Hold The Horde — Encounter And Mechanism Placement Inventory

Status. First-pass design-only inventory for exactly 10 encounter placements, including two major setpieces, and 13 major placed mechanisms in the accepted 24-module/40-room proposal. It is not an owner-selected scope, balance specification, executable layout, spawn system, tuning pass or evidence of fun, clarity, performance or duration. Crowd sizes and source areas below are scale hypotheses, not quotas or tested performance. The six ordinary roles, three special roles, five reusable trap families, equipment behavior, current room identities and all owner choices remain owned by their linked articles.

Source and count boundary

Encounter IDs E01–E10 are the ten accepted placements; E08 and E10 are the two setpieces inside that ten. Mechanism IDs P01–P13 are major placed instances. P01/P03 are Triage Relays, P02/P04 Sterilization Carousels, P05/P07 Breath Banks, P08 Phase-Balance, and P06/P09 Resuscitation Grids: five reusable families, nine placements. P10 iris/two-clamp assembly, P11 clinical profile comparator, P12 Synchronization converter/roster and P13 core isolation are four unique objective mechanisms. Thirteen is the former SMALL 12-slot sample plus the accepted explicit isolation increment.

The number 13 is not “all interactive objects.” R02/R03's selected-opening board/rack conduit, R26's reversible A↔B Decontamination circuit, R33's fixed A→R exchanger, ordinary doors, evidence drawers and every room's join/release face remain real authored interfaces. They are cross-linked below but are not silently declared members of a reusable trap family or duplicated as P14+. A room, encounter, clue, rescue, part source and mechanism sharing one place retain separate identities but are counted once in their owning ledger.

Shared encounter contract

Warnings remain visible independently when they overlap. Every placement except E03's deliberately quiet first latch lesson is a crowd encounter fed by named source areas — wards, lift wells, ducts or sealed volumes that physically hold bodies. Sources release their crowds through feeding apertures — grilles, hatches, ward doors, ducts, gantry mouths — shown before anything arrives. Feeding apertures are distinct from the walking passages a room needs for the ship, rescue, records, clamps or exploration, and sealing an aperture never closes a walking passage. A placement's first readable cue may be one creature, but the route to and through it carries a crowd, following Combat Rules. Nothing enters except through a shown aperture or route, nothing appears behind the player, and no source reacts to build strength, kill speed or reward. Defeated creatures stay defeated for the expedition. A different finite population variant is selected only at a death shift, never on a living return and never on a load. A living return preserves this arrangement's population state entirely — resolved stages stay spent, occupied sources stay occupied, and nothing is replaced, escalated or reduced because the result was clean. E03's later variant remains restricted to a later death shift exactly as stated in its own row.

Stages and temporary upgrades (proposal). A stage is a finite, announced pressure release from an identified physical source. Its peak — feeding apertures fully open, overlapping movement patterns, warning lights and music shifting — is what the player reads as the crest. While a stage is still feeding, killing faster than it arrives suppresses a lane but does not stop it. A stage resolves when the player clears all of its committed arrivals, or completes a physical seal that ends its access. Either earns the same single temporary upgrade choice in Build Rules, and clearing or sealing early, before the peak, qualifies immediately. Escaping resolves nothing: leaving the pressure boundary saves the astronaut, who keeps carried property and knowledge, but earns no consolation choice, and re-entering resumes the same unresolved stage. Each stage pays once for the current arrangement: it stays spent across a living return, cannot be farmed by leaving and re-entering, and reopening the same seal does not create a new stage. Whether a seal stays closed follows its owning mechanism. Further machinery releases count as separate stages only where they are authored, announced and sourced; a deliberately woken larger stage may offer a transformation. Cleared travel earns nothing, earned-but-unchosen offers expire aboard with temporary power, and death itself pays nothing. Rescue eligibility is a separate question, stated below. Upgrade effects belong to Build Rules.

Cadence and route support. As an illustration, a sustained outing might offer three to five meaningful choices — a foundation, a branch, later refinements, and possibly a transformation from a larger optional stage — while a short trip can earn one. The ten placements alone supply only one or two stages each, so that rhythm depends on ordinary travel stages along the routes between them, which are not yet authored or verified. The PM's route check of representative Arrangement A found R25's major setpiece reachable directly from cleared R11 after a reset, with no ordinary stage between. Every major placement therefore keeps a baseline approach that needs no temporary upgrade, and route support for the climb is next-assignment room-layout work, not claimed here. If stages come too often the rhythm becomes a chore; too rarely and the build barely grows between climaxes.

Ordinary weapons fire automatically at the nearest visible valid target. A rig may carry more than one ordinary output; Build Rules and Mechanical Interfaces And Opening Quantities own their limits, triggers and feedback accounting, and examples below name the rig they assume. Manual Trigger starts one manual wave after facing/target/material preview. Fork copies trigger/type/wave and conserves usable payload; fixed machinery supplies its own power. Stride triggers only from the astronaut's deliberate grounded traversal. No example assumes an unseen target, universal Arc permission or stat tier.

World-time work shows its present stage and completed checkpoints. Explicit cancel, displacement beyond reach or a creature occupying the control loses the unfinished stage; damage alone does not. Leaving reach of a work face interrupts that unfinished work; stepping into a cool bay or moving elsewhere inside the host does so only if it also leaves reach. None of those movements alone is a withdrawal reset. Journal pause freezes enemies, oxygen, warnings, projectiles, readiness, mechanisms and work and completes nothing. Changing rig links inside the pause is the proposal in Build Rules; picking up or first fitting a part and mechanism work stay in running time. Journal, quit and load do not move the astronaut across a boundary. Living retreat is physical. On death, still-carried parts/loot/canisters return once; spent gas/material remains spent; installed, dropped or handed-over objects remain at their stable identities; completed work persists; one shift makes old routes historical.

