In Sun Industries’ towering Zenith Spire, Virginia listens as Senator Britannia ag Krieg, negotiating for the Zenith Ring oligarchs, rattles off demands: tax breaks, deregulation, restored automation, and scrapped labor quotas. Thirty-three Silver magnates lounge above Hyperion, with Quicksilver aloof and distracted, his sentinel orb hovering, as Virginia measures her dependency on their war machine.

Virginia needles their vanity by calling out the colossal “Dawn of Hermes,” bought for ninety-four billion credits, then recalls how Krieg profited buying Red mines after the Rising. The contracts were legal, but the books show “net losses,” starving the very people the Republic meant to protect. Her patience ends.

Staging a shock, Virginia dons earcaps, takes Holiday’s anti-tank railrifle, and fires past the oligarchs, annihilating the statue and singeing Krieg’s hair. The Silvers dive; Quicksilver alone remains untouched behind a curious distortion, his sentinel even reporting a man’s hearing loss. Virginia savages their extortion and invokes patriotism, signaling she won’t be blackmailed.

She orders a recording sent and delivers an ultimatum: five seconds to make their senators vote with her or face proportionate punishment. Quicksilver sneers “quid pro quo,” but Virginia leaves, insisting Silvers are replaceable and predicting they’ll return begging. In the shuttle, she savors the move, doubts Sefi will strike before the vote, claims half the Silvers already, and redirects to Sunhall to address Sevro’s latest mess.