The mutineers’ shuttle coasts toward the green planet with Karst’s Security shuttle in pursuit. Over open comms, Karst demands surrender while the mutineers argue for their plan. Lain tells Holsten that Guyen’s long-term strategy likely drives the chase: Guyen cannot risk rivals claiming Kern’s World.

The Security shuttle launches a drone as the mutineer pilot begins deceleration. Kern abruptly broadcasts in Imperial C, rejecting all appeals and asserting control. The Security shuttle starts drifting and the drone loses lock, revealing Kern has seized their systems but cannot penetrate the mutineers’ sealed controls.

Kern switches to plain speech, threatens destruction, and demands access. Scoles restrains Lain at gunpoint, while Holsten argues Kern is human-derived and resource-limited, likely preferring control over killing. Lain reconnects a quarantined database to the comms, and Holsten addresses Eliza in Imperial C, provoking a struggle between Eliza’s procedural warnings and Kern’s fury. Lain then rebroadcasts Kern’s original distress signal, garbling the satellite’s responses and buying time.

As the shuttle nears atmosphere, transmissions fall silent, then Kern snaps back: “No, you did not shut me down.” A searing strike hits; the craft tumbles violently. Automatic doors seal as the rear half is shorn away. The forward cabin—with Holsten, Lain, and the flight controls—falls toward the planet, their survival uncertain.