Hold The Horde — Station Room And Module Inventory
Status. First-pass SMALL-band proposal: exactly 24 reusable module definitions and 40 placed playable station rooms across four regions. It is not an owner-selected station size, a generated layout, a proof that every arrangement is valid, a campaign-duration claim or a final content specification. It cross-links the current Regional Discovery Map, Equipment Acquisition And Rig Growth, Combat And Enemy Roster, Two Language Discovery Map, Story And Ending Map and Cast And Short Rescue Map without replacing their behavior rules.
Counting, identity and shifting boundary
A module is a reusable internal spatial grammar: where entrances, cover, work position, fixture and recovery line relate. A placed room is one threshold-delimited navigable station space with a stable identity, actual content and at least one distinct action, pressure relationship or evidence consequence. A repeated module is not a repeated room history. R01–R40 retain their own work, object and evidence state through shifts even if their external neighbours or orientation change.
A wall panel, evidence drawer, reply face, manual bypass, fixture alcove or glass observation cell inside a room is not a free room. A vestibule counts only when it is separately traversable, threshold-delimited and owns a distinct refuge, recovery or route action. A mechanism may span faces in two rooms; each face belongs to its room, while the mechanism has one placed identity. The ship airlock interior, berth, home deck, packing bench, receiver, ledger table, material tray and gait rail are ship spaces/fixtures, not playable station rooms. Objective 10 occurs aboard and therefore adds no station room.
For every room, stable facts are its identity, module, authored fixtures, completed local checkpoints, installed/dropped objects, committed captures and selected joins. Current facts are unbound neighbours, orientation, transient power, live population and unobserved accessibility. A death returns carried property, advances one arrangement, preserves the stable facts and makes prior route/adjacency records historical. Loading, a journal visit or a survivor statement does not shift, complete, locate or connect anything. All capture and work actions use world time; the journal fully pauses.
Every R01–R40 has at least one visible service-threshold face that is physically eligible for the candidate persistent-latch system. A, B and R below are provisional visible service-signature families (amber-single, blue-double and red-triple), not alien words. X means the room has a separately observed transformation between named faces. These labels support inspection and candidate arrangements; they do not select the final joining mechanism or prove a complete graph.
Twenty-four reusable module briefs
| Module / placed instances | Internal geometry and entrance–fixture relationship | Actions, pressure/discovery purpose and reuse limit |
|---|---|---|
| M01 Airlock Spine — R01, R09 | Straight two-threshold corridor with a recessed safe-side return control, one side observation window and no blind midpoint. The inner threshold always faces the ship-rooted side when used at the collar; the outer face may change neighbour while unbound. | Supports readable retreat, first-shift comparison and network-side release practice. R01 uses the window and live collar trace; R09 uses the same sightline to verify a latch from both sides. It cannot conceal a junction, count as a refuge or guarantee what lies beyond its unbound face. |
| M02 Bent Freight Turn — R02 | L-shaped cargo aisle: entry sees the service board and one lane, while a waist-high rack obscures but does not hide the second lane. Board, removable part cradle and shutter view share one exposed work position. | Makes installing/reclaiming Fork compete with holding two cued approaches. Its only placement is the opening Freight Split/Cargo Turn; later freight decoration must not be called this module unless it preserves the two-lane board choice and recovery access. |
| M03 Glazed Control Cell — R03, R07, R30 | Compact control room with glass toward the operated fixture, a rear retreat threshold and a side service face. The operator can inspect result before committing the next stage but cannot operate safely from outside. | R03 exposes rack/shutter and bridge fasteners, R07 exposes navigation-coupler release, and R30 records regulator-panel before/after states. Reuse earns distinct extraction, assembly and evidence work; glass never grants remote operation or unseen-room knowledge. |
| M04 Split Service Junction — R06, R10, R11, R24, R38 | Three-leg T junction with a central fixed bollard, two visible branch mouths and one shallow service recess. A worker at the recess yields the centre and can be approached from either branch. | R06 separates gait-belt return from the walking plate, R10 supplies a controlled signature refusal, R11 makes the R-3 side lane one leg rather than a long escort, R24 gives transfer records distinct viewing angles, and R38 is the second-clamp flank. The module supplies a readable choice of lanes, not a permanent relationship among whatever rooms currently occupy its branches. |
| M05 Pace Bay — R05 | Long marked floor interval parallel to a slow service belt; both begin and end inside the same room. A detachable gait plate sits at the approach end, with hard cover off the measurement line. | Hosts the same-astronaut voluntary-grounded versus carrier comparison, Stride source, Ivo variant and one Boltspitter cover lesson. It cannot treat survivor steps, recoil, shove or a rolling weight as the established Stride event. |
| M06 Two-Face Service Hall — R04, R08, R40 | Rectangular hall with opposed visible service faces, a centre inspection island and release controls reachable from the interior/network side. One face can be studied without touching the other. | R04 separates wall mark from pressure door, R08 teaches compatible join/refusal/release, and R40 uses the same readable separation for the profile-isolation boundary. Reuse makes old release geometry newly meaningful, but latch compatibility does not explain biological coupling and an isolation mode does not release a walking join. |
| M07 Long Pressure Hall — R17, R35 | A straight main lane with two offset pillars, one fully visible side approach and a retreat threshold seen from the work end. Any tether or bolt line is readable before the player enters its final range. | R17 teaches the long no-language approach and Siphon retraction; R35 combines learned lines before the Receiver Vault. It supplies honest long access, never the short-rescue qualification. |
