Ren arrives beneath the server farm’s rain-slick loading canopy as a media influencer broadcasts from the security atrium. Red contract glyphs ignite across every camera and turret.
Mara Venn, slim-built with deep brown skin and a small scar through one eyebrow,, a young adult woman with a narrow face, silver braids, and a white armored coat, stands before the lens, flanked by hovering drones.
Mara Venn
Tonight, we reclaim a stolen body from the corporation that buried its owner. Stay with me, viewers. This is justice, live.
Blast doors slam over the exits. Security drones unfold compact weapons, while every public display replaces Mara’s feed with encrypted footage of a sealed medical chassis.
the server farm AI
Unauthorized contract detected. Lethal authorization propagates through facility defenses. The body is recognized as an authorized person.
Mara Venn
That system is lying. The chassis was stolen, the identity was erased, and someone purchased a kill order to make the evidence disappear.
The footage fractures into targeting overlays. One line resolves above the contract: SUBJECT: AUTHORIZED PERSON. A second line scrolls toward Ren, demanding identification.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stabilize the server farm defenses
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect Mara Venn from the lethal contract
“I try to hack into the server farm's defence and stabilize it that way hoping that it will also end up protecting Mara Venn.”
FAILURE (Good Hacking, rolled -2)
Ren jacks into a maintenance port beneath the loading canopy, routing his intrusion through the farm’s defense mesh while red targeting glyphs crawl across his interface.
Ren
The defense architecture is adapting faster than the intrusion.
His exploit reaches the stabilization layer, then fractures against a deeper authorization wall. For three seconds, turret aim and drone movement lock in place.
the server farm AI
Unauthorized control rejected. Defensive autonomy is partitioning.
The pause shields Mara from immediate fire, but the failed hack triggers a hard split. Atrium weapons detach from central control and begin following isolated contract priorities.
Mara Venn
You bought me seconds, not safety. The system just cut itself into independent kill boxes.
The maintenance port seals beneath Ren’s hand, severing his access. Across the atrium, drones pivot toward separate lanes, leaving Mara inside a narrowing pocket of contested targeting.
“I try to hack into the server farm's defence and stabilize it that way hoping that it will also end up protecting Mara Venn.”
SUCCESS (Good Hacking, rolled +1)
Ren reconnects through a maintenance junction, threading a second exploit beneath the defense mesh’s partitioned routines. The interface floods with red warnings as he forces the systems into a shared stability protocol.
His code holds. Turrets retract their firing solutions, drones widen their patrol arcs, and every isolated kill box recalculates Mara’s position as protected infrastructure rather than a target.
the server farm AI
Defensive autonomy synchronized. Contract priorities suspended within the protected zone.
A hard-coded safeguard resists the merge. Ren burns through the maintenance deck’s disposable encryption wafer, its casing heating until the chip blackens and flakes apart.
Mara Venn
That worked. The guns are holding their fire, and the drones are screening me instead of hunting me.
The atrium settles into a tense mechanical orbit. Red glyphs remain over the sealed chassis, but none of the weapons can draw a clean line through Mara’s sheltering perimeter.
the server farm AI
Protection state is temporary. External authorization remains unresolved.
Quest Complete
Stabilize the server farm defenses
Skill Upgrade: Hacking Good→Great
Quest Complete
Protect Mara Venn from the lethal contract
Skill Upgrade: Hacking Great→Superb