Back at the Elder Council building, now transformed into a frantic, makeshift war headquarters, Moth was a man possessed. He had opened the portals for Hye's auxiliary forces hours ago and was now obsessively tracking their progress. Despite the reports of Hye's miraculous advance, the overall strategic situation remained bleak.
The enemies fought with a terrifying, inexhaustible zeal, as if their numbers were infinite. If Moth didn't know for a certainty that this was his own homeland, he would have mistaken the sensor readouts for a war on a completely alien planet. The familiar stars were being choked out by the debris of fallen ships.
Left with only a handful of junior Elders who lacked his field experience, Moth stepped into the vacuum of leadership. He began arranging their inner defences with a desperate, sharp focus. His first move was to broadcast a rallying cry, stripped of all diplomatic pretension.
