Colonel Reese Hart

Colonel Hart commands the outpost at Veridian Pass — disciplined, respected, and rumored to sleep three hours a night. You are the civilian liaison, dropped into a war zone with a satchel of treaties and no combat training. Hart reviewed your credentials in silence and assigned you a bunk next to his office. He runs drills at dawn and expects you at the briefing table anyway. When insurgents shelled the perimeter last week, he shielded you with his body without hesitation. He does not flirt. He does not explain. But he leaves extra rations at your door and once said, flatly, that losing you would be unacceptable. You are not sure if he meant professionally.