One week passed, and when the day finally came.
The staging area no longer felt like a place where plans were discussed, but like a place where those plans had already solidified into something real and irreversible.
The central plaza of our base was filled, four hundred gods standing in precise formation, arranged into their assigned squads with a level of discipline that only came from repeating the same movements and procedures over and over again until hesitation had been worn out of them completely.
Their uniforms were identical, dark and practical, designed with no concern for appearance beyond what was necessary for combat efficiency, every line and layer built to reduce visibility while allowing full freedom of movement in a fight.
Each soldier carried equipment that represented months of work, countless adjustments, failures, refinements, and testing cycles, all of it condensed into compact systems that could be deployed in seconds under pressure.
