The freezing morning fog rolled thick across the shallow reef, turning the dawn light into a ghostly grey haze.​The strategy had worked, but the cost was screaming through the mist. The explosion from Nathan’s underwater decoy still rumbled in the distance, and as predicted, the three massive civilian barges had broken away from the Sektor Utara warships, their unpowered steel hulls scraping violently against the jagged coral of White Sand Island. They were completely grounded, tilting heavily in the waist-deep water.​"Move it! Go, go, go!" Kapten Jaka roared, splashing through the freezing sea.​He was holding a heavy hydraulic bolt cutter, leading dozens of the newly trained refugee milisia. They plunged into the waves, the water sloshing against their tactical vests as they rushed toward the stranded barges.​"Get the kids first!" Rahu shouted from the deck of the nearest barge, his iron chains rattling as he hammered his fists against the locked iron cage. "The

​"Keep the engines low! Do not wake the radar!" Kapten Jaka yelled over the dull hum of the motor, his hand tight on the throttle of the lead transport boat.​Behind his vessel, four more civilian speedboats—packed to absolute capacity with the shivering, terrified refugees from District 4—snaked silently through the jagged labyrinth of the shallow reef. This was the blind spot, a narrow, treacherous corridor behind the limestone cliffs where the high rock walls shielded their thermal signatures from whatever functional sensors Harris’s remaining fleet still possessed.​Nathan stood at the bow of Jaka's boat, his amber eyes scanning the burning mist ahead. His clothes were torn, and his skin was covered in soot, but his stance was steady. Right next to him, Anna was kneeling on a wooden crate, her sniper rifle resting on the boat's reinforced rubber railing.​"We’re almost clear of the perimeter," Anna whispered, her eye glued to her scope. "Another two hundred yards and

​"Tie them up!" Jaka shouted to his milisia as the boats bumped against the rubber tires lining the dock.​Nathan groaned, slowly pushing himself up from the deck plates. Every muscle in his body felt like it had been run over by a Sektor Utara tank after holding that massive steel mast back at the reef. He hopped onto the wooden pier, his boots squelching, followed closely by Anna, who was carrying her cased sniper rifle over her shoulder.​"You look like hell, kid," Liana said, stepping forward and offering Nathan a brief, rare smile of genuine relief.​"Felt like it too, Boss," Nathan grunted, stretching his back until it let out a loud pop. "But hey, we brought everyone. Not a single person left behind."​"Good job. Both of you," Liana said, turning her gaze to the hundreds of refugees slowly climbing out of the boats, assisted by Rahu and the harbor medics.​Before they could even celebrate, a tall man in a crisp, white paramilitary uniform stepped out

The neon opulence of Deck 2’s premier casino, The Golden Nautilus, was currently covered in a fine layer of shattered glass and expensive champagne.​Just minutes earlier, the massive panoramic windows overlooking the inner harbor had been blown completely outward. Now, the grand gambling hall was a chaotic maze of flashing slot machines, overturned roulette tables, and hundreds of wealthy tourists screaming in panic as they trampled over each other to reach the emergency exits.​"Above you, Nathan! Watch the rafters!" Anna’s voice cut through the blaring klaxons as she moved like a ghost through the shadows of the upper mezzanine.​Nathan skidded to a halt on the plush velvet carpet, his boots splashing through a puddle of spilled liquor. He looked up, his amber eyes flaring to track the targets.​Through the haze of smoke, he saw them—the Vane twins. They were notorious mainland assassins who had reportedly injected a highly unstable, optical-refraction bootleg ser

​"Move, keep moving," Anna whispered, her voice low but carrying a sharp authority as she kept her night-vision visor activated. She was leading the pack, her sidearm raised, while her left arm tightly secured the briefcase containing Alice's raw serum samples against her chest. ​Nathan followed right behind her, his shoulder supporting a stumbling Professor Alice. He let out a ragged, muffled cough into his sleeve, his throat still raw and bleeding from the chemical tear gas upstairs. ​"How much... further, Anna?" Nathan wheezed, his chest burning as he forced his exhausted muscles to keep going. "Every breath down here feels like inhaling battery acid." ​"Jaka’s sub-dock is another half-mile through the main filtration grid," Anna replied without looking back, her boots splashing through six inches of murky water. "The Council has already locked down the transit lifts. If we surface anywhere near the residential sectors, we’re dead. Watch y