The situation room beneath the United Nations was a study in controlled panic. The air was thick with the smell of stale coffee, cold sweat, and the faint, sterile scent of the room's advanced filtration system. Holographic maps of global hotspots glowed on the central table, each flashing red where entity activity had been reported. The faces of the permanent members of the Security Council were etched with a fatigue that no amount of coffee could cure.
The video feed from Los Angeles played on a loop on a large secondary screen: the chaotic division of entities, the brutal civil war, the military's targeted strikes, and the subsequent collapse of that targeting, leaving a morass of violence. It was this last part that had everyone on edge.
