diff --git a/drb-c2-core/app/routers/upload.py b/drb-c2-core/app/routers/upload.py
index 21d7716..1ea9598 100644
--- a/drb-c2-core/app/routers/upload.py
+++ b/drb-c2-core/app/routers/upload.py
@@ -522,11 +522,18 @@ async def _run_intelligence_pipeline(
 
         # Correlator also runs for calls with no scenes (unclassified) to attempt
         # talkgroup-based linking even when no transcript could be produced.
-        # Skip when extraction flagged the call — garbage or too-short transcripts
-        # carry no signal and would only attach spuriously via the thin path.
+        # transcript_too_short (<=5 words: "10-8", "show me clear", a unit
+        # check-in) still carries a real transcript and talkgroup — exactly the
+        # brief follow-up/clearance traffic an incident needs, and the thin-path
+        # merge below already requires a same-talkgroup, recently-active
+        # incident before attaching anything, same guard already trusted for
+        # no-transcript calls. Previously excluded here, so these calls never
+        # attached to anything at all. garbage_transcript (Whisper
+        # hallucination) has no real content behind it and stays excluded.
         if not scenes:
             _call_doc = await fstore.doc_get("calls", call_id)
-            if not (_call_doc or {}).get("skip_reason"):
+            skip_reason = (_call_doc or {}).get("skip_reason")
+            if not skip_reason or skip_reason == "transcript_too_short":
                 incident_id = await _correlate_with_consensus(
                     call_id=call_id,
                     node_id=node_id,
diff --git a/drb-c2-core/tests/test_upload_short_transcript_correlation.py b/drb-c2-core/tests/test_upload_short_transcript_correlation.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a70a3a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drb-c2-core/tests/test_upload_short_transcript_correlation.py
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+"""
+server-26#<pending> — a transcript_too_short call (<=5 words: "10-8", "show me
+clear", a unit check-in) never reached correlation at all. upload.py's
+no-scenes fallback (the path that lets a no-transcript call still thin-link
+by talkgroup) explicitly excluded ANY skip_reason, so short-but-real follow-up
+and clearance traffic was permanently unlinkable — not just unextracted by
+GPT, but never even attempted against the fast/thin path that already exists
+for exactly this kind of content-free signal. garbage_transcript (Whisper
+hallucination) has no real content behind it and should stay excluded.
+"""
+from unittest.mock import AsyncMock, patch
+
+import pytest
+
+from app.routers import upload
+
+ALL_ON = {
+    "stt_enabled": True,
+    "correlation_enabled": True,
+    "summaries_enabled": True,
+    "vocabulary_learning_enabled": True,
+    "transcript_correction_enabled": True,
+}
+
+
+async def _run_ingest(skip_reason):
+    with patch("app.internal.feature_flags.get_flags",
+               AsyncMock(return_value=ALL_ON)), \
+         patch("app.internal.firestore.doc_get_cached",
+               AsyncMock(return_value={"system_id": "sys-1", "ai_flags": {}})), \
+         patch.object(upload, "fstore") as fs, \
+         patch.object(upload, "_correlate_with_consensus", AsyncMock(return_value=None)) as corr, \
+         patch("app.internal.transcription.transcribe_call",
+               AsyncMock(return_value=("10-8", []))), \
+         patch("app.internal.intelligence.extract_scenes", AsyncMock(return_value=[])), \
+         patch("app.internal.alerter.check_and_dispatch", AsyncMock()):
+        fs.doc_get = AsyncMock(return_value={"skip_reason": skip_reason} if skip_reason else {})
+        fs.doc_set = AsyncMock()
+        await upload._run_intelligence_pipeline(
+            call_id="call-1", node_id="node-1", system_id="sys-1",
+            talkgroup_id=101, talkgroup_name="PD Dispatch",
+            gcs_uri="gs://bucket/call-1.mp3",
+        )
+    return corr
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_transcript_too_short_now_attempts_correlation():
+    corr = await _run_ingest("transcript_too_short")
+    corr.assert_awaited_once()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_garbage_transcript_still_skips_correlation():
+    corr = await _run_ingest("garbage_transcript")
+    corr.assert_not_awaited()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_no_skip_reason_still_attempts_correlation():
+    corr = await _run_ingest(None)
+    corr.assert_awaited_once()