[music] Eliasbornne, you have served in operations that do not exist. >> Your continued existence now presents political exposure. >> Exposure.
>> Effective immediately, you are reclassified as a border contaminate. >> You will be removed from all public records. Your service record will be sealed.
Your name will not appear in any active military, colonial, or civilian database. >> Officially, Elias Vaughn died during off-world containment recovery. Do you remember her name?
>> That's what I thought. [music] >> The decision is final. biological surface test.
>> If you survive, we'll know the surface can take us. >> Dad, are you coming home? Atmospheric integrity compromised.
>> Trajectory unstable. [groaning] [screaming] Shoulder >> life support failure imminent. >> [snorts] >> alive.
I can't >> [groaning] [screaming] >> Do not follow the color, follow the motion. Pretty things still bite. The forest does not hate you, but it will not forgive carelessness.
>> If the forest does not hate us, why does it hurt us? [music] >> Because we are not above it. We live with it.
We listen. We take only what we can carry back. Fear makes the hand tight.
A tight hand moves late. again. Teacher >> behind the route.
Stay where you are. Lower it. Roots now.
Do not bleed here. No, >> my blood. [groaning and screaming] >> [groaning] [groaning] [groaning and screaming] >> inside.
Keep low. >> [groaning] [groaning] >> Stay in. [groaning] [groaning and screaming] [groaning] >> [groaning] >> kids.
[panting] Sky Blood. He brought them here. [sighs] >> Move.
>> No. >> He is from the sky. >> He stood before them.
>> He bled. They followed. And then he bled more.
>> He pushed it away. He was in front. >> He lives until the elders speak.
>> Help me carry him. >> Clear the settlements. Minimal civilian impact.
Dad, did you win? >> Almost. >> Dad, are you coming home?
>> Born, clear the room. >> Back wall. Go >> you said after the operation the priority window closed.
>> She's eight. There are many children. [music] Commander, >> Dad, are you coming home?
>> TCA, [snorts] >> clear the room. You came back for them. >> I'm sorry.
>> [sighs] >> for the fever. [sighs] bitter >> good medicine usually is metal. Fire Stick.
Sky Mark. >> You fell from the sky. Yes.
He brought hunters to the children. >> You stood for him. [clears throat] >> He stood for the children first.
>> One good moment is not safety. >> No. Why do you not speak?
>> You have reason not to listen. >> No weapons, no root paths, no children alone. >> I understand.
>> Heal him. Watch him. >> He's right.
>> I know. It's hard. Do not wait to see the teeth here.
Wait forward. It was ready to jump. >> Was it afraid of the bitter sap?
>> It hates what burns the nose. This closes small wounds, not deep ones. >> LRA, >> he was hurt.
>> Yes. And we do not know him yet. Kindness can wait at a safe distance.
Were you sent to hurt us? >> No. I was sent to die >> by your own people.
>> They stopped being mine before they sent me. >> You still carry their metal? I know.
I didn't come looking for children. >> But you found them. >> Yes.
>> A charm, a memory. Dad, >> are you coming home? >> Your child.
>> I didn't get back. Those are human engines. Let me speak to them.
Sky calls to Sky, not alone. >> I go too. >> Watch him.
Hands open. Stay between us. >> If they raise weapons, don't answer first.
>> Commander, don't call me that. [snorts] You were listed dead. That was the point.
Hold. >> We came for the pod beacon >> and the body. >> If there was one.
>> So you didn't come for me. We'll hold the perimeter. No shots, no logo drones over them.
Command wants a report. >> Status >> pod beacon confirmed. Subject Elias is alive.
>> Condition >> injured. Mobile with indigenous contact. >> Do not attempt extraction if contact risk increases.
>> Then what is priority? Continue passive survey. Mark all highv value biological structures.
>> Eden not in our file. >> Transmit preliminary Eden telemetry. sending.
>> I'm not moving. >> Did the sky drop you? >> Bad landing.
>> Why do you walk broken? [laughter] >> That was a very important officer. Does it bite?
>> It's a seed. [laughter] >> That doesn't answer the question. >> Is it cold above the trees?