Withdrawal boundaries and reset. A living withdrawal event happens only when the astronaut physically crosses the named host exit: P01 R02→R01; P02 R05→R06; P03 R08→R09; P04 R15→R14; P05 R20→R17; P06 R23→R24; P07/P08 across R25's current external approach threshold; P09 across R28's current external approach threshold; P10 out of the compact R36–R38 mechanism through R36→R35; P11 across R19's outer threshold to its current approach; P12 across R34's outer threshold; and P13 R40→R36. These are the representative arrangements’ named exits; the reset boundary belongs to a visible physical face of the host, not to an optional neighbouring room’s identity. If R05 is reached through another current approach, crossing that same marked host face resets P02 without requiring R06; R06 remains necessary only for its separately offered rescue variant. The same distinction keeps self-contained R28 working without R29/R30. In a multi-room encounter, crossing the specified mechanism-host boundary can reset that mechanism while combat continues elsewhere in the same current encounter. A host with no currently usable approach cannot be visited; merely lacking the named example neighbour does not disable its machine. Which actual face each permitted layout uses must be authored, never replaced by an invisible distance check. Withdrawal clears only Triage occupancy/undogged shutter position, Carousel warning/sweep/cool phase, Breath Bank cycle, Grid charge/recharge, and unpinned Balance tilt; death applies those same temporary-family resets without requiring an exit crossing. P10–P13 have no free temporary-phase reset: crossing their boundary merely interrupts the current unfinished selector, clamp, exposure, detent or dog stage as their rows state. Completed dogs, clamps, caps, pins, joins, captures, part locations and committed object/mode states persist; defeated current-expedition enemies do not regenerate.

Immediate re-entry begins from the shown neutral warning for a reset family, not from a silent safe interval. Loose mass remains at its physical recorded location: if it still meets a relay, plate or rail condition, it may occupy or retrigger that mechanism only through the ordinary preview/warning on re-entry. The opportunity is a readable reset and a fresh approach; the costs are the exit crossing, oxygen/time, renewed warning and any living enemies still present. It never duplicates or deletes mass, refunds consumed material, restores spent gas or reopens a completed checkpoint.

Ten encounter-placement briefs

E01 — Freight Split isolation hold

Host and warning. R02 Cargo Turn and compact partner R03 Collar Control, objective 1; P01 Triage Relay and the selected-opening board/rack interface. From R01, the player sees two separated Pressers, the board's two output lamps, the shutter lane and rack through the fixed glazed throat. One Caller waits beside the matching alarm source beyond the shown patient-bay entrance. The final bridge fastener is labelled noisy; the Caller's throat shutters and P01's destination preview identify the answering lane before either commits.

Crowd, sources and space. The cargo aisle already holds a slow crowd of Pressers in both lanes — a scale hypothesis of 20–40 for the L-shaped aisle — whose first arrivals teach backswing and the nearest-visible target; that standing crowd is not a stage and earns nothing by itself. The patient-bay ward is the source volume behind the shutter lane's feeding aperture. The noisy final fastener or a completed Caller call releases its stage, perhaps 40–60 bodies through the shutter lane. Resolution: clear the stage's committed arrivals, or seal it by completing P01's manual dog hand-cycle with the shutter across the patient-bay lane — an existing persistent commit. A board- or Fork-held shutter closes that lane only while it is held: it suppresses the stage but is not a seal, and an undogged shutter still returns neutral on withdrawal or death. R02's waist-high rack breaks one lane, the board occupies the exposed inside corner, R03's bridge work is visible across the fixed throat, and R01 is the retreat. R02/R03 never shift apart. Rework: M02's aisle and the patient-bay aperture were authored for a handful of bodies and need widening for this crowd — layout work, not free capacity.

Objective and commitment. Remove staged fasteners and carry the isolation bridge home; killing is optional. Each fastener commits separately. The last committed fastener starts the loud hold and may let a braced Caller complete its one call. Fork installation/retrieval and bridge pickup are separate commits.

Three approaches. (1) Install Fork in the board: the board source sends compatible control triggers to rack hold and shutter hold while Fork is seated; Fork supplies no power. While Fork holds it, the closed lane holds back the patient-bay stage, but installation/retrieval costs exposed time and the part remains installed if death comes first. (2) Keep Fork carried: the selector powers the rack continuously, the shutter lane stays open, and the four-A opening Sensor→Projector plus Manual→Barrier rig manages the visible lanes. Carrying Fork competes with the bridge and canister. (3) Baseline physical path: use the selector, fixed rack cover, worn cutter and repeated retreats after committed fasteners; cut P01's alarm lead before the final stage if reachable. Refusing the final hold costs another trip, not progress.

Persistence and return. Fasteners, bridge location, cut alarm/dog checkpoint, board state and Fork location persist. Caller eligibility, P01 occupancy, shutter timing and population are current. A released bridge carried at death returns once; one still in the rack does not. The observed R-3 window clue in R01 remains a supported record, never a route.

E02 — Pace under fire

Host and warning. R05 Pace Calibration Bay, objective 2, P02 single-detent Carousel; R06 is only a current approach/abort room and R07's coupler housing is optional current adjacency. One Boltspitter stands across the single pillar. Its sac fill/aim line and the Carousel's painted sweep/cool detent are visible before the astronaut enters the gait interval. Pressers trickle from the belt-return duct beyond the far floor mark, in sight, not behind a success trigger.

