The fleet dropped out of warp near the rogue bio-world-ship. Scans showed it clearly now: the Symbiont Crucible, a massive living organism the size of a small moon.
Precursor bio-engineers had built it as a self-sustaining garden vessel packed with adaptive biomass. Elizabeth ordered the boarding team forward.
This thing could turn their Devourer fleets into self-healing organic hybrids, but only if they survived the joining ritual and tamed its core intelligence.
They entered through a wide blooming orifice that opened like a mouth. Inside, the air hit them thick and humid. The chambers pulsed with fleshy vines, nectar-filled flowers, and floors that breathed under their boots.
Every heartbeat made the walls react, sending ripples across the pink and red tissue. The sweet pheromones in the air made skin tingle and bodies ache with raw need.
