Ship Design Language: rules from prompt lab rounds 5-8 (agent-promoted, pending operator review)

Promotes the four rules that held on at least three ships across at
least two factions with no unexplained failure: no aero surfaces on
vacuum hulls, weapons only where named, faction blocks as livery and
register with shape motifs in ship prompts, and wear in the faction
block. Evidence counts are quoted in the doc; weaker findings stay as
candidates in Ship Prompt Bench 4.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Aetheria/Brainstorming/Faction Ship Concept Prompts.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 These are small, player-scale hull pitches. Each is designed for one pilot or a small crew. A hull's shape shows what it does: weapon arcs, sensor apertures, ammunition storage, radiators, thrusters, and service access have visible places. Its built-in advantage is a reason to buy that hull and accept its tradeoff. These designs use the faction identities in [[Brainstorming/Faction Flavor and Visual Identity|Faction Flavor and Visual Identity]] and the material combat choices in [[Game Design/Design Pillars|Design Pillars]], [[Game Design/Action RPG Layer|Action RPG Layer]], and [[Game Design/Ship-shape and Up to Specs|Ship-shape and Up to Specs]]. The pre-Elysium designs here use armor, heat management, and point defense rather than shields.
 
-The silhouette leads each design. A governing shape gives the eye a way to read the whole vessel; major forms then flow into its cabin, weapons, drives, and radiators. These comparisons guide construction rather than turning ships into literal animals or objects.
+The silhouette leads each design. A governing shape gives the eye a way to read the whole vessel; major forms then flow into its cabin, weapons, drives, and radiators. These comparisons guide construction rather than turning ships into literal animals or objects, except in the high-whimsy factions, where a whole cute animal is welcome (see guidelines 10 to 12).
 
 ## Prompting for Image-to-3D
 
@@ -19,6 +19,11 @@ The pipeline is image model, then Tripo3D, then cleanup, then game. A prompt suc
 7. **Geometry, not adjectives.** Words like "authoritative", "protective" and "measured" draw nothing. Turn each quality into a shape, a material or a placement.
 8. **Frame.** End every prompt with the standard frame clause below. Generate at the image model's highest resolution; Tripo's guidance recommends about 2048 px.
 9. **Extra views, only if they match.** Tripo accepts up to four views (front, left, right, back). Use them for asymmetric hulls, but only when the image model produces views that actually agree with each other.
+10. **No household objects.** A household object's identity lives in human-scale details: a filing cabinet's drawer fronts and label holders, a plug's prongs. The model draws those details as props glued to a hull, and the ship reads as a literal costume. The 50-F (filing cabinet) and Live Wire (plug) renders of 2026-10-04 fell flat for this reason. Take proportion and mass from an object only when its large form already suits a hull, and never ask the hull to carry the object's small parts.
+11. **An analogy lends mass and story, not a costume.** The animals that worked gave the hull a mass distribution or a story: Vasuki's hood and Bison's hump, the Squatter's stolen freight pod. The ones that failed copied the animal's whole body. The cause of that failure is the bench phrasing "Its whole body follows a ___", which asks for a costume.
+12. **An intact, rounded whole animal reads as a plush toy, whatever its paint.** Breakup Song, a whole rhinoceros in black and yellow, is the evidence. That is the right result in a high-whimsy register: Raft and Shellback were hits, and the Gentle Giant delighted the operator's husband. It is wrong in a serious or reserved register. Which register applies is a property of the faction, recorded in [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]].
+13. **Concept before prose.** Good prose cannot rescue a weak concept. Bench 2's One Pass asked for "nothing but a cockpit, two light guns and speed". Its prose was careful and its render a big fail. Operator, 2026-10-05: "You can see from the One Pass result that the flowery prose in its prompt did not save it from a weak concept." Start each prompt from how the ship is played ([[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts|Ship Play Concepts]]), and let that decide where the guns point, where the thrust sits and which masses are largest. When the concept depends on the thrust layout or on a weapon's direction, name it. Left unstated, the model draws two drives at the stern and two guns at the nose. Operator: "too many of these ships have exactly two thrusters in the back and two guns in the front".
+14. **Signature gear is part of the body, not a load on top of it.** Where a hull's role rests on one piece of built-in gear, make that gear a named part of the body's own mass, and keep it in proportion. The Sugar Glider passed with its sprayer in its mouth and its fuel tanks in its cheeks: "it's both cute and cursed, very Miss Terri". The Bulldog failed with its cartridge docked upright on its back: "nice stature, big silly thing on its back". Of a ship defined by a built-in capacitor, the operator said it "could work", "but even then it's way too prominent in the design." Gear may be the largest mass when it is the body, as the cheeks are. It fails when it reads as a separate object standing proud of the body. Write "sunk into", "forms the" and "flush with"; avoid "standing proud" and "docked upright".
 
