Proximity alarms howl through GPO Ship 115. On the main display, a colossal Touran flagship fills the void, its mass casting a hard shadow over the patrol craft.
A tractor beam lances out and catches the ship's bow. The deck shudders as the pull begins, slow but absolute.
In the holding area, Abby Stone strains inside her wall-mounted metal box, blindfolded and gagged, her sealed hands trapped against the frame. Jorvik rattles in his glass-windowed containment box, eyes wide and fixed on the corridor.
Jorvik
That beam is too clean. Someone tuned it to our hull signature.
Sion cuts power to the display feed for a beat, then reroutes it to maintenance diagnostics. The old sabotage scars do not light up where the alien ship locks on, they light up in the ship's own spine.
Jorvik
Find the splice point. If they tagged us, they tagged us from inside.
A fresh alert pings from the cargo-support mesh, one node still whispering after the purge. The source sits deeper than the nav core, and it is still alive.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the Touran flagship
“Sion: “Damn it. I can’t fight that thing…” He shifts on focus to ship thrusters and attempts to escape the area.”
SUCCESS (Great Piloting, rolled +0)
Sion dumps the console feed into thruster control. The ship answers with a hard, controlled burn, and the tractor pull loses its bite.
The deck vibration changes pitch as GPO Ship 115 yaws free of the clean blue beam. The Touran flagship slides off the forward view instead of holding center.
Jorvik
There, keep that vector. Their lock is slipping.
In the holding area, Abby jolts in her box as the hull lurches clear. The corridor lights flicker, but the ship is no longer being dragged straight in.
Jorvik
They will try a second grab. Cut across their approach lane if you can.
The flagship drifts past on the display, its interceptor geometry now offset. Sion has the ship out from under the first lock, but the alien vessel is still maneuvering.
“Sion attempts to send the Touran ship a transmission. He sends: “Cease fire. This is a GPO vessel.””
FAILURE (Fair Willpower, rolled -2)
Sion keys the transmitter and sends the cease-fire burst on a narrowband emergency channel.
The reply never lands cleanly. The Touran receiver chews the packet into static, but the return ping is real, sharp, and local.
On Jorvik’s readout, the flagship’s lock matrix flickers from a hard track to a handoff request, as if somebody on the other side is testing identity before firing.
Jorvik
They heard the GPO tag. Not enough to trust it, but enough to pause the guns.
A fresh line blooms in the interference, carrying a checksum pattern instead of a challenge. It matches the encrypted packet structure in the cargo hold frame.
Jorvik
That checksum is a broker’s courtesy stamp. Someone aboard them knows who you are.
The interceptor does not disengage, but its nose shifts off the firing solution and hangs there, waiting for the next authenticated move.
“Sion fires a warning shot at the Touran ship, hoping to scare them away.”
SUCCESS (Good Marksmanship, rolled -1)
Sion fires a warning shot into open space beside the viewport. The bolt flashes bright against the Touran hull, not a hit, but close enough to write a line of light across their approach.
The interceptor flinches off its clean vector. Its nose yaws wide, and the lock on Jorvik’s display drops from a patient probe to a jittering, uncertain track.
Jorvik
That got their attention. They are reconsidering the angle.
A warning siren in the nav core stutters once, then settles into a harsher cadence. Power draw spikes across the console, and the muzzle heat from Sion’s pistol bleeds red across his grip.
Abby Stone
Careful. If they decide to answer that with a beam, this hull will feel it.
Outside, the Touran flagship keeps its distance, but its firing ports begin to open in sequence, like an eye blinking awake.
The ship is not fleeing. It is choosing whether to escalate, and waiting on Sion’s next move.
“Sion takes the helm again and attempts to have the GPO ship 115 flee quickly and leave the area.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +2)