The Depot’s cooling fans roared. The download hit 100%. The XTS 5000’s screen blazed to life—not with the standard channel display, but with a single blinking cursor. Waiting.

The Depot was a marvel of war. A suitcase-sized behemoth that could simultaneously flash-update forty squad radios, map local interference, and brew a halfway decent cup of synthetic coffee. But tonight, it was being a diva. Kara had plugged in a salvaged squad leader’s unit—a battered XTS 5000 recovered from the ravine after the Vallis-4 ambush. The radio had been silent, its screen a dead grey. But when she’d initiated the R20.01.00 download, the Depot had shivered .

“...echo tango zero... request dust-off... they’re inside the wire...”

And then the voice had started.

Not from the Depot’s speaker. From the radio .

“Voss… don’t leave me in the dark.”

R20.01.00 was the new firmware. The one that was supposed to patch the "spectral drift" problem.