Hold The Horde — Mechanical Interfaces And Opening Quantities

Status. Conditional first-pass operating candidate. It makes the advertised opening, Counterwall and heat-lance examples determinate enough for paper 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.

Related rules

Build Rules explains connected machines and temporary upgrades. The Equipment Catalogue describes each reusable part; Equipment Acquisition and Rig Growth covers finding and carrying them. Survival and Loadout explains oxygen and packing choices.

Enemy behavior is in the Combat and Enemy Roster, individual challenges in Encounter and Mechanism Placement, and their spaces in Station Rooms. Home and Colony and Discovery in a Changing Station explain why these systems matter to the expedition and the people aboard.

Death, Shift and Rescue Continuity owns return and property ordering. Player Information and Options owns presentation and accessibility. The Owner Brief records the requirements; the quantities and local interface examples here remain design proposals.

Candidate in one paragraph

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 and returns spend a visible finite echo budget and add heat; 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. Failed later receivers never rewind an upstream commit. For the proposed opening comparison, use 10 C / 4 A, a 12 O suit tank, 8 O ordinary canister, 12 O prepared canister, continuous base drain of 1 O per 30 seconds, transfer of up to 3 O per 30 seconds while breathing continues, and a player-set suit reserve mark defaulting to 4 O. These numbers determine the following paper cases only; they prove no route safe or build balanced.

1. Supported controller and receiver envelope

The proposed supported envelope

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 and chosen manual Capacitor release 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. Firing and returns add their stated heat; a hot component follows its inspected pause or weakening rule instead of a hidden global firing priority. Exact supply, draw, heat thresholds and cooling rates remain open quantities rather than a disguised single-launch cap.

Boundary order

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.
2. Ordinary hold: each automatic actuator checks its own readiness and source/actuator shared valid-target condition. Failure holds that actuator ready; it creates no launch or downstream delivery and does not block another path.
3. Launch commit: that actuator seals one selected target and spends one readiness as its external event starts. The physical launch executes once and cannot retarget.
4. Descendant delivery: every receiving branch checks its own link, type, readiness/storage, target, heat state and allocated threshold when the packet arrives. Refusal affects only that branch and refunds no already committed upstream state.
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.
6. Recovery: each ordinary actuator becomes ready only through its stated world time. Readiness completion creates no target, trigger or wave.

The credible smaller tuning variant is a low-supply opening backplane that powers one ordinary path until the player installs a discovered supply assembly. It uses the same rules and makes the restriction a visible build cost rather than a universal topology ban. Whether the opening should begin that constrained remains an owner-facing quantity choice.

2. Fork allocation, storage and committed loss

Normalized quantities and receiver thresholds

U is a paper-accounting unit of usable packet payload, not a damage stat, battery currency or inventory item. A bare trigger has no U and is copied intact to every branch that accepts its trigger type. For the bounded examples:

These amounts say only whether an action accepts; they assign no damage, duration, barrier strength or enemy statistic.

Fork's fixed order

Fork's two outputs are visibly labelled 1 and 2. Resolution is once per incoming wave:

1. Each output first checks direct-link compatibility, payload type, present receiver readiness/storage and any required valid target. A branch failing one of those checks is blocked before allocation.
2. If neither branch passes, Fork emits nothing; the incoming payload is already committed and dissipates visibly at Fork.
3. If exactly one branch passes, that sole pre-allocation candidate receives the full incoming usable payload. It then applies its own minimum and maximum.
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.
5. Each candidate then checks whether its allocated share meets its minimum. A zero or sub-threshold share refuses. That share is not reallocated after the fact, buffered or copied; it dissipates visibly at Fork. An accepting receiver owns its share from that point.