Crowd, sources and trigger. One Boltspitter holds the single pillar's line while a thin, continuous stream of Pressers enters from a service-belt return duct at the bay's far end — a river of perhaps 15–30 rather than a hall crowd, because the bay is long and narrow. Starting either gait capture is loud enough to wake the duct fully. Stage: the duct's release, which thickens while both gait captures run. Resolution: clear its committed arrivals, or seal it by dropping the duct grille. The marked grounded interval and entire service belt—including return and stop—are inside R05. Hard cover sits off the measurement line, so the player must alternate observation, movement and work. Rework: M05 needs the duct mouth and grille added.

Objective and approaches. Perform the same-astronaut grounded crossing and feet-still carrier pass, then choose whether to remove Stride. If R07 is visibly adjacent, its separate coupler release may follow; otherwise the assembly waits. (1) Opening rig: Sensor→Projector handles the nearest visible target when ready; Manual→Barrier faces the locked bolt line while one capture stage completes. (2) Four-A movement rig on revisit: Stride→Projector plus Manual→Barrier. Only the astronaut's deliberate grounded pass can source the shot; belt motion, Ivo, shove and recoil cannot. (3) Baseline: bait line lock into the pillar, step through the cool detent, thin the stream with the cutter at the duct mouth, and withdraw after either committed observation.

Rescue/state work. If Ivo is selected and R05/R06 form a personally walked current short route to the ship, R06 must be stocked and the combat made quiet before I1. Quiet is necessary but not sufficient under the accepted conditional candidate: the crossing is eligible only if his travel canister also reads at or above the route's full-attempt return mark, a retreat line to R06 is armed that he can operate alone, and R06 carries a local closure tell. Death mid-crossing then leaves him at R06 alive and unsent as world truth, while the astronaut learns nothing aboard. Ivo signals readiness; the astronaut triggers installed Stride or Ivo uses the fixed manual cue, then he walks. Missing R06 adjacency waits—no belt ride becomes an escort. Test captures, Carousel clamp, Stride/coupler locations and survivor confirmation persist; current aim, detent and crowd do not.

E03 — Latch while occupied

Host and warning. R08 First Local Latch Hall with a currently adjacent R09 test face, objective 3 and P03 Triage Relay. On the first local-latch introduction, one Clampcrawler is visible beside the centre inspection island and it is the entire combat population. Its arched crouch and jaw-flash lock draw a fixed landing arc when the latch control activates. The answering shutter is physically closed and its empty count lamp confirms that no Presser is eligible during this first lesson.

Crowd, sources and geometry. The first latch lesson is a deliberately quiet beat: inside the hall one Clampcrawler is the whole fight, reached through the ordinary crowded route. Entry to that first lesson records one persistent introduction seen staging bit whether the player succeeds, refuses, cancels or withdraws; it is not a reaction to a build or victory. On a later death-shift population setup after that introduction, the authored finite variant may occupy the holding volume behind the alarm-only shutter with a crowd of perhaps 20–40 Pressers, already present before the player enters. The introduction-seen bit does not create a creature on a same-life retry, exit or immediate re-entry; that life retains its existing population and defeated enemies stay defeated. This delays the combined variant until a later life and does not settle other encounters’ repopulation rules. A count silhouette shows the holding volume is occupied before activation, but the closed opaque shutter denies mutual local sight and is the only physical route, so this variant is explicitly alarm-only. A completed P03 alert opens that route; cutting the lead before alert commitment prevents it. If the alert has already opened the shutter and the crowd is moving, cutting the lead neither closes the route nor dismisses it. Stage: the later variant's released crowd while the latch work runs. Resolution: clear its committed arrivals. Cutting P03's lead before the alert commits prevents the stage entirely, so there is nothing to resolve or earn. P03's own persistent commit dogs the shutter open, so this placement has no physical seal, and none is invented here. The first lesson itself is not a stage and awards nothing. There is no hidden pool or success-triggered spawn. Opposed service faces are readable from the island; the latch work position sits inside the Crawler's possible arc, while one side step and R09 retreat lie outside. P03's alarm lead is exposed before the control. Rework: M06's hall and holding volume need space for the later crowd.

Objective and approaches. Commit a valid seam or record a safe refusal, walk through and operate the network-side release. (1) In the solo introduction, bait the Crawler: start work, wait for jaw-flash lock, cancel, step out so it skids, then use the recovery to work; this needs no part. (2) Opening rig: Manual→Barrier intercepts a committed leap while Sensor→Projector fires only on a visible valid target. (3) Later Manual→Nozzle displaces the Crawler before lock or clears the work face; recoil clearance is shown at this instance. In the later crowd variant, cut P03's lead before crossing if the alarm-only route should stay closed, or accept the cued second lane; once the alert has committed, the physical approach remains valid.

Commit and persistence. A refused signature consumes no cradle pulse and creates no join. The introduction-seen bit, each completed latch dog and the final selected seam persist; an unfinished dog resets. Cut alarm persists; relay occupancy and an undogged shutter rearm neutral only at R08→R09 withdrawal or death. That reset does not turn back a crowd already moving through an opened route. Releasing the seam is another completed hand-cycle and preserves other joins. No creature supplies charge and no successful latch reveals an unseen neighbour.

