Chapter 373: To live is to die
Chapter 373: To live is to die
**[Location: Vanguard Station]**
**[Time: 24 hours after hell]**
The command briefing room aboard the Vanguard Station felt smaller than usual, its polished steel walls reflecting the harsh fluorescent lighting that cast sharp shadows across the four figures seated around the holographic tactical display. Commander Cassandra sat with her back straight despite the regenerative cast on her left arm, her expression carefully neutral as she reviewed the mission files one final time.
Across from her, Commander Alexei Volkov—a bear of a man whose weathered face told stories of three decades fighting humanity’s enemies—leaned back in his chair with the casual confidence of someone who had seen everything the universe could throw at him. His gray eyes held the calculating intelligence that had made him legendary among the officer corps.
Commander Mei Lein sat to his right, her delicate features and quiet demeanor masking one of the sharpest tactical minds in the EDF. She rarely spoke in meetings, preferring to listen and analyze, but when she did offer her thoughts, even Volkov paid attention.
And then there was Pierce.
He sat at the far end of the table, his uniform immaculate and his posture rigid. But Cassandra could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands remained perfectly still on the table’s surface. He hadn’t said a word since they’d begun, and she intended to keep it that way.
“The Sirius Prime operation,” Volkov began, his voice carrying the gravelly authority of someone who had commanded soldiers in battles that most people couldn’t imagine. “I’ve reviewed the preliminary reports. Two hundred thousand civilians extracted from hostile territory. One SS class telepath recovered. Casualty rates within acceptable parameters despite facing a four-horn Harbinger.”
He paused, his eyes meeting each of theirs in turn. “On paper, it looks like a textbook success. But I’ve been doing this long enough to know that paper rarely tells the whole story.”
Cassandra activated the holographic display, bringing up tactical recordings from the operation. The three-dimensional battlefield materialized above the table, showing unit movements, casualty reports, and engagement timelines in glowing detail.
“The operation began as a standard extraction,” she said, her voice steady and professional. “Intelligence suggested we were dealing with a telepathic mass-control situation. What we found was something far more complex.”