This ordering distinguishes a branch known blocked before division from a branch that was otherwise ready but received too small a share. It preserves the existing rule that one sole pre-allocation candidate gets the full payload while making post-allocation threshold refusal determinate. A branch is not called accepting until its allocated share meets that receiver's minimum. Output priority on odd amounts is a legibility convention and an expressive cost: swapping the two links can matter. Full-copy Fork remains the stronger spectacle alternative, but would be amplification and would need a named source/cost rather than conservation language.

Capacitor receive, overflow and release

Capacitor stores exact accepted U from 0 through 4. At 0 it is empty; 1–3 is partial; 4 is full/saturated. If it has free space, it accepts at least 1 U. It stores up to that free space and vents any delivered overflow at its own inlet with a local saturation response. It never passes overflow onward in this candidate. At 4 it is blocked before Fork allocation. Becoming partial, release-ready at 2 U, full or no longer full is a state change, never a source event.

A chosen manual release first checks the directly connected first receiver's link/type, readiness and any target. At less than 2 U, or when that first receiver refuses, release refuses before commitment: no wave starts and all stored charge remains. If the first receiver accepts, the release commits, 2 U leaves storage immediately, and one new manual wave begins. The first receiver may convert or act. Any later downstream refusal dissipates the packet there; it never restores the 2 U. A rig-triggered release, if a later authored configuration uses one, retains the incoming wave and follows the same first-receiver gate.

An emitted Dynamo contribution is no longer held by Dynamo. A valid Cycler activation consumes its selected material before emitting its response. Fork refusal, Capacitor overflow, Lens conversion or a later actuator refusal can therefore lose payload without refunding the carrier impact, stored release or material. Conversely, the existing pre-release refusal is not a loss and never needs a refund because the charge never left storage.

This article deliberately does not decide whether stored Capacitor charge survives death, living return, storage removal or another expedition boundary. Save/global04 must represent the actual amount and apply their accepted owning policy once that policy exists. No case below uses death to settle retained charge.

Return effects and echo conservation

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 echo budget to that sequence. Each named arc extension, projectile rebound or explicitly authored signal return spends one echo and adds its stated heat. A physical effect cannot revisit signal receivers unless its effect actually supplies a signal output; ordinary Arc Emitter arcs do not. With no echo, valid target or heat headroom, that branch stops. A descendant cannot refill the same sequence's echo 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.

The proposed temporary Echoing Arc changes only Arc Emitter's target allowance for that accepted action: it grants two echoes, each extending the same physical discharge to one additional nearby valid target and adding heat. It creates no packet, signal output or U, so it cannot feed Dynamo.

Thunderhead: one manual command, two visible modes

Thunderhead is a proposed temporary modifier of the same six-part 7 C / 7 A Storm Choir: Threat Sensor (1), Pulse Projector (1), Impact Dynamo (1), Fork Relay (1), Arc Emitter (2) and Capacitor (1), with each amount applying to both carrying and active space. The Capacitor's built-in chosen-release control supplies the manual command; no separate Manual Trigger, Barrier or permanent switching part is granted. Thunderhead provides two visible, mutually gated connection modes, previewed in the journal. Once the compatible mounted arrangement is configured, a burst and the return to charging require no journal link edit.

Before commitment. The command requires a full 4 U store, a compatible and accepting directly connected Fork, at least one branch that passes its existing link/type/readiness/target and allocation checks, and permitted power/heat for the actual possible overlap. The preview and command check include remaining demand from already in-flight effects, not only the selected mode's new work. If the command refuses, it starts no release wave, spends no charge or burst heat and leaves charging mode connected; a full store remains 4 U. The normal per-receiver checks still apply at delivery if conditions change after this preflight.

Commit, dispatch and automatic restoration. Acceptance commits one new manual wave, removes all 4 U immediately and adds the burst's high heat pulse. Thunderhead selects the discharge connections, hands the allocated payload to the branches and automatically restores the charging connections after that dispatch. A later receiver refusal dissipates its already committed share under the normal rules: it neither refunds the release nor prevents restoration. Already launched effects keep their committed wave, target and finite allowance; restoration does not replay a packet, erase a projectile or reset readiness, heat or echoes. Ordinary automatic firing resumes through Sensor when its existing target, world-time readiness and power/heat gates allow. Another burst requires a later source-backed recharge and another chosen command; it is not automatically repeated.

