BOARD’s emergency transport descends beneath headquarters, carrying Kensaku, the three researchers, and their sealed case into a secured analysis chamber. The sparse guards watch every corridor, a grim reminder of BOARD’s diminished status beside Vought.
The researchers stay with Kensaku as the transport doors seal behind them. Inside the chamber, layered biometric consoles surround the case while tired technicians keep glancing toward the reinforced entrance.
BOARD Researchers
We stayed with the case as ordered. No one touched it, and no one followed us underground.
A lean middle-aged woman steps from the analysis station, wearing a charcoal lab coat over tactical body armor. Her dark hair is threaded with silver, and a narrow burn scar marks her left cheek.
Mara Venn
Mara Venn. I run forensic analysis here. These fragments came from the attacker’s weapon and suit.
Mara sets scorched metal shards and a cracked energy regulator beneath the scanner. Their surfaces carry the same blue-white residue that struck Kensaku’s armor in the alley.
Mara Venn
The case remains locked behind palm, retinal, voice, and pulse verification. If the attacker wanted this shipment, she knew exactly what BOARD was moving.
The biometric locks glow in sequence, refusing every casual command. Beyond the chamber, hurried footsteps pass without stopping, leaving the room tense and conspicuously under-guarded.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the attacker was targeting
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover whether BOARD concealed critical information
“Shirou: ma'am or miss venn if you prefer, I need to know for the record. why would our enemies, mainly from VOUGHT want this case. They don't like us here at BOARD, so why want our tech?”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +2)
Shirou Kenzaki/Kamen Rider Kensaku
Ma'am, or Miss Venn, if you prefer. I need this on the record: why would our enemies, mainly Vought, want this case? They don't like BOARD, so why take our technology?
Mara studies Kensaku across the scanner’s pale light. The researchers remain near the sealed case, silent now, while biometric locks pulse in strict sequence.
Mara Venn
Because they do not need to like BOARD to fear what this case represents. The hardware is old-guard architecture, but its adaptive systems can still outperform Vought’s public-facing equipment.
Mara Venn
The fragments confirm the attacker was trying to breach the shipment, not destroy it. Vought would want the designs intact, so they could reverse-engineer the control layer and suppress our remaining advantage.
She rotates the cracked regulator beneath the scanner. Blue-white residue blooms across the display, outlining a stolen interface pattern and several deliberately erased identification marks.
Mara Venn
There is another possibility. They may want the technology buried after copying it. If Vought controls the narrative and the hardware, BOARD becomes obsolete in fact, not merely in reputation.
The chamber settles into a heavy quiet. The researchers exchange guarded looks beside the case, while Mara brings up a secured file marked with the attacker’s energy signature.
Quest Complete
Learn what the attacker was targeting
“Shirou: any critical info that they're interested in, wait...vought wants our driver technology right? the thing that makes BOARD, well BOARD. Our tech is 20-80 years ahead of the curb, but that tech is pattened from our side. So why try to steal it?”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Shirou Kenzaki/Kamen Rider Kensaku
So Vought wants our driver technology, the thing that makes BOARD what it is. Our systems are decades ahead, and the patents are ours. Why steal what they cannot legally claim?
Mara’s hand pauses above the secured file. Behind Kensaku, the three BOARD Researchers exchange a tense glance as the scanner isolates the erased interface marks.
Mara Venn
Because patents protect ownership, not survival. Vought can steal a prototype, bury the trail, and force BOARD into court while its own laboratories reproduce the result.
The display expands into a branching technical map. Several pathways terminate at shell companies, procurement contractors, and a sealed legal injunction filed against BOARD.
Mara Venn
They are not stealing the driver as a product. They are stealing the proof that it works, then making our ownership too expensive and dangerous to enforce.
The researchers close ranks around the case, no longer merely guarding equipment. Mara unlocks a second file, revealing transfer records that place Vought-linked contractors near earlier BOARD facilities.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure BOARD's cooperation against the Vought-linked contractors
“Shirou: any specific reason why they want our driver tech beyond that what we just discussed? this world is already in conflict of heroes like them from vought: twisted, "Absolute" versions of heroes as the new generation and then there's us as the old guard: classic heroes from games, anime, comics, manga and TV in reality. Sure vought has a 60% rate of public opinion, as we have 40% right now. But our track record is proven, so what the hell could they want in our gear?”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Shirou Kenzaki/Kamen Rider Kensaku
Is there a specific reason beyond patents and reverse-engineering? What do they actually gain from our driver technology?
Mara studies the branching map, then isolates a second layer beneath the legal records. The researchers lean closer as unfamiliar performance projections populate the display.
Mara Venn
They want legitimacy they cannot manufacture. Vought can dominate broadcasts, but the driver produces measurable results that expose the difference between a hero and a branded weapon.
She brings up combat telemetry, rescue statistics, and failure rates. BOARD's older systems show consistent intervention under pressure, while Vought's public models spike around controlled media events.
Mara Venn
If they copy the driver, they can claim the old guard was never special. If they alter it, they can turn proven heroics into a subscription product and make every future suit answer to Vought.
Mara Venn
Your forty percent is dangerous to them because it is earned. They need our gear to rewrite what the public thinks a hero is before that record becomes impossible to bury.
“Shirou: so what do you want me to do? Put on my rider helmet back on, ride and fly around doing my hero work as usual. But keep tabs of anyone that could help us against vought's collaborators and to see if BOARD has hid away any information that could help the enemy beyond our tech?”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -4)
“Shirou: so what do you want me to do? Put on my rider helmet back on, ride and fly around doing my hero work as usual. But keep tabs of anyone that could help us against vought's collaborators and to see if BOARD has hid away any information that could help the enemy beyond our tech?”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Shirou Kenzaki/Kamen Rider Kensaku
So what do you want me to do? Put my Rider helmet back on, ride and fly around doing hero work as usual, while tracking anyone who can help us against Vought's collaborators and checking whether BOARD hid information they could use.
Mara closes the combat telemetry and opens a secured operations pane. Three linked directories appear: active collaborators, compromised facilities, and sealed BOARD archives.
Mara Venn
Yes. Suit up, stay mobile, and work the city as only you can. I will give you an encrypted field brief and a contact list of people who still owe BOARD the truth.
She transfers the brief to Kensaku’s secured system, tagging Vought-linked contractors, shell companies, and former BOARD sites where records were removed before the organization’s decline.
Mara Venn
Do not expose the archive search. I am granting you access to BOARD’s buried index, including restricted research logs and deletion audits. Anything that names a collaborator goes straight to me.
The three BOARD Researchers secure the case and begin preparing the chamber for departure. Their wary faces lift as the operation becomes broader than defending one shipment.
Mara Venn
Bring back names, evidence, and people willing to stand with us. You have the authority to investigate, and now you have the information to begin.
Quest Complete
Secure BOARD's cooperation against the Vought-linked contractors
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Good→Great