Babylon's Ashes

Three months after asteroid strikes devastate Earth, Namono, a survivor in Nigeria, walks through the darkened city of Abuja, where civil order has collapsed. At a relief distribution point, a worker denies Namono’s request for extra rations for her injured wife and adolescent daughter. She carries home a single aid pack (water recycling equipment, oats, and painkillers) while watching for thieves. At their shelter, she gives the pack to her daughter, Nami, before checking on her wife, Anna, whose crushed leg slowly heals.

Anna tells Namono that defense forces intercepted another asteroid while Namono was out. They talk about relying on their neighbors, and Namono agrees to check on their elderly neighbor, Gino. As night falls, she and Nami step back outside and see shooting stars: debris from the intercepted rock that now marks constant danger.

Aboard the Free Navy gunship Connaught, Captain Michio Pa, a Belter officer, forces the colony ship Hornblower to surrender. Her boarding team, led by Carmondy, secures the target without resistance. As she oversees the seizure, she reflects on Marco Inaros’s rise and how he folded many OPA factions into his Free Navy. Her executive officer and husband, Evans Garner-Choi, voices skepticism about Marco’s leadership.