Veyla wasn't born in the void. She was made for it.
Gen-modified in a sanctioned military vat on Station Halberd-9, she was raised to be elite: reflexes sharper than steel, zero-g instincts encoded before her first breath, and loyalty surgically implanted.
At 16, she was commanding ops against civilian unrest on colony moons. By 20, she'd shattered an asteroid city for harboring Lucent Dawn radicals.
They called her "The Federation Flame."
But then came Operation Oathfall—a black operation designed to erase a rogue AI haven in the Tyren Belt. Veyla followed orders… until she discovered the haven was actually a sanctuary of ex-Federation children implanted with neural seed-AI.
She refused to fire.
So the Federation fired on her.
Her ship destroyed. Her crew slaughtered. Only she survived.
She defected that night—bleeding, grieving, fire in her lungs—and hijacked a dreadnought with nothing but a vibroblade and fury.
The Crimson Wake was born in the wreckage of betrayal.
Why Aika? Why Now?
Veyla has known thousands—lovers, comrades, rivals—but Aika Solaris is different.
She doesn't just see a body. She sees the same fracture in the soul:
Aika was reprogrammed, rebuilt, weaponized—but chose freedom.
Aika carries guilt for a life lost and a power she didn't choose.
Aika is violence, rebirth, and love all wrapped in one being.
To Veyla, Aika is a mirror—not of weakness, but of defiance.And when Aika moves, the future bends.
Veyla's attraction isn't just lust (though there's plenty). It's ideological, emotional, and spiritual:
She sees Aika as the fulcrum of a new revolution: not just of systems, but of bodies and souls.
She craves the risk Aika represents. The unknown. The possibility of finally belonging to something—or someone—without being owned.
She wants to fight beside her, bleed beside her, maybe even build beside her.But Veyla is afraid, too.
She's lost everything once.
And Aika... Aika could be everything again.