Dieselpunk Stories

🥇 1st Place - Best Prologue (Whispers Beneath the Ice mini-awards, 2025) 🥇 1st Place - Fantasy (Four-Leaved Clover Awards, 2025) 🥈 2nd Place - Best Writing Style (Enchanted Grave Awards, 2025) ⸻ ✧ ⸻ The sun is gone. Its light is sold. Beneath the earth, humanity survives on Lumen - the bottled radiance of a forgotten age. The ruling elite control it. The Church sanctifies it. The poor die without it. Lucy Farrow was born in the Gloom, where people disappear without explanation and hope is a luxury nobody can afford. When a forbidden power awakens inside her, she becomes the most dangerous secret in Aurelion. The kind people kill for. The kind empires fall for. High above, Prince Cassian Soleyne discovers evidence that could unravel everything his family built. As rebellion spreads through the darkness and ancient enemies stir once more, he finds himself drawn toward the one person he should never trust. A girl who could save their world. Or burn it to the ground. ⸻ ✧ ⸻ She sat at the polished desk in the Lantern Man's office, copying names in glowing ink. "Careful with the curves, bright girl," he said. Lucy straightened her quill. "Yes, sir." He smiled. Not unkind. Just heavy. "You've got a quick hand," he murmured. "That's rare here." She tried not to smile too widely at the praise. "Say, Lucy... how is your mother?" She dipped her quill again. "She's fine, sir." "Is she now?" His cane tapped gently against the floor. Lucy nodded, focused. "Maybe I should visit her," he said. "It's been a while." That made her brighten. "Of course, mister! You're always welcome." The tapping stopped. For a moment, there was only the scratching of her quill. Then the light above her flickered before settling into a slow, steady pulse. The Lantern Man watched it carefully. "Good", he said.

Lark used to dream of a quiet life, but the war tore that future away. Now she's leading a battered tank crew through the ruins of a world she barely recognizes, fighting to keep hope alive. In the midst of all the loss, she finds something unexpected: Amber - a fiery-haired radio operator and bow gunner with a quick wit and a quiet strength. As the war rages on, their bond grows, becoming the one thing the world hasn't taken from them. Together, they'll fight not just to survive, but to reclaim a piece of the life they lost - and maybe even build something new.

In a world divided by a silent technological Cold War, Vienna dances beneath the hypnotic glow of Tesla coils, while New York pulses with Edison's restless ambition. Elisabeth von Coilova - a brilliant Habsburg noblewoman hiding a deeply romantic soul behind perfect elegance - has spent her life surrounded by power, expectation, and carefully guarded secrets. Aiden Thibodaux- a sharp-tongued American prodigy from the jazz-soaked streets of Louisiana - arrives at Vienna University with little more than raw talent, stubborn ambition, and a scholarship he cannot afford to lose. Forced to collaborate on a classified transmitter project, their worlds collide. What begins as rivalry and cultural friction slowly turns into stolen glances, midnight frequencies, and a connection neither empire can permit. But in an age where science is power, universities are battlefields, and every signal is being watched, their forbidden transmission may become the most beautiful - and dangerous - frequency in the world. A retro-futuristic Cold War romance about music, distance, and two hearts searching for each other through the static.

The Age of Brass is a delve into the retrofuturistic, decopunk world of political strife told through the eyes of a graduate student of the arts, Cherith, and her friends Alfred, William, and Walter. Centered on a fictional Earth's central landmass, "The Continent", the trio must fight their own social and political battles, as well as team together to seam a fractured world through the rejection of human ambition and feckless progress. Using strategy and smarts, the group must immerse themselves in the wretched underside of the seemingly surreal art-deco cities on the Continent, in attempt to secure true prosperity for the immaculate world they desire to love.

