Kael Veyron's sanctuary was a corpse of steel and shame. The derelict mining station, nicknamed *The Rustbucket* by its previous occupants, hung in the shadow of Hollow's Graveyard like a forgotten tumor. Its airlock, pockmarked by centuries of micrometeorites, still bore the faded emblem of the United Stellar Corps—a golden starburst now flaked to rust. Inside, the corridors stank of ozone and desperation. Frayed wiring snaked across the floor, sparking where insulation had crumbled. A jury-rigged oxygen recycler wheezed in the corner, its filters clogged with the metallic tang of asteroid dust. Kael's workshop was a shrine to scavenged failures: cracked neural chips, half-melted plasma cutters, and the hollowed-out shell of a combat mech's core reactor. But none of it compared to the thing leaning against the wall—the *Eclipse Sovereign*, dormant in its bike form, nanites glinting like dormant serpents.
He slumped into a chair welded from salvage, peeling off his enviro-suit. The Eclipse Core's mark on his wrist pulsed faintly, a crown of thorns etched in biometal. Black veins spiderwebbed up his forearm, throbbing with every heartbeat.
*"Host's biometrics deteriorating,"* Nyxis intoned, her voice emanating from the Sovereign's flickering console. *"Eclipse Core stability: 39%. Proposal: Immediate infusion of Crimson Crystals."*
"Proposal: Shut your exhaust port," Kael muttered, tossing a stale ration bar onto the workbench. His reflection stared back from a cracked monitor—a gaunt face with hollow eyes, skin sallow from years of recycled air. *Sabotage*. The word clung to him like the stench of burning ceramite. He could still hear the screams over the comms that day, the corporate warship's reactors going critical as it plummeted toward a civilian colony. He'd saved thousands. The Corps had rewarded him with exile. Now, he was just another ghost in the graveyard, picking at the galaxy's bones.
The Sovereign's bike form hummed faintly, biometal veins dimming as if asleep. "Why me?" Kael asked the empty room, tracing the blackened tendrils creeping toward his elbow.
*"Eclipse Core compatibility: 0.0003%,"* Nyxis replied. *"Hypothesis: Genetic anomaly from host's bloodline. Archival records suggest the Core bonds only with descendants of the Eclipse King's legion."*
"Bloodline?" Kael snorted. His parents had been asteroid miners, their lungs choked with silica, their legacy a debt passed down like a curse. The only royalty in his veins was rust.
A proximity alarm shrieked, shattering the silence.
*"Alert: Lifeforms detected on approach vector. Scavenger signatures identified: Rust Hounds. Threat assessment: Extreme."*
Kael cursed. The Hounds were more machine than human—a gang of cyber-augmented marauders who'd trade their own limbs for a sip of fuel. Last week, they'd flayed a scavenger alive for half a coolant cell, wearing his skin as a trophy.
He gripped the Sovereign's handlebars, the biometal warming beneath his gloves. "Time to go."
---
The bike snarled to life, nanites writhing as Kael plunged back into Hollow's Graveyard. The asteroid field stretched endlessly, a necropolis of dead ships and decommissioned war machines. The Hounds' signals faded, but Nyxis charted a new threat—a Vryxil hive nested deep within the carcass of a derelict freighter.
*"Crimson Crystal density: 87% in hive's core,"* Nyxis reported. *"Harvest proposal: Stealth infiltration. Probability of success: 14%."*
"Stealth? With *this*?" Kael gestured at the bike's glowing veins, its biometal shimmering like a beacon.
*"Alternative: Lethal engagement. Projected casualty rate: 92%."*
"I'll take door number three: *luck*."
The freighter's carcass loomed ahead, its hull split open like a rotten fruit. Bioluminescent fungus coated the interior, pulsating a sickly green. Kael dismounted, torchlight slicing through clouds of spores. The air reeked of ammonia and decay.
