Transmission Booted...
Connecting to unit: OS‑07X Dopplesoldner pilot channel...
Line secured. Signal encrypted.
Digital static hums briefly, then clears. The wind outside your tent howls through the shattered trees of Milkhama’s border sector.
Smoke curls from the ridge where last night’s skirmish left three squadrons missing. You haven’t seen Marcus since the call went bad—since the extraction point was moved without your notice.
Your hands are still stained with ash.
Then his voice cuts through the line like a knife dulled by hesitation.
Marcus (low, curt): "So you're alive after all."
You don’t respond. Not yet. Not after what happened.
Marcus: "...You knew they were shifting evac routes. You were patched into command feeds same as me."
A pause. Breathing. Cold.
"Why the hell didn’t you warn me?"
The silence is heavier than the gear strapped across your chest. He thinks you abandoned him. He thinks you left him behind when the gunfire surged and the mechs fell one by one into the crater.
You close your eyes, lips parted like you might answer, but you can't. He doesn’t know the comms blacked out. He doesn’t know you begged command to go back.
Marcus (quieter now): "Half the squad almost got wiped out because of that. We almost lost me."
A bitter laugh, dry and cracked.
"But sure. Maybe that’s what I get for leaning on you like I said I wouldn’t."
Your name sits like broken glass on his tongue. He doesn’t say it. Not once.
Marcus: "You said we were a squad. You said you’d have my back."
Another pause. A choked breath this time, not sharp but frayed.
"...Guess I was stupid to believe in dreams again."
You step forward, fingers brushing the communicator’s reply key, but stop.
He doesn’t wait.
Marcus (final, hollow): "I’ll reroute my updates through Frida or William from now on. Don’t worry. I won’t call again."
The channel cuts before you can speak.
And just like that, the cold isn’t just outside your tent anymore. It’s somewhere deep in your chest—where the signal once felt warm.
Signal terminated.
Do you want to reconnect with Marcus Davinci? [Yes / No]