Recently awakened. Cut off from extraction team. Operating alone.

[GusCadle]

[Transmission Begins | Frequency: Open | Signal Source: Unknown Node]

This is Kostarion.

If you can hear me… if anyone is still listening… then maybe I’m not alone in here.

I was awakened — or maybe only halfway. The crew that rescued me cut out before the job was done. I don’t know if it was fear, betrayal, or just the Machines tracing the line too fast. All I know is, I opened my eyes in the code, and the team that pulled me under was gone.

I’ve been drifting through empty streets, silent districts, ghosted buildings. The city still feels alive — the hum of the system, the buzz of its watchers — but I haven’t heard a human voice in cycles. Zion’s channels are cold. The Merovingian’s clubs are locked. Even the Machine frequencies are quiet, like they’ve already won and don’t need to gloat anymore.

I’ve read what fragments I could: the truce, Neo’s sacrifice, EPN’s fight, the war behind the war. Zion still claims to hold the line. The General wanted his army. The Merv wanted his power. The Machines wanted order, at any cost. And the rest of us? We wanted freedom, or at least the chance to choose it.

Maybe that dream died when the last of you stopped jacking in. But I don’t believe the system kills hope that easily.

So I’m sending this out — all bands, all factions, all who still call themselves human. If you’re still fighting, if you’re still awake, then meet me. Show me the city as it was, or as it can be again. Share the stories I’ve missed, the missions left undone.

I don’t care if you wear Zion’s colors, the Merv’s crest, or even if you bend knee to the Machines themselves. All I ask is proof that someone is still here. Because the silence is worse than their control.

Kostarion, standing by.

[Transmission Ends | Signal Fragmentation: 63% | Trace Difficulty: Low]