The last sound of the Genesis Wave faded, leaving behind a silence so deep and complete it seemed to have a physical weight. The frantic, screaming alarm alarms were gone. The brutal roar of Marauder weapons was gone.
The very memory of the battle felt distant, like a bad dream that was already dissolving in the morning light.
Ryan pushed himself to his feet, his body aching with a profound exhaustion he had never known. He looked out from the Enclave's main viewport.
The swirling, angry storm of the Collapsed Star god was gone. In its place was a sight of breathtaking, impossible beauty. A brand new nebula, the Genesis Nebula, swirled with the soft, gentle colors of a painter's masterpiece.
Deep blues bled into soft pinks, and ribbons of golden light drifted through clouds of stardust. Deep within its heart, tiny new pinpricks of light were beginning to flicker into existence, the first stars of a new constellation.