| M08 Refuge/Recovery Vestibule — R12, R16, R37 | Small two-door pressure space with a closable inner door, visible gauge and a control reachable from both sides. It has standing room for recovery but no hidden continuation. | R12 is the stocked R-3 abort refuge, R16 is the TAAN stair-only comparison, and R37 contains the first iris clamp and a recoverable retreat. These uses differ by rescue, language and mechanism work. A vestibule is counted here; no attached panel or cupboard becomes another room. |
| M09 Quarantine Ward — R13 | One refuge door opens onto a shallow treatment ward with fixed beds, a wall log opposite the threshold and a quarantined arc grid along a separate service edge. The occupant can operate the inner door without crossing the work lane. | Hosts the sole R-3 occupant, wall record, ward history and Arc source. The grid may be removed without erasing refuge or evidence. This module does not imply every ward is breathable, occupied or connected to the same corridor. |
| M10 Pump/Drive Chamber — R14, R27, R31 | Tall machine room with one continuous main crossing overhead, one local machine terminating visibly at the back wall, two pillars and an accessible service apron around the terminating fixture. | R14 compares pump/cable mains, R27 exposes exchanger removal, and R31 turns the geometry into Foundry's outward blue-double pulse. The repeated shape lets earlier “which main ends” evidence reinterpret a later converter candidate; identical architecture does not establish identical purpose. |
| M11 Cable Junction — R15 | Cross-shaped cable room with the heavy cable main terminating at a labelled bank while a pump main continues through. An open wall panel reveals a crawl edge; a transparent rail separates one visible pressure lane from the record position. | Hosts builder-run comparison, wall-access case, Thermal Lens, visitor continuation mark, A/B/address evidence and the placement-5 Veil/Bolt relation. Removing Lens chills only its exchanger. The crawl may block and never promises its historical far bay is currently reachable. |
| M12 Sampling Loop — R20 | Circular pipe walk around a central sample line; cap controls sit at two quarter points, the local impact plate/Dynamo at a third, and the pressure regulator core at a reachable service gate. Two pillars interrupt the Siphon line. | Hosts objective 6's durable cap stages, Breath Bank, Dynamo, regulator assembly and source-side counter observation. Its loop supports withdrawal after one cap. It cannot become a short rescue route or let remote impacts trigger the local clamp. |
| M13 One-Way Transfer Bay — R21, R23 | Two clearly separated end fixtures in one room: a driver visibly pushes through a line and a receiver visibly fills. A protected observation strip sees both; the material cradle, if present, sits outside the transfer path. | R21 supplies the clean first pair; R23 supplies the corrective third pair, Cycler and a screened encounter. Reuse must change what is tested—direction first, cross-register/body-slot and removable sorter later—not merely the colour of a pipe. |
| M14 Decontamination Booth — R26 | Dirty and clean thresholds flank an air curtain, with a fixed rib, a side culture rack and a removable wall slab beside an ordinary standing passage. A manual inner control is reachable by the refuge-side person. | Hosts Mara's distinct rescue rack, wall-access discriminator, Nozzle source and a short transfer. Purging the rack never consumes Story30 culture patches or M2 salvage; removing Nozzle stops only the air knife. The booth does not purify people automatically. |
| M15 Balance Gallery — R25 | Broad gallery centered on a neutral line, fixed rib and occupied maintenance stirrup. Breath Bank draw lane, Phase-Balance chamber and cap control are visible from the entry; waiting Pressers are visible before commitment. | Hosts placement 8/setpiece A and one exchanger-core checkpoint. Durable cap/pin work shortens later traversal. The gallery can be overpowered or crossed with cover/timing; it adds no reactive population and is not a generic arena shell. |
| M16 Four-Rack Regulator Gallery — R28 | Four parallel regulator bays face one panel and reply socket. Each rack's plate, physical tell and pry access are visible without entering the others; a side fan creates one readable occlusion angle. | Hosts R1–R4 A/B chronology, the reply protocol, Capacitor source and placement 9. Pull order can lose evidence but not basic work/reward. Reuse elsewhere may borrow the rack grammar only if it preserves per-fitting identity and before/after observation. |
| M17 Supply Booth — R22 | Narrow staffed booth behind a lockable personnel threshold, with a receiving fitting visible through mesh and a separate short-route door. The occupant controls the inner door; the outside lock panel remains reachable after departure. | Hosts Aster's non-R-3 rescue variant and the second transfer pair/body-slot recurrence. Locking closes one convenience reversibly, not the objective or other threshold. It is a real placed room, not a cupboard added free to Transfer Bay. |
| M18 Sealed Receiving Section — R18 | Receiving chamber with a sealed direct-hoist boundary on one face, a one-junction side door on another and a destination fitting/drawer behind Dorn's inner controls. In an eligible arrangement both routes converge on counted abort room R12; no uncounted vestibule is implied. | Hosts Dorn's rescue, far-bay OSH·b, destination card and exposed ratchet. The side route can be verified while the boundary stays closed; opening the direct hoist commits first, then that route must be walked before rescue. Fixed hoist supply supplies motion; Fork passes only a compatible trigger. |
| M19 Clinical Comparison Bay — R19 | Shielded two-tray treatment fixture faces a pressure-annex refuge. Active and physical-bypass feeds are simultaneously visible; the commissioning-card sleeve and tissue-record viewer are outside the exposure shield. | Hosts Story30's controlled equivalent culture patches, profile card, active/bypass capture, later Yeva refuge variant and mechanism slot 11. Its cultures are not Mara's rack or Cycler sample. Interruption preserves only completed tray observations; isolation cannot reconstruct a missed live comparison. |
| M20 Dense Service Stack — R29, R32 | Two-level shelving room with a central stair, visible vertical sight gap and a service face on each level. A network-side release remains reachable from the lower landing even when the upper face is occupied. | R29 stores identifiable plates and gives a safe regulator-viewing angle; R32 is Archive Stack with a red-triple receiving face and layered human notes. Reuse changes recovery versus historical interpretation; shelves never hide a secret playable cell or automatic record. |
