(Planet Ixtal, Cult Assembly Plains, Unknown Soldier's POV)
The line did not seem to end.
No matter how far the soldier craned his neck, no matter how long he stared past the shoulders and backs of the men ahead of him, all he saw were bodies, banners, armor, cloaks, and more bodies beyond that, stretching across the plains in dense, unmoving ranks that swallowed the horizon whole.
People.
Just people everywhere.
"There's got to be like… billions of us here," he muttered under his breath, his voice barely audible beneath the low murmur of the crowd, as the realization settled in slowly that this was not a gathering meant for a practice drill, but rather a full-scale mobilization meant for actual war.
