The Harvester's final, grand, and very dramatic offer of "surrender or die" was met with a quiet, steely silence on the bridge of The Argo. They had come too far, fought too hard, and sat through too many boring, high-stakes meetings to give up now.
Ryan knew, with a deep, and very tired, certainty, that this was not a fight that could be won with ships or guns. The Harvest was not an attack; it was a fundamental process, a new and very unpleasant rule that had been added to the game of reality. The fleet could not fight it. Ilsa Varkov could not punch it. Zara could not out-think it.
This was a battle of concepts. A duel between the two, polar opposite ideas that were now at war for the very soul of the universe. It was a fight between the Gardener's champion of perfect, sterile Order, and the universe's own, stubborn, and very messy champion of chaotic, unpredictable Life.
It was a fight that only he could have.
