The Suryax-Ananta leadership knew within the hour.
Big D's intelligence network caught the movement immediately. The three alliances had broken their observation discipline. Scouts that had been carefully neutral for weeks were suddenly active and oriented. Fleet elements that had been idle were repositioning. The pattern was unmistakable, and Aryan laid it out across the war room projection without needing to be asked.
"All three of them," he said. "Coordinating. Oriented toward us."
Marcus exhaled. "We knew the blueprint would make us a target. We didn't think it would unite all three of them."
"It united them because it had to," Rudra said. "We hold the one thing all three of them fear. A fifth power with a Tier-100 weapon and decks they cannot read. They cannot allow us to develop it. So they will come for it together, and once it is dealt with, they will go back to fighting each other."
"Then we should not develop it," Lily said.
The leadership looked at her.
