Swamped

Maybe you should follow...

"Wait! I have so many questions!"

Marshall rushes past you, before you're ready. Oh hells, now you've definitely got to...

"Hey! You can't run, you damn fool! You'll just get caught!"

And there goes Rivers in just as much of a hurry. Well, no sense lingering. You rush off after them, hopefully while you can still pick up Rider's trail.

That actually turns out to be fairly easy. There's a trail of dirt going down the hallway... wait, hang on a minute, that's not just dirt.

"Put your masks on, you fools!" you shout. "That sand will give you the fever!"

Wait, damn. Marshall doesn't have a mask. As if you didn't have enough problems.

Urgh. You'll just have to track everyone down first and sort it out later. You rush through the halls, following Rider's trail. You can see Marshall and Rivers just ahead of you, but Rider himself is long out of sight.

How does he move that fast?

You don't have time to think about it. Sooner or later you're going to draw someone else's attention.

"What's the rush, Corvus?"

Someone like Crosswinds. Of course.

"The world's gone mad! Rider's back, but now he's disappearing again! Marshall's chasing him! Rivers is chasing Marshall!"

"So, hang on. Who exactly are you chasing here?"

"All of them! I don't even know why! At this point, I'm just trying to keep up!"

"Well from where I'm standing, it looks like you're already lost. You make a fool of yourself chasing shadows, and then I'm stuck filling that Council seat."

"There's no vacancy if we get Rider to stick around!"

"You know every bit as well as I do how stubborn he is. Whatever mess he's gotten involved in, he's going to insist on seeing it through himself. Can't you just focus on the big picture and let this mess sort itself out one way or another?"

You give it just a moment's thought.

"My commander's running off to God-knows-where, and my squadmate's chasing down an escaped prisoner. I'm already in deep, and I'd never forgive myself if I bailed out now."

Crosswinds chuckles.

"Now that's the kind of thinking we need on the Council," they say. "All right, I'll help you out with this mess. What do you want me to do?"