Jostan reaches the clinic exit, but Kiva steps into the doorway with a live diagnostic hovering over her wrist. Nika and Sela remain inside, watching the corridor and the screens.
Dr. Kiva Rell
Stop for one minute. The reflex system is stable, but I found a dormant maintenance dependency buried beneath its limiters.
Her display shows a thin amber process waking only after repeated acceleration bursts. It cannot steer Jostan or open his partitions, but accumulated delay could cripple the upgrade at the worst moment.
Nika Pell
The dependency is real. It is local, dormant, and not transmitting, but the failure pattern becomes predictable after enough uses.
Sela Marr
Then test it here. The protected destination is already losing its access window, and we do not get a safer clinic once we leave.
Dr. Kiva Rell
One controlled activation. Short burst, voluntary movement, immediate stop. I will measure the dependency and either quarantine it or tune the limiter before you descend.
Kiva raises the diagnostic chair’s restraint sensors without engaging them. Nika opens a blank simulation lane, Sela seals the clinic door, and the amber process waits beneath Jostan’s new reflex controls.
“As i step up, I feel the new cybernetic, I grab my jimmy and shoot a bullet at the same I activate the reflex enhancer, everything slows down, even the bullet and I go to where it was shot and put the bullet back into the gun, feeling a rush I try to contain my laugh but then i ask kiva, "can you remove that dependency completely, or was it deliberately built into the system?"”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +3)
Jostan steps into the diagnostic lane and draws the Jimmy. The reflex enhancer engages with his voluntary movement, and the clinic’s cyan light stretches into stillness around him.
He fires. The bullet crawls through the suspended air, its rotation visible as the enhancer grants Jostan a narrow world between one instant and the next.
Jostan crosses the short distance, reaches the slowed round, and guides it back along its path. His fingers seat the bullet into the Jimmy’s open cylinder without disturbing the weapon.
Time snaps forward. The shot’s report arrives late and sharp, while the enhancer settles beneath his skin. A rush catches him, and he contains a laugh behind his teeth.
Jostan Ordomo
Can you remove that dependency completely, or was it deliberately built into the system?
Dr. Kiva Rell
The dependency was deliberate, but not as a control channel. It is a maintenance governor tied to the limiter. I can remove it completely, though I will need to rebuild that safeguard locally.
Nika Pell
The activation was clean. I saw no external handshake, no partition access, and no attempt to report the burst.
Sela Marr
Then decide quickly. If Kiva can make the system yours, we leave with fewer strings attached.
“I authorize Kiva to rebuild the safeguard and ask if she can also quartine the dependency instead, I look at sela confirming that we need to go, looking at nika, I catch myself staring to long, thinking to myself how beautiful she is”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +2)
Jostan Ordomo
I authorize the rebuild. Can you quarantine the dependency instead of removing it completely, so we keep the safeguard without letting it become a liability?
Dr. Kiva Rell
Yes. I can quarantine it inside a local maintenance partition, rebuild the safeguard around it, and prevent the dependency from executing or reporting. The reflex system remains yours.
Kiva accepts the authorization and begins the rebuild. The dormant dependency is isolated behind a local partition, its execution path sealed while the limiter receives a new safeguard under her control and Jostan’s.
Jostan Ordomo
We need to go.
Jostan looks to Sela, confirming the decision. She gives a concise nod, then checks the clinic entrance while Kiva’s tools finalize the safeguard and Nika preserves the sealed route profile.
Jostan Ordomo
Nika is beautiful.
His attention lingers on Nika longer than intended. She notices, glances up from the terminal, and lets the silence stand without interrupting the final diagnostic confirmation.
“I ask Kiva for a final autonomy check and after follow Nika's mapped route toward the destination”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +1)
Jostan Ordomo
Kiva, give me a final autonomy check. Confirm the reflex system, filter, and mask answer only to my decisions before we leave.
Dr. Kiva Rell
Confirmed. The reflex system amplifies only voluntary movement, the filter blocks return signals, and the mask hides your identity. Nothing can steer you.
Kiva runs the final diagnostic without opening Jostan’s partitions. Every safeguard reports locally governed, and the quarantined maintenance dependency remains unable to execute or communicate.
Nika Pell
The mapped route is still clean. I’ll leave the profile behind us and keep the receiving platform blind to your approach.
Jostan follows Nika’s route from the clinic through a service corridor, past pressure gates and dormant municipal relays. The mask holds, and each control point accepts the quiet passage.
The corridor descends beneath Leonidas’s coastal infrastructure and opens at the protected destination: a sealed receiving platform surrounding a dark access console, its status light waiting without identifying him.
Sela Marr
We’re here. No alarms, no pursuit, and no ownership claim on the approach. Whatever is below, you reached it on your terms.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the access console is safe to use
“I scan the access console for traps without activating it. and scan below for signs of whoever is waiting below, maxing out my cybernetics while getting impatient, I think to myself, Its over, Im finishing it”
SUCCESS (Legendary Surveillance, rolled +1)
Jostan maxes the Eye of Anylasis and sweeps the access console without touching it. Layered scans expose pressure triggers, biometric snares, signal hooks, and a dormant recognition pulse, all isolated from the activation path.
He angles the scan beneath the platform. The structure contains a powered descent shaft, recent maintenance passage, and a concealed receiving chamber below. No living body waits there, but fresh handling residue marks the chamber and a powered system is listening.
Jostan Ordomo
It's over. I'm finishing it.
The scan resolves the waiting system's behavior: it is not a trap or weapon, but an automated custody protocol prepared to verify a compatible entrant and seal the route behind them. Jostan copies its logic into his buffer without answering.
Sela Marr
You found the welcome committee. No person below, but the platform has been serviced recently. Someone expects the right arrival.
Jostan’s scan marks a safe approach around every trigger and identifies the console’s manual isolation point. The destination is mapped, its defenses understood, and the waiting system remains unaware of him.
Sela Marr
You can enter without waking the route. Whatever is below, you get the first look on your terms.
“I isolate the console and bypass custody controls, I then descend into the concealed receiving chamber”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled -1)
Jostan isolates the console’s power spine, separating the custody protocol from its recognition pulse. His mask keeps the system blind while the copied logic folds harmlessly into his buffer.
He bypasses the custody controls through the manual isolation point, replacing the protocol’s authority with a local confirmation that answers only to his authenticated presence. The console dims, and the descent shaft unlocks.
Sela Marr
Clean entry. No alert, no ownership claim, and no signal going back up. I’ll hold the platform while you look below.
Jostan steps into the powered shaft. The platform lowers him through layered concrete and pressure shielding, past dormant maintenance conduits toward the concealed receiving chamber.
The lift settles without a jolt. A narrow chamber opens around him, lined with pressure-rated housings, dormant interface racks, and a central receiving cradle whose status lights wake in sequence.
Fresh handling marks cross the dust near the cradle, but no person waits inside. The chamber recognizes an authorized arrival without naming him, holding its systems ready and silent.
Sela Marr
You’re inside. Tell me what the chamber is carrying before you touch anything.
Quest Complete
Determine whether the access console is safe to use
Skill Upgrade: Electronics Mediocre