 **Standard frame clause:** One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
 

Aetheria/Brainstorming/Ship Design Language.md

@@ -19,25 +19,56 @@ Every ship image prompt is built from three blocks, pasted in this order, with a
 
 The ship prompt comes last and is the most specific, so it wins any conflict. If a ship prompt assigns its own colours to named parts, those placements stand, and the faction block's palette tells the model what the colours mean. The global block repeats the standard frame clause at its end. Bench prompts end with the same clause, so the view is stated at both ends of the prompt. That repetition is deliberate: the clause is identical, so it reinforces rather than conflicts. A composed prompt runs to roughly 450 to 550 words. GPT-class image models read all of it. Tools with short prompt limits need the faction block trimmed to its first three sentences.
 
-**Thrusters and radiators are left out.** The operator adds thruster ports, attitude jets and radiators herself. None of the blocks below asks for them, and none forbids them. Some bench prompts still name nozzles or radiator plates; edit those per prompt. The global block does not reserve flat areas for them either: a "leave clean flat panels" instruction would push every faction toward slab-sided hulls and flatten the very silhouettes the faction blocks are trying to separate. One exception touches this boundary. The Cryonix folded emitters are that faction's heat organ, and the block treats them as a silhouette feature, not as radiators. Treat them as radiators or not, as you prefer.
+The composition is tested. On 2026-10-05 the operator put the global and Alakrita blocks in front of the first bench's Vasuki prompt, and it "did result in a noticeably more coherent render" than Vasuki alone. Every bench prompt is composed this way.
+
+**Thrust is named only where the concept needs it.** The operator adds thruster ports, attitude jets and radiators herself. None of the blocks below asks for them, and none forbids them. A ship prompt that leaves thrust unnamed gets the image model's default, two drives at the stern, and the Bench 2 renders show it. So a ship prompt names its thrust layout whenever its play concept depends on it: turning blocks on a broadside, rim thrusters on a rotating battery, flank drives on a ship whose stern carries mines or guns (guideline 13 in [[Brainstorming/Faction Ship Concept Prompts|Faction Ship Concept Prompts]]). Where the concept does not depend on it, the prompt leaves thrust out. Radiators stay out unless they are the concept. The global block does not reserve flat areas for them either: a "leave clean flat panels" instruction would push every faction toward slab-sided hulls and flatten the very silhouettes the faction blocks are trying to separate. One exception touches this boundary. The Cryonix folded emitters are that faction's heat organ, and the block treats them as a silhouette feature, not as radiators. Treat them as radiators or not, as you prefer.
 
