Rain needles the rooftop landing pad as Revenant emerges from neon haze. An underground journalist, a gaunt middle-aged woman with cropped silver hair and a torn yellow raincoat, is dragged toward a waiting corpo AV.
Armored contractors haul her across the slick deck. A black data shard remains hardwired into the side of her neck, its indicator pulsing while encrypted files stream skyward.
Beside the AV ramp, a young man in a shredded utility vest kneels over a compact drone. His cheek is bloodied, and insulated cutters snap uselessly at the journalist's cable.
Mara Venn
Revenant! They found the archive! Don't let them finish the upload!
The extraction team stops. Six armored figures pivot as one, visors reflecting cyan rain. Carbines rise toward Revenant, their muzzles locking with quiet servo clicks.
the drone handler
Connection's live! If I pull it now, the shard fries the whole evidence cache!
The AV's turbines spool higher, blasting vapor across the pad. Behind the contractors, the journalist twists against their grip, keeping her eyes fixed on Revenant as the upload bar climbs.
✓ Quest Accepted
Free the journalist with the stolen secrets intact
“Let the joirnalist go. They’re worth more trouble his you make them disappear. Trust me. They’re have their disappearance all over the news before you can clean it all up. Too large of a target. Let me take them from here. You guys don’t need to get your hands dirty.”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +0)
“Let the joirnalist go. They’re worth more trouble his you make them disappear. Trust me. They’re have their disappearance all over the news before you can clean it all up. Too large of a target. Let me take them from here. You guys don’t need to get your hands dirty.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Revenant
Let the journalist go. They’re worth more trouble alive than you are if you make them disappear. Trust me.
Revenant
Their disappearance will be all over the news before you can clean it up. They’re too large a target. Let me take them from here.
Rain sheets across the pad. Revenant keeps his hands visible as the AV’s turbines howl, his voice cutting through the contractors’ private comms and corporate risk calculations.
the contractor commander
Stand down. We’re not buying a public execution over a data transfer.
The carbines lower by degrees. Two contractors release the journalist, and she stumbles free with the shard still pulsing at her neck.
Mara Venn
You picked a dangerous time to become useful.
Revenant takes the journalist from their custody. The contractors withdraw toward the AV, surrendering the rooftop and its living evidence while the upload signal dies.
Quest Complete
Free the journalist with the stolen secrets intact