The Fixer jams one hand against the wall panel, bleeding onto the cracked glass as the lockdown command confirms. Amber lights strobe over his face, and the remaining drone steadies in the air like it has found a pulse.
Its lens blooms red. The screech cuts straight through the generator room, and the bio-heart module in Clint Runner's hand starts to thrash in answer, hot and violent.
The Fixer
It is keyed to the broadcast. Good. That means it is mine again.
The Agent
Fixer, call it off. You are sealing us in.
The Fixer
Then stop standing in my way and give me the module.
The sector seals begin to drop with a hydraulic roar, cutting the doorway into narrowing bands of steel. The Wetware Engineer backs toward Clint Runner, watching the drone, the seals, and the trembling module for the first mistake.
Clint Runner
The module is syncing to the drone's signal.
✓ Quest Accepted
Sever the bio-heart module's connection to the drone
“I ask the Wetware Engineer if she can sever the connection”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +1)
Clint Runner
Can you sever it?
The Wetware Engineer
Yes. The drone is riding a handshake loop off the module's pulse. Give me ten seconds and a clean sightline.
She steps in close behind Clint Runner, eyes flicking from the vibrating core to the drone's red lens. Amber light paints her hands as she reaches for the module's casing, not touching yet, measuring the rhythm.
The Agent
Do it fast. I do not want to die in here for his hardware.
The Fixer
If you break it, Runner loses the leverage. If you save it, I still own the room.
The engineer snorts once, almost a laugh, then plants herself beside Clint Runner with a technician's stubborn calm. Her shoulder brushes his cybernetic arm as the seals grind lower and the drone's red glow jitters across the metal floor.
The Wetware Engineer
Hold it steady. I can cut the link, but if that lens twitches again, I am not chasing it through a lockdown.
“I give the module to the engineer before going to distract the fixer”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled -1)
Clint Runner snaps the module into the Wetware Engineer's hands and peels away toward the Fixer. The bio-heart's vibration drops out of his grip at last, but a hot jolt stings through his cybernetic arm as the transfer finishes.
The Wetware Engineer
Clean handoff. Now keep him looking at you.
She hunches over the core, thumbs flying across its seam, while the drone's red lens swings after Clint instead of the module. Amber strobes rake the room, turning every surface into a warning light.
Clint closes on the Fixer in three quick steps, putting himself between the man and the engineer. The chest-high seal groans lower behind them, cutting the room into a trap.
The Fixer
Runner, if that thing fries, you lose the only leverage you had.
Clint Runner
Then watch it burn somewhere else.
The drone wobbles hard, its synced pulse now broken and erratic, and the module spits a shower of blue sparks into the engineer's gloves. She keeps working anyway, jaw clenched, while the Fixer shifts his weight for a move that might come too late.
“I beat the fixer up”
FAILURE (Mediocre Strength, rolled +1)
Clint lunges, trying to turn the Fixer’s off-balance shift into a body shot, but the man snaps back just enough to spoil the clean hit. The blow clips shoulder armor, not ribs.
The Fixer staggers into the wall panel, then catches himself with one palm, eyes never leaving Clint. The seal grinds another notch lower behind him.
The Fixer
You are chasing the wrong target.
He jerks his chin toward the engineer and the sparking module. The drone’s red lens snaps, then jitters again, as if the room itself is losing the thread.
The Wetware Engineer glances up for half a second, catches the flicker in the module seam, and goes still. Something inside the casing has opened its timing window.
Clint Runner
The sync is slipping.
Blue arcs skitter across the engineer’s gloves, and one loose panel on the module pops ajar, exposing a thin maintenance port beneath the crackling shell.