READ NOVEL ONLINE Blood and Steel C26: Upgrades
Chapter 26: Upgrades
Ripley’s Notes on the Twelve Features available to Shard Adapters.
There are twelve features, everyone knows that, it’s why I like BUGs so much compared to SIMs. There’s way less randomness involved, all you have is what you wanted and the Shardware you take to enhance it. You can plan ten steps ahead if you’re smart enough. I like to think I’m plenty smart.
Twelve Features, and I can encompass a third of them, I never thought it would be possible — but here I am.
Jailbreak: Analyses Shardware and Warpcode limitations, quickly giving complete access through brute-force manipulation of Warpcode. (The one you want for quick hacking.)
Overclock: Forcefully increases Warp Energy consumption of the Adapter, promoting extremely high output at the risk of integrity. (The one you want for being strong as fuck.)
Integration: Allows quick and deeper integration of External Shardware into the Nervous System. (The one you want if you want to instantly take control of an external system… maybe I should make an Exosuit one day?)
Analyze: Provides the ability to measure and interpret various qualities in both physical and digital observations. (The one you want if you need to tell if someone is lying, or to check what fancy Shardware they have.)
Dataweaving: Increases understanding of raw Warpcode Manipulation, providing increased defense and offense in regards to digitized maneuvers. (The one for complicated hacks or making DCs and DSs.)
Energized: Provides greater control over internal Warp Energy usage, allowing unique modifications of cybernetics. (The one that let’s you control your energy efficiency.)
Technician: Aids the modification and creation of Shard-based technology. (The one I fucking needed, thank the Founders.)
Psyche: Further binds the Nervous System and Warpcode together, synchronizing them completely to allow alterations to mentality. (The one that… I guess my Implant felt I needed.)
Accommodation: Increases Shardware resilience within the nervous system, to allow for stronger and more numerous Shardware. (The one Diamante probably has with the amount of Shardware in his body.)
Database: Expands and integrates the Neuroframe Database with the Nervous System, reinforcing memory and digestion of data. (The one I’m hoping to get, I am so tired of memorizing all this shit.)
Network: Expands the Neuroframe convergence to allow nervous system extension through Warpcode systems. (The one that will make sure you don’t see grass for a week.)
Sustain: Modifies life-sustaining capability of the nervous system and further improves Shardware stability. (The one my mom needs.)
7:15 PM
My mom’s measuring tape snapped close as we did a tenth set of measurements and performed fifty more calculations ranging from resistance to torque. We hardly had any of the fancy technology in big Shard Op’ clinics, mostly scanners of different types, vital monitoring, automatic calibrators.
Infact, all we really had was this measuring tape…
I contacted some of the shops upstairs, we would be getting a considerable order tomorrow using the funds I’d gotten from my skin donation.
12:54 PM
June 11th
I tiptoed around the scattered mess of machinery around the floor, it seemed like every hour our already limited floor space was diminishing and I half-thought that we should transfer over to the container where the EnSkel was located, but then remembered that it wasn’t exactly powered.
So I put in an order for sleeping bags and a Warp Converter.
2:09 PM
Waddling around on one leg with barely an inch of free floor was hardly my favored mode of transport, even the couch was littered with papers sprawled with drawings and equations. I had gone early in the day to bring over the metallic framework Enskel’s left leg to begin masking it over the titanium bone I’d bought from Skeleton. It wasn’t as good as the Enskel’s, but I thought I’d experiment and see what I could manage on my own before completely adopting my grandfather’s work. A simple test on the Endoskeleton’s parameters told me that it required a fairy strong Capacitance, and I’d only know mine once I finished Converging — for all I knew, it’s leg might just weigh me down.
As I began tearing open the shell and piecing together joints and stitched Neurowiring between the shell and leg, I thanked the Founders that the MAL only consumed my pinky and ring finger, if it took away the magnetic screwdriver in my index or the sewing needle in my middle, I would have been fucked.
3:17 PM
Okay, so Livewire could most definitely hold my bodyweight. Infact, it was strong enough that releasing my hold over it could yank my couch off the floor when I tested it out with the Bronze Warp Generator… but if I tried it with Gold…
I threw the thought out of my head, afraid the neighbors in the apartment above wouldn’t like a piece of furniture launching from the floor beneath them… but still…
That thought was interesting.
7:18 PM
You know what, I’d taken the training I’d gotten from the coffin for granted. It had certainly altered the feeling of Shardware Operating, I was no longer dealing in the cold hard truths of metal but now delving into a more imagined war of conflicting currents and resistances.
