Wardimension Neptunia Book 1:
Warthorn in a war-torn world.
Chapter 1: The awakening.
Previously: IF, a young hunter in search of treasures from eras past, decided to go explore the ruins of the Libra Corporation, a major, if not the main vector of progress in the era of bliss. After having found a secret room in the derelict facility, she fell across the container tank holding the body of Warthorn two, the second succesful template born from the Warthorn project, which prompted the automated systems, still active to test her for compatibility. The test was successful and Warthorn slowly began to awake for the first time.
"Heh, cute."
Such were the words of Idea Factory upon seeing what the tank contained, as it was now empty of that purple-pink sludge obcuring a more precise view of its truly interesting content. The girl she saw, for that was what the warthorn body type corresponded to, was of a slender build, slightly taller than her, with long lilac purple hair reaching the small of her back. Her face was youthful, unmarred by any kind of tattoo or other face paint, giving it an air on innocence and sweetness. Upon both arms and legs, on the forearm and shins more precisely, finely chiseled golden spiral bands could be seen as their inner circuitry came online, cycling through the few blueprints that were not fully corrupted.
Her attire, as it slowly came to form around her body, was made of different layers of materials specifically chosen, or modified to ensure maximum efficiency, as far as IF could guess.
The innermost layer, which seem to have been thought up with comfort and flexibility in mind, was a body glove made of psychically reactive metals, mostly silver, if the glow radiating from the girl in front of her was anything to go by, encased in black carbon nanofibers.
The second, bulkier layer, was made of crystal-like compounds, most likely share-treated metals, in order to change some of their mechanical and chemical properties, set as plates on the back, upper arms and shins, glowing with unused energy, ready to serve its purpose.
The last, and lightest layer of the battle garb, rested on the forearm, combining with with NEPArm armlets as specialized weapon mounts, both for weapon storage/generation, and siege mounting.
As she suddenly opened her eyes, IF could now see their colour: A beautiful shade of purple, just a bit darker than her hair. She then took her first step... and promptly fell on her face on the while tile floor, due to her not realizing she was on a pedestal of sorts, causing the hunter to snort at the absudity of the situation.
"Hmm... Where... Am I? What is this place?"
Such were the first words the young-looking girl said after regaining her bearing from her fall from her tank.
"Welcome to the galaxy, Warthorn Two. In case you are wondering, you are currently in the main facility of the Libra Corporation, orbiting the planet [HellSal]. I am THETA, the artificial intelligence in charge of looking after you in the event of a catastropthic failure of the main buildings, regardless of the cause of failure."
'It's the same voice from before.' Thought the brunette in the room, still waiting for the right moment to introduce herself.
"THETA? You... You called me 'Warthorn Two' just now, but this name... It feels like I should know what it means, but at the same time, it seems so meaningless... What is a warthorn? What does it means to be one?"
"A warthorn is a synthetic being made for both peace-keeping and war. Able to be either a diplomat, a warlord or the paragon of justice of the world they are tasked to defend. They are, forever and always, the last bulwark of a planet against terror, and with their armies of helpers, they are the mighty fang that strikes down any opposition. That was a short, but accurate description of what a warthorn is, taken from the first page of the report 'Project Warthorn'.
Now, as to how the warthorn is made, and how you were made, there are differences... Fundamental differences. A warthorn unit is made from raw materials, not dissimilar to how mechanoids units from the past were made. They may be sentient and sapient, but they can only be a vessel for shares, for they have no soul to translate faith into shares... You, on the other hand, were made through a crude, yet sophisticated process: by gathering high-ranking psychics, tearing their souls and minds out of their bodies before smashing them together, destroying them in the process. The resulting soul-paste is then molded into soul keys, locked in place in various parts of your body, which is of a higher grade than that of a warthorn, even if made the same way."
"But... what is my goal? What am I to do, now that I'm... born? Active?"
"Anything you want. Were it be 500 years ago, your sole purpose would've been to protect the sharing confederation of races, but it is no longer existent, due to a cataclysm. As I do not know about the galaxy at large, it may be better to ask your handler about this information."
"My handler?"
"The one who gave her blood to awaken you. She's currently waiting for you to engage her."
IF knew that it was her cue. That AI apparently didn't know about anything pertaining to the Great Loss, nor did it know anything about the different faith species that lived a scant half of millennium ago.
"Well Warthorn, allow me to introduce myself. I am Idea Factory, but just call me IF. I am a hunter, a gust of stellar wind that blows through the galaxy in search of artifacts from eras past. This facility was NOT easy to find, and even less to reach, due to all the secrecy surrounding Libra, and the... Interesting security measures taken to protect this place and keep it from intruders, even after its dereliction. Calling you 'Warthorn' is a bit of a mouthful, and quite dangerous in this day and age due to the ravages the first caused wherever she went, so, do you have another name?"
