The rebel base had grown quieter since the raid. Not peaceful—never that—but subdued, the way a battlefield grows still after the guns stop.
Men and women moved through the concrete halls with haunted eyes, their steps heavy, their voices low. Repairs were underway; welders sparked in the hangars, patching holes in battered vehicles. Medics shuffled between cots, their faces drawn with exhaustion.
And everywhere I walked, whispers followed.
"That's him."
"The machine."
"Did you see the way he tore through the drones?"
Some looked at me with awe. Others with fear. I couldn't tell which weighed heavier.
Lira found me by the comms station, her rifle slung over one shoulder, silver streak catching the flickering light. "You've become a campfire story already," she said, her tone half-teasing, half-wary. "They don't know whether to thank you or dismantle you."
I gave a humorless laugh. "Neither do I."
Before she could answer, the command alarms blared. Red lights pulsed through the corridor. Voices crackled over the intercom:
"Unidentified signal detected. Possible Dominion probe in the sector. All units to stations."
I stiffened, instincts—or programming—igniting. "Probe?"
Lira's hand tightened on her rifle. "Scouts. Which means the Dominion is sniffing closer than we thought."
We pushed through the rushing crowd, toward the central command hub. Helen stood at the center table, her jaw set, eyes like flint. A flickering holo-map projected the ruins surrounding the base. A pulsing red dot moved across the grid, edging closer.
"They've found us," Helen said flatly. "Not a full strike force, not yet. Just a probe. But where there's one, more will follow."
Her gaze cut to me. "And I think we both know why they're here."
Silence spread through the room like smoke. The soldiers stared at me—some reaching for their weapons, some just scowling.
Lira broke it first. "Don't start. He fought for us. He saved us."
Helen's voice was ice. "And still, he's their creation. We'd be fools not to consider the possibility that they're following his signal."
I wanted to argue, but something inside me twisted—because part of me wondered if she was right.
That was when it happened.
The room blurred. For a split second, my vision fractured—red code flickering across my optics, alien symbols I couldn't translate. A voice, faint but sharp, cut through my mind like static.
"Return. Unit-09. You are not free."
I staggered, gripping the edge of the table. My chrome fingers dug into the metal, leaving dents. Lira was at my side instantly. "Kieran! What is it?"
"I…" My voice crackled. "Something's… trying to reach me."
The red dot on the map pulsed faster, as if responding.
Helen's face hardened. "So it's true. They're calling to you."
"No!" I snapped, louder than I meant to. "I'm not theirs. Not anymore."
The systems inside me screamed denial—yet the code kept flickering, invasive, insistent. The Dominion wasn't just searching the ruins. They were inside me, clawing at the walls of my mind.
Deep inside me " I was trying to fight against the system"
Helen gave a curt order. "Squad Alpha, intercept the probe before it reaches the perimeter. Vale—" her eyes cut to me, sharp as knives—"you're coming with us. If you're compromised, I want to see it with my own eyes."
The air was thick as we moved out. Rebels fanned into formation, weapons primed, their steps echoing on cracked pavement. I marched among them, every servo in my body humming, fighting the pull of that phantom command still scraping at the back of my mind.
The ruins beyond the base stretched dark and skeletal. Neon veins crackled across the storm clouds overhead, casting jagged shadows through collapsed towers. Somewhere in that wasteland, the Dominion's probe was hunting us.
We found it at the husk of an old transit hub.
It was smaller than the drones I'd fought before—sleek, spiderlike, with eight segmented limbs clicking against the shattered asphalt. Its core pulsed with crimson light, casting a faint glow across the debris.
The rebels spread into cover. Lira crouched beside me, rifle trained on the probe. "Looks fragile enough," she whispered.
But fragile things from the Dominion were rarely what they seemed.
The probe's head swiveled, red optics sweeping. For a breathless second, I thought it hadn't noticed us. Then the static surged in my skull.
"Subject-09 confirmed. Initiating recall."
The words weren't sound—they were code. They crawled down my spine, dragging at my limbs. My hand twitched against my will.
"No," I hissed, forcing the servos to lock.
The rebels saw it. They didn't understand the voice in my head, but they saw my twitching movements, the strain in my stance. Murmurs rippled across comms:
"He's linked to it."
"He's calling it!"
"Shut him down—"
"Hold your fire!" Helen barked. Her gaze snapped to me. "Vale—prove you're not theirs."
The probe's limbs unfolded, blades whirring. It lunged.
I moved faster.
Servomotors screamed as I intercepted the machine mid-leap, chrome fists slamming into its armored frame. Sparks exploded across the asphalt. It shrieked, a mechanical wail that rattled my systems.
"Submit, Unit-09."
The voice tore through me again. My vision blurred red. My body faltered—then Lira's shout cut through it.
"Kieran! Fight it!"
Her voice anchored me, sharp and real. I roared, tearing the probe's limb clean off, wires sparking in the rain. It convulsed, still fighting, until I slammed it into the ground and drove my fist through its core.
The red light died.
Silence fell.
I stood over the broken husk, chest heaving though I didn't need breath. My optics dimmed, recalibrating. Slowly, I turned back toward the rebels.
They stared at me—some in awe, some in suspicion. Helen's face was unreadable.
Finally, she spoke. "You resisted them. For now."
Her words carried weight, like both a warning and a reluctant acknowledgment.
I glanced at the shattered probe, its pieces scattered across the cracked ground. Something inside me trembled.
If they could reach me once, they could reach me again.
And next time, I wasn't sure I'd win.