"...Euna! Euna, can you hear me?!" Hiro shouted into his left wrist.

There was no response.

Hiro checked the hologram map being projected out of his wrist. The green blip that represented his missing hand, which Euna was in possession of, was unmoving.

After the last tremor, which had shaken up the entire ship, Hiro had not heard anything from Euna. The tremors... they brought scenes of Commander Gant's demise to Hiro's mind. The multiple tremors signifying the breach of the layered hull of the ship was what lead to the destruction of the Carrier, the Vanguard. It had taken the position in the fore, and was first to fall.

Hiro had wanted to warn Euna that the only feasible explanation for the tremors... was that an Altered had breached the ship, but he never got the chance. A quaking tremor had shaken the ship, then a deafening rumble had exited the audio output before it went to silence. Something had gone terribly wrong. Wrong enough that Euna had dropped his hand even though he had specifically told her not to.

"Shit."

Hiro stared down at the cold floor as he wondered what to do. Then, he looked at the unconscious Augmented soldier that he had brought with him to the Armory. Hiro had torn away his limbs, not wanting to carry the excess weight. The unconscious soldier had served as his neural access key, allowing him to traverse the corridors of the ship unmolested by the system. His own neural signature had been flagged and deprived of his access authority rights. With nearly all of the Ship's guards sent to hunt Euna down, Hiro was given enough breathing room, to navigate the corridors and eventually reach the Armory mostly unimpeded.

In relation to where Euna was last seen on the hologram map, Hiro was two floors down and in the center quadrants while Euna was closer to the southeast quadrants. Directly above him, was the hangar bay and he would have to take the closest elevator shaft up and past the hangar bay to reach Euna's floor.

Hiro looked around the Armory idly as he considered his options.

Was he to continue with his original plan? Helping Euna reach the bridge and deal with General Corax was still a stretch in Hiro's mind. Bypassing the security measures in place, getting past elite Augmented guards and finally reaching Corax himself wouldn't be anything short of impossible. That is if this was a generic scenario. They were currently facing a Protocol Three crisis while also orchestrating the entire fleet in an organized assualt against the Altered horde. There was no doubt that security would be lax, and considering they needed every soldier out and contributing to the war effort, the Augmented commanders, including Corax, must be having a field day. With Euna, breaking into the bridge shouldn't be a problem. The real problem was Corax. Hiro still wasn't sure how to deal with the General other than outright killing him. If Euna didn't want to kill Corax, then whatever she had in mind was simply beyond Hiro. Hiro wasn't keen on talking, or negotiating if that was what Euna planned to do. The Augmented Empire would never negotiate or bend the knee in any sort of way.

If worse came to worst, then Hiro would have to come up with something.

But now, with the arrival of another Altered onboard, things were different. Much different. A hull breach was a huge deal. Especially a hull breach of the commanding ship of the fleet. It signified a lot regarding the current state of the battle outside. If the Altered could get past hundreds of Vessels and past four ships to attack the Abjurer, the ship which Hiro was currently on-board, then maybe the Altereds weren’t losing as bad as he had thought. Maybe they had somehow turned the tide of the battle, and were now gaining the upper hand. Maybe they had already destroyed most of the Augmented fleet, and was now sending one of their Altereds to single-handedly execute the last remaining Augmented Carrier.

Hiro shuddered as he imagined what kind of death he would face at the hands of the Altered creatures. At least it would be swift, compared to the Augmented Empire.

The ceiling of the entire Armory quaked violently again, erupting a cacophony of metallic clinks from the stockpiles of ammunition and armaments. He winced at the sounds as he turned his gaze to the ceiling. This tremor was different than the prior ones. It wasn’t as violent as to have shaken the entire ship but it was close. Yes, very close. Directly above him in fact. There was no doubt that whatever had breached the hull, was currently located in the hangar bay. If he listened carefully, Hiro could even hear the sounds of muted gunfire and artillery. Most of it however, was drowned out by ambient background noise from the core engine, a loud and constant hum.

He took one last look around him. The Armory was one massive floor that was directly connected to the hanger bay via massive cylindrical columns that doubled as personal and armament transport. Even now, Hiro could hear heavy thuds from the heavy ammunition crates being deposited onto converyor belts and being shuffled into the transport columns

Hiro took another look around the Armory, double checking for the last time. There were enough explosives in here to build a mountain. He hoped it was enough to bring a fortress down. After giving the place another look, triple checking for the last time, he patted himself down, making sure he had everything he needed then proceeded to the nearest cylindrical column.

He gave himself a pat on his back. He had accomplished what he had set out to do here. Now he had to check up on the hellish racket taking place upstairs. He had a feeling that he might find Euna there.

Suddenly, Hiro could hear the sound of movement behind him.

“Aughh… wha-what the…”

Hiro froze, dumbfounded at the sound of the voice. Then it hit him.