>> Very. >> Why are your ears round? >> They came that way.
>> Why is your clothing so ugly? >> Bad supply. >> Are you the worst falling sky person?
>> Probably. >> Are all sky people angry? >> No, but angry people like uniforms.
The second sky vessel landed beyond the outer marsh. >> They came armed >> and the fallen man, >> their leader knew him. He called him commander.
>> Commander. >> The fallen man told the other one not to fire. >> And did the other obey >> for a moment?
>> Then he is not only a wound, he is a door. >> He protected Avagara's class. >> One rescue does not excuse the army behind him.
He is near the learning circle. If we let him walk, we invite what follows. >> No blood.
Not while we do not know the whole route of this. If we leave him where he is, more trouble will follow. No violence.
Not until we understand the whole root of this. Move him to the outer root chamber. Treat him with restraint.
>> That one explodes. >> No, that one sleeps. >> Lazy seed.
[laughter] >> What do sky people play? >> They build ships. Bad landing.
[laughter] >> Stand. >> What is this? >> The elders have spoken.
>> Did he do something bad? Keep it flying. He is wounded.
Root density increases ahead. >> Regenerative trace is stronger here. Active response recording.
>> FALL BACK. KEEP THE LINE. >> HOLD.
Compound separation confirmed. Seal it. No broadcast.
We leave quiet. The preliminary Eden sample has cleared containment. >> Viable.
>> More than viable. >> The tissue shows active cellular reversal markers, age decay delay response, and high genetic stabilization potential. >> Three centuries of human medicine, and the answer was growing in a forest.
Distribution range >> unstable under broad dilution. Effective processing requires concentrated continuing grade extraction. Good.
Public medicine creates expectation. Expectation creates pressure. Pressure creates disorder.
Then we avoid disorder. >> There is an irregularity. Elias Vaughn is alive.
Of course he is. He was always durable. Durable is not important.
Useful is important. >> Vaughn completed 12 restricted operations under conditional medical incentive. >> Conditional, not guaranteed.
Grief makes people hear promises where there are only terms. >> ROK also reports organized indigenous presence, tool use, defensive patterns, strong emotional and cultural attachment to the root structure, >> civilization, >> unregistered bioavasare population. >> Cleaner is no longer a survey site.
It is an acquisition. >> Occupation protocol >> controlled occupation. Root structure intact.
Population displaced if manageable. not exterminated. Labor and adaptation studies may have value.
>> And Vhorn, >> if useful, recover him. If inconvenient, erase him. A pawn that crosses the board still remains a pawn.
>> Authorization requested for Eden phase 2. >> Authorize. Deploy acquisition fleet.
Secure orbit. Isolate surface settlements. Harvest team to prioritize mother route.
>> Keep this off public channels. >> There is no public until we decide what survives. [music] Acquisition fleet has entered high orbit.
>> Surf response. >> No orbital defense detected. No electromagnetic shield.
No launch signatures. Dense biological interference around primary root mass. >> Surface access nodes.
Biological settlement cluster. First strike targets confirmed. >> Very well.
Initiate sequence. Avoid deep root penetration until harvest teams deploy. >> Root core preservation locked.
>> Begin isolation. Heat up here. down.
Down now. Do not look up. >> [screaming] [groaning] >> the medicines.
You first. Let me shoot. >> Your arrow will arrive after it is gone.
>> Then what? People first. >> Cluster A disrupted.
>> Proceed to cluster B. >> Indigenous movement increasing. Nonlinear evacuation patterns.
>> Do not pursue individuals. >> Break movement systems. >> [screaming] you.
Thank you. >> How did you get out? >> The cage came down after the strike.
You >> take the wounded. Take the young. Open the old refuge.
>> Put him down. Let someone else carry him. This is what I should do.
>> I thought it was only a story. >> Stories wait longer than we do. inside.
>> Elias You helped them reach this place. >> I know what made them need it. >> Then help us survive what you know.
We can still fight at the entrance >> against the sky. [snorts] [panting] >> No, we have hidden long enough. >> That path was sealed for a reason.
So was every grave. Walk with me. This was before your sky metal, but not before war.