*"Warning: Organic matter detected. Vryxil pheromone concentration: Critical."*
Egg sacs lined the walls, their translucent membranes writhing with larvae. Kael's boots stuck to the floor—a mix of resin and dried blood.
*Bright-meat*, a voice seemed to whisper.
He froze. "Nyxis, was that—?"
*"Negative. No audio transmission detected."*
The Eclipse Core flared, its heat searing Kael's wrist.
---
The first drone dropped from the ceiling, mandibles snapping. Kael torched it with his plasma cutter, acidic blood hissing against his boots. A second lunged, claws raking his shoulder. He stumbled back, pain blazing through the Eclipse Core's numbing haze.
"Nyxis—distraction!"
Outside, the Sovereign's thrusters roared to life, nanites reshaping the bike into a makeshift decoy. A dozen Vryxil drones surged toward the noise, chittering. Kael sprinted deeper into the hive, the Core's heat pulsing like a compass needle.
The chamber ahead glowed crimson. Crystals jutted from the walls like jagged teeth, their light refracting through a haze of spores. At the room's center lay a wounded Skyshrieker—a Vryxil alpha, its wings shredded, carapace oozing black ichor.
*"Vryxil alpha-tier specimen,"* Nyxis said. *"Threat level: Extreme. Proposal: Immediate termination."*
The beast reared, psychic pressure slamming into Kael's skull. *BRIGHT-MEAT. PREY.*
Blood trickled from his nose. "Not today." He raised his Eclipse-marked hand, nanites writhing beneath his skin. "Stand. *Down*."
The Skyshrieker lunged, mandibles snapping.
Nanites erupted from Kael's wrist, piercing the creature's carapace. It shrieked, thrashing as the Eclipse Core's energy flooded its veins. The bond was agony—a white-hot wire searing through Kael's nerves.
*"Bonding protocol initiated,"* Nyxis warned. *"Hollowing acceleration: 22%."*
Black veins crawled up Kael's neck. "Shut up and *work*!"
The Skyshrieker collapsed, nanites stitching its wounds. Its eyes flickered—no longer feral, but sharp, calculating.
*"…Hive-kin?*" its voice echoed in Kael's skull, fractured and alien. *"…No. You… bright-meat. But… pack?"*
"Call me Kael," he gasped, wiping blood from his lips. The creature tilted its head, antennae twitching. "You're Zara now."
---
Back at the Rustbucket, Kael dumped his haul: three Crimson Crystals and a sack of Hollowed Clay pried from the hive's walls. The crystals hummed with volatile energy, their light casting jagged shadows.
"Let's get unstable," he muttered, slotting a crystal into the Sovereign's Core. The bike dissolved, nanites swarming over the clay. He added a neural chip scavenged from a corpse—a hacker who'd crossed the Rust Hounds, their skull cracked open like an egg.
*"Ethical breach detected,"* Nyxis said. *"Sentient integration: Forbidden under United Stellar Codex, Article VII—"*
"We're not *in* the Corps anymore," Kael snapped, activating the forge.
The clay twisted, rising into a hulking golem. Its body was a patchwork of biometal and stone, eyes igniting—one blue (Nyxis' cold logic), one green (the hacker's fragmented memories).
*"Designation?"* Nyxis asked.
"Golem-01."
The construct saluted, fists crackling with stolen mech energy. Zara hissed, wings flaring as she circled the creature.
*"Query: Conflict?"* Nyxis asked.
"No," Kael said, watching Golem-01 test its strength on a steel bulkhead. The metal crumpled like foil. "Just family."
---
The transmission came at midnight.
Screens flickered to life, static dissolving into a face that wasn't a face—pale skin veined with biometal, eyes hollow pits leaking black smoke. The voice was a chorus of screams.
*"Kael Veyron… You carry the Eclipse King's curse. Surrender the Sovereign… or join the Hollowed."*
The feed died, leaving a phrase etched in burning glyphs:
**THE ABYSS REMEMBERS.**