The skiff bucked hard as it punched through Mars’ thin atmosphere, its patched engines screaming in protest. Tim Watt gritted his teeth, knuckles white on the controls. Jax clung to the side rail, cursing with every violent jolt.Below them, the colony was already a sea of fire, the domes collapsing one by one under Syndicate bombardment. The sight stabbed through Tim’s chest sharper than any blade. He had nothing left there—no family, no home, not even ashes worth returning to.Ahead, the night sky glittered with stars. Freedom. Escape. Maybe even answers.“Engines won’t hold,” Jax shouted over the alarms. “We’ll burn out before we clear orbit!”“They’ll hold,” Tim snapped, though he wasn’t sure if he believed it. The gauges wavered deep in the red. The skiff wasn’t built for spaceflight, just short hops across the desert. But turning back wasn’t an option.Another tremor rattled the hull as plasma fire streaked past them, Syndicate drones cutting through the upper atmosphere in purs

The docking bay of the Nomad was nothing like the patched-up garages back on Mars. It was vast, clean, and humming with power, its walls lined with polished ships and mechs waiting like silent predators. Every step Tim and Jax took echoed against steel floors.Captain Rhys walked ahead of them, his stride steady, his presence commanding. Soldiers in dark uniforms lined the catwalks, their weapons cradled but ready. The way they watched Tim sent a chill down his spine.Jax leaned close, muttering under his breath. “Friendly bunch.”“Shut it,” Tim whispered back. The last thing they needed was to look weak.Rhys led them through narrow corridors until they entered a briefing chamber. The walls curved inward like a half-sphere, the center dominated by a glowing holo-table projecting maps of star systems Tim had never seen. Dozens of them—worlds beyond Mars, names he couldn’t even pronounce.“Sit.” Rhys gestured toward the chairs.Tim stayed standing. “You saved our lives. For that, I’m g

The Nomad’s training deck was a cavern of steel and light. Holographic panels flickered to life along the walls, projecting shifting terrains: deserts, ruins, asteroid fields. At its center was an open floor plated with alloys designed to withstand starship cannon fire.Tim stood there, palms sweaty, staring at the endless space around him. His stomach knotted tighter with every second.“Relax,” Jax said from the control booth above, grinning through the glass. “You’ll be fine. Probably.”“Probably?” Tim shouted back.The doors behind him hissed open. Captain Rhys strode in, flanked by Elara and the ship’s engineer, Milo. Rhys’s presence made the deck feel smaller, heavier.“You carry a weapon the Syndicate would raze worlds for,” Rhys said, his voice like iron. “If you can’t use it, you’ll be dead before we reach the next system. Today, we find out what you’re capable of.”Tim swallowed hard. “And if I’m not capable of anything?”Rhys’s gaze didn’t waver. “Then you’re a liability.”T

The Nomad groaned under the Syndicate frigate’s barrage. Alarms screamed across the bridge, sparks flying from overhead conduits. Every blast rattled Tim’s bones, as though the ship itself were crying outAnd then he realized—It was.The artifact’s pulse had spread beyond his chest, threading through his arms, his veins, into the metal railing beneath his grip. His vision blurred, overlaid with shimmering symbols and wireframes. The ship’s systems flared in his mind like constellations—engines, shields, weapons, all alive with hidden pathways.“Tim—what are you doing?” Elara’s voice cut through the haze.“I… I can feel it,” he whispered. “The ship. It’s inside my head.”Rhys barked, “Whatever you’re doing, stop before you fry my vessel.”But it was too late. The artifact surged, a tidal wave of alien energy that swallowed Tim whole. His breath caught as his consciousness extended, stretching past flesh and bone into circuits and steel.The Nomad became his body. He felt the thrum of

The chamber was dark, carved from black alloy that drank the light. Only the Syndicate’s insignia—a jagged red star carved into steel—glowed on the far wall.High Commander Kael sat at the table’s head, his armor gleaming like oil. His eyes, sharp and predatory, locked on the holofeed projected above the table: a replay of the Nomad’s escape. The ship’s hull flared with blue light, weaving through the debris field with impossible precision. The image froze on Tim—his face lit from within, veins glowing like threads of starlight.Kael leaned forward, voice like a blade scraping glass. “So… the relic has found a host.”A cloaked figure on his left bowed. “Confirmed, Commander. The resonance signature matches the lost archives. He is bound to the Core.”Another officer, scarred and impatient, spat, “Then we end him now. One strike cruiser is enough. He’s a boy playing with fire. Burn him out before he learns to wield it.”Kael silenced him with a raised hand. “No. A weapon of this magnit