The sweep operation targeted over 150 specific locations. Any structure flagged as suspicious, government administrative buildings, public libraries, military installations, or research laboratories was subject to a heavily armed, manual breach and clear.
The most dangerous objective on the map was a large body of water situated right next to the ruined city.
This would be humanity's first direct contact with a potential Gaia entity! The lake was roughly the size of Lake Superior, with a maximum depth of eighty meters. Orbital scans had detected sparse clusters of algae in the water exhibiting highly complex, unnatural movement patterns.
"Could this be an isolated nerve cluster of the Gaia network?" the researchers theorized.
Countless sensors, both orbital and ground-based, were trained relentlessly on the lake's surface.
