2026-09-15 14:19:51
Anonymous:
Publish the reviewed short-rescue comparison with explicit costs and pending owner choice
hold the flood/rescue under pressure.md ..
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# Hold The Horde — Rescue Under Pressure
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*A reversible scene proposal using Yeva as an illustrative survivor, not selecting her as the first rescue. It uses the current R-3 rooms and E04 population. The crossing, timing and emotional effect are design hypotheses, not tested play or story canon.*
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*A proposed short rescue using Yeva as an illustrative survivor; the first survivor remains undecided. It uses the current R-3 rooms and E04 population. The crossing, timing and emotional effect are design hypotheses, not tested play or story canon.*
## At the ward glass
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This scene uses one explicit local protection rule while the astronaut lives. E04 creatures continue to target the astronaut; Yeva draws no attack, blocks no creature and cannot be used as cover. A Presser entering her marked floor makes her stop; direct contact from it or a Flanker makes her raise one arm, turn and take the still-open route behind her. The contact neither damages nor kills her in this proposal. The player sees the R12 door lamp turn amber and her physical reversal while the creature continues toward the astronaut, then can fire, displace it, move to pull its approach away or close the grille.
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Under **protected retreat**, Yeva closes herself into stocked R12 and waits there, alive and unsent; a living retry begins only after the player visibly clears or separates the same floor again. Under **autonomous finish**, R12 is not a stocked waiting refuge, so the same living block makes her continue through R12 to R13 and close her own ward door; another attempt begins from that observed origin after the route is made clear. Used travel air stays used in either case. This forced retreat avoids a survivor health system but is a safety exception: no creature can injure her in this crossing, and keeping her behind R12 until the route is physically clear sacrifices most simultaneous survivor-and-horde danger. The excitement sits in earning her departure and holding the last short lane, not in watching enemies damage her.
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Under **protected retreat**, Yeva closes herself into stocked R12 and waits there, alive and unsent; a living retry requires fresh travel air, restocking the same waiting refuge as needed, and visibly clearing or separating the same floor again. Under **autonomous finish**, R12 is not a stocked waiting refuge, so the same living block makes her continue through R12 to R13 and close her own ward door; another attempt begins from that observed origin after the route is made clear. Used travel air stays used in either case. This forced retreat avoids a survivor health system but is a safety exception: no creature can injure her in this crossing, and keeping her behind R12 until the route is physically clear sacrifices most simultaneous survivor-and-horde danger. The excitement sits in earning her departure and holding the last short lane, not in watching enemies damage her.
Existing combat answers remain enough. Sensor→Projector fires at visible targets; Manual→Barrier faces a locked Flanker line; the bollard and worn cutter support the baseline. A later Nozzle can peel the Presser lane aside. Temporary power already earned gets a vivid use because clearance becomes a human step toward the ship. Each E04 band can pay its ordinary Break Mark at most once under [Combat Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules); the rescue grants no extra growth or major transformation.
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The target from R13 opening to the ship airlock closing is roughly **45–90 seconds**, explicitly untested, and prior sealing, clearing or a strong build may shorten it. The player always sees whether Yeva is waiting in R12, retreating to R12 or R13, crossing R11 or aboard; she never teleports or walks an unseen route.
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The target from R13 opening to the ship airlock closing is roughly **45–90 seconds**, explicitly untested, and prior sealing, clearing or a strong build may shorten it. During a witnessed living crossing, Yeva’s movement and the local door cue show her next action. Losing sight of her grants no tracking, and the death outcomes below do not reveal an unseen refuge. She moves along the physically walked route.
## When the airlock closes
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| **Protected retreat — current proposal** | From the astronaut's lethal seal until Yeva closes R12, every existing E04 creature and active hazard is frozen and physically nonblocking; no other world action advances. Yeva uses only the armed line and reserved return margin to walk back into counted R12. The shift happens after its door closes, moving her with that room's group, alive and unsent. | The astronaut knows only that Yeva was last seen in R11 and that the retreat was armed. R12's closure tell is local; no result is transmitted aboard. Her present state stays unconfirmed. | The wall capture, completed grille work and object locations persist. Travel air used on retreat and staged reserve already committed remain spent. The astronaut loses position and temporary power; the old route becomes historical. | Find stable R12 again, observe Yeva and the local tell, then bring fresh travel air, restock that vestibule and personally walk a new eligible short route. If no such route exists, rescue waits. |
| **Autonomous finish — simpler alternative** | This explicit alternative drops the abort-room stock, full-attempt return mark, retreat line and local closure tell. From the same lethal seal until the ship airlock closes, every existing E04 creature and active hazard is frozen and physically nonblocking; no work or other movement advances. Yeva physically walks the already verified R11→R01 leg, operates the airlock and becomes Sent. Only then does the station shift. She is aboard on revival. | The player learns the outcome by directly seeing Yeva aboard and hearing her account, not by remote station knowledge. | The same world work and record persist; consumed gas stays spent, and the astronaut still loses position and temporary power. Rescue progress is not delayed. | No rescue retry is needed. The next expedition begins from the ship with renewed combat and the post-death arrangement. |
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I recommend **protected retreat** unless the owner wants death to finish a rescue. It preserves costly failure and a discoverable retry without selecting survivor mortality. Its accepted price is extra stocked air, a marked return margin, survivor-operable controls, a local tell and an artificial hostile-free window. The scene must present readiness through Yeva's actions and physical objects, not a mission-panel checklist.
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The provisional recommendation is **autonomous finish**. The player has supplied Yeva and earned the short route; letting her complete that commitment preserves progress and avoids repeating preparation after a failure. Its price is real: dying can finish the rescue, and her forward walk needs explicit protection before the station shifts.
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The strongest case for **protected retreat** is that the rescue can still fail without selecting survivor mortality, and finding Yeva again gives the changed station a personal purpose. Its cost is extra stocked air, a marked return margin, survivor-operable retreat controls, a local tell and another attempt. These are different priorities; neither outcome is established as more fun by this written comparison.
Autonomous finish is cleaner, but its protection is broader, not absent: Yeva receives a hostile-free run all the way to the ship, death can become the fastest completion, and the shift waits for her airlock closure. Protected retreat freezes a shorter reverse path and preserves failure; autonomous finish freezes the longer forward path and converts failure to Sent. Both are explicit local exceptions, not current rules.
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The scene could still fail. The wall capture may feel like an obvious “good” choice rather than a real risk. Splitting E04 may look authored for a reward beat instead of physical pressure. Keeping Yeva behind R12 until the floor is truly clear may make the final crossing emotionally brief, while the local no-injury retreat and the protected-death preparation may feel visibly contrived. A strong build or prior seal can shorten the scene further; that remains an earned advantage. Later authorized layout and play observation would need to test those possibilities; this design pass establishes only a readable proposal.
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**Owner question:** when the astronaut dies at the bollard after Yeva enters R11, should she use the prepared hostile-free retreat to R12 and require a shifted-route retry, or physically finish the already walked route and be aboard on revival? I recommend the retreat despite its checklist cost, because death should not become a rescue shortcut and global survivor loss remains undecided.
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**Owner question:** when the astronaut dies at the bollard after Yeva enters R11, should she use the prepared hostile-free retreat to R12 and require a shifted-route retry, or physically finish the already walked route and be aboard on revival? The recommendation is to let her finish, accepting that death can complete this already-started rescue. Both approaches and global survivor loss remain unselected.
