Wounded and fading, Ephraim pilots a Hornet over Luna with Pax and Electra strapped in. Pax has sealed Ephraim’s chest wound, but Ephraim can barely feel his hands. Hoping for Republic escorts, they open an incoming transmission that reveals the Syndicate Queen, who claims ownership of the ship and, by extension, them.

The Queen overrides the controls and turns the Hornet back toward the Syndicate. With communications cut and the escorts too far away, Ephraim realizes capture is imminent and imagines the torture that would follow, as well as what it would mean for Volga.

Choosing a desperate alternative, Ephraim doses himself with zoladone to dull the pain, locates the ship’s weapons locker, and gathers thermal grenades. He clusters them by the engines and sets a thirty-second timer before scrambling back to the cockpit and strapping in beside the children.

The grenades detonate, crippling the gravity thrusters. The ship lurches, spins, and loses lift, hurling them into a spiraling descent over the skeletal ruins of a Jackal crater. Accepting the likely one-way end, Ephraim rides the plunge rather than allow the Syndicate to reclaim Pax and Electra.