**Status.** Conditional first-pass operating candidate. It makes the advertised opening, local interface cases and three later horde-scale build climaxes determinate enough for written accounting. The owner-selected directions are connected reusable parts, mostly automatic ordinary fire, manual specials, limited carried oxygen, unlimited ship oxygen, one shared carrying capacity, carried-property return and reset of temporary combat upgrades on every return home. The **10 C / 4 A comparison baseline, four-part starting inventory, every amount and threshold, power/heat limit and fixture detail introduced here are proposed**, replaceable and unvalidated. This article adds no implementation, asset, balance result, campaign claim or answer to any pending owner question.

[Build Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Rules) explains connected machines and temporary upgrades. The [Equipment Catalogue](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment%20Catalogue) describes each reusable part; [Equipment Acquisition and Rig Growth](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment%20Acquisition%20And%20Rig%20Growth) covers finding and carrying them. [Survival and Loadout](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Survival%20And%20Loadout) explains oxygen and packing choices.

Support several **independent ordinary launch paths** when the mounted rig, carrying manifest and visible power budget allow them. Every automatic actuator owns its shown reach, target rule and readiness; each commits its own launch when its connected event source offers a valid target and it is ready. Fork may also carry one committed event to compatible descendants. Repeated arcs, rebounds, penetration and blooms use a visible finite route/body budget; a descendant cannot refill the budget, readiness or power that created it. Manual Trigger and chosen Capacitor release remain distinct manual sources. In normalized packet examples a committed Dynamo or either stated Cycler response carries **2 usable units (U)**, Fork divides usable payload in a fixed output order without amplification, Capacitor holds **4 U**, and its default chosen manual release spends **2 U** only after its first receiver accepts. U determines receiver acceptance and authored effect tier, not damage per victim. Failed later receivers never rewind an upstream commit. A proposed later backplane supplies **10 operating points (P)** and each component has **16 heat (H)** capacity under the horde-scale comparison below; accepted actions reserve their full stated heat and power before they advertise full coverage. The opening remains a separate **10 C / 4 A / 6 P** comparison with the existing oxygen sheet. These numbers determine written cases only; they prove no route safe, build balanced or effect readable.

An ordinary launch path consists of one event source, one named automatic actuator and any compatible changing or delivery parts between or after them. Threat Sensor observes its shown arc; each connected Pulse Projector or other automatic actuator owns its own reach, readiness and target validity. While an actuator is ready, the nearest visible valid hostile inside the intersection of source arc and actuator reach is selected. Positioning may change that candidate until this actuator commits. No candidate holds another path ready, spends its readiness or creates a shared reservation. At commitment, that actuator seals one target and spends its own readiness; its projectile never retargets.

Several such paths may coexist. Sensor→Projector and Stride→a second Projector are legal if both mounted chains fit and the previewed concurrent demand does not exceed the rig's visible power supply. Each checks and fires independently. The same is true of two automatic actuators behind a compatible Fork: the event is shared, but each receiver keeps its own readiness and target. One refusing branch never suppresses a ready sibling. Manual Trigger, chosen manual Capacitor release and a temporary effect's labelled full-store command remain independent manual sources under their own rules.

Stride Switch emits only for its accepted deliberate grounded-movement gate. Conveyor motion, shove and recoil remain invalid. A qualifying traversal may therefore launch its connected ready actuator while a Sensor path independently watches another arc, or may end in a non-launch response such as a configured Capacitor→Barrier release. Shared physical inputs, port compatibility and target rules still apply locally; legal possession never guarantees that two plugs fit the same socket.

The rig preview checks compatible links and visible operating demand before a link edit commits. It sums components that can operate in the same causal interval. Mutually exclusive link layouts, gated modes and buffered charge-versus-discharge states show separate peak demands rather than one impossible all-maxima total; every state that can actually overlap must fit supply. Thunderhead's journal preview includes both of its visible modes and demand that can overlap from already launched effects: gating new launches does not erase projectiles or their remaining effects. A proposal with an unsafe state refuses without changing current links. A legal multi-output rig pays for its coverage in active space, carrying space, power and heat. This article now gives explicit replaceable supply, draw, heat, readiness and cooling quantities for the bounded comparison; they are proposed rather than owner-selected and do not disguise a single-launch cap.

1. **Edit preview:** in the fully paused journal, accessible port direction/type and each possible concurrent demand state are checked. Invalid or over-supply proposals refuse without changing the current links. Physical pickup, mounting and removal remain live-world actions.

