Hold The Horde — Equipment Catalogue

This is the current detailed twelve-part SMALL-band sample. The owner has selected reusable connected parts, mostly automatic ordinary fire, manually activated specials, shared carrying space, full journal pause, regular temporary growth through fighting and larger horde transformations. The particular parts, quantities and interface rules below remain proposals; see the Owner Brief.

The worn emergency cutter and suit functions are not catalogue parts. They have no ports, and the cutter is not a second automatic weapon.

Picture one build first: Storm Choir

The astronaut enters a crowded Cable Junction wearing six connected parts. A Threat Sensor keeps a Pulse Projector firing automatically at valid targets. The Projector’s impacts feed an Impact Dynamo. A Fork Relay divides that charge: some reaches an Arc Emitter immediately, while some fills a Capacitor for later.

The player is not aiming every shot. They are moving toward knots of mutually visible enemies so each arc can find another body, watching the store fill and deciding whether the dense centre is worth entering. Regular fighting can add Echoing Arc, which branches each electrical action. At the moving scan’s larger milestone, Thunderhead can become ready. One manual press spends the full store through the same rig, sending three chain heads through the crowd and a pressure lance down the lamp’s lane. Ordinary firing returns as the parts naturally become ready.

That pleasure has a concrete cost. The rig uses 7 carrying units and 7 active rig spaces. With one two-unit oxygen canister in the ten-unit carrying example, only one unit remains for a discovery. It has no Barrier, and gaps or hard cover can strand the arcs. The Fork can also operate station machinery, so using the complete combat rig can mean leaving a useful fixture unpowered. A strong result comes from choosing the crowd, line and release moment—not merely owning the parts. This is intended play, not measured fun or balance.

How to read the catalogue

Every build is a causal sentence: start → change → deliver → payoff. A source begins a new external wave only when its own rule says so. A packet contains its trigger and may carry charge, heat, force or fragments; descendants retain that wave. A receiver or actuator accepts the packet only when its link and type fit, it is ready, any needed target is valid and its storage and operating limits can accept. A later refusal never rewinds an earlier commitment.

Cost is written C/A: carrying units / active rig spaces. An installed active part pays its C once, not again as cargo. An inactive carried part still pays C but no A. Equipment therefore competes directly with oxygen and loot.

U is the comparison unit for usable packet payload, not damage or inventory. Stored charge and simultaneous operating demand are different limits. Mechanical Interfaces owns exact power, heat, readiness, cooling, allocation and effect geometry; Build Rules owns the shared connection grammar.

Quick index

The twelve parts

Threat Sensor — automatic attention

What it does. This source offers one target-bearing trigger to every compatible connected automatic actuator that is ready when a valid hostile is in its shown arc. Each actuator keeps its own target and readiness; the target does not have to leave and re-enter the arc for another naturally ready cycle.

What the player can see. A dockside calibration target shows the sweeping arc, target highlight and repeated output pulse before any combination is known.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it automates a path but supplies no damage or payload and needs line of sight. Sensor → Projector gives ordinary fire. Sensor → Fork can condition two independent compatible actions. It begins in the current ship emergency-rig proposal.

Manual Trigger — choose the moment

What it does. This source has one trigger output. A mapped press starts one new manual external wave. It supplies intent, not power, and cannot bypass a downstream part’s readiness or acceptance rule.

What the player can see. The press, output flash and one linked ship-fixture response can be observed independently.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it consumes space that could automate another path and asks for timing. Manual → Barrier gives faced defence; Manual → Cycler or Nozzle makes cargo spending or movement control deliberate. It is part of the proposed opening ship kit.

Pulse Projector — deliver the shot

What it does. This actuator has one packet input. On a valid trigger while ready, it launches the packet’s payload toward its selected valid target, or a weak force pulse if no payload is attached. The launch is physical output, not a signal port; once committed, it never retargets. Rebound Disc, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst temporarily replace its ordinary flight with their named disc or lance behavior.

What the player can see. A service target shows reach, readiness and the weak bare-trigger pulse.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it provides the current ordinary automatic shot and several later deliveries, but only to one shown target with line of sight. Obstruction or a bad angle can waste positioning after commitment. Use Sensor → Projector for baseline fire or Capacitor → Lens → Projector for a manual heat shot. The proposed opening rig carries it; a station service cradle may demonstrate it. It remains distinct from the unported cutter.

