Atalantia’s command, “Let fall the rain,” initiates the Ash Armada’s drop. Lysander is fired through a spitTube in his starShell, gripped by terror and disillusion with the “Noble Lie” of valor. He invokes the Mind’s Eye, recalling Octavia’s mantra—“Fear is the torrent”—to ride his fear instead of drown in it, stabilizing himself as the descent begins.

Systems checks complete, Lysander takes in the vast invasion as fleets pour toward Mercury. He glimpses the planet’s varied terrain and the storm systems below the shimmering shields, feeling both pride in human achievement and bitterness at war’s pettiness. Ajax rallies the force and shares the Grimmus creed, while Kalindora privately advises Lysander on thrusters, drag, and conserving shields.

Entering atmosphere, the Ash Armada bludgeons the massive breach with beams and atomics as the Republic fires back. Lysander’s century plunges through a hellmouth corridor and fractures into decades amid drones, missiles, and ripWing losses. Over the Hesperides, Seraphina detects a railgun E-spike; Lysander dodges a barrage as a comrade is shredded. Seraphina’s rockets hit the emplacement, Kalindora illuminates it, and an orbital strike cleaves the peak, silencing the threat.

Ajax regroups Decade One, teases and instructs Lysander to tune his dampeners, and orders the unit to clear the mountains while rippers hold the air. As Atalantia moves toward the northern breach, Decade One presses toward the Hesperides, bracing for an inbound “welcome party of aerial termites” and advancing the assault inland.