Dark Forces: The Cartel Wars

Season 1

Season 2

### Supporting Characters

Chris Cohen, Gallus Walker, Matthew Tennant, Mara Walker, Richard Montoya, El Chapo Guzman, Checo Romero,

## Publication Order

### Next

Dark Forces: Task Force 212

Dark Forces: The Cartel War is a prequel set 18 years before the start of Dark Forces focusing on events before and during the Cartel Wars, ending at the 2013 assassination attempt on Azrael which led to him faking his death.

The book has a TV-14 rating for Violence and Language.

https://www.wattpad.com/story/266147375-dark-forces-the-cartel-war

## Plot

Set 18 years before Dark Forces. A C.I.A. agent by the name of John Cohen leads a group of agents into Mexico to capture Narco-Terrorist's Alejandro DeSantos and Joaquin Guzman before war breaks out.

## Agents

### John Cohen

Age - 28. A marine turned C.I.A. agent. John was born in Hertfordshire, England before moving to the states at the age of 14. His father is Jewish and his mother is British. John lived a relatively comfortable life in England, before his parents moved to the U.S. At the age of 18, he enlisted in the Marine Corps where he would spend the next 8 years until joining the C.I.A at the age of 26. John served during the Gulf War and would develop a sort of tough and hardened personality during his time in the marines.

### Chris Cardenas

Age - 27. Chris is John's partner and was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Chris is a little more light hearted than John, not having a hardened personality and is still new to the agency.

### Gallus Walker

Age - 26. Not much is known about Gallus' childhood or where he was born as he never talks about it. Gallus is pretty new having only been a C.I.A. agent for 2 years. He is married to Mara Walker and is the father of Abraham Walker from Dark Forces.

### Richard Montoya

Age - 18. Fresh out of high school, Richard is part of the explorers program and under the tutelage of Gallus. He was born in Deacon City, Illinois.

### Mara Walker

Age - 26. Like Gallus, not much is known about Mara's past. She joined at the same time Gallus did and is secretive about her past. She is married to Gallus Walker and is the mother of Abraham Walker.

## Antagonists

### Alejandro DeSantos

Age - 24. Being younger, Alejandro is not as calculating or powerful as he is during the events of Dark Forces due to not having been fullu engulfed by the Dark Side of the Force or the Azrael personality. After the death of his dad at he hands of the C.I.A, Alejandro has taken over his dad's cartel and looks to restore the cartel to its former infamy.

### Checo Romero

Age - 28. Alejandro's right hand man. Serving under Carlos DeSantos and now Alejandro, Checo is Alejandro's most trusted ally, often planning out attacks and strategies together.

### Joaquin Guzman

Age - 41. Leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. Joined the Grand Cartel Syndicate in 1992. Joaquin is a drug lord who escaped from the Federal Center for Social Rehabilitation in 1996 with the help of Carlos DeSantos. 2 months after Carlos' death, El Chapo has a tense relationship with Alejandro with the two not seeing eye to eye very often.

### Pacho Herrera

Age - 47. Once co-leader of the Cali Cartel along side Don Chepe Santacruz, Pacho is now under the DeSantos cartel as a drug trafficker after being liberated from Palmira Prison in 1997 by Carlos DeSantos, preventing his would be death the following year in 1998.

## Development

Dark Forces: The Cartel War started development in late June of 2021. The series is different from the main Dark Force series since The Cartel War is serialized compared to the arc based story structure in Dark Forces. The first season has 8 chapters, and has a "go-home" arc at the end of the season making it have the same story structure as the original Dark Forces when it released back in 2017. This was intentional as the point was to have the two stories complement and rhyme with each other. Multiple chapters of the first season of The Cartel War, were stuck in development hell during the airing of the season leading to long gaps in between chapters and hiatuses. Examples being a two month gap between chapter's 2, and3, as well 5, and 6, a five month gap between chapters 4 and 5 and a seven month gap between chapters 7 and 8, making season one run for 1 year and 10 months. Season 1 was meant to release new chapters weekly but that was abandoned due to writers block and a lack of motivation at points.

## Trivia

* Season 1 had a scrapped episode of Gallus and Mara during the final days on The Clone Wars on the Jedi Temple but was scrapped due to pacing.
* Season 1 was plagued with multiple instances of writer's block.
* Dark Forces: The Cartel War is tonally different from the main Dark Force series as it's more grounded and a bit more gritty and realistic.
* Dark Forces: The Cartel War almost didn't happen, it was first devised in early 2021 but was shot down after not wanting a prequel.
* Dark Forces: The Cartel War got the green light after the author watched Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
* The end of Dark Forces: The Cartel War is set to be in 2013 shortly after the assassination attempt of Alejandro which allowed him to fake his death, but the series could go on until The Fall of The Dark Force in late 2016.
* Dark Forces: The Cartel War is inspired by, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 1 & 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019, Narcos, Better Call Saul, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War