The seal wheezes open onto a neon alley, rain hissing on black concrete. Jax steps out first, then stops cold, one hand pressed to his side. No patrol. No footsteps. Just the glow of signage and the wrong kind of quiet.
Jax
This is bad. They are not late, they are waiting.
2-6
The alley is clear, but the silence feels staged.
A red pulse flickers across 2-6's forearm, then jumps to the alley walls like a signal splash. Somewhere above, a distant lens clicks awake. The nano-bots are still talking.
Jax
Move. If they boxed this exit, they will close the net fast.
At the alley mouth, a hard white beam snaps on, scanning the rain. Not a full squad, just a hunter recon drone sweeping in from the street beyond, already turning toward 2-6's tag. The opening has become a trap, and the chase is back on.
“Fuck this. I shoot the drone”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)
2-6 snaps the shot off from the threshold. The round catches the recon drone dead center, and its white beam jerks sideways across the wet brick.
The drone tumbles, sparking against a sign brace, then slams into the alley floor in a shower of rain and broken casing. Jax flinches, breath hitching.
Jax
Nice. Keep moving, then.
The scan dies with a crackle, but the alley does not stay quiet. A low, tight hum blooms under the rain, and the air seems to press inward.
2-6
Something is dampening the signal.
Jax looks up at the hovering streetlight glow, wary and pale, while red reflections from 2-6's forearm smear across the puddles.
Jax
That was not the only thing tracking you.
“They won't stop coming will they?”
SUCCESS (Fair Willpower, rolled +1)
2-6
They won't stop coming, will they?
Jax
No. Not until they think you are boxed in, or buried.
Jax leans on the alley wall, one hand pressed to his side, breathing hard. The muffled rain hisses through the dampening field, and the dead drone lies between you like a dropped eye.
Jax
This is bigger than a chase. They brought a jammer to hide the net, and that means they expected him.
2-6's red forearm pulse washes weakly across the puddles, then fades under the field's drag. The service spur seal sits behind him, shut and useless for the moment.
Jax
I know that look. You are already counting exits.
For a beat, neither of them moves. Just rain, neon, and the low pressure of the alley bending in around them.
“Right now the best exit I see is you ditching me. Unless you know why this is happening tonight?”
FAILURE (Poor Persuasion, rolled +0)
2-6
The best exit I see is you ditching me. Unless you know why this is happening tonight?
Jax looks up from the wall, pain tightening his mouth. He shakes his head once, slow and tired, like the answer costs him.
Jax
Not from the alley itself. From what you carry. That pulse on your arm, it is a beacon when they can read it.
He jerks his chin toward the dead drone, then the muffled darkness beyond the dampening haze. Rain ticks against the puddles, but the field eats the sound before it can spread.
Jax
Tonight is ugly because they do not just want you gone. They want a clean corridor, no witnesses, no scramble.
Jax pushes off the wall and lifts a hand, pointing at a service ladder half-hidden behind a flickering ad panel. The panel flickers once, revealing a narrow maintenance climb the dampening field leaves thin.
Jax
If I leave, I can pull heat the other way. If you move now, use that ladder cut before they tighten the net.
✓ Quest Accepted
Survive the dampening-field ambush
“"Stay alive friend." 2-6 dashes up the ladder”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)
2-6
Stay alive, friend.
2-6 springs for the ladder. His boots hit the first rung clean, and the alley falls behind him in a blur of rain and neon.
The dampening hum thickens as he climbs, swallowing the scrape of metal under his hands. Below, Jax stays by the wall, half-lost in the dim wash.
2-6 hauls himself over the top edge of the service climb, reaching a cramped maintenance lip behind the flickering ad panel.
Jax
Go, then. I will pull them off your line.
The alley mouth below flickers with hunting light, but the ladder cut is behind him now, and the first reach of the ambush has been broken.
Quest Complete
Survive the dampening-field ambush