| M21 Exchange Theatre — R33 | Diamond-shaped room with four distinct faces visible from a central plinth; west and north carry different static families and the other two provide walk/release access. No face changes mode here. | Imaging Exchange is the rare A/B-to-R bridge in the candidate network. Its value is face classification and recovery from a wrong occupied face, not a universal converter or mandatory single sequence. All four controls must remain reachable from within the growing network. |
| M22 Pressure-Receiver Vault — R36 | Central iris and empty vessel face the entry; two side openings lead to separately counted clamp rooms. Gauge, inward/outward selectors, reply face and retreat boundary are visible before commit. | Hosts objective 11, mechanism slot 10, language convergence, trapped strip and setpiece B's final work. Direct selector or two-clamp equalisation reaches the same hand-cycle. The closed iris never hides its only recovery control. |
| M23 Deep Evidence Cell — R39 | One bounded room beyond the iris with a sight baffle, inspectable instruments and a separate return threshold. The baffle control is on the approach side and opening it cannot close the way back. | Hosts one mutually exclusive captive-tissue or empty-template evidence package. Observation can change the leading story, never prove divinity, intent or an ending. This is a counted playable room; the baffle volume beyond it is scenery, not an unseen forty-first room. |
| M24 Synchronization Gallery — R34 | Three-face gallery around a test plinth. Each face accepts a local test pulse; one reversible machine state visibly maps its input family to a different output while a separate roster display reports joined/discovered/anonymous counts. | Hosts mechanism slot 12 and the late converter insight. It diagnoses only current local transformations and join membership; it does not import journal records, reveal unseen names/routes or latch anything. Mode persists; walking latches remain separate. |
Forty placed playable room instances
Region 1 — Dock Collar and Service Intake (R01–R10)
| Room / module / objective | Actual content and first action | Changed-understanding or revisit value | Access, persistence and join obligation |
|---|---|---|---|
| R01 Dock Mouth — M01 — O1 | Station-side airlock corridor, collar back-feed trace and window showing the human-painted R-3 label, breathable indicator and repeated knock. First entry teaches suit readouts and physical return. | After isolation, the trace separates R-3's live bearing from collar fault; after death, the old outer neighbour is historical. | Ship threshold is fixed; outer A face may change until joined. Window supplies observation only. Clear retreat and inner release stay usable; this room cannot serve as R-3 refuge. |
| R02 Cargo Turn / Freight Split — M02 — O1, encounter 1, mechanism 1 | Fork source, three-port rack/shutter board, two Pressers and cued Caller/Triage Relay. Install Fork to pass one board pulse to both compatible outputs or keep it carried. | Revisit can reclaim/reinstall the same Fork and compare an installed object surviving a shift. Its split behavior later suggests—without proving—room-scale transformation. | A/B faces; board work and Fork location persist, population/power do not. Both lane and board release remain reachable from the ship side. |
| R03 Collar Control — M03 — O1 | Isolation-bridge rack, patient-bay shutter view and staged fasteners. Remove and carry the first ship assembly while noisy work draws the opening crowd. | Installed ship bridge later makes the R-3 signal legible; returning shows completed fasteners and any relocked retaining arms. | B face; selector supplies the no-Fork path. Fasteners/bridge location persist. Rear retreat never depends on the shutter state. |
| R04 Intake Marked Wall — M06 — O1/chain L2 | Builder-cut wall-access string beside a pressure door and matching blank panel. Record mark, material and closed condition without assuming a duct. | Compare with R15's open crawl and R26's standing passage; later choose R17's marked bypass test. | A/R faces with interior releases. Capture persists; panel/door work is separate. No mark reveals the current neighbour behind the wall. |
| R05 Pace Calibration Bay — M05 — O2, encounter 2, mechanism 2 | Same astronaut crosses grounded then rides belt feet-still; Stride pulses only for the first. Navigation coupler and Stride are separable rewards. Boltspitter/pillar and Carousel supply readable windows. Ivo may occupy this refuge variant. | Revisit with Ivo keeps his authority through a ready signal while the astronaut triggers installed Stride, or uses the fixed manual cue. Later gait-rail work remains aboard. | B face plus stocked short-route abort condition if I1 is active. Test record, object locations and coupler release persist; current crowd and adjacency do not. |
| R06 Belt Return Junction — M04 — O2 | Service belt returns beside a manual stop and side cover; player proves carrier motion did not trigger Stride and can recover from a bad belt test. Its closable, braced service recess is Ivo's counted abort place only when stocked and on the verified short route. | Later distinguishes imposed movement from the astronaut's own grounded traversal when Nozzle/recoil is known. | A face, two-side stops and network release. Stop state is temporary; committed observation and stocked checkpoint persist under their owners. No belt exits to an unseen room. |
| R07 Navigation Service Room — M03 — O2/O10 | Glazed release housing makes freeing the coupler a separate capacity decision from taking Stride. | After installation aboard, a return shows an empty housing and confirms assembly versus portable-part identity. | R face; release work and coupler location persist. The glass reports this fixture only and never grants ship readiness remotely. |
| R08 First Local Latch Hall — M06 — O3, encounter 3, mechanism 3 | Two observed faces, wall-fixed charged diagnostic cradle, Triage Relay and Clampcrawler operator arc. Attempt one valid or refused join, then walk to the network-side release. | A later wrong occupied bridge face can be recovered using this learned mechanical pattern. The record also helps reinterpret R40's separated walk/junction and isolation controls. | A/B faces. Join/checkpoints persist; cradle charge and crowd do not. Both-side releases are mandatory and mismatch spends no pulse. |
| R09 Release Walk — M01 — O3 | Straight return leg lets the player cross the new latch and operate its far/network-side release before relying on it. | After a shift, the walk proves the joined pair stayed traversable even if the next unbound neighbour changed. | B face. Selected seam state persists; outer adjacency remains current. Its corridor cannot be relabelled a refuge or objective room. |
