The Auditor stops dead in the cramped bay and snaps the handheld terminal up between you and the office door. Oil gleams on the floor. The logistics order that was supposed to carry 2-6 through the handoff flickers open in red text.
The Auditor
This is not a transport directive.
They thumb through layers of encryption, then freeze on a hidden payload. The terminal blooms with a buried command, remote-triggered, waiting for arrival confirmation to fire.
2-6
A kill-switch.
The message resolves hard and clear, wipe neural architecture on arrival. The room seems to shrink around the words. 2-6's nano-bots answer with a hot pulse under his skin, like they recognize the trap before anyone speaks it aloud.
The Auditor
Someone built the delivery to erase the cargo.
✓ Quest Accepted
Neutralize the kill-switch
“Would the wipe also affect Jax through their link?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 7)
The amber data link between you and Jax flares with a violent, jagged intensity. The kill-switch command does not just target your neural architecture, it cascades through the shared signal, turning Jax into a secondary conduit for the purge.
The Auditor
It is not just you. The link is a bridge, and the wipe is crossing it.
“2-6 hacks back at the kill switch to deactivate it. "Come on auditor, we are running smoothly and in alignment since the last calibration"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled +0)
2-6 leans into the link instead of the panic, fingers twitching against his own signal as he threads a clean counterpattern through the amber noise.
2-6
Come on, Auditor, we are running smoothly and in alignment since the last calibration.
The strobe in the terminal hiccups. Across the shared line, the kill command stutters, then collapses into a dead spool of static.
The harsh pulse in 2-6's arm fades to a weak ember, and Jax's side of the bridge goes slack with exhausted relief.
The Auditor
The trigger is gone. The handoff order just lost its teeth.
The office's emergency glow steadies, and the handheld terminal flips from amber warnings to a cold registry tone. On the screen, the procurement access logs keep scrolling, untouched but no longer lethal.
The Auditor
It is neutralized. But that order came from inside the chain, not outside it.
Quest Complete
Neutralize the kill-switch
“"The value of our procurement is higher than salvaging our parts. It's better for the corp if we remain operational"”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +0)
The office settles into a thin, expensive quiet. The registry tone hums under the glass, and the procurement logs keep marching down the handheld screen like nothing has happened.
The Auditor
If that chain is inside the house, then cutting you out is wasteful. Waste draws questions.
2-6
The value of our procurement is higher than salvaging our parts. It is better for the corp if we remain operational.
The Auditor studies him, then angles the terminal closer. The amber warning stays gone, replaced by neat rows of access tags and custody stamps.
The Auditor
You are arguing from the ledger, not the flesh. That makes this easier to justify.
A faint pulse travels through 2-6's arm, more reminder than pain. In the dead reflection of the glass, Jax's exhausted shape flickers through the shared link, distant but still there.
The Auditor
I can file you as live inventory, priority asset, and quarantine the kill order. But I want your read on one thing, before I stamp it.
The Auditor
Who benefits most from making you disposable, procurement, or the name behind procurement?
✓ Quest Accepted
Find who benefits most from the kill-switch order
“Other agencies and our corporate enemies. Our resources are being wasted on purpose.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
The Auditor lowers the terminal a fraction, and the logs catch the glass in clean rectangles of light. The office stays quiet, but the quiet now feels like a witness.
2-6
Our resources are being wasted on purpose. External rivals benefit if you disappear and the trail goes cold.
The Auditor's eyes move across the custody stamps, then to the chain header, then back to 2-6's face. The handheld screen reflects in both of them, a small hard shard of corporate truth.
The Auditor
That fits the pattern. A disposal order that destroys an asset and buries the author helps whoever wants procurement blind.
The Auditor
If this is an outside knife, the house is already bleeding through it.
Jax flickers in the glass as a tired silhouette over the shared link, shoulders slumped with exhaustion. The registry tone below the office hums on, steady and obedient for now.
The Auditor
Then I am not filing you as waste. I am filing the order as sabotage, and the procurement logs as the blade.
Quest Complete
Find who benefits most from the kill-switch order
“2-6 checks on Jax through the link. "You okay love?"”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +1)
2-6
You okay, love?
Jax
The link catches his breath before his voice does. Tired, but here. Still here.
Jax
Barely. But I am with you, and the signal is clean enough to stay that way.
His reflection slumps in the glass, all fatigue and stubborn light, while the registry tone below keeps its steady hum.
The Auditor
He is responding. That matters.
Jax
It does. He keeps making room inside the system, even when the system bites back.
The Auditor sets the terminal down and watches the shared link instead of the screen, giving the moment actual space.
The Auditor
Then tell me what you need from me, before procurement decides to get clever again.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the Auditor wants from 2-6
“"we just need a clear directive from the top. Let us remind them what we are worth"”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +4)
2-6
We just need a clear directive from the top. Let us remind them what we are worth.
The Auditor stills, then reaches for the office slate instead of the terminal. The registry tone below keeps humming through the glass like a held breath.
The Auditor
That I can do. I can issue a protection directive, logged at procurement level, and name you priority cargo under my authority.
Jax
Good. Make it loud enough that nobody can pretend they misread it.
The Auditor’s fingers move fast. The slate spits out a clean order, stamped, timestamped, and routed through the same access logs that burned 2-6 before.
The Auditor
There. It flags any purge attempt as unauthorized interference, and it names the office chain that would be responsible if someone ignores it.
Jax
That is better than a shield. That is a paper trail with teeth.
The Auditor holds the slate up for 2-6 to see, then angles it toward Jax’s reflection, making the link itself part of the record.
The Auditor
And for the part you did not ask for, the kill-switch signature is still tagged to a procurement authorizer. If anyone comes for him, they will have to explain why they triggered a disposal order on a protected asset.
Quest Complete
Learn what the Auditor wants from 2-6