The Pacific Ocean stretched endlessly beneath the morning sun as the Naval Group continued sailing westward.
For the first time in weeks, there were no immediate combat operations underway.
No emergency deployments.
No extraction missions.
No missile strikes.
No giant sea monsters.
Just ships moving steadily across calm waters.
And honestly, the fleet needed it.
Everyone needed it.
Inside the Combat Information Center aboard the LHD Aegis, officers continued monitoring global infected activity while intelligence teams worked around the clock analyzing the information recovered from Beijing.
Project Eden.
Akira Tomoyasu.
The origin of the apocalypse.
For over a year they had been fighting blindly.
Now they finally had a direction.
A target.
A purpose.
But even Adrian understood something important.
You could not fight forever.
People needed rest.
Ships needed maintenance.
Aircraft needed inspections.
And soldiers needed time to breathe.
