It was going to describe four operatives who put their weapons down when a former corps member told them thirty names.
It was going to describe an Archbishop who called a stand-down because the mission premise was wrong.
'It will cause significant professional difficulty,' he thought.
He'd told Cael as much.
'It's still the accurate record,' he thought.
He'd spent forty years being the most methodical man Cael Ashvale had ever known.
Methodical meant accurate.
Accurate meant this.
He gave the signal to move.
The team departed the staging area.
Caldris was last.
He looked at the settlement's smoke one more time through the treeline.
At the ordinary morning of a community that had been demonstrating something for years.
The demonstration was still going.
He turned.
He walked away.
=====
Satou stood at the gate until the treeline was empty.
