SecUnit identifies the buried hatch as an Adamantine-era construction delivery access near the terraforming engines, not a separate Pre–Corporation Rim ruin. Tarik powers the controls while Ratthi remains in the shuttle for safety, despite wanting to join the ground team. SecUnit, already struggling with fear and reduced confidence, opens the hatch and sends drones into a dark cargo receiving area.

The drones find an apparently unused industrial space with rails, lift equipment, warning signs, and two tunnels. One tunnel aligns with the terraforming installation, but the other angles northeast and shows faint active lighting. SecUnit investigates on foot and discovers that Adamantine builders broke into a larger, artificial Pre–Corporation Rim tunnel that is still drawing power, raising the threat level because of the planet’s known alien contamination history.

SecUnit reflects on the earlier Pre-CR contamination disaster and the danger of abandoned underground sites, then reports the discovery to the others. Iris and Tarik reluctantly agree the polar colonists may have been right about this place and that the team must check it. Ratthi is ordered to follow from the air in the shuttle, while Iris, Tarik, SecUnit, and ART-drone take an old wheeled work vehicle deeper into the tunnel after sending a report back toward ART-prime.

After about forty minutes, SecUnit stops the vehicle because a scout drone has reached a large underground hangar with multiple landing platforms and a Pre-CR aircraft-like vehicle. The discovery suggests the site may have supported major travel or habitation, and the team considers several possibilities: the separatist colonists may be dead, contaminated, safely isolated, or in need of evacuation before Barish-Estranza finds them.

SecUnit proposes scouting ahead alone, but Tarik and Iris object because they are trained for hazardous exploration. Iris then reveals that Tarik used to be in a corporate combat squad and was forced to kill, explaining his hatred of corporates and his experience with tense first-contact situations. After Ratthi clarifies that SecUnit is not an ex-SecUnit while alive, SecUnit decides the group will proceed together to the hangar entrance, with SecUnit retaining mission security authority.

As the vehicle resumes, ART-drone privately confirms to SecUnit that ART already knew Tarik’s past. ART explains that Tarik was initially controversial as a crew assignment but has so far proven useful as a mission specialist familiar with corporate tactics. SecUnit briefly worries that Tarik may have filled the security role before, but ART insists SecUnit is the security consultant.