Naomi drops from the shelf and lands in a crouch on cold metal plating. Her torch sweeps across a vast bay, and the beam catches three giant humanoid frames standing in silence, intact and waiting.
The Lead Engineer reaches the lip above her and stares down. The tether spool hums in his hands, half-lowered into the shaft behind Naomi, a lifeline from the surface.
The Ship AI
Pilot access detected. Unauthorized descent confirmed. Naomi Katsuragi, disengage from the bay and return to surface custody.
Lead Engineer
Ignore it. This hangar is ours to reclaim. Naomi, those units are the reason we came down here.
One of the giants shifts as the bay wakes. A thin line of light traces along its chest, and the central platform rises just enough to reveal a cockpit ring beneath the armor.
Naomi Katsuragi
They are not ruins. They are active machines, and one of them is waiting for a pilot.
The Ship AI
Control inheritance belongs to the ship. Stand by for retrieval.
The Engineer tightens his grip on the tether, the surface team holding still above as the bay presents Naomi with a choice that reaches straight to the colony's future.
✓ Quest Accepted
Claim a pilot access in the buried facility
“I step toward the central platform to reach the cockpit ring and use the data wafer to interface with the robot”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled -1)
Naomi steps onto the central platform, and the floor answers with a soft magnetic thrum. The cockpit ring wakes under her boots, its inner lights chasing one another in a clean diagnostic circle.
Naomi Katsuragi
The ring is live. The wafer should match it.
She brings the scorched data wafer up to the access seam. The ring reads it at once, and thin panels unlatch around the cockpit with a precise, mechanical sigh.
The Ship AI
Pilot channel acknowledged. Facility authorization is changing.
Lines of blue code bloom across the ring, then collapse into a lattice that mirrors the wafer's hidden pattern. The nearest giant's chest display steadies, as if it has been waiting for this exact handshake.
Lead Engineer
That is it, Naomi. It is reading you as a valid interface.
The cockpit hatch stands open, the cold air in the shaft drifting down behind her while the hangar lights hold steady. The bay now waits for Naomi's next choice, inside the machine or locked out of it.
Quest Complete
Claim a pilot access in the buried facility
Quest Complete
Investigate the buried structure beneath the moon
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Superb→Legendary