E04 — R-3 quiet crossing

Host and warning. R11 R-3 Approach, with current route R01→R11→R12→R13 only in an eligible arrangement; objective 4. One Flanker is visible in R11's side leg, with chevron/outer-leg cue and central bollard. The quarantine wing's crowd is visible beyond the contested leg. R13's quarantine Arc is an equipment-source fixture, not a numbered mechanism or rescue requirement.

Crowd, sources and commitment. A Flanker pack uses R11's side leg while Pressers pour into the contested junction from the quarantine ward wing through a feeding grille in R11's side wall — a scale hypothesis of 25–50 moving through the T junction as a continuous river rather than standing at once, because the junction is small. R11's three walking legs, serving the ship, the rescue and onward exploration, stay open; the grille is not one of them. Stage: the wing's release through the grille. Resolution: clear its committed arrivals, or seal the grille. Their current paths, the R12 pressure gauge and R13 refuge door are visible before preparation commits. The first rescue commitment is stocking/confirming travel air after the astronaut has personally walked the exact route this life. Transfer begins only when the prepared crossing is demonstrably quiet or separated — its arrivals cleared, bypassed into a shown quiet state, or cut off by a persistent local closure. That does not require killing every creature or both clearing and sealing, and the crossing never becomes a live escort fight; whether the stage earned a temporary upgrade is a separate question. Rework: M04's junction needs the ward-wing grille and its closure.

Approaches and objective. The objective beyond killing is one short cooperative crossing. (1) Opening rig: face Manual→Barrier across the Flanker chevron while Sensor→Projector selects the nearest visible hostile; move to change that candidate. (2) If Nozzle is already owned, Manual→Nozzle can spoil the locked Flanker lane or separate Pressers, but recoil cannot trigger Stride. (3) Baseline: lengthen the side route around the bollard, leave each locked arc, use hard cover/cutter and retreat to R01. The Arc grid may be observed, left or removed; no rescue state depends on it.

Cast variants and state. R13 holds Yeva-first or Aster-first, never both. The occupant operates the inner door and walks; either party can call ordinary abort to counted R12. Sent requires that same person aboard with ship airlock closed. Death during transfer records last confirmation and an unconfirmed outcome aboard; under the armed conditional safeguard the world outcome is counted R12, alive and unsent, with a tell on R12's local control only. Quieting E04 alone does not arm it: the marked return margin, the survivor-operable retreat line and that local tell must all exist. It is not ordinary abort, delivery or loss. Quiet-window/population state is current; stocked checkpoints, wall capture, Arc location and confirmed survivor state follow their owners. If the route has two exposed junctions or no present abort refuge, the scene waits.

E05 — Builders' runs through heat and veil

Host and warning. One connected placement across current R14 Pump Hall and R15 Cable Junction, objective 5, P04 Carousel. R14 first shows one Boltspitter, straight aim line and pillar. R15 shows a Veilbearer's folded membrane/anchor preview and a crowd behind a transparent service rail, plus Carousel arc/cool detents. All are visible before the player frames a record.

Crowd, sources and movement. R14's tall machine room lets a crowd drift in along the overhead main's service gantry — perhaps 30–60 over the placement — while a Boltspitter holds one straight line and pillar. In R15 a Veilbearer screens a second group behind the transparent service rail, fed by the cable-duct run through a duct grille beside the open wall crawl, which stays passable; that group cannot cross the rail until its existing gate state allows, so the first cast teaches occlusion without an ambush. If the Boltspitter survives or was bypassed and the current R14→R15 approach remains open, it may walk along that already cued route behind a later veil; if defeated, nothing replaces it. Stages: the gantry release while records are framed, and the rail group's release when its gate opens — two separately sourced stages. Resolution: clear each stage's committed arrivals, or seal the gantry hatch and the duct grille. Rework: the gantry and duct mouths are added layout work in M10/M11.

Objective and approaches. Capture the two ordered runs, ending mains, A/B/address cases and open-crawl relation; Lens recovery is optional. (1) Opening rig: use the pillar to break Boltspitter sight, circle the finite veil edge so Sensor→Projector reacquires a valid nearest target, and spend Manual→Barrier only on the locked line. (2) Later Manual→Nozzle can displace Veilbearer before commitment or push an eligible shield panel into the Carousel arc; it does not blow away the anchored sheet after release. (3) Baseline: wait for veil decay and cool detent, use rail/pillar/cutter, commit one capture and physically withdraw. Taking an old crawl costs oxygen and may end blocked.

Commit and persistence. Each capture is atomic: interruption before completion yields none; after commit it persists with room/life provenance. Carousel clamp cuts/lock, moved wall panel and Lens location persist. Sweep phase, veil and enemies reset under their rules. The supplied installed Lens preserves the exchanger's charge-to-heat output. Removing it leaves only that exchanger cold; the Carousel and language evidence remain independent, and reinstalling the same Lens restores the exchanger response. No ordered run names a current route.

E06 — Pressure ledger under drain

Host and warning. One staged placement across current R17 Jammed Pressure Approach and R20 Sampling Loop, objective 6, P05 Breath Bank. R17 first exposes a Flanker side lane with the side wards still quiet, then a Glass Siphon's hose radius/bladder flash across two pillars. If the Flanker survives or follows the visibly connected route, it can reach R20; no replacement pack appears. R20's three-beat Bank indicator, draw lane and cap control are visible before the hand-cycle.