It was sort of like what Mirage had said. It was your perception of Warpcode that counted, then why was I imagining myself as a general leading pawns of gold to their certain death?
2:14 AM
June 12th
As the new first prototype leg shaped into view, I whistled at the marvel I’d created. It took some inspiration from the Engrams — blueprints too complicated for me to confidently replicate right now even with Procedure Repetition. They were mostly just schematics of specialized civilian Shardware modified to their maximum output, but they were outdated by a few decades.
Technician V.0.06 has updated to Technician V.0.07
Effect: Increased understanding of synergistic components in Shardware.
Reading them gave me an understanding of my grandfather, as though piece by piece his history was appearing in front of my vision. He worked with what he had, what the people around him had. Often scraps but in them he could find diamonds, piecing together an amazing contraption the likes the world had never seen.
11:54 AM
I’d returned to the container, flexing my new leg and taking my sweet time to truly push its limits. It was nothing unique, no scything blades would come purring out from it nor any rocket propelled kicks.
Not that I needed to when I pushed off from it, I’d thought the wearable thing was special but when integrated into my body directly it proved to house the strength of a horse. Let’s just say that my shoulder hurt from how hard I slammed into the wall.
Internal Link Established: Custom-made Lower Leg
Integrity: Iron IV
Energy: Iron I
Capacity: Iron II
Grade: Iron I
Description: A custom-made lower leg made by Ripley Donovick connected to the hamstrings and quadriceps, as well as to an outer shell forged by Alberich Gravas running over the skin of the upper leg. Using Nano-Carbon tendon reinforcements and thin strands of Livewire, it boasts considerable durability and strength.
3:23 PM
I’d found myself doing something I didn’t really expect, I was redoing the Coffin’s trial. Both in reverse and back to normal, it was easier now that the connected generator wasn’t resisting my control and there were no more electrical shocks.
So I’d needed to make it harder for myself in a way I was truly regretting. This time, anytime I found myself relying on Procedure Repetition, I forced myself to pause and consider why I was subconsciously performing those actions. What was it that my conscious brain was lacking in?
The Datacube’s Engrams helped a ton, it had terabytes of information about every single piece of tech used to make this thing. Infact, it was essentially a guidebook dictating how he’d come up with this specific variant of the Endo-Skeleton which seemed to focus on survivability and maintaining muscle tone for high-strength augmentation and durability, hence the membranous films for coating over flesh.
Still, my head hurt when I’d realized he had come up with multiple iterations and variants of the EnSkel as if one wasn’t bad enough. He hadn’t even labeled which one was the actual version I was working on, which I supposed worked to only make me more knowledgeable.
Oh well… at least it was working.
Technician V.0.07 has updated to Technician V.0.08
Effect: Increased understanding of Shardware stability mechanisms.
June 13th
The day had been a repeat of yesterday. Half the day spent on the coffin, the other half on tinkering with Livewire, my leg and my claws. Everytime I pried a plate apart, I could find some flaw or irregularity I’d let slip by in my last attempt.
It was insufferable, and Twilight turned that around in saying that I’m the one who was insufferable by focusing on the quote-unquote tiniest errors of my work. I had a 99% compatibility with my Implant, an almost perfect number. And you know what, that was what I wanted. Perfection.
June 14th
The schematics of my claw’s next iteration had finally pieced in a way I was satisfied with. And the setup I’d built in the container wasn’t half bad. An Iron Grade Warp Generator fed into another Iron Grade Warp Converter, the difference being that one consumed shards to break their material down and release their Energy and the other used said Energy to produce electricity.
Alternatively, I tried hooking myself into the converter. The single pulse of gold just drained three thousand from my bank-account as it burst into flame and three hours of my inner store of it.
Right. I had high potency but low quantity, it was a miracle I could even work for hours with it, which only made me more curious about how powerful it would become once my rivers of forced usage became trickles of subconcious thought.
Other than that, I’d managed a new benchmark on my coffin troubles. Now rearranging the entire mechanism in around three minutes without Procedure Repetition.
It was time to do it without Breakdown.
“You know you’re a masochist, right.” Twilight spoke into her palm.
I laid my eyes only on the coffin. “The word you’re looking for is narcissist.”
“No…” Twilight scrunched her eyes. “I- I’m pretty sure it’s not? But it might fit either way. You’ve got a real ego now.”
“I’m Gold, aren’t I?” I snarked, maybe a little too haughty with how I felt. “Might as well act like it.”
“You’re insufferable.” She rasped, floating over to me.
“Insufferably endearing.” I began to tear steel open, my blood pumping with excitement at every step of progress I was making.
Twilight clicked her tongue. “Yup. Narcissist works.”
