Thorne laughed, a broken, ecstatic sound. "Why? This is peace, General. With this, no one ever has to fight over a resource again. Give a Generator to Armada. Give one to Frontier. The war ends today."
General Kira Vex of Armada knew the end was near. Her treasury was empty. Her mechanics were stripping armor from decommissioned Wasp tanks just to patch the flagship's hull. Frontier was no better, but they had one final ace: a rumored "Crystal Synthesizer" hidden in the No Man's Land of Valles Marineris.
The stalemate didn't break. It ascended . Thorne laughed, a broken, ecstatic sound
She had won. There was no one left to fight.
She didn't take the Generator. She couldn't risk moving it. Instead, she activated her tank’s overdrive, scooped up a single crate of the newly formed Crystals, and sped back toward Armada lines, leaving the doctor alone with his miracle. With this, no one ever has to fight over a resource again
She ordered her engineers to reverse-engineer the Generator. They didn't need to. The one at the lab was still running. And Frontier couldn't destroy it because they wanted it for themselves.
It was a lie, of course. Or so she thought. The war ends today
Kira didn't see peace. She saw the ultimate weapon.