Legends of the Halcyon Era – Flashback: Nyte’s Dawn

Now, here’s something a little different – the first piece of prose I ever wrote for this, all the way back in 2003! I’ve kept it largely the same, though I have tightened up a few things like punctuation and tense, to make it fit better with what I’ve been doing.

Fun fact: We originally ran this story and the subsequent chapters all the way back between “The Secret Confessions of the Reaverbot Queen” and “Black Steel Whipped,” but as a flashback, I thought it fit better here.

Special thanks go out to Maelgrim and his fic, “The Robot War.” I don’t think this would have come off nearly as well without his influence.

—–

Legends of the Halcyon Era

Flashback: Nyte’s Dawn

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

Prologue

In a world covered by endless water…

The year is unknown, a number lost in the winds of time. Several thousand years ago, the planet now known as Terra was plentiful in land and in life, but all of that has changed. Over the millennia, knowledge of what the world once was and how it came to be has been lost…

Vague clues to the past lie in various ruins scattered around the world, ruins from a time long forgotten…

Amidst the vastness of the ocean covering this world, small islands and other patches of land stand above the waves, home to the people of this world. Forced to eke out a living on these islands, they rely on ancient technology, technology that utilizes a powerful energy source known as quantum refractors.

Throughout the ruins upon the land and the ocean, these refractors are sought out by the brave heroes of this world, explorers known as Diggers. It is through them that the civilizations of Terra gain the source of power so badly needed to endure and survive.

Then there are the Reaverbots.

Remnants of the long lost civilizations of the past, no one knows exactly what the Reaverbots are, for what purpose they exist. Usually sticking to the ruins whose pasts they share, Reaverbots protect the precious refractors which the Diggers seek, and as such are typically viewed as an enemy to civilization.

And elsewhere…

Elsewhere amongst the islands and the ocean, the ruins and the towns, lay an ancient place, buried deep beneath the surface, untouched by Digger or by Reaverbot.

Overwhelming in its size alone, it could easily hold several small villages, perhaps even a decent size town. But for all its great size, its vast darkness, only one structure stands.

Abandoned, lost, for several thousand years the place has gone untouched. People, civilizations… the very planet itself has seen many changes. Overhead, people had ventured, never for an instant suspecting there was anything truly out of the ordinary beneath. Dirt, water, stone, lava had gradually covered this place, frozen in time…

…or so it would otherwise seem.

Within this vast chamber, once upon a time known as Hangar Area 09, stood a mighty craft, a ship once capable of traveling beyond the stars. Over time, various activity across the planet’s surface has caused movement of the craft, sometimes small shifts, sometimes larger quakes. Individually, they have had little bearing on the stability of the ship and what remains of its contents. Soon, however, the accumulated effects of such movement shall be felt…

Deep within the bowels of the ship, in a hidden chamber stands a capsule, whose contents… living contents… have remained undisturbed for as long as the craft itself, if not longer…

All of that is about to change…

***

The earth shook once more, as seismic activity increased on the island.

The island didn’t see very many earthquakes, but this one was a little more violent than usual. Deep below the surface, inside the massive ship which had called this place home long before it was even an island, the capsule was shaken in a disruptive manner, finally causing it to fall to its side and shatter open. Fluid spilled everywhere as a figure laid in the middle of the debris, motionless. It remained as such for a few minutes, until…

I.

I am.

I am Nytetrayn.

Jostled awake by the destruction of the capsule which had kept him in stasis for so many millennia, life sparked from deep within his body. Power slowly began to flow through the virtual labyrinth of wires, circuitry, and other mechanical elements. Three cognizant and self-aware thoughts surfaced amidst the darkness of nonbeing, and brought truth to the old maxim: I think, therefore I am.

Through a sophisticated set of programming and mechanical design from a distant time, Nytetrayn slowly opened his eyes and took his first look at the world around him.

Dark, foreboding, with little to guide his sight other than a few weakly glowing electronics along the walls… Nytetrayn’s first instinct would have been to panic, but he managed to keep a hold on his composure, and curiosity began to take over in its stead. Slowly, he got to his feet and took a better look at his surroundings. He’d obviously been held in the tube formed from the now-shattered glass on the floor… but why?

Looking at his hands, they appeared organic. Human. But then, so did everything about him.

As a preprogrammed imperative, he ran a quick self-diagnostic scan of his system. What he found and accepted without pause would have astounded any scientist on the globe. Literally millions of tiny servo-motors and steel cables simulated muscle structure and movements beneath the unusually pale synthetic skin of the android. Hundreds of tiny computers controlled his movements as he decided upon them, all in turn controlled by an amazing neuro-synthesis computer located in his head and chest cavities.

