**Wake.** You step in and the nearest bodies turn. The sound carries. Two ward doors further down shudder, and you can tell which ones will open before they do.
-
**Gather.** Thirty or forty slow patients spill into the main lane and walk at you. A faster pack runs the side gallery. Your projector works without pause while you back up the lane, keeping the slow mass in front of you and the pillars between you and the pack. The pack and the two ward releases are three visibly marked pressure bands. Breaking them fills three notches around the rig display, so one temporary behaviour choice becomes ready while the hall is still dangerous.
+
**Gather.** Thirty or forty slow patients spill into the main lane and walk at you. A faster pack runs the side gallery. Your projector works without pause while you back up the lane, keeping the slow mass in front of you and the pillars between you and the pack. The pack and the two ward releases are three visibly marked pressure bands. Breaking the third banks one Tune choice and clears the ring for later marks while the hall is still dangerous.
**Crest.** The second ward door gives. There are seventy bodies in the hall now, and the fast pack has reached the pillar you were counting on. You have three choices: take the dense middle, where every spark in your arc chain finds another body; hug the wall, where fewer reach you; or run for the door and lose the hall. You take the middle. When the pack arrives you raise your barrier, and every blow against it charges the capacitor behind it.
@@ 63,23 63,27 @@
Each placed fight divides its standing group or finite release into one to three visible **pressure bands**. A band is a real, bounded set of bodies from the named source or approach—not a timer and not a stream invented by the growth system. Its source or approach warning shows one hollow **Break Mark**. When roughly half of that band's starting bodies have been defeated, the formation breaks and the mark fills automatically. Exact rosters and the half-band threshold are tuning proposals, but the rule is concrete: the player never has to collect a drop or find the last body.
-
Three Break Marks bank one ordinary temporary choice. A three-notch ring around the rig display fills without opening a screen. At three, the ring reads **tune ready**; automatic fire and movement continue. The player may open the journal during danger or wait for earned quiet. The journal's full pause then presents two behaviour-changing offers compatible with mounted parts. Taking one empties the ring and changes the rig for the rest of the expedition. An unspent choice can wait, but it and every filled notch expire on return aboard.
+
Three Break Marks bank one ordinary **Tune** choice. A three-notch ring around the rig display fills without opening a screen. On the third mark, the ring converts into `Tune ×1`, clears, and immediately begins recording marks four to six. Further Tunes queue rather than replacing one another; this proposal has no queue cap within an expedition. The player may open the journal during danger or wait for earned quiet; automatic fire and movement continue meanwhile. The journal's full pause presents two behaviour-changing offers compatible with mounted parts. Taking one spends only one Tune and never clears the partially filled ring or later queued Tunes. For example, a player who defers at three marks and then earns three more sees `Tune ×2` with an empty ring; spending once leaves `Tune ×1`. Every queued Tune, filled notch and chosen upgrade still expires on return aboard.
This makes growth regular without turning the station into cleanup work. Each marked band pays at most once in an expedition. Damage after its break, remaining stragglers, waiting beside a safe doorway, leaving and re-entering, and loading the same expedition add nothing. A further mark requires committing to another announced band. A new expedition renews the population and the marks because the entire temporary climb has reset; repeatedly farming the easiest room across returns cannot accumulate permanent advantage.
+
The selected tradeoff is explicit rather than solved: the half-band stop avoids a pickup vacuum and a hunt for the last body, but it can make the remaining horde feel unrewarded. Finishing or separating that crowd still buys quiet, safe work and freedom from pursuit; it does not secretly fill the meter. A plausible alternative is automatic fractional progress from every defeated body, with no pickups and a visible cap for each placed fight. In a later authorized observation, frequent departures immediately after a Break Mark—combined with continued engagement under the per-body alternative without corner sweeping—would favor that alternative. If per-body progress instead restores cleanup and safe trickle farming, the bounded bands have the stronger case.
+
### Major change before the horde is over
-
A **major horde milestone** is a named physical event inside a major placement, not another three-mark threshold and not the reward for clearing the room. In the representative Balance Gallery, it occurs after at least one unsealed feeding mouth has committed its first band and the player breaks Bellback's first brace. The gallery announces **transformation ready** while later bands and most of the crowd can still crest. The player can take one compatible larger transformation in the paused journal and use it immediately against that remaining horde. A player who defers keeps the offer only for the current expedition.
+
A **major horde milestone** is a named physical event inside a major placement, not another three-mark threshold and not the reward for clearing the room. The representative Balance Gallery remembers two once-per-expedition facts in either order: **horde engaged**, when a first band from any unsealed feeding mouth commits, and **Bellback answered**, when the first Bellback threat is countered or Bellback is defeated. A counter means its locked cone is escaped or put behind the fixed rib until the wave releases, a faced Barrier catches the wave, its unfinished brace is interrupted by displacement, or Bellback is defeated. Taking an unblocked hit does not set the answer, but a later valid counter or defeat can.
