The tractor lock shudders, then weakens as GPO Ship 115 claws free of the Touran flagship’s grip. Red warning bars strobe across the bridge. Jorvik’s eye flicks over a smoking console stack, while Abby Stone strains against her restraints, watching the tactical feed.
Jorvik
There. The checksum isn’t random, it is a signature. Someone on this ship planted the sabotage to feed our position out.
Jorvik jabs a trembling arm at the readout, highlighting a maintenance access trail buried inside the ship’s own systems. The path leads back toward the cargo spine and the prison block, as the flagship’s weapons ports finish opening outside.
Abby Stone
If you want the leak gone, cut the right node. And if you want me to talk, stop wasting time on the wrong prisoner.
A fresh pulse ripples through the diagnostics, confirming the internal breach is still active but contained. The ship remains steady for now, one hard decision away from either escape or another boarding storm.
Sion stands at the center of the bridge with the route to safety in one direction and the sabotage source in the other, hand near his pistol, hand near the override panel. The next move is his.
He takes control at the helm of the GPO Ship 115 while leaving the prisoners in their cells
“Sion focuses on escape.”
SUCCESS (Great Piloting, rolled +0)
Sion eases the helm through the shift, and the ship answers cleanly. The flagship’s silhouette slides off the tactical display as GPO Ship 115 slips free of its firing lane.
Red alarms still flash, but the worst of the strain drops out of the deck. The vibration in the corridor plating fades to a dull rattle, no longer the rhythm of a trap.
Jorvik
Clean break. Your timing held.
Abby Stone
So that’s it, then. No prize for them tonight.
The checksum trail remains on the screen, now just a record instead of a threat. The warped service panel by the bridge entry hangs open, quiet under the strobing lights.
Jorvik stays by the console stack, watching the readouts settle. Abby’s restraint holds her in the chair, but her posture loosens by a fraction as the ship steadies.
With manual control restored and the pursuer left behind, the bridge falls into a thin, exhausted silence.
Alarms thinned to a tired hum as Ship 115 settled into open drift. The bridge lights steadied, washing Jorvik and Abby Stone in a pale, exhausted calm.
Jorvik
Sabotage signature is locked. Whatever twisted this ship did not get the last word.
Abby Stone
You kept the prisoners safe and the ship alive. That was the right priority.
Sion
Then we finish it properly at the station. No more leaks, no more running blind.
GPO Ship 115 cleared the firing lane and held together long enough to reach safety. The prisoners were delivered, the sabotage named, and the immediate threat broke against Sion's resolve. In the quiet after the alarms, the ship finally felt like a vessel returning to its own course.