8.1.4 | Ccg

Elara felt the tears come, hot and silent. She didn’t wipe them away.

Elara knelt beside him. “Jin. We saw the Orion blow. We saw everything blow. How?” Ccg 8.1.4

“Captain—”

The letters glowed amber on the slate’s cracked screen. No context. No sender ID. Just the code. Elara felt the tears come, hot and silent

She closed her fingers around the chip. “I promise.” “Jin

“Escape pod. The old Mark Sevens—they had a stealth layer. Classified. I used it the second you sealed the doors. Dropped into the sea before the main reactor went critical.” He coughed, a wet, horrible sound. “Been here ever since. The pod’s recyclers… they gave out five years ago. I’ve been breathing scrubber sludge and eating nutrient paste that expired before the war.”

The slate pinged again. Coordinates bloomed across the screen. Not the gas giant’s upper atmosphere. Not the wreckage. A deep, geosynchronous lock on a fissure at the bottom of the southern methane sea.