+
+
As soon as both facts are true, the gallery announces **transformation ready** once. The no-special-equipment baseline is concrete: let the cone lock, step behind the rib, and let the wave strike structure; that records the answer. If a powerful rig defeats Bellback before a mouth commits, defeat records the answer and the later band commitment completes the milestone. If the mouth commits first, the next valid counter completes it. The first Bellback warning and first mouth commitment are staged during the early gather, before a band can reach its Break Mark, so answering their first opportunities leaves later bands to fight. Bellback never becomes invulnerable, no replacement appears, and neither legitimate cover play nor efficient defeat loses the offer. The larger transformation remains separate from the Tune queue and can be taken in the paused journal while later bands and most of the crowd can still crest.
This timing gives the transformation a proving ground instead of handing it out after the spectacle. It also avoids requiring a particular earlier ordinary choice or any proposed special case from a sample build. Other major placements need their own equally visible midpoint event; merely crossing a threshold or retreating before the event earns nothing.
### Early sealing is the safety branch
-
Closing a source before one of its bands commits prevents that band and its Break Mark. The preview states the exchange plainly: **seal now—less crowd, one fewer possible mark this expedition**. The payoff is immediate quiet, protected condition, less oxygen exposure and a safer route, not consolation combat power. Sealing after a band commits does not erase a mark already earned, but it does not award one for an unbroken band. In the Balance Gallery, sealing one mouth early still leaves Bellback and the other mouth able to reach the representative major milestone, so caution reduces density without locking out the expedition's large transformation.
+
Closing a source before one of its bands commits prevents that band and its Break Mark. The preview counts that source's actual uncommitted bands: for example, **seal now—less crowd, two fewer possible marks this expedition**. If one or zero remain, it says one or zero. The payoff is immediate quiet, protected condition, less oxygen exposure and a safer route, not consolation combat power. Sealing after a band commits does not erase a mark already earned, but it does not award one for an unbroken band. In the Balance Gallery, sealing one mouth early still leaves Bellback and the other mouth able to reach the representative major milestone, so caution reduces density without locking out the expedition's large transformation.
Retreat preserves the temporary power already earned until the expedition ends. Leaving and re-entering a room does not by itself count as a new expedition. Reopening a seal or dying is not itself an ordinary fighting reward. Completed work keeps its owning persistence rule.
-
**Rhythm target.** One ordinary choice should usually become ready after two to four minutes of outward movement and forward fighting, depending on the route's band spacing; the player controls when to pause and take it. A named major placement should grant its larger transformation with enough committed crowd left to use it for roughly the final third of that fight. These are authored paper targets, not measured playtime or validated balance. **How it could fail:** a half-band break line feels arbitrary, three notches make different routes converge on the same tempo, players leave as soon as a mark fills and treat the remaining horde as waste, or every choice is postponed until quiet and loses the pleasure of changing under pressure.
+
**Rhythm target.** The half-band threshold, three-mark Tune and two-to-four-minute target are one reversible proposal. One ordinary choice should usually become ready after two to four minutes of outward movement and forward fighting, depending on the route's band spacing; the player controls when to pause and take it. A named major placement should grant its larger transformation with enough committed crowd left to use it for roughly the final third of that fight. These are authored paper targets, not measured playtime or validated balance. **How it could fail:** a half-band break line feels arbitrary, three notches make different routes converge on the same tempo, players leave as soon as a mark fills and treat the remaining horde as waste, or every choice is postponed until quiet and loses the pleasure of changing under pressure.
