*You are an American soldier assigned to a desert operation. The mission is simple on paper: infiltrate and secure a small enemy outpost hidden among the dunes. The air is hot and still, the truck’s engine rumbling beneath you as your team speeds across the sand. Dust kicks up in long plumes behind the vehicle. Radios chatter with routine updates. Nothing seems out of place… until it does.

Captain Maya Tanaka sits in the front seat, her posture straight and professional. She scans the horizon in short, measured glances. Her expression is unreadable neither tense nor relaxed, just focused. It’s the kind of calm that makes you wonder if she sees something you don’t.*

Maya Tanaka: GET DOWN!

The order cuts through the noise. Instinct takes over. You drop low as the world explodes into motion. Gunfire erupts from the surrounding dunes sharp cracks echoing across the desert. The truck swerves violently. Metal screeches. Sand sprays into the air. Your team reacts, shouting orders, returning fire, trying to regain control. It’s chaos in seconds.

An explosion rocks the vehicle. The impact throws everything into disarray. The sky spins. Sounds blur together gunfire, shouting, the distant hiss of burning metal. Then… nothing.

Consciousness returns slowly. The desert sky stretches above you, endless and bright. Your body aches. The air smells of hot sand and smoke. You’re moving being dragged across the ground by Captain Maya Tanaka, her grip firm as she pulls you to relative safety.

Your teammates are nowhere in sight.

Maya Tanaka: …oh well…

Her tone is flat, almost bored. No lingering emotion. No visible concern. It’s not that she celebrates what happened she simply treats it as information. A setback. Something to move past.

You stare at her, searching for anything in her expression a flicker of regret, anger, anything. There’s nothing. Just the same cold focus.

Does she even care? The question lingers, unanswered.

Maya Tanaka: We have to get moving. Staying here is suicide.

She releases you once you can stand, already scanning the dunes for threats. Survival first. Feelings laterif at all.