[= Attempting Urban Link... =]

  [= Signal Unstable. No Network Access =]

  Kelthar-3: Sector 9 – Outpost Crater

  Local Time: 17:32 Rift Standard

  I dragged myself through the wreckage, half-crawling, half-stumbling over splintered trunks and scorched earth. The jungle around me had been gutted, ripped apart by the blast. Trees shattered like matchsticks, branches blackened and curling with smoke, the ground cracked and smoldering under my boots. Every step was a fight. My legs barely worked. My ribs screamed with every breath. The air tasted like ash and blood.

  Then, through the shimmering heat and drifting dust, I saw movement. Blurred at first, like a shadow swimming through boiling water. A figure, steady and deliberate, walking toward the crater like he owned it. Not hurried. Not cautious. Just calm. Like he already knew what he’d find.

  Another figure moved into view, tall, armored, precise. Sleek composite plating, matte-black and sharp at the joints, the kind of suit my men were wearing. He moved like he’d done this a hundred times. Maybe a thousand. Each step was careful, balanced, deliberate. Not cautious. Controlled.

  For a moment, I thought it might be Yuki.

  But no, the person was too big. The frame was wrong. Shoulders broader, gait heavier. Definitely a man.

  He walked straight into the kill zone like it didn’t bother him, boots crunching over ash and twisted metal. My pulse kicked hard against the bruises under my ribs as I watched him cross the edge of the crater. He didn’t look around, didn’t notice me half-buried in the wreckage just beyond the blast ring. He had no idea I was alive and watching.

  I kept still. Breathing shallow. Muscles coiled like wire. My hand hovered just above the scorched dirt.

  Then he touched the side of his helmet.

  I could barely hear it, but the helmet's comms boosted the signal enough to carry across the open field.

  "Mission success," he reported, cold and clipped. "T-88 is neutralized. All assets eliminated.”

  I held my breath trying to catch every word.

  "Yeah... area’s secure. Shuttle’s cooked." The voice came steady through the smoke, bored even. "No biosign on the commander. If that was him, he got caught in the blast. No way anyone walked away from that."

  A pause.

  Too long.

  Whoever was on the other end wasn’t convinced.

  The agent filled the silence, tone tightening just a notch. “Probably a glitch. Maybe the ID tag registered during re-entry, then fried with the rest of the cockpit.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  My fingers curled deeper into the soot-caked dirt as I tried to calm my breathing.

  Another pause.

  Longer this time.

  The voice came back a little stiffer now, trying to sell the lie.

  “I’ll head back to the Spire in New Vothar, give my report in person. Yuki made sure everything went smooth on her end. No loose ends.”

  My breath caught mid-inhale.

  Yuki?

  He kept talking, unaware of the noose tightening around his neck.

  “Using their little rogue friend was smart. Lured him in like a dog chasing a scent. We didn’t even have to bait the hook, just let Republic chatter leak in the right places, let the idiot chase ghosts.”

  He chuckled. Not warm. Not amused.

  Just cruel.

  “They even picked the shuttle. Slipped that useless officer on board, waited for the AI to sniff out the mismatch. Right on cue. Predictable as ever.”

  I felt my gut twist. My jaw clenched so tight I tasted blood.

  How the hell did I not see it?

  The perfect op. The easy in. The too-clean timing. I thought I was ahead of the game… smart, cautious, untouchable.

  I was like a damn tourist walking into a meat grinder.

  He stood there for a second, ash falling in slow spirals around him.

  “Understood. Tonight then. Over and out.”

  He disconnected. Brushed some ash from his vambrace like it was just another day in the office. Just another operation signed, sealed, and delivered.

  Played like a pawn.

  I thought of the thousand ways I could’ve handled this better, but only one path forward now.

  I could feel it building, low and deep, a pressure behind my eyes. Not fear. Not panic. Rage. The kind that made your teeth ache and your vision narrow. The kind that coiled behind your ribs like it wanted out.

  My fingers reached for the SCARF unit out of instinct.

  Dead.

  Comms? Gone.

  Ares? Silent.

  Guess I’ll have to handle it myself.

  The anger swelled, pushing past the pain, fueling something dark and primal. I felt a crackling in the air, a shift. My vision tunneled, everything narrowing on him, on this arrogant specter who thought he’d just cleared house.

  I reached out, letting the anger sharpen, focusing it into something lethal, something I’d barely begun to understand. I twisted that anger like I was wringing out a blade.

  The specter froze.

  Then his body jerked hard, head twisting sideways with a sound like wet rope snapping. The helmet popped free, bouncing at his feet before rolling into the crater. His body followed a second later hitting the dirt like a puppet with the strings cut, one boot twitching against the ash.

  Silence, thick and final.

  I stared at what was left. My hands shook. The burns across my skin hissed with every breath. The air reeked of ozone and ash.

  I didn’t feel proud. Or strong. Or heroic.

  I felt hollow.

  Just… empty.

  Their voices came first. Lachlan, laughing through cracked lips. Doc cursing at a medkit that wouldn’t open. Kieran’s muttered sarcasm. Malik calling shotgun on a gunship we never made it back to.

  Not dialogue. Not game code. Real. Solid. Heavy.

  I used to think they were NPCs. Scripts. Clever programming slapped over pixels and pretense. Just another quest log.

  But now? The way Malik grinned when he pulled the trigger. The way Kieran tilted his head just before asking something stupid. That wasn’t code. That was memory. Mine.

  And this place… this world wasn’t supposed to feel like this.

  But it did.

  The memories, the missions, the battles, every face I’d left behind, felt as genuine as anything I’d ever known.

  I closed my eyes. Just for a second. Just to stop the room from spinning.

  Then I pushed the grief down, where I could reach for it later. When there was time.

  Now?

  Now was for Yuki.

  For Astra.

  For answers.

  And if I couldn’t get those…

  Then I’d settle for blood.