June 15th
I was glad to be able to have company in Twilight even if she could be meddlesome at times. To say I was taken for surprise when the often chiding voice turned cheery was an understatement.
“You can do it, Ripley! Show that metal whose the boss, make it scream ‘uncle’!” Daylight had returned… and yeah, no questioning it. I didn’t want to know how Mirage had switched them out, the thought of her sneaking into the container was bad enough, but if she could get into my house without me or my mother knowing then-
How easily could she breach through my DataShield? Skeleton offered me quality, and he had, but just how good of a Delver was Mirage?
Yeah, I won’t question it for the sake of my own sanity.
Psyche V.1.05 has updated to V.1.06
Effect: Reduced anxiety to surrounding danger.
That had only increased my anxiety, but whatever… I was making good progress on both the coffin and my Shardware. My understanding and control over Livewire had improved by leaps and bounds, too.
While I couldn’t snake it around like an actual piece of living wire, I’d discovered the reason for its — at times violent — bursts. It was an almost super-conductor, which meant that the flow of electrical energy was… fast in layman’s terms. Fast enough that the ensuing magnetic fields could cause it to expand apart rapidly if I unraveled its molecular structure with Warp Energy.
And so I was not at all surprised to find that I could coil it around copper to turn it into an electromagnet. A, uh, powerful one, let’s keep it at that if my bent wrench had something to say about that. There were many applications for it, my mother assured me, but it was better to take things slowly.
But I’d already taken apart the gun I got from Little Requiem and was experimenting with Livewire applications in the launch mechanisms for about… let’s say two days?
Energized V.1.00 has updated V.1.01
Effect: Increased control when projecting Warp Energy into an Warp Material.
Technician V.0.08 has updated to V.0.09
Effect: Increased understanding of electromagnetic applications in Shardware.
June 16th
Livewire… here are the facts.
In the neutral state as a cube, its dimensions are exactly 8 centimeters across all sides giving it a volume of 512 cubic cm, and it weighed approximately 40 grams. This would turn out to be wrong, as according to my grandfather’s notes it’s mass was quite a bit more.
Things got a little wonky when electricity was run through it, causing it to create a magnetic force that lowered it’s actual weight. As my grandfather had been kind enough to calculate, it had a density of around 2,300 kg per cubic meter, making it lighter than Yttrium Steel, with the value ranging up or down depending on the grade of Warp Energy used to condense it.
Expanding it with my Gold was enough for me to throw all calculations out the window, it’s airy fluff could float on water yet was all but invulnerable to the close-proximity lasers of my Shard Op’ Claw. It could stretch like a rubber band if my Gold was freely flowing through it, but the second I settled it into place it was as rigid as… well, I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Tensile strength wise, it was unparalleled, I wasn’t sure if anything could snap the wires I made from it. Everything about it told me it would be the perfect material to integrate into musculature, but the finesse and precision needed to handle that were… currently uncalculable.
I was pretty damned sure that any bones below Silver-Grade would snap too, so that was thrown back into the drawing board.
In fact, reversing the flow of Gold almost acted like a contraction mechanism not too dissimilar to how muscles flexed. It would just fall back into the last shape I set it in, whether it was contracted or expanded. The applications were daunting to say the least, and I hadn’t even scratched the tip of what was sure to be a very large iceberg.
June 17th
The dinner with Hoaqin had been delayed, his Implant had sent him into the same state of faltering consciousness I had been in. Something I felt bad for being relieved off, I’d been on a roll using the Preservation Matrix to keep my steam running, even managing to get up to seventy pushups a set.
And yes, I’d learned what a set in working out meant thanks to Daylight.
On the other hand, I also began testing out the Combat protocol Skeleton gave me, installing it now that my Frame was slightly more efficient from Mirage’s improvements to it. The installed set of maneuvers didn’t make me an expert in any particular field, but Daylight’s enthusiasm about how my punch was ‘fantastic’ delighted me. Even though that might have just been her lying.
Activating it in my sleep put me through a strange trance-like state where I vaguely remembered a boxing ring and featureless opponents. The effects of nocturnal simulations were debatable, they never once brought me a Feature Update, but it did leave a certain confidence when I practiced the movements in my spare time.
Then Daylight had a request. “Oh let me get into the ring with you!”
She turned up a simulation, and promptly beat my ass. Her dress fluttering like rays of sunlight through mist and her digital fists imprinting a searing pain where they met my face.
Moving on, I’d also come to learn why I gained updates in Technician slower even before it reconfigured to V.1.00. Simply put, I was already good at it, so when it came to general Shardware modification and installation, there wasn’t much for me at this difficulty for me to adapt to…
Other than using my left hand.