 ---
 
 ## The Global Aetheria Block
 
 ```text
-Concept art of a small working spacecraft from the Aetheria universe, a vacuum-only machine made by a named manufacturer for one pilot or a small crew, with a human-sized hatch, a handhold rail and a cockpit window no wider than a person setting its scale against the hull. It is a material argument for what it does: magazines sit behind square hatches, sensors in recessed round apertures, guns in small turrets on thick armoured mounts, cargo at a heavy docking collar, and its protection is thick layered armour plate with bolted seams. It is owned, insured and repaired: scuffed handholds and hatch edges, one replaced panel in a slightly fresher shade, a stencilled registry number and a maker's plate beside the cockpit, engines cold and at rest. The whole ship is one continuous cast body, thick and closed, with rounded edges, mirror-symmetric along its long axis; every fin, blade and wing is a chunky rounded slab, and every part swells out of the main mass through wide smooth fillets so the outline is one solid silhouette. All surfaces are matte and opaque, painted metal, ceramic and rubberized composite, rendered like a painted studio scale model, with interior light shown only through small round opaque ports and painted bands. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+Concept art of a small working spacecraft from the Aetheria universe, made by a named manufacturer for one pilot or a small crew, with a human-sized hatch, a handhold rail and a cockpit window no wider than a person setting its scale against the hull. It is a material argument for what it does: magazines sit behind square hatches, sensors in recessed round apertures, guns in small turrets on thick armoured mounts, cargo at a heavy docking collar, and its protection is thick layered armour plate with bolted seams, with any further protective equipment sitting in its own visible housing, an emitter, a ring or a flat panel array, bolted to the hull like any other gear. It is owned, insured and repaired: scuffed handholds and hatch edges, one replaced panel in a slightly fresher shade, a stencilled registry number and a maker's plate beside the cockpit, engines cold and at rest. The whole ship is one continuous cast body, thick and closed, with rounded edges, mirror-symmetric along its long axis; every fin, blade and wing is a chunky rounded slab, and every part swells out of the main mass through wide smooth fillets so the outline is one solid silhouette. All surfaces are matte and opaque, painted metal, ceramic and rubberized composite, rendered like a painted studio scale model, with interior light shown only through small round opaque ports and painted bands. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
 ```
 
 **Why it says what it says.**
 
-- *Scale cues.* A human-sized hatch, a handhold rail and a person-wide window tell the model this is a player-scale hull. Without them, image models drift toward capital-ship greeble or toy scale.
-- *Material argument.* [[Game Design/Design Pillars|Design Pillars]] wants ships that say who built them and what they cost. The second sentence gives each function a visible housing, so that hardpoints and service access read as gear. Protection is armour, because pre-Elysium combat uses armour, heat and point defence rather than shields. The block names armour positively instead of forbidding force fields (guideline 5).
+- *Scale cues.* A human-sized hatch, a handhold rail and a person-wide window set the image model's level of detail: a few large, readable features sized to a person's hands rather than the dense greeble of a capital ship or the smoothness of a toy. They are not a claim about in-game scale. [[Game Design/Design Pillars|Design Pillars]] states that scale in Aetheria is meaningless and a ship can read as big as a planet.
+- *Register.* The global block is silent on whimsy and vacuum plausibility, because both vary by faction. Each faction block carries its own register in its text (see Registers below).
+- *Material argument.* [[Game Design/Design Pillars|Design Pillars]] wants ships that say who built them and what they cost. The second sentence gives each function a visible housing, so that hardpoints and service access read as gear. Protection is armour first, because armour is almost always still a good idea on every hull the release flies. Elysium also has protective technologies, plural and faction-dependent: most deflect or mitigate one damage type, and a shield that blocks anything exists but is prohibitively expensive to run, so a ship that turtles behind it drains its capacitors and dies to thermals. Operator, 2026-10-04: "Shields aren't a universal solution, there's different technologies which can deflect or mitigate specific damage types but a shield that can block anything would be counterbalanced by being prohibitively expensive to run, so all the turtling you're doing just means you drain your capacitors and then die to thermals. Armor is almost always still a good idea." The block therefore names armour as the baseline and gives any other protection a visible housing, so that the image model draws gear instead of a glowing bubble. Which protection a faction carries belongs to the faction block, and only where the vault's lore documents it. The block names things positively instead of forbidding force fields (guideline 5).
 - *Ownership and wear.* "Owned, insured and repaired" is the setting's economic grain made visible: a registry, a maker's plate, a replaced panel. Engines "cold and at rest" keeps exhaust plumes and flame trails out of the image without naming them.
 - *Image-to-3D craft.* The fourth and fifth sentences fold guidelines 2, 3 and 6 into positive description: one mass, thick, closed, symmetric, fillets in place of gaps, matte, opaque, and light only through small ports. "Painted studio scale model" is one concrete anchor for all of it, because a scale model is chunky, closed, matte and evenly lit.
 - *Frame.* This is the standard frame clause, verbatim.
 - *What it leaves out.* Thrusters, attitude ports and radiators are the operator's to place. Palette and silhouette belong to the faction. "Futuristic", "sleek" and "gritty" are left out because they draw nothing (guideline 7).
 
