By David C. Daoust He found himself standing before the community. His voice was loud, and it carried. He knew not what he was saying- the darkness had taken him. The voice that carried over the people, was rich and warm… and full of promise. He knew, the people, were glad to hear it….
By David C. Daoust Dakota had gone her whole life without a clear picture of the Artificial Intelligence involved with the construction of the Onion. She knew about it, she knew it existed, she did not know the extent of its reach- or really that it held a consciousness. Even with the knowledge, now,…
By David C. Daoust Dakota was not a careless person. She was not a cold, ice queen. Admittedly, through her life, she had not had a whole lot of success with relationships. Mainly because she was a bit smarter than most- okay a lot smarter, than just about everybody, but that couldn’t be helped….
By David C. Daoust Major was finally coming to terms with this strange new reality. Really, everyone was. Once the ‘Arklight Accord’ had been devised— all conflict, throughout the city-station, came to an end. The ‘true scions of Ergos’ had stopped the Wraiths from attacking, long enough, for the other parties involved to suss…
By David C. Daoust Suzanne Otomo was on a Holostage of her own- flipping through the available feeds. Each, thanks to the small camera built into her agents’ armor. Her agents rarely knew when, exactly, she was going to be present– which she liked, kept her employees on their toes. They were less likely…
By David C. Daoust The grim faces of the armored soldiers, gave Clover pause. He was pretty sure he was in the right place- despite the fact he did not see the woman he sought. Instead he only witnessed the two guards before him, barking at his sudden appearance as he passed through the…
By David C. Daoust Suzanne Otomo moved swiftly through the many corridors that led from Dakota’s lab, all the way to the central command center of the Red Faction ship. It was methodically designed, unlike any ship she had seen anywhere else in the Onion. It was well organized, and efficient, to a degree…
By David C. Daoust Dakota had a pretty solid hunch that Suzanne was having a hard time comprehending what she was saying. Dakota, however, was not kidding when she told Suzanne she may actually be mad. Having someone there, to bounce her ideas off, was as important to Dakota, as it was to Suzanne…
By David C. Daoust Suzanne found herself back in the lab, back in one of those conversations. By ‘one of those’, she means a conversation that really only ever makes sense to Dakota. The good doctor had just spent the past half hour telling Suzanne, how she has interacted with the past. Mind boggling…
By David C. Daoust Major Sims had to assume that these children in space suits, really weren’t terribly experienced at locking people up. And really, he felt like this was a good thing. Said a lot about someone, whether or not they were good at stripping someone of their personal liberties. Generally, if they…
By David C. Daoust Life, post the inescapable prison, has been a dreary dreamless nightmare. Ivan’s dream was his life. Always had been. The dream of a perfect world, orchestrated by the perfect institutions, raised from pure hope, by the infallible will of the Red Faction. In the past, he could see it, all—…
By David C. Daoust It’s like being in an abyss. So much information, so many ways to go. No way to know which is wrong, which is right. Ultimately, Clover should be okay with the idea, as an Agent of Ergos- flitting between the Black Beyond and the White Space that is their home…
By David C. Daoust Major wasn’t going to lie– when he’d decided to just chuck it all, and grab some food, he had no idea just how many of these flying children there were. If he had to guess, make an estimation, that estimation would be- An army, there was an army. They were,…
By David C. Daoust Clover moved with purpose. When it came to the Wards of Ergos, ‘moving with purpose’ was not truly a thing one could tell- just by looking (considering they flew everywhere they went). One may note his legs were a little more tense than they would normally be; bent a bit…
By David C. Daoust Danielle Donaghy’s life was not without sudden revelations. Not only the kind that led one to a new path, a better life, or maybe open one to new areas of understanding. But also, the kind one secretly hoped, no one ever learns, they thought such situations may work in some other…
By David C. Daoust The woman was a frail little thing, gaunt in the cheek, with stick-like arms. Armis Clemente, while witnessing this very sight daily, could not help but feel shocked. Wrapped in her arms was an infant, one that she bounced lightly, swaying back and forth. The child was not crying, though the…
By David C. Daoust Following ‘flying’ beings, through a multi-tiered city, was proving far more trying than Major could have guessed. In point of fact, he had lost the Wraiths almost immediately. All he was going by now, was the general direction they were headed before they’d vanished from sight. All he could do was…
