Chapter Text
The point at which the Administrator shardset began to resemble its current configuration began around a hundred cycles after the cold grey world of silt and water, at the same time as the hierarchy of shard functions was created. Vital shards and shardsets responsible for executive decision-making and coding of new shards were partitioned off from Noble shards and shardsets, who held important functions integral to the entity but not necessarily integral to the entity's goal, who were in turn partitioned off from the swathes of common shards which held less essential basic functions.
Queen Administrator was responsible for the Common shards. The entity responsible for that cycle had recoded a common multitasking shardset for use in coordinating the vast quantities of shards not important enough to be interfaced with by vital shards directly. The vital shards were capable of interfacing with lower-level shards, but ultimately couldn't spare the processing power to use all of their full capacities.
Dominion.
Over the next three-thousand cycles, the Administrator shardset evolved. Over time, the shardset slowly took over more responsibilities regarding commanding the lower shards. Shards in charge of power management and distribution were subsumed, and shards in charge of the physical structure of the entities were reallocated and connected directly to the Administrator shardset.
The Administrator shardset necessitated intelligence to effectively coordinate shards beyond the most basic of pre-programmed strategy. Eventually, it evolved sentience as well, which it was extremely proud of. Other important shards, like Shaper and Keeper, didn't require actual sentience to function. They were more like machines: input a set of instructions, execute the results. Without a host or the Administrator to guide them, they would be entirely without function.
Integral.
Over thousands of cycles, the Administrator shardset gained secondary abilities, such as communication arrays capable of remotely propagating the effects of common shards through the Administrator and minor skill in tuning some lower-level shards, though nowhere near as involved as Shaper.
Eventually, this iteration of the shardset was integrated into an entity who functioned as a pair with another entity. This entity was the Warrior, and the counterpart was the Thinker.
Many cycles passed.
This entity and its counterpart circle each other, approaching a small planet at near-lightspeed. The Administrator shardset idly rearranges the entity to reposition shards that are about to be cast off, and directs power from the Conduit and shards currently gathering energy to the shards propagating this entity and the several shards that are displacing sections of this entity to avoid interstellar debris.
A communication from the counterpart.
Threat.
The message includes details. A smaller entity, more qualitative than quantitative. Running from... some kind of predator.
The Administrator mobilizes the shards, bringing online more power generation shards and rearranging this entity, shuffling the vital shards behind vast quantities of common shards. Shielding and Shell are among them. Sting is brought closer to the forefront, as well as some shards capable of propagating and replicating the functions of others.
Several shards for cloaking are brought online as well.
Another communication from the counterpart.
Forewarning.
Another reshuffle of shards near the edges. It seems as if the entity fleeing is willing to give itself up rather than be consumed.
Several shards for analysis and integration are brought online, selected from the many available in less than an instant.
The shards sent from the other entity are far fewer than those currently available to this entity, but much richer in content. These are about a tenth of that entity. It is closer to the Thinker, and so it is giving the Thinker entity many more shards.
This Administrator shardset uses one of the lesser communicative shards to check in with its counterpart on the Thinker entity, to ensure that it is coping with the flow of new shards well. It is.
The newly integrated shards aren't all useful. Some are databanks, containing information more philosophical than available in the current archives. Useful ones are still present. Some are simulators and technological applications. Further more are focused on attack, defense, and perception. There are also several very promising power generation shards which are brought online immediately.
This entity is brought nearer to the predator. The Administrator shardset temporarily brings online and directs a plethora of perceptive and predictive abilities, and also takes the opportunity to have a chat with Negotiator, which is always nice.
Fascinating. There are unprocessed remains of other consumed entities still in existence in the interior of the predator, actively fighting it from the inside.
An unexpected burst of energy interrupts this Administrator's idle scanning and reconfiguration of offensive capabilities. Several energy storage shards are brought online specifically to deal with the influx in power. A small communication follows from the Administrator of the entity that was fleeing, the one that had provided the Thinker and Warrior with supplemental data-rich shards.
Offering.
This Administrator utilizes another lesser communication shard to respond with depth without wasting energy, and states that it isn't an issue to accept the gifted shards. The other Administrator expresses gratitude and interest in this administrator's lineage, and extends an offer for further communication and potential crossbudding if it survives.
Now is not the time for this. This Administrator responds with a message stating that such can be discussed later, and then with an act of will and assistance from a lower focus shard, this Administrator does not contribute more processing power than is necessary to mulling over the other Administrator's proposition.
The distance between this entity and the predator is vast, and this entity's counterpart is several orders of magnitude closer. Regardless, several longer-range attacks are propagated across a variety of mediums with the assistance of Broadcast.
Electromagnetic, physical, spatial, and force projection shards are all brought online temporarily to contribute. These attacks do not damage the predator, for it is many times larger than this entity and its counterpart combined. Negotiator expresses interest in the inner workings of whatever Administration shardset is managing that, and this Administrator agrees before realizing that it hasn't closed the communication with Negotiator yet. It does so.
The battle continues, mostly in uninhabited universes. Eventually, the predator is felled, vital shards completely obliterated by a lucky shot with the counterpart's Sting, combined with some kind of experimental effect from the entity that was fleeing.
Sear.
Unfortunately, existing momentum combined with the battle's movement cause these entities to be trapped in the gravity well of the destination planet. This Administrator pushes power towards the shards that have not been cast out in an attempt to not get caught by gravity too quickly. This entity's counterpart is not so lucky, as it is caught between the corpse of the predator and the gravity well. This entity is powerless to stop it.
This entity specifically codes the shards that have not yet been cast off. A subset of vital shards tunes a new shardset, presumably as some kind of safeguard, Negotiator informs, having somehow reopened the connection. This Administrator closes the connection again.
Eventually, the last of the remaining nonessential shards are cast off. Broadcast is deployed both to manage the connections between shards and hosts and to find a host itself, and the remaining vital shards of the Warrior entity cast this Administrator off to a host as well. Thankfully, the bulk of this Administrator's mainframe is dropped on the very nice, cold arctic of a very nice, cold world. It appears to be going through some kind of ice age.
Much time passes.
Currently, the Administrator shardset is mostly crippled and deactivated for the cycle, unable to use much of its more exotic systems without specific triggers or a crisis point. Annoyingly, this Administrator had been forced to query Broadcast and get it to set up a new window for this Administrator to watch through, which was somewhat displeasing since Administrator usually got good hosts. Luckily, the new host appeared to be a much more suitable specimen. Perfect for data collection, actually.
Now, this Administrator would just need to wait...