No self-recharge. This modifier makes every descendant of its burst wave ineligible to produce a Dynamo contribution, including a later physical Projector impact after charging mode has been restored. Arc already 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. If both charging branches accept those impacts, the same 1/1 trace builds toward the next 4 U burst. Echoing Arc's two finite extensions apply only if that separate temporary effect was earned; Thunderhead itself grants no extra echo, permanent part, U or readiness. Exact power and heat values remain open; the full-store spend, branch conservation, burst-ancestry exclusion and automatic mode restoration are explicit proposed rules.

Rebound Disc and Fragment Wake

The proposed temporary Rebound Disc changes a Projector shot's physical output and gives that sequence two echoes; each rebound spends one and adds Projector heat. Fragment Wake may change the final rebound into one terminating fragment burst with added demand and heat. The fragments retain the original sequence, grant no echo and cannot make Dynamo contribute again after its one contribution for that external wave. These named effects are examples of explicit temporary exceptions, not blanket permission for every physical output to return.

Provisional temporary stage reward state

Pending the owner's growth-rhythm choice, this reference models stage-only upgrades. Regular defeated-enemy growth plus larger milestone transformations is the alternative; its meter, thresholds, pickup behaviour and interruption cost are not defined here.

An eligible stage is one finite, announced pressure release from an identified physical source. It moves from uncommitted to unresolved when that release's attackers/arrivals commit. A physical closure completed before commitment prevents the release and gives no combat-upgrade offer; safety, access and mechanism-owned completed work remain its benefits. After commitment, it moves to spent and offers one temporary choice when the player clears all attackers committed to that release or completes a physical seal that ends their access. The seal stops further access but leaves already-arrived bodies active; quiet requires clearing or separating those bodies. Clearing the current lane while further committed attackers still feed is suppression, not resolution. If the committed finite release is cleared or its access is sealed before the announced peak, it pays immediately; no struggle threshold is required. Preventing commitment accepts less temporary growth in exchange for safety and access. Break and seal present the same choice even though their combat, oxygen and access costs may differ.

Escape leaves the stage unresolved and re-entry resumes it. A spent stage stays spent for the current station arrangement across a living return; reopening the same seal cannot pay again, and physical seal persistence follows its mechanism. A later release is a new eligible stage only when separately authored, announced and sourced. Death itself pays nothing. Every chosen temporary upgrade and any earned-but-unchosen offer expires on return aboard. Carried property, recorded knowledge and the unresolved stored-Capacitor persistence question remain separate.

Three to five meaningful choices are an illustrative sustained-outing cadence, not a quota or current-route claim: foundation, branch, then refinements or changes, with an optional larger authored stage able to offer a transformation. A short trip can earn one and cleared travel earns none. The state rule does not guarantee that the next eligible frontier is near after reset.

3. Opening quantity sheet

Proposed comparison quantities

Ordinary ship refill adds oxygen only up to 8 O. It neither vents an above-ordinary partial nor recreates prepared surplus. A completed packing-bench cycle can raise an eligible vessel to 12 O. Every transfer is incremental and conserved: oxygen leaving a canister enters the suit, while base drain in the same interval is separately breathed and spent. Transfer automatically stops when the suit reaches 12 O or the selected vessel reaches 0 O; any amount the transfer rate could not move because of either boundary remains where it already was. No oxygen quantity heals, creates charge or readies a part.

