The hangar ceiling groans, showering the floor with sparks and jagged metal shards. Rent slams his fist against the maintenance crawler console as the engine sputters, caught in a rhythmic, desperate grind.
Rent
It won’t catch, Max! We are running out of time!
Anna
He is going to get us all killed. If Max does not move now, the ceiling will crush us into the floor plates.
Anna
Move, Max! Get inside! I will hold the perimeter!
Anna fires her pulse rifle in short, disciplined bursts, keeping the scuttling shadows of the Dirge swarm at bay. The corrosive fluid from the dying Dirge warrior eats a hissing, smoking hole through the metal just inches from Max’s boot.
Max
The data is safe. Now I just need to survive long enough to transmit it.
Max
Rent, keep trying! I am boarding now!
Max lunges toward the crawler, his cybernetic leg locking into place to stabilize his weight against the swaying floor.
+ Scene Quest Added
Transmit the data while escaping the hangar
“Kill the alien”
SUCCESS (Great Combat, rolled +0)
As Max lunges, a Dirge warrior leaps from the shadows, its chitinous mandibles clicking in a rhythmic, predatory hunger. Max does not break stride. He draws his heavy kinetic sidearm, his cybernetic reflexes overclocking as he pivots mid-air.
Max
Get back into the void!
The shot is precise, catching the creature squarely in its primary sensory cluster. The Dirge collapses mid-pounce, its body skidding across the buckled deck plates to stop just before reaching the crawler's rear hatch. The bioluminescent fluid from its ruptured carapace flares, illuminating the dark, cramped interior of the vehicle where Rent is desperately rewiring the ignition.
Rent
You hit it! We might actually have a window here!
Anna
Do not celebrate yet, look at the vent!
Max
The swarm is bypassing the barricade. If we don't move now, we are pinned.
The ceiling shudders violently, dropping a massive support beam that slams into the hangar floor, pinning the crawler's rear stabilizer against a bulkhead.
“Transmit data”
SUCCESS (Great Machine Operation, rolled +2)
Max jacks his internal link into the crawler’s console, ignoring the shriek of metal shearing off metal. His cybernetic eye flickers as he bypasses the lockdown protocol, his fingers blurring across the haptic interface.
Max
The upload speed is abysmal. Come on, you piece of junk, transmit before we are crushed.
The status bar crawls to completion just as the hangar floor tilts forty-five degrees. Sparks shower the cabin, smelling of ozone and ozone-charred insulation. The Dirge swarm spills through the vent like a living, chitinous oil slick, their mandibles snapping in hungry unison.
Rent
Data is in! Max, pull your interface, I am redlining the fusion core!
The stabilizer is pinning us! Rent, we are going to tip!
With a final surge of digital confirmation, the download hits 100 percent. Max pulls his uplink cable free, the port sparking against his neck.
Quest Complete
Transmit the data while escaping the hangar
Skill Upgrade: Combat Great→Superb