Adam watched in silence as the high-ranking Acolytes and the sector manager traded strategies across the table.
They were careful, painfully so. Every proposal was weighed against projected casualties and every countermeasure adjusted to shave off losses rather than secure a clean victory. Defensive rotations. Resource rationing. Controlled retreats. On paper, each plan was sound.
Yet every one of them came up short.
The problem wasn't the walls.
It wasn't manpower.
It wasn't even the sirens alone.
It was the monster tide that was about to happen.
So this is it, Adam thought. My first monster tide.
A monster tide was often compared to a rift disaster, but that comparison was misleading.
Rift disasters were violent, sudden, and catastrophic. Monster tides were worse, they were slower, heavier and relentless.
And all of it stemmed from the very system the alliance had built to establish and control territory.
