Roughly Sixty Cycles Ago
Chrysalis finally entered her room. Her book floated in front of her, and a bag of parts floated beside her mag... flux field. She carefully placed the bag on the ground as to not damage the bag's contents. Chrysalis sat on her book down on her bed as she began to remove her uniform. Her eyes almost never left the pages of the textbook. Once Chrysalis was more comfortable, she checked off the last checkbox on her mental checklist.
"Now that we've covered the basics of technology and its interworkings, you are now ready to attempt to use the Technology Sensing Field (TSF)," Chrysalis read aloud, "The TSF is a sensory flux field used to find and analyze pieces of circuitry as well as other necessities towards the build in question. The size of the field can change depending on one's ability to manipulate flux. A person that has a great ability to manipulate flux can also be able to see and possibly even change lines of code in a piece of technology." Chrysalis continued to read. Her horn ignited in its normal emerald color. As she continued to read, a sphere of the same color expanded from Chrysalis's horn. The moment the field came into contact with an operating piece of technology, Chrysalis was suddenly overwhelmed with information. A blazing pain ebbed its way into the changeling's brain.
The sphere disappeared as Chrysalis held her head in her hooves. She levitated the book to continue reading it. "Warning- When using the TSF for the first time, be sure not to be using it near any high-end equipment as the flow of information is too much for a new Technomancer. Also, keep in mind that many highly sensitive pieces of technology have had safeguards put in place to protect them from tampering from potential malicious use of technomancy." a section of the book read. Chrysalis threw the book across the room in a fit of rage. "Why would the author not start with that?!" she yelled.
After the pain become nothing but a faint throbbing, Chrysalis levitated the book back to her and tried again. This time she made sure to keep the field small to avoid being overloaded. The emerald orb returned and expanded to no more than a foot from Chrysalis. She looked around and found that her floor around her was illuminated in a light green hue. She scanned the area and found the bag in which laid her kit. The contents of the kit became outlined in the same color as the floor. She levitated the materials out of the kit's box and arranged them in the air in front of her. There was a series of motherboards, cables, servos, and other things. As Chrysalis focused on an object, information about the object began to float into her mind. She could tell what the part could do, what its limits were, and how long it would be before it would break down. Chrysalis smiled as she was getting the hang of the TSF.
The components moved through the air at their master's whim — servos connected to four pairs of metal limbs before being connected to the central part of the build. A few optical and auditorial sensors were levitated to connect through a series of cables to the motherboard. Next was a thin hard drive that slipped into a small slot on the motherboard. A stick of RAM went in next. After a few more minutes of making sure the cables were connected, and every connection was secure, Chrysalis opened a case and pulled out a processor, and carefully placed it into its designated spot. She locked the processor into place.
Chrysalis smiled a bit at her little creation. It managed to stand on its own when she placed it on the ground. There were no signs of unevenness either. This would become a perfect little drone, and if the next few parts were as easy as this, Chrysalis would have a whole legion of drones at her disposal. Sadly, she was wrong.
Roughly 30 Cycles Later
Fruit cups lay scattered around the room as well as a few empty cups of coffee. Chrysalis thanked whatever god was looking down on her that she found out that the ship had coffee before she passed out. A few spoonfuls of liquidized positive emotions and she had more than enough energy to continue fixing her drone's code. It was a grueling cycle after grueling cycle, failure after failure, redesign after redesign, but she was here. With a combination of her book, her datapad, the coding module that came with the kit, and sleep deprivation, she was sure that this would be the final test. "Okay," said a tired changeling, "I've combed through this code for forever now. I've scanned every nook and cranny for syntax and logic errors. I've triple checked every wire connection is right and every bit of data should be going to where it should be going. You should be able to work now. Come on, can you work for mommy?" Chrysalis pressed the power button on her small robotic spider. The fan on the CPU hummed to life while the optic sensors shined with an emerald light.
The robotic spider began to push itself into a standing position. Chrysalis's heart nearly stopped as she sat and watched the drone standby to receive its orders. "Drone, walk ten inches away from me," she ordered. The drone followed suit and was now ten inches away from its creator. "Drone, what time is it?" Chrysalis asked. The lights o the spider's optical sensors dimmed for a moment as the CPU fan began to hum louder.
