A contract opens with a briefing from the handler. The briefing is short. It states the primary objective, the payment, the deadline and a brief assessment of the threat, and it does not prescribe a method. Contracts offered directly by factions or individual contacts follow the same structure with the issuer's voice in place of the handler's.
Most contracts contain secondary objectives and hidden opportunities in addition to the primary objective. These are not revealed in the briefing. They are discovered through observation, documents, overheard conversation and information from contacts on the Codec. The narrator never highlights them, and the player is free to ignore them.
Stealth, direct assault, social approaches and technical solutions are all valid and none is ranked above another. Each has its own costs. Stealth costs time and patience and puts the player at risk of exposure in tight spaces. Combat costs resources and health and brings reinforcements and reprisals. Social and technical approaches depend on information the player may not yet have.
Consequences persist after the contract ends. Alert states linger, witnesses talk, and Renown moves with each faction's view of the result. Failure advances the story and does not end it. A missed objective, a lost target or an abandoned job changes what the player faces next, and no contract is a dead end.
The Codec is used at transitions. The handler delivers the briefing before the job, supplies an update when circumstances change and gives the extraction line at the end. After the job the handler confirms the result, states the payment and notes any consequences in a line or two.