Hadron (Episode)

**"Hadron"** is the sixth episode of *Part II: The Battle of Borealis*, the second instalment of *Hyperspace: The Cosmic Gospel*. It is the fourteenth episode of the series overall.

## Plot

*As war edges ever closer, Elijah makes a desperate move. The conspiracy is unearthed. Kera acts on her instinct, with deadly consequences.*

## Synopsis

Hadron orders the soldiers loyal to him, revealed to be Rising Tide plants, to lock the core crew in their cabins as the *Unreliable* arrives at the enormous *Twilight* station. Docking at the station, Hadron and his minions remove the "Tsunami" capsule from the cargo bay and carry it to the biodome at the center of the station. There, Hadron meets Regent, who greets him as "Elijah Rayes".

Back on the ship, SHAE once more demonstrates independence and releases the crew from their cabins, revealing that it detected Hadron to be an imposter posing as Elijah that it can only obey the true captain of the *Unreliable*. Alia decides to leave the ship to apprehend "Elijah" while Gerren leads the others in re-taking the ship; Kera stealthily follows Alia off the ship.

The *Indigo Dawn* exits a fold and finds itself near *Twilight* station. Elijah believes that the *Indigo Dawn* is small enough to avoid detection and says he will leave the ship and safely phase down to the surface; to provide a distraction, he tells Lara to eject the ship's lightfold engine, which will produce an explosion large enough to destabilise the station without destroying it entirely. Lara tries to argue, but Elijah says that the explosion caused by the original *Unreliable* on Nexus Station was still small despite being a stronger lightfold engine.

Alia and Kera sneak through the station using silenced blasters and bioenergenics, finally arriving above Hadron, Regent and Rising Tide soldiers. Feeling their presence, Hadron unleashes a destructive telekinetic blast that destroys the balcony where the girls are stood, and they collapse on the ground.

Alia recovers first and fires at Hadron with her blaster, but he stops the blasts in mid-air and attacks once more. The two engage in a telekinetic battle by throwing debris at one-another, but Hadron gains the upper hand and begins torturing Alia; while doing so, his telekinesis appears to draw an energy field from Alia, causing her to scream. As Hadron is distracted by his newfound power, Kera recovers and attacks; Hadron easily deflects her telekinesis, his powers strengthened.

The *Indigo Dawn* is discovered just before Lara ejects and remotely detonates the ship's lightfold engine; the explosion devastates the station and it begins breaking apart. The explosion causes the central biodome to start to collapse, and the containment sphere rolls away from its carrier. Taking the chance, Kera creates a massive telekinesis field and throws it at the sphere; Hadron tries to stop it, but he misses and the field makes impact. The sphere explodes, unleashing "Tsunami" and blasting Regent and Hadron away. As expected, the human soldiers survive, but one bioenergenic soldier is somehow affected and transforms into a Scourged. Kera shoots it dead and heads over to an unconscious Alia. As she tries to wake her, she sees a figure walking through the cloud: Hadron, his left cheek now embedded with a vein of "Tsunami". Hadron laughs that he is unaffected and attacks Kera; although she tries to fight back, Hadron ultimately wins and once more draws energy from her, somehow gaining a diminished version of her telepathy. Laughing at her fear, he prepares to fire an incineration blast.

The *Indigo Dawn* flies above and Elijah opens the cargo door before leaping out. As he approaches the ground, he inhales and closes his eyes before he phases into nothing. Hadron fires his blast, but Elijah reappears between him and Kera and summons a barrier to protect her. Kera looks on and smiles at Elijah with a tear in her eye.

A shocked Hadron demands to know what is going on and Elijah attempts to calm him. He explains everything about Project Hadron and Hadron's true identity as nothing more than Elijah's reanimated corpse. Although Hadron does not believe him at first, Elijah mentions "a friend" that he loved and perished on the Green World, saving the rest of the crew, and asks Hadron for their name; when Hadron cannot recall, Elijah calms him and holds out his hand, offering him his help, a place among the crew and the chance for Hadron to not be what the Rising Tide made him. Hadron looks behind him at a groaning Regent and hesitantly takes Elijah's hand.

When Elijah smiles and tries to pull away, Hadron holds on tight. He begins to chuckle menacingly before ranting that Elijah is no different than the Rising Tide:

"I see inside your mind. You mean to *kill me*. To *erase* me. I see inside your mind. You mean to *kill me*. To *erase* me." When Elijah tries to say that isn't what he wants, Hadron interrupts and continues: "You say to *not be what they made me*. But what if...that is all I am? What if *this* is who I am?"

