Aiden stood on the command deck of the Worldship, staring at the fresh data pouring in from the Veil atlas. The display showed a cluster of new sectors:
three garden worlds with thick atmospheres and aggressive plant life, asteroid belts loaded with rare metals but shifting in unpredictable orbits, and one massive derelict megastructure drifting in the void. It looked like an old waystation, half-broken and silent.
"This is what we built the atlas for," Aiden said. Elizabeth nodded beside him. "Stable enough to settle, dangerous enough to keep everyone sharp. Time to push."
They assigned mixed teams on purpose. Sabrina and Luna took overall command of the flagship colonization fleet. Sabrina would handle ground operations on the lead planet, now called Garden Prime.
Luna would run orbital command. Flora stayed back on the Worldship to coordinate the science teams feeding real-time data through the Oath network.
