The private room's heavy solid-wood door shut out the noise outside, immersing Yamiya Berenkest once more in silence. She watched the holographic image projected by her terminal with keen interest.
It looked like the ceremony was taking place in some rudimentary space station. The walls and ceiling had a cold, metallic sheen. The facilities were simple and worn, but everything was neat and orderly.
Krell Belmont, the Belmont family's young heir, an active-duty major general in the Alliance Space Fleet and an executive officer of the Bureau, stood front and center in the first row. Beside him was Hua Congshengshou—the young heir who owned several talent agencies and a whole host of girl groups, and whom someone had dubbed "the Alliance's number-one pimp." A mysterious model worker, equally defined by progress and depravity, he now wore a slightly bulky spacesuit.
He looked born to carry a banner. With that light shining in his eyes, he seemed ready to stand firm among the cannon fodder—even if shrapnel and shockwaves blew his head off, he'd still refuse to fall.
Beside him stood his comrades, dressed in identical spacesuits and lined up in neat rows in the steel hall, their eyes fixed straight ahead, resolute and spirited.
There weren't many of them, only a little over a hundred, but their formation was so precise it looked ruler-straight. They came from different races across the universe, yet shared the same vigor and conviction, their bearing as firm and resolute as monuments forged from steel.
Led by a tall, dark-skinned Lumina, they were swearing an oath before the flag. Their voices rang in Yani's ears, filled with determination and strength.
"I embrace the organization's ideals and make its goals the cause of my life. From this moment on, guided by the spirit of the universe