Onyx Soldier hauls his frame over the threshold of the sub-level, water cascading off his tactical gear. Before he can find his footing, the beams of four weapon-mounted tactical lights snap onto his chest.
Onyx Soldier
The exit is compromised.
The Tactical Lead
Toss the drive onto the deck, soldier. Keep your hands where we can see them, and you might live long enough to swim for it.
The Tactical Lead steps forward, his finger hovering over the trigger. His team fans out behind him, utilizing the cover of the shipping containers.
The Tactical Lead
The ship is going under in two minutes. Do not make this harder than it needs to be.
The compartment groans as the floor tilts another five degrees. A massive hydraulic pipe above them bursts, sending a scalding mist across the room.
“Is the Tactical Lead working for the Handler?”
YES (Even, rolled 13)
Onyx Soldier
The Tactical Lead is checking his comms frequency, the same encrypted channel The Handler uses.
The Tactical Lead
The Handler is getting impatient, Onyx. Hand it over, or I will be forced to collect it from your corpse.
“I slip past the Tactical Lead”
SUCCESS (Great Stealth, rolled +1)
Onyx Soldier
The steam is thick enough to mask my silhouette, if I time my movement with the ship's shudder.
A massive lurch tosses the freighter hard to port. Onyx Soldier drops low, his boots barely splashing as he slides through the rising brine beneath the cover of a venting pipe.
The Tactical Lead
Target is shifting! Scan the perimeter, now!
The Tactical Lead swings his carbine toward the empty corner where Onyx Soldier stood a second before, but the soldier is already gone, swallowed by the darkness of the aft bulkhead.
The Tactical Lead
He is ghosts and shadow. Sweep the ventilation shafts. He cannot be far in this wreck.
The mercenaries fan out, boots trudging through knee-deep water, while Onyx Soldier grips the cold steel of the service ladder, the data drive secure in his tactical vest.
“I vanish into the ventilation shafts”
FAILURE (Great Stealth, rolled -1)
Onyx Soldier
The grate is rusted shut. I have no time for leverage.
Onyx Soldier rips at the ventilation cover, but the metal groans and holds firm. A sudden, sharp retort echoes through the chamber as a bullet tears through the grate right beside his ear, scattering sparks.
The Tactical Lead
I see you, soldier. Do not think you can leave this room alive.
The Tactical Lead wades forward, his weapon locked onto the ladder, flanked by two armed operatives closing the gap through the waist-deep water.
Onyx Soldier
Cornered. The bulkhead behind me is my only exit point now.
He pivots on the ladder, but the water beneath him surges as a massive piece of floating cargo drifts into his path, pinning him against the vibrating wall of the ship.
“I break for the hatch now”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +0)
The crate shifts under the surge. Onyx Soldier drives off the wall, twists free, and the flood carries him toward the hatch line.
He slams into the bulkhead controls with his shoulder. The hatch shudders, then releases with a grinding metallic cough.
The Tactical Lead
Stop him! Seal that hatch!
Water bursts through the opening as Onyx Soldier slips through first, the current dragging his boots clear of the cargo hold.
The Tactical Lead
He got out.
Behind him, the cargo sub-level roars with splashing boots and shouted orders, but the hatch is already narrowing the gap.
Onyx Soldier reaches the other side into darker service space, wet steel underfoot, the freighter still lurching hard around him.