Six months have passed. Charred land and unanswered questions were all that remained of Mel’Nitsa — until UGF scanners detected something impossible. A signal. A pulsing, rhythmic signature identical to Zone 37. At first, analysts dismissed it as a phantom echo, the dying memory of a city devoured by the Rift. But the readings persisted. They strengthened. They began to form patterns that no residual distortion could produce. And as the frequency stabilized, one fact became undeniable: This was no echo.

Zone 37 had reappeared.

Reborn on the opposite side of the planet, radiating with the same unmistakable energy that had destroyed Mel’Nitsa. Not dormant, not weakened — alive. Calling. UGF launched reconnaissance teams within the hour, hoping to reach the new anomaly before anyone else, but the world had been listening too closely. Titans and Rubicon intercepted the signal almost immediately, each convinced the Morningstar’s power — or whatever remained of it — lay within. They mobilized faster than UGF expected, racing toward the coordinates with full strike groups and expedition teams.

By the time UGF forces arrived, order had already collapsed. Civilians, scavengers, and opportunists gathered along the perimeter like moths circling a dying flame. Smugglers set up improvised camps. Relic traders bartered with artifacts pulled from unstable pockets. Some inhabitants even established their own banking system. The air buzzed with tension, greed, and fear.

Above it all, the new Zone hummed with intensity — too familiar, too alive, too hungry. Once again, the world stood at the edge of something catastrophic. As the Titans, Rubicon, UGF, civilians and Velmor all converge once more on the reborn Zone 37, the balance teeters on a knife’s edge.