No, we were dying. So, our ancestors asked Motherroot for more than shelter. They asked it for a weapon.
Did it work? Yes. Then it kept working.
It saved us. Then it forgot why. >> That is why it was sealed.
>> Our ancestors did not bury a weapon. They buried what they feared becoming. >> They are getting closer.
That is why I brought him here. >> Your hands have taken lives. >> Not once.
Not only in panic. No. Under command.
Yes. and under hope for my daughter. But that does not make the dead lighter.
The door will know that door. The door does not choose heroes. It only recognizes what stands before it.
One side opens to the one who knows killing. The other opens to the one who has every reason to hate and still refuse to feed the weapon with hate. >> I hate what they did.
But I will not give that hate to this thing. >> If it opens, can it stop the ships? >> It can.
>> That was never the question. >> The question is what it destroys after. >> Then why bring him?
>> Because the weapon will understand him and it may listen to you. No, >> you do not decide what I carry. >> There is one more law.
You cannot enter as you are. The guardian answers only to a lion. So I ask you now, will you stand with us?
I spent my life being useful to the wrong people. Let me stand somewhere that matters. Eleonian mother root.
Outsider motherboard. Then be counted among us. The old door does not open to courage.
Courage lies easily. Do not offer excuses. >> I did it.
Orders moved my hands, [panting] but they were still my hands. >> I hate them. I want them stopped.
But not because I want them to suffer. Because my people need to live. Do not take my hate.
Take my God. Remember this. If the guardian rises only to kill, we have already lost.
>> It feels angry. >> No. Why wake me?
>> To stop them. >> To keep us alive. Stand for the living.
What is that? Commander. And we have a structure breach.
>> Define structure. >> It's moving. >> God [groaning] left.
Now Jason, hold position. Second strike window blocked. >> It intercepted the penetration round.
>> It is stone. >> It is moving like a combat platform. >> Then classify it as one.
>> Disable it without breaching the root core. behind us. >> Executive channel override.
Council Prime, >> do not brief me >> again. >> Three aircraft lost, two strike windows blocked, one penetration round wasted. All under orbital superurities >> to a thing standing in mud.
>> The entity is intercepting close-range strikes. It is using its mass to shield the root zone. >> I did not ask you to admire it.
I asked why my fighters are burning under your command. You are the fleet commander, not a clerk counting wreckage. You have a fleet.
You have altitude. You have strike authority. And yet that ground platform is choosing the terms of engagement.
>> The root core preservation order lives. >> You cannot hide behind preservation. The root core is the asset.
>> The obstacle is not. >> It is standing on the surface. You are above it.
>> If you cannot bring down a relic that has to look up at you, get out of the chair. You were not placed on my flagship to explain resistance. >> You were placed there to end it.
It stopped. >> Why? Because they are guarding us.
Do not waste what they are holding back. [music] >> Forward barrier aligned. >> Root mass remains behind the entity.
>> I see it. >> Firing angle narrowed. >> Break the upper structure.
>> Fire. Come again. Target destroyed.
>> Even gods have material limits. >> Resume access operation. >> Harvest team standing by.
Send them down. [panting] No, >> it's gone. >> They broke the guardian and it stood [music] for us.
>> Don't look. >> We were too late. >> It saved us.
>> Do not look away. This is what it cost. Not yet, my children.
There is [music] still breath in you. Listen, >> Habara. >> Elias, >> I'm here.
I found you. I know. The mother root is awake.
The forest is giving us a path. Then we strike the source. >> Control, target is still moving.
No. Negative. It's not airborne.
It's climbing. Missiles intercepted by the roots. What the hell is it treating?
It's going ups. Control. We can't get a clean line.
Trying to leave. Well, it's not coming after us. It's going for something above the clouds.
Stabilize the core. It's inside the line. [music] Did it stop?
The fire stopped. Elias, hold us. Open the upper roots.
The canopy will be exposed. Then let it see what we choose. >> [music] >> Oh, I am >> [music] >> Skyfire has stopped.
[music] >> Bring them home. [music] >> [music] >> Dad, are you coming home? Dad, you came home.
