Signal in the Dust

The relay tower's transmission light blinks green, and somewhere out across the flats, Harlan Voss's voice is playing on every guild terminal in the region. You stand in the dust listening to the static crackle of a victory that doesn't feel like one.

You find Eli fifty meters from the tower's base, collapsed against a rusted support strut, a hunter's bullet in his side. He's conscious — barely. "It went through?" he rasps. You tell him yes. He closes his eyes, and you can't tell if it's relief or exhaustion taking him under.

Your comm buzzes with incoming alerts. Harlan's name. Colvin Station. Your name — cleared, according to three separate guild dispatches already flooding the channel. Three years of running, and it ends with a blinking light and a man bleeding in the sand.

But Harlan is already gone. You know it in your bones. A man like that doesn't wait around to be caught — he had an exit route before the signal ever reached the first terminal. The truth is out, and it may not be enough.