^

His leg gave out.

Kael’s lips moved, but no sound came out. The officer leaned closer.

Kael’s mission was simple: retrieve the black box from the research hub at the colony’s center. The colony, designated Hermes-9, had gone silent eleven months ago. No distress call. No explosion. Just… silence. Three thousand people had lived here. Miners, engineers, families. Now, the prefab buildings squatted like rows of tombstones, their windows dark, their doors yawning open.

And he was humming a tune. A low, rhythmic, four-note sequence.