The hauler punches through a concealed gate and rolls into a fortified Rabid Dogs safehouse. Concrete shutters descend behind it as sentry cameras pivot toward the stolen vehicle.
Jackal remains braced beside the secured black cases while the hauler idles. Rabid Dogs spill into the bunker, dragging equipment clear and sealing the loading bay.
A nearby case unlocks under a Dog's bypass tool. Its inner foam splits, revealing a compact projector that throws a narrow encrypted image into the smoky air.
Dr. Hopper
I am Dr. Hopper. If this message reached you, the materialization project has acquired an unplanned component: Jackal Molotov.
The projection stutters around Dr. Hopper's face, compressing every word into a thin lattice of light. The Rabid Dogs quiet nearby, listening without touching the case.
Dr. Hopper
These coordinates lead to a secure access point. Go there before corporate systems complete their trace. They are already following your cybernetic signature.
Coordinates bloom across the case lid, then collapse into static. The projector dies, leaving only the bunker fans, the locked gates, and the Dogs waiting for Jackal's response.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the secure access point
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover why Jackal is part of the materialization project
“Talk to mutt about the message”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled -1)
A young adult woman steps from the bunker’s cable bank, lean beneath a patched black jacket, with copper ports along her shaved temple and bright interface lenses over one eye. The Rabid Dogs give her room near the dead projector.
Jackal Molotov
Tell me what you know about Dr. Hopper’s message.
Mutt
Mutt. I’m the one who cracks our channels. Hopper’s coordinates are real, and the trace warning is fresh. Corporate systems tagged your cybernetic signature during the raid.
Mutt kneels beside the projector case and pulls its remaining static into a diagnostic window. The display confirms an encrypted route, but a second marker blinks against Jackal’s signature.
Mutt
The access point is a door, not a destination. I can get you through its first lock, but doing that burns my private relay. Afterward, I lose our clean channel.
Around them, the Rabid Dogs resume sealing equipment, their armor clattering under the bunker fans. Mutt closes the diagnostic and holds the stolen route on her lens display, waiting for authorization.
Mutt
I’ll open the route and put the coordinates in your deck. But from that moment, you owe me a favor, Jackal. No bargaining after the lock turns.
“Sarcastically say I'll make them Tog Dog”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled -1)
Jackal Molotov
Sure. I’ll make you Top Dog. Try not to let the title go to your head.
Mutt
That sarcasm costs extra, Jackal. Fine. I’ll take the deal, and I’ll open the route.
Mutt’s interface lens flashes as she accepts the bargain. The stolen route unlocks inside Jackal’s deck, while the surrounding Rabid Dogs hear the promise and turn their attention toward him.
Mutt
The coordinates are in your deck now. My private relay is burned, and the favor is recorded as a real debt, not a joke.
The route resolves into a secure access point beneath East city, wrapped in shifting authentication layers. Mutt closes the projector case and keeps her gaze fixed on Jackal.
Mutt
You wanted the door. You have it. When I call in that favor, the Top Dog answers personally.
“I ask Mutt to scrub my trace”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled +0)
Jackal Molotov
Scrub my trace. I want the corporate tag gone before I use that access point.
Mutt
That costs more than a favor, but you asked cleanly. Hold still and let me work.
Mutt reconnects the burned relay through the projector case, routing Jackal’s signature into a maze of dead identifiers. Her lenses fill with cascading corporate telemetry.
Mutt
There. The trace is scrubbed. Their systems can keep the old signature, but it no longer points to you or this bunker.
The warning marker vanishes from Jackal’s deck. The secure access point remains loaded, while the route now carries a harmless phantom trail into East city’s abandoned infrastructure.
Mutt
You’re clean for this route, Jackal. I burned my relay and buried your trail, so when I call in that favor, you answer.
Mutt seals the projector case and disconnects her interface. The bunker settles around the quiet machinery, leaving Jackal with the coordinates, a clean trace, and a debt that now has weight.
“I head for the secure access point”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +2)