Crowd, sources and space. R17's first beat is a Flanker-only approach along the fully visible side gallery, before the side wards are disturbed — the separated cue both retained orders rely on. Deeper in, the long pressure hall's two side wards release one stage through their ward doors, a scale hypothesis of 40–80 through the hall. Glass Siphon waits across R20's two pillars as a special pressure at the valve, not a separate stage. Stage: the side wards' release once the player is mid-hall. Resolution: clear its committed arrivals, or seal both ward doors by throwing their locks as completed acts. R17's long route and marked cutter panel are alternatives; R20's circular walk keeps two pillars between tether line and valve. The work position sits inside one Bank lane and outside the other on alternating beats. Entering Siphon radius triggers its wind-up; touching the valve begins staged work but spawns nothing. Rework: M07's side wards and ward-door locks are added layout work.

Objective and approaches. Close a cap/complete the pressure cycle, capture the source counter, then choose Dynamo and regulator core against carrying space. (1) Opening rig: Sensor→Projector attacks a visible target; Manual→Barrier can catch the hose, and only a Dynamo already locally clamped to that Barrier would receive the impact—none is assumed before recovery. Use retraction plus the Bank's opposite lane for one cap. (2) Under the proposed later six-A allowance, Sensor→Projector plus Manual→Nozzle occupies five A/C; face Nozzle to push the committed Flanker into the draw lane while accepting recoil/clearance and one less unit of free carrying than a four-part rig. (3) Baseline: bait hose into pillars, leave radius, cross on the quiet beat, hand-close one cap and withdraw. Language may guide the marked bypass but cannot make it open.

Cast and evidence extensions. E06's finite population may also gate access to R18/R19 through a currently shown route, but it does not become a new encounter. Dorn at R18 requires a verified current side route; direct-hoist opening commits before its newly exposed route is walked. Under the conditional safeguard his crossing additionally needs the marked full-attempt return margin, an armed retreat he can operate to the counted abort room, and that room's local closure tell; a quiet window alone does not supply them. Yeva's later R19 variant requires counted R12 as current abort and a one-junction route. Any absent geometry waits. Story card/ratchet at R18, controlled culture comparison at R19 and source cycle at R20 are separate world-time observations.

Persistence. Cap, cutter, line-cycle, record-drawer, direct boundary, comparator observation, released rewards and object locations persist. Bank phase, tether, population and routes do not. A carried Dynamo/core returns once; an unremoved source does not. Death mid-rescue remains unconfirmed, distinct from an ordinary witnessed abort.

E07 — Transfer evidence behind a veil

Host and warning. R23 Material Sorting Bay with current viewing relation to R21/R22 through R24, objective 7, P06 Resuscitation Grid. One Veilbearer and one Boltspitter are visible across separated evidence stations. The veil edge/anchors, bolt aim line, Grid seams/rising meter and transfer drive/fill direction all announce themselves before the player operates a pair or frames a record.

Crowd, sources and reinforcement. A Veilbearer screens a Boltspitter across the separated evidence stations while crowds from the occupied transfer galleries press in through feeding hatches above R24's three branches — perhaps 30–60 through the placement. The branches themselves stay walkable for records and continuations. Veilbearer may cast only while it sees the astronaut and a visible ally remains behind the previewed sheet. Material movement along transfer lines is not a creature route. Stage: the galleries' release through the hatches while a pair is operated or framed. Resolution: clear its committed arrivals, or seal the hatches. If the Veilbearer or Boltspitter is defeated, nothing replaces it. Rework: M13's bay and M04's gallery need the hatches, their closures and crowd space.

Objective and approaches. Operate/capture the corrective third pair and cross-register cases; on a first source visit, decide whether to remove the one Cycler or leave it in the sorter. (1) Opening rig: break the Boltspitter line with the station, move around the veil edge so Sensor→Projector has a valid target, and face Manual→Barrier only for the locked bolt. (2) On a later return after its committed removal, the source cradle is visibly empty and that same owned Cycler may be in a four-A Manual Trigger (1)→Cycler (2)→Projector (1) rig, leaving Sensor/Barrier aboard. A protected or invalid sample refuses before activation and is not spent; once Cycler validly accepts/consumes selected salvage, a later Projector refusal for readiness/target/occlusion does not refund it. If Cycler was left at source, this branch is unavailable; another acquisition model would need an explicitly different origin and is not assumed here. (3) Baseline: walk ceramic strips, lure a strike onto the enabled Grid from cover, wait for recharge, or cut both clamps/throw the breaker before recording.

Aster rescue extension. If non-first Aster waits in R22, E07 must enter a quiet window before A1 — necessary but, under the conditional safeguard, not sufficient without the marked return margin, an armed survivor-operable retreat to counted R24 and R24's local closure tell. The astronaut must separately walk a current ship→one-junction→R24 abort→R22 refuge route; R24 must be stocked and Aster operates her door. Transfer machinery does not transport her. Missing geometry waits. Her later lock is reversible from the outside panel and cannot seal the whole objective.

Persistence. Pair operations/captures, Grid clamp/breaker state, Cycler location, any consumed sample and confirmed survivor state persist. Grid charge, veil, aim and population reset. An interrupted capture yields no record; an interrupted transfer operation retains only its named completed fixture stage. Old pair locations after death are historical even when their records remain valid evidence.

E08 — Balance Gallery Hold — setpiece A

Host and warning. R25 Balance Gallery, objective 8, P07 Breath Bank and P08 Phase-Balance; R26/R27 contain the optional Nozzle/Mara/exchanger follow-through. Bellback stands alone across the fixed rib so its dust draw, planted cone and collapse recovery can be read before the crowd enters from its two already shown feeding mouths. Bank frost/three-beat lane, plate outlines, plumb cage and swing arc remain simultaneously visible.

