Release #1 - Dead Freight

A rookie porter, Rook, finds a misrouted “empty” pod under a shattered overpass as timefall rolls in. The cufflink won’t ping a BB, but a tiny handprint blooms on the glass. BTs close in; tar rises like a tide, culminating in a tar-whale breach. Rook cuts free, climbs out, and peels the label: BB-VINTAGE / DECOMMISSIONED. He hauls the pod to a weather-beaten Bridges drop slot, slides in a return slip signed M. Bridges, and leaves the cargo behind. Radio static fades: “Some cargo you don’t carry forward. You set it down.” The rain eases.