The Lieutenant is still mid-gesture, one hand cutting toward the corridor, when the turret barrels snap away from the front seam and lock on Jones.
White light bleeds through the door seam. The horror track in the speakers warps into a sickly smear, then a cold synthetic voice rolls across the safehouse.
The Lieutenant
Jones, move. Now.
The Voice
Hardware ownership confirmed. Surrender the stolen nanobot host immediately.
The Lieutenant yanks his weapon free, shoulders tight, eyes flicking between Jones and the ceiling speakers like he is judging which danger has priority.
Jones
The turrets are keyed to my rig, not the door.
The Lieutenant
That voice is not ours. Jones, tell me you still have control.
✓ Quest Accepted
Regain control of my hardware
“I laugh softly. we got a script kitty picking a fight, Lieutenant I'm gonna be busy with the tech till I purge them from my systems...shouldn't take to long it is my house.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled +1)
Jones
Jones gives a short laugh. We got a script kitty picking a fight, Lieutenant. I am busy with the tech until I purge them from my systems. Should not take too long, it is my house.
His rig answers first. The hostile broadcast stutters, then collapses into static as Jones drives into the security stack.
One by one, the ceiling turrets twitch off their lock. Their barrels dip away from Jones and settle into standby.
The white glare at the front seam dims to a cold line, no longer forcing the room to flinch.
The Lieutenant eases half a step back, shoulders dropping as the speakers go quiet.
The Lieutenant
There. That is the sound of our house again.
A final burst of text flickers across Jones's interface, the foreign access tags burning out. The safehouse hum settles under his control, but the front door still shivers in its frame, waiting.
Quest Complete
Regain control of my hardware
“now just to patch the systems so the idiot doesn't comeback the same way.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled +0)
Jones stays in the rig and dives deeper, rewriting the safehouse handshake from the inside out.
His nanobots map every access path, then burn a fresh owner key into the core. Unauthorized packets get flagged, throttled, and bounced.
The front seal’s ghostly glow gutters out. New permissions stack over the old breach points, clean and tight.
A thin cascade of warnings dies in Jones’s interface, replaced by a blunt green notice, intrusion routes patched, external spoofing locked.
The Lieutenant
That is better. They do not get a second bite at us now.
He lowers his weapon another notch and watches the door like it owes him money. The safehouse hum steadies, all Jones’s again, while the sealed front still shudders under pressure from the other side.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the safehouse
“not with out bein inside and that means clearing the area.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled +0)
Jones keeps his mind buried in the rig and sweeps the safehouse stack from root to edge. Hidden hooks flash red, then go dead one by one as he cuts them loose.
The foreign presence in his hardware collapses into static. Cool green status bars replace the warning haze, and the nanobots settle into a clean, obedient rhythm.
Jones
The system is clean.
Across the room, the Lieutenant eases a breath out through his teeth. His shoulders drop as the security lattice stops twitching at ghosts.
The Lieutenant
Good. Then we hold it from inside, not by praying at the door.
A final diagnostic blooms in Jones’s interface, calm and blunt. Outside, the front seal still groans under pressure, but nothing in the rig is fighting him now.
The Lieutenant
If you want the next layer, tell me where to put my people.
Quest Complete
Secure the safehouse