***** [Arkas's PoV]
I sat alone in my office at Unit 02, staring at the reports spread out in front of me. It was late at night, and the day's training sessions were already done. The rest of the base had quieted down, but my work wasn't finished.
I scrolled through the performance reports on my tablet, each page filled with charts, names, scores, and feedback from the drills. Most of it looked solid. The soldiers were improving well, pushing past their limits without needing too much hand-holding.
We had only lost sixteen of them since this unit's formation. Sixteen. That was a number I could live with. Compared to last year's numbers, it was a damn miracle.
"Sixteen... plus three," I muttered under my breath, my eyes narrowing slightly as I corrected myself.
Three of them weren't on any list. Not marked as dead or injured, but absent. Off the grid.
Billion. Steve. And North.
The boys were out on a mission, at least that's what we told the other soldiers—but North…
