The Anlace
A nanoweapon carried by Mara Dark in the form of a rapier.
Later, she passes the weapon to Sam Lilly , where it is able to morph into any form Sam thinks about. Typically, he keeps it in Bowie knife form for easy transport, but frequently turns it into a machete or katana during battle. It also spends much time as a screwdriver or some other useful tool so Sam can work on his machines without a huge tool bag.
Eventually, Sam finds out that the anlace is the new form of his father, Robert Lilly who put his consciousness into the cluster of nanobots that was taking him over thanks to Vox Tristan .
Since the anlace is a nanoweapon, Robert is eventually able to communicate with Sam through the nanobot implanted in Sam's own head. Over time, Robert's communication gets more focused and human-like as he puts his fragmented consciousness back together. Robert is able to control the anlace to an extent, turning it into a mirror so Sam can see his face.
Eventually, Trent figures out that Robert's consciousness is in the weapon, but he cannot hear the man talk, though he can see his facial expressions in the mirror the anlace makes.
History
“I had a run-in with a particularly spiteful commander in Lightbar’s army. He’d failed twice at killing me, so the next time he managed to inject me with the bots,” Robert explained, “Like the one in your head," Robert said.
He gaped. “Nanobots? Couldn’t you find a Spark?”
“No,” Robert said, his expression growing far away, “It happened during the Battle of Hong Kong Island. I couldn’t abandon the mission but was able to contain them long enough to get the job done. After that…” He shrugged. “It was too late
“So the bots…killed you?” Sam asked, trying to wrap his brain around this information. If Robert was truly dead, who was talking to him? His father’s ghost? His own overtaxed mind?
“Not…exactly. It definitely wasn’t looking good. But I had this idea to transfer my consciousness into a machine.”
“Like a cyborg?” Sam asked. Like Grant?
“Yes. I was dead anyway so…” The handle of the anlace-katana grew warm and the item shifted once again into a broad, flat mirror with a thin handle. Robert grinned back at him. “We didn’t have any inert robots just lying around at the Huariou military hospital so I used the only smart tech we had…”
“Which was?”
“The bots.”
Sam gasped as he watched images appear on the reflective surface. They flashed by in quick succession, too fast for Sam to follow. He saw his father, Mara, and the unmistakable facial mods of the Vox, though younger and less scarred. A wall rolled by, slicing through green forest, lights flickering in the distance. The angry face of JR. People he didn’t know. And then
Darkness.
“You turned yourself into nanobots?” he whispered in awe.
“I turned the nanobots into me,” Robert winked, his face reappearing.
“Brilliant,” Sam muttered. “So, you’re not dead
“I guess not.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was unconscious for some time. Years, maybe. I didn’t know what I was doing and the bots were stuck in the form I picked
“The rapier.”
He nodded. “I couldn’t do anything but listen. Can you even imagine what that’s like? Life is going on all around you, but all you can do is sit…frozen.”
Sam couldn’t fathom it, so he just shook his head, his mind reeling.
“Eventually, another nanobot pinged me—the one in your head—but I didn’t know what it meant until I met its friend."
“Its friends?"
“His razorwire was a nanoweapon like me, without the human mind, that is. When I absorbed part of it, it took a while to get the bots under control. Kinda got me a little frazzled.” Robert chuckled here. “A lot frazzled.”
“Is that why you sounded like a lunatic the first time you talked to me?”
Robert scoffed, “I wouldn’t say ‘lunatic’, but yes. Once the anlace had your DNA and that connection to the bot, it was like a door opened. THINGS HAPPENED.”
Item type
Weapon, Melee
Creation Date
2253, November 12
Creator
Related Technologies
Related ethnicities
Related Condition
Rarity
One-of-a-kind
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