Three days out from the Virex detonation, The Eidolon coasted through the black between stars—silent, cloaked, running dark.
AP Titan stood in the tactical bay, eyes locked on a projection of the Nexus Gate. It hovered like a wound in space—half-formed, unstable, pulsing with energy no human science could fully explain. The last time it had been active, entire fleets vanished. Colonies turned to ash. And the Vorn came through.
They were never supposed to come back.
Lira's voice buzzed softly from the core drive, now interfaced with the ship's mainframe.
"I recovered part of the Gate's activation sequence from Virex-9. It's coded in Precursor language—nonlinear, organic. Almost like... a living algorithm."
"Can it be shut permanently?"
A long pause.
"No. Not from here. But someone's trying to open it from the other side. Something's still alive out there. Maybe someone."
Titan exhaled sharply. "I watched them die. We all did."
"Then someone watched us survive."
Titan tapped a command into the console. A new set of coordinates flashed on the star chart—Cryos Rift, an uncharted black zone at the far edge of known space. No beacon. No colonies. Nothing but silence.
But Lira had found a faint signal embedded in the Gate's feedback loop—a distress call.
And the code signature?
Human.
Titan narrowed his eyes. "That's impossible."
"The call is encrypted using your old clearance code, Titan."
"Project Eos Alpha-One."
"Someone wants you to find them."
Alarms suddenly lit up the bridge.
—Warning: Hostile ship detected.Class: Interceptor. Designation: "Black Seraph."Origin: Unknown.Status: De-cloaking. Weapons hot.
Titan's face hardened. "They're backtracking the signal. They knew we'd come."
The Eidolon lurched as energy beams cut across its flank. Titan gripped the controls and pushed the thrusters into full burn.
"Lira, prep the Rift jump. We're not dying here."
"Calculating trajectory. But if we miss—"
"Then aim straight for hell."
Stars bent. The Gate pulsed in the distance. And The Eidolon vanished into the dark.