Before Taz can leave the hardened console, every dead monitor relights at once. A narrow-band emergency signal fractures across the booth, painting the walls in cold blue static.
A fragmented projection resolves into Nyx Calder, a young adult woman with a slim silhouette, cropped dark hair, and a high-collared black jacket rendered in broken scan lines. Her face glitches at the edges.
Nyx Calder
Taz, listen fast. I intercepted a Specter purge order carrying your biometric signature. They are using your implants as the authorization key.
The terminal’s audit trail accelerates. A red trace crawls through freight-control infrastructure, narrowing from the interchange network toward the hardened booth.
Nyx Calder
Your booth is broadcasting a handshake. I can break it, but only through one immediate route: sever the exchange uplink and dump the trace into the maintenance spine.
Nyx Calder
There is a catch. The dump will lock the evidence drive for ninety seconds, and Specter will know exactly where you are. Decide now.
✓ Quest Accepted
Turn the Specter trace into an exploitable lead
“Do what Nyx recommends while getting ready to make a quick escape, audit what supplies I have, check ammo levels, see if there's any thing that can help in a future combat fight”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled -1)
Taz drives his cyberwarfare equipment into the exchange uplink. Legendary routines sever the handshake cleanly, then redirect the Specter trace into the maintenance spine.
Nyx Calder
Trace is dumped. Your booth is dark to them for now. The evidence drive is locked for ninety seconds, exactly as warned.
The hardened evidence drive seals behind an unbreakable countdown. Taz pulls the isolated ocular copy into verification mode while the control booth’s uplink dies.
He audits his available gear: cyberwarfare equipment, the corporate rifle, its loaded magazine, and the hardened evidence drive. No medical supplies or spare ammunition register.
Taz
The rifle is combat-ready. The evidence has two isolated copies.
Ammunition levels display in the rifle’s receiver: enough rounds for a short engagement, but no margin for sustained fire. Taz checks the selector, chamber, and smart-sight power.
Nyx Calder
Ninety seconds started. Take the maintenance stairwell west, then disappear before Specter reacquires the spine.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the Specter reacquisition sweep
Quest Complete
Turn the Specter trace into an exploitable lead
“Do as Nyx suggests and take the stairwell west and disappear. I need to aquire some combat gear, more ammo, a pistol, likely get specialist sniper rifle, some breaching equipment, different types of grenades etc. I should have a few stashes and spots around the city for such a thing. Start to head toward one of them.”
FAILURE (Mediocre Stealth, rolled +0)
Taz leaves the darkened booth and takes the west maintenance stairwell, moving quickly and keeping his rifle tight against his coat. The evidence drive remains locked.
His boots find the stairs cleanly, but a shoulder actuator catches the railing. The metal gives a sharp ring that travels down the narrow shaft.
Nyx Calder
That was not silent. Specter has a partial acoustic fix, but their visual track is still blind.
Taz reaches the lower landing as maintenance indicators awaken along the walls. The stairwell no longer offers concealment, and returning would lead toward the reacquiring trace.
A faded infrastructure map behind cracked safety glass shows an older waste conduit branching west beneath the interchange, bypassing active freight corridors and opening near Black Iron District.
Nyx Calder
Take the conduit. It is not on current Specter routing, and I can keep their partial fix circling the stairwell for another minute.
Taz tears the map panel free and enters the conduit. The route is cramped and unmonitored, leading toward a district where one of his concealed equipment stashes may still be reachable.
“Head toward my stash while staying concealed”
FAILURE (Mediocre Stealth, rolled -2)
The waste conduit narrows beneath the interchange, forcing Taz sideways between sweating pipes and rusted support ribs. He keeps his rifle tight and follows the route toward his concealed stash.
His boots avoid the shallow runoff, but the torn map panel catches on his coat and rips free with a metallic scrape. The sound rolls through the conduit.
Taz
The conduit carries sound farther than the stairwell.
