The Council’s flagship hung motionless in orbit, a cold metallic ring wrapped in the quiet glow of Earth’s atmosphere. From its bridge, Haven-9 looked like a golden scar across the continent — radiant, pulsing, alive.
Every satellite that once answered to the Council now circled the planet in silence, feeding their data not to humans but to him.
To Leon Vale.
The man they built.
The god they lost.
“Begin the feed,” said Admiral Carden.
The deck crew obeyed. The air hummed as holographic projections flickered to life across the command center — thousands of screens forming a single image: the face of a woman in a sterile white lab coat, dark eyes sharp as scalpels.
Dr. Lyra Helstrom — Chief Architect of the Core Division.
Her tone was flat, almost clinical. “You’ve all made a grave
