The northern sky above Mult was a crisp, cloudless blue, carrying a cool morning breeze across nine hundred hectares of freshly carved, open terrain. What had once been sprawling, quiet scrubland was now a massive, highly engineered hive of industrial activity.
High-definition LED displays flanked a wide elevated stage, their surfaces reflecting the bright morning sun alongside sleek white press banners bearing the official crests of the Ministry of Transport and Aurelia Capitals.
Behind the main grandstand, a long, disciplined line of pristine yellow excavators and heavy road rollers stood at attention, their heavy iron frames washed and polished to a shine for the national broadcast.
Hundreds of press passes glinted in the sunlight near the perimeter security barriers. Satellite news vans from every major network lined the outer tarmac, their high-gain dish antennas locked onto the capital's broadcast relays.
