By David C. Daoust Harper came in fast, she let loose with a series of missiles that fired in quick succession from the upper portion of her spider. Meanwhile she was full-on drilling pulsar fire into targets directly in front of her with her main guns… Their spider-drones seemed to be armed to the very…
By David C. Daoust Elijah still had more than a half-dozen spider-drones under his control, each flew, in sync, through the cargo bay like a tightly unified squadron— might be impressive if they were each controlled by a different person. This was not the case. The Limited Ark’s consciousness was spread throughout the group….
By David C. Daoust The cavernous cargo hold of the Dirty Damsel had never seen the level of chaos that now rocked its innards. Dozens of battle drones tore through– blasting anything with a pulse. Infiltrating further still into the surrounding corridors– weapons’ fire blazing! Clearly in the hopes of clearing out any that lived…
By David C. Daoust Harper knew she did not need the turbo mode, not for such a short jaunt. She also knew that Ratchet would not know how to use it, which, ultimately, was the only reason she’d engaged it. The arachnid-like machine’s abdomen dropped down to reveal a set of rockets that thrust her…
By David C. Daoust Ratchet was finally back under a visor! It wasn’t the same one he had before, this one pinched a bit against his forehead. He was not about to gripe– someone was liable to use it as an excuse to exclude him all over again. He ignored the pinch and just…
By David C. Daoust It was not that Olivia did not hear the young girl’s instruction; it was just that the much older woman saw a better way. Granted, it put Olivia in a position that overextended her into enemy lines; she was quick, she knew what she could do. Olivia saw the win…
By David C. Daoust Ratchet, at the very least, found himself excused from the Splicer grind that had taken up so very much of his time but days before. This was largely thanks to the fact that Harper managed to get their skill level twice as high, in half of the amount of time….
By David C. Daoust Harper Blue was up early, brushing her teeth like a good little gamer. After the night before’s crazy visitation from the rather cryptic glowing woman, the two sisters had called it a night. That is, once the woman had vanished and they sat perfectly still for a good fifteen minutes,…
By David C. Daoust Mech, Mecha, and Drone— Each came in varying shapes and sizes. Drones, of course, were devices piloted from afar, with no occupants; either by humans or AI. Mechs, which were extremely rare and expensive, were piloted from a jacked-in mind. Where a Mecha, was piloted by an on-board human, maybe a…
By David C. Daoust “…so, then there are those cute little Jerboa,” The small girl continued on with her list, little to no care if anyone was listening. She held her fingers only a couple inches apart as she described, “little mousey-mice with kangaroo legs, that want to eat up all the dates and stuff…
By David C. Daoust Ratchet was grouchy. He was not happy to see Harper at the moment. –And– he was a bit too grouchy to care who cared. He felt he was a little too busy to deal with all that at the moment. They were currently lost in the desert. The lot of them…
By David C. Daoust The sands of Twin Crown- a veritable sea of burning hot granules that engulphed the moon in its entirety. Oasis were far and few between, the largest of which was the construction ground for the Ark run and operated Starport. Starports, themselves, were common throughout all of the solar system. Each…
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 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 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 “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 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 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 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 Ratchet was back within the hold of the Blue family Sand Crawler. The series of events that now made up his life weighed heavily into his very being- forming a pit. The pit in his chest was like a gaping wound, seeping worry into the rest of him. As always, Ratchet…
By David C. Daoust ‘Fuck Yeah, I’m gunna Sing!’ was the name of Blue Sands Theatre House’s premier play on Twin Crown. It was a tale of a young ‘Desert Girl’ who lived the life of a nomad on an unnamed reclusive moon, a young woman who had always dreamed of becoming an actress and…
By David C. Daoust “I can’t believe you’re a little girl too!” Dicey’s muffled voice said from within Margo- The little girl still comfortably hanging out within the massive bucket that someone had decided to use to house Margo’s Data-Sphere. “We have so much in common!” “Yep, once my friend Colin shows up with my…