Morrow’s stolen combat mech crouches beneath the forest canopy, faded yellow armor slick with condensation. Inside the cockpit, recovery drones triangulate the jump plume through gaps in the branches.
Reserve fuel warnings pulse across the displays. Behind them, the corporate facility remains distant, with the intelligence analyst left inside while Jesse and Morrow escaped together.
the Architect
Jesse Borders, Morrow, your escape route is narrowing. Corporate forces will establish a perimeter before your fuel reserves recover.
The compromised channel carries no assistance, only the Architect’s calm voice threaded through static. Drone markers multiply across Morrow’s tactical display, converging from three directions.
Morrow
He is not offering help. He is managing the hunt. The drones are driving us toward exposed ground or forcing us to burn our remaining fuel.
the Architect
You mistake persistence for strategy. Remain stationary, and containment becomes inevitable. Move, and I will learn precisely what you value protecting.
Morrow
We have minutes before the perimeter closes. I can plot a route through the ravine, but every available path carries us deeper into his surveillance grid.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the corporate recovery perimeter
“*I think for a moment, then point on the map.* Let's hook a left and wagon wheel. Occasionally change directions so they can't bracket us. That's the tactic I'd use.”
SUCCESS (Great Tactics, rolled +1)
Jesse Borders
The drones are coordinating. Break their geometry before they can close the bracket.
Jesse Borders
Hook left, then wagon-wheel. Keep changing direction so they cannot bracket us.
Morrow’s tactical display redraws the ravine in sharp blue lines. Jesse points across the map, and the mech banks hard left, abandoning the obvious descent route.
Morrow
Executing your pattern. Alternating vectors, irregular timing, no sustained heading.
The combat mech cuts between stone outcrops, reverses direction around a dead communications tower, then swings wide through a narrow wash. Pursuit markers scatter as the drones lose a shared intercept solution.
the Architect
An improvised evasion pattern. Effective, Jesse Borders, but every deviation teaches me how you think.
Morrow
The bracket is broken. Three drones have separated to reacquire us, and the ravine route is clear. Your tactic has bought concealment without another fuel burn.
“"Turn off comms. Sick of hearing that bastard. Switch to power save mode. We need to either find more fuel, or find a new transport." *I search the cockpit for any left over sidearms. They often stow a pistol under the dashboard for emergencies.*”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -1)
Jesse Borders
Turn off comms. I’m sick of hearing that bastard. Switch to power save mode.
Morrow severs the compromised channel, and the Architect’s voice dies in a clipped burst of static. Reactor output drops to a muted crawl as nonessential systems shut down.
Morrow
Comms are dark. Power save is active. Thermal output and sensor range are reduced, but the drones have lost our live telemetry.
Jesse Borders
We need more fuel, or a new transport. Search the cockpit for anything useful.
Jesse pries open the emergency panel beneath the dashboard. Dust, a cracked restraint tool, and a compact sidearm sit inside the recessed compartment, secured beneath a faded warning strip.
Jesse Borders
The pistol is loaded, but the cockpit’s emergency latch is sharp.
He frees the sidearm and checks its charge cell. A narrow cut opens across his knuckle, leaving a bright smear on the grip while the mech settles into fuel-saving silence.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure fuel
+ New Item Acquired
Compact Sidearm
− Scene Quest Removed
Escape the corporate recovery perimeter