5. **Return:** an arc extension, projectile rebound or other named return spends one echo from that causal sequence and adds its stated heat. With no echo, target or heat headroom, the branch ends visibly. A descendant cannot refill the echo budget, readiness or power that created it.

| Arc Emitter | Minimum **1 U** charged trigger; it spends its delivered packet on that one action |

4. If both pass, Fork divides the amount as evenly as whole U allow: output 1 receives the larger share when odd, output 2 the smaller. Thus 1 U divides 1/0, 2 U divides 1/1 and 3 U divides 2/1. Total assigned never exceeds input.

An external launch, manual activation, enemy strike or environmental event starts one causal sequence. A permanent part or temporary expedition upgrade may attach a visible finite budget measured in routes, rebounds, bodies, penetration or fragments. A physical effect cannot revisit signal receivers unless its effect actually supplies a signal output; ordinary Arc Emitter arcs do not. A descendant cannot refill the same sequence's budget, refresh the readiness already spent to create it or mint usable U from its own output. A later automatic firing cycle, new manual activation or separate enemy strike starts a new sequence with its own budget.

Arc Emitter's proposed base action uses one chain route: the selected initial target plus at most **five** new bodies, each reached by a line-of-effect hop of at most **2.5 metres**, all within **10 metres** of the initial target. It never visits one body twice. Hard cover, an insulated target, missing line of effect or exhaustion of six bodies ends that route. The temporary **Echoing Arc** reserves its full 6 H and adds **two** further chain routes branching from already struck bodies into different available directions. Each added route may reach at most **six new bodies** under the same hop/radius/cover rules, for at most **18 unique bodies** in the complete accepted action. It creates no packet, signal output or U, and the body count does not charge Dynamo.

| **Discharge** | One accepted manual command routes Capacitor→Fork, with output 1→Arc and output 2→Projector. A full-store release spends 4 U; with both branches eligible, Fork divides 2/2. Arc uses that 2 U to open three simultaneous base chain heads; Projector uses 2 U for one penetrating pressure lance. | New ordinary launches and charging connections are gated during dispatch, so neither Fork nor Projector receives two simultaneous plugs at its one input. Existing committed projectiles/effects are not erased or restarted. A sole eligible branch receives 4 U under Fork's rule but accepts at most the named 2 U effect tier and visibly vents the excess; no missing branch doubles coverage. |

**Coverage.** The 2 U Arc branch selects the ordinary initial target plus at most two additional eligible seed bodies within **4 metres** of it. Each seed starts one six-body base route under the normal hop, radius and cover rules, without duplicate bodies, for at most **18**. If Echoing Arc is also present, its two additional six-body routes apply once to the whole action, not once per seed, raising the Arc branch to at most **30 unique bodies**. The Projector branch commits one **14-metre by 1.5-metre** lance through its shown initial target and at most **12 unique ordinary bodies**. Hard cover or an absorbing heavy ends the lance. Together the two branches can visibly affect at most **42 unique bodies** when their paths do not overlap; this is coverage, not 42 copied U or a guarantee that resistant bodies die.

**No self-recharge.** Every descendant of the burst wave is ineligible to produce a Dynamo contribution, including the pressure lance's later impact after charging mode restores. Arc still has no signal output or usable U. Restored links supply neither energy nor a new event: only later independent eligible external impacts can refill the store. Thunderhead adds finite seeded coverage but no permanent part, free U or readiness. Another burst needs a later source-backed recharge and chosen command.

| Opening starter parts | Threat Sensor, Projector, Manual Trigger, Barrier: **1 C / 1 A each** | Active total **4 C / 4 A** |

| Integral suit tank | **12 O**, outside C/A | Refillable aboard; active breathing source |

- **Stage/commit:** pressing the control starts one world-time poll wave. Poll-gate opening commits that branch; display arming commits its branch. The fixed bus sample commits only when the poll gate reaches its sampling detent. A simultaneously armed latch then holds that sample for direct observation; capture into evidence is a separate world-time action.

- **Incomplete/interrupted:** if valve accepts while compressor refuses, the vessel may reach at most ordinary-full and remains ordinary-full/partial, never prepared-full. During an accepted compression cycle, cancellation or lost power preserves the exact amount already in the vessel; an 8–11 O vessel is labelled partial with a last completed amount and can resume. No incomplete cycle awards the prepared-full state.

