On a remote mining colony, Kye Cortland, Dan Mor, is pulled into a desperate escape from a political prison. He is forced to amputate his own foot to save himself and the other prisoners from being shredded by the relentless mining machinery. Cortland is recruited into a rebellion against General Lang, who emerged victorious in a civil war against General Hatch. Hatch, a driven strategist, explains that Cortland’s father—an important figure in the rebellion—is destined for execution in a few months on Lang’s anniversary. With his skills as a pilot, Cortland is asked to hijack a scientific vessel, retrieve its data, and use it to help Hatch break his father free. He accepts, receiving a cybernetic foot to bolster his abilities.
Onboard Arrowhead, Cortland wakes from suspended animation and begins to infiltrate the vessel’s data banks. He worries that hacking the system could lower the ship’s defenses, but Hatch—Mark Redpath—assures him that the risk is temporary and controlled. A violent EMI flare disrupts the ship and damages it, forcing the craft to eject all the escape pods. Cortland escapes in a shuttle and lands near the pods on a desolate desert moon. The ship’s AI, RE3F, voiced by Shaun Micallef, warns him about a toxic atmosphere but refuses to grant a usable login without proper credentials. Amid the turmoil, Cortland must navigate a dangerous world where trust is scarce and every decision could cost lives.
Exploring, Cortland discovers the body of Norman Oleander, [Christopher Kirby], the ship’s former security chief, and an intact pod containing biologist Tarren Hollis, [Aleisha Rose]. He brings Hollis back to the shuttle and, after reviving her, uses her biometric data to activate RE3F. Hollis divides her loyalty between suspicion and pragmatism, arguing that Hatch has resorted to terrorism; Cortland, however, resists the accusation as propaganda. Hollis, who recognizes Cortland as a soldier who once served with her father, offers a fair trial if he accompanies her to a rendezvous point where survivors might be rescued. Cortland declines but then reappears when RE3F refuses to start the engines using Hollis’ login. A hostile insectoid attack suddenly erupts, seemingly killing Cortland and foiling the rescue attempt. A nearby obelisk resurrects Cortland, infesting him with a symbiote that heals every wound, including the severed foot, and Hollis and Cortland drag Oleander’s body to the same obelisk, reviving him as well and unlocking RE3F’s full functionality with Oleander’s biometric data. Hollis urges Cortland not to abandon Oleander, but Oleander’s revival turns him violent, and Cortland must kill him, collapsing soon after.
When Cortland comes back online, RE3F reveals Cortland was dead for thirty-four days. The symbiote has revived him again, and Hollis has vanished, apparently killed. With RE3F’s help, Cortland works to restore the shuttle’s power and escape the moon in time to try to rescue his father. He learns that the symbiote compels a transformation into an insectoid creature during times of extreme stress or pain. After an out-of-control transformation, Cortland misses his father’s anniversary. He withdraws from the world, spending three years on the moon, bonding with RE3F and learning to regulate his new form. During this solitude, an insectoid creature continues to hunt him; using RE3F’s data, Cortland discovers the creature’s origin in Oleander’s cells. He sets a trap and, in a dramatic confrontation, kills Oleander by sacrificing himself, only to be revived once again.
RE3F cannot offer information on its own; Cortland must ask questions to unlock knowledge. A chance remark reveals that Hollis survived the fight and may have escaped the moon. Frustrated by RE3F’s secrecy, Cortland scavenges shuttle parts to upgrade RE3F, giving the AI a mobile frame. He organizes an expedition to uncover Hollis’ fate and, while exploring a deep cave, uncovers two original bodies—Oleander and Cortland’s own—merged into a strange organism embedded deep within the planet. Cortland finally destroys Oleander and attempts suicide, but fails, triggering a self-preservation response that revives him again. Hollis had left the moon aboard another pod.
In late revelations, RE3F illegally provides Cortland with confidential information, exposing that the moon is the target of a relativistic time-dilation experiment. Hatch and Lang intend to use the moon as a weapon in their ongoing conflict. Hatch lands on the moon and reveals that only minutes have passed for him, having captured Hollis and threatening to kill her unless Cortland yields the data. Realizing Hatch never intended for Cortland to survive, Cortland refuses. He wounds Hatch with a grenade hidden in his cybernetic foot, then kills him by undergoing a final transformation. Hollis talks him down and helps him revert to a human form. With Hatch defeated and the data secured, Cortland and Hollis plan to leave the moon, determined to free Cortland’s father and everyone else caught in the crossfire.
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