Vol.1: Awakening

Darkspore vol.1: Awakening is the first part of Matvakama's Story of Darkspore.

The story tells about Crogenitor Cozem's awakening from stasis and preparations for an attack against the Darkspore.

Plot[]

A Crogenitor awakens from cryosleep inside a starship sailing through the galaxy. As he is suffering from amnesia, the HELIX, an AI program planted into the ship's mainframe, "reboots" his memories by informing him of what happened before he entered stasis. Soon after the Crogenitor regains his memory, HELIX's long process of stabilizing the Exponential DNA has reached its end. By the time, the Crogenitor regains his memory and his name: Cozem.

Cozem steps up on the bridge of his ship, called "the Starbird". HELIX informs, that Genetic Heroes await command. Cozem says, that he would want to know, what sort of heroes he would be commanding. He orders HELIX to launch a simulated mission of a Darkspore threat to test these "genetic soldiers".

As the simulation begins, a reptilian creature enters the chamber. Cozem ask

s HELIX about the creature's identity, getting to know the creature's identity as Blitz, the Storm Striker, a Plasma Ravager from Cryos. Cozem orders Blitz to kill all Darkspore on sight, while staying alive. Blitz shows off his battle skills as he plows through Simulated Darkspore, until he is surrounded by Chlorosaurs and Infectors. Blitz keeps

repelling the Darkspore, but is unable to escape them. Cozem is worried about the big lack of performance, when HELIX says, that the genomes responsible for the Abilities in the Hero's genetic code have been somehow locked, while Cozem was in stasis. Ever since, HELIX was multi-tasking by: keeping Cozem alive in stasis, stabilizing E-DNA and decrypting the genetic make-up of Heroes in order to "unlock" their Abilities, as the stabilized E-DNA somehow "locked' those genes.

Cozem is just about to stop the simulation, when HELIX decrypts and unlocks one of the genomes, permanently enabling it for the next

Genetic Heroes. The decrypted gene was the one responsible for the function of the heroes' Unique Abilities. Blitz starts to shine by slaughtering Darkspore with Ride the Lightning. He soon continues his rampage, showing efficient combos, but stops after HELIX raises the bar, by spawning a Quadrakiller onto the battlefield. Blitz barely escapes the lightning mirages and is numerously hit by the Darkspore Lieutenant, bringing much pain to him. HELIX explains, that enemies of the same Genesis Type as the hero deal double damage to that hero because of the genetic structure of Heroes and Darkspore from the same Genesis Type. She also notes, that using a hero of a different Genesis Type will neutralize the Darkspore advantage.

Soon after, a new creature enters the simulation chamber, closely followed by two spider-like pets. Cozem searches HELIX's

database and identifies the Hero as Sage, the Life Forester, a Bio Tempest from Verdanth. Sage races through the chamber, slaying all Darkspore, that get in his way. His pets, the Dendrones continously provide back-up and protection for him. When Sage finally reaches Blitz struggling against the Quadrakiller, he shoots the Lieutnenant to death, healing Blitz, who kept fighting it. When the Quadr

a is dead, Sage uses Tree of Life to heal himself and Blitz from the wounds recieved from the Quadra. They soon pair up and fight the Darkspore as a team with Blitz taking down the HPTs and Sage, who supported him with cover fire. The two continue to the teleporter, which is suddenly deactivated, as HELIX spawns all species of Darkspore encountered so far. HELIX also explains, that all teleporters are deactivated, if Darkspore are present in the area.

Blitz, with Sage's help, quickly dispatches the Darkspore using blitzkrieg warfare. The teleporter is activated and they enter the final room.

In there, HELIX explains, that large battalions of Darkspore mass-spawning into an area in waves is called "Hording". In the room, as a demonstration, she hordes the area with Darkspore. Blitz and Sage struggle against waves of oncoming mutants. They barely survive, though it was only Sage's doing, that they both actually stayed alive during the fight. HELIX declares the simulation being complete and opens an exit portal from the room.

Cozem congratulates the duo for their performance and states that they are now official soldiers of the Crogenitor Insurgency. Cozem goes to the upper deck to check coordinates on the Galactic Map. As he is about to set course, HELIX sounds a proximity alert. She detects three stasis pods floating in space. Cozem orders HELIX to retrieve the pods. She catches them with the Starbird's tractor beam. Cozem goes to the ship's Cargo Hold, accompanied by both Heroes.

