His orders spread swiftly to every corner of the fleet through brief signal relays. The vast spherical defensive formation slowly came to a halt in the nebula, like a hedgehog curling up against the winter cold. Every captain felt unprecedented pressure. They were like blindfolded men walking through a dark forest littered with bear traps, never knowing what their next step would land on.
Meanwhile, deep within the Viola System, in an underground command center on a rocky planet shrouded in thick clouds, another silent war had already begun.
This was the tactical simulation core of Viola Academy, the T'au Empire's most renowned military academy. An enormous holographic star map displayed the vast Imperial Fleet trapped in the nebula in real time, with cold, precise clarity. Countless intricate green data links locked onto and analyzed every point of light.
Two figures stood on the command center's uppermost level.
Aun'Ve, the future Supreme Ethereal, wore a plain white robe as he personally oversaw the battle. The gentleness and compassion he usually showed in the Ethereal Council's shrine were gone, replaced by an almost cruel composure. His gaze dissected every detail on the star map.
Beside him stood Shadowsun, clad in a pristine white XV22 Experimental Battlesuit. Her face remained as coldly beautiful and resolute as ever, but her eyes had changed completely. They no longer held the sharpness and confidence of a brilliant young commander, but a stillness as deep as an ancient well, as though she had endured countless centuries of war and seen through every tactical variation. Those were the eyes of the legendary Commander Qingxi, the embodiment of the T'au Empire's art of war.
Through the Ethereal Council's highest-level reconstruction ritual, Commander Qingxi's personality, preserved within a data crystal, had completely taken possession of this young, powerful body.