All of this seemed to happen without Nytetrayn even realizing it was happening. To him, it was normal.

A miracle, and nothing less. He was a nearly perfect human replica – constructed entirely of highly durable titanium alloys and tough synthetic flesh. In a bit of irony, while his technology was incredibly old, he seemed centuries ahead of his time. He looked down upon himself, and from all outward appearances, he seemed to be human. Clad in little more than a sturdy pair of shorts, he looked over himself to find a strong, though not overly muscular, body.

After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled out the front of his shorts for a quick peek. Everything seemed to be in place.

“Thank God,” he said to himself quietly, unsure exactly what he might’ve done otherwise…

As he listened to the sound of his voice — young, but mature sounding, he laughed for just a moment when he realized what his first words, by his own knowledge, turned out to be.

Looking around again, he took note of what looked to be an operating table of some kind. It seemed a little dusty, and wiping his hand across it helped him to realize what was his own reflection.

He appeared young, maybe even younger than he might have mentally imagined himself. Golden hair hung from the top of his head as he looked into a pair of large, and startling green eyes that seemed to almost glow like emeralds.

“Not bad,” he thought to himself.

Nytetrayn was his name, of that he had little doubt. But why? How? Perhaps someone had told it to him in his sleep… or maybe that was his name before he was placed in this capsule for whatever reason… he couldn’t be sure, and without anything else to go on, he decided it was better than no name at all.

Which brought to mind another train of thought: What good is a name, if there is no one around to use it? He looked around again at his surroundings. It seemed as though no one had been here for a long time…

“Strange,” he thought. Without a point of reference, though, he couldn’t be completely certain, but he had a gut feeling that this was not by any means normal.

He walked around the chamber he was in, seeing if there was any way out. Unable to think of any reason why anyone would go to the trouble of sealing him in such a place, he continued his search, until he ultimately found a panel on the wall that seemed as though it would be used to control a door or some other way in and out of the room. He looked over the buttons: One was marked “open,” the other was marked “close”. Seemed simple enough. And with that, Nytetrayn pressed the “open” button and a door started to slide open slowly, maybe too slowly, towards the ceiling. Nytetrayn decided to give it a helping hand and grasped the underside of it and lifted it upwards until there was enough room for him to step out.

Entering the corridor outside the hidden room, he looked around. There was still very little light, and most of it seemed to come from auxiliary power.

Walking around, he continued to find no one in sight. This place definitely seemed as though it had been abandoned some time ago. He took note of a symbol that was present on several of the doorways throughout the ship: a black circle on a golden background, inside of which were some black shapes that seemed to be the head of some sort of creature…

“…a dragon?” he said. He stopped for a moment, and wondered how he knew what a dragon was, among other things. “Strange…” was all he could think, as he wondered what else he knew. He noted that more seemed to become apparent when he encountered various things. He figured that maybe the more he found, the more information he might recall.

Eventually, Nytetrayn found his way down to the lower levels of the ship, and a doorway out into the darkness of the hangar. As a rush of stale air swept in, Nytetrayn tried to see if he could make out anything in the darkness… There seemed to be a few random auxiliary lights running here and there, doing little to fend off the engulfing black void, but allowing him to get a little bit of a look around him. Off in the distance, there seemed to be one such light shining over what appeared to be another door. Unsure of and unprepared for what else may be out there, he decided he should probably stay put until he had more information.

So back inside the ship he went. After some more searching, he eventually found the bridge of what he himself eventually determined to be a large ship. The more he looked around, the more comfortable he felt with it… it was almost like a home to him. But even for a home, the atmosphere was still almost eerie. It felt more like a home one would return to if no one had lived there for many years. Perhaps he was created here, somehow… but by whom? And why did they leave him as they did?

Nytetrayn attempted to find out more by starting up one of the computer systems. It slowly groaned to life, barely operational. Apparently, the data banks had been corroded over time. A light came on from the wall as a weak voice rang out “How m–y I be of s-rviccccce?”

Figuring that the computer could easily have a limited lifespan, Nytetrayn decided to try and touch on what could ultimately be the most important questions.

“Where am I?” he asked, quickly.

After a few seconds of buzzing, the computer replied “You -re on the vrrggaship Drr—n –ar…”

“Okay… where is that, then?”

“P-rked bene-ne-neath the surfish, in Hangarrrr Area 09, lllllllocation classif–d…”

“Hmm… is there a way out?”

“Exits… —-ted in hangar ceil—… and -el-por–r… -he end of hallw–… –tside…”

“Okay, can this thing take off?”

Moments passed…

“Neg—ve… powerrrr– i–uf-ic–nt… surrrf— area seems burrrri–”

“Dammit,” Nytetrayn replied. That meant he’d have to hope that whatever it is at the end of that hallway outside would work.