Once in the Cargo Hold, Cozem finds, that the pods contain three different lifeforms. He transports the pods to the middle deck and terminates the cryosleep. The three beings slowly awake and are identified by HELIX. The first hero is Wraith, the Spectre of Vengeance, a Necro Sentinel from

Nocturna. The second, seemingly robotic is identified as Goliath, the Energy Guardian, a Cyber Sentinel from Inifinity. The last one, similar to Blitz, is recognized as Zrin, the Sun Fist, a Plasma Sentinel from Cryos. Cozem ejects the pods into space and transfects all three Sentinels with E-DNA from HELIX's stabilized supplies. All three are then transported to the Navigation Deck, where they are greeted by Cozem. Blitz is hostile against Zrin, which he declares as an "old issue". Cozem asks about how they were put into stasis. Goliath answers, that they were present on an other Crogenitor ship, but it was bombarded by Darkspore. The Crogenitor put all three of them into stasis pods and ejected them towards the coordinates of the Starbird. The ship crashed into an asteroid and the Crogenitor on that ship died in the crash. Cozem goes to the bridge and orders the HELIX to get the Starbird ready for a jump into hyperspace. HELIX asks why. Cozem answers saying, that the time has come to strike back.

Characters[]

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Genetic Heroes[]

Blitz (3), Sage (7), Wraith (10), Goliath (11), Zrin (12)

Darkspore[]

Chlorosaur (4), Infector (5), Quadra (6), Stalker (9), Sloth (8) (all simulated)

Other[]

Cozem (1), HELIX (2)

Quotes[]

"Crogenitors were genetic scientists of ancient order, who travelled the galaxy endlessly, using DNA transfection to restructure life at a molecular level. There were five methods of transfection, each infused with the intrinsic properties of the planets they were discovered on. Rare combinatorics yielded Genetic Heroes. Living Weapons. The greatest achievement in transfection. Prized above all else. But creating them was not enough. Means were sought, by which to make them even more powerful. Crogenitor Xylan discovered the power of Exponential DNA. E-DNA. It promised to bring to transfection to unprecedented heights. But E-DNA'd grown unstable. All test subjects eventually succumbed to mutation and became the Darkspore. In laboratories throughout the galaxy, they sluaghtered the Crogenitors, who'd given them life. Ultimately, there was war. By its end, all stars of your civilization were lost. Your Genetic Heroes: slughtered. The Crogenitors: gone, consumed by Darkspore. In the final hours, selected Crogenitors were put into stasis aboard Cryoships and hidden away in secret locations throughout the galaxy. The AI network, HELIX, was redeployed on Cryoships, programmed to monitor Crogenitor vitals and study E-DNA for stabilization. If HELIX was successful, Crogenitors would be awoken from cryosleep to command Genetic Heroes, reconstructed with stabilized E-DNA, our last chance for survival against the Darkspore."

- HELIX's "reboot" speech to Cozem.

"How's it going?"

"What do you think? I'm being smothered over here!"

"Hang on a sec."

(Sage headshoots the Quadrakiller)

"Better now?"

- First real dialogue in the story.

(Wraith, Goliath and Zrin enter the Navigation Deck after transfection)

Cozem: "Welcome aboard the Starbird! My name is Crogenitor Cozem. You'll soon become the liberation army of the galaxy."

Zrin: "An army? You want us to work together against the Darkspore? Fine, but we probably won't be any army. There are trillions of Darkspore and only five of us. Besides, how do you know, if we won't end up fighting each other?"

Blitz: "Precisely."

Cozem: "What is it, Blitz? You know Zrin?"

Blitz: "Old issues."

- Zrin and Cozem conversating about the first one's chances against the Darkspore and Blitz hinting a negative history.

"We've been hiding for too long. HELIX?"

"Yes, Cozem?"

"Get the ship prepared to jump into hyperspace. We're moving out."

"Why?"

"The time to strike back... is now."

- Cozem starts to become the real deal after a milennia in stasis.

Trivia[]

This is the 1st episode of Matvakama's Story of Darkspore.
Awakening is based off of the first moments in the game: the Intro, the Tutorial and 3rd hero unlock.
Awakening is followed by Vol.2: Raid of the Nexus.