1.3 LIGHT

Juna presents extended footage from Drone Fourteen, revealing a flexing briar-like lattice above a likely subsurface sea and a vast, articulated “wicker” creature approaching as EM interference spikes. The team resolves to add flotation to new drones after realizing prior losses likely sank.

Ste Etienne accelerates modular drone builds; despite heavy attrition, several cores and air/liquid samples return. Bartokh establishes high-pressure vivaria full of Shroud’s microbiota and probes how macrolife extracts energy in an anoxic, hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

Seeking reliable access, Ste Etienne gambles on a polar space elevator anchored at the outward “pole.” After tense silence, the filament returns from below, enabling layered construction into a workable tether. However, the polar region proves biologically sparse, limiting data from ballooned drones.

Jerennian salvages Drone Twenty-Two’s descent footage, revealing constant temperature-cell hurricanes and airborne “kite-beasts” tethered like windsocks. Cross-referencing Fourteen’s last moments, Juna correlates the creature’s approach with EM surges and proposes Shroud’s biosphere uses active radio-like emissions for navigation and communication; first audio captures confirm an unbearable, continuous cacophony.

Amid mounting discoveries and fresh funding, workshop space is seized by three large, legged capsules. Confronted by Skien and Rastomaier, Bartokh admits he ordered manned vehicles, arguing humans can adapt faster than drones. Despite protests over gravity and pressure, construction continues toward a risky human descent.