The darkness of space exploded in a cloud of exotic radiation sparks, kilometres long, as the thin line between real space and the no-void was torn. It saw this dance of light through its extended senses. It felt every strike on the ship’s hull as it left the monochrome world and entered reality. That was one of the benefits of being a Xith pilot. Once, before its nervous system was connected to the vessel it operated, it had had a name. But now, it had assumed the identity of the mighty machine it controlled – Fall of Regret.

But it also felt the empty munition stores and depleted reactor cells powering the long-range ion beams. The twin energy cores, powering the vessel, were slowly growing colder and it would not be long before the chain-linked beam-laser thrusters went silent. Traversing the region of space, the humans referred to as the Fringe, had taken its toll. There were too few ports and docks, a vessel such as this could refuel, repair and rest. Dealing with forbidden cargo, bypassing blockades and engaging in raids, further reduced the available safe havens it could guide the Fall of Regret to.

It might not like the creature in command of the mighty vessel, but the human Jack had to be respected. He had, through means the Xith couldn’t fathom, made an arrangement for the use of the facilities of the mining complex, it observed with the scanners. This also allowed the Fall of Regret to fulfil its main task – plunge the Fringe of the United Republic into chaos. Why its Khanate patrons would resort to such backhanded methods, was a curious question. If they wanted to, the armadas of Khan Iliana II Monica could conquer the region and claim the vast resources it provided.

A long time ago, the vessel had waged glorious war against the enemies of the Stratocracy. As its pilot, and thanks to the few intact data-stores, it understood the pride of being directed by the gentle thoughts of the Dominators’ minds. At the peak of its power, the Fall of Regret could challenge any non-Xith frigate and win with ease. Even if such glories were long gone and the ship and its crew were nothing more than pirates and raiders, it knew the vessel could come on top anything this human domain could throw in its way. The Shattering might have put an end of the Xith superiority, but it had also destroyed anything resembling a proper galactic power.

“It is just as you said, Scraaha, the human vessel has failed to detect us.” Nata’Vi smirked hunched over the console of the command podium.

The pilot recoiled at the mention of its original name. It hated being called that because it implied there had been a time when it had not been surgically grafted into the control systems of the Fall of Regret. Only a select few had the privilege to address it by its name and the Ul-Battyr thing was not amongst them. Two of them were on the mighty ship, with the first one sitting across the pilot’s vitae-tank, flanked by two prime-warrior cast guards. As it expected, the human Jack was faking sleep on the chair. But the creature could not fool the pilot’s sensors.

The one, Scraaha called captain, was average for its species in height and weight. However, he had vicious cunning worthy of a Dominator. The man’s raven-black hair mirrored the chitinous growth decorating the backs of his guards and the tattoos covering his pinkish skin gave him an air of savageness, the Xith had not imagined possible from a few scribbles. Unlike others of its kind, the pilot did not harbour burning hatred for humans, it simply thought them as inferior flukes of evolution which had spread like a disease throughout the galaxy.

Although it had to admit begrudgingly, such a statement did not apply for the other one, locked in the bowls of the Fall of Regret. Contrary to what the other crew members might state, Scraaha was yet to find evidence that that thing was human. The very thought of the thing made the spines on the pilot’s back rise and it curled its six mangled legs beneath its augmented body.

“Even a hatchling could evade such a scrap-boat.” The pilot’s artificial voice boomed from the speakers of its vitae-tank. A wave of pleasure coursed through its system as it saw Jack look at it in frustration.

“Every time I try to take a nap, you go and wake me up.” Jack murmured. The commander than added in a more audible tone. “How long will it take them to change their heading and come to the aid of the station?”

“Calculating, master Jack…” Nata’Vi wished to earn the favour of the man, but the Xith would not allow it.

“Sixteen nehra.” It started to say, remembering too late that the others of the crew used the human standard of tracking time. “That will be ten Terran days. We will be able to dock with the station in three. Subjugation, repairs and re-fuelling will take another four, giving the Fall of Regret a three-day lead to the no-void entry point.”

“Very well.” Jack rose from his chair made his way towards the door. “Issue a raid warning and have the crew gather in the mess.”

“As you command…” Scraaha froze, feeling something, it had no expected. A deep-space frequency scan bounced on the dagger-like hull of the vessel.

“Nata’Vi, go to the serfs and command them to awake Carnage.” – The speakers boomed a microsecond after it carried a confirmation analysis.