Barrier Plate — hold one dangerous face

What it does. This actuator has one packet input. One bare trigger creates a short-lived directional barrier; a charged trigger may create or refresh it. Enemy strikes on its plate are physical impact events, but the barrier itself emits no new trigger.

What the player can see. A facing marker, brief wall and visible deformation from a test strike explain the action before Counterwall is known.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it can protect live work or a retreat, but poor facing, bypass or breakage defeats it. Manual → Barrier is the opening special. Later, a Dynamo clamped to its frame can turn separate enemy strikes into charge. Its current discovery contexts are the ship’s emergency partition and a hospital crowd-control shutter test.

Impact Dynamo — make impacts pay once

What it does. It has one local sensing clamp and one charged-trigger output. The clamp attaches to one named impact carrier: a Barrier frame, the Projector’s physical-output feed or a fixture surface. It batches qualifying impacts from that carrier and emits 2 U once for that external wave. It does not hear remote impacts. Force, fragments and external strikes qualify; arcs and heat do not unless another rule converts them.

What the player can see. A door closer turns several same-wave hits on its own plate into one charge flash.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it enables impact-fed Arc or storage, but can watch only one carrier and gives no extra reward for many contacts in the same wave. Projector impacts → Dynamo → Arc and Barrier strikes → Dynamo → Capacitor are current roles. Descendants of Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst cannot recharge it, even after charging mode restores. An impact latch or bed-crash protector can demonstrate the part; the found-part proposal places one on the sampling loop, where taking it removes that local impact response until the same instance is reinstalled.

Fork Relay — branch without amplification

What it does. Fork has one packet input and visibly ordered outputs 1/2. It copies a bare trigger, payload type and wave identity to branches that can accept. Usable whole U is conserved: blocked branches are excluded before allocation; one remaining candidate gets the full input; two candidates divide it evenly, with output 1 taking an odd remainder. A zero or sub-threshold share refuses and dissipates. It is never reassigned, buffered or copied after that split.

What the player can see. One service-board pulse reaches two lamps while invalid sockets refuse before commitment.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it can make two compatible actions answer one event, but a packed unconnected Fork does nothing and division can weaken both branches. Sensor → Fork → Projector + Barrier copies a bare trigger; a charged release → Fork → Barrier + Arc divides usable charge. The same loose Cargo Turn relay may serve infrastructure or the rig, creating the selected opening’s leave-or-carry choice. It supplies no power.

Capacitor — delay power for a chosen release

What it does. Capacitor accepts charged packets into an exact 0–4 U store and has one chosen charged output. It accepts at least 1 U up to free space and visibly vents delivered overflow; at 4 U it is blocked before Fork allocation. Becoming partial, ready or full creates no event. Its ordinary manual release is exactly 2 U. A release caused by another rig packet keeps that packet’s wave. Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst are explicit temporary 4 U exceptions.

What the player can see. A rising meter, saturation and a controlled discharge into a dead load reveal storage. A full-store transformation also shows whether it is charging or ready to discharge.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it trades immediate effect for stored choice. Below 2 U, or when the directly connected first receiver refuses, an ordinary release does not commit and keeps the charge. Once the first receiver accepts, charge leaves immediately; a later refusal or miss gives no refund. Dynamo → Capacitor stores horde-fed charge; manual release → Lens → Projector makes a heat burst. A defibrillator bank, door buffer or damaged core can expose its state.

Thermal Lens — turn charge into heat

What it does. Lens has one charged-packet input and one output. It accepts at least 2 U, converts that delivered charge to heat and preserves the trigger and wave. It does not create a trigger of its own.

What the player can see. A sterilization exchanger accepts a charge pulse and warms one marked output surface.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it opens heat delivery but adds a conversion step. Charge identity is spent, heat is not impact, and a poor target may resist or avoid it. Capacitor → Lens → Projector gives a stored heat shot; a conductive Cycler response can feed the same line. Furnace Burst temporarily uses Lens in its full-store path.

Arc Emitter — reward a connected crowd

What it does. Arc has one charged-trigger input. When ready, it accepts at least 1 U and chains through nearby valid bodies, visiting each body once. Every hop needs a clear line of effect. Its electrical action is a physical effect, not a signal output.

What the player can see. A quarantine repair tool jumps among closely spaced conductive test points.

