Northern Darfur, inside the underground command center at the "Musician" defense base.
The thick concrete isolates the desert night's severe cold and the sound of the wind. Dim emergency lights barely dispel the darkness in the corners, casting an oppressive dark golden hue over the entire space.
A huge, accurately scaled map of the North Africa local theater is spread across a heavy tabletop made from ammunition boxes, covered densely with colored magnets representing the positions of ally and enemy forces, like a concentrated, soon-to-be-boiling killing sand table.
The cluster of blue magnets representing the GNA forces are densely pressed against the gritty mark representing the border between Libya and Northern Darfur, alarming to the eyes.
Song Heping stands at the head of the sand table, his hands resting on the table's edge, his body slightly leaning forward, resembling a fully drawn bow.
