Location:Seven Peaks — Command Center
Date/Time:TC1855.02.18
Three days of settling Bryn. Three days of flowers sprouting on walls and a five-year-old discovering that the world could be warm, and two boys who had never had a sister learning what having one meant. Three days where Raven was a mother first and a leader second because Bryn needed the mother, and the intelligence picture could wait, and the waiting was a decision, and the decision was correct.
On the fourth morning, the waiting ended.
Raven walked into the command center at 06:00. The formation displays were active — they'd been active for 26 days without her, running on the systems she'd built, maintained by the people she'd trained. The map table showed the continental view. The intelligence feeds pulsed. The progress board stood with its back to the wall, the number still there, glowing against the stone where nobody could see it.
Sanctum: 23,000. Status unknown.
