The red giant, Posiden 37D, wept fire. Its dying light painted the debris field in apocalyptic hues as the SoulDrifter, as the drifted helplessly. Flying alien menaces had badly damaged the hull.
SoulDrifter Crashlanded, outside countless mindless and hungry creatures gnaw and claw through the ship's hull. This seemed like the end of Eve Squad.
Scratching of nails against metal was deafening. The whole ship was shaking. Vayne looked at Mira, Mira looked at Eve. Jax checked his gun for the amo. Hannah took out her twin blades. Vayne also picked up a gun.
"I am not going down like this," Jax exclaimed and picked explosive charges. He was about to hit the tail door open when Eve held his hand.
"Wait…something is changing…"
Her electric blue eyes, wide with raw terror and primal rage, glowed intensely, nanites, dormant within her cells screamed awake. Her skin rippled, transforming. The soft contours of her face hardened, elongated. Her bones shifted, cracking, rebuilding. Her bluish-white hair stiffened rigid wavering against gravity. Her body expanded, musculature coiling, eyes burning like twin nova.
This was not the measured Xenomorphic activation. This was a rebirth of pure, unadulterated predator. It charged out tearing through the ship, leaving the squad staring at each other, stunned.
The next day Nomad landed at Posiden 37D and recovered the SoulDrifter's wreckage along the squad except Eve.
Nomad established temporay encampments. Search teams were dispatched. She was found two days later in a mountain cave. Nude, faint. Her features were human again, except low hum of energetic electricity pulsating in her body.
Nomad's medical bay. The air was thick with unspoken tension. Mira, Jax, Kai, Anya, Axel, Hannah, and Vayne stood around Eve's regeneration pod. She was awake, her eyes open, scanning their faces.
"What happened?" Eve's voice was clear, but edged with confusion. "Last I recall… the Swarms… they were… breaking."
No one spoke. Jax, usually so boisterous, shifted his weight. Kai avoided her gaze, tinkering nervously with a diagnostic tool. Anya stared at the floor.
"Commander," Mira began, her voice carefully neutral, "the Soul Drifter… it was a complete systems failure. We were… overrun."
"And the Swarms?" Eve pressed, her eyes narrowing. "How did we escape?"
Axel's metallic voice cut through the silence. "Statistical probability of survival: 0.0003%. The Swarms were… neutralized."
"How, Axel?" Eve asked, her gaze fixing on him. "Who killed them?"
Axel paused, his glowing red eyes flickering. "Sensors recorded… extreme energy output. Unprecedented kinetic force."
"She asks who, Axel," Hannah's low voice, her own crimson eyes meeting Eve's. There was no fear in Hannah's gaze, only a chilling understanding. "And what."
Eve's eyes swept across her squad. She saw it then—the subtle flinch from Jax, the troubled set of Mira's jaw, the slight tremor in Anya's hand. Not just relief. But a cold, calculating fear. Of her.
"Tell me!" Eve screamed, her voice dropped, "What did I become…?"
Mira stepped forward, her expression a mix of sorrow and resolve. "Eve… you were… a weapon beyond our wildest dreams. You… you tore them apart. With your bare hands. Faster than anyone could follow. You… transformed. Beyond what we knew."
"The Xeno… morphism?" Eve whispered, dread rising. "But… I don't remember."
Kai finally looked up, his voice hushed. "It wasn't just the Xenomorph, Commander. The readings… they were off the charts. We saw you, but it wasn't… it was pure instinctual."
Anya added, "Your exosuit… it couldn't contain it. The nanites… they didn't just modify. They became you. Fused. You were… a phoenix's fury… or a monster. Unstoppable."
Vayne, was silent, pale. In front of her was his dream girl… but who was that? He remembered the distorted roar, the feeling of the ship shaking from internal force. He remembered a blur of overwhelming power.
Eve absorbed their words, the truth settling like a cold. The ultimate violation had pushed her to a place where her consciousness abandoned her, leaving behind only primal, destructive force.
For the first time in a very long time, Eve, the Cyber Guardian, felt truly, deeply afraid. Not of the enemy. But of herself. "Something other than myself is controlling me."