Through the web of fractured glass, a faint, rhythmic pulse of amber light beckoned from the gloom. The drop pod. It was tilted at a grotesque angle, half-buried in a snowdrift

forward, her left leg dragging like deadweight against the sharp volcanic rock. Every inch gained felt like pulling nails from her own flesh, but stopping meant suffocating in the dark.

Through the web

pulled a mixture of metallic ozone and toxic ash into her compromised suit, sending a violent spasm through her chest. Vance coughed, blood spattering the inside of her cracked visor. She dragged herself

cacophony of red-tier warnings flashing across her shattered heads-up display. *CRITICAL INTEGRITY FAILURE. AUXILIARY RESERVES AT THREE PERCENT.*

Every attempt to breathe

wave hurled Vance backward like a ragdoll, smashing her frame against the jagged basalt wall before dropping her into the smoldering ash below.

System alerts screamed in her ears—a deafening