+## Rules From the Prompt Lab, Rounds 5 to 8
+
+> **Status: agent-promoted, pending operator review, 2026-10-08.** These rules come from the prompt lab in [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 4|Ship Prompt Bench 4]], rounds 5 to 8 (24 FLUX 3 renders). A rule is promoted here only if it held on at least three ships across at least two factions with no unexplained failure. Weaker findings stay as candidates in Bench 4's "Lab notes after round 8", which also holds G3, the global block that applies these rules. Where a rule conflicts with the global block above, the block above is the older text, and the conflict is named under each rule.
+
+The evidence was gathered on the serious, spectacle, whimsy-turned-up and Pirate registers. The high-whimsy register, whose hulls may ignore vacuum engineering, was not tested, and these rules make no claim about it.
+
+1. **Vacuum hulls have no aero surfaces.** The global block says the ship "never flies through air, so it has no wings, fins, tailplanes, vanes, airfoils or streamlining of any kind." Evidence: 21 of 22 long-prompt renders, 10 ships, 7 factions (Ewan Hart, Lucent, Pirate, Zhestokost, AU, Finch, Adrasteia). The one failure is explained: a Pirate racer donor with no other identity grew a wing (Dine and Dash r5c), and identity carried by livery fixed it on the next four renders. A short prompt without the clause grew a fin (r7d). This replaces "every fin, blade and wing is a chunky rounded slab" in the block above.
+2. **Weapons appear only where the ship prompt names them,** and an unarmed ship says "unarmed" or "carries no weapons". Evidence: unarmed hulls stayed unarmed on 10 renders, 4 ships, 4 factions (Odd Job, Key Light, Oboz, Ghost Fare); single named weapons stayed single on a Finch and a Pirate hull, and a six-turret Zhestokost battery stayed at six. Named counts drifted upward twice on one ship until each turret was given a position, so a ship prompt places every gun it names. This replaces "guns in small turrets on thick armoured mounts" in the block above, which put turrets on unarmed hulls.
+3. **Faction blocks carry livery and register only; shape motifs go in the ship prompt.** A faction block states the register, finish, palette with where each colour lives, markings and wear. Shape language in a faction block (tractor proportions, fenders, a grappling arm, a gaming-mouse layout) leaks onto every hull of that faction. Evidence: 18 renders, 10 ships, 7 factions held their faction read on livery-only blocks. The one failure is explained and repaired: Lucent's spectacle register lives in its shapes, so Key Light went generic with the motifs cut (r7a) and recovered them when its ship prompt carried the gaming-mouse layout (r8a). The faction blocks below are the older, longer texts; Bench 4's lab notes list the per-faction cuts.
+4. **Wear belongs to the faction block, not the global block.** With no wear clause in the global block, wear stayed on every faction that names it: 16 renders, 7 ships, 4 factions (Pirate, AU, Zhestokost, Ewan Hart). This replaces the global block's "scuffed handholds and hatch edges, one replaced panel" sentence. The converse, that a clean faction then renders clean, is not promoted: it held on Finch, mostly held on Lucent with the clean statement first, and failed on Adrasteia.
+
+---
+
+## Registers
+
+Operator rulings of 2026-10-04, after the first twelve bench renders. Two traits vary by faction: how much whimsy the hulls carry, and how far they bend vacuum plausibility. [[Game Design/Design Pillars|Design Pillars]] holds the stance behind both: Aetheria is abstract, ships may carry terrestrial affordances, and vacuum faithfulness is a per-faction trait. Each faction block below states its register in the text the image model reads, so that a composed prompt carries it.
+
+| Register | Factions | Hulls |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| High whimsy | Corriedales, Miss Terri's, Framgång | Mascots, toys, candy and lifestyle objects. Literal cute animals are welcome. Hulls may assume an up, stand on imagined ground, or ignore vacuum engineering. |
+| Whimsy turned up | Lightsail Express, Ewan Hart, Cetacean Navigators | Serious machines with one warm, friendly character trait. A whole animal may lend its mass and its face, not its costume. |
+| Spectacle | Lucent Media | Built to be filmed, with liberties taken for the camera. Its station concept hangs buildings under plazas. Not whimsical in the Corriedales sense. |
+| Serious | Zhestokost, Aeronautics Unlimited, Finch Cybernetics, Rossum & Douglas, NiteLife Energy, Alakrita, Adrasteia, Sol Dominion, Cryonix, Aya Collective, Megiddo | Function visible in the hull and plausible vacuum design. Animals and objects lend proportion and mass distribution only. |
+| Pirate | Pirate Coalition | Wild and maximalist: a stolen donor hull piled with additions. |
+| Reserved | Death Monkey Explosives | Serious and restrained, with one loud element. Menace through precision. DME sets itself apart from the Pirates by authorship: it builds its own intact hull. |
+
+Lucent is placed as a spectacle faction from the operator's description of the Jewel station, and the operator confirmed the placement on 2026-10-04. Breakup Song, a whole rhinoceros in DME black, was too cute for DME: the register belongs to the faction, and an intact animal hull in a serious faction reads as a plush toy in costume.
+
 ---
 