Oh shit.

His ‘ticket’ had awakened. He had almost forgotten about him. Hiro began to walk away faster, wanting to leave, then stopped.

“Why… am I… the Armory? Fuck! Where’s my Aug-limbs?!”

Hiro turned around with a big smile on his face, keeping calm as he approached the soldier. “Hey there! Looks like you just woke up! How was your nap?”

The limbless Augmented soldier had managed to prop himself up. He turned around and looked up at Hiro. When his eyes reached Hiro’s face, they went wide.

“Yo-you’re designated code: 7H14093Q8G3H! Pl-please spare me!”

“Sorry mate,” Hiro said flatly with a resigned face, “but do me a favor and go back to sleep.”

Hiro raised his hand, ready to strike. After knocking him unconscious, Hiro would at least bring him outside the Armory where he would have a better chance of survival. He couldn’t leave the poor guy to succumb to such an ill-fated death.

Hiro swung.

“Wait!” the augmented soldier flailed his stumps, “I-I’ll do anything!”

Hiro's hand halted above the soldier's neck.

"Anything?"

When Euna came to her senses, all she could feel was pain. Instinctively, her body began to repress the pain receptors. With the pain gone she could feel a constant, insurmountable force crushing her body. She tried to move but her body was pinned against a hard surface. She tried to open her eyes but only darkness came. She blinked, but everything remained smothered in darkness.

For a moment, Euna panicked. She sucked in a breath and immediately began coughing incessantly, trying to expel the dust and debris that had clogged her throat and nostrils. She focused, drawing herself inwards and allowing her somatic sense to suffuse her mind. She noticed immediately, that her body was severely damaged. She was regenerating but it was slow, impeded by the crushing pressure on her body. She realized that she couldn’t see anything because most of her face had simply been mashed to paste, including her eyes.

Her first objective became clear. She had to somehow relieve herself of the constant weight on her body. Feeling for her arms and finding them lacking, Euna focused her regeneration into growing new limbs. Soon she began pushing against the weight on top of her but it didn’t budge. With her somatic sense she picked a sequence. She felt her body grow additional limbs, but even with the combined strength of all her limbs could not move the massive structure on top of her. Gritting her teeth(whatever was left of her mouth) in anger and frustration, she made one final push against the insurmountable weight.

It didn't budge.

This what stops me from saving my people? A stupid pile of rubble? Euna lamented as she let out an exasperated breath.

Feeling dejected and at the brink of despair, Euna stopped pushing and laid motionlessly against the hard surface pondering her current predicament. Miraculously, the weight on top of her had fallen firmly into place with enough room that it hadn't crushed her completely. As Euna's sensory organs slowly regenerated she could suddenly feel heavy reverberations from the floor. Her ears picked up a loud, monotone voice constantly speaking in the background. She could hear the muted cacophony of gunfire and explosions punctuating every other moment. The sounds left little doubt that the Augmented were being attacked. Even without seeing, Euna knew that a fierce battle was taking place right outside the rubble and only an Altered could incite that much hysteria and pandemonium from the Augmented soldiers.

But who could it be? Is it… father?

Images of Regulus in his Altered form fighting the Augmented soldiers surfaced in her mind. Her chest tightened with excited anticipation. She wanted to help him, to join him in battle side by side. But more than anything, she wanted to see him and know that he was alive and well.

With renewed vigour, Euna infused her mind with her somatic sense and selected an Alteration code. One that she had never used before. Immediately she felt a sense of inundating nausea as her physical body began to change drastically in short spurts. Her limbs began to degenerate as her spine began to twist and lengthen. Bones broke apart into smaller segments and joints. She felt like she was shrinking but her somatic sense told her that her body mass had remained roughly the same. Euna peered through the darkness at her limbless body that had contracted and lengthened into a form that was akin to a serpent. She had retained her scintillating ebony scales and had grown a set of fine groove-like muscles that ran the length of her body.

If she couldn’t push her way out with brute force, then she would have to resort to more cunning methods. Her metamorphosis finally complete, Euna began to slither forward--well, she attempted to, but only managed to wiggle around awkwardly as she struggled with muscle groups that she had never used before.

Oh, this is harder than I thought. This is going to take some getting used to.

Similarly to when she had first managed to morph wings, it took a substantial amount of time to grow accustomed to foreign and exotic limbs.

Euna blinked despite already having a third transparent eyelid as her acutely sensitive tongue caught wind of an air current. She followed it, wiggling further through the decrepit maze of debris. Soon she reached a tiny gap where a ray of incandescent light had pierced through, bathing the area in faint light.

She pushed and some dust came loose. But the gap had widened. After a few more pushes, Euna managed to dislodge the rubble enough to poke her head through and see the ceiling outside.

