fugitive for several years.
John Grim suffered a more severe and fitting punishment. He had secretly abducted Cindy's parents Henry and Greta Brunner before the clash began and was keeping them in a cell at his headquarters. Grim had been trying to kidnap the KDF members' loved ones but the Brunners were the only ones he could locate. An explosion from a grenade mislaunched by Grim's own men killed them both while Cindy was almost within sight of them. The trauma of picking up their minds being snuffed out made her unleash her full powers in a widening blast of telepathic force which stunned everyone for a mile around into senselessness and ended the battle. Targeted specifically to that brain blast from Cindy Brunner at close range, Grim was reduced to a vegetative state for years; even after his physical recovery, he was never quite the same again.
Following the battle, Cindy spent much of that year at Tel Shai, healing and being counseled by her Teacher Anulka. She only took part in a few KDF missions, mostly as support and on monitor duty. Cindy eventually learned to cope with the deaths of her parents. Her grief was channeled into helped other victims of the Midnight War, this would be her major role for the rest of her life.
In 1988, Grim's legal team managed to get him transferred to a private facility, and during this procedure, the ambulance was hijacked, the EMTs shot dead and Grim taken away by his lieutenants. His next project was the capture and dismantling of Andrew Steel ("The Madness of John Grim," 1989). Doing this opened up huge amounts of Trom secrets and the Grim organization soon after developed Megavac, another one-time Artificial Intelligence Project.
When Bane and Cindy met the crimelord again in 1994 ("Devil Lights In the Sky"), John Grim had visibly deteriorated. ("When they had last clashed, John Grim had been a handsome, tall blond man with almost movie star good looks. Now he looked withered and thirty years older. His cheeks had sunken and his hair was thin and lank. The deepset eyes bulged unhealthily, bloodshot and staring.") By the end of the next year, Grim had died of multiple organ failure including both kidneys, Following Grim's death in 1995, his only son Alexander took over both the business organization and the crime network but at a reduced level of innovation, which he maintained for twenty years.
Wu Lung had been luckier. He escaped unhurt to quickly re-establish his empire through his network of lieutenants. Within a few years, he was secure enough to hold another of his infamous Tournaments.. which ended in the death of his body at the hands of Chen Wong-Lai.
4/3-4/10/1984
[This was a lengthy story which I'm not likely to rewrite and revise to fit it into the modern canon. Forty single-spaced typed pages with almost no margins, it's really violent with a lot of emphasis on both Asian martial arts and advanced Western weaponry in drawn-out battles. The prominence of John Robert Chase as a well-known fighter in the Midnight War is also incompatible as he has since been depicted as a mysterious seldom-seen puppet master working behind the scenes. There are many other contradictions, such as John Grim being an accomplished telepath.
In the original manuscripts, "A Storm of Steel" introduced Andrew Steel and Shiro Mitsuru to the main narrative. Originally, I intended to keep them in their own little universe and wrote a novel PLAYING AT WAR and a few short stories. But this was resolved by placing the Steel tales in the 1960s and early 1970s, earlier than the main narrative of Jeremy Bane.
Finally, the writing style is so dense and clumsy that I'm embarrassed myself by re-reading it now. But this story DID take place in the Midnight War series, and its events are sometimes referred to. So here is a synopsis to keep the details straight.]
In 1984, John Grim was tricked by the KDF into a war with the rival empire of Wu Lung. Jeremy Bane had planned this for months. He divided his KDF team and their allies Andrew Steel and Shiro Mitsuru into two strike groups. The group disguised as Wu Lung henchmen attacked a John Grim outpost, while those posing as John Grim soldiers attacked a Wu Lung facility, both strikes causing loss of life. Already suspicious of each other after an earlier confrontation, Grim and Lung launched full scale war against each other which ended in disaster for both crimelords. The forces of the Grim organization used technology stolen from the Trom: small two-man attack helicopters, troops wearing motorized armor and armed with hand-held multiple-barreled cannons. The army of Wu Lung relied on traditional weapons of bows and spears and swords, but they were accompanied by winged Garmiri Dragons, semi-intelligent spiders big as dogs and the Burning Bats. The slaughter was horrendous on both sides. Wu Lung lost vast amounts of men and materials, and was forced to flee as a fugitive for several years.
John Grim suffered a more severe and fitting punishment. He had secretly abducted Cindy's parents Henry and Greta Brunner before the clash began and was keeping them in a cell at his headquarters. Grim had been trying to kidnap the KDF members' loved ones but the Brunners were the only ones he could locate. An explosion from a grenade mislaunched by Grim's own men killed them both while Cindy was almost within sight of them. The trauma of picking up their minds being snuffed out made her unleash her full powers in a widening blast of telepathic force which stunned everyone for a mile around into senselessness and ended the battle. Targeted specifically to that brain blast from Cindy Brunner at close range, Grim was reduced to a vegetative state for years; even after his physical recovery, he was never quite the same again.
Following the battle, Cindy spent much of that year at Tel Shai, healing and being counseled by her Teacher Anulka. She only took part in a few KDF missions, mostly as support and on monitor duty. Cindy eventually learned to cope with the deaths of her parents. Her grief was channeled into helped other victims of the Midnight War, this would be her major role for the rest of her life.
In 1988, Grim's legal team managed to get him transferred to a private facility, and during this procedure, the ambulance was hijacked, the EMTs shot dead and Grim taken away by his lieutenants. His next project was the capture and dismantling of Andrew Steel ("The Madness of John Grim," 1989). Doing this opened up huge amounts of Trom secrets and the Grim organization soon after developed Megavac, another one-time Artificial Intelligence Project.
When Bane and Cindy met the crimelord again in 1994 ("Devil Lights In the Sky"), John Grim had visibly deteriorated. ("When they had last clashed, John Grim had been a handsome, tall blond man with almost movie star good looks. Now he looked withered and thirty years older. His cheeks had sunken and his hair was thin and lank. The deepset eyes bulged unhealthily, bloodshot and staring.") By the end of the next year, Grim had died of multiple organ failure including both kidneys, Following Grim's death in 1995, his only son Alexander took over both the business organization and the crime network but at a reduced level of innovation, which he maintained for twenty years.
Wu Lung had been luckier. He escaped unhurt to quickly re-establish his empire through his network of lieutenants. Within a few years, he was secure enough to hold another of his infamous Tournaments.. which ended in the death of his body at the hands of Chen Wong-Lai.
