The tower hum deepens around the shattered relay, and a fresh signal blooms somewhere above. Mara points to the service ladder, then freezes as red indicator lights crawl awake inside the access hatch.
The relay break did not kill the whole network. It only woke the next link.
Mara
They noticed. If that ladder reaches the broadcast room, we can cut the spine of it.
Footsteps scrape metal overhead. A hatch clanks open on the tower skin, and two silhouettes lean out, searching the base with flashlights.
Mara
Lask and Meridian will pull everything back through this tower if we let them.
Mara grabs the ladder rail and looks to Buster, urgent and steady. If he climbs now, they can reach the active broadcast room before the network locks them out.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the broadcast room
“I hoist Mara up to the ladder so we can reach the hatch together.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +0)
Buster gets one arm under Mara and drives upward, his grip rock steady as he boosts her to the first rungs. Her boots find metal, and she swings herself onto the ladder without losing her balance.
Mara
I have you. Go after me, right now.
Above them, the open hatch spits a harsh mechanical chirp. A panel inside the tower skin slides sideways, and a hidden turret turns with a dry, deliberate whine.
Mara climbs fast, one hand on the rail, the other reaching for the hatch lip. The two silhouettes at the opening jerk back as the turret light snaps on below them.
The Silhouettes
Defense system, movement on the tower face, close it down!
Buster plants himself below the ladder, palm split and bleeding, ready to catch Mara if the tower shakes. The ladder rattles under his weight as the defense system wakes fully.
Mara
Buster, it is arming the whole access shaft. I am in, but we have to move before it seals us out.
“I leap up and grab the turret, twaring it from the wall”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +0)
Buster launches upward, one hand hooking the turret housing while his other arm drives under the mounting plate. Metal screams against the tower skin as he rips it loose in a single violent wrench.
The turret tears free, cables snapping behind it. It sparks in Buster’s grip, then goes dead as he hurls the broken unit down the shaft.
Mara
That was the only thing pinning the shaft. Move, Buster, now!
Above him, the hatch frame grinds inward, and the ladder shudders with the tower’s lockout. The silhouettes recoil from the spill of sparks, their flashlights jerking wildly across the metal walls.
The Silhouettes
Damage at the access. Do not let him through!
Buster Jones
The shaft is narrowing fast.
Mara gains another rung, reaching toward the dim opening ahead while Buster stays braced below, palm split and bright with blood. The tower keeps closing around them, hard and mechanical.
“I leap up through the broadcast toom door and tackle the silhouettes”
SUCCESS (Legendary Athletics, rolled +1)
Buster drives upward through the hatch opening and slams into the first silhouette chest-first, the force folding them back into the cramped broadcast room threshold.
The second silhouette jerks aside, but the narrow landing leaves nowhere to run. Their flashlight skitters across the walls as Buster's shoulder catches them and shoves them hard into the console bank.
The Silhouettes
He is inside. Seal the room!
Mara reaches the upper rung behind him, her face tight with alarm as the hatch frame keeps grinding inward. Below, the shaft metal shrieks, already stealing back the space Buster just forced open.
Buster Jones
The broadcast room is right there, and the tower is trying to lock it away.
One silhouette stumbles over the broken flashlight, the other claws for a wall panel, and the room fills with warning lights and the stuttering pulse of the relay somewhere above.
Mara
Buster, hold them there, I am coming up!
Quest Complete
Reach the broadcast room
New Gift: Broadcast Voice