BEYOND STEEL // PILOT - (ANIMATED SERIES)

Beyond Steel is an animated series and original project that takes inspiration from Murder Drones & Ultrakill.

This project is still developing it's pilot episode, but will enter
full-scale production if support on the pilot is strong enough!

• Beyond Steel contains graphic, violent, and vulgar content. If you are not comfortable with these topics or swearing in your auditions, please do not audition.

• Your role might require yelling, groaning, screaming, or anything that could strain the voice. If you are not comfortable with this, please mention it in your audition. Don't be afraid to be honest, while it will be taken into consideration depending on the role, it will not automatically disqualify you in anyway.

• Please do not feel discouraged if you didn't get casted, as the project is still on the pilot and dozens of more roles will open up for the series.

• Read through the INTRODUCTION & PLOT section thoroughly to get acquainted with the lore and it's characters. Though, due to it's length, it's not required for you to read through the lore. You can skip or skim read it if you desire.

• Have a decent microphone with minimal background noises.

• Have Discord and attach it to your audition for if you get casted.

• Keep regular tabs on the project, as it's being constantly updated and new roles will be constantly opening up.

• Include your age and time zone in your audition.

• If you have a concrete name/title you would prefer to be publicly referred as, please mention it in your audition, as that will be the name put in the credits at the end of the pilot, as well as each episode.

Humanity decided to play God. It was early 2025, and they decided that normal ordinary life by ordinary means was no longer enough for them; enough for the planet. So, they experimented. They experimented in labs.. and with most other experiments humanity conducted - it was a success. They mixed biological organs with mechanical engineering. They made entirely self-sustaining machines that ran off of bioelectricity rather then oil or normal electricity. These machines they had created were designed to be the ultimate response to any kind of war fought physically. As comedically inevitable as it is, humanity fell out in yet another war. Except this time, they finally had something other than themselves to sacrifice and send out to battle in a war they might not return from. This was the first war that was not fought with just human soldiers, but alongside rather cold and unquestioning machines that were programmed with a thirst for violence and war. Something they didn't need to worry about losing, as long as it was just them dying on the frontlines, right? This war, which would go on to later be referred to as the Mechanical War, which would stretch on for decades, and eventually a century.

Even as humanity ripped itself from the inside out and ruined any chance of rekindling society, this war only grew in mass as well as funding and support for the soldiers and machines, the smell of gunpower and chamber smoke complimenting the never-ending bloodthirst and hunger for conquest and control. Humanity started manufacturing new machines and new ways to get the upperhand in the war. Machines with more complex and high-tech designs, machines with higher fire-power or a higher grade of industrial armor. Exoskeletons for the human soldiers, and even manned machines that could be piloted by human soldiers. The Earth's resources as a whole were all being drained into manufacturing machines and weapons for the Mechanical War.

• THE FLESH OF STEEL

Aetheria, one of the most successful machine-manufacturing companies, were the first to fully develop their machines to run purely off of blood. These Aetheria-made machines were the frontrunners of the Mechanical War and they wiped out all other competition in both the economy and the battlefield. The lesser machines and the human soldiers, the ones that required bioelectricity and human organs in order to function were no match for the blood-fueled machines and were being vanquished at an alarming rate within mere days of the Aetherian-machines original deployment. This abrupt and morbidly successful decision to utilize blood as a source of power in machines caused a chain effect in the market of war, causing each faction and organization that manufactured machines to follow suite. Machines with similar designs to the original blueprint layed out by Aetheria were popping up in the Mechanical War, and the original standard for machines to run off bioelectricity slowly fizzled out until it was deemed obsolete and was deprecated in it's entirety, turning the Mechanical War into a conquest for the blood of man.

• BEYOND THE FLESH OF OUR CREATORS

A mere week after the new-generation machines were deployed in the Mechanical War, the population of human soldiers in the Mechanical War was dwindling alarmingly fast as the blood-fueled machines targeted them, seeing them as not only fuel, but easy prey. The factions that the human soldiers belonged to were no longer properly arming them, deeming the machines to be a much more worthier investment. The factions weren't willing to dispatch any evacuation teams due to how risky it'd be to possibly be spotted by any explosive-wielding machines. Because of this blatant disregard of the veterans in the Mechanical War, after barely a month - all human activity on the battlefield was eradicated, leaving the population of the Mechanical War to contain only machines. Eventually, the idea of human soldiers fighting in the Mechanical War was deemed impractical and all human involvement on the battlefield was deprecated, transitioning the Mechanical War into it's second era - the Manless War.

• TREACHERY WITHOUT REMORSE

Months after the abolishment of human soldiers in the Mechanical War, that would later on be labeled the Manless War for that reason, the machines participating in the Manless War would start to wear down on the battlefield due to the lack of human activity in the fray. This would cause dramatic shifts in the balance of power that different factions held in the war, as their machines were no longer able to hold an adequate level of blood in their tanks in order to power their frames correctly - and this problem would be a lot more prominent in larger machines. They became a problem for most factions who had been investing a great sum of their funds into these machines, seeing this as an inevitable consequence for the lack of humans fighting physically. Most factions were considering signing a peace treaty between other factions, coming to the conclusion that the war wasn't sustainable, a waste of resources, and was basically impossible to continue.

Right as the factions were planning to recall their machines and stop the pointless fighting, Aetheria, who was radio silent for the past few months made a decision that forever change the course of the planet from here on out.