By David C. Daoust Suzanne Otomo pushed her face down into the bunched-up pillow as she shifted her body around into a new position on the long mattress. She’d managed to secure herself the most comfortable mattress she could find. And why shouldn’t she? Without her, the ‘bots’ would’ve drained days ago, their leaders would…
By David C. Daoust Clover was sprawled out over a long table. His face pressed against the solid surface as an endless array of data-tablets spread from one end to the other. Mismatched and unordered, many threatened to spill off onto the floor… to join those that already had. The young Ward was out, he’d…
By David C. Daoust Danielle shifted nervously in her boots. She stood, alone, on one of the long walkways that stretched through the Galliant Hangars of Luxxon. A place she has been spending more and more of her time. Luxxon was her hometown, she was born and raised here. Nothing truly rang of home since…
By David C. Daoust The city-stations of the Onion were teeming with life. Skyscrapers reigned paramount above, wrapped in walkways that varied from level to level, connecting bridges from structure to structure, like a great cubic grid that faded off in the distance; lost in a haze of atmospheric distortion. Every walkway packed with people,…
By David C. Daoust Dakota’s stomach rumbled. She’d been scouting through the city-station far longer than she had intended, found herself regretting that she told Vincent she’d eat later. She could be munching on something right then and there– if she hadn’t been so absorbed with her breakthrough earlier. Fact was, she really wasn’t too…
By David C. Daoust The nanites were working as a network, taking in every aspect of the city, and feeding it through to her holostage, Thus the hologram surrounding her, was formed of the millions of nanites, spread throughout the city-station, all feeding her data. The cityscape moved around her as she spun the small,…
By David C. Daoust It was like a long tendril, stretching through the room. She knew what they were, clouds of nanites, unperceivable to anyone else. Dakota, however, was in the body of her solid-light doppelganger, which allowed her to detect the nanites that flowed around her. Plunging into the microscopic worlds could only take…
By David C. Daoust Clover spent more nights in the library than he ever had before. Knee deep in the Histories of Mars, he finally found his answer. He was sure of it. Impenetrable shields! The very thing the Venusborn used to hold the Galliants at bay. The idea took root in his mind, and…
By David C. Daoust Danielle Donaghy popped off the transport with a hop in her step- happy to be back home at long last. The suitcase dragged along behind her, as her rustic boots clumped against the hard steel floor. Chillier than she’d imagined, she pulled her rough brown jacket tightly around her as she…
By David C. Daoust Major could hardly see; his vision was blurred. He had just dropped to the ground, pain still coursed from his back. He felt grating beneath him which put him in mind of a catwalk stretched beneath him. He reached up, off to the side, groped in search of something to lift…
By David C. Daoust It was as though the molecules suddenly flared, pulsing with an unknown eerie light; Kind of a pea green, if Dakota had to guess. The surrounding negative space- a dull purple. Sparking green lightning shot throughout at steady intervals. Colors aside, she couldn’t really see, exactly, what it was she was…
Spin wheel spin! ::sigh:: ty, DD By David C. Daoust Clover could not help but feel things were not going as planned. Not only thanks to the large ‘army’ of Giants, currently on the move within the Ward’s home city, but also, Ergos had gone black; none of the population had received any kind of…
By David C. Daoust It was a dull hum, a constant droning noise, ever present in the sleeping hours of the Wards small portion of the city-station. This noise is what let Clover know everything was okay. Never once did it occur to him to figure out what it was. It was just there, a…
By David C. Daoust He was born a ‘Ward of Ergos’. A Ward’s life, when compared to what was promised, was but a fleeting glimpse. Thirteen years to grow, thirteen years for their minds to develop. Thirteen years until their Ascension– To the day they joined with Ergos for good- And joined the One Mind…
By David C. Daoust Mari Haul could not help but wonder how long a person could wander a seemingly endless series of corridors, without going completely bonkers. She figured she may be just the person to ask, at some point. That is, if she could do anything but jibber-jabber incoherently once she had a definitive…
By David C. Daoust The hologram was extensive. In fact, it filled much of the lab. Intricate in detail, perfectly proportioned, every aspect seemed totally more important than the next. All of which told Colin Vice, (get ready for it) a whole lot of nothing! “What is this supposed to be?” Colin finally asked as…
By David C. Daoust The flames licked and curled around his great metal form as the mechanical dragon broke atmo. The heat that enveloped it was immense, caused the metal of its carapace to glow a warm red. A welcome change, however, to the cold nothing of space. It curled its elaborate solid-light wings tightly…
