The news hit Nomad like a solar flare. Jax, missing for three cycles. Kai, his fingers a blur over a stolen Almira data-pad, finally slammed it down. "He's in Almira. The Razor's Edge penitentiary. And… it's Razmos."
Anya's pragmatic facade cracked. "The Godfather of Dust? Kai, that's insane. Nobody goes into Almira."
Mira, her diplomatic poise strained, added, "The Intergalactic Committee gave up on Almira centuries ago. It's a criminal hellhole."
"Jax's brother was innocent," Vayne muttered, pacing. "He went to Razmos, hoping… hoping he could buy him out. Razmos demands impossible favors."
Hannah, always silent, projected a grainy image onto the main screen: an aged, cybernetically enhanced alien with eyes like burnt coals, a smirk etched onto his ancient face. "Razmos. Two thousand five hundred years old. Mafia supreme. He holds Jax as bait. He wants to meet Eve."
The air thickened. Every squad member turned to Eve, seated at the head of the table, her electric blue eyes unblinking. Her reputation preceded Razmos, a warlord who moved shadows and controlled empires built on deals and dread.
"Commander," Mira said, her voice firm, "Razmos doesn't fight fair and Almira is his powers seat. Direct confrontation is suicide, even for you."
Anya nodded grimly. "He's upgraded beyond anything we've mapped. We go in, we lose the Soul Drifter, maybe the Nomad, too."
Eve listened, her expression unreadable. She knew their concern was genuine. She remembered Salam's warnings about pushing her Xenomorphic limits. Yet, Jax was family. "What does he want?" she asked, her voice low, commanding.
"He wants to meet the legend," Kai said. "He wants… a contest. Single combat. Your freedom for Jax's. He keeps powerful creatures as his trophies after he's defeated them."
A faint, almost imperceptible smirk touched Eve's lips. "Then tell him I accept."
The squad erupted. "Eve, no!" Anya protested. "This isn't like the Ash-Born! This is planned!"
"He has centuries of combat experience!" Vayne added, wringing his hands.
Eve said, rising. "I am taking him down."
The duel was set on a desolate, sand-blasted plateau in the heart of Almira. No crowds, just Razmos and Eve, flanked by their respective ships. Eve, in her sleek exosuit, faced the hulking, cybernetically augmented warlord.
Razmos grinned, his ancient eyes glinting. "So, the daughter of Andromeda graces my dust. I heard your name two hundred and seventy years ago, when you were wandering the wastelands. Then you climbed to legend. Formidable. Now… let's see."
The fight was brutal. Razmos moved with a speed that belied his age, his vibrating energy blades singing through the air. Eve parried, dodged, countered with her own integrated plasma bursts. He slammed her with a kinetic punch that cracked the ground beneath her. Eve retaliated, precise strikes, forcing him back. But his cybernetics absorbed the blows.
The pressure mounted. Razmos's attacks grew more relentless, pushing Eve to her limits. She felt the familiar hum within her. Thirty percent. Her nanites rippled, her bluish-white hair crackled, and her features sharpened just enough to unleash a burst of xenomorphic spark. She became a blur, weaving through his defenses, landing a devastating kick that sent the ancient warlord careening through a collapsed wall. The dust from the impact hung heavy in the air.
Eve stood, chest heaving, exosuit systems flashing. She had pushed her xeno right to the edge of conscious control.
Razmos slowly emerged from the rubble, a gash bleeding on his armored arm. He regarded Eve with a strange, knowing glint in his eye. "I won," Eve stated, her voice tight with effort. "Jax is free from your contract."
Razmos chuckled, a dry, rasping sound. "Indeed, you did, my dear. But your xenomorphosis… it's unlike any other. Tell me, do you have those xenomorphic dreams?"
Eve was dumbfounded. How did he know? The dreams were a recent phenomenon, a profound and deeply personal revelation only she and Salam shared.
Razmos watched her reaction. "Before the advent of mankind, an ancient machine civilization ruled unthinkable realms of the universe, countless galaxies. Their power was both primordial and the result of millions of years of evolution. They evolved, imbibed genes from thousands of powerful alien races."
He continued, almost a storyteller now. "Among them was a criminal. They called him Razor. One of their own kind. During his imprisonment, while mining an asteroid, he found a primordial power source. The asteroid they mined turned out to be an ancient vessel, containing pre-universal knowledge—an artifact. He stole it. The artifact held nanotechnology mechanisms with great properties. Being a scientist, he integrated it into his machine core. With that, he became unstoppable. The whole civilization in its entirety came together to contain just one rogue alien. It is the exact xenomorphic power that he used to nearly wipe out half of his species. He used it without any restraint. Those who remained used their ultimate weapon to annihilate him. However, the xenomorphosis cocooned him… he survived. The galaxy the weapon hit didn't. The blast of millions of supernovae did render him unconscious. Somehow, they were able to extract the artifact from his core, but the process ended their kind. As the core was being sealed into the artifact, the true force inside the core, an unknown ancient being unleashed and dark matter-eating nano-clouds swept them all, spread like a darkness. Nothing could escape it. The most advanced race in the universe was wiped out. Then, suddenly, it vanished into the artifact, like a genie into a lamp."
"How do you know so much?" Eve asked, her voice hushed, processing the sheer depth of this revelation.
"It's my job to know about anything powerful that might hurt my business," Razmos replied, a wry twist to his lips. "Look at me. My kind can't last beyond three hundred years. But I am two thousand five hundred. So was my father, and his father before him. Way back, someone in my family found a small piece of the artifact. Its power gave our family supremacy. Immortality. Over generations, our authority grew. The rest of the artifact? No one found."
"They said Thelarians were after it, for crazy things they wanna do. But again, Thelarians weren't the only ones. The so-called Void Threat was after it. The only known incident, when I was still young, I saw my father battle an adversary. He nearly lost. The opponent was a Trebekh soldier, who had just received a drop from the artifact. His xenomorphosis nearly killed my father. When you faught me today, you reminded me of that soldier. I have enhanced myself hundreds of times more than my father could, but that xenomorphosis… it is beyond my reach. I don't know how much of it you inherited. You must be careful with it."
Razmos regarded her with a new, almost respectful intensity. "Eve, the cosmic hand of fate guides you. If your so-called law ever fails you, you are most welcome to join me and be my right hand. I will make you hundreds of Nomads and grant you immense power."
Eve met his gaze. "You forget, I am Queen of Saiyara. More than that, Daughter of Andromeda."
"Ah, yes," Razmos sighed. "Money can't buy you. Then perhaps a goodwill note. If you ever need my help, know you have a friend in the shadow world. I must leave now. I have to heal."
He walked a few steps, then turned, a final thought on his lips. "Don't let politics at the Intergalactic Committee or Andromeda Security Council get to you."
"The IC and you have a long history," Eve replied, a hint of weariness in her tone. "ASC, though… those are my people."
"I have seen legends fall and rise at the hands of their own makers," Razmos said, his voice fading slightly as he turned away. "I have lived too long to be wrong… about heroes and their poor fate."
His ship descended, gates swallowed him, and before vanishing into the Almira sky, it released a small drop pod, thrusters softly landed it a few meters away. Inside, peacefully sleeping Jax."
Razmos was known to always honor his words.