TIARA MCKENZIE'S POINT OF VIEW
The city's skyline remained veiled in the hush of pre-dawn darkness as the final operation commenced. A dense fog pressed low to the ground, softening the sharp glint of streetlamps and casting the streets in a spectral luminescence. Silence reigned, but it was a fragile illusion. Beneath it surged a thousand synchronized heartbeats, each one tuned to urgency and resolve. Drones whispered overhead, their sensors sweeping for heat signatures. Clad in black, the operatives moved like shadows, slipping through alleyways with phantom precision. No sirens pierced the night. No warnings echoed through the air. Only silence, coiled, tense, and ready to snap.
Aveline had vanished into the smoke after triggering the final wave of charges meant to scatter the Irenic. But we held our ground. Eli and I had moved as one through the chaos, until a sudden detonation collapsed a stairwell and forced us apart. I saw him vanish behind a cascade of rubble and fire, his sho
