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Spoilers ahead for The Forged (entire series) by Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann, and Mike Henderson under Image Comics.
The final arc of Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann, and Mike Henderson’s The Forged is dropping over the next few months.
We at The Daily Fandom did some reviews of the previous issues, but let’s do a refresher for those who may have forgotten the details or those who are new, so they can be ready for the grand finale. We’re going into the key events, major characters, and plot twists you can expect from this pulp military sci-fi story, so spoiler warning.
Arc 1 — Operation Black Box Introduces A Much Bigger Threat
Starfortress Her Endless Radiant Triumph arrives from a T-Space jump at the Archeon Reach, orbiting the planet Gehenna, an abandoned mining planet for the company Al-Ashanti. Onboard is the special strike force Scimitar-3, a Forged unit. Forged are genetically engineered clones of the Empress herself, bred to be steadfastly loyal and unstoppable.
Scimitar-3 consists of Victory, the stern leader; Pusher, the caring medic; Hap, the overthinking engineer; Harpo, the silent sniper; CrazyJo, the crass heavy hitter. It seems to be a run-of-the-mill mission, and the team is confused about why they are even assigned to it. Retrieving a black box from a crashed Imperial ship, the Ever Seeking Forward, is basic recovery op, not Forged mission material.
Meanwhile, Captain Esteban Hiroto Retfort is also confused about this mission. Not because a Forged team is here, but rather because a Cassandra is requesting to accompany them on this mission. A Cassandra is a genetically engineered clone of the Empress herself with psychic abilities such as precognition and telepathy.
They also speak with the authority of the Empress herself; as such, their words can override any order. This is the case with the Captain, who questions the breaking of naval protocol when the Cassandra orders them to skip deploying pickets and instead head straight for Forged deployment. The Cassandra then requests an audience with Victory from the Captain after forcing his hand.
When the Cassandra and Victory meet, they realize they are creche-mates, born from the same genetic cloning batch. But that familiarity doesn’t last long as the Cassandra kisses Victory, causing an explosion of information to flood her mind. Yet Victory doesn’t remember any of it. After the kiss, she finds herself standing in the middle of a hallway with no Cassandra, no idea how she got there, nothing.
The Forged begin to deploy, dropping from orbit in their neural-linked power armor mech suits. As they begin their descent, each has a different reaction to the rush, some aroused and others attempting to calm themselves. But then something happens aboard Her Endless Radiant Triumph.
The Cassandra comes to the bridge to oversee the deployment when rifts suddenly appear out of thin air. Something unknown reaches through them and kills everyone aboard, soaking the Cassandra in blood. The crash of Her Endless Radiant Triumph has begun, and the problem is that The Forged have just made a hard landing on the surface with a gigantic ship now about to flatten them.
The Forged run as fast as they can and flood their suits with kinetic gel to absorb as much of the impact as possible. The Forged are scattered, their suits slightly busted, but they all manage to survive the crash. The problem is they are stranded, but the Forged are duty-bound, so that is a concern to deal with later; there is a mission.
They quickly find The Ever Seeking Forward and realize the escape hatch was blown from the inside. They aren’t there to retrieve a black box; they are there to retrieve a person. They find markings pointing them toward presumably this person, but that is interrupted when a native giant sand worm leaps out of the ground and chomps off CrazyJo’s arm. The worm is dispatched, and Pusher tends to CrazyJo’s wounds.
Victory calls for a subsurface probe so they know what they are dealing with, which Hap gets on right away. The problem is that they soon deduce the worm was attracted by the seismic disturbance of the crash, meaning the probe just called all the worms in the area right to them.
While being assaulted by the worms, they attempt to fall back along the markings. Using Harpo’s spotter relay to call out targets while CrazyJo scatters them with grenades. This is working well until they accidentally collapse the ceiling of a mining tunnel and fall deep down.
As they continue to fend the worms off, they notice signs of the abandoned Al-Ashanti base, specifically one of their terraforming facilities, and make their way there for protection. As they get inside, safe from the worms, they discover the person they were meant to recover, another Cassandra.
The Forged Discover The Empire Is At War With The Phobes
The Cassandra attempts to take over command, forcing Victory to put her foot down and explain why they can’t just leave. But the Cassandra is fed up and reveals why this mission required The Forged. After ten thousand years, the Empire has made first contact with a sentient alien race, and they declared war. But the worms never really stopped, and their numbers are growing.
