The Rockies had once stood as nature's final fortress—towering, snow-capped ranges that weathered centuries of storms, civilizations, and wars. Now, they were cursed monuments, pulsing with Bloom corruption. What began as minor infestations in scattered Colorado towns had grown into something far worse: a subterranean lattice of mutated root systems, hidden chambers, and gestating horrors beneath the rock.
Overwatch Command had seen the pattern before.
And Thomas Estaris wasn't going to let it spread east.
Inside the Missouri Arcology's central operations deck, the tension was palpable. Multiple live drone feeds hovered over projection tables. Engineers, analysts, and tacticians gathered around an enormous topographical map of the United States, now overlaid with radiation modeling, Bloom detection grids, and air route restrictions.
