On the screen below, a single image flickered—a drone feed from what remained of a city called Geneva. A child, no older than six, stood alone in a crater. She held a torn flag in one hand and a broken toy in the other. She wasn’t crying. She was staring directly up at the sky. At the Odyssey .
Thorne didn’t flinch. He had memorized the brief: Three billion human lives lost in the first hour. Another two billion displaced. Ninety-seven percent of military assets vaporized. The numbers had lost their meaning somewhere between the fall of the Atlantic Wall and the surrender of the Pacific Fleet. Conquest Earth
“Order the flag to half-mast,” he said quietly. On the screen below, a single image flickered—a
He sat down in the command chair, suddenly feeling every one of his fifty years. She wasn’t crying
Thorne had seen alien armadas, supernovas, the death of stars. But that look—not fear, not surrender, but a quiet, burning promise—chilled him more than any weapon.
On the screen below, a single image flickered—a drone feed from what remained of a city called Geneva. A child, no older than six, stood alone in a crater. She held a torn flag in one hand and a broken toy in the other. She wasn’t crying. She was staring directly up at the sky. At the Odyssey .
Thorne didn’t flinch. He had memorized the brief: Three billion human lives lost in the first hour. Another two billion displaced. Ninety-seven percent of military assets vaporized. The numbers had lost their meaning somewhere between the fall of the Atlantic Wall and the surrender of the Pacific Fleet.
“Order the flag to half-mast,” he said quietly.
He sat down in the command chair, suddenly feeling every one of his fifty years.
Thorne had seen alien armadas, supernovas, the death of stars. But that look—not fear, not surrender, but a quiet, burning promise—chilled him more than any weapon.