Chapter 153 - SEVENTY-TWO HOURS

Rama woke in the medical bay at Coalition headquarters with the taste of void corruption still burning in his throat and the memory of Sector 12's eight-hundred-meter fracture seared into his mind alongside the System notification that had transformed their miraculous success into impending catastrophe. His body ached in ways that went beyond mere physical exhaustion—this was the deep, cellular fatigue that came from pushing past death's threshold and being pulled back only through Coalition Eternal's mechanical intervention, from spending thirty-four consecutive minutes at critical health while reality itself fought against their attempt to heal it.