Alarms hammer the lab as lights strobe red. Sally has Polpovich boxed in, while x134 coils to strike near the shattered console.
Doctor Vladamir Polpovich
Stop him! The files are the truth you came for, not the old man.
His hand hovers over the override switch. Around him, the self-destruct countdown flashes on a cracked display.
Test Number x134
Doctor, move! I can hold them off!
Sally
Tell me what I am. Now.
Doctor Vladamir Polpovich
Subject zero of the harvest line. Your body was built to open what others could not. Your origin files are in the lower archive, if the fire does not take them first.
x134 springs toward Sally as the console emits a hard warning chirp, and the final door seal starts grinding shut.
Amilia Jacobs
Sally, get to that archive. I will keep the exit open!
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the lower archive and secure Sally's origin files
“I Phase through the grinding door seal to reach the lower archive while Amilia kicks x134's ass!”
SUCCESS (Fair Phase Shift Mastery, rolled +1)
Sally slips into the grinding seam of the seal just as it bites shut. Metal shrieks across her shoulders, then she is through, skidding into the lower archive beyond.
The archive is a cold, narrow chamber of file drawers and locked racks. A terminal glows at the back wall, still live, still waiting.
Sally
This is it. The archive.
Behind her, the door seal keeps chewing down with a brutal grind. Sally lands hard, and a sharp sting runs through her side where the edge catches her on the way through.
Amilia Jacobs
Move, Sally. I have x134.
In the lab behind her, Amilia drives toward x134 with the briefcase like a shield, forcing the attacker off balance as sparks spit across the shattered floor.
Doctor Vladamir Polpovich
If you want the truth, take it before the fire does.
The terminal wakes brighter, and the first file index for Sally’s origin record appears on screen, half buried under a burning warning banner.
“I take the origin file from the terminal”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
Sally steadies herself at the terminal and snatches the origin file off the screen, pulling the data into the camera before the warning banner can swallow it.
Sally
Origin file secured.
The display stutters, then splits into a clean file header and a string of redacted subfolders, each stamped with her biometric tag.
Doctor Vladamir Polpovich
You have it now. That is what they made you for.
Behind Sally, the seal grinds harder and throws sparks into the archive air, while Amilia still blocks x134 at the doorway.
Amilia Jacobs
Sally, go. I am holding this line.
The file opens far enough to show the heading, Subject Zero, and a lower archive map blinking beneath it as the chamber shudders.
Quest Complete
Reach the lower archive and secure Sally's origin files
Skill Upgrade: Phase Shift Mastery Fair→Good
+ New Item Acquired
Origin file