Why carry it. At 2/2, it is an expensive commitment that can cross a dense group but fails against spacing, hard cover, missing targets or an exhausted route. Dynamo charge → Arc gives impact-fed clearing; conductive Cycler → Fork → Arc + Capacitor can combine immediate effect and storage. Ordinary arcs cannot feed Dynamo, other signal receivers or themselves. Echoing Arc adds only its named finite branches and heat reservation; it creates no signal or charge.

Salvage Cycler — spend the thing you hoped to keep

What it does. Cycler has a material bay, an activation-trigger input and one response output. A valid activation consumes the selected salvage and emits its inspected one-shot response: normalized conductive 2 U charge, pressure 2 U force, or brittle fragments.

What the player can see. Different samples produce visibly different responses in a waste processor. Observation does not grant a hidden recipe.

Why carry it. At 2/2, it turns a find into a chosen payload but permanently spends material that could return home or serve a project. Protected objectives refuse before activation. Once eligible material commits, a later receiver refusal never refunds it. Manual → Cycler → Projector creates a cargo-spending shot; conductive Cycler → Fork → Arc + Capacitor branches charge. Its proposed contexts are a human waste processor or alien sorting machine.

Stride Switch — make deliberate movement an input

What it does. This source has one trigger output. It emits after the astronaut deliberately traverses a shown distance while grounded and the switch is ready. Conveyor travel, rig-produced shove, recoil and enemy knockback do not count. Temporary Inward Draft changes only a Stride-sourced Nozzle action; it never makes forced motion a trigger.

What the player can see. A rehabilitation gait plate pulses after measured voluntary steps but ignores a rolling bed.

Why carry it. At 1/1, it makes relocation operate the rig but is silent while stationary, displaced, below threshold or unready. Its own descendants cannot walk it into retriggering. Stride → Projector supports kiting fire; a Stride packet may trigger a configured Capacitor release into Barrier while the astronaut relocates. A physical-therapy or maintenance pace counter can demonstrate it.

Vector Nozzle — turn a packet into position

What it does. Nozzle has one packet input. When ready, it vents along the player-set facing. It pushes eligible external bodies and objects away and gives the astronaut opposite recoil; a force payload increases both qualitatively. Collision impacts retain the incoming wave. Inward Draft temporarily replaces only a Stride-sourced pulse with its named rear pull.

What the player can see. A decontamination air knife pushes loose covers while its frame kicks against the mount.

Why carry it. At 2/2, it buys lane control, setup or escape, but needs facing and clearance and cannot move station regions, sealed machinery or designated immovable threats. Recoil and pushed motion cannot trigger Stride. Manual → Nozzle separates astronaut and threat; Cycler pressure → Nozzle creates cargo-fed control. The same part may operate a decontamination curtain or gurney-positioning jet.

Three legal causal sequences

These are worked references, not mandatory recipes. Before a manual discharge, the player faces or positions the relevant actuator and sees its selected valid target and readiness. With no acceptable first receiver, release refuses before starting a wave or spending stored charge. A later refusal after commitment does not restore charge.

1. Four-space opening branch — optional reconfiguration

Move Manual Trigger to inactive cargo, mount the found Fork while the world runs, then use the paused journal to link Threat Sensor → Fork → Pulse Projector + Barrier Plate. The active rig is 4 A / 4 C; inactive Manual still uses 1 C / 0 A. Sensor offers one target-conditioned event. Projector and Barrier check independently: Projector fires when its own target and readiness accept; a ready Barrier also acts; an unready branch does nothing, stores nothing and queues nothing.

2. Six-space Counterwall — defence becomes storage

Under the proposed navigation-coupler 6 A ship configuration, mount Manual Trigger (1), Barrier (1), Dynamo (1), Capacitor (1) and Arc Emitter (2): 6 C / 6 A. Manual → Barrier is a faced special. Dynamo clamps to that Barrier frame. Each later enemy strike is a separate external wave; Dynamo emits exactly 2 U for an eligible wave and Capacitor stores up to 4 U. The later built-in manual 2 U release starts a new wave only after the ready targeted Arc accepts as its first receiver. The rig spends all six spaces on defence and dense-target discharge; attacks stopping, barrier failure, sparse enemies or saturation break its payoff.

3. Seven-space Storm Choir — automatic charge, manual climax

Sensor (1) → Projector (1) supplies ordinary fire. Dynamo (1) clamps to Projector’s impact feed and sends 2 U through Fork (1) to Arc (2) and Capacitor (1): 7 C / 7 A, or 9 C with one 2 C canister. When both branches accept, Arc spends 1 U and Capacitor stores 1 U; four such contributions fill an empty store. Echoing Arc branches the electrical action through nearby bodies without creating charge or a signal output.

