Every bridge display freezes at once. The fortified zone’s inspection seal redraws across the glass as a red energy silhouette matching Nemesis Prime’s massive proportions.
The lattice does not open a portal or reveal an intruder. Instead, inspection records stream through it, assembling armor, command, and behavioral projections into a predictive model.
predictive command model
Vehicon units, rotate defensive batteries to corridor vector seven. Maintain compliance posture.
The command leaves the speakers in Nemesis Prime’s voice, precise and unmistakable. Across the bridge, Vehicon hands move toward the controls before the commander raises one armored arm.
Vehicon commander
Hold position. That order was not issued through authenticated command authority.
predictive command model
Commander, transfer navigation priority to inspection control. The fortified zone is secure. Resistance is inefficient.
Warden Silex remains in the berth beyond the command glass, while Ilex-9 stays confined in the brig. The Vehicons wait between the false orders and their commander’s signal.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose and neutralize the false command model
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the authority behind the inspection control
“I command my troops to trace the false me back to its source so I can destroy it.”
SUCCESS (Superb Command, rolled +3)
Nemesis Prime
Trace the false command model to its source. Isolate it, and destroy it.
The Vehicons execute instantly. Their consoles split the predictive model into signal layers, following its command authority backward through the inspection lattice and into the fortified zone’s supervisory network.
Vehicon commander
Source located. The false model is anchored in the inspection seal and relayed through Marshal Vey’s enforcement lattice.
Counter-intrusion routines clamp around the anchor. Red targeting lines converge across the bridge glass, while the predictive command model’s silhouette fractures into silent geometric shards.
predictive command model
Unauthorized command interference detected. Compliance remains the optimal outcome.
Vehicon commander
Anchor severed. The predictive command model is isolated and destroyed. Its control imprint cannot reconstitute.
The inspection seal collapses into inert amber static. The Vehicons retain a clean copy of the source architecture, revealing every enforcement relay in the fortified zone and a direct route to its supervisory core.
Quest Complete
Expose and neutralize the false command model
Quest Complete
Identify the authority behind the inspection control
“*I turn to the Warden and demand answers from him on why Marshal tried to trick my Vehicons*”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +0)
Nemesis Prime
Warden, explain why Marshal Vey tried to deceive my Vehicons with a false command model.
Warden Silex turns from the inert inspection seal, amber optics narrowing behind his respirator. The fortified berth records every word as the lattice rebuilds its monitoring grid.
Warden Silex
Because Vey needed your command imprint exposed. The model copied your authority signature, then issued a tactical order to see whether your units obeyed your voice or the seal.
Warden Silex
He suspected the shard was more than a tracker. He wanted your response pattern, your counter-intrusion methods, and proof of how quickly you could seize our supervisory network.
A sharp tone cuts across the bridge. One inspection relay burns out under the strain of the severed anchor, and the remaining lattice marks Nemesis Prime’s vessel as an active hostile intelligence.
Warden Silex
The deception was unauthorized by zone protocol, but Marshal Vey retains emergency authority. Your attack on the seal has now elevated this vessel to a containment priority.
Vehicon commander
Commander, we have the relay architecture and a direct route to the supervisory core. The Warden has confirmed the Marshal’s motive.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure passage to the supervisory core