While scouting out a new campsite, Stick, Rey, and Mint fall into one of the Invid leader's "Genesis Pits" where she is doing strange experiments. Dinosaurs, monsters, Invid, and possession are all part of the evolutionary experiments conducted by the Inbit leader, the Refles.

Rey figures that the Refles is trying to figure out what the dominant species on Earth is and how she can exploit it. Stick and Rey find out, through the Refles' possession of Mint, that the Refles plans to exterminate the humans in favor of the Inbit's ultimate life form.

After crossing the Gulf of Mexico, the freedom fighters find themselves in a snowy mountain range. Thinking that they have eluded the Inbit for the time being, Stick's group is in high spirits, joking and eating one of their few decent meals. They do not realize yet that Aisha is an Inbit, and that the Refles is using her to track the rebels.

Unfortunately for the group, Sorji also finds herself and her gurab seconds in the mountain range, stalking the rebels. She is desperate to make up for her hesitation earlier, but finds that she cannot hurt the rebel known as "Yellow." She orders her troops to attack the group, and orients herself on the leader of the group.

The sudden attack splits up the group, separating them from their mecha. Their only hope is to utilize their snowy surroundings against the Inbit. Sorji confronts Aisha for the first time, and the Refles telepathically tries to bring her child back to the hive. However, she is unsuccessful, and Sorji is surprised by the appearance of the other freedom fighters.

Stick's group moves on, Aisha trying to forget the strange experience, and Yellow quite a bit suspicious of the Inbit pilot, it almost seemed she knew Aisha.