The generator bay remains sealed and quiet. Sarah stands beside the insulated terminal, printed AEGIS records spread across the dead workbench, while the retrieval countdown stays frozen.
Sarah
The authentication channel is dormant, not dead. I can use its last handshake to make Northstar reveal the route without giving them this cabin.
She points to a narrow amber interval between two stalled status lines. The terminal’s insulated cover keeps the signal contained, but the window is already shrinking.
Sarah
I need you between me and the service passage while I try. If the protocol wakes, someone may come looking before I can cut it.
Beyond the sealed bay, rain ticks against the outpost roof. No alarm sounds, yet the dormant channel emits a faint rhythmic vibration through the workbench.
Sarah
If this works, the route leads back to Northstar. If it fails, the retrieval system learns exactly where to hunt.
“I guard Sarah while she traces the route”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Perception, rolled +0)
Elijah takes position between Sarah and the service passage, watching the door seam, ceiling vents, and the narrow reflection in the dead terminal’s cover.
Sarah activates the last handshake interval. Amber characters crawl across the insulated screen, resolving into a relay chain that leaves the outpost through a buried maintenance line.
Sarah
There. The route runs through the weather-station relay, then Northstar’s regional biotech exchange in Thunder Bay. It is a retrieval channel.
Elijah catches a faint pressure change beyond the service door and keeps his attention fixed there while Sarah copies the route by hand. The channel remains contained.
Sarah
I have the path, but the handshake spent its final verification window. We know where it reports, not which Northstar team receives the alert.
The amber display goes dark. Sarah secures the handwritten route with the AEGIS records, while Elijah’s guarded passage stays quiet and the Sanctuary remains concealed.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get Sarah to agree on a protective plan
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent Sarah from being isolated by the remote quarantine
“Is the pressure change beyond the service door a team approaching?”
NO, AND WORSE (Even, rolled 94)
The pressure beyond the service door drops away. No footsteps follow. Instead, the ceiling vents exhale a dry metallic hiss, and the generator bay lights turn from green to amber.
A locking bar slams into place somewhere inside the walls. The insulated terminal remains dark, but a thin red line appears beneath its cover: INTERNAL CONTAINMENT CYCLE.
Sarah
That was not a response team. The outpost just received a remote quarantine command through the maintenance line.
The service passage door seals with a heavy mechanical clunk. Airflow changes again, drawing the bay's warmth toward the sealed corridor while the printed records stir across the workbench.
Elijah Hunter
The pressure came from the ventilation system.
Sarah
Northstar cannot see us, but their retrieval protocol can still control dormant outpost hardware. If the cycle completes, it may isolate the cabinet from us.
A countdown begins beneath the red line, its digits advancing without any terminal connection. Somewhere beyond the sealed passage, the shielded sample case gives a single muffled pulse.
− Scene Quest Removed
Get Sarah to agree on a protective plan
“I brace the sealed passage door and keep Sarah beside me.”
FAILURE (Superb Strength, rolled -2)
Elijah plants himself against the sealed passage door, one shoulder under the frame, and keeps Sarah close behind him as the locking mechanism drives deeper into place.
The door holds for a breath, then its upper hinge housing twists under the remote pressure. Elijah prevents it from buckling inward, but cannot stop the quarantine bar from completing its cycle.
Elijah Hunter
The bar is anchored inside the wall, not the door.
Sarah
You stopped the door from deforming, but the lock is bypassing the frame. Do not keep fighting the wrong point.
A narrow maintenance seam opens above the threshold as the warped housing separates from the wall. Behind it, insulated conduit and a manual release assembly become visible in the amber light.
Sarah
There. The quarantine control is exposed. We cannot force the passage, but we can reach the mechanism that is sealing it.
The door settles into a rigid locked position. Elijah remains braced beside Sarah, shielding her from the shifting frame while the newly exposed assembly waits within reach.
“i pull on the the release with all my strength”
FAILURE (Superb Strength, rolled +0)
Elijah reaches into the exposed seam and pulls with all his strength. The wall shudders, conduit groans, and the release housing shifts a fraction, but the manual handle is missing from its socket.
His effort tears away a narrow insulation panel instead of opening the passage. Beneath it, color-coded wires and a recessed maintenance port emerge beside the locked mechanism.
Sarah
The handle was removed. Northstar left the actuator, but not the part needed to pull it directly.
The quarantine bar remains anchored, yet the displaced housing exposes a printed circuit label: MANUAL OVERRIDE, GENERATOR BAY ACCESS. A second route is marked beneath it.
Sarah
That is our opening. The override is not here, but the control line runs back to the generator bay. We can cut the quarantine command there.
The passage stays sealed, and the countdown continues behind the red-lit terminal. Sarah gathers the records while the newly exposed port offers a usable path around the missing release.
Quest Complete
Prevent Sarah from being isolated by the remote quarantine
Attribute Upgrade: Strength Superb→Legendary