She found herself in a massive enclosed area. Up on the high ceiling, were hexagonal holes which she recognized were entryways for the Augmented Vessels. It took her a moment but she soon realized that she was in the hangar bay. Although the area around her looked different from what she had remembered, she could still recognize the distinguishing features of the massive room. There were columns of intricate machinery that were connected from floor to ceiling with giant luminous displays hovering around them. Protruding out of the mountain of rubble that she was currently buried in, was a partially demolished metallic column. She quickly made the connection that the destruction of the column had resulted in the partial collapse of the corridor that she was in.

“...repeating. This is protocol three, all non-combative personnel evacuate to quadrants 2-1, and 4-1. Containment protocols are now under effect. Repeating…”

Over the blaring sirens, Euna recognized the loud monotone voice that she had heard while buried in the mountain of rubble. It was the voice that Hiro had said belonged to the ‘system’. It was repeating itself over and over again.

A deafening clash of metal rang out behind her as multiple quake-like reverberations travelled through the floor before reaching Euna.

She turned her gaze around to the source of the sounds, then caught her breath.

Near the center of the hangar bay was a squad of Augmented Vessels engaged in a cataclysmic melee with a colossal Altered. One of the Vessels was literally hanging by the leg out of the Altered’s elongated jaw. Scattered across the floor of the hangar bay were dozens of partially destroyed Vessels. Some of them were freshly decimated as evidenced by the gnaw marks, massive indents and plumes of smoke spilling outwards, but most of them were simply out of commision from prior confrontations.

Scurrying like insects on the floor were squadrons of Augmented infantry who aided the battle with long range weaponry. They peppered the colossal Altered with streams of blazing red projectiles as homing missiles rained down on the monster's shoulders. Here, Euna noticed that they were maintaining a higher trigger discipline than what she had witnessed when she had been ambushed by Captain Armstrung and his squad. The squadrons fired in an organized manner, firing in short bouts in order to avoid friendly fire.

Nothing seemed to have any effect on the thick stone-like husk of the Altered and only seemed to irritate the massive fiend even more.

Immediately, Euna noticed the lack of a distinctive golden mane that was a part of Regulus’s Altered form. To her dismay, she had no idea who the Altered before her was, only that it was likely not her father. Regardless, she was relieved to see someone from her village alive. This Altered was also noticeably shorter and bulker than what she remembered of the people in her village when they had transformed to meet the Augmented in the sky. But this seemed to be mostly due to the fact that the Altered was hunched over and dragging its disproportionately massive arms along the floor. Even so, the Altered stood shoulder and head taller than the Vessels that were currently trying to avoid being clobbered by the Vessel-turned-flail in its jaws.

With only her head sticking out of the rubble, Euna lost sight of the Altered behind the broken column as it clambered around on all fours, swinging the Vessel in its jaws and catching one of the surrounding Vessels in the chest. Most of her body was still trapped in the mountain of debris from the ceiling above and the base of the partially destroyed column. After a few moments of struggling, she finally managed to wiggle free. After regrowing her limbs, she climbed up the mountain of debris just in time to see a Vessel being flung into another. They collided with an audible clang of metal before skidding to a screeching stop a distance away.

Now that she was on higher ground, she immediately noticed the offending breach at the far end of the hangar bay. The massive gaping hole was at the edge of the ceiling, near one of the entry corridors. Multiple layers of reinforced wall had been sundered apart by sheer force of impact and exposing the interior of the hangar bay to the twilight of the early morning sky. Euna was stunned in awe, wondering what kind of Alteration trait had allowed the Altered to rip apart the hall of the ship with seemingly devastating ease.

Euna turned her attention back to the ensuing melee between the sleek skeletal frames of the Vessels against the disproportionately bulky frame of the Altered. The Vessels were arranged in a loose circle around the massive Altered, who she came to conclude was one of the male villagers by the thick, wiry hair on its elongated face. The silver-grey hair, rugged carapace-like armor and milky white eyes gave the Altered a sagely appearance.

For some reason, the melee had reached a standstill.

The stocky frame of the Altered was rock-still as its gaze swiveled around the hangar bay looking for something. The Vessel that he had in his mouth was no longer there.

The Vessels gave him a wide berth, choosing to skirt around the oversized and cumbersome Altered as they waited for an opportune moment to strike. They wielded a rectangular bulwark which was lifted defensively and seemed to serve as a shield according to what Euna saw of Lenveer. In their other hand was a straight-edged saber with intricate mechanical designs running along the flat of the blade and grip. Overall, the weapon seemed dull and ineffective to Euna. She doubted that the weapon would actually be able to do any damage.

Silently, the Altered glared at the Vessels who continued to encircle him.

Euna watched the stare-off with bated breath. The tension between them was nearly palpable, almost as if any sudden movement from the Altered would set the standstill into a frenzied bloodbath.

Suddenly, the Altered moved, lifting his bulky armored leg forward.

