Nyx reaches the harbor safe house with the sealed shutdown folder secured in her carry sleeve. The clinic patients and the back-alley surgeon remain behind under their chosen care boundaries.
Inside, Mina’s hair has begun growing out, a small reclaimed choice amid dishes, tools, and ordinary household noise. Asha waits near the washroom, watching Nyx arrive.
Asha Bell
You brought the whole clinic home on your shoulders again. Come shower with me, Nyx. Let the house be ours for five minutes.
Before the invitation can settle, a maintenance panel behind Mina’s workbench opens without a sound. A lean adult figure in matte-gray infiltration gear steps from the cavity, face hidden, suppressed pistol already raised.
Mina Ortez
Down. Asha, cover the corridor. Nobody fires through the living space.
Mina drops behind the counter and angles her weapon toward the intruder’s hands. Asha moves to shield the washroom entrance, leaving the exit clear and refusing to turn the sanctuary into a kill box.
The assassin’s pistol tracks toward Nyx, but the muzzle hesitates as a hidden biometric handshake flashes across Nyx’s optics. The intruder is linked to an external command, and the command is waiting for her response.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop the assassin and secure the safe house
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who issued the command controlling the assassin
“I jam the waiting handshake and order the assassin to lower the pistol.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled -3)
Nyx’s cybernetic enhancements seize the waiting handshake before it can complete. Her optics split its biometric challenge from the command stream, while her interface routes a hard jam through the exposed authentication seam.
Nyx crash
Jam the handshake. Lower the pistol.
The command channel collapses into static. The assassin’s raised weapon lowers at once, muzzle turning toward the floor as the biometric link dies under Nyx’s control.
Kellan Voss
Handshake severed. Pistol lowered. You have the room.
A warning flashes across Nyx’s optics: the disposable interface filament has fused during the jam. The handshake is dead, but that hardware cannot be used again.
Mina Ortez
Keep him covered. Asha, hold the corridor. Nyx, do not let that channel reopen.
Mina keeps her weapon trained without firing. Asha maintains the clear corridor, and the concealed assassin remains still, pistol lowered, while Nyx’s jammed interface leaves the command link silent.
Quest Complete
Stop the assassin and secure the safe house
“I offer the assassin protection for cooperation”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -3)
Nyx crash
Cooperate, and I will protect you. Lower the weapon, answer our questions, and I will get you out safely instead of handing you to enforcement.
Wanted by Law Enforcement sharpens the offer’s risk: Nyx’s own status makes protection costly, not clean. Protective Extraction turns that liability into a concrete route, projecting a guarded exit through the house and harbor lanes.
Kellan Voss
You would shelter a contract killer while carrying your own warrant? That makes this protection suspect. But I will cooperate, if you keep your promise and take me out alive.
The assassin lowers their free hand and sets the pistol on the floor, leaving it within sight but no longer claiming it. Mina keeps them covered; Asha shifts to guard the corridor and the projected escape line.
Kellan Voss
My name is Kellan Voss. The command came through a relay I cannot identify from here. I can tell you who hired me and what they expected me to recover.
The cost settles immediately: Kellan’s suspicion remains explicit, and his protection becomes a debt he can later call due. Still, his cooperation is secured, while Nyx’s extraction plan keeps the room and corridor under control.
Extract Kellan Voss safely