I’d always been right-handed and installed the Claw on my right arm for the last three months, so when I disengaged the arm and began the process of modifying it in preparation I was… clumsy. My left hand shook like a glove had clamored over my nerves to conspire against my success when Technician came as my savior.
Technician V.0.09 has updated to V.0.10
Effect: Promotes Ambidextrous usage of both arms in Shardware Operation.
The only other thing I hadn’t adapted to was experimental Shardware designed by the world’s brightest. The five Claw Tips were dangerously well-put together, each holding enough functionality within to be compared to a full Operating Claw in the civilian stores. Wickedly long, sharp as knives and curving down like a talon… it could easily be mistaken for Combat Shardware by the police.
So, with consolation from both my mother and Daylight, I set to limiting the tips’ capabilities.
Technician V.0.10 has updated to V.1.00
Effect: Establishing Feature Protocol, Reverse Engineering. This Protocol significantly improves the rate at which the Adapter can extract information about Shardware creation and modification by breaking it down.
I froze, if that meant what I thought it meant then…
I turned my attention from the tips onto something far more precious to me. My claw; my mother’s claw; and formerly my grandfather’s claw.
My family legacy…
I set to tearing it apart.
June 18th
To extract design information from the deconstruction of machinery, it was everything I needed and more. That was the basis of Reverse Engineering. Knowledge flooded like a downstream river into an estuary with every carefully detached wire or click of metal out of place, I was the thief of forbidden knowledge.
Of civilian Shardware… and my own. I was stealing away the blueprints of my own arm, scavenging up secrets even though I had worked on it plenty of times. The Engrams were useful, but there was something different between reading another’s details about the claw and coming to my own conclusions. I’d made a few improvements here and there throughout the months, but it was never my own creation unlike my leg. But even that was built upon the instructions of my grandfather. I was determined to build upon his legacy, not recreate it.
As I slotted five joints into place, I hadn’t just reformed the arm, I’d improved upon it. From breaking down one finger, I’d learned how to make it, then by breaking down all of them, it became easier for me to see the next steps to build the two I was missing.
There was a cycle here, Breakdown told me how to dismantle without fatally damaging it. Then I rebuilt it with the gained knowledge, maybe making a mistake here or there that I would recognize in a blink when I tore it down once more. Then Procedure Repetition would guide my left hand into sticking the pieces together with the aided knowledge of Reverse Engineering.
And you know, this was the first time I’d truly taken advantage of the visual aid updated in my lenses. I could see the next steps, a holographic framework of the skeletal and ‘muscular’ components stemming out from what was present in reality.
As for the coffin? It had become my treasure trove once more, the hurdles of knowledge where I’d stumbled upon were cleaved in to opportunities with each intrusion, I siphoned off its inner workings into my memory to gain a deep understanding of each exact piece and their purpose.
In fact, I was beginning to believe that if I could afford all these pieces then I could build the Endoskeleton from scratch. The perfect combination of Features and Links in my arm synergized in seconds, maybe a shred of understanding dawning on me of just how out of the ordinary a Pseudo-Silver was.
And about that… I still had no clue how my grandfather did it. To implant a Link Engram I’d have to extract code from an Implant that had that originating Feature or use my own Feature to self-establish it. And with the one unknown Iron BUG I’d gotten from Little Requiem, it wasn’t looking likely I’d be able to do that just yet. That required delving into Dataweaving, something I was sure I wouldn’t get unless I upgraded my Gold into Titanium.
Unless… or until? I snickered to myself, feeling very proud of who I was.
June 25th
Three weeks had come and gone since I’d met the MAL, and my life so far this week consisted of staring down the same concrete wall of the container until there was no more I could learn from my claw or the coffin. Instead, I’d put my sights on all the other Shard Op’ claws on the market, if I wanted the best then I’d need to learn from my competitors.
Syntec. Imperium. Mazhyr. Haithama and NeoCore.
The last would be nearly impossible to get unless I went to Mr. Skeleton, but all the rest? I had money to spare at the stores in my megabuilding.
50,000 Shardyne fell from my bank account like a waterfall, and the last two days had seen me shattering each claw into pieces before remodeling them together. The newest in the markets of Standard Grade and the higher quality components of Iron Grade each fell to the floor like snow, carpeting the already littered floor with inches of steel.
There was one Old World story I knew about, Frankenstein, or more precisely… Frankenstein’s monster. The act of piecing together conflicting bits of matter together under a synonymous hold, except my arm wouldn’t be a raging beast with the intellect of a child.