| R10 Collar Service Spur — M04 — O3 | Quiet third leg exposes one incompatible outward/outward signature and a safe inspection angle; it is the objective's controlled refused case, not another mechanism. | Later Foundry/Archive opposition gives the old refusal larger network meaning. | R face, interior release and no hidden source. Capture persists; compatibility with a future neighbour must be observed anew. |
Region 2 — Clinical Exchange (R11–R20)
| Room / module / objective | Actual content and first action | Changed-understanding or revisit value | Access, persistence and join obligation |
|---|---|---|---|
| R11 R-3 Approach — M04 — O4, encounter 4 | One visible Flanker side leg and central hard cover form the single contested junction on an eligible R-3 route. The population must be resolved, bypassed or quiet before transfer; rescue is not fought as an escort. | A later visit with Arc removed changes local counterplay while leaving route/refuge work intact. The same module's other branch never becomes a hidden second junction. | A face. Current quiet window/population resets under its later rule; cleared geometry is not durable. Only an actually walked current route can qualify. |
| R12 Clinical Abort Vestibule — M08 — O4/O6 | Stocked travel air, two-sided door controls and gauge form the counted airlock-side abort point for R-3 or Dorn only when the relevant current route is walked. Preparing it is world-time work. | Revisit checks current flow and route after a shift; old preparation facts do not certify a new exterior path or serve two remote rescues at once. | A/B faces and both-side releases. Stocked/door checkpoints persist by their owner; current pressure, adjacency and rescue applicability require observation. |
| R13 R-3 Quarantine Ward — M09 — O4 | Sole R-3 occupant is Yeva or Aster, never both. Hosts wall pressure log, early restoration record, active ward-machine identifier and removable Arc source. Rescue begins only after R01→one contested junction→R12→R13 is walked and prepared. | Wall/ward records later feed story Chains 1–3; removing Arc disables only the grid. The unused first-person variant is absent. | B outer service face lies outside the refuge door so joining never opens sanctuary or sends a person. Survivor state, work, Arc and evidence stay distinct; transfer death remains unresolved. |
| R14 Pump Hall — M10 — O5, encounter 5 part 1 | KETH SORAN VEL, pump main ending, cable main crossing, A/B plate and addressed workstation. Boltspitter line/pillar supplies the first separated cue. |
Compare R15 to infer first-position purpose; later apply or challenge that rule at pressure controls and Foundry-like rooms. | B face; records persist with provenance, machinery state separately. Capturing costs world time and the continuing main does not define a route to R15. |
| R15 Cable Junction — M11 — O5, encounter 5 part 2, mechanism 4 | SORAN KETH VEL, cable main ending, pump main crossing, second A/B/address case, open wall crawl, OSH·a continuation, Thermal Lens/exchanger and Carousel. Veilbearer screens a visible Presser; surviving Boltspitter may arrive through the cued approach. |
Revisit can reclaim Lens, test the crawl or use later transfer evidence to predict its far terminal. Removed Lens leaves the language and wall observations. | A/R faces. Record, panel and object state persist; veil/crowd/current continuation do not. Transparent rail and two cue bays are internal staging, not extra rooms. |
| R16 TAAN Stair Vestibule — M08 — O5 | Stair-only terminating space under the single run TAAN; player records that a third builder string can name a different primary end. |
Corrects a two-case overfit without proving translation; its pressure vestibule geometry later contrasts with rescue use of M08. | R face and reachable release. Capture persists. Stair ends here and hides no free upper room. |
| R17 Jammed Pressure Approach — M07 — O6/chain L2, encounter 6 cue | Authored long route, visible Flanker side lane, two pillars and marked blank wall panel sharing a far-side lamp/crew-name sightline. Cutter stages test the candidate bypass; Siphon is previewed before loop work. | Language-first order gives a reason to cut; build-first can complete via long route and reinterpret the mark later. Collapse/pinch-out remains honest evidence. | A face. Cut fasteners/moved panel persist; route and Siphon state do not. Neither opening nor historical name guarantees current passage. |
| R18 Sealed Receiving Section — M18 — O6 | Dorn refuge; verified side route, committed direct-hoist alternative, far-bay OSH·b receiving fitting, destination drawer/card and exposed non-reversing ratchet. |
Comparing ratchet/card with R13 wall impression narrows one transfer order and changes testimony without naming a passenger. | B/R faces. Direct opening persists even if its route fails verification; side checkpoints persist. Rescue waits for a walked short route. Fork carries control only; hoist supply provides motion. |
| R19 Pressure Annex / Clinical Comparison Bay — M19 — O6/story 2, mechanism 11 | Mutually exclusive later Yeva host plus shielded active/bypass treatment trays, profile-commissioning card and matching tissue record. Two equivalent patches from one recorded source support the controlled comparison. | Full live comparison supports a human-configured harmful profile; only post-isolation ordinary closure shows present disconnection. No missing live record regenerates. | A face outside the refuge threshold, approach-side bypass and abort control. Culture patches are distinct from Mara's M1 rack and M2 salvage. Card, capture and survivor state persist independently. |
| R20 Sampling Loop — M12 — O6, encounter 6, mechanism 5 | Breath Bank, Siphon/Flanker valve pressure, Impact Dynamo, regulator-core assembly, cap stages and source-side pressure counter. Perform cap/hand-cycle, then choose which rewards fit. | Later storage knowledge turns incoming impacts into a build opportunity; later language reinterprets the same redirected line without changing completed caps. | B face; both pillars and retreat remain intelligible. Caps, freed objects and captures persist; population, Bank cadence and unbound destination do not. |
Region 3 — Ascension Works (R21–R30)
| Room / module / objective | Actual content and first action | Changed-understanding or revisit value | Access, persistence and join obligation |
|---|---|---|---|
