The rental is quiet except for the ventilation fan and the faint servo-click of Max's prosthetic joints. Eviction notices overlap on the kitchenette table, each stamped with a different deadline.
The Automated Property System
Your account remains delinquent by one thousand, eight hundred credits. Available payment arrangements have been recalculated.
Max DrakeHall.
The final notice is still warm from the printer.
The Automated Property System
Offer one: immediate payment of six hundred credits, followed by four monthly installments. Lease continuation requires acceptance before the countdown expires.
A blue projection above the handset displays the remaining time. The number falls beside a clause allowing the property owner to begin formal removal proceedings immediately after expiration.
The Automated Property System
Offer two: surrender the unit within seventy-two hours. Outstanding charges remain subject to collection. No further negotiation is available through this channel.
The Automated Property System
Final offer expires in thirty Cycles. Please state acceptance, rejection, or request the currently displayed terms.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the rental unit
“" I'll accept the job"”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +0)
The handset chimes over the eviction countdown. A newly arrived contract fills the display: emergency construction work aboard the orbital freighter Veyra, with payment sufficient to clear the immediate demand.
Max DrakeHall.
I'll accept the job.
Max's cybernetic fingers confirm the contract. The terms lock, an advance transfers into his account, and the property system's blue projection recalculates the delinquency.
Mara Venn
Contract accepted. I am Mara Venn, operations coordinator for Veyra Salvage. Report to Dock Seven in forty minutes.
The leasekeeper pauses while the payment clears. The countdown freezes, then vanishes, replaced by a receipt and a temporary lease continuation.
The Automated Property System
Advance payment received. Immediate removal proceedings are suspended. Your account remains subject to the posted balance.
Outside, traffic glows between the towers. Max has a job, a departure time, and just enough credit to leave the rental without being forced out tonight.
Report for the Veyra Salvage contract
Quest Complete
Keep the rental unit