In the Sons of Ares command room, Dancer briefs Darrow on a widening war. After the garden massacres, Roque and the Jackal seized the orbiting navy while Virginia rallied Augustus and Arcos ships. Their fleets clashed at Deimos, where Roque defeated Mustang and drove her into flight, though she likely survived.

Dancer shifts to Jupiter: the purge mistakenly killed Revus au Raa and his granddaughter, provoking the Moon Lords. Their heirs and allies stole Classis Saturnus at Callisto and declared the Moons’ independence alongside Mustang and Arcos partisans. Expecting the Sovereign to be bogged down, they miscalculated; within sixty-three days the Sword Armada arrived under Roque, who captured a moonBreaker, the Colossus, as flagship. After months of grinding war, Roque has taken Callisto; only Ganymede and Io hold. If the Rim capitulates, the returning fleets will crush the Rising on Mars.

On Mars, the conflict escalated eight months ago into open war. The Sons lost ships, allies are missing, and uprisings and reprisals spiral. Paramilitaries commit massacres, Legion units retaliate, prisons overflow, and camps conduct mass executions. The Sons conduct sabotage—stealing ships and destroying the Thermic Command Center—but cannot hold territory. Ragnar notes Reds break before Golds; Theodora explains the Sovereign’s propaganda and infiltrations blame every atrocity on the Sons, strangling their message.

Dancer adds that Harmony has joined and steers the brutal Red Legion, forcing the Sons to sever support and costing them moral authority. When Darrow asks what sparked open war, Dancer recounts the network lost in purges and the Jackal’s fake execution of Darrow. Then Sevro admits he broadcast Darrow’s Carving to every mine and holoSite, revealing the Red who became a Gold prince and conquered Mars.

The cause and effect are clear: Sevro refused to let Darrow die forgotten, turning him into a mythic messiah for Reds. The revelation ignited the masses and accelerated the war, but with the Rim faltering and the Society’s armada looming, the Rising faces annihilation if it cannot regain cohesion, message, and strategic footing.