Miranda: Genetic Masterpiece by Jade Gretz

https://www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai/art/Miranda-Genetic-Masterpiece-1220431045

Miranda: Genetic Masterpiece ANIMATION

The Neural Tide

The survivors huddled in the maintenance tunnels beneath Omega Station like frightened children, their faces pale in the emergency lighting's amber glow. Miranda Lawson counted seventeen souls—miners, traders, a few dock workers—all that remained of the outer rim colony's three thousand inhabitants. The rest had vanished into the station's upper levels three days ago, their minds no longer their own.

"They're moving again," whispered Kamal, a grizzled freighter pilot whose hands shook as he pressed his ear to the tunnel wall. "I can hear them walking in formation up there. Like soldiers."

Miranda's genetically perfect features remained impassive, but her omni-tool's readings made her stomach clench. The neural dampening field she'd erected was weakening. Soon, the experimental technology that had turned Omega Station into a nightmare would find them.

"How much longer until evacuation?" asked Dr. Sarah Chen, the station's former chief medical officer. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and her usually pristine lab coat was stained with hydraulic fluid and worse things.

"Six hours," Miranda replied, checking her chronometer. "The Normandy is running dark to avoid detection, but they'll extract us at the rendezvous point."

If we live that long, she thought but didn't say.

The nightmare had begun four days ago when a Cerberus research vessel—one of the Illusive Man's more questionable projects—had docked with Omega Station. The ship's manifest listed agricultural equipment, but Miranda knew better. She'd been tracking this particular cell for months, following whispers of human enhancement experiments that made her own genetic modifications look primitive by comparison.

The research team had been testing something called Project Mindbridge—a neural interface that could override free will and turn ordinary humans into perfect soldiers. But something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong.

"Miss Lawson," came a small voice from the shadows. Tessa, a twelve-year-old girl whose parents had been among the first to disappear, clutched a makeshift doll fashioned from scrap metal and fabric. "Are the bad people going to find us?"

Miranda knelt beside the child, her biotic aura shimmering faintly blue in the darkness. "Not if I can help it, sweetheart. I promise."

The words felt hollow even as she spoke them. Miranda had made many promises in her life, most of them broken by circumstance or betrayal. But this child's trust demanded something more than her usual calculated pragmatism.

A new sound echoed through the tunnels—metallic scraping, like claws on steel. The survivors pressed closer together, and Miranda felt their terror like a physical weight. Her biotic barriers were strong, but they couldn't protect against fear itself.

"They're trying to break through the sealed sections," Dr. Chen observed, her medical training keeping her voice steady despite the circumstances. "The ones they call the Enhanced—they're stronger than before. Faster too."

Miranda had seen the Enhanced during her initial reconnaissance. Former human beings, their bodies modified with cybernetic implants that pulsed with an eerie blue light. Their eyes held no trace of humanity, only cold calculation and an alien hunger. The neural interfaces had worked too well, overriding not just free will but the very essence of what made them human.

"The research notes I managed to download," Dr. Chen continued, pulling out a damaged datapad, "they suggest the technology was based on Reaper indoctrination techniques. But they tried to weaponize it, make it faster, more complete."

"Fools," Miranda muttered. "They opened a door they couldn't close."

The scraping grew louder, joined now by a rhythmic pounding that seemed to come from multiple directions. The Enhanced had found their hiding place.

"Everyone stay calm," Miranda ordered, her voice carrying the authority of someone accustomed to command. "Dr. Chen, take the children to the far end of the tunnel. The rest of you, whatever happens, don't look directly at the Enhanced. The neural interface can spread through visual contact if you're not properly shielded."

Kamal laughed bitterly. "You're telling us not to look at the things trying to kill us? That's your plan?"

"My plan," Miranda said coolly, "is to keep you alive long enough for extraction. Trust me or don't—your choice."

The first breac
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