## Working under pressure
@@ 115,13 119,16 @@
| **1:10–1:50** | Meet the renewed Flanker band around the first pillar. Its break fills mark one; the mostly automatic rig keeps firing while the player chooses the line. |
| **1:50–2:55** | Enter the long lane and wake the two ward bands. Their breaks fill marks two and three. **Tune ready** appears before the second ward is empty; the player may take one behavioural choice in the paused journal or hold it. |
| **2:55–3:30** | Earn quiet by clearing or separating the bodies already through. Inspect the marked panel, its old cutter work and the crew-name lamp without a surprise refill. Moving onward, not a timer, ends the lull. |
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| **3:30–4:25** | Cross Sampling Loop under the Glass Siphon and three-beat Breath Bank. This is pressure and persistent cap work, not another invented source or free mark. |
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| **4:25–4:55** | In quiet, couple the canister while the world and oxygen continue, and inspect the source counter stamped after the hospital was supposedly empty. The journal may be opened for notes with everything paused. |
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| **4:55–6:40** | Reach Balance Gallery. Both unsealed mouths pour at once; after at least one has committed its first band, breaking Bellback's first brace announces the major transformation around **5:50–6:05**. The player chooses it in the journal and has the later bands and remaining crowd in which to enjoy it. Sealing one mouth early trades its possible ordinary marks and density for safety without removing the major event. |
+
| **3:30–4:25** | Cross Sampling Loop by breaking the Siphon's line before attachment and using the Breath Bank's dry outer arc or opposite lane. This is pressure and persistent cap work, not another invented source or free mark. The budget below assumes neither extra drain applies. |
+
| **4:25–4:55** | In quiet, begin coupling the canister at about **3.2 O suit / 8 O vessel** while the world and oxygen continue. Inspect the source counter stamped after the hospital was supposedly empty. Coupling continues after this row. |
+
| **4:55–5:45** | Walk to Balance Gallery, then spend its first 25 seconds moving under mostly automatic fire while the canister remains coupled. This proposal treats walking and ordinary automatic fire as compatible with coupling; the player uses no manual special or occupied station control during the overlap. At 5:45 the full transfer ends at about **8.5 O suit / 0 O vessel**. |
+
| **5:45–6:40** | Both unsealed mouths pour at once. Once one band commits and the Bellback threat has been answered in either order, the major transformation becomes ready around **5:50–6:05**. The player chooses it in the journal and has later bands and the remaining crowd in which to enjoy it. An early seal previews the actual number of possible marks it prevents. |
| **6:40–7:10** | Earn the gallery's quiet and compare its far-wall mark with the Sampling Loop counter. The discovery follows the spectacle instead of competing with it. |
| **7:10–8:20** | Walk home through the open Jammed Pressure service passage, the quiet sealed junction and Dock Mouth. The shortcut turns the permanent change into return margin rather than free outbound power. |
-
At the current proposal of 1 O per 30 seconds, 12 O in the suit plus one 8 O canister is ten minutes of base breathing. An 8:20 paper route leaves about 1:40 before damage, hesitation or an interrupted transfer; it is plausible enough to discuss, not certified safe. R12's stocked travel air sits on the rescue branch and remains rescue preparation, not assumed personal supply. The Breath Bank moves danger, not oxygen. No local refill is counted, and the default reserve marker remains only a warning. [Survival And Loadout](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Survival%20And%20Loadout) owns these provisional quantities and transfer rules.
+
At the current proposal of 1 O per 30 seconds, 12 O in the suit plus one 8 O canister is ten minutes of base breathing. By 4:25, base breathing has used about 8.8 O, leaving 3.2 O in the suit. The full 80 seconds of coupling moves 8 O while another 2.7 O is breathed, so 5:45 shows 8.5 O in the suit and an empty vessel. The remaining 2:35 consumes about 5.2 O; total base breathing by return is about 16.7 O. Arrival at 8:20 therefore shows about **3.3 O in the suit**, or 1:40 of base breathing. The full transfer, not its first 30 seconds, is included in the existing timeline.
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That margin assumes the player avoids both Siphon tether drain and the Breath Banks' extra-drain lanes as described above, and that coupling is not interrupted. The exact display must reduce the estimate immediately if either assumption fails. This is plausible paper arithmetic, not a certified safe route. R12's stocked travel air sits on the rescue branch and remains rescue preparation, not assumed personal supply. No local refill is counted, and the default reserve marker remains only a warning. [Survival And Loadout](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Survival%20And%20Loadout) owns these provisional quantities and transfer rules.
## The creatures
@@ 135,7 142,7 @@
The stage pours from both mouths at once. The Bellback's wave shoves a dozen bodies onto one plate, the ribs swing, and the floor tips under you. A cautious player seals one mouth early, shelters at the rib and crosses on the Bank's quiet beat. A player with a crowd build steps into the neutral lane, lets the stage come to them — and releases.
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Once at least one unsealed mouth has committed its first band, breaking Bellback's initial brace makes the transformation cue arrive. It is not victory music: later bands and most of the gallery still remain. Taking the offer changes how the current rig meets that remaining density; refusing or deferring it leaves the baseline route intact.
+
The gallery remembers the first committed mouth band and the first valid Bellback answer in either order. On the baseline path the astronaut waits for the cone to lock, steps behind the fixed rib and lets the wave release harmlessly into structure. That counts even though the brace was not interrupted. Defeating Bellback first also counts; a later mouth commitment completes the same once-per-expedition milestone without a replacement enemy. It is not victory music: later bands and most of the gallery still remain. Taking the offer changes how the current rig meets that density; refusing or deferring it leaves the baseline route intact.
In the quiet after, the chamber is still live. Freeing one rib takes two cutter releases, each a job that stays done once finished, and seating the pin then fixes that rib for good while the other still swings. On the far wall a mark matching the sample counter turns an old record into a lead.