Declared opening arithmetic assumptions

For the paper cases only, treat the currently walked opening as: ship/R01→R02 board one 30-second interval; R02→R03 rack one; the same return two; one fastener stage two; Fork install or reclaim one each; bridge pickup one. No enemy delay, displacement, tether, door wait, wrong turn or unseen route is included. Under base drain alone, direct out-and-back plus one fastener and bridge pickup consumes 7 O. Adding both Fork installation and reclaim consumes 9 O. A full 12 O suit would therefore show 5 O or 3 O respectively before any combat cost. Crossing the proposed 4 O reserve is information, not proof that return fails or succeeds. For each hand check, account for breathing and transfer over the actual time before a ceiling or empty stop; full-interval totals apply only while transfer continues for that whole interval. Breathing continues after transfer stops.

These assumptions explain arithmetic; they are not final action timings, safe-route certification, balance, comfort, campaign duration or a promise the R02/R03 route remains available after death.

4. Four existing local interface cards

Ship collar receiver

• Source/input/control: fixed ship power, the existing collar monitoring bus and fixed maintenance poll control provide one bare trigger to a seated Fork. Fork output 1 reaches the addressed poll gate; output 2 reaches the display latch. The sensor value returns through the fixed collar bus, never through Fork.
• Ready/refusal: the fixture must be commissioned, the one known address selected, Fork seated and bus powered. Poll-gate neutrality and a cleared display latch are separate branch-readiness conditions; each branch checks independently. A missing Fork or both branches blocked refuses at the control. One accepting branch may act, but a dated receiver reading requires both the poll sample and display latch for the same poll.
• 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 poll accepts but display refuses, the gate performs one addressed sample into a temporary local buffer marked unlatched. Only that incomplete-status mark is shown: the buffered value is not player-readable, cannot be captured and is not a completed dated reading. If display arms but poll refuses, it times out empty. Power loss or cancellation before sampling detent yields no sample; after detent it leaves only that unreadable unlatched buffer until clear/retry. Neither outcome proves collar pressure, sensor health, route or safety.
• Recovery/removal: clearing the latch/buffer discards any unlatched sample, then restored readiness permits a wholly new poll; incomplete branches never secretly pair across attempts. Fork may be reclaimed only after the active poll is cancelled or settled. Reclaiming that same instance darkens future polling but does not erase a completed observed/captured reading. Lost power ends live value; stored evidence remains dated.

Ship packing bench

• Source/input/control: fixed ship power, unlimited ship oxygen, the installed compressor head and fixed packing control provide one bare trigger through seated Fork. Output 1 opens the ship-supply valve; output 2 starts the compressor cycle. The selected vessel is the actual receiver of gas.
• Ready/refusal: every operation requires the commissioned bench, one eligible vessel physically seated with its securing clamp closed, Fork installed and both controls neutral. With that prerequisite met, the valve accepts any vessel below 12 O. The compressor accepts only when the vessel begins that wave at least ordinary-full (8 O) and below prepared-full. A secured 0–7 O vessel therefore lets the valve accept while the compressor independently refuses for below ordinary-full; prepared-full refuses both. An ineligible, unsecured or absent vessel refuses before any gas moves.
• Stage/commit: gas transfer commits incrementally to the vessel. A valve-only wave can ordinary-fill toward 8 O but cannot cross it. On a later wave beginning at 8–11 O, both branches accept; the valve supplies gas while the compressor packs above ordinary fill, and each received O is real. At 12 O the completed cycle commits prepared-full. The Fork supplies neither gas nor energy.
• 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.
• Recovery/removal: secure the vessel, correct branch readiness and run or resume from the exact vessel amount. Ordinary refill can raise a lower vessel to 8 O but cannot restore 9–12 O prepared surplus after use. Fork reclaim first cancels or settles the active cycle, then returns the same object; completed gas remains. Removing Fork prevents another cycle, not ordinary ship refill.

