Sen Republic, Northern Border, "Musician" Defense Core Base.
This private military fortress, built upon an abandoned oasis and rugged mountain range, lay hidden in the embrace of yellow sand and wind-eroded rocks, far from main roads, with only a concealed dirt road lined with dense monitors leading to the outside world.
At the top of the towering sand-colored walls, barbed wire and hidden surveillance cameras covered, and on the watchtowers, heavy machine guns draped in desert camouflage silently swept over the scorching, undulating horizon.
The air twisted and shimmered under the midday sun, with only tumbleweeds rolling in the dead silence, rustling softly, adding to the somber mood.
Deep within the base, inside a reinforced concrete, windowless Tactical Operations Center (TOC), the atmosphere was even more tense and heated than the desert at noon.
