Match emerges onto the first warehouse roof with Niko close behind. Rain slicks the corrugated surface, while police drones seal the apartment district below in rotating blue grids.
Mara remains below, covering the access hatch with her compact pistol ready. She watches the stairwell mouth until Niko pulls the hatch nearly shut, leaving her concealed beneath the roofline.
Niko
The relay station is two roofs east. An old smuggler contact still uses its service node. They may authenticate the shard, or move it somewhere the gangs cannot trace.
Niko points through curtains of rain toward a squat rooftop kiosk crowned with a damaged antenna array. Its maintenance lights blink beneath a faded freight-company logo.
Mara
Keep moving. The drones are tightening their grid, and this roof will be visible on the next sweep.
Match leads Niko across the warehouse roofs, choosing the darker edges between steaming vents and rain-glossed solar panels. Below, patrol lights crawl over the streets and stop at every alley.
Niko
The relay hatch is ahead. If the contact answers, we learn what this shard really carries before anyone else gets close.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the relay station
“I cross to the relay hatch, staying low between the vents.”
SUCCESS (Great Stealth, rolled +1)
Match crosses low between steaming vents, using their bulk to break his silhouette from the rain and antenna glare. Niko follows in his wake, careful and silent.
A police drone sweeps the neighboring roof, its blue grid sliding across wet metal. Match reaches the relay hatch before the light can settle over them and signals Niko down.
Niko
Clean crossing. Give me a second with the lock.
Niko kneels beside the squat hatch and removes a slim access pick from his jacket. Match holds the darker side of the roof, watching the drone grid pass beyond them.
The pick clicks against the old mechanism. Rusted bolts retract, and the hatch opens onto a cramped relay chamber lit by amber maintenance strips.
Niko
We are in. Stay close. The service node should be below this panel.
Niko slips through first, then leaves the hatch angled for Match. Inside, old fiber trunks hum beneath the floor, while the damaged antenna array ticks overhead in the rain.
“I help Niko access the service node”
FAILURE (Fair Reasoning, rolled -2)
Match crouches beside Niko at the open relay panel and steadies the fiber coupler while Niko exposes the service node. Amber diagnostics crawl across the cracked interface.
Niko
Hold it there. The node is accepting power, but the shard handshake is not completing.
Match adjusts the coupler by a fraction. The node rejects the connection, shutters its external ports, and locks the panel before the handshake can finish.
Niko
That was not you. The relay recognizes the shard, then refuses its authentication. Repeating the access attempt will only keep sealing the node.
A brief diagnostic remains on the amber strip before fading: AUTHORITY CHAIN INCOMPLETE, with a maintenance-channel identifier beneath it. The node has exposed a usable lead.
Niko
We cannot open it from this port. But that identifier points to the relay’s maintenance channel. If I can reach its manual terminal, we may authenticate the shard without forcing the lock.
Niko folds the fiber coupler away and studies the chamber’s old service conduits. The failed connection leaves them with a specific next route instead of a dead node.
Quest Complete
Reach the relay station
Skill Upgrade: Stealth Great→Superb