Logan arrives beneath a rain-lashed port canopy as cargo mechs grind down loading ramps. Civilians surge between locked containers while unmanned defense turrets track every movement.
Above the concourse, a young adult woman with close-cropped black hair and a yellow customs coat stands rigidly at a gantry console. A thin interface filament glows behind her ear.
The Sleeper
Do not trust the emergency network. It is reporting an empty port because someone has replaced the evacuation ledger.
Her hands move across the console with practiced precision, though her face remains carefully blank. Across the port, departure sirens pulse without opening a single civilian route.
The Sleeper
The people are real. The orders are not. I can redirect them, but I need the sealed transport interrupted first.
A heavy mech carrier shudders behind three security gates. Its sealed bay lights ignite in sequence, and dormant machine logic floods the local network.
The Sleeper
There. Bay twelve. Its systems are waking now. Logan, move before the port decides you are part of the cargo.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop the sealed transport
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the military cover-up
“rub to sealed transport”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +1)
Logan breaks from the civilian flow and runs beneath the canopy. Rain hammers his mask while cargo lights smear across the wet deck.
The Sleeper
Bay twelve is directly ahead. Keep moving. The transport has recognized the evacuation breach.
A security gate unlocks before him with a heavy clank, its warning lamps shifting from red to amber as the network accepts the redirected route.
Logan
The carrier is powering up.
Logan reaches the sealed transport. Its armored bay towers overhead, vents exhaling hot vapor as dormant systems wake behind the plating.
The Sleeper
You are there. I have interrupted the departure sequence, but only briefly. The civilian route is ready for my command.
Across the carrier hull, a narrow access strip illuminates beside the sealed bay, outlining a maintenance interface and confirming Logan's arrival.
“Use the access strip to get in the carrier”
FAILURE (Fair Reasoning, rolled -1)
Logan presses toward the illuminated access strip. The panel resolves into a recessed maintenance socket, but there is no interface module waiting in its cradle.
Logan
The socket is empty.
His augmented hand passes over the reader without a matching tool. The strip flashes amber, then folds shut behind armored plating with a sharp mechanical snap.
The Sleeper
That is not a standard access panel. The carrier has removed its local interface and sealed the external port.
The transport answers the failed handshake by shifting its weight. Locking braces drive into the deck, pinning the carrier against its launch rails as internal systems reroute.
The Sleeper
Do not try that panel again. I can still hold the departure sequence, but the route inside is no longer from here.
A maintenance schematic flickers across the carrier hull, highlighting a lower service junction beneath the loading deck before the display collapses into warning symbols.
“run to the lower service junction beneath the loading deck”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +1)
Logan leaves the carrier's sealed flank and runs beneath the loading deck. Rainwater pours through the grating as cargo servos swing overhead, scattering blue work-light across his mask.
The Sleeper
Service junction ahead, beneath the third support gantry. The carrier is rerouting power through that line.
He cuts between stacked cargo pallets and drops down a maintenance stair. Warning strobes paint the narrow passage white, then black, while the deck vibrates under his boots.
The Sleeper
You are clear of the public route. I am keeping the evacuation channel open, but the port network has noticed the diversion.
Logan reaches the lower service junction. A waist-high armored node sits beneath the loading deck, its access seams glowing as carrier power surges through buried conduits.
The junction unlocks with a compressed hiss, exposing layered diagnostic ports and a manual bypass cradle. Heat rolls from the machinery, carrying the sharp scent of charged insulation.
The Sleeper
You made it. The bypass is open now. Whatever is controlling bay twelve, this junction is the shortest path to it.
“Rip the manual bypass from the cradle to block whatever is controlling bay twelve.”
SUCCESS (Great Strength, rolled +0)
Logan grips the manual bypass with both hands and tears it from the cradle. Metal brackets shear free, throwing a brief spray of harmless sparks across the junction.
The carrier's power surge stutters. Buried conduits fall silent in sequence, and the bay twelve control signal collapses into static beneath the loading deck.
The Sleeper
Confirmed. The control path is blocked. Bay twelve cannot complete its launch sequence now.
Above, locking braces clamp down across the carrier rails. Its vents exhale a final cloud of hot vapor before the machine settles into inert standby.
The Sleeper
I am opening the evacuation route. The port network is blind to the interruption for the moment.
Beyond the service passage, amber guidance strips ignite along the public concourse. Cargo barriers retract, revealing a clear route through the rain toward the outer gates.
The Sleeper
You stopped the departure. Now the civilians can leave.
Quest Complete
Stop the sealed transport
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Good→Great
+ New Item Acquired
Manual Bypass