On a secret military base tucked in a remote desert mountain, a dangerous machine lies hidden from the American public. Known as “The Actuator”, this machine is capable of transforming entire communities into alternate realities. In theory, these often terrifying realities are reversible. The scientists in charge of this machine employ operatives called Machine Monks, who attune their minds to manifest single ideas from the realms of fantasy and science fiction. These ideas are then superimposed upon sparsely inhabited areas for testing. For a while, the enigmatic Actuator cooperates with the experiments, using dampeners to limit the affected area. But those in charge of the project eagerly anticipate exploring the full potential of this amazing device. Experiments progress to where they feed more than twenty different genre ideas simultaneously into the Actuator’s database. Meanwhile, an unknown saboteur dismantles the dampeners. The effect is catastrophic. The entire world is plunged into chaos, and familiar landscapes become a deadly patchwork of genre horrors. Overnight, the Actuator becomes the worst menace the earth has ever seen, claiming lives in staggering numbers. Can a few surviving Machine Monks band together to set things right again? It all depends on whether Red McLaren and the Monks can survive their journey through the various realms that separate them from the Actuator, where ever-present orcs, aliens, pirates, and vampires seek to destroy them. They must move quickly, as time is running out to stop the Actuator and the villain who controls it and the earth’s destiny.

The Machine Monks fight to keep control of the Actuator while enemies attack the base. As besiegers wear them down, the rest of the world struggles to adapt to the chaos left in the wake of the great change. Their only choice is to push forward and find the next key and shutdown the fantasy realm surrounding the base. When they do, Xenwyn will die. Haunted by the incalculable death toll all over the earth, Jon accepts the mission to recover the next key. Despite his injuries and as much as he hates to leave his newfound love, he refuses to let all of humanity suffer if he can fix it. Desperate to keep Xenwyn alive, Red determines to find a magical cure before Jon gets back with the key. Each time he takes her across a border, might be the end. Seeing all his friends in turmoil, Dragon Star sets out to find the saboteur. If the architect of this dark world cannot offer any means of setting things right, he will at least see consequences for the horrors he unleashed. None of them ever imagined the Actuator could still make the world even worse.

Scattered all across the world, the Machine Monks struggle to deal with the saboteur’s next big move. Isolated in a situation they’ve never experienced before, their mission to collect all the Actuator keys grows desperate. In “Eyes in the Void,” by Dan Willis, Holly Dark must convince David, a hard bitten, Noir PI, to help her rob a high security train so she can pay off an Ogre who is also her late father’s loan shark. An elven ranger finds himself in the Old West after a ritual gone awry. Having traded in his longbow for six-guns, he accepts a quest from a strange lawman in exchange for help returning to the home he loves. Matthew Cox tells us “The Ruin of Man.” When the world’s most dangerous kaiju marches on manga-inspired Japan, can Isaac Tran defeat it using only his wits and the power of anime? Find out in “Memories of a Kaiju,” by Bob Defendi. A honeymoon “Safari” (by Lorna Marie Larson) goes horribly wrong when rudely interrupted by the chaotic Actuator. Without guns, how do you fight against ancient wildlife with a mind of its own? Harry’s back from out west, but he’s returned as an orc. Now he’s trying to set up a drug deal that will make Butch rich, if it doesn’t get him killed first. “Monsters in Chicago,” by D. J. Butler. “Stranded in Camelot” by her so-called friends, Machine Monk Elizabeth Darling seeks a way home to Steampunk London—and finds an unexpected surprise in the medieval forest. Get medieval with C.M. Spivey. Tina and a group of injured teens stands between a horror and millions of innocent lives. Robert J. Defendi gives us “Big Trouble in Greater Tokyo.” Patrick Burdine gives us the continued story of orphaned teens in “The Bayou King.” While Lennie is traveling to a safe haven with her little brother through the nightmare lands of the Dead South, disaster strikes and she is forced to rely on a woman with a dark secret if she hopes to survive. James Wymore tells the next part of the ongoing saga as Brian and his crew face the saboteur face to face in a high tech war that will alter the fate of the world.