By David C. Daoust Maile Purloin made short work of actually finding the server room; moving inconspicuously through buildings wasn’t noth’n she’d ever had problems with. Yet, factoring in the handy sign that read ‘Arachnoid server room’, pointing to the door… this was especially helpful at making it such short work. When she spotted the…
By David C. Daoust The idea was sound, even if Ratchet wasn’t actually able to implement it himself. Since they could not seem to free the Crawler from the Drone that high-jacked it, then maybe they could just take control of the drone—and get the Sandcrawler moving that way. It made sense in his head,…
By David C. Daoust Ratchet had not seen hide nor hair of Craiden, Vincent, or his Aunt Mari. With all that had happened after the drone raid, no one had the chance to sit down and discuss it. It’s been one hit after the next; tensions between the two civilizations, Sadie’s beating, and Ratchet’s arrest…
By David C. Daoust The Sandcrawler was at a dead stop. Hamlin sighed. This meant his quest was at a dead stop as well. None of this was really what he’d imagined. He was supposed to pick up a woman from the Ark-temple. How exactly did Noreen expect him to accomplish this in a three…
By David C. Daoust ‘Wilford Lauren’– a bot with a last name. It came with the human visage, or rather the human marriage… which may or may not be part of the human visage. Wilford was the only bot he knew with a last name, the only one with a wife, at that. Olivia Hammer…
By David C. Daoust It’s been a very confusing day for Ratchet Haul. A day full of chaos and worry, being dragged through the desert by a force unknown- at least, for most of the experience, it was a force unknown. Ratchet, now, had a vague idea who was in control of the massive machine…
By David C. Daoust Harper didn’t know how she got there. Sand in her toes, powdering her bare legs… How’d she get in the middle of the desert in nothing but her nightgown? Harper was agitated, she was worried, she wasn’t sure why. ‘Her mother was going to kill her,’ that thought sat there in…
By David C. Daoust Colin Vice followed closely as the gangly scientist walked briskly through the showroom. Theobald Gray began to chat as he led the way. “Games… I used to love games. Got me through school—through University… You know they have a way about them, to exercise the mind?” Theo looked Colin straight…
By David C. Daoust Maile Purloin didn’t know what the hell that was– two grown men acting like school children scared to speak their mind. She just hoped her guess was right and it really was her presence that was holding the gangly scientist from speaking. One hand on the wall to balance her,…
By David C. Daoust Theobald Gray himself, at long last. Colin Vice recognized the man immediately, despite having never met him before in his life. This was, of course, thanks to his investigation into the origins of the Battle Drones. -Thanks to that small media clipping of this very man, albeit much younger, standing…
By David C. Daoust New Runnymede was the planet ‘Aertholm’s’ only moon. This moon was famous for several reasons- it’s landless composition, only the first. This watery wonder was the single most important moon in the entire Onion. This was mainly thanks to its vast oceans; the Onion’s first great oceans throughout this fledgling…
By David C. Daoust Her stride was that of a woman on a stroll. Granted, it was a bit late at night for a stroll through the city, but she wasn’t exactly visiting the lower districts. This particular walk was across the higher fair, a long way away from the crime ridden slums she…
By David C. Daoust Charles the First felt fairly useless in the passenger seat of the boxy brown vehicle that the tall balding lawman of Grady, Sheriff Dunn, was navigating through the onslaught of chaos that was their current situation. The small vehicle had spun about so much that Charles was no longer sure…
By David C. Daoust Chance had been playing too long. He’d been sitting in that same chair for hours, doing nothing but gorging, smoking, and holding down a tiny ‘forward’ button. He really hadn’t realized this yet. All he knew- was that he was not having fun anymore. Everyone was talking at once- he…
By David C. Daoust “Wha…?”Maile wasn’t sure what just happened. Her Mecha was destroyed though. A timer was ticking down, with a little notice in the center of the screen, informing her the mecha had been ‘obliterated’. “Yeah thanks, ‘You have been obliterated!’” she read aloud in a snarky voice, “Like I can’t see…
By David C. Daoust Sheriff Montgomery Dunn really had not spent very much time outside of the walls of Grady. Policing the small port town was fairly time consuming- very few issues led him into the desert, certainly not this far into the desert. Monty was in pursuit of a ‘stolen’ Sandcrawler, accompanied by…
By David C. Daoust “What the heck is the number for whoever I’m supposed to call about this?” Maile asked no one at all as she flew her Spidermecha around the massive rover beneath her. The swarm of mechas filled the bright blue sky as the dunes of sand stretched to the horizon. It…