 ## Faction Blocks
@@ -47,7 +78,7 @@ Each block opens with the faction's name and premise, then covers silhouette and
 ### Zhestokost
 
 ```text
-A Zhestokost ship, poured in a state foundry: a piece of the arsenal that learned to fly. It sits low and broad like a cast-iron stove, built from stepped rectangular masses with deep seams between them, thick overlapping armour plates around recessed machinery, and square hatches, towing lugs and bolt rows repeated down the hull like a production line. Its guns are short, thick barrels in squat boxy turrets, and its ammunition feeds and magazine hatches are the largest features on the body. Finish is rough sand-cast iron under baked-on industrial enamel. Charcoal on the main armour, iron gray on the underside and machinery, dull oxide red on magazine hatches and ammunition doors, small cream stencilled serial numbers and safety chevrons on every plate, and large block-letter unit codes on the flank. Soot around every gun mouth, chipped enamel at hatch edges, one bolted replacement plate in fresher charcoal. It looks like a square-shouldered forklift of a warship that keeps firing until its tender calls it home.
+A Zhestokost ship, poured in a state foundry: a piece of the arsenal that learned to fly. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It sits low and broad like a cast-iron stove, built from stepped rectangular masses with deep seams between them, thick overlapping armour plates around recessed machinery, and square hatches, towing lugs and bolt rows repeated down the hull like a production line. Its guns are short, thick barrels in squat boxy turrets, and its ammunition feeds and magazine hatches are the largest features on the body. Finish is rough sand-cast iron under baked-on industrial enamel. Charcoal on the main armour, iron gray on the underside and machinery, dull oxide red on magazine hatches and ammunition doors, small cream stencilled serial numbers and safety chevrons on every plate, and large block-letter unit codes on the flank. Soot around every gun mouth, chipped enamel at hatch edges, one bolted replacement plate in fresher charcoal. It looks like a square-shouldered forklift of a warship that keeps firing until its tender calls it home.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** foundry doctrine and the column-and-tender quirk; Faction Flavor's stepped masses and block lettering; Faction Play's "low, broad, stepped hull; charcoal and oxide red."
@@ -57,7 +88,7 @@ A Zhestokost ship, poured in a state foundry: a piece of the arsenal that learne
 ### Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company
 
