The interior of the derelict station reminded Julius of a mausoleum. Long halls lined with cryo-pods and fractured data conduits stretched like veins into the darkness. A low hum filled the air—not mechanical, but organic. Breathing. Watching.
Vara led them into a chamber lit by a single amber overhead light. One wall was covered in photos and schematics, tacked together with magnetic strips and thin wires. In the center sat a cracked command table, and beside it, a cylindrical tank housing a partially dormant symbiote core—pale green, like oxidized copper.
"Welcome to what's left of Vesper Station Four," Vara said. "We called ourselves the Vesper Pact. I was our last operative."
Julius studied her carefully. Her suit was older, patchy—an archaic fusion of human tech and symbiotic grafts. Not nearly as advanced as Echelon. But it still lived.
Brinley crossed her arms. "What was the Vesper Pact?"
Vara glanced at the core. "We were a resistance cell during the early Hive expansions. When the first breach hit the outer colonies, the big empires folded. The Pact didn't. We salvaged what we could, bonded with surviving symbiotes—anything that wasn't Hive."
Julius leaned forward. "You're bonded?"
"Yes. But… incomplete." Vara rolled back her sleeve to show her left arm—veined with faint, glowing tendrils. "My symbiote's name was Seraphel. It was one of the early generation X-series suits, like your Echelon. But she's dormant now. She sacrificed most of herself to stop Vorr… once."
Julius tensed. "You fought Vorr before?"
Vara nodded grimly. "He was leading one of the Hive seeding fleets. We didn't know what he was then, only that he was something new—more adaptive, more intelligent. We laid a trap, activated Seraphel's core to burn out the entire subcluster." Her voice dropped. "We thought he was destroyed."
"But he wasn't," Brinley said.
"No," Vara said. "He just… changed. He shed that version of himself. Rebuilt. We only delayed him."
Julius's jaw tightened. "He's stronger now. Evolving faster."
Vara moved to the tank. "Seraphel left pieces of herself behind—resonant data, memory cores, echoes. I've spent the last decade trying to wake them back up." She placed a hand on the tank. "With Echelon's help, maybe we can restore her."
Echelon's voice spoke quietly into Julius's neural interface. "Her matrix is incomplete… but I detect alignment compatibility. Integration is possible—with consent."
Julius looked at Vara. "You trust me that much?"
She smirked. "I don't trust you at all. But I know Vorr. And if he's back, I'd rather fight beside another bonded than die alone."
Julius extended his hand. "Then let's finish what your Pact started."
Vara took it. Her grip was steady.
From the shadows behind them, the dormant core inside the tank flickered—its pulse syncing, briefly, with Echelon's.
The war hadn't just restarted.
It was calling the old warriors home.