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 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 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 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 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…
By David C. Daoust “…so, I’m happy you feel like talking, Dakota,” Suzanne began sharply, partially to try and snap Dakota back into reality, partially at the sheer frustration of listening to nonsense for the past half hour, “but how am I supposed to make sense of any of that?” “Hmm?” Dakota asked as she…
By David C. Daoust Dakota was no longer able to trust her mind. At least, that’s what her mind told her. Before, while her body resided within that pod, technology fused her to an entire population of minds; fused all of them into a greater mind. A mind that could answer Dakota’s questions before she…
By David C. Daoust She sat in the rafters, above the mess below. She was crouched in the shadows; the pit in her stomach, that grumbled her hunger, could only be matched by the void in her chest. The void was formed of the loss of everyone she knew, the loss of Dakota. Suzanne Otomo…
By David C. Daoust “You still won’t see,” the hollowed empty voice filled Dakota’s mind, an intrusive thought into her studies. “I have made it clear– I do not wish to see,” she shot back shortly, then clarified, “Not with your eyes.” “And yet how long have you spent in study… searching,” The Grandoxa posed…
>>> Warning to any new readers- reading this page out of order, may spoil some of the earlier posts! Just fyi. ty,DD
By David C. Daoust The four men fell away, lost, but not forgotten; they had left their mark, each in turn. Civilization had enlightenment after enlightenment. Yet by the end of the twentieth century, the third man’s followers were building pyramids, echoing ‘never again’, and the fourth’s- were hording wealth. This carried true through the…
By David C. Daoust Dakota Sun found herself within an expanse, stolen away from her world, left to flounder. She was not alone. She was fused to a whole, to a greater mind made more powerful for all its parts. It was new and different; it was the ‘Grandoxa’. How long she had been there-…
By David C. Daoust “Rescue me? Rescue me from what?” Dakota asked in response to Ivan’s sudden declaration that they were there to rescue her. The Commissar stood in the middle of a stark white lab, Dr.Sun completely surrounded by his small squad of assault-bots that had infiltrated the Consortium Cruiser. The mass of snake-like…
By David C. Daoust Dakota watched the monitors in disbelief, Consortium troopers were running every which way. She watched as dozens of Starfighters launched into the black abyss in answer to the Reds astral assault. She planted a hand to her forehead, a hand that then dropped down to her gaping mouth, as the Red…
By David C. Daoust Dakota had pulled the panicked boy out of the oversized spacesuit. He was remarkably light. She bounced him around a bit and patted his back ‘til he calmed down. She told him he would be okay, or at least that’s what she tried to tell him. The language was easier to…
By David C. Daoust Dakota Sun found herself back in her natural environment- the stark white walls of the lab. Dakota could not help but imagine these rooms were all made on the same assembly line somewhere in the Onion. All to be shipped out to random places she may visit. This was an idea…
By David C. Daoust Dakota could tell as soon as Suzanne entered the small cluster of rooms, that made up Dakota’s chambers, that it was the actual woman and not her holographic projection that Dakota had become accustomed to witnessing the past few days. The biggest giveaway was the strong smell of familiar perfume that…
By David C. Daoust Sims could not help but feel sorry for the man, Craiden,(he’d picked up his name on the evacuation of the Barracks Ship) not only had he and his soldiers been the ones to lock the man up on the Red Faction’s ship in the first place, they were also the ones…
<<<<Ug! You know, I swore I wouldn’t just casually throw out political jargon without being real clear about each piece, but then last week I was like blah, blah, comie, blah, blah, fascist…It came out in a jumble, lets see if I can straighten it out without making a bigger mess. (1.) Dakota called the…
By David C. Daoust “Why are those even a thing?” Dakota suddenly exclaimed, completely oblivious to how anyone else felt on the matter. The four-armed metal snake monsters flickering charge, sent chills down her spine as the sound of their metallic bodies scraped and sparked across the metal floors of the Red Faction’s ship. The…
By David C. Daoust One of the first things the Ark Ships manipulated, when they seized control of humanity, was humanities need to separate and divide. Humans divided themselves into families, into communities, into nations, and ultimately, into separate races. As machines, the Ark Ships could never understand these concepts, not truly. All the AI’s…
By David C. Daoust Major stood gripping his assault rifle, back to the wall, as the bullet fire ricocheted from the far wall in front of him. The small group of invading ‘Seaguard agents’ had managed to make it back down to where they had locked up the strange man that had accompanied the Armored…
By David C. Daoust The Royal Alliance was formed in resistance to the Royal Vanguard’s unwillingness to allow the people to secede, to find their own ways of life throughout the Onion. To disperse from the Ark Ships, as they saw fit, to live the lives they wanted, not the lives the Royals of the…