The Vessels reacted immediately, those facing the creature stepping back and those on the other side stepping forward. They seemed reluctant to engage the Altered and more inclined to maintain their enclosure around him.

The Altered lashed out, roaring as he swung his unequally massive arms. His arms extended unnaturally, exposing the thick sinew stretching taut underneath the jagged and segmented, stone-like carapace. At the ends of his massive arms were armored hands that were even more disproportionately large. Closed like a fist, they were like boulders swinging violently through the air.

The Vessels promptly took evasive maneuvers. Those in the front sprang backwards using their thrusters to propel themselves quickly out of range.

Euna soon got a demonstration of the metallic sabers, when one of the Vessels at the Altered's flank suddenly lunged forward. The entire blade lit up like an overheated metal, burning bright yellow as thrusters running along the back end of the blade propelled the saber forward. Trails of embers followed the saber as it began cutting a high-velocity arc towards the Altered. The cutting edge of the blade glowed a white-blue, reaching maximum temperatures as it sliced into the armor of the Altered before biting flesh.

The Altered howled an ear-splitting screech before rearing back and snapping its massive jaw over the attacking Vessel’s sword-arm.

Following in quick succession, the rest of the Vessels made use of the opportune moment. They surged forward collectively before striking the Altered in a similar fashion. Not wanting the Vessel caught in the Altered’s jaw to be used as a flail again, one of the other Vessels in the squad took action by simply slicing his comrade’s Vessel at the shoulder, detaching him from his entrapped arm.

The Altered had shielded its head with its arms taking the brunt of the damage before swinging wildly and catching a few of the Vessels around him. Most of them had already retreated, yanking their blades through flesh and drawing deep red ichor from the creature as they leaped away. Glowing hot grooves were left on the Altered where the armor had instantly melted into plasma from the heat. The Vessels flicked their sabers towards the floor, the thick ichor of the Altered was incinerated on the blue-hot edge of the blade, plopping onto the floor as black sludge. The resulting wounds from the weapons were difficult to regenerate with the mass of charred tissue left deep within the gashes.

The Augmented infantry on the ground took this chance to redouble their efforts, unloading more long range artillery on the wounded Altered. Some of the Vessels joined in, unleashing a barrage of missiles from their shoulder mounts and steady streams of high-caliber rounds from their wrists.

Watching this, Euna hissed in anger, wanting to slaughter the army of grunts unleashing hell on her kindred.

Suddenly, the Altered let loose a blood curdling roar as he pounded his massive arms against his chest. Instead of regenerating his wounds, he chose to grow more carapace over his body, becoming even bulkier. He clambered forward on all fours, starting off slow, then accelerating like a battering ram.

The Vessels quickly scattered, using their thrusters to launch themselves aside and into the air.

One of the Vessels was clipped in the shoulder and consequently sent spiraling out of control towards the ground. Another was caught in the Altered's grasp, as his massive arm had suddenly extended upwards, plucking one of the Vessels out of the air despite the distance. The Vessel struggled in his grip, flaring it's thrusters in an attempt to break free.

The Vessel’s frame twisted and imploded into a compact ball under the pressure of the Altered’s immense grip. The Altered strided forward, building up momentum as he dragged the compressed Vessel against the floor igniting sparks before thrusting his arm out in an underhand motion and releasing the Vessel. Like a missile, the Vessel-turned-ball shot into the air colliding with other Vessels before crashing into the far wall of the hangar bay and shattering explosively from the sheer force of the impact.

The Altered continued its rampage, lashing out violently as it chased the now disorganized Vessels all scrambling away.

Euna quivered with anticipation as she surveyed the battlefield. She noticed Vessels lying motionless on the floor from the recent exchange. Most of them seemed too critically damaged to continue and no one came out of those, but some of them had only received moderate damage, a destroyed limb or pulverized chest plating. For those ones, she watched as several Augmented Pilots emerged. A chest compartment had opened up revealing the Augmented soldier within who proceeded to climb out and fall onto the floor. During the battle, Euna had even seen Augmented soldiers being ejected from their Vessels, abandoning their metallic machines when it looked they would not escape the onslaught of the Altered.

As the colossal Altered trampled about, taking on the quickly decreasing number of Vessels, Euna spotted Augmented soldiers sprinting down the hangar bay in the periphery of her vision. Focusing on them, Euna noticed that some of them were in fact heading towards inactive Vessels that seemed to be out of commission.

Oh no you don't, Euna thought as she narrowed her eyes. There was no way she was going to let more Vessels join the fray.

She couldn’t stand by and watch any longer. It was time for her to join in as well.

Euna glanced down at her serpentine body. Although she had grown limbs, to aid her in climbing, she was still sluggish and simply too inept with her current Altered state.

She sucked in a breath and steeled herself, then began to alter her body again.