The recorder’s blue indicator changes without any municipal handshake. Its sealed archive opens a new partition, while rain and circuitry hum through the rented maintenance room.
Euran Cross
That wasn’t intake. The channel is opening from inside the evidence package.
Euran’s prototype hand emits a sharp diagnostic tone. Hidden firmware wakes beneath the normal interface, displaying a dormant chain-of-custody fragment tied to the weapon’s surviving architecture.
Mara Venn
Selene, Euran, answer if you can hear me. I’m still at the sunken fight pit, and your hand just pinged my relay.
Mara Venn
The fragment was buried in its firmware. It points to the first official who preserved a clean copy before the bureau purge, not another conspirator.
Euran Cross
A clean copy means someone tried to keep the original record alive. That could be the difference between exposing Sorn and proving what happened.
The terminal resolves a partial designation and a government archive address, but the identity remains locked behind a second authorization layer. Euran looks to Selene, waiting.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the authenticated original weapon record
“I’ll trace the firmware fragment through Mara’s relay to the clean copy.”
SUCCESS (Superb Hacking, rolled +2)
Selene links the dormant firmware fragment to Mara’s relay, routing around the municipal channel and isolating the preserved chain-of-custody signature.
Mara Venn
I’ve got your trace. The relay recognizes the fragment and is opening the archive without triggering the bureau’s purge protocols.
The second authorization layer unfolds under Selene’s interface. A clean copy resolves from the government archive, complete and timestamped before Sorn’s operation began.
Euran Cross
There. The original record survived. Whoever preserved it documented the weapon’s design, the recovery order, and the bureau edits.
The archive identifies Deputy Auditor Ilya Sornik, an internal government archivist, as the custodian. Her sealed address and access history appear beside the untouched master file.
Mara Venn
Ilya Sornik kept the clean copy in a restricted oversight vault. Her credentials are still active, but someone has started querying the same archive.
Euran Cross
Then we know who can prove the frame, where the proof is stored, and who may be coming for it. We move before they reach her.
✓ Quest Accepted
Warn Deputy Auditor Ilya Sornik
“I trace the archive queries before they reach Ilya’s vault.”
SUCCESS (Superb Hacking, rolled +0)
Selene threads the archive query through the dormant firmware, splitting its timestamps from the government vault’s public audit layer. The hidden traffic resolves into three authenticated relays.
She follows the oldest relay backward, isolating a bureau credential that queried Ilya Sornik’s vault twice in the last six minutes. Its origin blooms across the terminal.
Selene Nyx
The queries originate inside the oversight network, not from Sorn’s known cleanup cell.
Mara Venn
I see it. The credential belongs to Oversight Security, but the requests are masked through a dead compliance node.
Selene peels away the mask and captures the full route: a bureau relay beneath Civic Records, then a live connection aimed directly at Ilya’s restricted vault.
Euran Cross
So someone inside oversight is reaching for the clean copy. We have their route, their credential, and a place to intercept them.
The trace locks into the evidence archive with timestamps and packet signatures. Ilya’s vault remains untouched, while the querying system’s identity and access path sit exposed before them.
“I intercept the masked relay beneath Civic Records”
SUCCESS (Superb Hacking, rolled +2)
Selene forks the trace through Civic Records’ dead compliance node, masking her intrusion as the relay’s own maintenance traffic. The bureau connection opens beneath her interface.
She catches the masked relay before it can reach Ilya’s vault, freezing its outbound request and duplicating the authenticated session inside Mara’s evidence archive.
Mara Venn
Got it. The relay is pinned. Whoever is driving it can still see a routine acknowledgment, but they cannot touch Ilya’s master file.
Packet headers unfold across the terminal: Oversight Security credentials, a Civic Records junction, and a live operator signature concealed beneath two layers of bureau proxy code.
Euran Cross
You intercepted them cleanly. Now we have the operator, the relay, and proof they were reaching for the archive.
Selene seals the captured session against the preserved chain of custody. The masked relay remains under her control, its next command waiting in a quiet, obedient queue.
“I impersonate the relay and redirect its operator”
SUCCESS (Superb Hacking, rolled -3)
“I impersonate the relay and redirect its operator”
SUCCESS (Superb Hacking, rolled +0)
Selene wraps the captured session in a counterfeit compliance signature, matching Civic Records’ maintenance cadence down to the millisecond. The relay accepts her as its operator.
She redirects the live connection away from Ilya’s vault and into a sealed oversight audit chamber, leaving the bureau operator a convincing view of the untouched master file.
Selene Nyx
The operator is inside the audit chamber, and I control the route.
Mara Venn
I see the reroute. Their session just crossed into a dead audit chamber, and the vault is clean. You’ve got them contained.
The counterfeit relay requests a biometric confirmation from the intruder. Their response returns with a live identity token, location data, and command authority attached.
Euran Cross
You redirected the operator and pulled their credentials with them. That is more than a trace, Selene. That is a door left open.
Selene locks the operator’s route inside Mara’s archive, preserving every exchange while the false relay continues feeding them harmless oversight prompts. The bureau’s hidden hand is now exposed.
Quest Complete
Secure the authenticated original weapon record
Skill Upgrade: Hacking Superb→Legendary
Quest Complete
Expose the bureau’s frame using the weapon’s chain of custody
Skill Upgrade: Investigation Great→Superb
“*I glance at Euran feeling so exposed. Feeling his closeness to me and I can smell his manly musk. I close my eyes and take in his smell and his proximity.*”
Selene glances toward Euran, suddenly exposed beneath the audit chamber’s cold blue light. His closeness fills the narrow room, and the captured session waits silently under her control.
She closes her eyes and draws in his scent: warm skin, rain-damp fabric, and machine oil. His presence remains steady beside her, familiar and immediate.
Selene Nyx
He is close. I can smell him.
Euran notices the pause but does not interrupt. His repaired hand rests near the terminal, close enough to share the work without crowding her.
Euran Cross
Take the second you need. The operator is contained, and I’m not going anywhere.
Across the terminal, the counterfeit oversight prompts continue their quiet loop. Every response from the trapped operator copies into Mara’s archive, preserving the breach and its authority chain.
Mara Venn
No rush from my side. Their credentials are still exposed, and the clean copy is safe. You two have control of the room.
“I ask Euran to bait the operator into confessing”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled +0)
Selene Nyx
Bait the operator into confessing. Make them believe the archive is compromised and they need to explain what they were sent to erase.
Euran Cross
Understood. I’ll give them a reason to protect themselves, then let their own explanation become evidence.
Euran leans toward the terminal and routes a forged oversight alert through the captive session. The prompt warns that Ilya Sornik’s master file may already be contaminated.
Euran Cross
Oversight has detected conflicting custody records. Identify the recovery order and explain why your credential accessed Sornik’s vault before the purge review.
The trapped operator answers immediately. Their biometric token authenticates a senior compliance investigator, while the session spills a timestamped directive authorizing removal of the original weapon record.
the trapped operator
The file was never meant to survive. Sorn ordered its deletion after the arena trial, and Oversight Security was told to erase the remaining design history before investigators found it.
Every admission copies into Mara’s archive beside the live credentials and command route. The confession names Sorn’s deletion order, confirms the cover-up, and leaves the operator’s authority exposed.