Dakka (Worm AU/ Alt Power)

[Hydra_sv]

This is Major Chambers citation.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of her life above and beyond the call of duty: Major Chambers distinguished herself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against a terrorist force composed of several hostile Parahumans at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, on 10 June 2001. Major Chambers, while serving as Counter Intelligence Officer, J2, USSTRATCOM, was forced to respond as acting commander against unknown Master/Stranger effects. As the fight developed, Major Chambers bartered herself for release of civilian hostages and allowed herself to be captured by the terrorist group. Major Chambers was subjected to more than three days of torture. During the protracted engagement, she herself acquired Parahuman abilities, after which she immediately dispatched her captors and led a rescue operation of more than 65 fellow service members. Showing incredible valor in the face of adversity, Major Chambers once again allowed herself to be captured by terrorist Parahuman forces in order to guarantee the escape of all other captives. Though the terrorists were able to escape from the quarantine surrounding Offutt Air Force Base, Major Chambers' actions led directly to their defeat: Through delirium and continued torture, Major Chambers fed the Parahuman group false intelligence, leading to their eventual last stand within Badlands National Park, South Dakota. After more than six days of continued torture, Major Chambers was able to distract her captors and escape their encampment. Despite her many injuries, she contacted friendly forces and directed them in an immediate counterattack upon the enemy position, ending the terrorist group. Her personal bravery in the face of deadly enemy pressure and malfeasance was significant in saving the lives of fellow service members at enormous risk to herself. Major Chambers conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of her life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon herself and the U.S. Armed Forces.

Medal of Honor Citation, Major Cossette Chambers, USAF

Click to shrink...

 

[Hydra_sv]

So you may have seen the first chapter of my fic titled Drift. While that is obviously on hiatus, I wanted to talk about Drift and how it actually fits next to Dakka.

The premise of Dakka was originally part of a group of four separate fics that were all part of one over plot. I quickly realized how overly ambitious that was for a first project that I had promised myself to complete, so I picked from the four and went with the version of Taylor that would be the most pleasurable to write about. Thus Dakka was born, and many changes happened before I ever pushed out Chapter 1, and as you can see from the Chapter 1 that is hiding in the apocrypha threadmarks, I made a lot of naive mistakes in my first try.

This was how I met my beta reader, as he liked what I was doing enough to dive in, and you'll see he gets credit from Chapter 4 onward. As an aside this is where you'll see me more and more try and tackle difficult scenes rather than skip over them... cough cough time skip at fic start. Oops.
But back to the original premise.

The original idea was basically inspired by fan fiction and its community in a general sense, of taking a moment and writing whole fics based off slightly altered decisions. This centered around what Taylor does with the gun in these fics:

Tries to commit suicide but gets interrupted. (Dakka)
Succeeds at committing suicide. (Uplift) (NSFW)
Gets rid of gun but does not engage with her father. (Drift)
Gets rid of gun BY engaging with her father. (Echo)

Dakka is Tinker/Thinker Taylor. Drift is Breaker Taylor. Echo is a Stranger Taylor. Uplift is a Thinker Danny.

Its Uplift that ties it all together. This Danny gets an absolutely broken thinker power, in the realm of Dragon levels. He decides he's going to find a way to get his daughter back. His desire cripples his ability to use that power for basically anything but selfish reasons, in the end though eventually the fight with Scion draws near and Danny realizes he needs help, so he makes a device that literally pulls Taylor's from the "what-ifs." They then have a Taylor pow wow and kick Scion's ass.

Obviously that's not happening anymore. Dakka has a totally unrelated plot, so there's no spoilers here, no Drift spoilers either, but they obviously both pulled from the same AU elements. I'm glad I decided to focus on this fic instead of trying the big project with hindsight. I've learned so much since I started, and I can see ways in which my writing has improved, especially in the stage before they hit editing. But a very small part of me wonders what if I had gone for it and tried this idea for real.

Still, I was thinking about the journey that Dakka has taken since I started this project almost two years ago and was laughing a bit at myself for how naive I was in trying such a huge project as a first fic.

But hey, almost two years now, and hopefully it won't take another two years to finish it, but if it does, its been a fun ride. For all the people who've stuck around and are still reading, thanks, it makes it more fun to have an audience.