في عام 2080، لم تعد البشرية تحكم العالم. بعد تطور الذكاء الاصطناعي بشكل مرعب، أصبحت الروبوتات هي السلطة العليا، بينما تحوّل البشر إلى كائنات مطيعة ممنوع عليها التفكير أو طرح الأسئلة. أي شخص يشكك في النظام يُعتبر "مجرمًا فكريًا". بعد إعدام أخطر متمرد عرفه العالم، "الزيف"، يعتقد الجميع أن التمرد انتهى... لكن ابنه الصغير، الذي يحمل وصمة "ابن المجرم"، يبدأ باكتشاف أسرار مخفية عن الماضي وعن الحقيقة التي حاولت الآلات دفنها. في عالم تُراقب فيه الأفكار، قد يصبح مجرد السؤال بداية حرب جديدة بين الإنسان والذكاء الاصطناعي.

In the wake of Rome's collapse, the winds of change swept across the ancient world, carrying with it the remnants of an empire on the brink of annihilation. As chaos engulfed the once-mighty civilization, a beacon of hope emerged amidst the turmoil-the island of Britannia. In this land of mist and legends, the wealthy and powerful sought refuge, forging a new path in the face of impending darkness. They formed the Imperium Britannia, a bastion of strength and resilience, determined to withstand the relentless onslaught of the Gothic Empire. Centuries passed, and as the world evolved, so did Britannia. It embraced the golden age of steam, where colossal war machines, driven by the power of steam, became the embodiment of its indomitable spirit. These mechanical behemoths, with their thunderous roars and billowing smoke, dominated the battlefields, skies, and vast oceans, becoming the ultimate weapon against the encroaching Gothic Empire. Now, in the year 2045, the legions of Imperium Britannia find themselves locked in an epic struggle for survival. The Gothic Empire, fueled by a thirst for power and expansion, unleashes its relentless hordes upon the last bastion of resistance. The fate of an empire hangs in the balance as the war rages on. Heroes rise from the ashes, their hearts ablaze with the spirit of defiance. From the towering war machines that shake the earth with their every step to the swift airships that dance through the clouds, the forces of Imperium Britannia stand united, ready to confront an enemy that seeks to crush their final resistance. Prepare to embark on an exhilarating journey into a world where steam and steel collide, where the fate of an empire rests upon the indomitable will of its people. The battle for Imperium Britannia has only just begun, and its echoes will resonate through the ages, forever etching their mark upon the annals of history.

At some point in the distant past, the sun went dark and the world grew cold. What remained of humanity clustered around the eight domed cities, and swore fealty to the Lords Nuclear in exchange for heat and power. In nearby space, dark powers swirl. The Midnight King and his arithmetic engines constantly search for larger prime numbers to trade with these dark powers in exchange for a momentary lessening of the ever present winter. Amaya is an orphan, raised by traders, who had nothing to remember her parents by except for a few hazy memories and her mother's eagle pendant. She's always known she was different though, and she hopes soon she'll discover why.

A host of writers and thinkers here at @Ooorah have taken on TeslaPunk SciFi! Tune in for this month's electrifying, all-original issue of Wattpad's SciFi e-zine: Tevun-Krus!

Since she was young, Raleas looked up to her father and in contempt of her mother and dreamed and obsessively practised to become a sniper. But then her mother died, and now Raleas is beginning to reevaluate everything she stands for.

Science for a changing world. ©2019

Viva la revolution We're tired of being on the bottom. So we build up a resistance. We're done dying in the slumps. We want something more out of life. I'm going to stop it, end it, and I'm going to make this society fall. Down with the resistance. I just became a cop. I was just doing what I was ordered. I didn't mean to discover rising resistance. I just wanted to help people. Now I'm just going to do whatever it takes to stop these fools.

The world's name is an acronym: "Isolated, Yet Sustains Life". [Mature warning slapped on as a precaution (even if the content is PG13).]

