Static collapses into a polished corporate chime. Blue emergency lights ripple across the empty platform as the speakers identify the Rescued Hostage by designation and announce a reward for their return.
The Rebel Hacker
"That alert is live, not prerecorded. Keep moving. The service lane is still our best exit."
A side door clanks open. A station technician steps down from the access stairwell in a stained maintenance jacket, one hand gripping a battered tool case.
Mara Venn
"Stop before you reach the platform cameras. I can suppress the alert, but I need thirty seconds and a clean signal."
The Rebel Hacker
"Your jammer has corporate security markings. That is not station salvage."
Mara Venn
"Because I took it from Corporate Security. They locked my maintenance grid after I refused to reroute their retrieval teams. Open the case, or leave me behind and let the announcement keep broadcasting."
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the hostage hidden from the retrieval network
“Is Mara's jammer safe to use?”
NO, AND WORSE (Unlikely, rolled 89)
No. The jammer's corporate markings are not cosmetic: its handshake would expose the hostage's legacy extraction badge and broadcast their location to the retrieval network before Mara could suppress the alert.
Mara Venn
It is still hot. The moment I connect it, they will know exactly where to send the response.
“I ask the hacker to find a way to hide the badge from the network.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Emily mist
Find a way to hide the badge from the network.
The Rebel Hacker drops beside a maintenance port and routes the badge handshake through the platform's dead transit layer, keeping the corporate jammer disconnected.
The Rebel Hacker
There. The badge is still opening systems, but the retrieval network sees a blank passenger record.
Across the platform, the live alert fractures into static, then collapses. The hostage's identifier vanishes from the active capture board.
Mara Venn
Clean signal. No corporate ping, no response team. You bought the hostage a blind spot.
The jammer's red diode dims as Mara lowers it into the case. Somewhere beyond the tunnel, an automated train begins braking at the platform.
The Rebel Hacker
The blind spot will not last forever. The train is arriving, and its manifest still has to decide where we disappear.
Quest Complete
Keep the hostage hidden from the retrieval network
“Board the arriving train with the hostage”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +2)
The train glides in on silent mag-rails, doors opening before the first carriage fully settles. Emily mist moves with the arriving air and reaches the threshold.
The Rescued Hostage follows close, one hand locked around the legacy extraction badge. Emily mist gets them both aboard as the platform lights smear across the windows.
The Rebel Hacker
You made it. Keep the badge shielded until the carriage clears the station mesh.
Mara Venn boards through the next door, case tucked against her side. The doors seal, and the platform falls behind in blue reflections.
Mara Venn
The blind spot traveled with us, but the train still needs a destination. I can force one stop before the manifest audits itself.
Above the aisle, the route display flickers from CORPORATE LOOP to an unlisted junction. The Rebel Hacker turns toward Emily mist, waiting for the choice.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the unlisted junction
undefined / undefined
The unlisted junction resolves into a maintenance designation: ARCHIVE SPINE, AUTHORITY TRANSFER. The train angles downward, leaving the public line behind.
Mara Venn
That route was not on the schedule. Someone has accepted my override.
Her jammer case clicks once. A hidden status strip wakes beneath the corporate seal, displaying a second authorization keyed to Mara's identity.
The Rebel Hacker
You said you stole that device. You did not say it still reports to anyone.
Mara Venn
It reports nowhere. The train is answering an older command, one buried in the evacuation system.
The hostage's legacy extraction badge vibrates against their chest. On the route display, a new prompt appears: PRESENT AUTHORIZED SURVIVOR FOR ARCHIVE INTAKE.
Mara Venn
If that intake opens, the alert stays blind, but the archive will learn exactly who crossed its threshold.
“Can I use my willpower to take control of the train”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 60)
No. The train's control layer rejects Emily mist's will, maintaining its descent toward ARCHIVE SPINE under the buried evacuation command.
“I ask Mara to jam the intake prompt”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Emily mist
Mara, jam the archive-intake prompt.
The request cuts through the carriage's braking whine. Mara moves at once, snapping the jammer's contact lead into the legacy badge's shielded cradle.
Mara Venn
Thirty seconds. Keep the badge covered.
The intake prompt fractures across the route display, then folds into a dead transit handshake. The archive no longer sees an authorized survivor entering its records.
The Rebel Hacker
It took. The hostage is invisible to the capture board again, but the train still has a destination ledger.
A new line replaces the intake demand: MANUAL ARRIVAL ROUTE. Three coded junction tags blink beneath it while the carriage descends toward ARCHIVE SPINE.
Mara Venn
I can erase the passenger trace, not choose where this train surfaces. Pick a tag before the archive receives the manifest.
“I feel like we’ve been followed and use willpower to see who is following us”
SUCCESS (Fair Perception, rolled +1)
Emily mist lets the carriage noise flatten into patterns: rail vibration, jammer pulse, four breathing bodies, and one extra rhythm riding behind them.
The Rebel Hacker
There. Rear coupling. Something is matching our speed.
The route display ghosts a maintenance schematic over the carriage floor. A corporate audit drone is clamped to the train's rear service frame, its recorder aimed at the passenger manifest conduit.
Mara Venn
Not a retrieval team. An audit leash. It has been following since the platform.
The Rescued Hostage
Can it still see my badge?
The train crosses the unlisted junction. Magnetic shutters close behind the carriage, cutting the audit drone from the route mesh and ending its live feed.
The Rebel Hacker
Feed is gone. It knows a train passed, but not who rode it.
Ahead, the carriage enters the ARCHIVE SPINE approach tunnel. The manual route tags vanish, replaced by a dark arrival map and a single offline platform marker.
Quest Complete
Reach the unlisted junction
Skill Upgrade: Electronics Mediocre