Continue To Checkpoint 1 [file] -

His HUD flickered, a dying amber light casting shadows against his face. Then, a sharp ping resonated in his ear—the first signal in three hours.

But between him and the airlock lay a fifty-yard stretch of unstable permafrost, and the wind was picking up. Continue to Checkpoint 1 [file]

Kael looked at his oxygen gauge: 12%. The "file" he carried—a physical encrypted drive tethered to his wrist—felt heavier than the lead casing suggested. It contained the terraforming bypass codes, the only thing that could stop the colony’s atmospheric processors from venting the remaining oxygen into the void. His HUD flickered, a dying amber light casting

the automated voice crackled, devoid of emotion. His HUD flickered

Kael took a breath, tasted the metallic tang of thinning air, and broke into a heavy, lung-burning run.