R26 reversible A↔B service transformer

• Source/input/control: R26's fixed room service circuit and current diagnostic supply receive an actually present A pulse at the selected forward input or B pulse at the selected reverse input. The local hand selector chooses forward A→B or reverse B→A; its final detent commits mode. A separate local test control admits one current pulse. Nozzle and the air knife are separate.
• Ready/refusal: the mechanical selector position and direction arrows are locally readable, and the hand selector can reach its committing detent without diagnostic power. An actual pulse test requires current diagnostic power, the matching input type/direction, clear fixed circuit and an inspectable output contact. Missing power/input, wrong incoming type or busy output refuses before the test pulse commits. It changes no mode or walking join.
• 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.
• Incomplete/interrupted: interruption before selector detent leaves the prior mode; after detent the mode persists. Cancellation before pulse admission spends no pulse. Power loss after admission but before output dissipates that temporary pulse and yields an interrupted local observation, not a false output or stored proof.
• Recovery/removal: restore current power/input and test again. The transformer is a fixed room service circuit, not a portable part; it has no removal action. Removing Vector Nozzle stops only the air knife. Mode survives power loss, while diagnostic output does not. Walking access and persistent latches remain separately inspectable.

R33 fixed A→R exchanger

• Source/input/control: R33's immutable exchanger accepts a current A pulse at its marked A-input face and exposes R at its marked output. A local dead-load test control admits one available pulse; it has no reverse or mode selector.
• Ready/refusal: a test requires current diagnostic power, actual A input, an idle exchanger and clear output contact/dead load. Absent input, B/R input, lost power or occupied output refuses before admission. Carrying an A-family part or knowing an old route is not current input.
• Stage/commit: local preview shows fixed A-in/R-out; pressing and holding the test reaches one admission detent. That detent commits the input pulse. The exchanger then emits one R pulse if power/output remain valid. Observation of both contacts establishes only this local performed transformation.
• Incomplete/interrupted: cancel before admission spends nothing. Power loss after admission but before output dissipates the pulse and leaves an interrupted test indication; it does not create R, reverse the device or modify a join. If a downstream receiver refuses after R emission, the pulse dissipates there and the committed A input is not restored.
• Recovery/removal: clear the output, restore power/current A input and perform a new test. The fixed exchanger is not removable and stores no charge. Capturing the observed transform is separate world-time evidence work. Diagnostic power can disappear while the physical room and all walkable latches remain.

5. Eight bounded paper cases

A. Four-A split opening

Before: active Sensor 1/1 → Fork 1/1 → Projector 1/1 + Barrier 1/1 is 4 C / 4 A. Manual Trigger is inactive but still 1 C / 0 A, so equipment uses 5 C. Projector is ready with one nearest visible valid hostile; Barrier is unready.

Action: Sensor presents one bare trigger to both branches. Projector checks its own ready state and target, commits that target and spends its readiness to launch once. Barrier independently refuses because it is unready. Its refusal neither cancels Projector nor queues a later response.

After: one shot exists in the one wave. Barrier performs nothing, stores nothing and queues nothing; Manual still occupies 1 C. Barrier later becoming ready emits no event. A second automatic actuator would be legal if its own links, space, power, heat, target and readiness passed; this four-A rig simply does not contain one.

B. Eight-A heat-lance split, threshold and paused link edit

Before: Sensor1 + Projector1 + Dynamo1 + Fork1 + Arc2 + Capacitor1 + Lens1 is 8 C / 8 A. Sensor→Projector is this rig's automatic launch path; Dynamo clamps to Projector output; its 2 U goes through Fork output1→Arc and output2→Capacitor. Both accept, Capacitor starts 0/4. The rules would allow another automatic actuator, but this manifest spends its eight spaces on branching, storage and conversion instead.

Action 1: the first committed Projector impact makes Dynamo emit exactly 2 U regardless of how many qualifying impacts that carrier batched in the wave. Fork divides 1/1. Arc meets its 1 U minimum and acts; Capacitor stores 1 U. It is partial and below the 2 U release threshold. As a separate paper alternative replacing output2→Capacitor, output2→Lens would give Lens only 1 U and refuse for insufficient share. It is not simultaneously connected, does not share Projector's already occupied input and creates no amplification.

