Pending Reprisals entanglement lands. A port authority officer knocks on the loading ramp with two system police escorts. He has a printed copy of Warrant 7741-B and questions about why the berth record shows two different transponder signatures.
Cutter steps out. He knows the officer's precinct captain socially — one name drop. Sway: 4/5. The officer leaves satisfied, but files a note associating the Vagrant Star by name with the warrant in Rin's law enforcement database.
Warrant 7741-B ticks right: ███████░ (7/8). One segment from Active Pursuit.
Vess, from inside the ship: "That person knows we are here. Not which person. The institution."
Sable takes Vess to Juda's before departure. The node fragment hums louder without Vess nearby.
Ashek calls. The Holt job is offered. Crew looks at their cred count, accepts.
Syndicate Betrayal ticks: ██░░ (2/4). Maron is building a file. The crew doesn't know this.
Plan: Infiltration. Detail: Service airlock on Sigma-7's maintenance ring, Syndicate access codes from Ashek.
Engagement modifiers:
The rival crew — The Starfall — is already inside.
Three clocks open:
Rack spots The Starfall through a viewport. Study: 6.
Cutter assesses the situation. Study: 4/5. If The Starfall gets to the relay first, job is done but crew gets no payoff. If they work together, the job happens faster. Problem: nobody hired both crews on the same contract without telling either of them.
Juno checks life support. Study: 6. Eleven workers on shift. No shuttle departure in six hours. They didn't evacuate.
Workers Evacuated clock opens: ░░░░░░ (0/6).
Devil's Bargain offered to Cutter: "Push straight for the relay — +1d on your first rig roll. But if Station Alert fills before workers are clear, they're in the blast radius." Cutter declines. Crew splits: Rack and Cutter toward the relay, Juno toward the residential ring.
Juno enters the common room where eleven dock workers are playing cards. Welcome Anywhere (+1d on consort).
Sway: 6. No resistance. Foreman Bryn stands and starts moving. Workers: ██░░░░ (2/6).
Juno reroutes the emergency shuttle beacon to look like a mechanical failure. Rig: 6. Shuttle is coming.
Rack and Cutter reach the relay room simultaneously with The Starfall from the other side. Both crews face each other across server hardware.
Rack speaks first. Invokes Traveler (potency with unusual groups): "I'm thinking Ashek didn't tell either of us about the other. We can fight about it, or we can both get paid."
Sev considers for three seconds. "You're behind schedule. We're faster on the relay. Handle whatever else needs handling."
Devil's Bargain to Rack: "Let The Starfall take the relay — job done, you share credit. But Sev now knows your face, your call sign, and that you run jobs in Holt." Rack takes it.
The Starfall status: neutral → acquaintance. Sev has Rack's face filed.
GM fortune roll for station background: 1-3. An unscheduled overnight Hegemony inspection officer walks into The Starfall's working corridor. Brief confrontation. Officer stunned.
Station Alert: ██░░ (2/4). Disturbance registered on internal sensors.
Juno has seven workers at the shuttle bay, four still in the residential ring. The shuttle is docking. But doors are beginning to sequence.
Station Alert ticks: ███░ (3/4). One more incident from lockdown.
Group action on scramble to beat the sequence. Juno leads.
Workers Evacuated: ██████ (6/6). Complete. All eleven workers on the shuttle.
The relay detonates. Sev and Rack make eye contact across a locked-down corridor intersection. She gestures: "Your airlock is clear. We're not stopping." Gone.
Rack — rig: 4/5 to cycle the service airlock remotely from a wall terminal. Gets the crew out. Consequence: access logged under a maintenance code. +1 heat in Holt.
Payoff: 6 cred. After upkeep: net 2 cred.
Heat — Holt: Loud and chaotic (+4), Hegemony target (+1), airlock log (+1). 6 heat in Holt. Tracker: ██████░░
Entanglement (Wanted 0, Holt): 1d → 4/5 → Interrogation. System officers round up Juno — she's in the evacuation record.
Juno invokes *Welcome Anywhere — she has eleven workers who'll confirm she was there for the evacuation. Sway: 6 at controlled position.* No cost. Released with a formal commendation.
Moral Compass activates: Did the right thing at cost to herself. +1 XP (Resolve).
Rack uses Stardancer's Leverage ability — calls in Maelstrom favor. Banshee's people spread rumor the Sigma-7 incident was pirate-affiliated. Holt heat: 6 → 3. Maelstrom status holds at +1.
Sable — begins recovering Way-Shaken. Recovery: 4/5. Two segments on healing clock.
Juno — long-term project on understanding Vess. Study: 6 + gambit. 5 segments on 8-clock. Vess's fragment chose a dying host. The double voice isn't two beings fighting. It's one being learning to speak through a dying mouth.
Cutter — consorts to find who knew about the workers. Consort: 6 + Ask Questions Later. Result: Ashek didn't know. Someone above Ashek knew and said nothing. Bonus question: "Who benefits?" Contact: "Someone who wanted to know if this crew would do a job even with civilians at risk. Testing you."
Syndicate Betrayal: ███░ (3/4). Maron has what he needs. One more job.