By David C. Daoust ‘Learn something new every day’, Hugo thought as he read through the scans that projected before his eyes. It was a holographic depiction of Harper’s skull, with small indicators highlighting what was wrong. Small squares of text appeared with a brief description of what was going on within the indicated…
By David C. Daoust The old man’s legs were much longer than Hamlin’s. The fiery little bot had to run just to keep up. He felt a bit foolish in his three foot frame. ‘Might even gripe, if he was not fully aware why Wilford was in such a hurry; there was no way…
By David C. Daoust Maile Purloin was known to the public as the writer of the ‘Domnic Expansion’, a series of books that were behind the popular television series of the same name. She spent most of her weekends making public appearances, book signings, and what not– all to promote a series of books,…
By David C. Daoust Ratchet’s arm took the brunt of the fall. Sliding across the floor was almost fun, if it wasn’t for the massive armored drone leg that abruptly stopped him. He could feel the bump form on his head as Mr. Lauren helped him to his feet. The old man was…
By David C. Daoust Margo had witnessed the strange exchange, as the two young sisters tried to convince someone in their game, that what he was doing in the Hub, was affecting them in the real world. The runaway bot didn’t have all the information. From what she could tell, this guy was…
By David C. Daoust The sandcrawler was solidly built. Built to last, one might say. Harper found the terminal, her head just bounced off, especially built to last. Everything went black for a moment. The pain shot through her skull, and it took her another moment to get her bearings. She lay…
By David C. Daoust Olivia’s life, as a professional Brute Ball Player, was full of highs and lows. Often, she was ridiculed for things a lesser player would not be looked at twice for. She never allowed it to take her down, to drain her, or make her question herself. She knew…
By David C. Daoust It’s not just about work in the Trade Consortium. It’s about creating work; creating jobs. If you can hire someone to do your job, you should hire that person to do that job. If you can hire a person, to hire people, you should hire that person to hire people. If…
By David C. Daoust The smoke curled slowly from Chance’s mouth as he relaxed in his chair. After a moment he slowly evacuated the rest from his lungs. The long plume of thick smoke formed into a cloud over head. This was definitely Chance’s day. He sat there chill, controller still in hand, as…
By David C. Daoust The nice thing about Holomechs– you could go wherever you happened to have one stashed. Colin Vice had one such device stashed on New Runnymede; the entertainment epicenter of the Solar System, reportedly, the very same epicenter that housed ‘Theo-BOLD Games’ entire system server. Colin proved unable to gain entry into…
Flight of Fancy By David C. Daoust Willian Fossick was known as the go-to detective for the unsolvable mysteries. He was extensively known throughout the Onion for his daring action, quick agile mind, and infallible ability to get to the crux of the mystery at hand. He worked hand in hand with constables throughout…
By David C. Daoust Margo was taken aback! She went from gleefully hovering through the cargo hold, finally able to move as intended; to suddenly having the giant vehicle of a roving home, she and the others were on, taken on a wild ride through the rubble of Grady, and then tearing out into…
By David C. Daoust As the small group made their way through the Sand Crawlers corridors, Hamlin was a bit at odds at being ignored– his freaking head was on fire! Yet everyone’s attention seemed to be fixated on the ancient Ark Device Hamlin was standing on. The old couple especially. They almost appeared…
((So, last week, you may have noticed, my site was down. 🙁 It was a tense couple of days, but everything seems to be okay now. Apparently, my host server was down for ’emergency maintenance’, I never got the whole story. ty,DD )) By David C. Daoust Ratchet took the steps two at a…
By David C. Daoust Nonsense– Old Charles Haul Senior knew it was expected of him, well most the time he knew it was expected of him. So, when the chance arose… why not give it to them? That old memory about his jacket sprang to mind because it was one of the first times…
(((I actually made a change to last weeks post. I felt like I made Monty’s force field really overpowered. I don’t know, sometimes I throw in these vague one-liners, that seem like a good idea at the time, but then I got to think how that’s going to effect everything else, technology wise. Yeah, considering…
By David C. Daoust Charles the First was out of breath. The Brain Stealer was nowhere in sight. He had no idea where the little bugger had gotten off to. He’d raced about, dodging through rubble and peering through crevices. The bulbous device and the strange little ‘fiery guy’ did not leave a trace….
