Attica’s shield snaps into place, trapping Darrow’s group on the landing pad as Grays pour from the fortress. Under fire, Trigg finishes mining the bridge but is hit. Holiday takes a round to the ribs, her lung punctured, and Darrow administers a stim as they hunker behind cover.

The gunfire lulls; Darrow senses a Gold coming. Aja au Grimmus bursts from the doors, evades their shots, impales Trigg with her razor, and throws him off the bridge. A sniper shatters Holiday’s rifle, mangling her finger. Shocked and bleeding, Holiday fixates on extraction while Darrow keeps Victra and her behind cover.

Cassius joins Aja and calls for Darrow to surrender, invoking honor as soldiers and a ripWing approach beyond the EMP’s reach. With the shield up, sky rescue is impossible. Darrow rejects capture and argues that Cassius’s honor is hollow, choosing to protect Victra and Holiday rather than yield.

At the pad’s edge, Darrow listens to a groaning from below—the sound of a clawDrill. As Aja warns they need his body and Cassius tacitly invites suicide, Darrow reveals his faith in rescue from beneath. Saying, “Expect me,” he pushes off the ledge, hauling Holiday and Victra into open air toward subterranean extraction.