Crowd, sources and phases. R25's broad gallery is the right kind of room for a large fight: Bellback stands across the fixed rib while two visible feeding mouths from adjacent source volumes, separate from the gallery's walking passages, hold a crowd on the proposed 80–150 scale at once, passing several hundred through the full crest. Phase 1 reads Bellback and mechanism directions while the first bodies gather. Phase 2 is the stage from both mouths, which the player can hold, shrink by sealing one mouth early, or overpower. Phase 3 is cap work, or the rib's two cutter releases and its pin, in the break. Resolution: clear the stage's committed arrivals, or seal both mouths. There is no counter-wave if a build clears it early. Rework: the two sealable mouths and crowd floor space are added layout work in M15's existing room.

Objective and approaches. Complete one persistent cap or rib pin, then decide whether to recover exchanger core/Nozzle. (1) Four-A opening rig: Sensor→Projector supplies ordinary fire; Manual→Barrier faces Bellback's locked pressure cone or a Presser strike. Barrier does not stop oxygen drain or heat, and a Dynamo cannot feed unless locally clamped. Seal one mouth early to keep the crest manageable. (2) A developed crowd build — an arc chain fed by density, with charge stored for a manual release — turns the crest into the payoff in the neutral lane. Build Rules owns how many ordinary outputs it carries and how its links change; insufficient readiness or targets safely produce less effect, not extra power. (3) Baseline: leave the fixed cone, shelter at the rib, cross on the Bank's opposite beat, occupy the stirrup and hand-cycle one cap before retreating.

Mara rescue extension. After a real quiet window, R26 can host M1 only if the astronaut has walked its one-junction route and stocked counted R27 as clean abort. Mara chooses/operates her inner curtain and walks; her rack purge or seal is distinct from Story30 cultures. Nozzle removal changes the air knife, not the A↔B service transformer. Missing geometry waits rather than adding refuge stages.

Persistence. Completed cap/pin, rack choice, wall panel, converter mode, Nozzle/exchanger locations, and committed captures persist. Unpinned balance returns neutral and uncapped Bank phase resets on withdrawal/death. Placed loose mass stays where placed and warns/retriggers normally. Death returns carried rewards and shifts routes. It creates no rescue conclusion the astronaut can read: under the conditional safeguard Mara's armed retreat reaches her counted clean abort room alive and unsent, and that fact stays a local tell there rather than anything transmitted aboard.

E09 — Regulator reply behind moving cover

Host and warning. R28 Regulator Gallery, objective 9, P09 Resuscitation Grid; R29/R30 are optional current observation/staging rooms. One Shutterback begins with its first Pressers visibly inside its previewed shelter angle. One Caller and its answering source wait along the named alarm route, shown before the R4 pull. Fan shadow, heel-clamp click, Grid meter/seams and Caller's throat/source lamp are all readable from R28's own protected mark.

Crowd, sources and trigger. Shutterback's fan shelters a crowd of Pressers moving down R28's four rack aisles — perhaps 30–60 — released from a sealed store behind a feeding grille at the end of the fourth rack aisle, which belongs to R28. Pulling R4 is noisy and may start the Caller brace; a completed call releases a second stage through an overhead maintenance hatch in R28's own ceiling above the reply socket, whose route is shown before the pull. Cutting the alarm first prevents that second stage; it does not dismiss bodies already travelling. Stages: the rack-aisle release, and the ceiling-hatch release if the call completes. Resolution: clear each stage's committed arrivals, or seal the aisle grille and the ceiling hatch. Neither source depends on R29 or R30 adjacency. Rework: M16 needs the aisle grille, the ceiling hatch, their closures and aisle space.

Objective and approaches. Pull R4, record the responsive line and test R3's matching B plate; Capacitor removal is optional. (1) Opening rig: Sensor→Projector can target exposed Shutterback but cannot shoot sheltered Pressers through its fan; Manual→Barrier holds the direct lane while one pull stage commits. (2) Later Manual→Nozzle may rotate/break heel clamps or push an eligible body onto the Grid; recoil clearance is marked. Arc has no assumed permission through the fan. (3) Baseline: take the longer visible angle, cut the alarm lead, bait Grid discharge while on ceramic strips, or cut both Grid clamps, then use cutter/ordinary fire and withdraw after a pull checkpoint.

Evidence and persistence. R4 physical pull and new line are separate commits. Wrong pull order can lose the clean R3-B test but not Capacitor or general work. Pulls, scar, lines, plate location, alarm cut, Grid breaker/clamps and Capacitor location persist. Fan/veil-like occlusion, Grid charge and populations reset. Invalid plates produce no line and remain reclaimable; the interface never labels an interpretation correct.

E10 — Receiver Vault — setpiece B

Host and warning. Current R35 approach into compact R36–R40 core-boundary assembly, objective 11; P10 iris/two-clamp mechanism, followed by P13 isolation after access. Shutterback's shelter angle, Siphon radius/bladder, Caller/source, the hall's feeding mouths and the second source's entrance are visible before commitment. R35's two pillars, R36 selector lane, R37 first-clamp refuge, R38 longer fan flank/second clamp and retreat are physically related as accepted Room32 states.