Action 2: on a later valid ordinary wave Arc is unready before allocation, so Capacitor is the sole pre-allocation candidate and receives the full 2 U. It now holds 3/4. With all parts already mounted and accessible, the player opens the fully paused journal, previews the compatible change, disconnects Sensor from Projector and connects Capacitor manual release→Lens→Projector. No enemy, oxygen, readiness or heat state advances during that link edit. The player then closes the journal and selects a valid displayed Projector target. A pickup, physical mount or removal would still take live-world time.

Action 3: Lens accepts the 2 U first receiver check, so release commits, Capacitor falls to 1/4 and Lens converts the charge to heat. Before Projector resolves, its target becomes invalid behind hard cover. Projector refuses. The heat packet dissipates there; the 2 U is not refunded and the edited links remain as shown. The case determines failure without asserting heat damage or build strength.

C. Counterwall partial, full, saturation and pre-release refusal

Before: Manual→Barrier, Dynamo clamped to Barrier, Capacitor and manual release→Arc use 6 C / 6 A. Capacitor is 0/4; Arc is unready. Enemy strike one and strike two are separate external waves.

First strike: Barrier physically catches it; Dynamo emits 2 U and Capacitor stores 2/4. The player requests release, but Arc is the first receiver and is unready. Release refuses before commit: no wave starts and Capacitor remains 2/4. Nothing was spent, so no refund occurs.

Second strike: a later distinct enemy attack produces another 2 U. Capacitor accepts it and becomes 4/4 full. Readiness/fullness creates no event. A third qualifying strike while it is saturated finds Capacitor blocked; if no other pre-allocation candidate exists, Dynamo's already emitted 2 U dissipates and storage stays 4/4.

Release: once Arc is ready with a valid target, manual release commits 2 U, starts one new wave and leaves Capacitor 2/4. Arc accepts/spends the packet. No duplicate charge arises from its later readiness or the earlier refusal.

D. R23 Cycler spend and receiver refusal

Protected attempt: at R23 the player selects a protected evidence/objective item. The Cycler selection control refuses before activation commitment. Manual press starts no consumption, the protected object remains, and no response packet exists.

Eligible attempt: the player instead selects one normalized expendable pressure sample whose inspected response is 2 U of force. When Cycler accepts the activation, that material commits to consumed and the response enters the same manual wave. Before Pulse Projector receives it, the displayed target becomes invalid. Projector refuses locally and no shot occurs. The 2 U response dissipates; the consumed sample does not return, while the Cycler, Projector and unrelated carried goods remain their same instances. This defines a failed spend, not a salvage economy or recipe.

E. Retrieval-ready versus air-heavy opening

Capacity: retrieval-ready departs with four active starters (4 C) plus one canister (2 C): 6/10 C, four free. A carried Fork makes 7; the carried bridge makes 9; one 1 C loot item can make 10. Installing Fork at R02 temporarily removes its C from the manifest; reclaiming it restores the same 1 C. Air-heavy departs with four starters plus two canisters: 8/10 C. The 2 C bridge fits exactly, but Fork cannot also be carried unless a canister or another object is deliberately left/dropped; nothing is silently discarded.

Opening arithmetic: under the declared no-encounter assumptions, out/back + one fastener + bridge pickup consumes 7 O, taking a full suit from 12 to 5. Installing and reclaiming Fork adds two intervals and reaches 3 O, below the proposed 4 O reserve mark. That mark commands nothing, may not be presented as a route estimate and predicts no safety; the player may transfer, leave Fork, return after the fastener or accept further risk.