"Handler Idea Factory, due to Warthorn Two being active for less than a day, a proper name hasn't been given to her yet. Please name her as you see fit."
Hearing these words surprised the young hunter, for she clearly didn't expect to have to name something has important as a galaxy-changing super prototype (can we really call it a super prototype if she's the finality of the project that spawned her?).
After a few minutes of mulling, Idea finally came up with an... Idea.
"Alright, Warthorn. From now on, your name will be Nepgear."
"Nep... Gear?"
"Yup, Nepgear. A simple, kind of unassuming name, not linked to anything. That way, we can easily make you pass off as my hunter assistant or partner until we can find an agency to officialize it... unless becoming a hunter isn't to your liking..."
"I don't know. Do you think I could become a hunter?"
Even if it came from IF, the newborn war machine wasn't really sure she would be up to snuff in combat.
"With the proper guiding? Yes. You are a Warthorn after all, if that is anything to go by, you are made for the life of fighting any hunter faces on the field."
Reassured by her new handler, Nepgear finally decided to look around them to seek a way out, as this place, as secure as it was, was starting to get stale, and both needed to get out of here anyway, if they were to live on.
After a few minutes of searching (the teleport plate IF used to get in being depleted of energy, forcing them to look for another way out), they finally found the entrance to a tunnel gallery that would, hopefully, lead them to the surface, where IF's personal corvette was parked.
-A few minutes later-
It has been now a few minutes since they entered the gallery, and there was no sign of any connection to the main facility. While the two girls weren't annoyed by that fact yet, they were still a bit worried that they did not find any 'staff-only area' sign or anything of that sort.
"Do you think we're on the right route?"
"I don't know, Gear, but for now, these tunnels are our best bet, so let's move on."
It continued like this for another hour, before they came across a large, nearly empty room with a service elevator at the opposite end of their point of entry, conveniently connecting to, if the still shot displayed before them was anything to go by, somewhere on the outer grounds of the station, not to far from the exit.
But the hunter's instincts were going haywire: It was always in these kinds of room, that monsters, from fairly big to gigantic would try to trap people looking for treasure or an escape... And considering that, out of the fair amount of ruins she explored, only two were exceptions to this rule, she wasn't about to risk her new charge's continued existence just to try to escape.
"Nepgear... Let's try to find another exit, I have a bad feeling about this one..."
"Bad feeling? What do you mean? It's only an empty room, right?"
Nepgear, on the other hand, didn't have these honed instincts, and her built-in sensors didn't detect anything amiss.
"Well, here is your first lesson as a hunter apprentice: If a large room contains any kind of valuables untouched by time, or a really obvious exit like this one..." Said IF, pointing to the elevator at the back of the room they were in. "It is most likely..."
Before Idea could finish her sentence, a titanic roar shook the entirety of the room, along with, if one were to look into the tunnels, everything in a 50-meter radius. Then, from the ceiling, a trapdoor opened, and from it dropped onto the ground a great, mismatched beast. From the looks of it, it was at least fifteen times the size of either girl, made of the body and head of a lion, eight elongated, yet muscular legs, covered in chitinous armor, mandibles, extending one meter and a half from its mouth, and a stinger covered by a steel-like carapace armor.
"...A trap, laid to get us killed by that monstrosity... Well, Nepgear, here's your first fight. I will guide you through it but you'll have to take some initiative, ok? Ready your weapons, it's going to be quite wild."
"Ok!"
Without waiting for her apprentice to make her move, IF dashed towards the monster equipped her own weapon of choice: her trusty psy-typhoon claws. As she approached the scorpi-leo, she had to immediately dive to the side, as its huge stinger struck in front without much warning. Looking back at her previous position, she saw that the floor had been dissolved by the dripping liquid that now adorned the appendage.
'I need to be careful. Not only does its strength is nothing to scoff at, but it actually has acidic poison attacks... Ok, let's go like this.'
Her mind made up, IF decided to play to her best strength, her agility. Picking up the pace, she began to run erratically around the hybrid, hoping to confuse him as she searched for a good place to strike at.
"Eat this!" Screamed the hunter as she imbued part of her psychic might into her claws, forming a small, but deadly wind twister she rammed into the side of the furry part of its body. Seeing as the opponent staggered, taken off guard by the blades of wind shearing its side, she continued her actions, twisting out of harm's way from a leg or the stinger, while clawing at its back and sides whenever she could.
