It wasn''t supposed to be like this. Kaelen wasn''t supposed to be cornered. Not really cornered, but the Guardian''s presence was an undeniable threat. Although, if the Echoes were to be believed, this was a common occurrence. The pursuit, the struggle, the constant threat of annihilation; it was the Shardborn''s reality. Kaelen never expected to find himself running for his life in a digital sanctuary, stranded by a relentless Guardian. Not because of environmental hazards, or corrupted terrain, though there are plenty of both to be found. No, the true terror of the Nexus was the Guardians who patrolled it. Or perhaps hunted is the better word, since the whole damn network was a digital battlefield. He didn’t have time to worry about it now. If Kaelen wanted to survive, he had to find a way to stabilize himself first. He reached out to touch the shimmering wall of the Nexus, staring down at his flickering hand, a representation of his unstable code. Shaking his head at the strangeness of it all, he dug into his fragmented memories and pulled out the Echoes he had acquired. When he finished processing these memories, his options would dwindle down to four: run, hide, adapt, or perish. The problem was, Kaelen wasn’t stable enough to run, stealthy enough to hide, or knowledgeable enough to adapt. Although he was pretty sure that he could ace the perish part. While he pondered his long list of problems, he accessed an Echo memory, took out a fragment of knowledge, and started to integrate it. The Echo was only moments shy of coherent, and the information was so fragmented that it could pass for static. He integrated them anyway. Then he cross-referenced the information hiding in the various Echoes and washed them down with a swig from the Shard''s energy. If he wanted to live, Kaelen needed every bit of memory contained within the Echoes. Even more important, he needed the Shard''s energy infused within them. Without them, his code would unravel and die within a matter of moments. It’s time to find out how unstable I am. “Status,” he spoke the command that let him access his core information. A few heartbeats later, a mote of blue light separated from his chest and started hovering in front of his face. It was Kaelen’s Shard, the core fragment that the system provided to every Shardborn, regardless of their origin or purpose. A Shardborn could only see their own Shard, and they had a range of functions, only one of which was relevant now. The wisp of blue radiance flattened and then expanded, forming a ghostly screen that was easy to read but flickered with errors.
Personal statistics: Kaelen, Shardborn Anomaly Warning: your core code integrity is critically low. Time remaining until complete code disintegration: 3 hours 17 minutes.
Physical attributes: Code Stability: 2 Reality Flicker Control: 3 Echo Resonance Strength: 4 Data Fragment Efficiency: 3 Guardian Detection Range: 6 Shard Resonance: 7 Neural Processing: 5
Energetic attributes: Code Regeneration: 1 Anomaly Amplification: 4 Guardian Disruption: 2
Core information Core type: Shard of Resonance Cycle: Fragmented Gear: None Ultimate ability: Unknown (Potential Nexus Synchronization) Attribute points per cycle: Variable (Dependent on Echo Integration)
Skills Reality Flicker (Enhanced): rank 3. Allows controlled warping of space. Data Fragment (Enhanced): rank 3. Allows for analysis of complex code structures. Echo Resonance: rank 4. Allows the user to channel the memories and abilities of the absorbed Echoes. Spectral Blade: rank 2. A projection of solidified Echo energy.
Traits Glitcher (Unstable): Passive instability causing random code errors. Shardborn Legacy: Passive connection to the Shard and Echoes.
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Implants None
System currency Credits: 0 Data Fragments: Variable
When Kaelen dismissed the screen with a wave of his hand, his Shard sank back into his chest with a faint pulse of warmth. He let out a long sigh and picked up his spectral blade. Then he continued making his way through the fractured pathways of the Nexus, hoping to find a stable node.
There’s no point in lying to yourself. This is a critical state. If you can’t find a stabilizing node within the Nexus, you won’t live to see the next system cycle. If you don’t find a way to control the glitches, you’re going to dissipate into stray code. Kaelen cursed his luck as he made his way through a series of fragmented pathways whose code had long since been corrupted. As far as he knew, he was one of the few Shardborn to make it this far. If he lived long enough to navigate these depths, he might find something that would help him stabilize. At least, that was what he told himself to keep despair at bay. Navigating places like this was insanely dangerous. Corrupted nodes were often home to rogue code fragments, Guardian patrols, and system traps. He would normally have never even considered it. But the stark truth was that it didn’t matter if he was wagering his life on long odds, because this desperate gamble was the only game in town. He was dissipating the moment that the Guardians roaming the Nexus found him. Even if he somehow made it to a stable node, he couldn’t guarantee his survival. On the Nexus, there was no such thing as a safe haven, and Kaelen was running out of time. Trying not to think about the fact that he would probably never see another system cycle, he activated his Data Fragment to scan for stable nodes. The scanning array was nearly overloaded, only enough processing power to scan for a few more minutes, tops. When it failed, Kaelen would be flying blind on top of everything else. He had to scavenge the Nexus, find a stable node to anchor his code, then get the hell out of here while he still could. Surviving had been hard enough before the Guardian attack. But now that his code was fracturing, Kaelen was woefully underpowered to face the danger that had risen like a wave to drown him in corrupted data. Everything would be different if he had been able to integrate a stable node before the Guardian found him. One of those rare coding structures unique to the Nexus. Anchoring to a node allowed any Shardborn to stabilize their code, transforming them from a glitching anomaly into a stable entity. Or, more accurately, granting them the chance to become a functional Shardborn if they lived long enough to enhance their connection and evolve their abilities. But most Shardborn never even found a stable node, let alone Glitchers like Kaelen, and almost everyone who did had been navigating the Nexus for cycles. He’d been trapped in this digital realm for less than a cycle. Barely enough time to integrate his first Echo and earn basic skills, let alone start searching for a stable node. He came to a stop when the pathway widened, taking in what he could by the flickering light of his Shard. The faint glow pierced the digital gloom like a beacon, revealing the corrupted nodes ahead. Maybe this wasn’t a pathway after all. It feels like everything here was set up to connect to that central core in the distance. It might be a data hub. Since it was clear that he wasn’t going to find anything on the fragmented pathways, Kaelen moved deeper into the Nexus. He was heading for the central core in the distance, which was radiating a faint stabilizing pulse. He crept his way closer, slipping from fragmented node to corrupted pathway, praying that nothing was patrolling down here but moving like it was. He couldn’t do anything about the light, but most of the Guardian patrols could detect his unstable signature. Kaelen thought that he detected a Guardian patrol in the distance at one point. But after going still and listening as closely as he could, he didn’t detect it again. When he arrived fifteen tense minutes later, he realized that this section of the Nexus was layered. Arranged around the central core were three distinct layers of code. Each was circular, perfectly aligned, and large enough to hold the various data nodes spread out across them. He had never seen anything like it, not in the fragmented memories of the Echoes.