A lone, battered shuttle descended onto the landing field. From it emerged a haggard, aged Markus—the exiled traitor. He was not seeking forgiveness, but delivering a warning. He had survived in the wilds, finding a hidden bunker that was once a communications hub for the original human "Architect" faction.
"The Stasisists are a distraction," he croaked, his body weak. "The real Architect loyalists never left. They've been in cryo-sleep, waiting for a signal from the Continuity. The defeat of the Clarifier... was that signal. They are awakening. And they don't want to edit memories. They want to replace humanity with a perfected, hybrid species they've been engineering—a blend of human form and K'tharr logic."
The enemy they had fought in the past was not just an idea; it had a face, and it was waking up.