Hello everyone, and welcome to the Act One Summary of “The Dominant Ones.” This is designed to set the stage for the next act and give people who have not read in a while a catch-up, as well as to bring new people up to speed. We’ve included some art from the chapters. As well as some promotional art pieces and concepts relevant to the story.
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Now then, let’s get into the summary
Before the story: .The Last War
The Last War was an event that was sparked by dissent and upheaval among the population. The small spark is what started a series of events around the world that eventually led to a full military conflict in the vein of World War 3.
Technology was a key weapon in the war; it provided mechanized walking tanks dubbed hell marchers. They were used as tanks and front-line weapons as well as for cleanup operations.
Along with modern weapons, another theater of war took place in cyberspace. Countries utilized cyber attuned cyberattacks to take out city grids, and at any moment, you could lose power and it set people,, on edge.
The last war reached its peak in an event known as “The Red Rain” due to the amount of blood that spilled that night. Nuclear missiles were unleashed, governments collapsed, and borders and sizes of countries changed in this event. The internet as we know it today was destroyed, and the world for the first time in years was back to an analogue life.
The United States suffered as much as others, maybe a bit more. Los Angeles was devastated, along with several other big cities. With the internet destroyed, communication became sparse for a time until the fallout managed to lift enough that broadcasts could begin again. New York, which was not hit by nuclear missiles, was blunged by other factors, taking the city that never sleeps into a hibernation as a result.
As the country rebuilt, it gained a new nickname: The Daisy Chain, due to the links established along the chain from Washington, D.C. To California. The cities that survived became points on the chain that represent the country today. Some cities outside the chain do survive, but the Wild West mentality rules these lands, and they are considered more outposts outside the chain than actual cities. The government continues to try to expand the size of the chain to this day. Though many people have rejected the concept of the country, feeling it better to resort to being on their own or establishing their own towns instead of rejoining the chain.
For more information on this event, check the HoloNet Archive link here
Welcome to the Machine Part 1: two girls, one fate…
Maria Esponsa is living in a city on the outskirts of the chain; her life is not easy, and she changes where she stays nightly, not wanting to go back into a chain orphanage. She is attending school, trying to better herself and make it into college. One day she meets a woman by the name of Miss Silver, a woman of intimidating personality, and offered a free ride to a college with no questions, despite her misgivings. She agrees to follow the woman to a car and is offered a drink that puts her to sleep as Silver comments to an unknown party that they have achieved their goal.
Meanwhile, in Kokomo, Indiana. Melanie Medina is struggling with her life as well, but in a different way. She feels held back and pretending to believe in something she has long lost faith in. Her life is one of small-town monotony. Wanting more, she is trying to find a way out of here and to a bigger city like Indianapolis. She meets a young man and strikes up a conversation, eventually leading to a date. As she is lost in her excitement and joy, she is suddenly taken away in the middle of the night by an unknown man.
Melanie Medina Maria later wakes up in a dormitory at what looks to be a school, confused she goes to Miss Silver, who also introduces her to Miss Gold, whom she has a faint memory of seeing. When they explain to her that she simply could not handle her drink, she does not think too much of it. She goes to the classes and starts to feel a bit strange, and slowly more obedient, even beginning to accept a change to her name: 19-84…Espinosa
Maria Esponosa as she is placed into The School and inside the school Melanie also has arrived in the same school she resists the changes trying to cling to her own identity, suddenly the room around her faded and she finds herself in a room full of people in chairs with visors and other devices, Silver looks down at her and using the visor she had puts her into a trance she can’t resist and makes her walk to another room in the facility dubbed the break room. Here she is placed in more intense situations designed to break her. The result is that after forty-eight hours, Melanie has fully accepted her fate of being known as Servant 19-58
Maria meanwhile continues to resist, but also slowly begins to slip under control after a passionate meeting with 19-58. Maria begins to accept the programing, accepting the identity 19-84.
Under the supervision of Silver, revealed to be one of the original Servant prototypes, the girls are slowly molded and changed. They then proceed to graduate a process where their bodies are transformed, and final touches are done to their programming to change them completely into Servants. They are soon placed into storage by Dr. Healey
Melanie and Maria change into 19-58 and 19-84 Additional information on Servants and processing can be found here
Also, notes from Dr. Healey have been permitted for additional information on the nineteenth generation of Servants
Welcome to the machine Part 2: Crossroads for the world
Thomas Walker arrives at the Walker building in Los Angeles with his friend and security guard Tony McCoy. After dodging media, he has a meeting with the vice president of the company, Emmett Bettis, and Tamsin Jones.
Thomas learns his father is dying from complications of a surgery; he is not given much time, and Thomas decides to go to the headquarters in Chicago to spend time with him as well as begin preparations for him to assume leadership of the Walker Company
Thomas Walker, the future head of The Walker Company Unknown to the world at large, at the same time Richard Reign, the father of Stephen Reign, has also been battling an illness, but says nothing to anyone beyond his two Servants. Though word in the company is softly spoken about the eventual rise of Stephen to leadership.
Richard Reign, the CEO of ReignOrg and one of the founders of the Colony of New York As Thomas spends time with his father as well as grappling with his future, his ex-girlfriend Carrie Danger arrives to twist the knife a little further in. Much to the annoyance of Tam and Tony.
Word travels back to Richard of the news, and he begins to plant seeds to set up a way of getting the younger Walker to become a pawn in his games, thinking this will be one of the last things he’ll be able to see through.
Thomas’s father eventually passes away, leaving him rocked and comforted by his friends; however, grieving takes a toll on him, and he begins to have a breakdown in his home, unable to walk into the master bedroom of his estate and being taken by a panic attack. Tam arrives, and after an intense admission of not feeling ready and being scared finally begins to confront his problems. He can eventually fall asleep and begin the process of mourning.
Thomas coming to terms with recent events… And with this, you are now caught up. Act Two launches on July 10th! The prologue is already available and can be read here.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy Act Two; it’s gonna be a ride.
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