The maintenance cable snaps taut through the conduit. Beyond the forced service hatch, the Gang Lieutenant is dragged across the threshold, free of the jammed passage at last. Behind Knull, the Wounded Guard braces against the ladder and keeps watch.
The Wounded Guard
The guard's warning dies beneath a deeper sound. Somewhere in the compromised route, pumps surge and metal begins to groan. Red hazard strips flicker across the conduit walls.
The Gang Lieutenant
At the conduit's end, a slab of armored composite blocks the old safehouse entrance. Dust coats its gang insignia, but the biometric plate wakes as the Lieutenant approaches. Cyan text scrolls across the lock: LIVE COMMAND AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
The Gang Lieutenant
The safehouse is still ours, but the network will not trust my biometrics alone. I need to issue the command before the route floods with heat.
✓ Quest Accepted
Open the safehouse as a defensible refuge
“do what you need to”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -2)
Knull keeps the extraction cable under tension and brings the recovered interface chip to the awakened plate. The lock accepts the handshake, but the conduit heat bites through his glove.
The Gang Lieutenant
Hold it there. I am routing command through your chip.
Therefore, the Lieutenant presses their palm to the plate and speaks a clipped authorization string. Cyan glyphs cascade across the armored slab.
The Gang Lieutenant
Safehouse command, emergency shelter protocol. Authenticate me, authenticate the armed escort, open and seal.
The biometric plate flashes red, then cyan. The composite slab retracts into the wall, exposing a reinforced refuge lined with dormant defense ports and sealed supply lockers.
The Gang Lieutenant
It is open. The refuge is ours again. But the heat sensors are counting down, and the seal will not wait forever.
A sharp burst of steam vents behind Knull. The guard's route is still clear, but the safehouse interior now displays three lockdown stations, each awaiting a command.
Secure the safehouse from the heat surge
Quest Complete
Reach the gang's old safehouse
Skill Upgrade: Surveillance Mediocre
Quest Complete
Open the safehouse as a defensible refuge