Thunderhead temporarily gives those same six parts a manual full-store mode: Capacitor → Fork → Arc + Projector. With both branches eligible, 4 U divides 2/2. Arc releases three chain heads while Projector cuts a pressure lance. If only one branch is eligible it receives the full 4 U but uses only its named 2 U effect tier and vents excess; missing a branch never doubles coverage. The player crosses toward a dense connected crowd and chooses the release. Separation and cover break its reach, and the base has no Barrier.

Current temporary transformations

These are the current detailed catalogue versions. Build Comparison proposes different Ricochet and Gravity control fantasies; those alternatives have not replaced the rules below.

Ricochet Foundry — current stored-master-disc version

Sensor → Projector supplies automatic fire; Projector impacts → Dynamo → Capacitor stores charge. Manual → Nozzle is a separate shove. The six parts total 7 C / 7 A, or 9 C with one canister.

Rebound Disc turns an accepted ordinary shot into a physical flight with a committed direction. It banks only from a stationary hard face whose preview shows a clear reflection; other endings are marked terminals. Fragment Wake adds a forward fan at each normal terminal. Foundry Drop spends a full store through Capacitor → Projector for one larger master disc and fan with the same bank/terminal behavior. Nozzle may move eligible bodies or loose cover before a disc arrives but never steers the disc. Open space and a fan facing cover can spoil the setup; spending the shove on geometry may remove the escape tool.

Each parent disc keeps its operating reservation and flight slot through its final fragment, even if Projector is ready again. The current limit is three ordinary parent sequences and one master parent sequence, with separate exact travel, contact, rebound and fragment allowances in Mechanical Interfaces. This base has no Barrier. The proposed alternative instead removes Dynamo, Capacitor and the master disc and lets Nozzle force visible disc terminals; it remains unselected.

Gravity Furnace — current stored-heat version

Stride (1) → Nozzle (2) supplies outward movement pulses. Sensor (1) → Projector (1), with impacts → Dynamo (1) → Capacitor (1), charges the store; Lens (1) is mounted for conversion. The seven parts total 8 C / 8 A. One canister fills all ten carrying units.

Inward Draft turns only Stride-sourced Nozzle pulses into rear pulls. Fresh voluntary movement is required; force, recoil and conveyor motion never retrigger it. Furnace Burst spends the full store through Capacitor → Lens → Projector for one heat lance and terminating bloom. The player gathers a dangerous wake, then turns to release or escape. This base has no Barrier or free salvage space; fixed or sealed objects stay put, hard cover divides pull and bloom, and ranged enemies keep attacking. The proposed alternative replaces Dynamo/Capacitor storage with temporary Heatstep embers created by the movement rhythm; it remains unselected.

One manual climax rule

Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst all use Capacitor’s built-in chosen-release control. At a full store, a brief visible manual-ready hold protects the required actuators’ next natural-ready instant before automatic fire consumes it. Pressing early arms only that opportunity. Receiver, target, route and complete power/heat overlap must still pass before 4 U commits. Cancellation, refusal or lapse spends nothing and releases ordinary fire; after a lapse another hold needs another press. Acceptance spends the store. A later miss or obstruction refunds nothing. Dispatch gates the conflicting ordinary connections, then restores charging automatically without a journal edit or free readiness; already committed effects retain their demand and finite allowance.

A developed climax defeats an ordinary Presser it validly reaches. A special body still consumes a body slot, but whether it survives remains combat-strength tuning; no current role gains an unstated resistance.

Regular fighting supplies temporary growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones. Every new expedition renews combat populations and growth opportunities while permanent changes remain. Exact cadence, milestones and early-seal rewards are open; Combat Rules owns them. All temporary upgrades and unchosen offers end on every return aboard.

Exact shared boundaries

Independent paths and overlapping demand

Each automatic actuator owns its shown reach, target rule and readiness. When its connected source offers a valid target and it is ready, that actuator commits its own launch. Several ordinary launch paths, or several compatible actuators behind Fork, may coexist only when mounted rig space, carrying space and every visible power/heat state that can actually overlap permit them. One refusing branch never suppresses a ready sibling. Mutually exclusive modes are checked as separate peaks rather than one impossible maximum.