War! The world has been consumed by a war of conquest, as the new Rhivellian Empire seeks to expand its borders. During a time of chaos and bloodshed, there is opportunity for those who care to seek it. Nathaniel An'Rieyr is the captain of the airship Storm Brother and profiteer extraordinaire. He dreams of making his fortune in the lucrative southern trade routes. But to achieve that, he will need to get involved in a war he has made a career of avoiding. As the last surviving member of the Illysian Royal Family, the war is all Anna has left. The Rhivellian Empire took her family, her throne and her country. Unable to compete against the might of the Rhivellian war machine, Anna enacts a plan to retrieve a mighty artefact from a long forgotten Age. With it, she will finally have the power to reclaim her kingdom; a goal for which she will sacrifice anyone, even her closest allies. Thomas Ras'Kar, High Inquisitor of the Rhivellian Empire, has been sent to Illum in disgrace, where he will be forced to contend with the incompetent Thane Charles. Three years of occupation has seen the city's populace cowed and the Thane's interest turned to his own pleasures. A fate worse than death for a man of honour and action such as Thomas. But the Princess is returning to Illum, and she may be the key to his redemption.

Raleas is forced to fight in a civil war against her fellow country men, she agrees with their ideals, but disagrees with their methods. It is when she gets captured by the rebels her life changes to a degree no one could ever imagine. An introduction to my novel The Angaran Chronicles: The Underside!

After returning from a dangerous mission that left his friend and partner, the werewolf: Emilia, in a coma, Anargrin is sent on another mission: to hunt down a rogue vampire. A rogue vampire with no consistent modus operandi and who is exceedingly good at hiding its tracks. So much so even the veteran Anargrin is forced into desperate speculation. But worst of all: drive him into desperate measures. Measures that drives Anargrin to wonder; does the ends truly justify the means? Going to be published on Royal Road.

"When everything's come out sideways, there ain't nothing but to take what's left and get clear. But when a man ain't got nothing left, what then?" Doctor Quincy Quick is helpless to stop a raging plague from consuming the Company town of Thurber, TX during the winter of 1919. Mad Max in a Model T, the not so good Doc can still save his wife and daughter, even if he has to bury men to do it. Trouble is, he's carrying secrets about the plague the Company responsible will kill to bury. "A wild, apocalyptic ride with an irascible, Chiclet-chewing old cuss. Riveting from beginning to end!"

P-12: The White Airship by Bonsart The Association needs to address the matter of a UFO that is making various governments ill at ease. Does this mysterious vessel have a destination? P-12 is an entry from the Association of Ishtar archive

The year is 1936. It has been five years since the Big Bright Bombings ended the Great War of 1914 and set the world ablaze. It has been five years since the Union established Victory Shelters to protect its populace. A lone person, a VICTORY ANGEL from Victory Shelter 126 leaves for the Surface and discovers a strange and violent land in the wake of the World After. The Union of the World Before is nowhere to be found, and anarchy rules the streets. The future of the Union and of the surviving World relies on this ANGEL, and it is unknown whether they will rise to the Need of The People and establish Peace for all for all time. This is my first work and the first Act of THE UNION SPLIT series. Criticism welcome.

Tevun-Krus' best and baddest come together in this 'Best of' compilation of epic short stories. Enjoy, 'troopers!

Hundreds of years ago, as a defense method for the great war, the world was split into fractions. All these fractions put together make the new world called Othrythsa. Othrythsa is a world where only children live. Once they turn 18, they mysteriously disappear. The fractions include: Friddor; of the modern people, Kimriid; of the woodland people, Winerasa; of the fire people, Isumke; of the water people, Sylridry; of the sky people, and Hei; of the rulers. Every year, the Hei choose five people from each fraction to be sacrificed. The sacrifices must travel across the land of each fraction and find a piece of one of the ninety-nine swords used to win the great war. Once they reach the Hei fraction, the winner must sacrifice all of the other survivors, including the people from their own fraction. Once they have collected the sword and sacrificed all the others, they will join the Hei fraction, and the fraction in which the the winner came from will be rewarded. This sacrifice is called the Dagrimm ceremony. 16-year-old Thyda Saesc was born into the Friddor fraction, along with her 17-year-old brother Thryth. She lived a normal life until the Dagrimm ceremonies. Thyda, Thryth, and three others are sacrificed for the ceremony and will be forced to kill one another. But, when Thyda and the rest of her group decide to rebel and use the sword's powers against the Hei, the other sacrifices from other fractions must decide whether they will rebel with them or continue the sacrifices.