Vorian Atreides returns from a five-day solitary hunt in the Thornbriar Ridges and sees smoke rising from the Kepler valley where his wife, family, and neighbors live. The sight pulls him out of the quiet life he has built after centuries of war, hiding, and wandering; he has settled with Mariella, raised children, and tried to leave history behind.

Vorian runs toward the settlement and sees three large slaving vessels in the fields, with fires spreading through homes and crops. Two ships lift off before he can reach them, and the remaining slavers drag captives aboard, including Vorian’s son Clar. Vorian fires his old projectile rifle, but some slavers are protected by personal shields, so his first shots fail to stop them.

Vorian wounds an unshielded slaver, but the rest retreat into the ship and escape with the captives. Knowing that his family and neighbors may vanish into slavery if he loses the trail, Vorian interrogates the wounded man. The slaver dies, but Vorian secures the crucial information that the captives are being taken to the slave markets on Poritrin.

Vorian searches the damaged settlement and finds some survivors, including Mariella’s elderly brothers, who were likely spared because they were too old for labor. He then finds Mariella alive in their house, fighting a roof fire. They embrace, and Mariella confirms that nearly everyone young and strong was taken, while a few were left, hidden, or killed.

After survivors contain fires, tend injuries, tally the missing, and warn other Kepler valleys, Vorian and Mariella face the scope of the loss: only sixty people remain from several hundred, and ten who resisted were killed. That night, Mariella lays out family photographs while Vorian opens an old trunk containing his Army of Humanity uniform. Vorian decides to go to Poritrin to rescue their people and vows to find a way to protect Kepler, believing the Corrinos owe him that much.