With Malakor catatonic, the Eclipse's systems began to fail. The ship was an extension of his will. Without it, it was a dead shell.
Skodar, bleeding and exhausted, dragged Lyra and Kaelen to the boarding pod wreckage. He found a functional escape shuttle nearby. He loaded his comrades inside.
He took one last look at the sterile bridge, at the broken architect. He felt no triumph, only a profound sadness. He retrieved his staff and left.
The shuttle ejected just as the Eclipse, its core reactors going critical without directives, began to tear itself apart. Skodar piloted the small craft away as the massive fortress-ship erupted into a silent, blossoming flower of fire against the stars, before the vacuum snuffed it out.
Below, the people of Arthoje saw the second sun die in their sky.