The Cassandra also says they must wait for something she has foreseen. Victory then remembers some of what the Cassandra on the ship had told her and knows that what happens must happen. They fend off the worms until a tear in space appears, just like on the ship. This time, the creature takes the form of the Captain and his first officer, but is connected to tentacles and many eyes with no face.
The Cassandra talks with the creature, pretending to offer peace while it threatens them. This was all foreseen; both know nothing will change, merely making what happens happen. The creature attacks, but Victory is already in place to save the Cassandra, just as she had been told to do. The creatures are native to T-Space, and Al-Ashanti was dumping its mining waste into T-Space, an infinite void that ships simply pass through.
Their home was being polluted by the Empire. To save themselves from the oncoming assault of the worms and creatures, they use the terraforming facility’s generators to conjure enough T-Space energy to create a disturbance. The problem is that this is only a temporary measure, as the generators will overload, taking half the planet with them.
As they do this, they are suddenly transported to the Empress herself, who is quite surprised to see them.
Arc 2 — Home Sweet Home Turns the Forged Into Targets
All the guards are quite concerned about the turn of events until the Cassandra appeals to the Empress’ vanity. The Empress is like an overexcited child, gleeful as she questions The Forged about who and what they are. That is, of course, until she gets to Harpo, who cannot answer any of her questions, frustrating the Empress. Before things can get particularly ugly, General Davian interrupts, covering for Harpo’s silence.
The Empress quickly becomes bored, instructs The Forged to be debriefed, and goes off to do other things. During the debrief, Davian introduces himself as the General in charge of the Imperial Bureau of Data Collection and Analysis, more commonly known as The Unseen Hand. He bombards Victory with questions, clearly just as confused about how this state of affairs transpired as she was at the beginning.
He smells something afoot, a larger web of lies and politics, but Victory is a soldier, not a spy, and doesn’t have the answers he seeks. Victory is dismissed, and Davian gets on a secure holocall with other members of the Unseen Hand to discuss the situation. Due to his rampant paranoia, he insists they use a device that will scramble their brain waves to avoid the Cassandra’s, but no one in the meeting likes having their brains altered in such a way.
He summarizes the threats he sees to the Empire and insists that all information be locked down, including The Forged team Scimitar-3, until he can find the person behind this. The Forged are given shore leave to spend however they like, as long as they remain grounded for the investigation. Victory wants to tell the team in person at the barracks, but word has already gotten out, so she ends up alone.
Meanwhile, a group of Cassandras are having a meeting when one who was excluded tries to enter. They seem apologetic at first, until they surround her and murder her. The Cassandras then attempt to hide the body and the evidence, but they know the Unseen Hand will find out sooner or later.
General Davian arrives to offer his assistance to the rescued Cassandra and condolences on the loss of her sister aboard Her Endless Radiant Triumph. But they both know it is a formality; he is really after answers. They choose their words carefully and draw comparisons between their similar functions.
Cassandras predict the future through their powers so the correct path can be chosen. Davian predicts the future through intelligence so catastrophes can be avoided. Victory walks through the leisure district and sees several people on the ground as a military police unit runs out of a bar. She knows CrazyJo is here.
Sure enough, she walks in to find CrazyJo sitting alone at the bar while toothless, bleeding bodies lie around her and others cower in the corner. CrazyJo complains that the sex workers won’t service her because of her track record of injuring them during sex. Victory shares a drink with her and toasts to what the other members are doing. Hap is interrupting a university lecture to point out several math errors, Pusher is getting high and watching television, and Harpo is at the gun range.
As they call it a night, they realize they are being followed. They ambush the man, only for him to reveal he isn’t stalking them; he is simply a messenger. Victory is ordered to attend an audience with the Empress. Arriving at the palace, Victory speaks with the head of the Imperial Guard, who informs her she is late. Victory says she isn’t, only to be corrected: in the literal sense of time, she isn’t late, but on the Empress’ personal scale of time, she is. Sure enough, the Empress is bored, playing with a tablet while waiting for Victory and whining that she is late.
Victory prostrates herself before the Empress and apologizes, getting a reaction from the court, so the Empress dismisses them. She then drags Victory to her table full of food, clearly wanting Victory all to herself. Meanwhile, CrazyJo goes to see Harpo, where Riley, the Warrant Officer of the gun range, shows Harpo immense respect and is clearly infatuated.
Harpo is infatuated as well, but since they don’t speak and have no real experience with relationships, CrazyJo attempts to give her some advice: take the shot and see what happens. The Empress questions Victory over dinner about what would happen if she were ever defeated in combat. Victory gives a diplomatic answer: Forged only accept defeat through death. So, the Empress stops dinner and calls in her guard. She instructs Victory and the guards to fight for real, not for show.
