The bridge still hums with storm-noise as the masked artifact sits in its cradle, its pulse buried in the static. Dr. Z leans in under his bucket hat, cigarette smoke curling through the console lights while he presses gauze to Kaiju D Phoenix’s scraped arm.
Dr. Z
That timing is too clean. Not random.
The artifact flashes again, and again, in a tight pattern. Dr. Z freezes, then angles his sunglasses toward the display as if the light itself has started spelling something out.
Dr. Z
Kaiju, this is not spillover. It is transmitting. A beacon, with data folded into the pulse.
Alias straightens at the navigation pit, ears pricked, while Kira leans over a status panel with a hard, worried stare. The Stranger’s calm cracks just enough to show urgency.
The Stranger
Then the signal is aimed. Somewhere off-world. Someone is meant to catch it.
Dr. Z traces the blinking sequence in the air, then points at a distant coordinate blooming on the bridge map. It is not random noise. It is a destination.
✓ Quest Accepted
Decide the artifact’s fate
“I demand the Stranger explain why they knew this artifact was a beacon.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -1)
Kaiju D Phoenix
Kaiju fixes the Stranger with a hard look and asks why they knew this artifact was a beacon.
The Stranger
Because I have seen the pattern before. Military routing, masked under a false pulse. Someone built this to call for help, or to call for hunters.
Dr. Z
That explains the clean timing. The beacon is not reacting, it is addressing something.
The Stranger
And it explains why I brought the encryption keys. I did not guess. I recognized the shape of the signal.
Alias
You were ready for this before we were.
The Stranger
I was ready to hide it. I was not sure whether to trust the people carrying it.
Kira Dean
Then tell us the part you left out. Who is supposed to receive it?
The Stranger
Someone with enough reach to answer a beacon this far out. That is why the choice matters now, keep it, or dump it before it finishes speaking.
“Is the beacon meant for hunters?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 8)
The Stranger taps the relay puck, and the navigation hologram shifts to display a fleet signature emerging from the void. It is not just a hunter, but a retrieval squad from the Galactic Marines, already locked onto the beacon's frequency.
The Stranger
They are not just coming to hunt the artifact, they are coming to erase the ship that carries it.
Kaiju D Phoenix
The beacon is a death sentence for everyone on board.
“I jettison the artifact and jump the ship into hyperspace right after”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +2)