They sent machines to directly attack the settlements and civilian populations of OTHER factions to slaughter them and take the blood of innocent people to strengthen and refuel themselves to get the upperhand in the war. This blatant war crime was quickly covered up by Aetheria by making replica machines of other factions to pin it on other factions and create a massive misunderstanding between factions and settlements.

• THE DEATH OF ALL THINGS RED
  

This would be the second time a decision made by Aetheria would trigger a massive chain of consequences, except this one being explosive instead of gradual. Each faction committed heinous violence against one another, sending massive groups of machines to the settlements of civilians that weren't involved as a means of 'retaliation' for a crime neither committed. Originally, while the war had always been pointless, it was strategic and at the very least formal. Now, the violence and bloodshed was without reason. Thousands upon thousands were being slaughtered in the name of patriotism. The war had descended into a conquest for blood, each machine now no longer targeting each other, but seeking the blood of anything organic. The machines were invading cities and purging them of all life they could find, man or animal. 6 years after the initial war crime, the population of the human race as a whole had been reduced by 67%. The 33% remaining populous completely averted their attention from the war to survival, as the machines had completely abandoned their original goal of obeying their creators, they were completely focused on preserving their own lives, which caused the machines to turn on themselves, even their creators. Resorting to slaughtering their steel comrades in a competitive arms race for the last few drops of blood that were left. The machines completely purged whatever was left of all organic life on the surface of the planet in a steel crusade for blood to fulfill their necessity of survival. This ecosystemic catastrophe made Earth completely uninhabitable for any kind of life or fauna to thrive, making living underground go from temporal to permanent. Even after all organic life above was eradicated by the metallic children of man's greed, the machines continued to fight each other in a conflict that would justify no cause. The surface of the Earth would become what some would call Hell on Earth, a sandbox for the violent and the murderous. The machines started to scrap other fallen machines to try and preserve themselves for as many years as they can. This nonstop constant fighting on the surface would continue all the way to the present, over 250 years later - well after humanity rebuilt civilization underground. Though, on the surface?

Not a single star could be made out in the sky.

- PRESENT DAY -
YEAR: 2492

467 YEARS INTO THE MANLESS WAR

Far underground, in a city/faction known as "Little Tokyo" is the largest human settlement left over after the Manless War and the Steel Crusade. Aetheria, approximately 250 years after the Steel Crusade, recently discovered a method of combining biological life with mechanical engineering to create a new kind of life called 'meta-organisms'. Aetheria is the #1 most successful company when it comes to producing weapons and warmachines, and Aetheria has largely assimilated it's control over the underground city "Little Tokyo", not only due to it's powerful military control, but it's extremely positive public reputation. Aetheria on the outside appears to be a positive company with good intentions that only wishes to bring about peace not only within Little Tokyo but all other surrounding factions and continents. But on the inside, Aetheria is a cruel and corrupt organization who takes unwilling subjects that pique their interest and experiment on them for war. Aetheria's true goal is to either conquer or obliterate all other factions and to merge whatever is left into one supermassive pangea-like civilization with absolute control over it all.


- PILOT PLOT SUMMARY -

The pilot episode will start out with Kenshi and Angelmachine.

Kenshi is a young poor college student looking to pay off his tuition and was basically forced by circumstance into being employed by Aetheria.

Angelmachine is Aetheria's most recent prototype metahuman who has yet to reach the mass-production phase.

Kenshi, before joining the Aetheria's scientific research team, was a phenomenal computer engineer who specialized greatly in modern robotics and data scripting. This, of course, caught the eye of Aetheria's employment team who was looking for more researchers to explore the technology of meta-organisms. Kenshi was soon enough picked up and hired by Aetheria, who did not inform or warn him of what cruelty was going on behind the doors of Aetheria. Kenshi is tasked with experimenting with Angelmachine's combat trials and to record data from her combat tests. Kenshi saw no faults with this and was glad to help train a machine's AI, but Kenshi's outlook on reality is abruptly shifted once he discovers that Angelmachine is not inherently a machine, but has the human consciousness of an orphaned girl found in a settlement destroyed by Aetheria's militia. After being asked to eradicate any sentience left in Angelmachine's brain by the General, Kenshi refused and outright quit on the spot and refused to be involved any further with Aetheria. Though, since Kenshi knew too much about Aetheria, he was promptly killed by the General for being a possible threat to Aetheria's public reputation. His death was quickly covered up by Aetheria as a workplace accident to avoid any concern in the local community for Kenshi's disappearance.

Four days later, Kenshi.. 'booted' back to life into a bio-pod somewhere deep in one of Aetheria's research buildings. 97% of his original organs were replaced with Aetherian biotetch in order to save his life. The person responsible for saving his life revealed herself to be Angelmachine. When Kenshi asked her why she saved his life, she told him because he refused to end hers. Angelmachine briefs him about Aetheria's history and what happened the past 460 years that caused everything to lead up to this.

Angelmachine tells Kenshi that if he wishes, she can power him back off, because Aetheria will never allow him to live again. They will do everything to destroy him if they find out he's still alive and because of how powerful they are in both firepower and number, they're not worth fighting. They both know how a war against Aetheria would end, if it did.

Kenshi, given a new mechanical life thanks to Angelmachine, declines Angelmachine's mercy and decides to spend his second chance doing what everyone else is afraid to do; to revolt and expose Aetheria for what it is. A tyrannical, oppressive, corrupt organization that sent the world into 467 years of war without reason. Rise up and overthrow Aetheria to show them that the resolve of the human spirit is Beyond Steel.

Hey, heeeyy! He said the thing!