At first, it’s just the head of the guard versus Victory, but the Empress decides she wants all of the guards to fight Victory at the same time. After a hard-fought battle, Victory wins, but as she is about to finish off the head of the guard, she stops. The Empress complains that she wanted it to the death, but Victory points out that she never actually said that, only that they should fight.
The Empress is too caught up in the excitement to let that ruin her mood and bounces over to Victory like a giddy kid in a candy store. Elsewhere, Hap attempts to awkwardly start a conversation with a university professor she admires, but stumbles over her words, makes lewd innuendos, and ends up looking like a fool.
Still, she is impressed by her knowledge and invites her to her office. Pusher operates in a surgical wing at a hospital, doing old-school medical work rather than using more modern technology. After the surgery, the doctor she is assisting questions why she is doing general medicine after being on the field as a medic for so long instead of taking real shore leave. Pusher admits she is afraid she will mess up and believes that, as a doctor, she must always practice. She fears failing her sisters.
Harpo is at the gun range, easily using one bullet to headshot multiple target dummies. This is child’s play to her until she is distracted by Riley walking by. She packs up and tries to approach Riley, but due to her silence, Riley thinks she is simply checking out of the range. After some mixed signals and confusion, Harpo manages to convey through hand signals that she wants to get a drink with Riley, and she agrees.
The drink goes well as they leave the bar and share a kiss. But then someone suddenly fires upon them, interrupting their romantic moment.
Someone Is Trying to Kill Scimitar-3
Davian is investigating the issues with the Cassandras when he notices the one who was murdered. He suspects there is more going on than he realized, that there are multiple players on this chess board. He contacts the other members of the Unseen Hand, but they are furious with him for using the brain-scrambling devices and are already trying to outmaneuver him.
They have ordered a hit on The Forged unit Scimitar-3, with all members to be assassinated within the next few hours. Without them, the chances of information about the aliens leaking out goes down, allowing them to focus on dealing with the aliens.
Davian is appalled by their lack of subtlety and sheer stupidity. Harpo protects Riley, finding her would-be assassin and killing him first. Pusher is followed on a train by her assassin, who plans to release a toxin into her bloodstream with a pinprick as he passes by. But Pusher notices and reverses it, injecting the assassin instead. Hap is meant to be disposed of through an accident involving a machine she is working on, but she notices the sabotage and takes out the saboteur first.
CrazyJo is supposed to be killed in a bar fight by some paid-off gangs, but she ends up winning the brawl. Each assassination is designed to look natural given where The Forged are at the time, making them less suspicious. But Victory’s assassination will be a political disaster. The plan is to cause a power surge in a transformer, resulting in an explosion where she currently is. The problem is that she is currently with the Empress.
While all of this is happening, the Empress is none the wiser, busy prancing around her garden, making innuendos at Victory and asking her to join her for a bath. Two Cassandras overlook the garden and, having been dismissed, communicate telepathically to Victory about their prediction of the assassination. With that warning, Victory dispatches the team sent to cause the power surge, leaving her clothing ripped and the Empress impatient. When all is said and done, she arrives at the bath with the Empress as if nothing happened.
Back at the barracks, the team, minus Harpo, fiddle around while waiting for Victory. When she finally shows up, Harpo and Riley exit the bedroom, clearly having just slept together. After some awkward conversation between The Forged, General Davian arrives at their door. They initially want to throttle him, but he explains that he had nothing to do with what happened and that it has been taken care of.
He sets down a bag and opens it, revealing the heads of the other members of the Unseen Hand who were on the call. He offers it as a token of goodwill and suggests they report for duty in a sector with reports of the Phobes, the new name given to the aliens. They are to deploy in an hour, and Davian will clean up the mess of what happened.
Arc 3 — The Abaddon Strike Changes Everything
The Forged unit Scimitar-3 is joined by two other Forged units: Gladius-6, led by Viper, and Rapier-9, led by Scythe. Meeting in the Skull Nebula, all of The Forged are given a new mission. The existential threat of the Phobes is that they exist in T-Space, meaning they can attack anywhere at any time. A prototype device has been developed to attach to The Forged’s armor, allowing them to enter and maneuver through T-Space.
Because the device is a prototype but the mission is vital, it will take place in three stages. First, the sniper from each Forged unit will test the prototype and conduct reconnaissance in T-Space. Victory points out the potential risks of using an untested prototype on valuable members of each Forged unit.