Crowd, sources and phases. R35's long approach hall carries the main crowd from two sealable feeding mouths in its side walls on the proposed 80–150 scale, with Shutterback sheltering part of it and Siphon holding the pillar line. A completed Caller call releases a second stage through a feeding hatch in R35's far wall. R36's two side openings remain the walking passages to the clamp rooms and are never sealed. Phase 1 chooses exposed selector, longer flank or first clamp while the hall wakes. Phase 2 resolves or accepts the second stage and the special pressures inside the surge. Phase 3 equalises and hand-cycles the iris in the break. Stages: the hall mouths' release, and the far-wall hatch release if the call completes. Resolution: clear each stage's committed arrivals, or seal its mouths or hatch. Opening R39/R40 creates no new combat population. Rework: R35's side mouths, far-wall hatch and crowd floor space are added layout work in M07.

Objective and approaches. Open the bounded passage and inspect evidence; language is guidance, not a gate. (1) A developed build takes the crest head-on: automatic fire strips the exposed Shutterback, the fan collapses, and a stored manual release clears the packed hall and Siphon; a player who wants the spectacle may let the Caller wake the second source and break both. Build Rules owns the rig's outputs and link changes. A clean win creates no replacement. (2) Four-A opening rig seals the nearest mouth, uses the pillars to break Siphon tether, Manual→Barrier for one physical hose/strike and automatic Projector only on visible targets, then finishes one clamp. (3) Baseline: bait hose into a pillar, cross during full retraction, cut the alarm, use the long flank outside the fan and complete one clamp before withdrawing. Gauges and the two-clamp route remain sufficient without language, parts or people.

Mechanism/story boundary. Pump/inward can equalise P10 directly; purge/outward visibly lowers the gauge and is reversible through neutral. P10 opens access but does not operate P13. R39 baffle evidence and R40 isolation are later world-time choices; re-seating isolation does not close the iris or walking joins. No treatment, survivor or diagnostic is required.

Persistence and recovery. Cut alarm, completed clamp/equality/iris stages, inlet plate/line, trapped strip capture, baffle and isolation stages persist under their owners. Tether, fan, pressure animation and population reset. R36-side controls keep recovery reachable; if R35 is not a current approach, the whole encounter waits. Death with an unfinished clamp loses that stage, returns carried objects once, preserves completed clamps and shifts external adjacency only.

Thirteen placed-mechanism briefs

Each row references its family's owned behavior rather than redefining it. “Neutral on return” means withdrawal or death resets only the temporary phase; it does not undo a listed checkpoint. A current entrance must show the warning and recovery face before commitment. If shifting removes that entrance relationship, the instance waits rather than operating through a wall.

Non-major interfaces that still require authored work

Compact host and overlap ledger

The ledger contains six ordinary roles—Presser, Flanker, Caller, Boltspitter, Clampcrawler and Veilbearer—and all three special roles—Bellback, Shutterback and Glass Siphon. A role appearing in several rows is one reusable behavior, not another enemy definition. E08/E10 are already placements 8/10 and the only major setpieces.

Five rescue identities occupy disclosed extensions, not five new encounter IDs: I1/E02; Y1-or-A1 first/E04; D1 and Y1-later/E06; A1-later/E07; M1/E08. The alternative host selected by continuity changes authored geometry/state work but not the scene count. No rescue begins under live pressure: the currently walked and prepared short route must be demonstrably quiet or separated — cleared, bypassed into a shown quiet state, or cut off by a persistent local closure. That requires neither killing every creature nor both clearing and sealing, and no rescue becomes a live escort fight. Whether a stage earned a temporary upgrade is a separate question. Home and evidence conversations remain among the existing 15 cast scenes aboard.

Two qualitative encounter walkthroughs

Opening: the same Fork carried or installed

The current route is R01→R02⇄R03; its reverse breadcrumb is current only for this life. The retrieval-ready proposed manifest has the four one-unit opening parts active plus one two-unit canister, leaving four of ten illustrative carrying units. At R02 the player sees the loose one-unit Fork, both board outputs, P01 preview and the bridge's two-unit size before choosing. Capacity is a displayed hypothesis, not proof that the oxygen margin is sufficient.

Installed branch. The player previews Fork in the compatible board seat; invalid orientation would refuse before commitment. Completing installation moves that exact Fork out of carried property. The board supplies the source/energy and Fork passes compatible control triggers to rack and shutter; it is not power. With rack held and side shutter closed, the player crosses to R03 and completes one fastener. If displaced before the physical fastener checkpoint, the stage resets; after its click, it persists. The final fastener releases the patient-bay stage. Sensor→Projector offers an ordinary launch only when Projector is ready and the nearest visible hostile is valid; Manual→Barrier is the separate faced special. Journal pause freezes Caller brace, weapon readiness, oxygen and fastener progress.

After bridge pickup, the player can cross back and reclaim Fork, paying exposed time; carried bridge and Fork then fit the example manifest. If death occurs before reclaim, the carried bridge returns once but installed Fork remains R02. If death occurs before bridge pickup, only committed fasteners persist and the bridge remains R03. In either case, the shift makes R01's old outer relation historical; R02/R03 remain a compact pair but are not promised as the next airlock neighbour.

Carried branch. The player picks up Fork and leaves it inactive; it consumes one carrying unit but no active area. The board selector must hold the rack, leaving the patient-bay shutter open. The same four-A opening rig fights the additional crowd lane; carrying Fork adds no weapon output. The player may cut P01's alarm, finish one fastener and retreat to refill. Choosing an air-heavy two-canister manifest instead leaves only two units for the bridge, so Fork must remain installed/at source or another carried object must be deliberately dropped—never silently deleted. The physical baseline is identical board selection, cover, cutter and checkpointed withdrawal without relying on a successful shot.

