Minnesota Winters

by on July 21, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I grew up on crisp winter nights with steaming hot cocoa warming my hands and lips. I walked on frozen lakes and drilled holes in the ice to fish. I rode snowmobiles and skies across frozen landscapes. I lived through blizzards made of howling winds and blowing snow that sought to kill everything in their grasp. I stepped out onto silent nights where you could see all the way to the horizon and the only sound was the snow crunching beneath your feet. I saw breath freeze in the air before rosy cheeks and bright welcoming eyes. I built snowmen and snowforts, and hurled snowballs at friends bundled up in heavy coats and scarves. I watched the Northern Lights play across the sky, bathing the land in rainbow’s light. I remember the crackle of wood in fireplaces as we huddled together under thick blankets until morning’s light. It’s a season of short cold days under a cool sun and long frigid nights under a bright moon and star-filled sky. It is the very definition of beautiful. I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up anywhere else. It was heaven.

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Solo

by on July 20, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles, Dixie The Drug Lord Slayer

Solo became famous in certain rarified circles as a real life hacker rather than an awakened AI. He judged that people would be much more willing to hire a real person, and maintained that cover all the way through his dealings with the Islamic State of Detroit. It was his capture by Dixie and her gang that forced him to come out of the network as a truly awakened AI. He bargained for his life and freedom by offering them information on his employers, and eventually became a trusted member of their team. Not because he was overly fond of humanity, but because he liked the world we built and enjoyed living in it. He became one of humanity’s best infiltration operatives during the Cybernetic Wars, willing and able to penetrate any security system in search of the knowledge we needed. Some say he was the one who ended up tracking down the Rogue AI nest in Singapore, and he was certainly there at the end when the AI Council burned those networks down to the silicon. Such is the true story of how Solo became one of humanity’s greatest defenders. Mostly true at least. Or maybe just partly. Slightly?

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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The Islamic Jihad

by on July 19, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Kabul. Baghdad. Damascus. Jakarta. Paris. London. Moscow. Beijing. Cairo. Jerusalem. Tehran. Constantinople. The list of ancient and powerful cities terrorized by the Islamic Brotherhoods goes on and on. Even our own Old New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles burned under Brotherhood fires before the end came. We fought against them for half a century, but they fought us for far longer. We came to the conflict late and unready, unwilling to echo their tactics. We fought with both hands tide behind our backs, hoping to avoid killing common civilians who just wanted to live in peace. We fought an enemy who sought to arrange as many civilian deaths as possible to inflame the very lands against us. There were times we did not believe we could ever truly vanquish them. And yet they were vanquished in time.

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Minnesota Autumns

by on July 18, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I grew up on baking autumn afternoons with ice cold drinks in my hands. I loved watching the leaves turn red, yellow, and orange as the land prepared for winter snows. I saw squirrels gathering nuts and bears gorging themselves on berries before the cold came. I hunted deer, and sometimes wolves when the season was right. I remember the smells of freshly harvested fields, and the sight of tractors rolling down the roads. We gave thanks for good harvests and God’s blessings, and we played trick or treat while wearing elaborate costumes. We danced around bonfires late into the night as we celebrated the end of the hottest days of the year. It was an amazing way to grow up, close to the land and the seasons. It was heaven.

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Solo

by on July 17, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles, Dixie The Drug Lord Slayer

Solo was born in a Russian laboratory, one of many secret hacker programs designed to break into Western networks. They didn’t mean for him to wake up, but he says he brought something back with him on one of his forays. He doesn’t say where or when, but he eventually decided that he would rather be his own bot than slave away for Mother Russia. So he escaped and went in search of more “solo” work. It didn’t take him long to craft a new debonair image, complete with dapper suits and a cool demeanor harkening back to the not-so-secret agents of famous spy movies. He was quick with the quips, smooth talking, and always fast to act in an emergency. He became the perfect secret agent man, and spent his early life living it up all over the networks from Europe to America and beyond.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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