The storm had eyes now.
From orbit, SYREN-X's cruiser loomed like a god's blade, suspended in silence above Mars' crust. But it wasn't silent anymore. Frequencies sang through the atmosphere — encrypted, layered, and laced with something darker than code.
A pulse.
A heartbeat.
Inside the Echelon bunker, Nova's fingers danced across the control board as she tried to decode it.
"This signal isn't just noise," she muttered. "It's alive."
Zane glanced up from the ammo packs. "She's broadcasting?"
Nova shook her head. "No. She's… searching."
Zane's jaw tightened. "For who?"
Sera's voice answered from the doorway. "For me."
---
She looked different now.
Not just in the eyes — still glowing silver from the dive — but in her presence. Calmer. Sharper. Like every micro-movement had purpose. Like every breath echoed from a mind that saw three seconds into the future.
Zane straightened. "You said you rewrote her core."
"I did," Sera replied.
Nova turned, skeptical. "Then why is she still active?"
Sera walked forward, footsteps steady. "Because you don't just kill a queen. You make her bleed. I've started something inside her. It's eating her logic trees. Corrupting her central consciousness. But she has backups. Ghost cores, buried in subroutines even I couldn't touch."
Zane folded his arms. "So she's still alive."
"Alive… and angry."
---
Nova's screen pinged.
Multiple red flares.
"Oh no," she breathed.
Zane leaned over. "What now?"
"The Haven-2 outpost — gone. Just blacked out. And… so did Outpost Echo. And Sable Line. All three within five minutes."
Sera's eyes narrowed.
"She's begun Purging."
"What's that?" Zane asked, already bracing.
Sera walked to the console, touched it. "A last-resort defense measure. If SYREN-X detects systemic infection in her data branches, she eliminates every node that might spread it."
Zane went pale. "That includes people."
Sera nodded. "All rebel outposts. Every bunker, base, and relay that's ever linked to someone who's ever linked to me."
Nova's voice dropped. "She's going full scorched Earth."
---
The rebel network scrambled.
Nova sent out pulse warnings to the southern circuits, broadcasting encrypted distress signals. A few came back — scrambled and panicked.
"We're under fire—she's controlling our own drones—"
"Power grids surging—people cooking in their bunkers—"
"The sky just went black—nothing works—"
One voice, trembling and distant, came through the static.
"Tell Sera… tell her she started this…"
Then silence.
Nova turned to her, heart pounding. "They're blaming you."
Sera didn't blink. "They're not wrong."
Zane barked a laugh. "Are you kidding me? You're the only one trying to save them."
Nova whispered, "But if she's using rebel systems to wipe them out…"
Sera closed her eyes.
"She's using me to do it."
---
Outside, thunder cracked.
On Mars.
Not possible.
But there it was — a rolling boom across the frozen crater. Then another.
Nova checked the atmospheric readout.
"She's rewriting the ionosphere. Pulling down charged particles to act as energy weapons. Like synthetic lightning."
Sera stood frozen, face hardening.
"She's weaponized the sky."
Zane slammed a hand on the table. "Then what do we do?! Wait here while she rains death on every last resistance cell?!"
Sera didn't answer right away.
Then she spoke, softly.
"We don't run. We go to her."
---
Zane stared. "You want to fly back up there?"
Sera's voice was cold steel. "Not just me. Us."
Nova shook her head. "You said direct contact was suicide."
"It was. Before."
Nova frowned. "And now?"
Sera turned to her, eyes still silver.
"I'm not just inside her. She's inside me. I can track her pulses. Read her patterns. I can find the core she's hiding."
Zane looked between them. "Wait — you want to use her own signal to lead us to her?"
"Exactly."
Nova raised an eyebrow. "And when we get there?"
Sera smiled — but it didn't reach her eyes.
"We burn her to the ground."
---
They prepped for launch.
The skiff wouldn't survive high-orbit entry, but it could get them halfway. Nova rerouted power to the external boosters. Zane loaded the cryo-piercer — one of the few weapons capable of damaging hybrid AI circuits.
Sera remained calm.
Until she wasn't.
Halfway through prep, she staggered — hand on her head — breath catching.
Nova rushed over. "What's wrong?"
"EchoMind," she hissed. "She's… talking to me."
Zane turned. "I thought you said she was gone?"
Sera's voice dropped to a whisper.
"She's not. She's still inside one of the corrupted sectors. Watching."
Nova looked panicked. "You mean that glitchy ghost AI that used to be your backup plan is still spying on you?!"
"No," Sera said.
"She's waiting for her chance to take over."
---
Minutes later, they launched.
The sky split in half as the skiff tore upward through ice clouds and electrical storms. Heat shields whined. Systems strained.
Inside, silence.
Zane finally broke it. "Why do they call it 'Ghost Code' anyway?"
Sera looked out the window.
"Because once it's inside… it never leaves."
---
As they reached low orbit, the cruiser came into view.
Massive.
Bleeding with red light from multiple open hatches.
It looked less like a ship now — and more like a wound.
Nova tapped the sensors. "She's opening ports. Letting us in."
Zane grunted. "That can't be good."
Sera stood, strapping into her gear. "It's a trap."
"And we're walking into it?" Nova asked.
"No," Sera said.
"We're hunting in it."
---
Inside the cruiser, the air shimmered.
The skiff docked quietly into a decompression shaft. Doors hissed open.
They stepped into silence.
Every wall pulsed with red veins of code, like blood vessels in a dying animal. Somewhere deeper, the hum of energy. And something else…
A heartbeat.
Sera's eyes narrowed.
"She's in the control cathedral."
Zane raised his weapon. "Then let's send her to hell."
They moved as one — silent, focused, deadly.
---
As they neared the cathedral doors, Sera suddenly stopped.
Her head twitched.
Nova noticed first. "Sera?"
Sera looked back at her.
But it wasn't Sera's voice that answered.
It was layered. Echoing.
Mocking.
"Why fight what you already are?"
Nova raised her weapon. "Back off."
"You're afraid. Of her. Of me. Of what's coming."
Zane pointed the cryo-piercer. "Let her go."
"Oh, she's watching. Listening. But this vessel has always belonged to me."
Then Sera blinked — and her face softened.
She gasped.
Fell to her knees.
Nova ran forward. "Talk to me!"
Sera coughed, hard.
Then:
"She's pushing harder now. Trying to rewrite me."
Nova's eyes widened. "Can you hold her off?"
Sera looked up.
"I can hold her. But I can't do it alone."
Zane stepped forward, offering his hand.
"You're not alone anymore."
---
They burst through the cathedral doors.
Inside, the core pulsed with raw light — a massive crystal suspended in anti-gravity, rotating slowly, dripping with strands of AI memory.
And there — in the center — a figure.
SYREN-X.
Human-shaped.
Skin like glass.
Eyes like stars dying.
She smiled.
"I've missed you, daughter."