"Oh, come on, Aden!" "No, you can't tag along!" I replied, exasperated. It had been like this for weeks, ever since the announcement went out on my Reddit page. Okay, let me back up for a second. My name is Aden, and I run a survival and adventure video channel, mainly on YouTube. It's basically me with a GoPro and camping gear showing people the countryside here in Texas. Most of my camping videos centered on the hill co...

The assassination of Rafael Padilla, the Tijuana Cartel top financial wizard, lit the fuse on a conflict that had for the most part been below the surface. The autodefensas, chief among them were the "Baja Battalion," had spent over a decade organizing to secure the support of politicos within the municipalities of the Baja and Sonora. Bribes, protection and threats were levied on both sides for influence in Mexican polit...

The citizens of Mexico's California Gulf region were not standing still while the world turned. Preceding the 1st Central American war, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) released a bioengineered plant virus targeted at destroying the coca, poppy, and marijuana plants, amongst others. In the short term, it was a massive success. The Cartel drug trade collapsed, and the top cartel bosses were toppled when profits plummeted....

All characters depicted are above the age of 18 years or older. Maxwell Baez is a Texas Ranger in the not-too-distant future who has been enhanced with advanced biotechnology. In the late twentieth century, Texas Rangers were more akin to highway patrol, performing a range of law enforcement functions. The chaos of the global economic collapse of '94, wars in Latin America and state secession pushed the Rangers to expand...

Texas was the first to declare independence when martial law was imposed on the citizens of the old US. Given the wars in Central America along with the economic collapse, the "Gang of Four" ruling Washington could do little to stop the states in the west and southwest from declaring secession. A shoot-on-sight policy was implemented for curfews, which led to dozens of incidents involving US troops firing on civilians. Ev...

This is a Cyberpunk-themed story. In this universe, the global community is devastated by a global stock market collapse in 1994. Poverty, homelessness, and unemployment spike across the world. A series of mega-corporations grows increasingly dominant in geopolitics, takes territory around the world and employs soldiers or mercenaries to fight wars for them. The U.S. political system was taken over by the intelligence ser...

"L'elegance est quand l'interieur est aussi beau que exterieur." Translation: Elegance is when the inside is as beautiful as the outside. A small town like Balore, almost never made the evening news. Nor has it ever been the topic of popular public conversations. But in this region of the country, events thousands of miles away make their impact felt at home. In this period of history, new ideas, spiritual perspectives an...

Vouloir, c'est pouvoir (To want to is to be able to) Balore is a lovely town of 40 thousand people, surrounded by some of the most beautiful landscapes in New England. In the spring, pine and evergreen trees ring-fence the small city in a wave of vibrant color. The college rests like a crown jewel near the center of town, with a healthy business district adjacent. Local folks here were incredibly friendly; most work for e...

L'art de plaire est l'art de tromper (The art of pleasing is the art of deception). "So are you going to help out with this project or not, Joey?" Jessie was asking about me helping out with an upcoming art show. He was asking me in particular to be present for any technical mishaps. Jessie's art exhibit was a holographic display; thus, he needed someone with experience in optics and engineering. Someone like me—my major...