After oxygen returns to the ruined locker room, Lyria steadies herself from vacuum trauma while Volga arms herself from the dead. They decide to escape and follow Fig’s blood trail through dark corridors littered with Sol Guard bodies, identifying the boarders as real Ascomanni, the Far Ink.

A fleeing Gold warns them to run. Sol Guards rally at a gravLift under a Gold leader, who verifies Lyria’s vacuum burns and accepts her warning that the enemy is everywhere. Motion sensors bloom with contacts, including small raiders in ducts. The gravLift opens and Volsung Fá emerges, addresses Volga by name, and offers her “Stains” before obliterating the cordon, impaling the Gold leader and butchering the rest.

As Julii forces reengage the gravity generator—cranking it beyond standard—the added weight slows Fá, letting Lyria and Volga escape through maintenance passages and a transit chute. They pass scenes of slaughter and reach a pilot ready room. Lyria presses Volga on why Fá knew her name; Volga can’t explain.

Volga then feints and kicks open a locker to expose an invisible Fig, dragging her out by the throat. Fig’s nanotech defense (NEDS) shocks Volga, but Lyria jams a pistol to Fig’s head, forcing Fig to stand down. Volga accuses her of past betrayals; Fig reveals her weapon is coded and mentions “Xenophon” cryptically.

Victra broadcasts shipwide: the raiders resist vacuum, radiation, thermal imaging, and pain; gravity is retaken briefly; evacuation begins; achlys‑9 nerve agent will purge the ship in ten minutes. Fig warns the escape pods will be ambush pens and proposes an off-schematics emergency escape craft beneath the bridge. Bound by a contract to deliver Lyria and Volga to Sefi, she offers to guide them; they opt for the hidden craft over the hangars and pods.