Echoes wander without a confirmed attack response. Their signals interfere with identification systems, and they may reproduce fragments of archived movement or speech. The protocol is not to follow, answer or attempt synchronisation, and to continue toward the Escape Node.
Medical cannot determine whether Echoes are trapped Operators, discarded copies, memories stolen by the Warden, or bait assembled from the observer's own neural record. They remain classified as persons for recovery purposes.
Answering
Nothing wounds an Echo. Operatives of the armed response found that striking one counts as answering it, and costs UPLINK.
The recording
A note recovered on the lit floor concerns a recording of a Black Annex return that contains an Operator-shaped signal with incomplete suit telemetry. The lower archive lists it as ECHO-07. It repeats old speech, including calls made before the return was logged. Jon, who recognised the callsign before playback finished, asked to be taken off the recording. The note's instruction is to continue recording and not to answer, even if it uses your callsign.
See also
Records cited
- LP-MAN-1993-S7, section 3, ECHO-07
- Critical Response field manual, ENTITIES
- An Unanswered Callsign (Beyond Dawn)