Deep in the station's hidden datacores, Ryan's decryption finally unearthed damning truths. He emerged from the secure lab ashen, clutching incriminating files.
The sabotage was no accident, he told the others gathered in the medibay. It was a planned demolition from within by corporate operatives exploiting lax regulations. They cut safety systems, covered tracks and fled, leaving innocent crews to die so profits would keep flowing.

Stacy's eyes blazed with righteous fury. We have to expose these vipers' scheme! But comms remain dead, and horrors hunt the outer halls. No one could safely reach the surface alone.

Yet where others saw only darkness, this crew found resolve. Captain Jake studied schematics, piecing together a desperate plan. "The escape pods are three decks down. If we create a diversion, maybe some'll make it topside to spread the word."

Preparations began in grim earnest. Ryan assisted Stacy in readying the wounded, while Monica and Dorian assembled demolition charges from salvaged scraps. No one gets left behind, Dorian vowed, fire renewed despite injuries.

That night, the brave souls enacted their do-or-die gambit. Charges boomed through the depths as Jake led beasts on a merry chase, calling on skills honed escaping death before. Stacy and Ryan hurried pods containing the injured towards salvation.

Something huge charged their group suddenly, having stalked them relentlessly. But they refused to be claimed so easily. As the nightmarish form lunged to grasp struggling crews, an inferno blossomed in its wake.

The diversion had succeeded - Jake emerged from flames unscathed. Together they raced the last pod to the launch bay as collapsing bulkheads closed in. At the final second, they hurled within and punched emergency release.

Black water rushed up as the pod was ejected from the doomed station's bleeding corpse. Through portholes, they witnessed final cataclysms reducing years of toil to scrap. But the true victors had been those who united against powers that strove to crush spirit through corruption. Though the station fell, righteousness prevailed.

Breaking surface at last, hope kindled anew as blinking position beacons guided rescue aircraft. The truth would be told; the guilty would face justice. And out of the darkness' deepest trials came fellowship that would see them rise again.