The mirrored audio fractures, then resolves into the Wounded Guard’s voice. Beneath the clean cadence, a precise access command repeats through the relay, too exact to be ordinary speech.
The Wounded Guard
Refuge authority, containment corridor seven. Confirm sealed occupancy and expose the internal transfer route.
A service door materializes behind the relay as concealed strips ignite. Its metal face bears an obsolete refuge authority seal, half-erased beneath layers of dust and retrofit plating.
Mara Venn
That command format predates the current network. It is not a normal refuge instruction, and the Guard would not know the old syntax.
Mara keeps one hand braced against the failing override core while the door’s seal cycles from red to cyan. The broadcast continues, carrying the Guard’s voice without any distortion.
Mara Venn
If that door obeys, it may expose the Lieutenant and the Guard to an automated containment system. I cannot tell whether the command is opening a route or declaring them a breach.
The obsolete seal brightens fully. Somewhere beyond the door, dormant mechanisms wake in sequence, while Mara’s damaged core counts down and the clean voiceprint waits for authorization.
“I cut power to the obsolete service door”
SUCCESS (Poor Hacking, rolled +2)
Knull seats the hardened access wafer beside the compact diagnostic probe and opens the obsolete door’s maintenance bus. His cybernetic enhancements isolate the live control paths while Ruthless force strips away the system’s redundant safety checks.
The probe maps the door’s ancient power relay in sharp cyan branches. Knull follows the wafer’s authorization trail, then redirects the current through a sacrificial grounding loop instead of fighting the containment logic head-on.
The obsolete seal flashes red. Knull’s augmented interface clamps onto the relay command, and the diagnostic probe confirms each circuit as it drops. The door’s dormant mechanisms lose power in sequence.
The cyan authority seal fades to black. The concealed strips die, the awakened machinery beyond falls silent, and the service door’s power is fully cut without disturbing Mara’s override core.
Mara Venn
Power is gone. The old containment system cannot classify anyone now, and my core still holds the broadcast channel.
Behind the dead door, only the relay’s faint diagnostic pulse remains. The clean voiceprint continues through Mara’s core, while the route ahead is no longer governed by the obsolete authority seal.
✓ Quest Accepted
Verify the broadcast as a genuine survivor transmission