4.8 LIGHT

Juna and Mai sense their bridge-signal revive, and the Shrouded’s assault slackens. Amid damaged legs and arms, they find a recently torn-off leg carefully dismantled into sections, proving deliberate analysis rather than frenzy. They begin reassembly, but the Shrouded seize control, manhandling the pod, spinning it violently and exacerbating Juna’s and Mai’s injuries, including Mai’s broken arm.

After the rough handling ends, the Shrouded return the leg, physically reassembled but with hydraulics and electrics severed. Under intense observation, Juna methodically reconnects systems using the pod’s diagnostics, restoring partial function to a third leg. The Shrouded appear to study each step, seemingly learning how to repair human machines.

Juna wrestles with despair over failing systems and dwindling supplies but remains outwardly steady for Mai. Before they can move, several large Shrouded frames lift the pod with coordinated precision and carry it up an ice rise into a vast enclosed complex, deafening with EM chatter and glimpses of refracting ice corridors.

Set upright in a huge chamber laced with metallic meshes and pillars, they witness suspended carved spheres hung by fine threads. After debating their purpose, Mai identifies the assembly as an orrery—a representation of a solar system from the Shrouded’s perspective. The realization lands: they have found not only complex builders, but an unequivocally sapient civilization.