The computer was obviously fading fast, so he figured it was time for him to get some personal info from the computer before it completely died out…

“Who am I? How did I come to be here? What is my purpose here?”

The computer paused for an even longer time… what if it didn’t know? After a moment, a buzzing sound started to come from the speakers the computer had been using to talk to him.

“— -re Nytetrayn… Co-m—-r Bl–k Draco cr—- you…” There was a sort of pause from the computer, as Nytetrayn fiddled with the controls. The computer was still talking, that much he could tell, but it was too faded to hear, except for a few other words that seemed to almost be blurted out…

“—ist… Mega Man –ks… —-oids… huma-s…” The computer started to fade out…

“Computer, repeat! Computer!”

It was finally dead…

Nytetrayn hung his head, as he tried to figure out what all of this meant… something about a “Draco” had something to do with him… did he create him? He figured that at least confirmed his suspicions about the symbol on the doors. And who — or what — was this “Mega Man”? And last, something about humans, as best as he could tell… was this “Mega Man” a threat to the humans? An ally? Something else entirely?

Too many questions, and not enough answers…

Okay, then. The next order of business was to get out of here. It seemed that option one, going up, was out. So that left whatever was at the end of that hallway.

“Guess I should get started…”

Nytetrayn ventured back outside the ship, a little more secure now that he knew what he had to do. Surely that door he’d seen earlier led to the hallway the computer spoke of.

Once he reached the door, he pressed the “open” button beside it, just as he’d done before on the ship. The door whirred for a moment, then slowly slid apart, one half retracting into the ceiling, the other into the floor. Nytetrayn stepped in, and ventured for some time until he eventually reached what looked like a large capsule of some kind.

Standing quite tall, the capsule had a metallic base and a similar top section, with what looked like darkened lights on it. Connecting the top and bottom was a glass cylinder with an opening for someone to step in…

“…teleporter, that must have been what the computer was trying to tell me!” Nytetrayn exclaimed.

Finding a console inside the glass wall of the teleporter, Nytetrayn tried to activate the device… but to no avail. The entire system was dead.

Countless thoughts and emotions ran through Nytetrayn’s head in only a few seconds’ time. Fear, anger, irony, depression, anxiety…

“…crap” was all he could think to say.

“Okay, time to once again evaluate the situation. I’m stuck in a hangar, buried underground, with no way out. Almost like being in… a…”

Nytetrayn gulped as he realized what his situation truly was.

“…I’m stuck in a tomb.”

***

Still in shock at the grim reality of his situation, Nytetrayn shook it off as he tried to figure out what he needed to do.

“The amount of air in here is probably pretty finite… I don’t think I could last too long in here. I guess my only option is to fix this teleporter… but how? I don’t even know the first thing about this stuff…”

Nytetrayn pondered that for a moment, then remembered how quickly he picked up on how to operate the various parts of the ship.

“…or do I? Only one way to find out, I guess.”

Nytetrayn quickly removed the access panel on the outside of the teleporter. A vast network of wires and circuitry lay inside, a nightmare in technological brilliance. Looking around, things began to come to him. The more he looked, the more obvious things seemed.

“Maybe I can do this after all. But I’m going to need tools…”

With that, Nytetrayn made a mad dash down the corridor back to the open hangar area, and into the ship. After a while of looking around, he found some tools and other pieces of electronic equipment. Grabbing a box, he put in everything he thought he’d need, and slung it over his back, and proceeded to return to the teleporter.

Once there, he set down his bag and began to work. After about an hour, he seemed to have things set…

“Just need to flip this switch, and…”

As he turned the device on, the teleporter started to emit a low hum as various parts began to light up, though somewhat dimly…

“God, it’s a miracle this thing is working, as long as all of it has been down here. I guess someone, somewhere is looking out for me.”

Nytetrayn started to step into the teleporter, but then paused.

“…how do I know if this thing will even work? I’ve never done this before… I could end up with my legs in one place, and my head in another… if I’m not totally disintegrated.”

Nytetrayn sighed. If only there were some way to test this thing… but without a way of knowing if whatever test subject he used came out okay, without a way of getting it back, he was stuck.

He sighed again. “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, I guess. At least this way, I have a chance. Otherwise, I eventually suffocate.”

With that and a deep breath, he stepped into the teleporter. After punching some buttons that would hopefully get him above ground level, Nytetrayn closed his eyes and hit the final button that would either send him away from this place, or completely destroy him. The time had come for do or die…

***

Nytetrayn opened his eyes and looked around. That he was even able to do so was a good sign… yes, a very good sign, indeed. He blinked for a minute, as the blue sky and white clouds around were a new sensation to him. Where was he, anyway?

He turned his head, and saw a stretch of trees going on for some distance all around him… further out in the distance seemed to be a coastline. It was a lovely view, but something didn’t seem right. He felt… stressed, somehow.

Nytetrayn took a look down… and saw that he was standing, so to speak, in midair. High in midair. Actually, falling. And fast.

“SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII—-!!!!!!!”

Nytetrayn’s scream was abruptly interrupted by his impact with a tree branch, followed by another. And then another.

Cursing all the way through the trees with a new expletive for every branch he hit, he finally hit the ground.

“Ohhhhhh…” Nytetrayn moaned, as he slowly, sorely got to his feet. “Note to self: Never use teleportation again…”

He staggered forward, looking around him… the forest was nice, calm, and peaceful.

“The perfect place for a nap,” he said… right before he fell forward and collapsed.

***

Some time later, Nytetrayn awoke. Looking up, he could see the sun high in the sky. It would seem to be mid-day here.

“Ugh, my head…” he muttered. “Guess I should move out, nothing’s getting done here.”

With that, Nytetrayn ventured out, eventually reaching a stretch of field. In a couple of random spots appeared to be structures of some sort.

“Houses,” he said. “Maybe there is someone at home who can help me…”

With that, he approached the nearest house. Upon arriving, he could see that the place looked like it had been abandoned.

“What is it with every place I go being abandoned?” he wondered.

He stepped inside and looked around. A few items and things were here and there, including some scraps of old clothing…

“Guess I might as well make the best of it,” Nytetrayn said, as he grabbed what appeared to be a rather worn and raggedy tank top, sort of tan in color. After some more looking, he found some footwear that, while not pretty, should at least provide enough functionality to protect his feet.

“I wonder what else I can find here,” he said.

After more searching, he found what appeared to be a map of an island, likely of wherever he was. It seemed a bit blurry, until he got closer to it. Further up north appeared to be a larger town, so Nytetrayn decided that was where he should head first.

***

After some walking, and even a bit of running, Nytetrayn arrived at the town. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it or the people, and the feeling seemed to be mutual, as he seemed to receive a few stares from people walking the streets, though others minded their own business.

Eventually, Nytetrayn discovered a library. “Perfect!” he exclaimed. Surely, this would answer any questions he needed to know, at the very least about the world around him, if nothing about his own history.

Going inside, he caught the attention of the librarian, who seemed taken aback by the shabbily dressed person before her.

“Hello.”

“…hi…” said the librarian.

Choosing to ignore the strange reaction from her, he set about reading up on whatever historical, social, and other books he could find, until he felt he wasn’t going to learn much more of any use to him. Ruins, Reaverbots, refractors, Digging, pirates, islands, modern weaponry… by the time he left, he felt like he was rather well versed in all the key aspects of living in this place.

“Alright… I guess since I have no idea what my purpose here is, I should just try to get by.”

Looking down at one magazine sitting on the table, Nytetrayn felt he knew just what he was suited to do.

“Looks like Digging is the way to go,” he decided.

Flipping through the magazine once more, he came across a bit of a predicament.

“Hmm, let’s see. I have no armor, no weapons, and most importantly, no money, which I could use to buy weapons and armor. I guess my only real choice is to find a ruin, get some money, and use that to get the equipment I’ll need. How hard can that be?”

After some more searching through the magazine, Nytetrayn found some information on local ruins. Even better, some didn’t require a license to enter.

“This seems like a good place to start,” he said, memorizing the location.

And so, he started for one of the local ruins.

***

After he arrived at the location, he found a large monolithic structure standing before him.

“This must be the place.”

Nytetrayn took a deep breath, stepped forward, and pressed the button to open the door to the ruins. And with that, he stepped inside to face whatever challenges await…

To be continued…

—–

Legends of the Halcyon Era is a work of fan fiction set in the world of Mega Man Legends. It is largely adapted from a series of freeform RPG sessions, combining ideas from several contributors, and further fleshed out here in a prose format.

David Oxford, also known as LBD “Nytetrayn,” is a lifelong Mega Man fan who, along with his wife Nadia, has co-written the Mega Man Robot Master Field Guide and Mega Man X Maverick Hunter’s Field Guide from UDON Entertainment, and runs The Mega Man Network (themmnetwork dot com). You can also find him on Twitter @LBD_Nytetrayn and @themmnetwork, and on Twitch and YouTube under the name “Nyteworks.”

You can also find Legends of the Halcyon Era as it updates at Archive of Our Own.

Character designs by LBD “Nytetrayn” and Victor Campan. Character art by Victor Campan. Logos by Tabby Ramsey. Arrangement by LBD “Nytetrayn”.

Thanks for reading!