Alarms and sirens announce “SPITFIRE: TWENTY MINUTES!” as Lysander enters Lightbringer’s hangar with his drop century—Ajax alongside Rhone’s seasoned dragoons. He sets a tone of quiet professionalism, noting that all returning Praetorians and two house legions are committed to the assault.

Ajax needles Lysander about the gamble of Operation Polyphemus and whether allies would follow if he falls. Lysander insists on the plan’s merit, while Ajax replies he came to keep Lysander alive. Their exchange underscores both the risk and Ajax’s wary respect.

Rhone races down the lines barking preparations. Amid the hangar’s politics, Lysander pointedly gives his white “charmed” cloak not to a Praetorian but to the Red Helldiver headTalk. After addressing the ostracized Reds—exiled Martian Gammas and Mercury Votum miners—he charges them to “dig us a path,” and the Helldivers roar and mount their drills.

Berserkers dose and board under young Peerless officers, many novus homos drawn by Lysander’s vision; Lysander acknowledges they are expendable. At the tubes, he tells Ajax they will show Atalantia they are not her pets. Ajax instead reveals his deeper motive: he believes Atalantia killed Lysander’s parents, vows familial loyalty, and head-bumps him before loading.

Locked into his spitTube, Lysander battles nausea and panic, failing to find the Mind’s Eye before forcing resolve: “I am Iron. I am Death. I am Gold.” With the countdown tightening to ten minutes, he steels himself for the imminent drop.