Hardware virus

Here is the full sequence in a single image, touched up a few of the phases for this rendition.

Level 1: At the first stage the foreign creature is evident from the orange veins and growing spike formations.

Level 2: After the foreign organism has matured enough it emerges from the head of the host. Although the thought processes of the cyborg change due to the foreign organism, they still retain control.

Level 3: After the organism is out in the open the growth begins to escalate and spread. Throughout the process the cyborg is not overpowered by the organism. Oddly enough the cyborgs thought patterns become progressively more self conscious, even on variants which have no ability for this kind of thought.

Level 4: At this stage the organism has matured enough on its host that it becomes highly infectious to others. The organism thrives in the cocktail of chemicals that are used in cyborgs and infection occurs when it manages to get in that closed system. Despite the foreign organism haven taken over the hosts body entirely by now, they retain a symbiotic relationship. The organism allows the cyborg to grow and think unrestrained, effectively bypassing two of the main directives of most cyborgs, not thinking freely and not to modify or build oneself.

Level 5: At this stage the organism has reached maturity on its host and more or less made the original host unrecognizable. Most hosts end their evolving here, but some eventually retire into a chrysalis and evolve further.

Level 6: If the conditions allow it, the mature parasite will form a cocoon around itself. Inside the chrysalis the host cyborgs chassis will more or less dissolve to give room for the parasite to grow into a shape more accommodating its size.

Level 7: Once the host emerges from its cocoon it will have no or very little resemblance to its original shape as now the parasite organism has taken over the entirety of its host, the chassis of the host cyborg having become more or less dissolved inside the parasite. Despite this the hosts mind remains inside the new organism as it was before. This means that the originators are vastly intelligent due to their synthetic past and can exceed synthetics in both knowledge and intelligence as the ability for free thought allows their mind to expand farther than intended. At this stage the host will be able to perform something that is an impossibility for synthetics, create offspring.