No, I would do what Dr. Frankenstein couldn’t. Old schematics tore and new ones drew over digital mind-maps, my mother grew worried of my absence from home and the commitment to my project, while the switching Daylight and Twilight who each held their own views about the admittedly — fine, yeah I was a bit masochistic thanks to the Preservation Matrix… but-
Bones of Yttrium Steel sculpted up. A fine meshwork of Carbon-nanotube muscles stitched over them. Shards fed glowing veins of Iron across their thick chords of Neurowiring. Solid gray metal-plating swerved around each bulging mountain of metallic musculature to compact it into a sleeker model. Until five claws pierced the light reflecting off them.
Wickedly sharp, but not curved anymore, they were straight and ended like razor-blades. Turns out being curved isn’t the best choice if you want to launch them into someone else’s Shardware, that option would work maybe for grappling and clawing but with Gold I had luxuries few else could afford.
I jousted my claw forward as though I was poking someone’s eyes, laughing a smooth current of both electrical and Warp Energy navigated through my spine, through the brachial plexus into my shoulder and spiking down into my arm like a winding serpent with fangs that combined with my own sharp claws.
They leaped out as one combined force of metallic venom, the hand-crafted launch mechanism I’d managed being more than sufficient. My hand flinched as twin nails of index and ring shot out like harpoons into the coffin and pierced into it through several inches. A thick chord of orange-lit rope connected at the highest joint of each finger, the Gold strengthened wires tight and more solid than steel.
The coffin stirred as threads of my Warp Energy dove through the Livewire like a pack of scrappers down on a careless corp, slashing away at the seams of Shardware. The formation shook violently, bursting open into a complete endo-skeleton so quickly that it briefly hopped off the floor.
Then I specified instructions to alter it’s own structure — joints loosened as muscles sagged and tendons decoupled. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the skeleton crumbled to the floor, proof that I’d conquered it. Not a single inch of my body felt sorry at the crumbled jaw bone or fractured bones bending in odd angles. After all, if I ever wanted it again… I could just put it back together.
Well, except the eyes. I was admittedly pretty shit at altering optics. Besides, those had Feature Links, proven by the Shardware Scanner I’d bought.
But the skeleton was just an empty shell used to hide away the real goods of information and Livewire, sure, it had promise and ingenuity behind it’s creation but it never was anything more than just pieces of Civilian Shardware smashed together under an artisan’s guile to match Military grade stuff.
But what about Combat Shardware? What if you were to integrate power like that into the Enskel? Piecing together a mass creation to topple the works thousands of corporate engineers had been involved in. It would be difficult, I knew, expensive and time-consuming.
But it would pay back millions. It wouldn’t just be perfect.
It would be mine.
————
I’d wondered why I never received another Feature at the 75% mark, maybe I was wrong about Features arriving every 25%? Maybe I was developing too quickly for my Implant to decide? But deep within me, I figured the real reason was because it had to be worth the wait.
I’d received many more updates in Energized and Technician, all vastly improving my control over Warp Energy and the speed at which I could break apart and recreate Shardware — even allowing me to calculate how two different pieces could me put together into a new whole. Psyche on the other hand had just received one update, an improvement that allowed me to stress my Preservation Matrix for longer periods of time.
That all paled to what I saw when I reached 90% Convergence.
Recalibrating…
You have unlocked the Unique Feature: Data Mimicry V.0.00
Data Mimicry: Allows the Adapter to read the Warpcode within a BUG or another Adapter’s Neuroframe, temporarily allowing them to simulate one of the Implant's Features among other effects.
Data Mimicry V.0.00 has updated to V.0.01
Effect: Ability to read Implant Warpcode.
Daylight stared, wide-eyed and jaw-dropped. “Ripley, I know you keep on hearing this but… What the fuck!”
Tier 0: Convergence [90%]
Compatibility: 99%
Integrity: NA
Energy: NA
Capacity: NA
Grade: Gold 0
Tendency: NA
Features:
[Gold] Psyche v.1.07 [Preservation Matrix]
[Gold] Energized v.1.04 [Warp Sink]
[Gold] Technician v.1.03 [Reverse Engineering]
[Gold] Data Mimicry v.0.01
Linked Shardware (Showing Grade and Feature Links):-
[Iron I] M.M Neuroframe: Neural Matrix [Psyche]
[Iron VIII] (Pseudo-Silver)] Right Shard-Op Claw (Ripley's Version): Procedure Repetition [Database]; Warp Strands [Energized]; Breakdown [Technician]
[Iron I] Left Leg (Ripley's version)
[Standard] SynTec Oculus: Cyclops 2 Lens