After Descent, I wanted to write two more novels immediately.
Scope:
The story of how exactly the civil war mentioned in Descent started. The following will be spoilers, because I”m sure eventually it will get written. But in case I die, I’m going to write the general story thought down here. Since it’s all completed history in my head, and it entertains me, I figure it deserves being jotted down, at least.
A seasoned sniper retired and spent a month getting into things he never had time for before. One of which being, the internet. He learned a lot about crazy shit people believe around the world, and more importantly to him, the country. In the military he had dealt with racism, being black, but when it came to it everybody was brothers. He had no clue how deep and insane it ran elsewhere.
A mix of these things he learned only fueled an ongoing discomfort with civilian life. The transition to total freedom and no longer being a support or assassination tool left him feeling like he was an action movie forever on pause. Living with static filled memories of who he was while staggering around the frail coating of civilization was leaving him emptied out.
Talking about this to connections in the military, he was introduced to the underground civilization that has a role in Descent. The first thing he thought during his introduction to them was how he could use the nearly instant transportation system running worldwide. Shortly after he learned that all human minds were open to those he was now getting to know.
More connections were made, but this time by those below with some others in the governments above. Information was shared about his fantasies about killing a lot of these “curses on america” he had found throughout the country.
He is given the chance to plan an assault on these people, killing one after another across the country, looking like they were all being taken out in a coordinated attack. The whole time, the reality being one guy was jumping around the country quickly, knocking off several a night.
The appearance of the government spending a lot of resources to coordinate attacks, killing people planning on fighting the government, as well as white supremacist and other separatist movements, is the ultimate spark of the revolution.
At this point the sniper has a field day picking off the revolutionaries during battles. He is called below as the nuclear war happens, then takes part in ongoing rescue efforts, locating and picking up people who didn’t make it below. One rescue attempt of which, his helicopter crashes and he’s deserted on the surface for long enough to be captured by the factions rising in power post-war. Amateurs in using torture to extract information, they accidentally kill him while trying to learn where people were being evacuated to.
Rise
This story is about one of the groups who take part in the revolution from the perspective of one of the lower soldiers. It starts with seeing the fellow who becomes a soldier graduating school, and learning about his twisted perspectives. It follows him through learning about conspiracy theories that are then confirmed by people across the country being murdered by sniper attacks.
He ends up joining a militia that trains him for several weeks before other militias jave already risen up. Their militia launch various assaults on government facilities before the nuclear war happens. He and a friend are the only of his group who survive the nuclear war.
He becomes a leader of one of the groups fighting for power after the war thanks to one of the few living who knows of a location of arms and tons of rations. As things settle and he becomes an unrivaled power, helicopters move in and as people try to figure out what is going on, he takes a well aimed sniper shot to the head, ending the book (guess who the sniper is.)
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I have a lot less of Rise written and fleshed out than I have for Scope. But I know it all in my head, it’s just not as exciting to me as Scope.