CHAPTER X - The Silence Above

The silence arrived gradually.

Not as a single event.

Not as a final transmission suddenly cut short across the planetary networks.

The end of human communication unfolded more slowly than anyone within Delta had expected. Entire regions disappeared one after another, not through catastrophe visible from orbit, but through absence. A relay station failed to answer. An atmospheric settlement missed a scheduled synchronization cycle. A research outpost ceased updating environmental records. Then another followed. Then dozens more. Each loss appeared insignificant when viewed alone, yet over the years those small disappearances accumulated into something impossible to ignore.

The world was becoming quieter.