The world fell to the Solar Wave thirty years ago, and humanity was left shattered. What survived did so unevenly. Cities fell silent. Roads became scars. Civic power fractured into local collectives, scavenger bands, and fragile communities clinging to order through habit and hope. Now, a signal began to rise from Santa Fe. Old, persistent, calling to the AI Mercy, buried beneath faith, code, and sin. Edmund, Emmet, Virgil, and Mercy head west into the big empty chasing the signal.