Deep Core Industries

Deep Core Industries is a science-fiction tabletop role-playing game, set in the 24th century and extending into the 38th century. By the 24th century, humanity had expanded throughout the Solar System by terraforming worlds, establishing orbital habitats, and engaging in extensive mining. To endure extreme environments and isolated deep-space conditions, humanity developed advanced cybernetics, robotics, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence. These advancements led to the creation of various specialized populations: engineered Canids and Felari, broad populations of Geneborn descendants, autonomous Androids, heavily augmented Cyborgs, and Holograms whose personalities are sustained via expensive Holographic Cores.  

Centuries of relentless expansion eventually drained the Solar System's viable natural resources, sparking a critical energy and material crisis. In response, major governments and private corporations united under Deep Core Industries (DCI) to construct the Dark Nebula—a massive, five-mile-long mining and exploration vessel housing over 1,700 crew members. Operating in opposition to DCI's monopoly, corporate rivals like the Atlas Resource Consortium (ARC) engaged in espionage, tech theft, and sabotage against DCI operations. Built in the Kuiper Belt, the Dark Nebula launched in the year 3779 on an FTL journey to the Large Magellanic Cloud. 

Arriving in 3784, the diverse crew of biological, cybernetic, and digital specialists is awakened from stasis to secure humanity's survival by establishing mining operations, recovering resources, and scanning for terraformable planets. The core mechanics of the game rely on a roll-under 2d6 system. Characters calculate a Target Number by combining a specific Attribute score with a Skill score. 

To succeed, players must roll equal to or lower than their Target Number on 2d6. The dice rolled are categorized as a Boon die and a Bane die. Rolling low leads to success, while generating Boon tokens for the players or Bane tokens for the Game Master (referred to as the AI) depending on which die shows the higher result. 

Players can spend Boon tokens to adjust Target Numbers or advance their stats between game sessions. The AI uses accumulated Bane tokens to introduce sudden environmental hazards, plot complications, and narrative obstacles.

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50 YEARS IN A SECT:

My Life with a Radical 'Sex Cult'!

50 Years in a Sect: My Life with a Sex Cult! tells the story of life within one of recent history’s most controversial religious sects: The Children of God! Later changing its name to the Family of Love, or simply ‘The Family’ -- the fast-growing and highly unorthodox Christian movement gained notoriety as a ‘sex cult’ due to its practice of using sex to win converts! It also believed in sexual ‘sharing’ with other adults within one’s communal group.

Following a firebrand maverick preacher, members left their old lives behind and dropped out of society to begin new lives in idealistic communes, made up mostly of ex-hippies and society rejects who now lived together and shared everything. Members quickly learned that the end of the world was not far away, with Jesus expected to come back in 1993!

David Berg, nicknamed Moses David, the founder and self-styled prophet of this ‘spiritual revolution’, had warning dreams of God’s impending judgments falling on the wicked nations of the western world. In his messages, known as Mo letters, Berg strongly encouraged his followers to leave the West and go to poorer, undeveloped countries to be missionaries.

With no financial support whatsoever, members dutifully obeyed, travelling to far-flung parts of the globe. Thus it was that this author spent the next 50 years in India, Nepal, southern Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific islands! All through this incredible life journey, the Family’s numerous ‘revolutions’ brought tremendous social upheaval and 180 degree changes in direction, making life exciting and eventful, but also bringing some personal heartbreak as families sometimes found themselves separated due to being on different status levels. In the case of the author’s second family, the children were ‘kidnapped’ and taken away by the Social Services.

Although this book has some mild sexual content, it is not intended to be a scandal-filled, lurid account of sexual excesses. It is meant to be a real account of what life was really like within the groups’ closed communities -- both good and bad. And how, 50 years later, after changing its form and reinventing itself several times, the group is still going strong…

The fireworks & the prophet have long gone, along with sexually permissive communal living; however a small band of aging but dedicated believers still remains...

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Jaxon Discovers Dimension Z

  

Jaxon Discovers Dimension Z

By Marva Washington

Some adventures begin with a treasure map, a mysterious letter, or a secret doorway.

