A Blue reports an atomic event on the dockyards’ west spindle, knocking out power and comms. Apollonius addresses Asmodeus via holo, insisting it was sabotage, but Asmodeus treats it as pretext to attack. Apollonius orders the station’s batteries to fire and rouses his forces, refusing to kill Darrow and Cassius because he wants another duel. He moves with his personal legion toward the life-support nexus, dragging the prisoners along.

Bulkheads seal and leechCraft drills begin biting into the corridor, trapping Apollonius’s column. He forms phalanxes at multiple breaches as Carthii waves hit: ramLads, berserkers, and Obsidian slaveknights. The corridor becomes a kill box. Amid smoke and ricochets, an Obsidian handler is felled; Darrow cuts his bindings and collar with a boot knife, stabs Vorkian under the arm, and recovers Bad Lass and Cassius’s razor. Together they fight low behind a looted aegis toward the rear bulkhead.

As the Carthii secure the breaches and panic mounts, the rear bulkhead opens, causing a stampede. A cut-down starShell strides in to cover Darrow and Cassius. The pilot is Sevro, alive and feral, who lays down withering fire and signals them to fall back. Cassius doses Darrow with stims and resFlesh while Sevro hobbles the smoking starShell clear and then dismounts to lead them.

Sevro guides them through maintenance tunnels rigged with traps to a tranquil viewing garden. After a brief comms exchange with Aurae, he blows out the window and tethers them for a controlled vacuum jump. They drift into the Archimedes’ cargo bay, where doors close and pressure returns. Sevro rushes them to medBay; gravity restores, and the Archimedes accelerates away from the embattled dockyards.