The commander's office still looked like how it was before they left for the battle against monsters in the city.
The holographic displays that usually showed tactical maps and mission parameters were dark, replaced by a single screen dominating the wall. Numbers scrolled across it: casualty reports, damage assessments and resource expenditures. Data that represented lives lost and a city scarred.
Tatehan sat in one of the chairs facing the commander's desk, his armor finally retracted, his face visible. He was exhausted, not just physically, but mentally. The weight of what he'd seen today pressed down on him like a physical thing.
The weight of what he saw...
Fighting had been fun, in a way. Taking on that first Boulder-back Behemoth: jumping, floating in the air, all those cool moves, it had felt exhilarating. The adrenaline, the power and the control.
But the aftermath?
Seeing the lives lost, the families affected and the grief in people's eyes.