In Marva Washington’s children’s action-and-adventure story, Jaxon travels from Minnesota to South Carolina for a week with his Grand mom. She has plans for his visit—especially plans involving the colorful vegetables growing in her backyard. Jaxon, however, has ideas of his own. Naturally inquisitive and eager to explore, he soon notices that the garden holds something much more interesting than carrots, squash, and spinach: a tool shed he has specifically been told to avoid.

That forbidden shed becomes the doorway to an adventure neither Jaxon nor his family could have anticipated.

Inside, Jaxon encounters Zolo, a strange being who looks vaguely familiar but is definitely not an ordinary Earth creature. Zolo comes from another dimension, communicates in remarkable ways, and seems to know much more about Jaxon than Jaxon knows about him. Their meeting quickly transforms an ordinary summer visit into a journey filled with secrets, strange discoveries, and questions that Jaxon must learn to navigate largely on his own.

Washington gives the story an especially appealing contrast. The familiar world of grandparents, picky eating, gardens, family outings, and childhood curiosity sits comfortably beside a fantastic world where flying, mind reading, mysterious lands, and hidden dangers are possible. Dimension Z is not simply somewhere unusual to visit; it is connected to childhood dreams, imagination, and the sense that possibilities can exist before young minds begin placing limits on themselves.

Yet the adventure has more on its mind than fantasy.

At its heart, Jaxon Discovers Dimension Z explores friendship, responsibility, honesty, compassion, and the importance of treating others with respect. Jaxon may be young, but he is observant enough to question what he is told and caring enough to recognize when someone needs help. Even Zolo carries lessons of his own as his actions reveal that mistakes have consequences and that trust must be earned.

For children who enjoy imaginative worlds, unusual creatures, mystery, humor, and adventure, Marva Washington offers a story that invites curiosity while leaving meaningful ideas for young readers to consider after the journey ends.

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https://authormarvawashington.com/

William The Great: A Children's Fantasy Adventure About Courage and Self-Belief

 

William The Great:

A Children's Fantasy Adventure About Courage and Self-Belief

What if the greatest battle you ever faced was learning to believe in yourself?

William has fears, doubts, and challenges that sometimes make him wonder if he is strong enough. But when he enters a wondrous forest filled with fairies, magical creatures, a loyal dragon, and a mysterious darkness, he is about to discover that being a hero has very little to do with what you can, or cannot do.

Known in this extraordinary world as William the Great, William joins his trusted friend Alex the Magnificent and Princess Sydney on a dangerous quest to confront Eric the Horrible, a dark presence that feeds on fear, doubt, insecurity, and sadness. With each obstacle William faces, he must find the courage to keep moving forward, even when a voice inside tells him he isn't good enough.

But defeating the darkness will require something greater than a sword.

William the Great. A book about overcoming fear facing adversity and growing. The book addresses some common themes of insecurity, bullying, the power of friendship and self belief. The book has a plot twist the main character is actually disabled but still finds the strength, courage and self belief to rise above.

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William The Great:

A Children's Fantasy Adventure

About Courage and Self-Belief

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The Great Alliance: Terminus Book 1: (Terminus, A Young Adult Science-Fiction Series)

 

The Great Alliance: Terminus Book 1:

(Terminus, A Young Adult Science-Fiction Series)

Praise for the Fantasy Prequel Series Dynasty: “A wild romp in the best traditions of fantasy fiction. Action, adventure, and plenty of exciting surprises - I’ve read it twice before it was even published! Derek is a welcome new voice in fantasy fiction, and I genuinely look forward to seeing more of his output in the future.” -- Randal Graham, Author of the "Beforelife" Trilogy "A fun and often humorous adventure with a likeable hero. Moral dilemmas, twists and turns, and a fast, exciting read!" -- Michael A. Ventrella, Author of "Big Stick" and "Terin Ostler and the Axes of Evil" "The start of a wondrous story about trust, sacrifice and the eternal and universal thirst for power." -- Editor's Review for Terminus: The Great Alliance Majestrix Sarah Cayale never wanted to be a politician. As the most powerful superhuman alive, she'd rather be in the field breaking bones than stuck in endless senate sessions – much to her Protective Detail's horror.

