Watching a small coastal town and an old radio array from the hills, Lyria, Volga, and heavily pregnant Victra debate whether to risk the installation. Lyria senses the array’s vibrations through the parasite, and Victra pushes to use it to reach her forces. When contractions start, necessity wins: they abandon the array for immediate shelter.

Lyria secures a nearby fisherman’s cottage from Cormac O’Vadros, where Volga disarms the home and watches his children, Alred and Brea. Victra demands hot water, alcohol, and supplies, drafts a fifty-line cryptogram to summon Julii troops via the array’s uplink, and orders Volga—not Lyria—to send it after labor, keeping a guard on the room. Volga clutches Fig’s black orb and remains suspicious.

Over stew, Cormac admits ex-Fourth Legion service, a prosthetic from the Rat War, and warns the Red Hand are searching specifically for Victra. He offers the array’s access code. Lyria stays wary while Victra refuses to be intimidated, insisting this is her planet. In private, Lyria and Victra clash over birth customs and dependence; Victra recounts her mother’s engineered mine atrocity that fueled Harmony’s hatred. Lyria explains sparing the baby from revenge and is told to have Volga tie up their hosts.

As the storm peaks, Victra labors standing, unaided, catching the child herself and clearing his airway. Lyria’s parasite flares with the warmth of mother and infant, stirring memories of her lost family and a renewed belief in connection. Victra murmurs to absent Sevro that it’s a boy and later offers a benediction, naming him Ulysses.