Zoey threads the transport between spinning iron shards and broken hull plating. Ahead, the listening post hangs dead in the asteroid dust, one spine of rust and shadow against the debris field.
The signal source locks tighter, and the station’s flickering windows flare in response. Someone inside is not only awake, they are watching her arrive.
Zoey Terraj
The tracker is pulling straight to the source.
Mara grips the rail beside the cockpit, eyes on the station and then on the closing icons blooming across Zoey’s display, Imperial response net nodes waking in a widening arc behind them.
Mara
That post is live. If we find the relay, we find who tripped the net.
Zoey kicks the transport lower, lining up on a cracked service dock half-buried in dust. The escape now has a shape, hit the station, cut the link, or the response net catches them before they clear the field.
✓ Quest Accepted
Cut the link at the listening post
✓ Quest Accepted
Find who tripped the response net
“"Who the hell just hangs out in a derelict listening post?" Zoey asks Mara incredulously as she banks towards the service dock. As Mara opens her mouth to respond, Zoey holds out her hand."Don't answer that question, it was rhetorical."”
Zoey Terraj
Who the hell just hangs out in a derelict listening post?
Zoey keeps the transport steady and lifts one hand from the controls in a flat, rhetorical stop. Mara huffs a short laugh, the tension in her shoulders easing a fraction as the station drifts closer.
Zoey Terraj
Don’t answer that question, it was rhetorical.
Mara
Good, because my answer would be depressing.
Mara
People like that post live on rot, favors, and bad decisions. Same as half the Rim.
“"And yet you answered anyway... come on, Mara. You think some homeless guy is actually working for the Empire?" Zoey snarks as she docks at the service dock.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
The transport settles onto the service dock with a shudder, clamps biting into old metal. Zoey keeps her hand on the throttle a second longer, then eases it down as the canopy frames the rusted listening post ahead.
Zoey Terraj
And yet you answered anyway. Come on, Mara. You think some homeless guy is actually working for the Empire?
Mara
If he is, he deserves the worst chair in the galaxy. No, I think he is scared, cornered, or paid too well to care.
Mara glances at the second watcher signal on the display, then back toward the airlock lane. Her shoulders stay loose, but her fingers tighten around the data-pad.
Mara
I have met plenty of dock rats who look useless right up until somebody puts credits or a blaster in front of them.
Zoey Terraj
The station is old enough to have been ignored by at least three administrations.
Outside, a service collar light blinks green. The docking arm hisses, seals to the transport, and the hatch alarm keeps chirping somewhere behind the bulkhead.
Mara
If you are going in, I am coming with you. Someone in there knows more than they are saying.
“"It's a derelict goddamn listening post, Mara! This isn't the lifestyle of the rich and famous!" Zoey says, flabbergasted. "We're too small time for a secret agent to be tracking us, unless that datapad you gave to the New Republic, which I remind you, traces everyone who uses it, stopped working." Zoey grumbles as she hacks the alarm to turn it off. "Hopefully it's stopped working, that was such a stupid thing to keep using."”
SUCCESS (Great Hacking, rolled -1)
Zoey’s deck pings once, then the chirping alarm cuts dead. The cockpit goes suddenly quieter, with only the dock’s hull creaks and the second watcher signal pulsing on the display.
Zoey Terraj
It’s a derelict listening post, Mara. Not some luxury den for secret agents.
Zoey Terraj
And if that datapad still traces anyone who touches it, that would be a very stupid habit to keep.
Zoey leans over the console, fingers moving fast across the alarm control and maintenance menu. The warning tone drops out of the station link, leaving the dock in a tense, clean hush.
A fresh system line blooms on the screen, showing the alarm circuit is offline, but the watcher signal stays live and steady in amber.
Mara
Then somebody is still inside the network. Quietly, that is worse.
Mara lifts the datapad a little higher, eyes narrowed toward the rusted station beyond the canopy. The transport remains docked, clamps locked, while the unanswered signal waits for someone to trace it.
Quest Complete
Cut the link at the listening post
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Good→Great