Viper is a hardliner who puts order above all else, so she believes Victory is being sentimental toward her friend rather than treating Harpo like a soldier. Scythe is more of a middle ground, caring about her team while still believing duty comes first. For now, the potential tension is defused.
Meanwhile, back on Throneworld, the rescued Cassandra greets Davian in his office, having bypassed all security. They trade veiled threats before the Cassandra reveals she is there because of a vision. She says two things are important for events to happen as they should: the Empress must call Davian to the War Council, and Victory must survive this mission.
She then takes her leave, and Davian receives a call informing him to report to the War Council. The snipers use the prototype and enter T-Space, but become slightly discombobulated. As they struggle to control their suits in the hostile environment, they detect a massive shadow. Upon investigating, they find a gigantic spherical organic mass, from which a group of Phobes emerges to attack. They make an emergency exit back to normal space, and the War Council is informed of the new development.
On the War Council is a mechanical being known as Bray VII, who acts as the corporeal representative of The Order of Technious, a robotic hive mind. After analyzing the data, they are uncertain what the mass is, but have two working theories: it is either a ship or a weapon. The War Council is frightened by this revelation and insists they operate under the assumption that it is a weapon. Davian isn’t convinced, but remains quiet for now.
Scimitar-3 is called for immediate deployment to investigate the mass. Concerned about the team’s safety, Victory has Pusher check her for any issues, as she has been experiencing more frequent headaches, but her results are normal. The team deploys and is quickly assaulted by Phobes. The kicker is that they zero in on Victory. She is dragged away and presumed dead, forcing CrazyJo to reluctantly call for an emergency exit.
Victory Is Presumed Dead
Scimitar-3 returns to base missing their leader. Viper confronts CrazyJo, telling her she needs to buck up and act like a real leader, unlike Victory. CrazyJo requests a retrieval team for Victory but is denied. The War Council is informed of Victory’s presumed death, and the rescued Cassandra and Davian share grim looks. CrazyJo is once again confronted by Viper, who insists Victory got herself killed.
CrazyJo barely restrains her rage, refusing to fall for the bait. When Viper leaves, CrazyJo activates her leadership security code and wrecks a bulkhead out of anger. At the War Council, Davian shares a smoke with a colleague, Adrianna. They both acknowledge there is a yes-man on the council whose job is to indulge the Empress’ whims and impatience.
They also know this means she is playing a game. She wants something, but they don’t know why or what for. When Adrianna leaves, the rescued Cassandra takes her place. Davian and the Cassandra discuss what happened, revealing that no Cassandra can read the Empress’ mind. Davian also makes it clear that he is not faithful to the Empress, but rather to the Empire as an entity separate from her. Scimitar-3 mourns Victory in the mess hall and debates what will happen to the team.
Members of Gladius-7 enter and give a mock toast to Victory, pissing The Forged off, but they try to remain civil. Bray VII breaks down the data for the War Council, explaining that the mass appears to be a device that harnesses energy, though they cannot determine its purpose. If that energy is released, however, it would result in a hypernova. The Empress’s yes-man says it is a bomb, and the Empress orders it destroyed. Bray VII determines that destroying the device would wipe out all life in T-Space, meaning they would be committing genocide.
The Empress pretends to be backed into a corner and insists they have no other option. A military funeral is held for Victory, but tensions between the various Forged units have grown too hot, and it quickly explodes into a brawl. CrazyJo, for once having to be responsible, puts a stop to it. They are then informed they are to deploy and destroy the device. Meanwhile, in T-Space, Victory struggles to breathe without her suit.
A creature that is essentially a walking eyestalk attempts to communicate with her, but she can’t focus and begins bleeding from various places under the immense pressure of T-Space. The creature then jumps into her mouth, causing the bleeding to stop and allowing her to breathe. Just as she questions how that is even possible, the Cassandra presumed dead in the destruction of Her Endless Radiant Triumph appears, having expected Victory to be here.
Davian meets the rescued Cassandra in a secluded garden and confronts her. He reveals that he knows a group of Cassandras murdered another Cassandra and that she, in particular, is working desperately to bring something they predicted into being. He has no hard proof, so it isn’t enough to charge her, but he wants a straight answer.
She is unable to give one, simply saying that her loyalty is steadfast, much like his, and that he too has a big part to play. Meanwhile, the Cassandra with the Phobes tries to explain things to Victory. She explains that the disharmony between normal space and T-Space makes communication between the two difficult, and the only way around it is through psychic abilities, hence Victory’s headaches.