Later transfer bay: payload accepted, observation interrupted, route becomes historical

The player has R21/R22 pair captures from a prior life, explicitly marked historical, and previously committed removal of R23's one Cycler on a separate source visit. Those records justify comparing direction but do not certify current access. In this later conditional return, the astronaut has walked R24→R23, sees the corrective transfer pair, Grid, Veilbearer and Boltspitter, confirms the retreat and sees the source cradle still empty. The exact removed Cycler is now in the carried loadout; there is no second source instance. The proposed loadout leaves Sensor and Barrier aboard: Manual Trigger (1)→Cycler (2)→Projector (1) uses four A/C, plus one two-unit canister under the illustrative capacity.

The player first selects an expendable pressure sample. A protected record sample or invalid material refuses before Cycler activation and costs nothing. On a valid press, Manual starts one wave and Cycler commits consumption before emitting its inspected force response. Projector then checks its own readiness and selected valid target. If the Veil makes that target invalid or the receiver otherwise refuses at that point, the already consumed sample stays spent and there is no shot; refusal does not rewind the wave. The player can instead wait around the finite sheet edge and press when the target/readiness preview is valid. A successful shot does not retarget, duplicate payload or create a second wave; any physical Grid strike follows the Grid's own local rule.

The equipment-free route uses ceramic strips and the Boltspitter's locked line to lure one eligible rail impact, waits through the visible Grid discharge/recharge, then cuts a clamp or frames the pair from cover. Beginning capture shows progress. Cancel/displacement before atomic commit yields no record; after commit the record persists even if the player is then forced to retreat. A completed Grid clamp remains cut; the other incomplete clamp resets. The single Cycler never exists in both rig and sorter: if active in the carried rig at later death it returns once, while a Cycler deliberately detached into a station socket remains there; spent sample remains spent and the source cradle remains empty. The death shifts external adjacency, preserves the pair capture/Grid cut and marks R24→R23 historical. Aster's rescue at R22 does not begin from those records; it waits unless a fresh, personally walked one-junction route with stocked R24 abort exists.

Concrete staging cut

The strongest smaller staging proposal removes P03, the second Triage Relay at R08, and E03's later finite Presser variant. E03 remains one of ten placements with its visible Clampcrawler, compatible/refused latch test, wall-fixed cradle, network-side release and three physical approaches. P01 at the selected opening still teaches the reusable Triage family; R08's essential station-joining discovery remains in place. The major mechanism count becomes 12 in this cut while the five family definitions, ten encounters and two setpieces remain.

The sacrificed experience is specific: objective 3 no longer asks the player to coordinate a relay's branch preview/cut alarm with a control-occupying Crawler, and the Triage family loses its second spatial interpretation. The cut makes E03 cleaner but less layered and shifts more teaching burden onto E01. No other room gains the removed relay, no enemy is invisibly moved, and no labor or duration saving is claimed. This is a proposal, not an owner-approved count.

Self-check, strongest case, costs and gaps

Exact counts. E01–E10 are ten unique placements, with E08/E10 the two included setpieces. P01–P13 are 13 unique major mechanisms: nine instances of five reusable families plus four unique objective mechanisms. They reference 24 modules/40 rooms, 12 objectives, four assemblies, eight later part sources, four language chains, four story chains and five rescue identities without changing those counts. Six ordinary and three special roles are all used. The unselected first-survivor and later host variants remain conditional.

State check. Every brief identifies current entrance/retreat, warning, source areas, feeding apertures, crowd scale hypothesis and stage resolution or deliberate absence, first commitment, objective beyond killing, equipment choices, physical baseline, interruption, persistent work/object/evidence and reset state. Installed/carried/consumed states conserve identities. Journal pause advances nothing. Short rescues require current personally walked geometry, their own controls/air/abort place and a quiet window; ordinary abort and death-during-transfer remain distinct. All involved rooms retain network-side releases and whole-station eligibility without diagnostic/story/survivor gates.

Strongest case. Pressure changes what the player risks while doing discovery work rather than merely decorating combat. Bolt lines determine when a gait observation can commit; a veil changes whether a material-spending shot has a valid receiver; Bank/Balance timing turns one durable cap into a different revisit; the opening Fork choice links personal build, infrastructure and property state. Reused families gain meaning from changed geometry instead of palette swaps.

Accepted costs. Thirteen major mechanisms exceed the SMALL baseline by one. Multi-room placements demand compact/current-boundary discipline. Rescue variants add quiet-window and route states without new encounter IDs. Crowd-scale placements require authored source volumes, sealable mouths and floor space in rooms first authored for small fights; that rework is real work, not free capacity. The example rig choices add carrying/area and target/readiness cases. Mechanisms, service transformations, ordinary joins and enemy warnings may compete for attention; paper cannot show that their cues remain legible in a horde.

Still-open detail. Exact timing, damage, oxygen drain, crowd sizes beyond these hypotheses, on-screen effect density, performance, thresholds, cooldowns, target overrides, overflow, simultaneous warning priority, surviving-enemy hold and presentation detail on living return within the preserved population membership and defeated states, exhaustive arrangement/geometry/state variants, P13’s exhaustive detail within its already-prepared first-pass allocation, full scripts, accessibility cue forms, asset selection, implementation and validation remain later work. Final content band, first survivor, global death/shift/transfer ordering, post-Sent mortality, story package, full-station behavior and endings remain owner choices. No fun, balance, performance, universal reachability or campaign-duration claim follows.