Darrow leads the Howlers from a hidden Greenland base, embracing outlaw status as public opinion turns against him after Wulfgar’s death. Disguised as Society commandos, they seize a deep-sea crab trawler and deploy a stolen prototype submersible, with Winkle hacking the Republic network to mask their approach. Tensions simmer—Sevro doubts the plan to “release a psychopath,” but Darrow insists 1126 is the key to reaching Venus.

They descend to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain and infiltrate Deepgrave, the mobile ocean prison. With Winkle looping the drone grid, Min-Min pilots them to drill in through the desalination plant. Inside, the team ghosts through corridors, subduing workers and Gray guards with nonlethal spider venom and disabling internal systems, all while avoiding alarms that would summon patrol submarines.

Pressing into Omega Level—solitary for Republic war criminals—they reflect on the prison’s merciless isolation. The team advances to cell O-2983 for prisoner 1126. Darrow steels himself, wary of repeating past mistakes, as old enemies and moral costs weigh on him.

Opening the cell, they find not 1126 but a gaunt, tattooed Obsidian with his tongue cut out, partially scalped, and bearing black caste crescents—an apparent guard, not an inmate. Winkle’s system shows 1126 still “present,” yet his implant/collar cannot be tracked. With time short and extraction at risk, the team debates options until Thraxa points out the Obsidian’s gestures suggest he can lead them to 1126.