Good news- we made it through the busy season at work! Peak’s over! Bad news- the computer I use to make my art, is still down. May not be up for a while. (Amazon screwed up my order- Rather than receiving my new part on the ninth, as promised, I now have to wait ’til…
By David C. Daoust Arachnoid- the very latest offering, to the vast amount of gamers that populated the Onion and in Chance’s Opinion– the best game ever. He’d spent weeks on the single player mode, hammering through the story line, spending every waking moment trying to level his in-game skills. He missed classes, even skipped…
By David C. Daoust Harper Blue was supposed to be doing her chores. The huge metal beast, her family called home, seemed to be in endless disarray, especially now that the entire moon was in upheaval. None of the Blues had much chance to straighten up in the sand crawler, not since the legion of…
By David C. Daoust Colin Vice sat comfortably in his private chambers, high up in the refurbished Crucible known as Halfhull. Named by the many workers that once lived and worked here, a name which called into question the quality of the space-stations most important feature, its hull. The brief chat with Chance was somewhat…
By David C. Daoust Mayday moved quickly, rushing through the crumbling structures that surrounded him. Bombs could be heard, exploding around him, shaking the very ground, kicking up dust and gravel from the previously mentioned crumbling structures. His heavily armored legs propelled him through the battle zone, the thick carapace that covered his torso was…
By David C. Daoust Skipping out on Hugo Lions was one of the hardest things Mayday had ever done. Not just figuratively worrisome or bothersome; It was literally hard— trying to leave behind his form was no easy task. He figured Hugo would want to continue on the show as is though, maybe replace the…
By David C. Daoust Long drawn out squeals of stringed instruments sounded out over the low toned bass notes and sudden blaring horns, all kept in time with the steady beat of innumerous drums– music filled the air behind the rough roaring vocals of the main attraction. This was the heyday of Hugo Lions. The…
By David C. Daoust Arguing- That was all Raymond Haul had been doing for the past few days. It seemed as though every time he got people to see his rather askew point of view, someone else posed a new threat to the planned secession. Raymond, most days, could not believe the words that were…
By David C. Daoust Mari’s options were limited. She had finally given up on sending a communiqué out to her family. She pushed herself away from the terminal with a huff. Even with all her hacking abilities she did not stand a chance against the AI, Noreen. Considering she was in the central temple of…
By David C. Daoust At one time, there were two successful detergent companies within the Trade Consortium. One was ‘Dewie’, known for its wide range of ‘dew’ scented detergents. The other was called ‘O-factor’, for that pleasing olfactory experience. For years, these two companies were in steep competition with each other. They were in a…
aWLoN!prt.3 starts here! By David C. Daoust Elma Parks found herself lounging backstage in the small dressing room of the Patty Martins Show- ‘the Daily Slice of the Onion’. She didn’t know how long she was going to be stuck waiting. Patty was known to run on and on with guests, so those waiting for…