The helicopter blades cut through the night air like a relentless
clock.
Jessica gripped the side rail as the aircraft lifted off from the rooftop
above the archives building. The city below shrank quickly, its lights
stretching into glowing veins across the darkness.
Above it all...
The ship.
Even from this distance, it dominated the sky.
A silent, impossible structure hovering high above Earth — watching,
calculating, waiting.
Jessica couldn't look away.
For a moment, she forgot everything else.
The countdown.
The mission.
The pressure.
All of it faded beneath the overwhelming reality of what hung above
the world.
"We're ascending to cruise altitude," the pilot's voice crackled
through her headset.
Jessica barely heard him.
Kessler leaned closer beside her, securing h
