Curse of Kaal
The enormous killbox room pulsed like a living machine. Eve knelt at its center, chained by a collar that suffocated her machine core. Her limbs trembled, her body, numb. Her squad — Kai, Anya, Jax, Mira — stood cornered behind the blast shields, bloodied and barely able to stand.
Before them towered Ranolg, brother of Virex, armored, wielded a cleaver-like blade humming with plasmic glow.
"I didn't come to kill you, Eve," Ranolg hissed.
"I came to prove gods bleed in more than one way."
He said and turned away from the kill box.
He raised the blade. The air stilled. His strike arced toward Kai—
—and something cracked, it wasn't electricity, it was dark matter like something moving around Eve in arcs and spikes, getting inside and outside her body like phantom ghost.
Her body jerked. Skin tore. A horrible, wet sound rippled through her spine.
Her muscles expanded — rippling, deforming. Her arms elongated grotesquely, joints stretching like molten iron pulled through glass. Her feet split and twisted backward into bone hooks. Her skin turned ash-black, armor-like — not tech, but organic fracturing like shattered glass.
From her spine erupted tentacles — thick, veined, swaying in the charged air.
Her face warped, jaw dislocating, fangs grew three inches jutting from a skull no longer shaped like any species known to Mira. Her eyes turned ventablack, deeper than shadow, emptier than space. She was the most horrifying and intimidating being Ranolg had ever seen.
The squad froze.
"E-Eve?" Mira whispered.
But this… wasn't Eve. this was Alien Eve. She tore through her kill box glass like it wasn't the material her Squad had tried blasting and what not.
Ranolg turned — and struck.
His blade slashed into her chest. The wound split flesh — and sealed shut in seconds. She stood still, bleeding black — and healing.
'How did she transform?' Ronalg looked at her in horror. The collar that suppressed her machine core was still wrapped around her neck.
Ranolg screamed and charged again. Slashed once. Twice. Claws ripped at her side — but she didn't defend.
She just stood there. Watching him. Letting him attack. Until her body grew again. Now she stood thirteen feet tall.
From her shoulders burst a second and third set of arms — massive and talon-ended and with the rage in all of them, she ripped Ranolg into pieces. He was on the ground — screaming — as Alien Eve tore through his armor, his limbs, his throat. Blood sprayed across the chamber walls.
And then… she turned to the rest of the thelarian soldiers. In minutes the floor was covered in limbs and scattered pieces of alien carcasses.
Eve turned to the squad.
Her black, clawed limbs twitched. Tentacles rose. Her mouth opened — a low, rumbling growl shook the floor. She ran towards them.
The squad backed away. No one moved.
Except Mira.
She stepped forward, slowly, between the others and the monster. Eyes closed. Hands at her side. Breathing steady.
Alien Eve lunged — stopped inches away. She sniffed the air. Her fangs dripped fluid. Mira didn't flinch.
Something in the monster hesitated. It wasn't memory. It was recognition.
Alien Eve trembled — then dropped on the floor.
Her form shifted — the claws and limbs retracted, skin reshaping. Tentacles crawled back into her spine.
When it was over, Eve lay unconscious, naked. Jax quickly took his jacket of and covered her.
.
.
.
Later – Medical Deck, Nomad
Eve floated inside a healing pod. Still unconscious. Tubes and lights glowed all around her.
Mira stood outside, arms folded, face pale.
Dr. Salam tapped the screen gently. "The machine genes were offline. Suppressed by the collar. And her nanobytes never activated."
Mira didn't look away. "So what was that?"
He exhaled. "I think what we witnessed was her alien trigger. But not like before. This was something else. Something… untethered. We know her genes talked to each other. Perhaps somehow, her alien genes adapted to the machine gene xenomorphosis pattern… or when her machine genes were suppressed they reprogrammed the alien core as a last resort. We never know what's happening, Dr. Kael made her code unbreakable. There is a reason his work is still studied by prodigals at Cetra 9."
"She's transformed before," Mira said. "Enhanced. Beautiful. Fast. That wasn't that."
Salam nodded slowly. "She's always had the ability to adapt — evolve to fit planets or species. Minor transforms. Controlled. Her alien genes so far have only been constructive, beautifying… I think her multi-specie layer also had a dark side when it comes to her survival. Her xenomorphosis is scary powerful."
"But this," he whispered, "this wasn't evolution. It was dominance. I don't know which transformation is more dangerous, the alien trigger or the xenomorphosis. What we saw was a prime alpha-form. She became something older. Something the alien gene was hiding. Like the most dominant and strongest alien inside her emerged and used the best of other species to manifest as a highly formidable hybrid… I don't know Mira," now his voice felt tired and emotional, "I'm just trying to get her back. With all my knowledge, I just can't crack her code." His face sunk in sorrow.
Mira's voice gave him a solacing embrace. "Will she recover?"
"I'll run tests. I'll do what I can," Salam said. "But this form… this alien trigger… we have no idea what its purpose is. Or if she can ever go through it again and come back."
They both looked at her — still, quiet, breathing softly under the glass.
And for the first time, Mira wasn't sure who — or what — Eve was becoming. Things had changed since planet Kaal as Eve said. The alien artefact had somehow accelerated things. The IC reported increasing incidents of hostile alien attacks. New mutated species were emerging from the dark galaxy. Eve's visions were coming true.