PROLOGUE

Juna Ceelander regains consciousness in a crash couch designed like those aboard the Garveneer, waking into pain, darkness, and disorientation. She initially mistakes the oppressive weight and noise for shipboard acceleration, then remembers they fell from orbit and that she is inside a separate pod.

Struggling against the couch’s restraint, Juna gropes for familiar controls and finds only dead panels. She recites her identity and role—Special Projects administrator of the Garveneer—to steady herself, acknowledging she was not meant to be on the surface of Shroud.

Juna orders external cameras on. Some interior panels flicker to life, but the feeds show only absolute blackness. She realizes the equipment is working; it is the world of Shroud itself that is lightless, crushing, and freezing.

As she forces down panic, a distant metallic noise reverberates through the pod’s multilayered hull. The structure shifts slightly, followed by a slow scraping like a claw drawn across the exterior, confirming a hostile, unknowable presence moving outside in the dark.