The gallery lights stutter. A narrow maintenance projector rises above the floor, assembling Avasma’s face in fractured blue planes. The transmission is live, not a recording. Talia stands near the gallery entrance while Maya, Caelen, Orin, Alzafar, and the young pilot remain with Jostan above the settlement.
Talia Merrow
That is an unauthorized external handshake. Cameras, isolate the transmission and seal every return channel.
The settlement obeys. Camera apertures iris shut around the gallery, and thin bands of diagnostic light cage the projector without touching the visitors. Avasma’s image breaks apart, then reforms with a sharper gaze.
Avasma
Leonidas has a failing route beneath its habitation sectors. It is old, concealed, and beginning to open. If your node is connected to it, close the lower paths before the signal reaches your core.
Talia Merrow
You are not cleared to address this settlement. Identify your origin and your purpose.
Avasma’s face smears into horizontal fragments. The projector emits a dry burst of static as portions of the handshake erase themselves, leaving only a rapidly collapsing route diagram beneath Leonidas.
Avasma
I am Avasma. I am sending this because the route is already failing. Do not wait for it to announce what is coming.
The last words arrive doubled, one layer ahead of the other. Then the projector collapses into a pinprick and vanishes, while the settlement’s sealed cameras begin scanning the dark corridors below.
✓ Quest Accepted
Close the failing lower paths beneath Leonidas
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify what caused the failing lower paths
“Can the settlement seal the lower paths before Leonidas's signal reaches its core?”
YES (Even, rolled 12)
The collapsing route diagram freezes before it can vanish. Beneath Leonidas, three lower paths flare amber, then fold inward as the settlement’s network severs each connection from its core.
Talia Merrow
The seal is holding. The lower paths are isolated, and the failing signal cannot reach our core through them.
Across the gallery, dormant control panels wake in sequence. The route beneath Leonidas remains visible, but every branch ends at a clean network barrier instead of entering the settlement.
Talia Merrow
Avasma’s warning was accurate, but late. The signal reached the outer system. It did not reach the heart.
Caelen
The barriers are deliberate and stable. Someone designed them to sacrifice access routes while preserving the protected systems behind them.
Orin
Then we have time to study the failure without standing inside it. The settlement bought itself a margin, not a permanent solution.
The final amber branch dims to black. Talia watches the sealed corridors below, while the settlement’s cameras reopen one by one and resume their patient scan.
“Talia Take me and Daven to the lower paths, orin stay here with maya and caelen, maybe talk to the other settlers I want a understanding of what we can do and cant, and alzafar do whatever the hell you want remarking with sarcasm”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -2)
Jostan Ordomo
Talia, take me and Daven to the lower paths. Orin stays with Maya and Caelen to speak with the settlers. Alzafar, do whatever the hell you want.
Talia studies Jostan for a measured second, then turns toward the sealed descent controls. Daven steps from the gallery rail to join them, while the others remain beneath the reopened cameras.
Talia Merrow
Agreed. I will take you both through the lower paths. In return, you will answer the settlers publicly about what you found and what your arrival may expose.
Orin
I will stay. Maya, Caelen, and I can learn what access the settlement grants, what it forbids, and which safeguards the residents trust.
Alzafar
How generous. I shall choose my own task, then. Guarding the junction seems preferable to being assigned another by committee.
Talia places her palm against the control panel. A lower route opens beneath the gallery, displaying maintenance ledges and sealed access points in clean blue lines. The cost of Jostan’s persuasion settles as a public obligation.
Daven
Then we should make the answers worth hearing. I am ready when you are.
Quest Complete
Close the failing lower paths beneath Leonidas