The few creatures populating the control room stopped their task and looked at the pilot’s crippled form floating within its tank. The animosity it felt towards the woman was not hidden, so actively asking for her was rare.

“Vice-commander, I do not want to question your orders… But is this wise.” The damned Ul-Battyr spoke in protest. “Her last orders are logged within the data-banks and the serfs have shared that her dreams are more violent than usual.”

“Yes. We have been detected by an active scan. The defences capabilities of that station are far more advanced than Jack’s contact has led us to believe.” Whoever this new threat onboard Last Hope was, they had a cyber abomination on their side. “It has been years since she was out of her containment chamber. It is about time she earned her keep.”

“Still, she will not be happy.” Nata’Vi stood to her full height, towering a head over the Xith warrior casts guarding the tank. The cybernetic, covering the left side of her skull, glowed a bright blue, indicating her anger as she spoke again.

“The last time we awoke her for a minor reason, she killed Kilata’Ul and Bernhard Vincent. We are still searching for suitable serfs to take their places.”

“The happiness of that individual is of no interest to me.” Scraaha imbedded the proper code in its artificial voice to trigger the mood-suppressor of the slave apparatus, effectively pacifying the annoying Ul-Battyr for next few hours.

“Must I remind you; this is her ship,” Jack spoke softly from the door. “She is the one who leads the Void Spawned. She is the one who gave your crippled form a meaning.”

“You can always override my order, Jack.” The pilot tried its best to make the artificial voice convey the anger it felt. “However, you will not. You desire for her to chastise me, so that you may confirm your position amongst the Void Spawned. Jack.” It paused for a moment to give its words extra weight. “You will not be her favourite forever.”

“What, the bloody hell, was that all about?” The girl demanded from behind him.

Lucas could hear her laboured breathing as she struggled to keep with the pace he had set. Despite that, she was performing better than any human he had ever known. But that was just it, he had assumed Zoë had been one to start with. He had made a complete mess by misreading the data he had collected during the first surgery he had performed on her. Helix could hide behind the lie that he had been too busy trying to save her life, however, that did not change the truth. He had made a mistake which had nearly killed the Second Officer.

“I had to trigger your physiology into action.” Lucas offered without looking back at her. “The fastest way to do so was through putting you in a fight or flight situation.”

“You nearly killed me!” Zoë’s voice was becoming distant. She was lagging by the sound of her uneven footsteps. “Could you… Could you slow down a bit? I am sure I shouldn’t overexert myself so soon after major surgery…”

“Miss Kurtz, we have been running at a steady pace for nineteen minutes and forty-three seconds. In that time the only negative I have observed in your condition is how poorly you have been trained.” He came to a stop and turned to face the girl.

Sweat covered her flushed face and the synthetic body-glove she wore was drenched. The former guard glared at him with a mixture of anger and hurt in her eyes and her breathing was returning to normal. That alone was a good indication that she was doing ok, however, Lucas was not taking any risks and opened the health link he had established.

“Your heart-rate and blood-pressure are slightly elevated, but both are within acceptable values.” Helix was glad to see that she was reaching peak combat state.

Forcefully shutting down her major implants with the targeted nanites had been a risk. It was the last doze he had left in his limited stocks and considering the current technological decline, Lucas doubted he would find any more. But the alternative would have been fatal for the girl. Her body would have consumed itself, just as it had eaten the mutagen, he had used during the heart transplant.

“You wish to hurt me.” It wasn’t hard to read her. The way she looked at made her intentions more than obvious.

“You have no idea.” There was barely controlled rage in that statement, most likely fuelled by the biochemical cocktail flooding her system.

“In that case, you are welcomed to try Miss Kurtz.” No sooner had the words left Lucas’ mouth when the girl charged at him with reckless abandon.

As a medic, he would have loved to prolong the engagement in order to gather valuable data. But as a Demon, he could not allow such uncontrolled and undirected attack to carry on. The moment she came into reach, Lucas knocked her out. At first, he thought he might have used too much force in his strike, but her steady breathing and the lack of obvious swelling confirmed that he had no injured her severely. This allowed him a few minutes in which to consider how much he should tell her.

Helix missed the moment when Zoë awoke, because he was deep in thought, theorising how she came to be. It was obvious someone outside of Sigma 37-4H had succeeded in completing the initial stage of Project Goliath. The former guard was the living proof of that.

“I…” The girl’s voice startled him. “I need to know… to make sense of what is happing.” There were tears in her eyes. “Otherwise, I will just go insane! All of this… All that has happened to me. It is just too much…”

“Zoë, I can pretend to understand how you feel. Perhaps a part of me can relate, but I cannot understand.” He sat next to her on the cold floor of the corridor.

