The silence of the corridor seemed oppressive as Dominic made his way back to his quarters aboard the UOP flagship. The mission ahead loomed over him like a shadow, but it wasn't the CMC command ship that weighed on his mind. It was something else, something deeper—a pulsing, gnawing sensation at the back of his skull.
His neural implant, the very device that had made him a capable mech pilot, had been malfunctioning ever since his encounter with the CMC Titan. At first, he thought it was the stress of the battle, the rush of adrenaline clouding his senses. But the more he tried to ignore it, the worse it became.
By the time he reached his room, his vision blurred, and a sharp pain sliced through his skull like a hot needle. His fingers trembled as he reached for his helmet to disengage it, but the pain only intensified. He collapsed onto his cot, gripping his head with both hands as his implant began to sear through his mind.
"Dammit..." he muttered under his breath, his voice ragged, as his body tensed involuntarily. Sweat trickled down his forehead, and his breath came in ragged gasps. The sensation felt like his mind was slowly being pulled apart, as if something from within was trying to break free.
The implant had always been a reliable tool, an extension of his own mind. It linked him to his mech, allowing for lightning-fast reflexes and perfect synchronization. But now, it felt as if something had gone horribly wrong. His vision flashed, and the familiar UI overlays inside his cockpit flickered in his mind's eye, distorted and glitching.
"Focus," he grunted, trying to calm himself, but the pain surged again, making his hands tremble violently. The core. It had to be the core. The reactor inside the wrecked Titan—there was something about it. The energy from the CMC mech had been unlike anything he'd encountered before. It had been chaotic, volatile, and disturbingly... familiar.
His thoughts fractured as the pain intensified, a deep, insistent hum filling his head. For a brief moment, a flash of a memory hit him—an image of the core, pulsing in the Titan's chest, as if it was alive, connected to something more than just technology.
"No...," he muttered, forcing himself to sit up. "Not now..."
He stumbled toward the small med-kit on his desk, fumbling with his shaking hands. The last thing he needed was to be incapacitated before this mission. But as he reached for the med-stim, another surge of pain caused his vision to spin. The neural implant inside his skull buzzed like an angry wasp, and his thoughts grew disjointed.
Suddenly, he was no longer in his quarters. The room around him began to melt away, replaced by the dark, cold expanse of space. He felt the pull of gravity, the steady hum of his mech's thrusters vibrating beneath him. But something was wrong—something was watching him.
A voice, distorted and alien, broke through the static in his mind.
"You should have never touched the core," it hissed. "Now you're mine."
Dominic froze, his heart racing. The voice seemed to come from within him, a deep echo reverberating in his skull. It was like nothing he had ever heard before—part whisper, part growl, and entirely too familiar.
"What the hell are you?" he demanded, his voice low and hoarse.
"I am what you awakened," the voice replied. "What you should never have disturbed. The core is not just energy—it is consciousness. It lives. And now, we are connected."
Dominic's breath hitched as a cold chill washed over him. The core wasn't just a power source—it was something more. Something alive.
The pain in his head surged once again, and Dominic fell to his knees, clutching his temples as the voice continued to whisper in his mind. His neural implant had synchronized with the core's energy in a way that was never meant to happen. The result was a maddening fusion of thoughts, memories, and images—alien and fragmented, like puzzle pieces that didn't belong together.
"Stop this!" Dominic screamed, trying to push the voice out of his mind, but it was no use. The core was inside him, its consciousness a living thing now intertwined with his own.
In a desperate attempt to regain control, Dominic focused all his willpower into forcing his implant's control system to shut down. His fingers hovered over the emergency shutoff controls embedded in his skin, but the voice twisted and clawed at his thoughts.
"You can't escape me," it said, its tone growing more mocking. "I am part of you now. You will never be free."
Dominic gritted his teeth, his vision beginning to blur once more. He could feel his body betraying him, the implant feeding off the core's energy. The connection was growing stronger, and the more he resisted, the more his mind was at risk of collapsing under its weight.
"You won't survive this," the voice sneered. "But you can still serve me."
His heart pounded in his chest as he fought to push the voice back. But it was too late. The core was no longer just a mechanical artifact—it was something far more dangerous. And now it was inside him, bending his will, threatening to take control of everything he was.
Dominic slammed his fist into the ground in frustration, trying to regain some semblance of control, but the darkness was closing in. He could feel his neural implant slipping further out of his grasp, its systems not responding as they should. The pressure inside his skull was unbearable, a constant buzzing that threatened to consume him.
"I'll kill you first," Dominic spat, his teeth clenched, as the implant's buzzing grew louder.
And then, a final burst of energy exploded from within him, the implant's power crackling and flickering. For a moment, everything went black.
Dominic was left floating in nothingness, the space around him eerily still. He was alone. But in the distance, he could feel the cold, pulsing presence of the core, watching, waiting.
And somewhere, in the deepest recesses of his mind, he knew this wasn't over.