| R21 Drive Pair Bay — M13 — O7 | First complete one-way pair: driving device, filling vessel, matched visitor brackets, A/B contrast. Operation physically establishes local direction. | Compare with R22/R23 before predicting any distant continuation; reversal remains a live rival until redundancy. | B face. Capture and completed operation persist; material/pressure reset only under the fixture rule. Pair identity never proves a walkable route. |
| R22 Receiving Supply Booth — M17 — O7 | Second complete transfer pair, receiving-fitting token in the utterance body slot, and Aster's later refuge variant. After Sent she may request the reachable personnel lock. | Narrows pair direction and later shows why a ledger is not a passenger list. Locking changes one convenience without closing the other objective threshold. | A/R faces outside the refuge door; one current short route and abort point required. Lock/record/survivor states persist separately. Booth is a counted room, not an alcove inside R21. |
| R23 Material Sorting Bay — M13 — O7, encounter 7, mechanism 6 | Corrective third pair, third A/B/address workstation, cross-register receiving token, Salvage Cycler source and optional Resuscitation Grid. Veilbearer screens the visible Boltspitter across separated evidence stations. | Corrects accidental reversal; removing Cycler stops sorting but preserves transfer evidence and Grid state. Different salvage responses change rigs, not translation. | B face. Captures, pulls and Cycler location persist; veil/Grid charge and current approach do not. Protected evidence refuses Cycler selection. |
| R24 Transfer Service Gallery — M04 — O7 | Three sight-separated branch mouths let the player frame pair records and choose the uncertain continuation without claiming that conduits are corridors. Its closable service recess is Aster's counted abort place only when stocked and on a verified R22 short route. | Arrival elsewhere or blockage records a factual result; later arrangements can make the same room useful as a release/recovery junction. | A face and central release. Traversal result is provenance-bound; no branch label supplies current topology. |
| R25 Balance Gallery — M15 — O8, encounter 8/setpiece A, mechanisms 7–8 | Bellback preview, visible Pressers, Breath Bank, Phase-Balance neutral line, fixed rib/stirrup and persistent cap/pin. One checkpoint helps free the thermal exchanger core. | With Nozzle/advanced rig the same pressure can be overpowered; low-power timing remains. Completed cap removes one draw side, changing revisit geometry. | A/B faces, protected control and retreat. Cap/pin/core state persists; mechanism phase and population do not. No reactive success wave. |
| R26 Clean-Side Decontamination — M14 — O8 | Vector Nozzle/air knife, standing-passage wall mark, open removable slab, visibly unmarked welded duct and Mara's distinct rack/refuge. Purge rack or seal it, then use a quiet short crossing whose counted abort room is R27 when the current arrangement qualifies. | Reinterprets “marked duct” as broader candidate access; removing Nozzle makes the fixed cover/timing path matter again. Mara's rack choice has no Story30 culture consequence. | B/R faces outside clean refuge. Slab, rack, Nozzle and rescue states persist independently; pressure/current short route must be rechecked. |
| R27 Thermal Exchange Room — M10 — O8/O10 | Exchanger core release and local cooling fixture show the fourth ship assembly as separate from portable Nozzle. Its pressure apron can be Mara's counted clean abort place only when stocked and on the verified R26 route. Optional A/B plate is redundancy. | Empty housing on revisit confirms installation did not duplicate the core; pump-room similarity gains a different service meaning. | R face, reachable release and no hidden room. Core, plate and stocked checkpoint persist under their owners. This room hosts retrieval, not the ship-side readiness report. |
| R28 Regulator Gallery — M16 — O9, encounter 9, mechanism 9 | R1 pulled/A with scar, R2 pulled/A, R3 intact/B, R4 intact/A; panel/reply face, Shutterback/Caller and Capacitor. Pull R4, observe new line, then test matching R3 B plate. | Wrong order loses the clean reply evidence but not work or Capacitor. Revisit can defer/reopen the current line with the same plate. | A face, fan flank and alarm lead. Pulls, lines, plate location and Capacitor persist; fan/crowd do not. Invalid plates refuse without being consumed. |
| R29 Plate Service Stack — M20 — O9 | Identified plate sleeves and upper viewing gap let player carry, seat or return one exact fitting plate while retaining sight of its rack. | Supports recovery from an invalid reply and later distinguishes object location from “known plate.” | B/R faces with lower network release. Plate identity/location persist; shelf labels are not language translation. No duplicate plate appears. |
| R30 Reply Observation Niche — M03 — O9 | Glazed view of the panel and R4 physical tell lets the player capture before/after lines without occupying the pull position. | When compared with R03's purely mechanical board, the familiar control-cell form no longer implies a nonresponsive system; behavior, not décor, distinguishes them. | R face. Captures persist; live panel state must be observed. Glass neither performs a pull nor creates a separate panel identity. |
Region 4 — Core Transfer Fringe (R31–R40)
| Room / module / objective | Actual content and first action | Changed-understanding or revisit value | Access, persistence and join obligation |
|---|---|---|---|
| R31 Foundry Block — M10 — O12 | Familiar terminating-machine geometry emits blue-double outward at its free service face; local work demonstrates direction without declaring this a language token. | Earlier pump/cable evidence encourages inspecting which main actually ends; the result reinterprets M10 as geometry, not purpose. Opposed output at R32 produces the named failed join clue. | B-output face and interior release. Direction capture persists, current adjacency does not. No extra power or death makes two outputs compatible. |
| R32 Archive Stack — M20 — O12/story 4 | Red-triple receiving face, layered human notes calling the core patient/engine/prisoner and an upper face that can be occupied by a mistaken join. | Later cell evidence changes which note seems plausible without correcting any author. Releasing an irrelevant upper seam preserves other joins. | R-input plus A face, both network-side controls reachable from lower landing. Notes and joins persist; shelf order is not chronology unless physically evidenced. |
| R33 Imaging Exchange — M21 — O12, special connection challenge 1 | Static A-family west face and B-family north face are simultaneously inspectable; central plinth shows no transform. Use it as a bridge, not a converter. | Old records across arrangements reveal that different faces, not a hidden mode, span families. A wrong same-family branch can occupy a needed face and be released. | A/B/R faces with four interior releases. Join state persists; face availability depends on selected seams, not power. |
