Firelight

Group accesses survival caches, treks south through hostile terrain. Thomas dies from Gray Death. Drones close in. They reach the southern military facility where Ailana uses Patrick's written plan to enter Colonel Geid authorization codes.

Haven Settlement siege with full tactical escalation. Two-wave imperial assault: probing first wave at gate breach, then coordinated two-direction second wave with shaped charges and mortar. Defenders progressively overwhelmed (20 to 9). Flares strip away darkness advantage.

Level Three was a laboratory. Not the clean, sterile environment Alonso had expected, but something far older. Ancient equipment lined the walls—cryo-storage units, gene sequencers, bio-containment chambers. Everything was still running, powered by the facility's geothermal systems.

*** Novum — Data Archive Facility *** Dr. Alonso Quentin The facility Ailana led them to was barely visible from the surface—just a concrete bunker half-buried in rubble, easy to miss if you didn't know what to look for.

Ailana tracks imperial scientists for three days, attacks their shuttle but hesitates, then is forced to save them from a massive Feral horde attack. The rescue becomes the dramatic climax - she fights through the ruins, leads the horde away, then sprints for the shuttle.

Maven survives tribunal, gains Council hearing role. Singh arrives with intercepted Emperor message canceling Hammer deployment AND detection of stealth ship approaching station - Ministry assassins.

Sara, unable to sleep after Greenwood, joins Dr. Quentin analyzing creature footage and boot prints. At dawn they search the ruins, finding a shelter with a warning message pointing south.

Ailana's sixty-day solo journey south following Patrick's death. Encounters survivors she cannot join, fights Ferals, finds and bonds with Ash. Discovers massacred convoy with logbook documenting their community. Learns ships have departed but finds coordinates for backup facility.

*** Novum — Greenwood Facility *** Dr. Alonso Quentin The entrance to Greenwood was exactly where the sign had promised—a massive steel door set into the mountain face, scarred and rusted but still standing. Alonso had seen bunkers before, relics of old wars on colonized worlds.