Elzer remains clamped to the maintenance array, her sealed suit intact. Behind her, the shuttle follows its stable corridor, preserving a return path while Mara stays on the bunker channel below.
The newly unlocked conduit opens into station darkness. Power surges through the walls in blue-white pulses, and distant capacitors begin charging with a deep vibration through the metal.
Mara Venn
I am reading the charge buildup. The station is preparing another firing cycle, and the pattern is accelerating.
Elzer’s visor identifies a command-network junction ahead, its access route threading through the unlit crawlway. Maintenance warnings mark the passage as temporary.
Mara Venn
The conduit will seal when the firing sequence reaches readiness. If you enter, you may lose the route back before I can reopen it.
Across the station’s underside, recessed panels close one by one as locking systems wake. The charging vibration strengthens, and a countdown begins without displaying its duration.
Mara Venn
The junction is your only visible interruption point. I will keep the shuttle aligned and hold this channel open as long as the bunker signal survives.
✓ Quest Accepted
Interrupt the station's firing sequence
“I quickly run to a nearby terminal and begin hacking it hoping to interrupt the firing sequence while getting information”
FAILURE (Great Hacking, rolled -2)
“I quickly run to a nearby terminal and begin hacking it hoping to interrupt the firing sequence while getting information”
SUCCESS (Great Hacking, rolled +0)
Elzer releases the array handholds and runs through the temporary crawlway. She reaches a recessed terminal just as the station’s countdown pulses through the deck.
She tears open the terminal housing, connects her damaged fingertips to the maintenance bus, and drives her intrusion through layered fire-control safeguards.
The firing sequence halts. Across the terminal, targeting grids freeze and a command report opens, identifying the city as an unauthorized test site marked for containment.
Mara Venn
The batteries stopped. Elzer, you have interrupted the cycle and pulled a complete command report from the station.
A security pulse travels backward through the connection and burns out the terminal’s local interface. Elzer’s left hand locks for a moment, its damaged fingertips glowing hot.
Elzer
The station classified the catastrophe as a containment test.
Mara Venn
I am copying the report now. The channel is weakening, but the firing cycle remains suspended while you are inside the command network.
Discover who authorized the containment test
Quest Complete
Reach the station and access its command systems
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Great→Superb
Quest Complete
Interrupt the station's firing sequence
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Superb→Legendary