| R34 Synchronization Gallery — M24 — O12, mechanism 12, special challenge 2 | Local pulse test shows one reversible A↔B transformation and current direction. Persistent roster lists joined, discovered-unjoined and anonymous counts without names. | Supplies the late converter insight and lets the player diagnose a failed family prediction. Mode change alters signal reach, never walking joins. | X(A↔B)/R faces, all releases inside. Mode and joins persist separately; diagnostic power is transient. Roster never reveals a room or completes a latch. |
| R35 Receiver Vault Approach — M07 — O11, encounter 10/setpiece B entry | Two pillars, Siphon radius, Shutterback shelter angle, Caller and finite answering entrance are visible before commit. Choose selector lane, fan flank or clamp route. | Earlier O6/O9 lessons turn the same threats into a combined work decision; cutting alarm creates a known quiet window. | B face and visible retreat. Cut lead persists; crowd/fan/tether state follows encounter rules. The long approach is not rescue geometry. |
| R36 Pressure-Receiver Vault — M22 — O11, encounter 10/setpiece B, mechanism 10 | Empty vessel, gauges, builder selectors, visitor OSH·b, local inlet B plate/reply face, central iris and trapped builder-style seal strip under a later human adapter. |
Languages make pump/inward predictable; gauges/two clamps remain physical alternative. Equalisation closes the inlet line, then hand-cycle opens passage. Strip/card/berth comparison supports only limited chronology. | A/R faces on approach and network sides. Clamp/equality/iris/plate/strip states persist. Closed iris cannot hide the approach-side reverse or releases. |
| R37 East Clamp Refuge — M08 — O11 | First mechanical equalisation clamp, gauge and hard retreat space outside the closed iris. Complete one clamp and withdraw. | A later reachable visit resumes at the second clamp without regenerating the first; familiar refuge geometry becomes mechanical recovery, not survivor shelter. | A face and two-side release. Clamp checkpoint persists, pressure reading is current. This counted room is one of the two authored side alcoves, not a free fixture. |
| R38 West Clamp Recovery Walk — M04 — O11 | Longer branch around the fan contains the second clamp and a network-side iris-group release. Central bollard breaks the hose line. | Lets a low-power player finish after an earlier withdrawal and later release a mistaken join without crossing the iris. | B/R faces. Clamp/release work persists; fan and hose windows do not. Its branch cannot be deleted while claiming the two-clamp alternative remains. |
| R39 Deep Evidence Cell — M23 — O11/story 4 | Approach-side baffle and instruments expose either living tissue exchanging with containment or the mutually exclusive empty template lattice package. | Supports one branch while preserving intent, divinity, consciousness and authorship as open. Revisit after isolation observes current effects only. | R face with return control; baffle and captures persist. Behind-baffle volume is nonplayable scenery. The room remains eligible for the network after iris opening. |
| R40 Isolation Coupling Hall — M06 — O11/O12/story 2/4 | Separated walking-latch controls, profile coupling, visible live tell and reversible approach-side isolation release. Re-seat, leave, reopen or postpone in world time. | R08's two-face/release lesson helps distinguish latch from signal state; if R40 is seen first, later R08 makes its recovery geometry interpretable on return. Isolation breaks live profile signal but not joins or ordinary revival under the proposal. | A/B faces outside the coupling. Isolation/mode/captures/joins persist independently. No state may maroon R39, hide the only release or exempt either room from whole-station inclusion. |
Obligation cross-reference ledger
Objectives, assemblies, parts, encounters and mechanisms
| Obligation | Named host(s) and count treatment |
|---|---|
| 12 objectives | O1 R01–R04; O2 R05–R07; O3 R08–R10; O4 R11–R13; O5 R14–R16; O6 R17–R20; O7 R21–R24; O8 R25–R27; O9 R28–R30; O10 aboard ship only using four retrieved assemblies; O11 R35–R40; O12 R31–R34 plus eventual inclusion of every R01–R40. No room is counted again because it hosts more than one obligation. |
| 4 ship assemblies | Isolation bridge R03; navigation coupler R05/R07 release; pressure regulator core R20; thermal exchanger core R25/R27 release. Their installation/readiness report is aboard and adds zero station rooms. |
| 8 later part sources | Fork R02; Stride R05; Arc R13; Thermal Lens R15; Impact Dynamo R20; Salvage Cycler R23; Vector Nozzle R26; Capacitor R28. The four proposed starter parts begin aboard. Each source is one object identity with a stated removal consequence. |
| 10 encounter placements / 2 setpieces | Placements 1–10: R02, R05, R08, R11, R14+R15 as one connected placement, R17+R20 as one staged placement, R23, R25, R28, R35–R38 as one staged placement. Setpiece A is placement 8/R25; setpiece B is placement 10/R35–R38. Multi-room staging does not create another encounter count. Exact population, warning, rearm and combined variants remain successor work. |
| 12 placed mechanisms | 1 Triage Relay R02; 2 Carousel R05; 3 Triage Relay R08; 4 Carousel R15; 5 Breath Bank R20; 6 Resuscitation Grid R23; 7 Breath Bank R25; 8 Phase-Balance R25; 9 Resuscitation Grid R28; 10 iris/two-clamp assembly R36–R38; 11 clinical profile comparator R19; 12 reversible converter/roster R34. Slots 11–12 are the two formerly unallocated slots. The existing five reusable trap families remain unchanged; the iris, comparator and converter are unique objective mechanisms, not new reusable-family claims. Hosting does not complete later individual geometry/population/warning/rearm/recovery specifications. |
Mechanism 10 is one placed identity spanning the vault and two counted clamp rooms. Its direct action warns with gauge/flow arrows, stages selector→equalisation→hand-cycle, preserves each clamp/equality/iris checkpoint and reverses a wrong selector through neutral. Mechanism 11 warns through two visible tray feeds, stages patch placement→active/bypass observation→capture, preserves only committed observations and recovers by safe interruption/withdrawal; later isolation may remove the live input. Mechanism 12 previews input/output arrows before a mode change, commits one reversible transform state, retains independent walking joins and recovers from a wrong physical seam at its network-side release. These are first-pass boundaries, not full encounter/mechanism briefs.
