For decades, Angelesia V has been the host of geothermal drilling and mantle tapping to get at mineral-rich deposits buried deep beneath its surface, but when an industrial accident ignites lithospheric mineral seams and fire begins to spread beneath the crust, the fate of the planet hangs in the balance.

The USS Procyon is dispatched as a first response, and their report back is harrowing: the subsurface fire is superheating portions of the crust, igniting natural flora and anthropogenic structures, and then, with the strong surface winds, settlement by settlement, that combustion turns into an unstoppable firestorm. Meanwhile, beneath the surface, the unstoppable inferno continues to spread outward, the planet burning from the inside out.

Fleet Admiral Reyes mobilizes every hull she can find, every ship from Polaris Squadron, every vessel attached to Archanis Station, and anything else that happens to be in the area. Their mission is simple – the preservation of life and the protection of property – but even if they manage to stop the fire, at what cost will it come? And what will recovery look like?