The Phobes are misunderstood; they are not aggressive. The Empress is, however, and has been at war with them for ten thousand years. Victory was chosen by a group of Cassandras who wish to save the Phobes and turn her against the Empress. They believe that she is empathetic enough to find genocide abhorrent, which is true.
All Forged teams are deployed to destroy the device. The plan is a simple distraction and smash, with strategically placed bombs that should destroy the device. The resulting release of energy will kill all the Phobes, as well as anyone else in T-Space. The Empress grows impatient, and when her yes-man even dares to suggest some patience, she has him removed from the council.
Victory appears before Scimitar-3 and tries to convince them that she is the real her. She eventually succeeds, then tries to convince them that they must commit treason. The Phobes conjure themselves into the War Council through a Cassandra and try to talk to them. Their focus is on the Empress, whom they refer to as Aylis and clearly have a history with.
They plead with her not to go through with this. Her response is that she is eternal, before shooting the Cassandra serving as their conduit dead.
Scimitar-3 Chooses Treason Over Genocide
Scimitar-3 attempts to stop the placement of the bombs, pleading with Scythe and Viper to stand down. Viper refuses and goes after Victory as a traitor, only for CrazyJo to stab her in the back. The War Council is informed of what happened, and the Empress issues a general order: all members of The Forged unit Scimitar-3 are to be executed on sight.
Arc 4 — Galaxy’s Most Wanted Sends The Forged Rogue
The Forged discuss their situation now that they have gone rogue with the Phobes and the turncoat Cassandra. They can’t use their suits anymore, as their countermeasure system will activate the moment they exit T-Space. So, they agree that each of them will take on a Phobe passenger, just as Victory did unknowingly. The Phobes are symbiotes that provide their hosts with several benefits, including accelerated healing and the ability to breathe in a vacuum.
They are, in effect, wearing The Forged the same way The Forged wear their suits. The accelerated healing gets out of hand when CrazyJo’s constantly regenerating arm grows back as a crab-like claw. The rescued Cassandra communicates telepathically with the turncoat Cassandra, revealing they are on the same side. They fear the Empress is going to become reckless, as they can sense how much fear she has for the Phobes.
They determine Davian must come to their side if they are going to succeed. The Forged get rid of all the Imperial tech they have as a safety precaution. Harpo has a particularly hard time giving up her relay and mourns it in her own way. Viper returns to base, where Scythe is fuming not only about what happened but because she lost a member of her team in the botched demolition mission. Viper tells her to buck up, which nearly leads to a fight, but Viper de-escalates by sharing an experience from years ago when she lost her first team of Forged.
Davian and Adrianna discuss the Empress’ behavior and how much of her childish antics from before the Phobe crisis were an act, or if she is simply insane. As Adrianna leaves, the Empress herself shows up unannounced and in plain clothes.
The Empress Finally Reveals The Truth About The Phobes
The Empress believes Davian deserves some of the truth. She is surrounded by people who only want to please her; he, on the other hand, is loyal to the Empire, not her. Ten thousand years ago, she was a great warrior who led her people to conquer the stars. Her psychic powers gave her such an advantage that few could stand before her. Over time, the story surrounding her grew, eventually leading to her becoming the Empress.
But the reason for her conquest began with a constant psychic message telling her to find someone. It was the Phobes reaching out through the dimensions. When she found them, they spoke with one voice. As a people, they had no desire for conflict; they didn’t even have the concept in their lexicon. These extra-dimensional beings sought out experiences, with the pleasure of discovery and curiosity driving them.
The laws of physics could bend to their will. They were like gods, yet had no grandiose intent, simply a desire to live. They offered the Empress immortality in exchange for bonding with her so they could experience normal space through her. She agreed and merged with their leader, but it came at a cost. Her psychic abilities disappeared, though she gained immortality.
The Empress deceived the Phobes and, instead of creating a symbiosis, used her body like a prison. As long as it remained, she would be immortal, and with immortality comes time. Hence the eternal part of her title: she could spend eternity finding a way to regain her powers. Through her domination of T-Space and her immortality, she grew her empire into what it is today: endless, boundless, eternal.
The Cassandras were part of an experiment to regain her psychic abilities. Through selective breeding and modification, she was unable to regain her powers but instead created a group that could imitate them, though not as powerfully as she could, even when they were combined.