Language, story and cast
| Obligation | Physical hosts and non-duplication boundary |
|---|---|
| Language I chain 1 | Ordered runs and ending mains: R14 pump, R15 cable, R16 TAAN. Same captures later inform R17/R20 pressure work and R36 selector; they are not new clues each time referenced. |
| Language I chain 2 | Marked closed panel R04; open crawl R15; marked standing passage and unmarked welded duct R26; chosen cutter test R17. Panels and openings belong to their rooms and add none. |
| Language II chain 3 | Three complete transfer cases R21, R22, R23; OSH·a continuation R15 and far-bay OSH·b receiver R18. A traversal result is an evidence state, not another site. |
| Language II chain 4 | Five A/B contrasts R14, R15, R21, R22, R23; address-slot cases R14, R15, R23; body-slot recurrence R22; R1–R4 gallery/reply R28–R30; later inlet plate/reply/equality R36. Objective 8's R27 plate remains optional redundancy. |
| Story chain 1 / history anchors | Berth intake trace/profile revision is aboard; installed Fork R02 and fasteners R03 demonstrate persistence; ward restoration location R13 supplies the non-berth comparison. The berth is not station room 41. |
| Story chain 2 | Early ward log/active identifier R13; commissioning card, tissue record and controlled culture comparison R19; line/counter state R20; regulator evidence R28; live coupling and isolation R40. Mara's R26 rack is explicitly distinct. |
| Story chain 3 | R13 wall counter impression; R20 source cycle; R18 destination fitting, transfer card and exposed ratchet. Aster's ledger/table and the later D3/Y3/A3 conversations are aboard. No duplicated record drawer. |
| Story chain 4 | Responsive console R28; inlet reply and trapped strip/human adapter R36; mutually exclusive direct evidence R39; coupling/isolation R40. Human profile card R19 and berth trace aboard complete the limited strip→profile→docking comparison. |
| 5 short rescue identities / alternative hosts | I1 R05 with abort R06; mutually exclusive first Y1 or A1 at R13 with abort R12; non-first Y1 at R19 with R12 when eligible, or A1 at R22 with R24; D1 R18 with R12 when eligible; M1 R26 with R27. Thus five scene identities use six refuge rooms with seven mutually exclusive host variants, not seven rescues; every named abort place is counted. Each refuge threshold is separate from its join face. Home Y2/A2/D2/M2/I2 and evidence scenes remain aboard and add zero station rooms. |
No earlier addition remains homeless in this pass. What remains honestly unallocated is detail, not an object/site: exact populations and transient variants for the ten encounters; full warning/rearm/recovery variants for all twelve mechanisms; final compatible face distribution and arrangement constraints; full scripts; exact survivor geometry in every allowed arrangement; and the owner choices about acquisition model, first survivor, mortality, endings and whole-station behavior.
Two proposed qualitative arrangements
These are eligible paper arrangements, not generated maps, simulations or promises of universal reachability. Unlisted rooms remain elsewhere in the same arrangement; a route shown here does not reveal them.
Arrangement A — build-and-ship first, with one valid short rescue
The ship opens to R01→R02→R03 for objective 1. A current branch from R01 later reaches R05 for the astronaut-only Stride comparison, while an observed A/B adjacency at R08/R09 supports objective 3. A separate current collar face then presents R01→R11 (one contested junction)→R12 (stocked abort vestibule)→R13 (R-3 refuge). The astronaut walks that exact route this life, checks flow and both controls, and resolves the visible Flanker/finite junction population before transfer. Yeva or Aster operates the R13 inner door, walks under their own power and may call abort. Ordinary abort reaches R12; Sent exists only after that same person reaches the ship and its airlock closes. The encounter does not move with them or grow into another junction.
The player can then reach R25–R27 for Balance/Nozzle/exchanger and R17–R20 by the authored long pressure approach. Gauges allow objective 6 before formal language work; later records from R14/R15 and R21–R23 reinterpret the already captured pressure destinations. R20's completed caps and removed Dynamo remain true, while the route that once connected those rooms becomes historical after death. Installing all four assemblies aboard exposes objective 10's bounded readiness report, not departure or credits.
If the player pursues Dorn in this arrangement, R18's side route must already be walked while the direct boundary remains sealed. Choosing the direct hoist opens it persistently; only after the astronaut walks the newly exposed route and finds it short may rescue proceed. Finding an extra junction leaves the opening committed and Dorn waiting; the verified side route remains the honest alternative if still current.
Arrangement B — language-and-network first, with honest rescue deferral
The ship-rooted side reaches R14 and R15 early, then three current branches expose R21, R22 and R23. The player records builder mains and visitor transfer pairs, visits R08 for the first latch, and uses gauges plus those predictions at R17/R20. In this arrangement R-3 is reachable only through R14→R15→R11→R12→R13: two exposed junctions lie between airlock and refuge, and R12's ship-side abort path is not current. The R-3 person remains waiting. A bearing, a photographed wall string and knowledge of the old route cannot compress it; no staged refuge chain or long escort appears. The player pursues other objectives until a later arrangement yields a genuinely short walked route.
