Now, most of that old structure was gone anyway.
Many senior leaders had been killed, either by the Kharov or by the collapse that followed the infection.
A number of countries had lost any real ability to command, leaving only a few surviving military pockets. Some had simply vanished.
And because Caelan's homeland had survived better than most, and because so many of its upper leaders were dead, he himself had effectively become the highest remaining authority in the strongest surviving human bloc on the planet.
Aurelian had not expected to arrive and find someone like that waiting for him in the wreckage.
It was useful.
Very useful.
More than once, he found himself thinking that luck had favored him in a very specific way here.
Caelan himself was intelligent enough to understand the situation.
He had seen Aurelian seize orbit, reorganize the battle for the system, and begin stabilizing the world below in a matter of days.