A quick check of her vitals, informed him, that she had calmed. In time, the Second Officer would learn to control chemicals her body produced. The mood swings would become a distant memory, but that was hinged on her accepting what she had become, what she had always been.

“The two of us, we aren’t as different as I originally thought. As a result, I nearly killed you when I tried to save your life.” He helped her seat up from the floor.

“The mutagen I told you about. It should have changed your genetic make-up, turning you into something that was called homa posedata. An evolutionary oddity, which is the base for the creation of a Demon. Although you could not become a true Demon, with extensive gene-therapy and surgery, you could have become the next best thing – a Possessed One.” Helix could only hope she understood what he was about to explain to her.

“Alas, this process only works on baseline humans or homo-novis as is your kind’s official designation under Imperial decree. And in some rare occasions on Terran hybrids.” The lack of interruption was a sign he had Zoë’s undivided attention.

“You, Miss Kurtz, are neither. The combat implants you have grafted within you, served as a mask. They limited your true potential… I am getting ahead of myself.” Lucas took a deep breath. This was the hardest part, the truth would either break her or bind her to him.

“First, I would need to explain to you the different kinds of humans there are or were in the galaxy.” He had to tread carefully. “The first humans to take to the stars were our progenitors – homo sapiens. They were fragile and unsuited to face what awaited them in the void. A scant few records were recovered from the Vojaĝanto artefacts and kept on my homeworld to prove as much.”

“Through forced adaption and genetic engineering, our progenitors became the homo-locus, the great colonisers. And those are at the foundation of homo-novis. However, for some unknown reason, those born on old Earth underwent a drastic change. The ordained scientist during the time of His Holiness Constantine I referred to them as homo-obscurus, the unknown. Some of their genetic legacy can be found within the DNA of pure Terrans who emerged after the Third Hell. The dark cyan colour of their eyes was the easiest part to reverse engineer through manipulation of the sacred genetic code of those born on Terra…”

“So that’s why you asked me that weird question about my eyes.” Zoë interrupted him. “You are telling me I am one of those, what did you call them, home-obsurus…”

“Homo-obscurus.” Lucas chuckled and gave the girl the warmest smile he was capable of. “And no. That would be quite impossible. The few extracted fragments are insufficient to re-engineer this evolutionary step in humanity’s history.”

If by some miracle, someone had managed to achieve that, Helix doubted he would have stood a chance against the girl. If she was actually allowed to roam freely on a remote station such as this one.

“That said.” His tone became more sombre. The girl was curious and he had to take advantage of it. “You Miss Kurtz are a hybrid. Your genetic structure cannot be modified or edited, because it contains a surprisingly large amount of said fragments.”

“Wait just a bloody minute.” Zoë made to jump up but wobbled and opted for sitting back down. “How can you know? The way I see it, there’s no proof of anything you said…”

“There was…” Lucas gave a tired sigh. The battle, the war, waking up in this strange place just to enter a new kind of combat, it was all catching up to him. “The purpose of this facility was to create such hybrids. I was tasked with protecting and securing hundreds of specimens and as such, I was privy to a few secrets.”

“The cause for the pain you felt was your body fighting the changes I attempted to make. The combat implants you have are custom-tailored to suppress the capabilities of your physiology. I had to trigger the extra glands you had to speed the process of rejection. In the coming days, I will need to remove those implants.”

Helix stood up and stretched his neck and back, feeling an uncomfortable stiffness in them. There was a reason for the procedures of waking up one after cryo-sleep. His body had compensated for the most part, but there was a limit. Memory loss, sleep feats and disruption to mobility through painful muscle spasms, were not things he was looking forward to. He was left with no time to ponder as a message popped at the corner of his eye.

The woman Monic was proving to be quite the thorn in his side. Helix had to admit he was slightly impressed that she dared strike again so soon after the ambush. He would need to deal with her permanently, but that could wait. The medic had a more important task and most importantly no idea how to best use the few people on his side.

“Now Zoë, it is time to continue your training. It seems I would require your skills sooner then I estimated.” Lucas was not too happy with the new developments, so he decided to at least take advantage of the situation.

