The first real argument about the Dominion happened three days later, but it did not begin with shouting, threats, or weapons drawn in the forest.
It began inside Atlas Headquarters, around a long conference table where half a dozen officers, analysts, and field leaders sat beneath bright ceiling lights and stared at a map that had become more troubling with every new detail added to it. The command center outside the room continued its usual rhythm of radio chatter, drone reports, and boots moving across polished floors, but inside the conference room, the air felt heavier. The western forest had stopped being an unknown stretch of green on their maps. It now had names, roads, settlements, industries, patrol routes, and a political structure that none of them could afford to dismiss.
