Sabotage and Smoke

The false signal you fed back through the saboteur's device coils into the Aurelian's aetheric core like a snake biting its own tail. For a heartbeat, the engine room falls eerily silent — then every gauge along the brass console shatters in unison, glass needles spraying like hail. Steam erupts from a ruptured valve, scalding the air.

You stagger upright, goggles fogged, ears ringing. Captain Vance's voice crackles through the speaking tube, distant and strained: "Engineer — report! We're losing aetheric pressure!" The deck tilts. Beyond the porthole, Mercury's pale crescent rolls into view, and beside it the dark, geometric silhouette of the citadel.

Two consoles still answer your touch: the engine vent, and the reconnaissance pod's launch lever. Minutes. Choose.