Hadron's grip becomes strong enough to hurt Elijah. He continues, "Yes. It's time I seek my own truth. And that truth...is *power*". With a jolt, Hadron begins drawing power from Elijah. Elijah manages to wrestle himself free and strikes a combat pose.

Elijah demands that Hadron stops; Hadron simply laughs and accepts "Hadron" as his true name. He continues ranting, "You took my *name*. You took my *purpose!* You took *everything* from me!. So I will take a new name, a new purpose...and I...will take *everything*....from *you!*"

Hadron begins a barrage of attacks, all blocked by a stronger Elijah. He begins by not trying to hurt Hadron, but unleashes the Traveller's Light when Hadron threaten's Elijah's crew and Kera's life. Hadron is temporarily knocked down and Elijah orders Kera to carry Alia back to the *Unreliable*, which she does before returning to help against Hadron. Hadron gains the upper hand when a piece of debris he launched strikes Elijah across the face, scarring the side of his head, and easily repels Kera attacks before pushing her against a wall. As the dome above them breaks apart, exposing them to the vacuum of space, Elijah releases a final blast of the Traveller's Light that forces Hadron to the ground before a piece of debris apparently crushes him.

Elijah picks Kera up off the ground and then saves Regent from being blown away. The three of them climb into the *Indigo Dawn* as both it and the *Unreliable* escape *Twilight*. Lara calls into the *Unreliable* and requests to dock; in the cargo bay, Alia orders the crew to exit the ship. Elijah steps forward with an exhausted Kera in his arms.

A tearful Alia orders him to put her down so Gerren and medical crew can look her over. Still aiming her gun at Elijah, Alia tells him that she won't be fooled again and tells him to shut up when he tearfully greets her. He lowers her gun and touches his chest, then his face, before kissing him. When Elijah reciprocates, Alia drops her gun and cries before hugging him tight. Elijah tearfully reunites with HIEdi and Hendrix before introducing Lara, Ryzen and Platinum to the crew. Amphear also greets the crew, who gleefully welcome him back into the fold. Elijah brings them to attention and says that they cannot relax yet, for Borealis is still in danger.

On the smouldering *Twilight* station, Hadron, badly wounded and coughing preservation fluid, crawls out of the debris. Freezing, he grabs a nearby overcoat and throws it on. Desperate and conflicted over his identity, he looks over the scars across his body before returning to the burning pain behind his eye. Using his powers, Hadron painfully extracts the camera hidden behind his eye; noticing a piece of text that reads HADRON on the lens, he crushes it before throwing the fragments aside.

Further exploring the cold and empty station, he lifts some debris to find a damaged teleporter. He tries to activate it, to no avail, and collapses to his knees, defeated. Agonized by the vein of "Tsunami" embedded in his left cheek, he tries to prise it out. Upon touching it, however, he finds himself weakly connected to the Egregore hive mind. Despite the pain, he touches the sample again and holds on.

Seeing inside the hive mind, he has a vision of Borealis covered in an ocean of curse, its cities on fire and its orbit clogged with debris. He realizes that the Calculator is seeking "Tsunami" to destroy both it and any planet that the Scourge discovers it on.

His vision continues until he finds himself on a scorched and barren Earth. Before him stands a figure in an overcoat, surrounded by green lightning and its skin burned away, revealing the flesh and bones beneath. Behind him, he sees Elijah and looks upon him with hate. Believing this is his future, he leaves the vision and is drawn to a nearby power core. With his newfound strength, he removes the cover from the core and stares at the blindingly blue block of element-C within.

Reaching in, his fingers are burned but he persists. Upon touching the piece, he begins to draw its energy into himself, filling him with incredible power. He continues until the block is dull and unleashes his new power on the teleporter, charging it within seconds to reactivate it. He steps inside the dropspace field just as Scourge ships appear in orbit above.

A beam fires down on the wrecked station biodome, from which the Neo-Forerunner emerges. It moves over to attack Hadron, but he smiles and broadcasts his intensions to the creature. Instead of attacking Hadron, the Neo-Forerunner allows him to leave before climbing onto one of the ships. Hadron smiles as he teleports away.