At R28, physical pull/reply work makes responsive procedure concrete before R36. R35–R38 then offer direct or two-clamp equalisation, opening R39/R40 without language as a gate. Suppose R40 was seen first: its opposed faces and two kinds of control are recorded but not understood as a recovery pattern. A later visit to repeated module M06 at R08 teaches that walking latch and network-side release remain distinct. Returning to reachable R40 lets the player identify the analogous physical release while keeping the profile-isolation control conceptually separate. If R08 was visited first, the same insight applies forward. The module earns reinterpretation in either order without a required chronology.
For an objective-12 opportunity, assume R31's blue-output face, R34 in the accepting transform mode, R33's static bridge and R32's red-input face become adjacent to the growing network in successive ordinary play. Each adjacency allows only the currently observed seam. Latching and later releasing are physical world-time acts; no record guarantees the next orientation. A diagnostic pulse may confirm R31→R34→R33→R32 signal behavior, while physical completion depends on walking joins and inclusion of every R01–R40 regardless of pulse power.
Whole-station eligibility and unresolved global assumptions
The candidate authoring contract rejects any permanently isolated playable room. Each room has at least one threshold face with an inside/network-side release. A growing connection must extend from the ship-rooted network or merge a fully walkable island through a release reachable after the merge. A join occupies two specific placed faces and persists without power; converter mode and diagnostic reach are separate states. Releasing one mistaken seam leaves other joins, machine modes, room work and current adjacency intact until the next shift.
R13, R19, R22, R18, R26 and R05 keep rescue refuge doors separate from join faces: connecting their room exterior does not open the refuge, move a survivor or certify a rescue route. R39 behind the iris becomes eligible only through the physically opened R36 passage, and R40's isolation never removes its walking threshold. Optional evidence, removed part sources and rooms behind intervention remain included even if their live signal or fixture function is absent. There is no acceptable authoring case in which a room's only release is behind its own closed boundary, a critical face can be buried with no network-side control, or a story choice deletes a room from the roster.
The Synchronization roster may state 40 anonymous total identities, discovered versus joined, but exposes no unseen names, routes or faces. The inventory therefore makes completion inspectable while accepting the spoiler that hidden rooms exist. It does not prove a valid complete assembly, converter sufficiency, reasonable adjacency frequency or freedom from death-farming. The final selected shift algorithm must preserve stable identities and joins, respect compact mechanism boundaries, make every unjoined room eligible for some authored arrangement and never promise the next arrangement. Whether connecting all 40 stabilizes the station or keeps joined groups moving remains an owner decision. The inventory also leaves death/shift/transfer ordering, post-Sent mortality, final departure and diagnostic/ending relationships unresolved.
Concrete smaller variant
Reduce the sample to 22 modules / 36 rooms by removing M21 Exchange Theatre, merging M03 Glazed Control Cell into an expanded M02 opening/control module, and deleting R07 Navigation Service Room, R30 Reply Observation Niche, R33 Imaging Exchange and R37 East Clamp Refuge. R03 becomes the second M02 placement rather than referring to a deleted definition.
- Move R07's coupler release into R05's existing side service housing; the part/coupler decision remains, but the separate “empty assembly housing” revisit disappears.
- Move R30's before/after capture angle into a protected recess inside R28; the reply chain remains, but the player loses the spatial distinction between operating a rack and observing it from another room.
- Replace R33's static multi-family bridge with fixed A/B faces on R34; the network remains potentially connectable, but loses the clearest contrast between a bridge that merely presents two families and a machine that transforms one.
- Move R37's first clamp into R36's east wall while R38 retains the second; the two-clamp action remains, but staged withdrawal after one full alcove is less spatially expressive and setpiece B becomes denser.
Every essential part, assembly, language/story record, rescue and objective retains a named host, but the reduction sacrifices recovery-space variety, one strong reusable control-room contrast and the late network's bridge-versus-transformer discovery. It requires re-review of setpiece B geometry and the candidate connection graph. No labor or playtime saving is claimed, and the owner has not selected this cut.
Self-check, strongest experience and accepted costs
Count check: module IDs M01–M24 are unique and each has at least one placement. Room IDs R01–R40 are unique: ten per region. Sixteen room placements are repeats beyond the first use of each module. All 40 are station-playable and candidate-network eligible; named ship spaces and behind-baffle scenery are excluded. Twelve objectives, four assemblies, eight later part sources, ten encounter placements, two setpieces, twelve mechanism slots, four language chains, four story chains and five rescue identities have hosts. The initial D2 packing demonstration remains Dorn-participating before later commissioned solo use.
Strongest useful experience. A familiar spatial grammar gains a different meaning: a pump-shaped room teaches that architecture is not purpose; a two-face hall first teaches recoverable joins and later helps separate walking access from biological isolation; old language and pressure records make a later action intelligible without turning notes into a map. The station becomes a set of persistent places the player can remember and physically assemble, not forty interchangeable skins.
Accepted costs. Forty room identities still require forty distinct state/revisit briefs and later layout work. Multi-room encounters and the iris need careful boundary ownership. Seven rescue-host variants across six rooms increase arrangement constraints. Publishing a 40-room roster exposes a known hidden count. Three signature families, one converter and a bridge may still be too much network notation—or too little late-puzzle depth. Claiming zero added rooms depends on the future geometry fitting every named refuge, fixture and release inside these counted rooms; this paper allocation does not prove it.
Remaining choices and evidence. SMALL versus another content band; final room/module names; permitted arrangements and face distribution; common versus rare module repetition; exact mechanism and encounter variants; found parts versus fabrication; final cast and first survivor; survivor mortality and transfer/death/shift ordering; the story/core package; save policy; full-connection behavior; and departure/ending relationships remain open. Later owner-authorized implementation and real-player observation must establish navigation clarity, discovery value, horde readability, oxygen pressure, rescue brevity, converter comprehension, adjacency pacing, build usefulness and any campaign duration. This design-only inventory establishes none of them.