The formal meeting request is waiting on the ship. Not encrypted this time — open, official, clean. Ohe's name and Legion rank on the header.
The crew reads it aloud. Nobody speaks for a moment.
Juno: "She's been sitting on this since before the Wedding Job."
Sable: "She knew about Maron's offer and didn't use it."
Cutter: "That's not patience. That's leverage she's choosing not to apply. Which means she wants us more than she wants to win."
They don't respond today. They go to see Sera first.
Mira Station is a labor transit hub in Rin. Sera Vael is at the hospitality desk reading. She closes her book before they finish crossing the room.
She's exactly as warm as advertised. She doesn't perform it. She doesn't push. When Rack looks like he might leave, she turns to him specifically and says:
She speaks for forty minutes. She knows about the lattice — from the Cult's own study, not the survey documents. She calls the signal "the Way-consciousness of the sector itself." She believes it is trying to wake up and that the Ur didn't seal it out of fear but out of caution, and that three hundred years is long enough.
She does not mention the Hantu gate. She doesn't know about it.
Juno asks about the Remembrancer. Sera's warmth shifts slightly — not coldness, just honesty: "He's the one who told me the ritual was possible. He understands the lattice better than anyone still living. But he doesn't discuss consequences with me. He says I don't need to know the technical details."
That lands. Sable writes it down.
Cult status: 0 → +1. The crew leaves with open questions, not commitments.
This isn't quite a job — it's a negotiation with guns nearby. But the engagement structure applies.
Plan: Consort. Detail: Wren provides a safe approach vector to Obelisk Station, keeping the crew off Legion approach protocols.
Engagement roll: 2d → 4/5. Risky. Ohe knows they're coming but has not cleared them with station security. They land on a private berth with a Legion soldier posted outside.
Obelisk Station, Nightfall. A private room with excellent lighting and no chairs except the ones Ohe offers. Commander Tyris Ohe is exactly what the data card implied: precise, controlled, genuinely intelligent, not bluffing.
Dross is in the room. He doesn't speak first. He's cataloguing the crew's equipment with his eyes. Sable notices he pauses on the node fragment on her kit.
Ohe lays it out:
Pause.
Ohe: "We don't know. The Ur sealed it, which tells us something. I'd rather not find out."
Dross interjects, quietly: "The survey team's records suggest something on the other side responds to Way energy. That's all we have. It's enough."
Juno invokes Dr. Strange: "What aren't you telling us?"
Ohe looks at her for two seconds. "Governor Varn has an artifact in his private collection that matches the Mirror's signature. He doesn't know what it is. I don't have the political authorisation to take it from him. If it activates while in his custody, half the problem becomes his fault and there's nothing I can do about that."
This is the first time she's said something she wasn't planning to say.
Hegemony status: 0 → +1.
The crew doesn't commit. Ohe expected this. She gives them a secure comms channel and tells them the window stays open until the Mirror wakes fully.
Leaving Nightfall. Approach to the Vagrant Star: a Wolves operative is photographing the ship from the next berth. He's not hiding. He makes eye contact with Rack and doesn't move.
Rack: "How long have you known where we are?"
Operative: "Long enough. The contract is for the container. Not the crew. Maron wants what's in the hold." Beat. "We'd rather not do this hard."
Rack: "You're going to."
The operative nods once. Acknowledging the answer, not threatening. He walks away.
Scarlet Wolves: ████████ (8/8). Contract complete. Active threat. They know the ship, they know the cargo, and they've made first contact. An actual attempt will come within 1–2 sessions.
Payoff: 0 (no job). Upkeep due: -2 cred. Net: 2 cred.
Heat — Rin (8/8): Entanglement: Wanted Level +1. Rin: Wanted 1.
Sable — studies what Sera showed her (a resonance pattern the Cult has been documenting for twenty years). Attune: 6. Two segments: Map the Lattice — 5/6. She's one study session from the full picture. The Gate Key's location is becoming legible.
Juno — long-term project: container. Rig: 6 + push. Three segments: "Open the Container Safely" — 8/8. COMPLETE. She can open it without breaking the stasis field.
Rack — addresses the transponder. Rig: 5. He can't fix it outright, but he layers a secondary signal on top. It won't fool a scan but it'll confuse the Wolves' visual ID for one more session.
Cutter — puts feelers out for the Wolves' contract origin. Consort: 4/5. Confirms: Maron filed it directly. Not Hegemony. Not Syndicate officially. Private. Maron is off-book and burning.