The Glitch Effect

Chapter 1: Nanook

The gloomy nights in Nanook were always uncomfortable. The distant exoplanet was incredibly cold and unforgiving when the sun went down. The slight breeze cut like a razor each time it found his skin. Jack flinched at the contact and tightened his jacket as best he could manage. Grabbing a tattered blanket, he covered the large gap in the wall that was letting in the cold. Likely an explosion had breached the concrete in a past skirmish leaving behind the jagged hole and blocks of rubble. He was careful to cover the entire opening before stooping to light a fire. Stealth was key. It wouldn't do to reveal his shelter outside the city. 

Jack huddled over the flame and let it permeate his frigid body. He rubbed his hands together and held them out to the flames. Clenching and releasing his fingers a few times he mentally confirmed he had regained enough dexterity. Removing the pack from his back he unzipped it and dumped the contents onto his make-shift workbench. An assortment of electronic and mechanical components now lay strewn about next to a large bulky object covered with an old scrap of cloth. He picked up each and inspected them carefully. Satisfied with his quarry he placed them all neatly on the table.

 It had taken nearly two weeks of sorting through scrap in the wasteland to find what he needed. He slowly lifted the cloth letting the dust and dirt fall to the side. Underneath was a mechanical masterpiece. Metallic and shimmering, the robotic leg was incredibly complex. Servos whirred into place as thousands of tiny lights flickered to life. At first unfocused the lights began coalescing into a single sheen of color that began undulated across its surface. The light reflected on his face as he began to smile.

"Oh-ho yeah." He thought eagerly.

For the next two hours Jack tinkered with the tech. Tendrils of smoke drifted past his face as he expertly maneuvered a soldering iron. With careful movements he removed some components and installed others. It wasn't ideal, but he couldn't afford to buy new parts, so he was forced to make his own. 

Slowly, patiently, he worked to recreate the complex circuitry. Every so often he stopped to stoke the fire and check the perimeter, but he was making good progress. Hunger pangs pleaded with him to stop but he was so close. Another thirty minutes and he inserted the last component with a resounding and audible click. The edges of the logic card vanished as the exterior meshed with the nano-shell and joined its undulating flow. 

Feeling pleased with himself he pulled out a scratched and outdated tablet. Typing in a quick password and pressing his thumb into the bio-metric scanner the tablet blinked once and then flashed to life. In large blocky letters CERBERUS was displayed in a banner on the home screen.

The tablet had been one of his better scores of late. It had been discarded with a load of other broken electronics. A tablet like this was a rare find. Old government tech was always carefully destroyed to erase encryption keys, secret class code, and whatever confidential information had been stored on it. To his delight the only issue was a battery that wouldn't take a charge. To anyone else it was defective garbage but what he saw was potential. A quick battery swap, factory reset, some light hacking and it was working like new. Well, almost new. 

He opened a window on the screen and plugged the tablet into the mechanical extremity. A few taps later and lines of code began scrolling across the screen. Jack set it aside and stood next to the fire.

"Now we wait." He thought to himself.

Finally relenting to his hunger, he cracked open a tin of stew and nuzzled it into the glowing embers. Looking around the room he could only feel lucky. Despite its condition it made for a good hideout. It was on the basement level of an abandoned apartment complex. Most of the building was rubble but a few of the lower rooms still stood upright. To anyone passing by it wouldn't even merit a glance, but that is what he wanted. The walls on this floor were made of thick concrete. The paint was peeling off and there were a few cracks, but it was solid enough. Aging and broken furniture sat in the corner, a few personal belongings, but not much else.