The military operated with ruthless efficiency. Orders cascaded down the chain of command, and the troops were rapidly mobilized.
The weather over the target drop zone was clear and cloudless, offering excellent visibility. It was an ideal condition for precision orbital strikes, should they be needed.
Veteran operatives Marcus, Johnny, and Shane, alongside over five hundred fresh recruits, boarded dropships bound for the inland ruins of Digg 114.
To the Federation's high command, the potential value of a Singularity entity far outweighed the planet itself. The strategic payoff was well worth a calculated risk; otherwise, command wouldn't have rushed a ground deployment.
With orbital research stalled, the fastest way to gather intel was to find native survivors and interrogate them. Total global annihilation was incredibly rare; the odds were high that a fraction of the population had survived the nuclear fallout.
