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Alpha awakens amidst Neralis’ jagged terrain. The skies above are dense with swirling clouds and the ground beneath is teeming with glowing flora that pulses faintly, as though alive. The pod is irreparably damaged and Alpha’s systems, though operational, struggle to adjust to the planet’s magnetic field.

Surveying the area, Alpha locates the $OIL reserves buried beneath a massive crystalline cavern. However, the path forward is guarded by an unexpected obstacle: a network of biomechanical creatures that seem to protect the planet’s resources. They are hostile, attacking anything that approaches the cavern.

Meanwhile, Beta, navigating Vethra’s wastelands, discovers a hidden facility left by the Vethrans. Within, they uncover critical data: the chemical instability of $OIL wasn’t an accident it was an experiment. The Vethrans attempted to harness $OIL’s energy to alter the planet’s atmosphere but their actions triggered an irreversible chain reaction, forcing their exodus.

The tremor deepens into a quake, fracturing the cavern. Alpha is forced to leap onto a precarious ledge, clinging to the $OIL sample. A guardian charges, shattering the ledge and sending Alpha plummeting into the depths. The last thing they see is the glow of the sample, slipping from their grasp.

Beta receives a partial transmission from Alpha’s damaged signal. The static-filled message conveys their discovery: the stable $OIL on Neralis and its potential to save Vethra. Beta, now armed with the Vethran facility’s data, realizes the truth: the planet’s collapse was the Vethrans’ doing, not $OIL’s inherent instability.

Determined, Beta constructs a makeshift transport using scavenged parts from Zenith Station and the Vethran facility. They set a course for Neralis, desperate to recover Alpha and the vital $OIL sample.

Deep within Neralis’ subterranean depths, Alpha reboots. Damaged and isolated, they navigate the darkness, uncovering ancient Vethran relics. Among the ruins lies a recording: a Vethran scientist detailing their exodus. “We created the instability to force evolution,” the message says. “But in the skies, we found our undoing.”