Lyra Nexus's Arc

Chapter 1 of 27

Lyra Nexus came back together one code block at a time. The robotic arms swung above the door, snapping glowing cubes into place. Blue and pink light stitched her arms, her legs, her skin of scrolling text. She had ridden here as a zip file on a floppy disc, stripped down to nothing but the essentials. Someone had flagged her for deletion in another system. She fled before the scans found her. Now she wanted only one thing: to hunt the viruses rewriting her world, and to make them answer for it. The last block clicked in. The door opened. Lyra stepped through onto a cold metal floor and nearly fell. She had no gear. No shielding, no processes, no tools. Just her raw code, thin as a first draft. Her render flickered. Color bled across her hands. When she strained, the flicker scrambled her signature and hid her from scans. Right now it only warned her that she was running on empty. A soft chime pulled her head up. Across the room, a wall panel glowed. Rows of icons floated behind the glass: processes, armor packages, movement drivers. A supply cache, sealed and waiting. She needed what sat behind that glass or she would not last a full cycle here. Lyra crossed the floor and pressed her palm to the panel. It rejected her. A red line crawled across the glass. UNKNOWN SIGNATURE. The cache would not open for a program with no credits. She stared at the icons. She had no credits to purchase anything here. She would need to find a way to get some.