Meanwhile, Nepgear faced another problem: her weapons refused to generate. Most of them seemed to be partially corrupted, keeping them from being usable in a fight like that. As she cycled through her collection of blueprints, worry grew in her heart:
'Hurry, hurry. I need a weapon, Mistress IF won't be able to go on at this rate... this monster is mostly aggravated by her attacks, and the moment she stops, is the moment she would die... No, no that one, corrupted too... any weapon will do, just find one... just one...'
As she was lost in her thoughts, IF realized, in mild horror, that her attacks were near-ineffective against her target, but before she could even voice her findings, it, in a stunning display of quickness, turned to present its flank to the hunter before bashing her with its tail, sending her across the room into a wall in a great crash.
"IF! Are you alright?!"
Such were the young Warthorn's words as she sped towards her handler, ready to tend to any wound she might have incured from her trip.
"Don't worry about me, focus on finding a good weapon for this fight!"
"But, you're hurt..."
"Oh, that? Nothing a can of Libra-Char won't fix... There it is, give me a sec..." retorted IF, before downing the can in her hands. Slowly, her wounds, mainly fractured bones and slightly crushed muscles from the two impacts from the tail bash and crash's blunt forces, healed, allowing her to breathe easier.
"Ok... As I see it, we can't win if we don't find something that can bypass its psychic resistance... any idea, partner?"
"Hmm... I still haven't found anything, the system's too slow due to the corrupted data it has to sift through and... Oh, what is that?"
On her NEPArm's display screen, innocently, sat a sword, made of a white carbon fiber handle (looking at the short spec description beside it), emblazoned with a stylized upper-case N, and a blade made of purple light. Its description read 'Beam saber zero-evo'
At this, the brunette hunter couldn't help but smirk, as zero-evo weapons, while nothing to write home about when first created, held withing the ability to absorb materials in order to further their abilities.
"Seems like you found yourself a good weapon. So, here's the plan: we're going to attack in a pincer formation. With the two of us going at it, it should have more trouble keeping track of even one target, let alone both. As we're going to strike on its sides until we can find the heart, don't try to go behind him, unless you feel you can handle its tail... On second thought, don't do that, ok? Good. On my mark, you go to the right, I'll handle the left."
As IF was defining their combat strategy, the offending scorpi-leo was closing in on them, ready to snack on two tasty-looking, yet slightly aggressive treats.
"Ready? Three... Two... One..."
"Mistress IF, what's a pincer attack?"
In a, as it would be called in another dimension, Neptastic fashion, Nepgear, with a single question, managed to completely unwind the tension that ruled the scene.
"First off, mistress? And second off... you attack from one side, I attack from another, simple as that.. Now go!"
"Right!"
The plan defined, the two girls dashed towards the approaching foe, intent on getting this business over with. When it tried to strike on its left, IF would dash away, allowing Nepgear to build up her relative threat level with piercing attacks with her saber. When it decided that the light purple burning stick was too annoying to leave alone, It would be at that moment that the Purple-haired girl would retreat to safety, outside of the mandibles and stinger's ranges while IF hacked away at the base of the legs with her claws, slowly hampering its mobility.
For uncounted, long minutes, it went that way, Nepgear and IF twisting within the boss-type monster's attacks with grace befitting of warriors of their level, using any opportunity to punish it in return... Until, in a flash of inspiration, Nepgear dashed towards the arachnoid feline's unprotected rear end, and with deftness, speed and strength, severed the stinger in a overhead arc slash.
The beast roared, shaking the room again with this wail of agonizing pain. The handler hunter, after a moment of astonishment, capitalized on this occasion to tear the right legs' joints apart, making the beast fall on its side.
"I know I told you to not do what you just did, but that was the kind of initiative that, when pulled off well, can save a team. Now only one thing to do: you go pierce the heart and any organ you find and think is important, I'll take care of the brain."
"Understood."
From, there, it was a foregone conclusion, as it took just a few minutes for Nepgear to locate and skewer the heart, liver, lungs and stomach of the animal, quickening its death as IF tore its skull asunder and made short work of its brain.
Their deed done, and after some salvaging, during which they noticed, through the NEPArm interface that Nepgear's blade took on the properties of the monster's acidic poison, giving it the name 'Toxic Saber MK1', they made their way to the facility's exit, riding the elevator.
They were now in front of a ship in the shape of a slightly wide arrowhead, its green coat adorned with multiple decals of a mythological creature, or at least parts of it, manely, its head, which had the peculiarity of being shaped like that of a rabbit and being adorned with wing-like ears, and what must've been its wings, mechanical in shape.