By David C. Daoust Suzanne sat perfectly still, eyes squeezed shut, her brow furrowed as her fingers pinched the arch of her nose. She sat behind her desk, having just finished yet another conference with whatever random executive she had to deal with. She’d already put it out of her mind. The headaches were more…
By David C. Daoust Vincent had witnessed firsthand just how indestructible the body he currently inhabited was, having personally launched the small stunt-bot through the air, smashed it through brick walls, and pummeled it into the asphalt, all in an attempt to get the small bot to leave him be. Now it was his turn…
By David C. Daoust The room changed suddenly. ‘Changed’ was the only way Dakota could explain the difference. It was the same white lab she’d been working in for the past two days, the same white lab that matched every other lab she’d ever worked in, though when the men burst into the room, firing…
By David C. Daoust Colin and Craiden both had given up on the cell door. They had no choice but to sit and wait. Considering the men with the guns had left them in their wake, they were probably the safest people on the ship at the moment. Colin slumped back on one of the…
By David C. Daoust Vincent awoke in a rather precarious, prone, position with a blond haired woman standing over him, her hands a little closer to his face than he would like. “Ah-HAH,” the woman said with a smile as she had just witnessed the bot spring back to life, “That was pretty tricky! ‘Looks…
For those who do not know who these characters are, their story starts here: A Whole Lot of Nothing! << First < Prev Next > Last >> aWLoN! prt.1 Black Noon aWLoN! prt.2 Swordbearer aWLoN! prt.3 Chalice Squire’s End Bard Song Halloween Special Origins Efreet’s Solo Raid! Meteor Zero
By David C. Daoust Dakota could only be surprised when she recognized the War Hero and ex-Royal, Mari Swan, unconscious on the stretcher the small group of medics had suddenly rushed into the med bay. While Dakota never truly enjoyed history, Mari had stood out amongst her studies as truly unique, even if she was…
<< So here’s the thing, I feel that I failed to express last week, that while the Communist Red Faction now ‘owned’ the moon, their ideals had not yet taken hold over the population of Grady. Obviously, as it was the constant corporate invasion that pissed off the first wavers to begin with. I had…
By David C. Daoust “Can anyone even pretend to be surprised?” Dakota continued on her latest rant, in the latest lab she found herself working in, “I mean come on, of course the sand people attacked…” “Sand people?” one of the lab assistants asked, “Sounds like some crazy monsters in a sci-fi movie…” “Ha! yeah!”…
By David C. Daoust This was not the first time Suzanne and Dakota had gotten into a fight about something, nor was it the first time one of them had told the other what they really thought. In fact, this was usually how it went, the one who was in the wrong got an ear…
By David C. Daoust Margo was used to being ignored, she got used to it a long time ago. Despite the fact she wasn’t actually a twelve year old, she was often treated as such. Sometimes in a good way, other times, not so much. She assumed it was better than being treated as an…
By David C. Daoust Life was weird sometimes, Colin guessed as the private security clumped him in with the small blond and tiny bot. Colin tried to convince the large group of men that had taken them all into custody, that he was just an innocent bystander, a passerby, in the wrong place at the…
<<Just a reminder, this is before Dakota’s broadcast! ty,DD>> By David C. Daoust Dakota didn’t really have a plan, not since she ditched her security detail on Dori 5 and hired a manned cargo ship to bring her to Twin Crown. She fully expected to find an Otomo Corp lab on this moon, only to…
By David C. Daoust Margo was equally surprised at what had just transpired as Colin clearly was, especially since they had just had the same thing happen to them, in their inn across town. Margo thought something was funny about the way they had to clear out all quiet like, though it was in her…
<<<<So, I fully intended to come back to Colin with the Drone attack in full swing… but then I had an idea! So I’m putting it off ‘til everything is lined up. It may well be confusing, though I hope not horribly confusing! 😛 ty, DD >>>> By David C. Daoust Colin had spent most…
By David C. Daoust Dakota was having the most interesting couple of weeks. Not only had she spent most of the first week within a corporate star-cruiser, to reach Dori 5, she’d spent the rest of that week within a lab studying mucus. Black nasty mucus, she’d really preferred to never witness, let alone study…
By David C. Daoust “All I’m saying, is things went much smoother when we were all packed in the Ark Ships…” Dr. Hen said as he swapped out another tray of black mucus from under his microscope. “How could you possibly know that?” One of the lab assistants suddenly blurted out in response to the…
By David C. Daoust “More government do-hockey!” came the boisterous female voice in response to the news report that had just played over the radio as the lift ascended the thousand or more floors that made up the city station of Dori 5. “If you ask me, you can blame the Royal Alliance for the…
By David C. Daoust Forgetting all about his recent problems, all his woes and worries, including the sickness that currently plagued not only his lungs, but most of his remaining family and crew, and despite all the recent deaths, Craiden walked up the ramp with a hop in his step. Entering the Crawler’s hold, he…