Inside the shuttered dispatch booth, Trapreem wakes the aging communications console with a battery cable. Chuck keeps the duplicated evidence folder and storage cards close while Meech, Seven, Lucose, and Rasan secure the entrances.
Dj Trapreem
Power is ugly, but it is enough. Give me a minute to wake the district line without broadcasting our position.
The console answers in bursts of hiss. A clipped voice recites warehouse identifiers, each one breaking apart before the next transmission arrives from somewhere deeper in the freight district.
Dj Trapreem
Warehouse Fourteen... east loading spine... Calder House archive... no, that last marker is fragmenting.
Trapreem adjusts the tuning wheel by fractions. The voice returns with the same measured cadence, naming identifiers before static swallows them, while Seven watches the booth window and Meech checks the rear door.
Dj Trapreem
That cadence is Calder House routing protocol. I have one surviving marker: Archive C, beneath the west freight rail spur.
Seven
Then we verify the approach before moving. Elias and Mara are safe at treatment, and Priya has the station. Nobody else is coming through that door.
✓ Quest Accepted
Confirm the active mirror's location
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach Archive C
undefined / undefined
A freight train brakes hard beyond the booth. The rail spur screams, then a loaded car jackknifes into the warehouse wall, shaking dust from the ceiling and killing the console's thin connection.
Dj Trapreem
That impact shifted the line. Archive C just went silent, but the break exposed a maintenance access beneath the spur.
The booth window flashes with reflected sparks. Beyond the rail yard, warehouse alarms begin answering one another, and distant infected calls gather around the crash site.
Meech
The crash will pull every infected thing in the district. We use the opening before the yard fills, and nobody leaves the crew's sight.
Seven
North wall has a service ramp. It reaches the spur without crossing the loading lanes, but the route will not stay quiet.
Dj Trapreem
I can take the recorder and the route marks. If Archive C still has power, the break may have opened its lower access instead of sealing it.
Another impact thunders through the freight district as a second car settles against the first. Lucose checks the ramp, Rasan watches the booth entrance, and Trapreem tears the console cable free.
“I lead everyone out through Seven's service ramp”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +1)
Chuck leads Meech, Seven, Lucose, Rasan, and Dj Trapreem out through the north wall service ramp. The crew moves beneath the freight noise, keeping tight formation as sparks flicker across the yard.
Seven
Ramp is holding. Stay against the wall and keep the spur between us and the loading lanes.
Seven guides the turns while Chuck brings everyone down the sloped access. Meech covers behind them, Lucose carries the recorder, Rasan watches the yard, and Trapreem keeps the route marks close.
Meech
We are clear of the loading lanes. Keep moving until the maintenance access is under the spur.
The crew reaches the base of the ramp together. A maintenance hatch beneath the west freight rail spur stands open, its interior conduit carrying a faint pulse from Archive C.
Dj Trapreem
There. Archive C still has power. We reached the lower access without crossing the yard.
Chuck brings the crew beneath the spur and through the open maintenance access. The freight alarms fade behind them as the route closes around the team and the relay investigation continues below.
“I enter Archive C and identify the active mirror”
SUCCESS (Great Hacking, rolled +0)
Chuck enters Archive C with Meech, Seven, Lucose, Rasan, and Dj Trapreem close behind. Dusty racks surround a powered terminal, its relay light pulsing beneath the rail spur.
Chuck connects the recorder and storage cards, then traces the archive's routing tables through the terminal. The system rejects the first access path, forcing him to rebuild the handoff manually.
Dj Trapreem
Keep the query narrow. Archive C is still answering, but the district line is shedding packets around the crash site.
Chuck strips away the false mirrors and follows the surviving timing code. The console's aging interface burns through one storage card, but the hidden route opens before the relay signal drops.
The terminal identifies the active mirror as Calder House Mirror Seven, routing altered stems through Warehouse Fourteen's east loading spine. Chuck has the location and its current channel.
Dj Trapreem
Mirror Seven is live. You found the active path, Chuck, but that card is gone and we have no spare for another archive pull.
Trapreem copies the identifier into the route marks while Seven watches the access behind them. The crew now has a confirmed target, though the archive's remaining storage is reduced.
Quest Complete
Confirm the active mirror's location
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Superb→Legendary
Quest Complete
Reach Archive C
Skill Upgrade: Hacking Great→Superb