The ship hum deepens, then clicks into that layered registry tone again. This time it does not just recognize 2-6, it opens for him. The office slate flickers, and the protection directive pulls up a deeper corporate layer, tagged for system administrators only.
2-6's nano-bot lattice answers before he does. Bright amber threads bloom under the skin of his forearm, tracing clean lines into the ship's local protocol stack. The old infection is no longer just changing him, it is authenticating him.
The Auditor
Priority asset status is not the whole truth. He has admin routing.
A restricted menu unfolds on the slate, corporate access panels stacking open in neat, clinical rows. File locks drop one by one. The ship is waiting for a command from 2-6 now, not a response from him.
Jax
That tone, it is not logging you anymore. It is handing you the keys.
The Auditor shifts closer, watching the amber glow crawl along 2-6's arm and settle into the office network like a known administrator. Outside the glass, cargo lights smear across the hold, but inside the room the real change is quiet, official, and dangerous.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure administrative control over the ship
“2-6 take a hit of his vape and rolls his neck. "See? Why would an admin be the target of a purge order?"”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
2-6 takes a slow pull from the vape, then rolls his neck until the joint clicks loose. The amber lines under his skin stay steady, less like a wound now and more like a live authorization tag.
2-6
See? Why would an admin be the target of a purge order?
Jax
Because somebody expected you to stay property. Admin status breaks their little story.
The Auditor
And it changes who has to answer for every lock on this vessel. Which is a problem for them, not for us.
Jax lets out a tired breath, the shared data link flickering between him and 2-6 like a thin wire under strain. The procurement logs still hang open on the slate, the authorizer's signature nested deep inside the admin layer.
The Auditor
If you want to keep this, you need to issue a command the system recognizes as yours. Navigation, access control, routing, anything with teeth.
Jax
You heard that tone before. Now make it mean something.
The office goes still around them, glass reflecting cargo lights and amber code. The slate waits, open and obedient, for 2-6's next instruction.
“Head to corp HQ”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)