One rainy Tuesday, he recovered a single, corrupted file from a salvaged drone’s memory bank: .

There was no sound, just the visual of a mother laughing in the background, her hand momentarily blocking the lens as she tried to grab the camera.

Most files from that era were encrypted or unplayable, but this one flickered to life. The resolution was grainy, the frame rate stuttering. It wasn't a movie or a news report. It was sixty seconds of a backyard birthday party. A child in a red cape was trying to convince a golden retriever to fly.