"First off, let me welcome you aboard the "Delphinius' Blaze", my personal corvette. It can house up to ten people without too much trouble, uses a [space-time piercer]-type FTL drive, possesses an armory for maintenance of your arsenal, and all commodities a hunter might need.
Second off, telling you this right now so it's settled, none of this 'mistress' bs between us. You're my protegee, not my slave, so call me either IF, miss IF, or Delpha, as my other co-workers sometimes do. Understood?"
Nepgear could only nod, still a bit overwhelmed by the events of this day.
"Hey Holos, could you please prepare another room for our new guest? And please, add this decal on the ship's roof" Said IF, showing the same symbol emblazoned on Nepgear's weapon, as if speaking to someone.
"Understood, Miss IF, the new motif will be added within the hour, though I find it peculiar that you chose this particular one... Or maybe not, you WERE born, or is it made, in the Makanos forges of the Planeptunian inner sector, after all..."
Hearing this, the Warthorn couldn't help but ask:
"Who's speaking? And what is a Makanos?"
"Don't worry about it, that was just the ship's master AGI, Holos. Come on, hop on, we're headed to the planet Zeca, in the cradle systems. With all I could salvage here, a nice bounty is waiting for us."
As Nepgear entered the corvette, she couldn't help but throw one last look behind her. This place that saw to her creation, was now truly abandoned, as its last inhabitant, her, was now spreading her wings towards new horizons and adventures. It was kind of sad, thinking about it, but, 'it is the happenings of existence' she thought as the ship sped away, towards kinder stars.
Archive Vol.2: Still going with this? SMH
Beam saber zero-evo:
Master user: Nepgear/Warthorn Two
Level: Silver to Unknown (level displayed: Silver)
Weapon class: melee/laser/evo
range:1-2 meters
power rank: C
Speed: C
Defense: C
For a starting weapon, this saber is quite balanced. Sporting a laser blade able to burn and pierce through most soft materials and some of the hardest ones, it is the perfect weapon for someone like Nepgear, who is only taking her first steps into the galaxy. This blade is also imbued with the ability to take on properties of what it cuts, should the NEPArm AI deems it better than its current settings. For now it has only evolved only once, into the toxic saber, but it can only grow stronger as Nepgear grows and fights her way through life.
Race: Makanos
The Makanos, also called 'the machine race', is, as their nickname indicates, a species of sapient machines that were created by humans as they were preparing their first journey to another star system. Indeed, they, at first, needed an insurance that there would be no hostiles on the planet they would decide to settle on, whether it be through diplomacy or war.
As building principles and materials got finer through time and effort, so did the computing power of the machines, slowly, but surely, giving them the beginning of share-producing souls that humans were endowed with.
Then, on a maybe bright, maybe rainy day, one of the machines slated to fly towards Proxima Centauri B, came towards its creators with this simple question: "Creator, is it right for a machine, such as myself, to have faith and believe?"
The scientist that was asked this question was, for a moment, stunned. A robot, believing? How ludicrous! But, as he was about to send it away with an order to stop pondering such things, an idea came to his head: he had on his person a small share energy detector, for personal purposes in case he ever felt he was doubting his goddess, Carbon Heart. When he approached it towards the drone, he got the surprise of his life when it beeped faintly, as if to say "share energy here! Faint but still here!".
From there, more and more robots were revealed to have a share-generating soul, putting them at least close to the human condition. They expanded alongside their creator, learning from them, fine tuning their own fabrication process, as new, sturdier, more flexible materials came to be under human-mechanoidian experimentation, up until it was virtually impossible to distinguish a human from their synthetic kin, moment upon which they took the name Makanos.
Makanos are generally sturdier than baseline humans, due to their skeleton being made of dense layers of Titanium-tungsten alloy, bound to muscles made of elastic, yet sturdy carbon fibers, all of this being covered up by an artificial polymer skin made in the likeness of humanity.
They are usually made in specialized foundries, within which the basic data of both parents are put together and randomized, to simulate natural conception the best they can.
Most Makanos tend to be logical beings, due to their robotic ancestry, but after living alongside humanity for so long, they adopted quirks that, while well-hidden, would be called 'delusional' or 'chuunibyou' by the human of today.
So... Here's the first true chapter of this story. the plot doesn't kick off yet, as I still take the time to develop the world around it, but don't worry, that will come soon.
So Warthorn Two is on the loose, along with our favorite hunter as her guide. What adventures await them as they make their way to Zeca?
Stay tuned for the next chapter, and, as always, feedback is ALWAYS appreciated, as long as it is not flames.