The next three days followed an identical schedule. Lucas would spend several hours training Felix and the two security guards who came with him before sending them patrolling the areas ZETI had absolute control over. After that, he would go to Zoë and the two would train on improving her physical fitness. That would conclude with him instructing her in the combat doctrine of the Demons. It would all end once the girl collapsed from exhaustion, at which point he had to drag her back to the medical room which had become her quarters. Lucas was aware that this was not the best way for him to spend his time, however, it freed him to formulate a proper course of action in dealing with Monic and the annoying Commodore.

On the other hand, he could not allow them to do as they pleased. The attack on Dr Werner and Felix was proof of the foolishness of that. Despite Zeti’s protests, Helix had released the psi-witch to hunt down potential threats. But first, he had the good Knight Protector dispose of some of the spies in service of his enemies.

“Helix! Xith assault frigate detected at long range. Signature corresponds to Bu-Shan class.”

Lucas was startled by the feed crackling to life in his ear and nearly missed the kick from Zoë. At the last moment, he dodged the attack instead of blocking it as originally planned and diverted his attention to the conversation with AI.

“Time to visual confirmation?”

“Ninety-three minutes to visual. Vector of attack will be confirmed in seventeen minutes after visual. Expected time of contact is one hundred and eighty-six minutes.”

“Why was the vessel not detected sooner on the long-range scanners?” He hissed, trying to contain his anger.

“Deep space scanners and defences are offline. Ranged engagement is impossible. I recommend the implementation of Martyr protocol.” The AI’s calm voice, in contrast, was calm.

“Negative. Without a bomber wing to take advantage, it will be a waste of assets. Time to visual confirmation?” Lucas shook his head to clear some of the effects of the refined adrenaline running through his blood.

He gave the idea some thought. Using the cargo hauliers to do a suicidal run on the Xith ship was an option, but it would only deplete some of the frigate’s ammunition, leaving the entire complex cut off from the rest of the universe.

“Activate internal defences. Complete lockdown of Command and close everything you can! Execute protocol Damnation Gate, effective immediately, authorisation Demon zero-eight, Helix, Lucas 07A34GTAA!” He switched the reactive AI in his armour to unrestricted combat mode as alarms began to blare throughout the station.

The act nearly proved fatal for Zoë. He had forgotten to stop their spar session and without thinking threw her with all his strength into the wall of the corridor they used as a training hall. To prevent further injuries, he stepped on her back, pinning the girl on the floor.

“Plot potential vector of attack and link it to my system. Contact Alexandra von Eisstahl and have her bring every military asset to breach site.”

“Understood.”

“How long to clear an approach to main armoury?”

“Two hundred and six minutes, using all civilian specialist personnel. I am sorry, you will not gain access to the red carpet nor will be able to arm auxiliary military units with adequate equipment.”

“Damn…” He tightened his hand into a fist and took a deep breath. “Estimate casualty rate under the current status of the complex security.”

“Bu-Shan class assault frigate can have between three and five boarding squads. That would make anywhere between thirty-six and sixty Xith combatants. My projections indicate catastrophic casualties of auxiliary military units in seven minutes after engagement.”

“Define catastrophic.”

“Eighty-two to eighty-eight per cent of the human force will be lost, due to inadequate training and equipment for such a battle.”

“Include boring lasers and heavy mining equipment as an improvised deterrent. Draft ten per cent of the civilian population and add them in the mix.” He was quickly running out of options.

If Virgil was here, he would have made a far better assessment of the situation and would have distributed the units he had to lower that number to twenty per cent and ensure victory. But Helix could ask for an armoured division, while he was at it, it would not make one appear out of thin air.

“New projections indicate ninety-five per cent casualty rate, thirteen minutes after engagement.”

He rammed his fist into the wall, ignoring the string of question coming from the girl squirming under his boot. What could he do? He could not allow the station to fall into Xith hands. But he couldn’t fight against an entire frigate on his own. No matter how much he thought and looked for something he might be missing, his thoughts led him to the same result. He and everyone else would die here. At the very least, the Demon could make the filthy creatures pay a heavy price.

“New parameters. I want Xith casualty rates if all auxiliary military units fortify the area around the Command Centre. Civilian populace is to be excluded from this calculation.”

“The forces of the unclean would suffer seventy-eight per cent casualties twenty minutes after the assault of Command. Helix, such an action will result in the complete annihilation of the civilian population and total loss of military personal by the end of the engagement.”

“The blood of martyrs shall purge the unclean, the beast and the heretic in the consecrated fires of Hell.”

“Such is the will of the Holy Saint of the Garden of Hell.” Zeti finished the quote from the sacred scripture of St Irene. “I shall prepare the execution of Blood and Faith protocol.”