The perimeter orders are the first five orders of the armed response. They sent the first armed projection Liminal put into Sector 7, a single operative, from the ring up through the plant to its extraction hatch. Operations stays on the channel through all five.
Rooms on the route seal at their thresholds, and the bulkheads hold until nothing in the room contests it. Between the rooms the way runs through service ducts and crawlways, where a gate across the way often holds until a small relay off to one side has been calibrated. The bridge files a copy of the operative as it goes.
The orders
| Order | Reads | Rooms |
|---|---|---|
| I-1 INSERTION | Projection to the ring. Calibrate its Node and take the ladder to the plant. | Pump room, cable vault, sump, the loop west |
| I-2 THE SHAFT | Climb the maintenance shaft to the plant. Its landings are sealed against what rises. | Shaft foot, maintenance landing, shaft head |
| I-3 REACTOR HALL | Hold the reactor's Node. Keep your fire off the Banshees until you mean it. | Service tunnel, coolant pumps, gantry, the core |
| I-4 COLD STORAGE | Cross cold storage to the archive. Medical asks that you do not centre the faces. | Cryo plaza, cryo rows, Hall C office, the archive |
| I-5 THE HATCH | Calibrate the plant's last Node. The hatch it opens is not yours to use. | Concourse, the hatch |
Along the route
- At the cable vault's Node a voice on the channel calls the operative by its callsign. See the unregistered voice.
- In the maintenance shaft a marked elite Stalker leaves a field drill case. Operations reports that Liminal pushed the drill mid-projection, and that the bridge renders it as if the operative had always carried it.
- By the reactor's coolant pumps, gunfire in front of a sleeping Banshee counts as light. Once the core's Node is calibrated, CALIBRATION is issued to the projection.
- In the cryo plaza two marked Mourners have to fall before the room opens. In the archive the Specter stands guard, and the hall's lamps stay out while it stands.
- From the third order on, the breach answers what it has read of the operative. See the file on an operative.
The last Node
Spoiler How the fifth order ends
The last Node opens the hatch. Operations warns that EXT-04 comes through an open gate, and the Warden steps through in the hall past the concourse. Its contact takes the operative into the Black Annex.
When the Warden is put down, Operations reports that the Annex has let go of what it held, and Medical logs them as persons for recovery purposes. The hatch stands open. Operations tells the operative that it is not cleared to use the hatch, and that the climb goes on above the plant.
See also
Records cited
- Critical Response, story mode, Act I: the orders and the channel