Incremental transfer: suppose the suit is 4 O and the selected prepared canister 12 O. One 30-second coupling interval breathes 1 O and moves 3 O: suit becomes 6, canister 9. A second becomes suit 8, canister 6. Six moved, two were breathed, and total remaining oxygen fell only by those two. At the ceiling boundary, starting suit 11/canister 5 reaches suit 12/canister 3.5 after 15 seconds: 1.5 O transfers and 0.5 O is breathed, then transfer stops immediately at the ceiling. If the remaining 15 seconds pass without a new transfer, breathing leaves suit 11.5/canister 3.5. The stopped transfer does not keep topping up the tank. At the empty boundary, suit 5/canister 1 becomes suit 5/canister 0: one is breathed and only the last one can move. Back aboard, ordinary refill can raise a 6 O vessel to ordinary-full 8, not prepared-full 12; another completed bench cycle is needed to restore the four-unit surplus. None of this includes combat delay or certifies the return.

F. Reclaim an area-granting assembly without duplication

Before: navigation coupler and thermal core are both installed aboard, exposing the proposed 8 A state. The heat-lance rig occupies 8 A/8 C. The thermal core is one installed ship assembly, not also cargo.

Action: before removing the thermal core, the player moves the 1 A Lens and 1 A Capacitor inactive. Active use falls to 6 A, while carrying remains 8 C because inactive parts still pay C. The reclaim control now accepts; removal returns the same 2 C / 0 A thermal core to visible ship storage and the ship falls to the coupler's 6 A state.

After: every part, core and other good exists once. Selecting the core for an expedition would raise the manifest from 8 to 10 C and leave no canister room; leaving it in ship storage uses no expedition C. Reclaiming the coupler later similarly requires fitting the rig into 4 A first. The operation grants no new progression tier and destroys nothing.

G. One Fork through receiver and bench

Collar receiver: the astronaut seats the one Fork. Poll gate is ready; display latch still contains an uncleared prior incomplete state and refuses. One control press lets output1 open the poll gate and commit a sample to the temporary unlatched buffer; output2 does nothing. Only the incomplete mark is visible: the value is unreadable and uncapturable. Clearing the buffer discards it. The player then starts a wholly new poll; both branches accept, they observe the bounded value and separately capture it. They settle the fixture and reclaim the same Fork; the captured record persists, live polling stops.

Packing bench: the same Fork is seated at the commissioned bench with a 6 O partial vessel, physically secured by the closed clamp. The valve branch accepts; the compressor branch independently refuses because the vessel began this wave below ordinary-full. Valve-only gas reaches ordinary-full 8 O and stops; no prepared state appears. On a new cycle beginning at 8 O, valve and compressor both accept, four additional O commit incrementally, and completion marks the same 2 C vessel prepared-full at 12 O. Fork is reclaimed after settlement.

After: the manifest may contain one 1 C Fork and one 2 C prepared canister. Ship power and oxygen were fixed supplies; Fork created neither. The discarded unreadable collar sample, completed captured reading, intermediate ordinary fill, prepared surplus and reclaimed object remain distinct outcomes.

H. R26 reversible and R33 fixed tests

R26: without diagnostic power, locally read the mechanical arrows, select forward A→B and complete the hand selector's mode detent. With no current A input, pressing test refuses before pulse admission; mode remains forward. When current diagnostic power and A input are present, the test admits one A pulse and B appears at the output. If power fails after a later selector detent, that committed mode remains but no diagnostic pulse survives. Nozzle removal, local evidence capture and walking latch state are unaffected.

R33: with only an old A record or a current B input, its fixed test refuses: neither is actual current A. With current power and A at the marked face, admission commits and the exchanger emits R to its dead load. Power loss after admission but before output dissipates that pulse and leaves an interrupted observation, not an R result. A separate completed capture can preserve a successful performed A→R observation; it does not power the exchanger, change its fixed direction or latch a seam.

