Location:Off-World — Beastkin World (Sacred Grove)
Date/Time:Mid Emberwane, 9939 AZI (Day 10)
Realm:Nexus Mission
Dawn came clear.
The grove's bioluminescence dimmed as natural light filtered through the canopy — the ancient trees adjusting their rhythm from night-pulse to day-glow, the transition so gradual that the moment of change was invisible. A bird sang. Then another. The forest doing what forests did on mornings that were indifferent to the decisions being made beneath their branches.
Jayde sat by the Heartstone. She hadn't slept. The Commander's discipline could carry her through forty-eight hours without rest before performance degraded — she'd tested it often enough in another life, on deployments where sleep was a luxury and staying awake was the difference between a plan surviving contact with reality and a plan getting people killed.