- **Stage/commit:** preview arrows → hand-cycle selector → final detent commits mode. Afterward, pressing test admits one pulse at the input contact; the pulse commit is separate from mode commit. A valid forward test visibly produces B; reverse produces A.

| **Survival And Loadout** | Reference the proposed O/C sheet, reserve mark and transfer arithmetic; keep incremental conservation, free ordinary refill and non-restoration of prepared surplus. |

| **Home And Colony Loop** | Owns commissioning, later solo operation, one lent part and completed products, and links here for collar and bench control details. |

| **Build Rules** | Adopt the same multi-output envelope, paused mounted-link editing, finite echo conservation and numeric split/storage example without turning it into an exhaustive port/duplicate grammar. Keep physical pickup, mounting and removal in live world time. |

| **Player Information And Options** | Add visible 6/8/10 P state, 16 H/local cooling, committed route/body budget, transformed projectile reservations and Foundry/Furnace mode availability/refusal/restoration. Keep the ordinary view focused on source/target/readiness, heat, manual availability and the physical path rather than displaying every equation. |

The mechanical handoff is therefore finite: each ordinary launch source and actuator identity, selected target/readiness commit, causal-sequence identity, remaining route/rebound/body/fragment budget, local heat/recovery, transformed projectile reservation, Thunderhead/Foundry/Furnace temporary mode and burst ancestry, possible concurrent demand including already launched effects, per-branch block/allocation/refusal, exact stored U, exact vessel O/fill label, installed/carried fixture location, reward-stage identity/state, current mechanism stage, last committed checkpoint, fixed/reversible mode and whether an observation was locally performed or separately captured. It is not a complete scheduler or exhaustive engine state matrix.

**Candidate choice.** Allow several independent ordinary launch paths, each with its own source, target and readiness, bounded by visible rig space, carrying, 6/8/10 P supply and 16 H local capacity. Replace tiny universal echo assumptions with named finite geometry contracts: Storm chains, Ricochet paths/fragments and Gravity pull/lance/bloom. Keep conservative Fork division, 4 U storage, ordinary 2 U release and explicit full-store temporary modes with automatic restoration. This lets three existing-part rigs affect roughly dozens of bodies by different player actions without unbounded feedback.

**Accepted cost.** Broad effects require route/body counters, in-flight reservations and visible local heat without hiding the fight. Exact finite caps can feel game-like, and 10 P/16 H may be too generous or too punitive. Storm can fail against separation, Ricochet can fail when authored rooms lack hard angles, and Gravity can make ranged/heavy enemies dominate. Fork order, lost shares and vented overflow remain. Adding supply to the same ship assemblies can make them feel more mandatory. None of the counts, seconds, radii, effect strength or readability is validated.

**Smaller supported variant.** Give the opening backplane a visible supply that powers one direct Sensor→Projector or Stride→Projector path, while keeping the same general legality and later allowing additional automatic outputs through found supply. Keep the quantity sheet and fixed storage policy, and omit Fork branching from opening ordinary fire. Counterwall, Cycler and paused-link descendants remain. This loses the opening's Sensor→Fork→Projector+Barrier control trade but does not impose a universal one-launch rule or delete any accepted part or rig source.

**Open rather than invented.** Duplicate quantity/stacking, final target override, odd payload sources beyond the stated rule, complete damage/health/strength tables, exact encounter delays and reward cadence, actual route support, every overflow/port/geometry variant, final screens and accessibility equivalents, fabrication versus found parts, retained charge across death, survivor air/mortality, population continuity, save policy, completed-station stabilization and all campaign/economy tuning remain with their owners. The P/H/coverage/readiness values here are explicit replaceable hypotheses, not owner selections. Pending owner questions are unanswered.

**Later discrimination.** Only a later owner-authorized implementation and observation could test whether route/body budgets, several target/readiness displays, power/heat, lost shares, storage, fixture recovery and packing choices are comprehensible or enjoyable; whether the horde visibly breaks without effect soup; whether 42–48-body climaxes are too small or too dominant; or whether one geometry/build wins too often. Written accounting demonstrates finite conservation and possible overlap only.

The article contains the controller/reward contract, one opening quantity sheet, four existing local interface cards, eight unchanged A–H paper cases and three horde-scale transformation ladders. It keeps **10 C / 4 A**, bridge/regulator **2 C**, suit/canister O values, transfer arithmetic, both assembly **2 C** values, Dynamo/Cycler **2 U**, Capacitor **4 U** and default **2 U** release. It proposes **6/8/10 P**, **16 H**, explicit readiness/cooling and finite coverage: Echoing Arc 18; Thunderhead 30 Arc + 12 lance; Rebound/Fragment 30 per disc with three possible flights; Foundry Drop 48; Inward Draft 12 per pulse and Furnace Burst 48. Storm/Ricochet remain 7 C/7 A and Gravity 8 C/8 A. Full-store commands auto-restore without granting readiness; every burst descendant remains barred from Dynamo recharge. Existing property, gas, fixture, stage and refusal accounting remains intact.