The tactical display in Sterling Tower's command center painted a grim picture.Seventeen Remnant ships—massive vessels that dwarfed anything humanity had ever built—were burning hard toward the Old Ones' crystalline city. Their weapons were already charging, creating energy signatures that made the monitoring equipment scream warnings."Time to impact?" Jack demanded."Eight hours, forty-three minutes." Alia's fingers flew across her holographic interface. "And before you ask, no, we can't intercept. Even with the Valkyrie fleet at maximum burn, we'd arrive twenty minutes too late.""The Old Ones can defend themselves, right?" Marcus asked from his position by the door. His arm was still in a regenerative cast from the Vanguard battle, but he'd refused to stay in medical."Unknown." Ben Carter pulled up financial projections—useless in this context, but old habits died hard. "Our intelligence on their capabilities is essentially zero."
Read more