64 parts Ongoing Second Contact: War of the Deep Valley
The war for survival was only the beginning.
Months after the crash of the Ardent Dawn, Commander Mizuno Kaede and her surviving crew have built a fragile foothold on the uncharted planet known as Zion - a world eerily similar to Earth, yet filled with ancient secrets buried beneath its emerald skies.
When contact is made - not with rescue ships, but with a new alien civilization - everything changes. The species that emerges from the Deep Valley of Ocean Bay are not the mindless predators the squad expected. They are the Ael'thari - a long-lived, tribal people whose lifespans stretch across centuries. Their warriors fight with precision older than human memory; their seers speak in voices that seem to echo through time itself.
At first, Mizuno seeks peace. But peace comes at a cost.
A human scouting team vanishes near the valley. Diplomatic envoys return in silence. Then the skies burn - tracer fire over the ocean, flames reflected in the waves - and the Second Contact War begins.
Now Mizuno stands at the center of a conflict neither side truly understands. Her orders are clear: secure Zion, eliminate threats, ensure human survival.
But as the war deepens, she uncovers truths that defy her command and challenge her loyalty. The Ael'thari are not fighting for conquest - they're fighting for memory, for the right to exist against a species that cannot comprehend time the way they do.
With her Shadow Squad fractured, alliances shifting, and her own command questioned, Mizuno must choose between following Earth's protocol - or following her conscience. Because on Zion, survival is not about who wins the war...
...it's about who remembers it first.