The journal preview shows each source, selected target, readiness and actual overlapping demand, including effects already in flight. A transformed disc keeps its reservation through its final fragment. Rebound’s opening launch/Barrier interlock, three ordinary slots and one master slot remain occupied through those fragments.

Accepted, refused and committed

1. In the fully paused journal, the edit preview checks accessible link direction/type and each possible concurrent demand state. An invalid or over-supply proposal refuses without changing links.
2. Each automatic actuator separately checks readiness and its source/actuator valid-target condition. Failure holds it ready and creates no launch.
3. On launch commit, the actuator seals one target and spends its readiness. The physical flight executes once and does not retarget.
4. Each descendant receiver checks its link, type, readiness/storage, target, heat and allocated threshold on arrival. Refusal affects only that branch and refunds no upstream commit.
5. A complete action reserves its stated heat and demand before commitment. Its routes, hops, bodies, rebounds, penetration, flight and fragments then spend only their visible finite allowance. Cover or exhaustion ends the effect; there is no hidden per-victim heat charge.
6. Readiness returns only after its natural live-time recovery. Becoming ready, partial or full emits nothing.

Cycler makes the distinction tangible: a protected or invalid selection refuses before consumption; once a valid selected material commits, a later Projector refusal loses that response and does not return the salvage. Capacitor similarly keeps charge when its first receiver refuses before release, but does not refund it after that receiver accepts and a later link or physical target fails.

Why feedback stops

An automatic launch, manual activation, enemy strike or environmental event begins one causal sequence. Permanent parts and temporary effects give that sequence named finite route/body budgets. Arc’s physical electrical path has no signal output. A descendant cannot refill the allowance, refresh the readiness or release the operating reservation that created it, or mint usable U. Dynamo contributes at most once for an eligible external wave. Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst descendants remain ineligible for Dynamo even after charging restores. Later independent ordinary impacts or enemy attacks may charge storage as new waves only when their local carrier and receivers accept. A stopped route never refunds committed charge or heat.

Carrying, discovery and station use

Voluntary return or death brings every still-carried part aboard, including parts mounted in the rig. Consumed Cycler material remains spent. A part deliberately dropped or installed in a station or ship fixture remains there as the same object; it is not also aboard. Equipment Acquisition and Rig Growth owns the one-instance lifecycle and the current unselected acquisition alternatives.

The current acquisition default is to find functioning parts in named station fixtures after observing their individual behavior. The player may leave one operating, remove that exact object and lose only its named local function, revisit it, or reinstall the same instance. Observation-led fabrication is the main alternative and remains unselected. A discovery context in this catalogue therefore says only where behavior could be learned; it does not promise how the part is obtained, a duplicate, or a recipe.

Picking up, mounting, removing and operating a physical fixture happen while enemies and oxygen remain live. Compatible link edits among already mounted accessible parts happen in the fully paused journal. The pause changes no readiness, oxygen or enemy position. Link edits change connections, not ownership or capacity.

A part may fit a visibly compatible station service port. Fork can split a service pulse, Dynamo can expose one local impact response and Nozzle can test a pressure path. Individual behavior and direct-port validity may be shown. A part name or port never translates alien text, identifies an unseen destination, proves a historical interpretation or chooses the whole-station binding mechanism.

Open questions

• Acquisition: functioning found parts versus observation-led fabrication; exact source, removal and recovery geometry.
• True active area, part shapes, port multiplicity, fixture eligibility and discovery order.
• Target override and aiming assistance for Threat Sensor.
• Duplicate quantity, stacking and frequency.
• Final power, heat, readiness, route, effect and operating-supply values.
• Whether stored Capacitor charge survives a return aboard or other property transitions.
• Exact brittle-fragment output from Salvage Cycler.
• Whether specials survive the climaxes; combat-strength tuning remains open.
• Exact regular-growth meter, pickups, cadence, choice presentation and major milestones; rewards for avoiding a fight or sealing early.
• Whether the current detailed Ricochet and Gravity versions or the Build Comparison alternatives better serve distinct ridiculous-build fantasies.
• Progression Options says Projector “automatically launches” without naming a controller, while Build Rules and the opening give it a trigger input fed by Threat Sensor. This catalogue follows Build Rules; a self-triggering Projector needs a separate decision.
• These rules are untested. The twelve-part catalogue and every numerical value remain proposals.