The control room door blows inward, coughing smoke and steam into the corridor. Emergency strips stutter red along the walls, and somewhere ahead, metal wings hum in the dark.
Kay and Taled push into the maintenance tunnel. Pipes crowd the ceiling. Condensation drips off the rusted grates. A pair of corporate drones sweeps past an overhead gap, their scanners painting the steam in pale blue.
Taled
Keep low. They see heat, not hope.
Kay
The blockade is close. Close enough to taste.
Ahead, the corridor splits around a collapsed vent stack. Through a jagged opening, Kay spots the city blockade lights pulsing beyond the outer wall, bright and hard as a verdict.
Ocram
I have a route, but it is ugly. Left pipe drops to a service spine, then straight to the barrier access.
Taled
And if the drones catch us first?
The drones turn back, their scanners narrowing toward the heat trail they have found. The escape route is real, and it runs through the blockade.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the service spine
“Ocram's voice echoes in Kay's earpiece. Yma has located them, and Ocram is heading toward their position in the Vulture to rescue them.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -2)
Kay goes still, listening to Ocram crackle through the earpiece. The tunnel breathes around him, steam hissing off the pipes as the drones drift off their sweep and the blockade glow waits beyond the wall.
Ocram
Hold position. Vulture is coming in hot.
A low thrum rolls through the housing block, distant at first, then louder. Taled shifts his weight, eyes on the split, while Kay keeps his body tucked into the pipe shadow.
Kay
He hears the engines.
The Vulture’s underside light flashes across the corridor mouth for a heartbeat, then vanishes behind concrete. Dust shakes loose from the ceiling, and a cracked vent panel rattles hard enough to spit rust.
Yma
I’ve got your location. Stay put, I’m masking the tail now.
Below the comm chatter, the blockade lights keep pulsing beyond the breach, but the nearer threat is the ship itself, grinding into position overhead.
Ocram drops the Vulture to the access level, just outside the tunnel line. The hatch yaws open with a metallic shriek, spilling white light and wind into the steam.
The cost lands with the arrival, Kay’s shoulder clips a hot pipe as he rises, and Taled is already turning toward the open hatch, waiting for the move that decides whether they run or get pinned.
Kay leaves old housing complex behind and arrives at the horizon.
“Kay and Taled run toward the open rear ramp of the Vulture as it hovers. Taled jumps first and lands heavily on the ramp. Kay jumps second and barely manages to grab the edge of the Vulture's ramp. Yma and Taled help Kay climb aboard while Ocram engages the thrusters and flies off toward the horizon.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled -1)
Kay hits the ramp hard, boots skidding on metal as the Vulture lurches under him. Wind tears through the hatch, carrying the smell of hot circuitry and rain over the city glow.
Taled plants himself beside the opening and hauls Kay by the forearm, yanking him fully inside before the edge drops away under the wash.
Yma
Got you. Move in.
Yma braces at the hatch controls, one hand on the frame, the other snapping the panel shut while the skyline streaks past behind her.
Ocram
Strap in, I am taking us over the line.
The engines bite. The Vulture surges upward, leaving the blockade lights below to smear into a hard band of red and white across the horizon.
Kay
The city falls behind them.
Quest Complete
Escape the city blockade
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Superb→Legendary
− Scene Quest Removed
Reach the service spine