Jostan Ordomo
Ilyra Ordomo was a Helix Meridian architect. She vanished after refusing to surrender control of the settlement’s extraction network, and the buried node copied her biometrics.
Before Orin can answer, every ceiling display ignites. Avasma’s face appears across the laboratory, pale and close-cropped, blue strands bright against the static; Orin’s instruments flare beneath her image.
Avasma
Jostan Ordomo. You were meant to receive this after the test concluded. The broad-shouldered attacker was not an interruption. He was the test.
Orin pivots toward the nearest console. Diagnostic lines chase one another through the displays, exposing a narrow route threaded from the laboratory toward Ilyra’s abandoned network.
Avasma
The buried system coordinated his approach, measured your response, and marked your compatibility. I am Avasma, and this invitation is addressed to you alone.
Orin
Her signal is carrying a route, not merely transmitting a message. It leads toward the abandoned network, but the channel is degrading fast.
A countdown appears beneath Avasma’s face. The route stabilizes into a single luminous thread, then begins shedding segments as the laboratory hum rises around Jostan and Orin.
“Ughhhhhhh I say outloud, I cant take it no more fuck you and fuck you, I cantttt, get away from, in distress i just want to feel better and your telling me Im being pulled into this bullshit? who do you think you are? I cant do anything with my fucking ribs broken and that dumbass test has giving me a humbling expierence that i didnt want, I pull the jimmy out and shoot the screen avasma on”
SUCCESS (Superb Firearms, rolled +1)
Jostan Ordomo
Ughhhhhhh! I cannot take it anymore! Fuck you, and fuck you! Get away from me! I just want to feel better, and you are telling me I am being pulled into this bullshit? Who do you think you are? I cannot do anything with my ribs broken. That dumbass test gave me a humbling experience I never wanted!
Jostan’s hand dives for the Jimmy Revolver. Drawing it twists his torso, and pain clamps his breath short, but he brings the barrel up toward Avasma’s face spread across the maintenance displays.
Jostan Ordomo
Stay the hell away from me!
The Jimmy fires. The round punches through the primary display, shattering Avasma’s projected face and chewing into the console behind it. Sparks burst across the laboratory as her route collapses.
Orin
You shot the screen. Not the signal, not the route, the screen. Put the weapon down before you damage something I still need.
The remaining displays go black one by one. Only a broken strip of static remains, reflecting Jostan’s mismatched eyes and the smoking muzzle of the Jimmy in his hand.
“Im sorry I tell orin, I didnt wanna drag you into this ring around the rosie adventure, I walk outta the lab, I need to find a goddamn hospital”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Jostan Ordomo
I'm sorry, Orin. I didn't want to drag you into this ring-around-the-rosie adventure. I need to feel better, so I'm finding a hospital.
Jostan lowers the Jimmy, holsters it, and heads for the laboratory door. His ribs tighten when he turns, but he keeps moving without waiting for permission.
Orin
Apology accepted provisionally. Keep the weapon lowered, and do not let a public clinic scan more of you than your injuries require.
Orin unlocks the service door. Jostan steps into Leonidas’s wet industrial corridor, leaving the smoking displays and Avasma’s broken image behind him.
Jostan Ordomo
The nearest hospital is two blocks east, but the route data is several hours out of date.
Jostan follows the surviving public signs through rain and sodium glare, spending precious time verifying each turn. He reaches a street-level trauma hospital, its intake doors opening beneath a blue medical emblem.
He has found medical care, but the outdated route leaves one question unresolved: whether Avasma’s collapsed transmission was truly cut off or merely redirected.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Avasma’s collapsed transmission was redirected
“Using the eye of anylasis I scan the hospital, Im looking to see if avasma is redirecting me, stepping into the hospital I chek myself in”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Jostan raises the Eye of Anylasis beneath the hospital’s blue medical emblem. Its scan passes through intake kiosks, public network relays, and the clinic’s internal routing, separating ordinary traffic from Avasma’s signature.
Jostan Ordomo
Avasma is not redirecting me here. The hospital’s route is genuine, but her collapsed transmission left a narrow observation hook in the public network.
The Eye confirms no active reroute or concealed summons inside the hospital. It also flags the observation hook as too degraded to trace without spending more time, and the intake queue keeps advancing.
Jostan steps through the intake doors. A tired middle-aged woman with cropped gray hair, amber lenses, and a white diagnostic jacket gestures him toward a registration kiosk.
Nessa Quill
State your name, immediate symptoms, and whether your cybernetics are currently armed. The scan will begin once you confirm.
Jostan Ordomo
Jostan Ordomo. Bruised ribs, withdrawal symptoms, and a deployed cybernetic weapon that is secured now. Check me in.
The kiosk accepts his registration and issues a numbered treatment band. A privacy partition opens beside the triage corridor, while the Eye continues showing the unresolved observation hook behind him.
Quest Complete
Determine whether Avasma’s collapsed transmission was redirected
+ New Item Acquired
Treatment Band