Meanwhile, she set up contingencies for when the Phobes developed an understanding of conflict and struck back at her transgression. The Al-Ashanti pollution of T-Space was one of many attempts by the Empress to stop this before it ever started. Davian is suspicious of the story, but his loyalty is to the Empire, so he begins his search for The Forged.
Meanwhile, The Forged themselves plan an attack to disrupt the Empress’ ability to threaten T-Space. First stop: the Technion Sphere, a solar-system-wide Dyson sphere that contains the electronic brain of The Order of Technion. But Davian guessed that would be the likely target and had Scythe’s team of Forged head there at once. The resulting fight is Forged against Forged, mech suits versus psychic suits.
It’s tough on both teams emotionally, especially for Scimitar-3, as this is their first time fighting with the Phobes as their passengers. After a lengthy battle, Scimitar-3 makes a getaway before more Forged can show up, giving Scythe a warning to stand down next time. Pusher attempts to deal with everyone’s wounds and inadvertently communes with her Phobe, causing an understanding between them.
The Phobes wish to heal, but their basis is not human, so Pusher transfers her medical knowledge to her Phobe and then to the others. This allows them to heal the team normally, complete with CrazyJo’s claw becoming a normal arm again.
The Forged Find Unexpected Allies
Bray VII visits Davian to discuss the recent conflict on the Technion Sphere. Bray points out that the Technions are subservient to the Empire to ensure their survival. The Phobes aren’t the first sentient species to encounter the Empire; the Technions may be mechanical, but they are still sentient. Bray advises Davian where to look for The Forged on the sphere and implies that some Technions may be sympathetic to their plight. Hap interfaces with the sphere in a digital realm.
At first, it interprets her attempt to interface as a mating attempt, but eventually understands her intent. It explains that there is a splinter consciousness within The Order of Technions that wishes to free itself from the shackles of the Empress, and it will help The Forged with their plans. Meanwhile, the part of the Technions still loyal to the Empire helps Scythe locate Scimitar-3. The Scion of the Phobes, still partly trapped within the Empress, has been quiet for a very long time.
Now, it stirs again and tries to communicate with her. She dismisses it out of hand and begins forming plans. Six Cassandras will combine their powers as a coven to keep the Empress safe from the Scion. Meanwhile, the growing schism among the Cassandras that resulted in the murder of one of them is being uncovered, and the Empress wants them put down.
The Rebellion Takes Shape
Scythe confronts The Forged again, but they merely use the opportunity as a distraction, keeping her and Rapier-9 occupied. Meanwhile, the rebel Technions detach the segment of their sphere containing the weaponry being manufactured to assault T-Space. They then use the Phobes to transport it all into T-Space, but leave the weapons deactivated. Scythe reports her failure to the Empress, accepting full responsibility.
As an example to the other Forged, the Empress has the entirety of Rapier-9 killed, with the exception of Scythe, who is forced to watch. Forged do not fail; defeat means death. The Forged inspect their booty from the heist, going over what succeeding in this treasonous action could mean if everything goes horribly wrong. The rebel Technions reveal that they attached their consciousness to this section of the sphere and are now calling themselves the Technion Heresy.
They wish to assist The Forged not only for their freedom, but to learn what it means to have individuality. Meanwhile, the Cassandras call a meeting where the cabal of turncoats responsible for murdering one of their own is revealed. The fight is brutal: Cassandra versus Cassandra, with the battle becoming as psychic as it is physical.
The turncoat Cassandra with The Forged senses what is happening and requests that they deploy to save her sisters. They arrive in time to save a handful, but not before one is so badly injured that it seems she may not recover. The damage is psychic rather than physical, though, and she eventually pulls through. Once everyone is back in order, Victory gathers them all to determine how committed they are to the rebellion. Everyone pledges to be all in.
Meanwhile, Scythe is getting exceedingly drunk while mourning the loss of her team. Davian tries to console her, saying that a waste of resources is not what the Empire needs and that she will heal in time. Seeing her like this, along with everything that has happened, Davian begins to wonder if this is really the Empire he is fighting for. At last, Victory announces that they have to make one clean and risky strike to end this as quickly as possible. They will strike at the power source of the Empire itself.
The End Draws Near
Hope those who have been reading the series enjoyed this trip down memory lane, refreshing some of the details along the way. And for those who are new, don’t let the spoilers deter you from reading the actual issues. Recaps can be nice, but they can never convey the emotions of the dialogue or the art of a comic, only the straightforward intent. Once you do, join us for the final arc of The Forged, hitting shelves as we speak.