But a deathbed promise bound her to the Great Alliance, a democratic union of seventy vulnerable worlds on the verge of cosmic chaos, as its leader. Her daughter Sonyia, fresh into her career as a Justice Officer, wears her badge with pride, determined to prove that she's more than just the Majestrix's daughter – if only she didn't have to keep worrying about being a political liability.

But when she and her partner, Alex Jennings, are faced with a nuclear bomb on their first patrol, Sonyia might get her chance after all. The two young Royals awaken a new power that might make them the galaxy's most unpredictable variables, while putting them squarely in the crosshairs of forces Sarah never saw coming.

Now, as one fights in the halls of power and the other in the chaos those halls create, both mother and daughter hold the fate of the galaxy in their hands. Unfortunately, things are about to get apocalyptic.

This is the first volume in an epic series novelizing the greatest television series that never was! It’s like binge-watching a galactic space opera, but on paper, with zero buffering! Fans of Star Wars and John Scalzi will love this sci-fi epic!

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The Great Alliance: Terminus Book 1

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A Country of Ash

The mountains caught fire in August. He had already seen the end of the world.

Chicago, 1903. On the coldest afternoon of the year, fireman Silas Dunne climbs the marble stairs of the Iroquois Theater and finds a wall of the dead. He carries out one small girl who is still breathing. His own daughter is not among the living.

Idaho, 1910. Seven years later, Dunne is a drifter with thirty-one cents in his pocket and a brass badge he can't bring himself to throw away. In the mining town of Wallace he signs on to a Forest Service crew for twenty-five cents an hour, cutting fire line in the Bitterroot Mountains under a hard, quiet ranger named Ed Pulaski.

It is the driest summer anyone can remember. The sun rises red and gives no warmth. Ash falls on the town like snow. On the mountain, Dunne takes a red-haired Irish boy from Butte under his wing, and he stands between the crew and a lynch rope when they turn on the immigrant they blame for the fires. Someone is setting them. Dunne begins to suspect who, and he doesn't want to know.

Then, on August 20th, hurricane winds drive three thousand fires together into a single wall of flame. In two days it will burn three million acres and destroy a third of Wallace. Cut off on both sides, forty-five men follow Pulaski into an abandoned mine tunnel, hang wet blankets across the entrance, and wait for the fire to arrive.

What happens in the Nicholson tunnel that night is history. What it costs Silas Dunne, and what he carries out, is the story.

Based on the true events of the Big Burn and the heroism of ranger Ed Pulaski, A Country of Ash is a novel of fire and faith, guilt and mercy, and the terrible arithmetic of survival. It asks what a man owes the dead, and what he still owes the living.

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The Beautiful One

In 1912, Asim and Chione, a young Egyptian couple, are enthralled by the discovery of the Queen Nefertiti sculpture bust. Asim becomes the official photographer of the excavation, while Chione assists archaeologist Herr Borchardt as a translator. They all embark on a journey to Berlin, a city brimming with possibilities.

Chione embraces newfound social freedoms; becomes an active women’s suffrage advocate; and secures a job with a leading importer of ancient artifacts. Asim joins an emerging Expressionist art group as an assistant photographer at the prestigious Berlin Museum. In the vibrant atmosphere of Berlin, they unknowingly become entangled in an illicit trade of smuggled Egyptian artifacts and mystical amulets.

Their lives take a dramatic turn when Asim is unexpectedly arrested for murder, setting off a chain of events that leads to the kidnapping of Chione. Their friends join forces to uncover the secrets of the gang and reveal the true killer.

This captivating tale blends historical facts with a touch of the fantastical. Against the backdrop of a transforming century, Asim and Chione navigate Berlin's vibrant society while pursuing their desires, dreams, and the enduring quest for truth.

With a blend of authenticity and imagination, this narrative immerses readers in a world of romance, mystery, and adventure. It invites exploration of the power of human connection and the eternal pursuit of immortality at the turn of a new century.

An era filled with fantastic discoveries made in science, medicine, engineering, and the arts. It is an engaging amateur sleuth, romantic mystery.

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