Mara opens the dead display’s maintenance panel. Behind its cracked casing, a narrow service route drops beneath sublevel six, lit by intermittent blue diagnostics.
Mara Quell
This spine runs below the command node’s surveillance grid. The report vault is ahead, sealed from the network and reachable only through maintenance access.
She steps into the passage first, one hand braced against the conduit wall. Selene follows, leaving the holding room and the handler’s vault behind while Euran remains gone at the east-side safehouse.
Mara Quell
Inside are my complete account of Voss’s operation, the authorization trail, and the orders that kept it hidden after the warehouse went loud.
The passage narrows around bundled fiber and coolant pipes. Above them, heavy mechanisms engage one after another, sealing command-node sections in sequence as distant locks thud through the structure.
Mara Quell
That is the node sealing itself. Quell’s system will isolate the vault once it confirms the breach. We have minutes, not safety.
Mara reaches a recessed junction where three service doors wait in darkness. A faint amber indicator glows on the center door, marking the report vault beyond.
“*I rush off taking her with me to get the reports before it seals off.*”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +3)
Selene catches Mara by the arm and drives her down the center passage at a sprint. Blue diagnostics strobe across conduit walls as the command node seals behind them.
Mara Quell
Fast, then. The center door is the vault. Your timing is better than mine was.
They reach the amber-marked door before its locking cycle completes. Selene bypasses the maintenance reader with a rapid interface bridge, and the armored seal retracts.
Mara Quell
You opened a report vault built to reject network access. Voss never knew this spine could be reached from the holding rooms.
Inside, shielded racks hold encrypted drives and physical authorization wafers. Mara pulls a black evidence cylinder from the central cradle and hands it to Selene.
Mara Quell
That contains my complete account, Voss’s orders, Quell-cell assignments, and the authorization trail. It is the proof we need.
The vault door seals behind them, but the systems remain quiet. A hidden terminal also displays Voss’s live command-node credentials, an unasked-for route directly to his current authorization session.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose Director Ilya Voss
+ New Item Acquired
Black evidence cylinder
“*I get the to Euran.* Who was involved with Euran Cross? Who sullied his credentials and tried to send him to his death?”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled +0)
Selene Nyx
Who was involved with Euran Cross? Who sullied his credentials and tried to send him to his death?
Selene slots the evidence cylinder into the hidden terminal. Its shielded interface blooms across the vault, cross-referencing Voss’s live credentials with the operation records.
Mara Quell
Director Ilya Voss ordered the decoy operation. He marked Cross expendable and authorized the kill-zone around the archive.
Mara Quell
I built the cleanup cell under his orders, but tried to stop the final report. Rusk planted the targeting trigger, Pell monitored the warehouse, and the credential handler forged Cross’s records.
The terminal verifies every name against signed authorizations. Voss’s command session, Quell’s cell assignments, and the false dockyard credentials resolve into one complete chain.
Mara Quell
They used Euran’s old dock credentials to make him the bait. Voss wanted him dead, the archive recovered, and every witness erased before the trail surfaced.
The evidence copies into Selene’s secured interface, including Voss’s current authorization route. The people who framed Euran and sent him toward death are identified, documented, and exposed.