2026-09-15 13:59:50
Anonymous:
Integrate the moving scan, growth, bridge reuse and explicit placement costs
hold the flood/hordes and builds.md ..
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# Hordes and Builds
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You enter a hospital transfer concourse because a window above it shows a constellation that was not there before your last death. A rail-mounted lamp can scan it, but its carriage is at the wrong end. Its station power supply is visibly live. You release the mechanical brake and the carriage starts moving at walking pace.
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You enter the Cable Junction because a window above it shows points of light that move when a parked lamp twitches. A folded bridge beside the window points into darkness. A rail-mounted lamp can scan it, but its carriage is at the wrong end. Its station power supply is visibly live. You release the mechanical brake and the carriage starts moving at walking pace.
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The machinery wakes the concourse. Patients spill from two wards across the central lane. Faster creatures descend the marked maintenance stairs. More silhouettes press behind the glass. Your gun fires automatically while you choose where to stand, which crowd to let close and when to use your special.
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The machinery wakes two approaches. Bodies descend the Pump Hall’s gantry behind you and press through the Cable Junction’s duct grille across the rail. Aperture lamps and moving hatches warn where they will arrive. Your gun fires automatically while you choose where to stand, which crowd to let close and when to use your special.
You can run ahead of the lamp, fall behind or circle it. Bodies slow the carriage until you clear its rail. The objective keeps moving through the fight.
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At the first junction you stay near the packed centre so each arc can jump to the next body, then cut aside when the fast pack reaches you. Regular fighting earns a temporary choice. In the fully paused journal you choose **Echoing Arc**: the electrical attack gains additional branches. Closing the journal returns you to the same danger, with a machine better suited to this crowd.
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The next junction wakes another marked ward. A major horde milestone later earns **Thunderhead**, a manual burst that spends the full charge store. This scene needs its ordinary-growth opportunities and that milestone placed before the final scan; the detailed encounter mapping remains open.
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At the middle sampling position, another cable-duct band enters. Keeping the moving track clear and answering a Veilbearer’s warned attack earns **Thunderhead**, a manual burst that spends the full charge store. The first three fighting bands offered the ordinary improvement before this breakthrough. You can still operate the carriage and reach the window without either upgrade.
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The final doors open. Around a hundred enemies fill the concourse, with more arriving from warned entrances. You risk the dense middle, finish charging and press Thunderhead. Three electrical chain heads spread through the packed ranks while a pressure lance cuts a slot along the lane. A substantial part of the crowd falls; fast creatures and the survivors of the burst still force you to move. Ordinary firing and charging resume as the equipment becomes ready again.
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At the far sample, a visible alarm lead wakes the still-available loft source in the adjacent Transfer Gallery. Its crowd converges with the surviving cable bands. Around a hundred bodies is the intended crest when the arrivals overlap; fast clearing can make it thinner. You risk the dense middle, finish charging and press Thunderhead. Three electrical chain heads spread through the packed ranks while a pressure lance cuts a slot along the lane. A substantial part of the crowd falls; fast creatures and the survivors of the burst still force you to move. Ordinary firing and charging resume as the equipment becomes ready again.
The carriage surges through. The pleasure is seeing your plan become powerful enough to break the formation that was stopping you.
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It can go badly. Flankers pull your arcs away from the main crowd, bodies stall the carriage, and a heavy creature narrows the exit. You can spend the burst on the smaller group threatening you now, hold position long enough to charge while the crowd closes, or abandon the scan and escape along the walking route. You can also stop the carriage and leave at either earlier junction. A strong build is an opportunity to attempt more, not a required key to the exit.
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It can go badly. Flankers pull your arcs away from the main crowd, bodies stall the carriage, and the Veilbearer’s sheet cuts across your electrical paths. You can spend the burst on the smaller group threatening you now, hold position long enough to charge while the crowd closes, or abandon the scan and escape along the walking route. You can also stop the carriage at an earlier notch and leave along the Pump Hall route. A strong build is an opportunity to attempt more, not a required key to the exit.
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At the far window, the final source gates close. You clear the bodies still beside the carriage or separate them behind a pedestrian bulkhead before examining the result. The apparent constellation resolves into a live representation of rooms currently far apart. Its final trace corresponds to an overhead bridge unfolding toward the matching point: a route you can walk now. An earlier recorded mark suggests another scan track may reveal a second bridge elsewhere.
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At the far window, the finite source releases settle. You clear the bodies still beside the carriage or separate them behind a pedestrian bulkhead before examining the result. The three lamp positions reveal how the apparent stars shift: they are reflections from exposed receiver fittings across the void. One converges on a collar you can now see on the Regulator Gallery’s landing. You try the bridge release, watch the span catch that collar, and walk across. The observation has become a route. Another point remains unexplained.
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You capture what the instrument shows while the world runs, then open the paused journal to compare it with the earlier mark. With less oxygen left, you can step onto the new span or bring the connection home and plan another trip. Combat delivered access; the discovery suggests a specific next action.
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You capture what the instrument shows while the world runs, then open the paused journal to compare the three positions and any older dated captures. With less oxygen left, you can step onto the new span or bring the connection home and plan another trip. After a living return, the bridge stays open: you can use the shortcut next time without repeating the scan. A death shift makes the old alignment historical; a visible return chain lets you rewind and measure the changed arrangement. [The Moving Scan Expedition](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Moving%20Scan%20Expedition) specifies the placement and its added rail, bridge and room geometry. Combat delivered access; the discovery changes the next trip.
## Pressure, power and quiet
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The practical limits create choices between coverage, defence, oxygen and discoveries. Effects have finite reach and cannot refill the energy that created them. The preview shows incompatible or overloaded connections; cooling and readiness still matter in combat. Exact connections, costs and effect limits belong to [Build Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Rules), the [Equipment Catalogue](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment%20Catalogue) and [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities).
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Regular fighting supplies temporary growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones. Current proposals for earning and choosing those changes are in [Fighting the Horde](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules); this moving scan still needs its own placement. Every temporary upgrade and unchosen offer ends when you return aboard, alive or revived. Your physically carried equipment and loot remain, and a new part can suggest another combination for the next trip. [Finding Equipment and Growing the Rig](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment%20Acquisition%20And%20Rig%20Growth) describes that retained progression.
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Regular fighting supplies temporary growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones. Current proposals for earning and choosing those changes are in [Fighting the Horde](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules), including the moving scan’s growth before its crest. Every temporary upgrade and unchosen offer ends when you return aboard, alive or revived. Your physically carried equipment and loot remain, and a new part can suggest another combination for the next trip. [Finding Equipment and Growing the Rig](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment%20Acquisition%20And%20Rig%20Growth) describes that retained progression.
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The next expedition should offer two reasons to leave: try a new machine against the crowd, and follow the question uncovered beyond the last one. The moving scan's placement, the wider find-versus-fabricate model, and the practical pacing remain open. These examples describe intended play; their fun and balance are untested.
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The next expedition should offer two reasons to leave: try a new machine against the crowd, and follow the question uncovered beyond the last one. The wider find-versus-fabricate model and practical pacing remain open. The scan adds a substantial mechanism and room geometry; that scope cost remains provisional. These examples describe intended play; their fun and balance are untested.
Continue to [Build Comparison](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Comparison) for the proposed alternative control fantasies, or return to [The Game](/Hold%20The%20Flood/The%20Game). The main discovery journey continues through [three expeditions into the observation ward](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Expedition%20Proposal).
