The dead turrets hang overhead like open jaws. In the red corridor, the Hunter Captain stops retreating and stares at the wiring still in Buster Jones’s hands.
Mara
No... that sequence. I know it.
She reaches for the cable, not to take it, but to confirm it, her face draining of color.
Mara
That beacon was never just a tracker. I helped isolate that genetic signature years ago.
A fresh jolt of recognition hits her, and the container maze snaps into place as more than tactics, it was her hand on the walls, her voice on the route, her knowledge of how to corner him.
Mara
I was lead researcher on the project that made you.
Then the corridor lights die completely. Darkness swallows them both as the facility groans around its failing frame.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the truth about Buster Jones’s origins
“I step toward the Captain in the dark and demand she tell me everything.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -2)
Buster steps into the black, one heavy foot at a time. The ruined corridor answers with a low shudder, and his shadow brushes the Captain before the emergency glow fades again.
Buster Jones
Tell me everything. About me. About how you made me.
Mara
We did not make a weapon. We found a pattern, then forced it into a body that could survive it.
Mara
Your file was a breakthrough, a living proof that the signature could be isolated and stabilized. I signed the work that put it into you.
Her voice shakes on the last word. When she reaches for the broken cable again, it is with two fingers, like it burns.
Mara
The project had a name, but not a conscience. We used donors, machinery, and enough lies to keep the board funding it.
Mara
You were the first result that lived. After that, they buried the rest.
A loose panel falls somewhere down the corridor with a metal clatter, and the sound makes her flinch. Buster stands in the dark with the answer finally out, and the Captain cannot hide from it anymore.
Quest Complete
Learn the truth about Buster Jones’s origins