Taz lowers his profile and advances beneath dead service lights. A dust-coated maintenance lens pivots from the ceiling, waking just long enough to capture his silhouette before losing power.
Nyx Calder
That camera was supposed to be blind. I lost your visual for three seconds, but the conduit just marked your route.
The stash route remains ahead, yet concealment is compromised. Taz reaches a junction where the conduit splits around a sealed filtration chamber, and the marked branch now offers no safe repeat.
Nyx Calder
Your stash should be beyond the filtration chamber. Do not double back. Specter can reconstruct the straight path from that camera.
“Whether it's using my athletics while looking out for any surveillance, make a as fast as possible sprint toward my stash, and at the same deeking and dodging and potentially going down a few misleading corridors and paths.”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +1)
Taz launches into the junction at full speed, augmented legs driving him through the narrow conduit while his amber eye sweeps every ceiling seam and dead lens.
He cuts left, doubles through a maintenance spur, then crosses his own route through a drainage passage, leaving false movement patterns in the dust and runoff.
Nyx Calder
I am seeing three possible paths now. None of them matches your actual position. Keep moving west.
A dormant sensor twitches ahead. Taz drops beneath its angle, rebounds off a support rib, and takes a sloping service corridor that bypasses the filtration chamber.
Taz
The stash marker is local, not networked.
He bursts through a corroded access grille into a forgotten utility pocket beneath Black Iron District. Behind a loose coolant manifold, his concealed stash waits exactly where he left it.
Taz tears the manifold cover free and reaches the cache: ammunition, compact field tools, and sealed operational supplies remain dry inside the armored compartment.
“Take all the items inside the stash and attach them securely to my belt and vests. I need to keep heading west, and eventually I need to secure and look for the ability to either buy a pistol that I can keep secured and secret on my body, and I also need to get a sniper rifle at some point.”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +0)
Taz empties the armored compartment completely, collecting ammunition, compact field tools, and sealed operational supplies. He checks each item by touch before fitting it to his gear.
Magazines lock into reinforced belt pouches, tools settle into vest loops, and the sealed supplies disappear beneath his coat in secured carriers. Nothing shifts when he moves.
Nyx Calder
Your profile just changed. The stash is gone, and I am not seeing anything loose or obvious on you.
Taz pulls the coolant manifold back into place, concealing the emptied compartment. He shoulders the rifle and follows the westbound utility passage beneath Black Iron District.
Nyx Calder
Keep west. I can search the underground markets for a discreet pistol and track down a sniper rifle when you are clear of the interchange.
The passage slopes through older infrastructure, carrying Taz away from the freight network. His new load stays balanced against his belt and vests as the darkness opens ahead.
+ New Item Acquired
Ammunition
+ New Item Acquired
Compact field tools
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed operational supplies
“Keep heading west and check on the time it has to be past 90 seconds by now. Go where Nyx suggests”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled -1)
Taz keeps west through the utility passage, boots striking damp concrete in a steady rhythm. His ocular chronometer reconstructs the countdown from the last confirmed signal.
Taz
Ninety seconds expired thirty-seven seconds ago.
The locked evidence drive remains sealed, but its external status light has shifted from red to amber. The isolated copy stays intact in his ocular buffer.
Nyx Calder
You are clear of the interchange perimeter. The maintenance spine ends beneath the old market quarter, three blocks west of your position.
The passage widens into a disused service artery lined with faded vendor shutters and cable bundles. Distant voices and generators bleed through the walls ahead.
Nyx Calder
I found a discreet pistol through a broker, and I am still locating the sniper rifle. Do not expect either one to be free.
Taz follows the sound toward the underground markets, rifle secured beneath his coat and fresh ammunition balanced across his gear. Blue market light spills through a cracked bulkhead ahead.
Reach the underground markets
Quest Complete
Escape the Specter reacquisition sweep
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Fair→Good