Ki Akio snaps the case up and hammers its tracking puck against the wet concrete. Sparks spit into the fog, and the red status light jitters for a second, then keeps screaming.
Ki Akio
Too loud. The signal is still live.
Juno
Smash the module, not the shell. The core's nested.
She thrusts her scanner close, fingers flying, while Marek shrinks tighter behind the pipes. Above them, the first drone hum slides through the rain like a blade.
Ki Akio drives the case down again, hard enough to crack the outer plate. A seam opens. Inside, a black wafer and a braided chip cradle flash under neon spill.
Juno
There, that chip. Pull it now, before the locator wakes the rest of them.
The red pulse stutters, thinner now, but not gone. The case is open, its contents exposed, and somewhere beyond the freight stairs, engines angle closer through the fog.
✓ Quest Accepted
Silence the tracking signal
“pull the chip and dunk it in any water source”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +0)
Ki Akio hooks two fingers under the braided cradle and yanks the chip free in one clean snap. Juno lunges the scanner toward a runoff grate, and he follows through, dropping the wafer into the black water below.
Juno
Good. Hold it under, keep it drowned.
The red pulse coughs once, then gutters inside the puddle like a dying ember. Thin steam curls up through the fog as the light on the case stutters and dies.
Marek
That was the one on us, right? Tell me that was the one.
Far above the stairs, the drone hum dips, searching, then slides away from the landing. Juno snatches the wet casing shut with one hand and points down the service corridor with the other.
Juno
Signal's gone. Move now, before the backup sweep locks onto the heat.
Marek starts from behind the pipes, already backing toward the corridor, while rainwater runs dark across the concrete and the drowned chip vanishes under the grate.
Quest Complete
Silence the tracking signal