It was the kind of day that could be lost to memory. The silence of space was broken only by the hum of the mining colony on Mars, a harsh, mechanical sound that no longer seemed out of place. Yet, for young Aric Hale, something didn't sit right. The stars outside, so distant and cold, seemed less like pinpricks in the vast canvas of black, and more like watchers—silent sentinels waiting for something.

The accident came without warning.

The mining drill, a massive, roaring beast designed to slice through the thick crust of Mars, suddenly halted. For a split second, everything was eerily still, and then, in an instant, everything shattered. The metal walls of the colony groaned, splitting apart as a massive shockwave rippled through the facility. The lights flickered, and alarms screamed across the halls, but it wasn't the panic of the moment that captured Aric's attention. It was the strange feeling in her chest.

A sharp, searing pain, like an electric current, shot through her body. She gasped, clutching her chest, feeling an odd sensation as though something was shifting inside her, something foreign. The pain was momentary, but the aftershock lingered. A light, like the glow of an unseen screen, flickered in her vision. It wasn't physical, yet it felt real—a translucent display of strange symbols and numbers, flashing and shifting in ways her mind struggled to comprehend.

"What the hell is happening?" Aric whispered, her breath ragged as she stumbled through the corridor, debris scattering around her. The walls were coated in dust and smudges from the tremor. The air was thick with the stench of burning metal.

She reached the command center, but it was too late. The explosion had already done its work. Her fellow miners, her crew, lay lifeless, their bodies scattered among the wreckage. But something else was there—a figure, tall and dark, moving with an uncanny fluidity through the wreckage. It didn't belong. Aric's eyes widened in disbelief as she recognized the creature—a humanoid alien, a monster.

Before she could react, the creature lunged.

The world went black.

When Aric awoke, it wasn't the smell of Martian dust or the cold metal walls of the colony that greeted her. No, she was somewhere else entirely. The faint light of a distant sun filtered through the translucent walls of a new space. Her body felt heavier, as though something had changed in her—something inside, something… awakened.

The display was back.

This time, Aric could read it. Her chest burned again, but the pain was different now. The numbers and symbols were clearer—her "status" had changed.

Aric Hale was no longer just a soldier. She was a mutant.

A sudden realization gripped her, more profound than the threat of an alien attack. The power was in her hands. Literally. She could feel it, surging through her like electricity. The ability to change her fate, to manipulate her very essence, was now hers to command. And as the numbers continued to shift and change on her chest, a deep, instinctual understanding washed over her.

She was no longer a pawn in the war between humanity and the monsters. Aric Hale had become something among the rest.