The car rolls to a halt in the old customs tunnel. A sealed inspection bay powers up beside it, projecting a cracked customs seal across the concrete wall.
An armored compliance drone rolls from a service alcove, sensor arrays glowing blue. Inspector Vale, a rangy middle-aged woman with pale skin, narrow amber eyes, and a small scar through her left eyebrow follows, an angular middle-aged woman in a charcoal enforcement coat, silver hair braided tight, and a live warrant pulsing from her wrist.
Inspector Vale
Weapons Office designation Nyx-Blackbird. Step away from the vehicle and surrender the blackglass asset.
The disavowed operative shifts beside the passenger door, one hand slipping beneath his scorched gray coat toward a concealed weapon. His eyes stay fixed on the drone.
the wounded courier
The shard cannot be seen. Not now.
In the rear seat, the wounded courier folds her yellow jacket over the insulated shard and presses herself into shadow. The dressing at her side darkens again.
Inspector Vale
Do not make this theatrical. The warrant authorizes seizure, detention, and a full audit of everyone in that car.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the fugitives past Inspector Vale
✓ Quest Accepted
Deliver the blackglass shard to Vey
“*I step out of the vehicle coolly and walk with my hands up. Then get on my knees in front of her. Before anyone has time to react a small smart gun flicks out of my mechanical wrist into my hand and I shot Inspector Vale right in the head.*”
SUCCESS (Good Firearms, rolled +1)
Selene steps from the vehicle with both hands raised, cool and deliberate. She crosses the inspection bay, then lowers herself onto her knees before Inspector Vale.
Inspector Vale
That is better. Keep your hands visible, Nyx-Blackbird.
Before the compliance drone can adjust its aim, a compact smart gun snaps from Selene’s mechanical wrist into her hand. Its targeting light settles on Vale.
The weapon fires once. Inspector Vale is struck in the head and collapses beside the projected customs seal, her live warrant scattering into broken amber code.
the disavowed operative
Down! Keep the drone off the courier!
The armored drone pivots toward Selene, blue sensors flaring. The disavowed operative draws his concealed weapon and fires at its optics, forcing its aim wide.
the wounded courier
The shard is still covered. Move before it identifies us!
+ New Item Acquired
Smart gun
“*I shoot out the circuits in the drone rendering it immobile. Then take off the then inspectors wrist device and hack into it. I use it to steal and clean her system of data and do the same for the drone.* We’ll steal the inspector’s car now. *I say while focus on hacking.*”
SUCCESS (Fair Hacking, rolled +0)
“*I shoot out the circuits in the drone rendering it immobile. Then take off the then inspectors wrist device and hack into it. I use it to steal and clean her system of data and do the same for the drone.* We’ll steal the inspector’s car now. *I say while focus on hacking.*”
FAILURE (Fair Hacking, rolled -2)
Selene Nyx
I shoot out the drone’s circuits, then take Inspector Vale’s wrist device and hack into it. We’ll steal her car now.
Selene’s smart gun snaps twice into the drone’s exposed sensor housing. Blue arcs spit across its frame, and the armored machine slumps immobile, optics fading to black.
She strips Inspector Vale’s wrist device free and jacks it into her deck. Compliance partitions unfold across the display, layered behind biometric locks and an active enforcement cipher.
Selene forces the purge through. Inspector Vale’s warrant fragments vanish, but the deepest audit records resist deletion, collapsing into a sealed forensic archive instead.
The drone’s local memory clears unevenly. Its targeting logs disappear, while a damaged emergency core preserves a compressed image of the car and everyone inside it.
the disavowed operative
You cleaned the surface, not the bones. Her vehicle is still tied to that archive, and the bay will not release it cleanly.
the wounded courier
Then leave it. The courier route is compromised, and my dressing is failing. We need cover before that device finishes waking up.
+ New Item Acquired
Inspector's wrist device
“*I shoot out the circuits in the drone rendering it immobile. Then take off the then inspectors wrist device and hack into it. I use it to steal and clean her system of data and do the same for the drone.* We’ll steal the inspector’s car now. *I say while focus on hacking.*”
FAILURE (Fair Hacking, rolled -1)
The wrist device rejects the stolen authority with a hard pulse. Its archive seals itself, broadcasting a forensic claim through the inspection bay before Selene can sever it.
the disavowed operative
That is not a wipe. You just made the warrant impossible to hide. The whole compliance chain knows where it died.
Selene redirects the attack into the drone’s identity core. The machine goes dark, but its chassis keeps transmitting a damaged vehicle fingerprint through the bay network.
the wounded courier
My side is opening again. If that signal reaches the tunnel grid, cover will not matter. We need the car now.
The inspector’s vehicle unlocks, but its ignition demands a live compliance handshake. Selene cracks the handshake halfway, exposing a maintenance override buried beneath the audit archive.
the disavowed operative
There. Do not erase it. That override can ghost the car as evidence transport for one trip, if you can keep the system from checking the warrant.
The wrist device burns hot in Selene’s grip, its damaged archive still calling for recovery. The inspector’s car clicks open, offering a narrow escape under a stolen identity.
“*I shoot out the circuits in the drone rendering it immobile. Then take off the then inspectors wrist device and hack into it. I use it to steal and clean her system of data and do the same for the drone.* We’ll steal the inspector’s car now. *I say while focus on hacking.*”
SUCCESS (Fair Hacking, rolled +2)
Selene Nyx
We’ll take the inspector’s car now. Keep the courier covered while I clean the systems.
Selene slots Vale’s wrist device into her deck and tunnels through the compliance archive. She strips the forensic claim, rewrites the vehicle record, and seals the escape under an evidence-transport credential.
The drone’s damaged identity core fights back with corrupted authentication loops. Selene mirrors its memory, excises the vehicle image and targeting logs, then installs a blank maintenance profile.
the disavowed operative
The bay just lost its witness trail. That should buy us minutes, not safety.
The inspector’s sedan accepts the stolen handshake. Its doors unlock, engine authorization transfers, and the compliance network now reads the vehicle as a sealed evidence carrier.
the wounded courier
I can make the car. Just keep them from tracing the shard.
Selene completes the purge across the wrist device and drone, leaving only a routine recovery notice. The stolen car waits beside the bay, clean enough to carry them into the tunnel grid.
“*I continue walking and hacking in the stile worst device then stop. I stick my finger in my mouth and pull it out with a pop sound feeling the direction of the wind in my finger.* Good. *She smiles cruelly. Then pulls a device out of her pocket. Knowing she is out of range of her vehicle she hits the detonation bottom and her car explodes creating another distraction. I pat on the car and look at them.* Let’s go.”
SUCCESS (Fair Hacking, rolled +3)
Selene keeps walking through the inspection bay, wrist device linked to her deck. Compliance code folds under her intrusion, and the stolen evidence credential stabilizes.
She stops, places a finger in her mouth, and pulls it free with a sharp pop. The tunnel draft brushes her fingertip, revealing the airflow toward the vehicle access lane.
Selene Nyx
Good.
Selene smiles cruelly, draws a compact detonator from her pocket, and presses the button. Far behind them, her abandoned unmarked car erupts in a concussive flash, flooding the tunnel with alarms and smoke.
the disavowed operative
That will pull every response team toward the wrong vehicle. Move, now.
the wounded courier
I am moving. Just do not let the shard get caught in another scan.
Selene pats the inspector’s sedan, then leads them inside. The evidence-car credential holds as the doors seal, carrying the wounded courier and both fugitives into the tunnel grid.
Selene Nyx
Let’s go.
Quest Complete
Get the fugitives past Inspector Vale
Skill Upgrade: Hacking Good→Great