This is the Act 2 opening. No engagement roll, no clocks. Three contacts land simultaneously at Warren docks. The system generated all three through downtime faction activity — the GM didn't plan any of them.
Attached to the external comms panel. Encrypted, one-use, clearly expensive. Rack runs it.
Card degrades. Legion runner's route log shows origin: Obelisk Station, Brekk.
Hegemony status: −1 → 0 (neutral). Ohe's offer suspended hostilities.
Ohe's Offer clock: █░░░ (1/4). The window is opening. Time is passing.
Separate, standard channel. Sounds like Ashek but different texture: "Client wants direct delivery to a vault on Vos. Sealed asset, no questions. Twelve cred. Departure window opens in three days."
Twelve cred. The crew has 1.
Cutter puts the dead drop photograph on the table: "Don't go to Vos." Reads it aloud.
Sable: "Maron knows we have the documents. He's not paying twelve cred for a delivery. He's paying twelve cred to put us somewhere he controls."
They don't respond to Ashek yet.
She's in the Mirror Maze when they arrive for breakfast. Corner table. One drink, cooling. She makes eye contact with Sable for two seconds and looks at the empty chairs.
She's been there an hour. She tipped well. She is very comfortable waiting.
The crew sits. Wren waits until everyone is settled. Then:
Not a question. Sable nods.
Juno: "That's manipulation."
Wren: "Yes."
No apology. Just acknowledgment.
Hidden Faction status: 0 → +1. Crew doesn't walk out. It's a cooler +1 than the Cult's — earned, not felt.
Cutter asks Wren directly: "The Vos job. What happens if we go?"
Cutter sits with this. Maron sold them to the Hegemony. Ohe received the sale and chose not to use it. The betrayal happened. It just misfired.
Syndicate status: +1 → −1 (crew's decision, not clock's).
Cutter sends Ashek a message: "Can't do Vos. Ship trouble. Offer the job to someone else." He sounds regretful. He's not.
The five lattice nodes:
The stakes: All five active simultaneously = Hantu gate opens. What's on the other side: unknown. The documents don't say. Wren says the original team sealed it because they were afraid, not because they were certain.
Open choices, all simultaneous: