The Mercy of Silence didn't just sit in Aurelia's orbit. It bled.
Kane stood in the Aether-Chamber, his hands plunged into the ship's neural core. He wasn't taking energy—he was sending it. Using the stolen Dyson-Ring power, he broadcasted a "Void-Signal" across the galaxy, aimed directly at the Sol System.
"Sarge, what are you doing?" Vance asked, his massive frame shadowed by the pulsing violet light of the core.
"The System was a cage, Vance," Kane rasped, his eyes leaking silver smoke. "But it was also a filter. I'm breaking the filter. I'm sending the 'God-Feeder' frequency back to Earth. Every human who has the 'Glitch' in their DNA... they're waking up today."
"You're making an army," Doc realized, her emerald spores vibrating in sympathy. "Or a catastrophe."
"Both," Kane said. He pulled his hands out, the gold-wire tentacles of the ship retracting with a wet hiss. "Vance, Doc, Sully—take the Stellar-Vulture. Go back to Earth. Find the ones who don't go mad. Give them a Rank. Give them a purpose. Because when the Hegemony gets here, I don't want to be the only monster they have to fight."