"It is half-past six p.m. Empire Time," The drone responded. The light returned to its eyes, and the fan grew quiet.
"Drone, eat this scrap metal," Chrysalis tossed a rectangular piece of metal towards the drone. In the blink of an eye, the small drone devoured the piece of metal. "Now, gather energy," she ordered. The drone quickly ran around the room. It jumped onto the bed before climbing up the wall to then run along the walls. After a few moments of watching the drone run around her room, Chrysalis figured it had enough time. "Return!" she commanded. The drone stopped in the middle of the ceiling before it jumped down and landed perfectly on its eight legs.
"Drone, lock onto the target I'm looking at." Chrysalis' gaze landed on a metal container. The spider turned in the direction she was looking at. A small metallic chirp escaped the drone, signaling that it was locked on the target. With a smile, Chrysalis issued one final order, "Fire."
The drone's small mouth opened. A soft green light shined through before a stream of metal scraps shot out of its mouth. The stream hit its mark with high power. It was not long before the metal container was torn to shreds. It was just in time too as the drone had finally run out of ammunition. "Marvelous! Drone shut down." issued Chrysalis. The drone slowly lowered its body onto the floor. Its fan died down as its lights faded away. Chrysalis scooped up the little drone and kissed it on the head. Her efforts in fully modifying this drone hadn't been in vain and now she could bask in the fruits of her labor.
She placed the drone on her bedside table before falling onto the bed. She didn't even bother covering herself up with a blanket. Thanks to the combination of studying her book, watching 'how to' videos on her datapad, and an almost constant stream of caffeine, Chrysalis's body was at its limit. It was not long before the exhausted changeling was knocked out cold. Her snoring echoed throughout the room.
Present Cycle
"And that is how Okdi was born," Chrysalis finished. Almira looked at the changeling with a mix of awe and worry.
"Chrysalis, I don't know if the captain would allow you to have a combat drone aboard the ship," she said, "Maybe you should think about removing Okdi's kinetic cannon."
"I see where you're coming from and that is why I already got it approved by him."
"Wait, what?"
"I've already gotten Okdi approved to be my assistant drone. I've seen a few scientists with their own drones, and I brought it up that I should have one too. Considering I'm practically an employee here," stated Chrysalis, "Plus, I've made the modifications necessary to have Okdi as legal as can be. Don't get me started on having to do those. I still think it's stupid to have so many restrictions on Technomancy."
"Those restrictions are put in place so that no one abuses it and makes a whole fleet of ships to attack innocent people with," Almira testified, "That has happened you know."
"The Technomancy War of the Scenious Belt. I read up on that while doing research," retorted Chrysalis, "Speaking of research, I am completely invested in my plan to build my own fighter craft after a few late-night study sessions I had."
"And why would you need to do that? You're on a research ship, not a military cruiser. The likeliness of you needing a fighter craft is slim at best. Not to mention you need a Technomancy license to even use Technomancy officially and you will need some type of permit to even buy parts for a fighter."
"It's still a plan, Almira. So what if I have to wait a few years to see it through. I've waited longer for other things that didn't have even a fraction of my interest in them. Also, it never hurts to have a few offensive tactics on standby. That's why I built little Okdi here." Chrysalis lifted the robotic spider off of her head with her magic and patted the little robot on the head.
"Well, it's like I said earlier. This is a research ship. We're on one of the safest paths to our destination. The possibility of us getting attacked are slim at..." Almira was cut off as there was a sudden *thud*. The room violently shook as sirens blared. Chrysalis could feel the emotions of the ship change drastically. Fear, confusion, anxiety, and others took their dominant place in the air around her. Everyone started panicking at what was happening. Through the screaming and yelling, Chrysalis could barely hear what was being said over the intercom. They had just been hit by an enemy attack, and the enemy was quickly approaching. The engines and propulsion had been damaged severely. Their mobility was close to zero. The only course of action now was to escape using the escape pods. However, time was quickly running out for them to get there.