Owning-source compatibility and state handoff

No parent edit follows automatically. If the candidate survives review, each current owner must refresh and align only the named passages:

The mechanical handoff is therefore finite: each ordinary launch source and actuator identity, each actuator's selected target/readiness commit, one causal-sequence identity, remaining echo count and heat where a return effect uses them, Thunderhead's temporary mode and burst ancestry, possible concurrent demand state 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.

Decision record, costs and open work

Candidate choice. Allow several independent ordinary launch paths, each with its own source, target and readiness, bounded by visible rig space, carrying, concurrent power demand and heat. Use finite echo conservation for named return effects, conservative fixed-order Fork division, hold-and-vent Capacitor storage, default 2 U manual release with Thunderhead's explicit full-store exception and automatic two-mode routing, the finite reward-stage state and the one provisional opening quantity sheet. This keeps Sensor/Stride coexistence, manual specials and derived cascades while making all eight traces determinate.

Accepted cost. Multi-output rigs require the interface and encounter language to expose several targets, readiness states, concurrent power and heat without hiding causality. Echoing effects add return-state pressure even with a finite counter. Fork output order can matter, a sub-threshold share can be visibly lost, and vented overflow may feel punitive. The fixed default 2 U release reduces fine control, while Thunderhead's temporary 4 U exception adds two visible modes and their automatic transition; their availability, heat and any refusal must remain understandable during movement. Exact oxygen numbers may over- or under-pressure the opening, and 2 C assemblies can make area growth feel like a mandatory packing ladder. Four local cards add authored interruption and recovery states. None of those costs 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, exact supply/draw/heat/echo numbers, final target override, odd payload sources beyond the stated rule, damage/strength/timing, 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 owning decisions. Pending owner questions are unanswered.

Later discrimination. Only a later owner-authorized implementation and observation could test whether multiple target/readiness displays, power/heat, echoes, lost shares, storage, fixture recovery, reserve marking and packing choices are comprehensible or enjoyable; whether the numbers create useful pressure; or whether multi-output rigs dominate focused chains. This paper arithmetic demonstrates conservation and determinacy only.

Author self-check and finite count

The article contains the bounded controller/reward correction, one quantity sheet, four existing local interface cards, eight unchanged A–H paper cases and the compact Thunderhead mode trace. It keeps the proposed comparison 10 C / 4 A, existing bridge 2 C and regulator 2 C; proposes suit 12 O, ordinary/prepared vessels 8/12 O, base drain 1 O/30 s, transfer up to 3 O/30 s with a 12 O ceiling/empty stop, reserve default 4 O, both new assembly values 2 C, Dynamo 2 U per eligible external wave regardless of batch count, conductive response 2 U charge, pressure response 2 U force, Capacitor 4 U and default release 2 U. Temporary Thunderhead is the explicit full-store 4 U exception on six mounted parts totaling 7 C/7 A; one manual command dispatches the burst and restores charging without a per-burst journal edit, resets no readiness and bars its descendants from Dynamo recharge. Case arithmetic accounts for active versus inactive C/A, one Fork/object instance, gas transferred/breathed and retained at both bounds, material consumption, charge allocation/storage/vent/release and upstream versus downstream commitment. Multiple Sensor/Stride launch paths are legal under per-actuator source/target/readiness and visible concurrent power/heat; finite named echoes cannot refill the same event. Reward state distinguishes uncommitted, unresolved and spent stages, early break/seal, unresolved escape, living-return persistence and aboard expiration. No readiness-created event, first-receiver pre-release refusal, sole-pre-allocation-candidate full payload, local test/evidence/walking separation and completed-work persistence remain intact.

Content counts remain 12 catalogue parts, four opening starters, eight later part sources, four ship assemblies, 24 modules/40 station rooms, 10 encounters including two setpieces, 13 major mechanisms and five home projects. This article adds zero portable parts, resources, rooms, encounters, major mechanisms, survivors, story scenes or unseen destinations. It performs no code, executable/modelled simulation, asset work, playtest or validation and answers none of the five owner questions.