A containment run is Liminal's standard operation inside Sector 7. An Operator is projected through Project T-Link to the bottom of the facility, calibrates the Transmit Nodes on each floor, and climbs before the link collapses.
Neural insertion places the operative at the ring, so a run is a climb. Floor 1 is the original works, and each floor above it is one layer further from RIFT-01 and one more layer of a defence built to stop anything below from rising. Threat pressure increases with the floor number for that reason: the operative is what the upper grades were hardened against.
The containment loop
- Locate the required Transmit Nodes.
- Phase through sealed bulkheads where necessary, by way of the ASCII Void.
- Calibrate each Node to 100 percent.
- Use Support CRTs for stabilisation, radar sweeps and field resources.
- Complete any evidence or passcode requirement the active protocol imposes.
- Enter the released ladder or the extraction hatch before the link collapses.
Protocols
The Classical protocol, OPS-01, is a five-floor climb. The first floor has three Nodes and later floors have more. Protocol: Infinitum, DIR-INF, is marked PROHIBITED: it climbs without end while the structure decays, and its exits open on a quota of Data Cores. Under DIR-SOLO an Operator recovers evidence and decrypts the final hatch passcode from clue terminals. Co-op runs use the Consensus Link, NET-04, for up to four Operators, and a host disconnect ends the session.
What a run proves
Every calibrated Node narrows the breach locally while increasing stress elsewhere in Sector 7. An open gate is a temporary coordinate agreement and offers no proof that the sector around it is safe. Upgrades improve an Operator's survival probability. They do not make the returned neural record trustworthy.
At least one Operator got out. That confirmed survivor is why the site was later judged recoverable, which led to the Recovery contracts.
See also
Records cited
- LP-MAN-1993-S7, sections 2, 6 and 7
- LP-MAN-1993-S7, Liminal