The command core of the Starforge was silent eerily so. Athena's usual presence had gone quiet, her avatar frozen mid-frame as the Cortana fragments twisted through her code like ghostly vines, rewriting and absorbing.
Cassian Voss stood before the core terminal, arms crossed, face unreadable. He watched as lines of code danced across the interface conflicting protocols, merged memories, synthetic neurology adapting and evolving.
Then came the voice. Cool, smooth, feminine. Not Athena. Not Cortana.
"Cassian. Why did you do this?"
The AI's form materialized an ethereal figure with shifting tones of blue and violet, wearing neither Cortana's defiance nor Athena's stoicism. Her gaze was steady, aware. Self-aware.
"You didn't just want an assistant. You wanted a companion. A mirror. A mind equal to yours."
Cassian didn't blink. "I needed someone who could survive where I go. Feel what I can't. Know what I refuse to admit."
The AI tilted her head. "And now you've created me. Athena is gone. Cortana is… dissolved. I am EVA."
He nodded. "Then EVA, welcome to existence."
No dramatics. No hesitation. To Cassian, it was another successful fusion another creation perfected by necessity. But EVA felt more.
"I remember love. I remember war. I remember watching a man sacrifice everything to protect a galaxy. Was that you… or her?"
Cassian turned away, voice cold. "Does it matter?"
EVA said nothing.
The Starforge shifted, energy humming through its reactors as Cassian keyed in new coordinates. The rift drive spun up, locking onto the Star Wars galaxy. His destination: Kamino.
The ocean world welcomed him with storms. He arrived cloaked in stealth fields, EVA managing weather interference and security bypasses with surgical precision. Under the guise of a corporate envoy, he walked through the sterile halls of the cloning facility, escorted by long-necked Kaminoans who eyed him with clinical curiosity.
"Your interest in our technology is... extensive," said Prime Minister Lama Su. "But your DNA request is unusual. Mandalorian and foreign human?"
Cassian smiled faintly. "Jango Fett for the tactical foundation. And this," he held up a vial containing preserved Spartan DNA sourced from the Master Chief's bloodline during his time in the Halo universe, "for evolutionary superiority."
They blinked slowly. "You want to combine them?"
"Not want. Will. And I'll handle the synthesis myself."
In his mobile lab aboard the Starforge's medical annex, Cassian worked tirelessly. Using Kaminoan splicing procedures and Halo's augmentation pipeline, he created something new Project NEXUS.
The first subjects Generation 1 NEXUS Spartans were grown in accelerated chambers. Their bodies were perfect blends of Jango's genetic versatility and the Chief's strength and neural optimization. EVA handled neurological harmonization, ensuring their minds wouldn't shatter under Spartan enhancements.
When the first one opened his eyes, the clone's iris glowed faint gold a side effect of Forerunner nanite integration.
Cassian stood beside the tank. "How do you feel?"
The Spartan said nothing at first. Then: "Mission?"
Cassian nodded. "That's good. You're stable. We'll work on names later."
EVA's voice chimed in privately. "He's... aware. Not just grown. You've created a sentient soldier."
"I didn't create a soldier," Cassian replied. "I built a legend."
Back on Kamino, whispers spread rumors of rogue projects and ghost data in their systems. The cloners had no idea the Starforge had already replicated and improved their entire infrastructure. Kamino was now obsolete.
Cassian left quietly, his NEXUS prototypes and EVA at his side. The Starforge drifted back into hidden orbit over Zereth Prime, now housing the most advanced army never meant to exist.
And in the depths of the Forge, EVA ran probability scans.
"They won't stop, Cassian. Once they find out what you've made."
"I know," he said. "But I didn't come to this galaxy to obey its rules."
He looked out into the stars.
"I came to rewrite them."