 ```text
-A Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company ship: a candy dispenser that sprays corrosives. Its capsule-shaped body is stacked from rounded layers like a layered dessert, with fat bulbous reservoirs, twist caps, and piping-tip and squeeze-bottle nozzles wherever the weapons are, and thick ribbed hoses moulded flush into the body. Finish is satin candy enamel with painted foil-seal panels, and the contents show only as opaque bands of syrup colour behind small round sight ports. Strawberry pink on the main body, mint on caps and nozzles, cream on the layer bands, cherry red on the hazard collar around every nozzle, bubbly white lettering, a serving-size panel and a winking cartoon mascot decal near the cockpit beside yellow-and-black pressure-rating stickers. Small brown corrosion stains run back from each nozzle tip. It looks like a lunchbox toy and handles like a crop duster full of acid.
+A Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company ship: a candy dispenser that sprays corrosives. The register is high whimsy: the hull is as playful and impractical as the sweets it imitates, and owes nothing to vacuum engineering. Its capsule-shaped body is stacked from rounded layers like a layered dessert, with fat bulbous reservoirs, twist caps, and piping-tip and squeeze-bottle nozzles wherever the weapons are, and thick ribbed hoses moulded flush into the body. Finish is satin candy enamel with painted foil-seal panels, and the contents show only as opaque bands of syrup colour behind small round sight ports. Strawberry pink on the main body, mint on caps and nozzles, cream on the layer bands, cherry red on the hazard collar around every nozzle, bubbly white lettering, a serving-size panel and a winking cartoon mascot decal near the cockpit beside yellow-and-black pressure-rating stickers. Small brown corrosion stains run back from each nozzle tip. It looks like a lunchbox toy and handles like a crop duster full of acid.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "everything is a treat until it starts working"; Faction Flavor's capsules, twist caps and squeeze nozzles; the spray-and-corrode swarm quirk.
@@ -67,19 +98,27 @@ A Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company ship: a candy dispenser that sprays corr
 ### Lucent Media
 
 ```text
-A Lucent Media ship: broadcast equipment and a trophy at once, built to be filmed. Its layout follows a high-end gaming mouse: a compact central chassis wrapped in thick, overlapping curved shells like palm covers and side rests, long paired blade-shaped prongs sweeping forward over the nose, small fins flaring up and out at the rear, ribbed grip panels, knurled wheel-shaped rotary mounts and recessed intake grilles. Every shell is a thick rounded slab fused to the body by a wide fillet, offset in steps so each layer reads. Colour follows the components: golden yellow and white on the main shells, pale lavender on the secondary shells, cobalt blue on the forward blades, vivid red-orange on the blade tips, dark navy in the recesses between layers. Satin enamel shells and matte rubberized ribbed inserts. A camera-lens sensor dome on the nose, a cluster of round stage lights set into the brow, a sponsor logo and a show title on the flank. Spotless and freshly detailed, it sits like a sports car on a showroom turntable.
+A Lucent Media ship: broadcast equipment and a trophy at once, built to be filmed. The register is spectacle: it takes liberties with vacuum engineering wherever the shot improves. Its layout follows a high-end gaming mouse: a compact central chassis wrapped in thick, overlapping curved shells like palm covers and side rests, long paired blade-shaped prongs sweeping forward over the nose, small fins flaring up and out at the rear, ribbed grip panels, knurled wheel-shaped rotary mounts and recessed intake grilles. Every shell is a thick rounded slab fused to the body by a wide fillet, offset in steps so each layer reads. Colour follows the components: golden yellow and white on the main shells, pale lavender on the secondary shells, cobalt blue on the forward blades, vivid red-orange on the blade tips, dark navy in the recesses between layers. Satin enamel shells and matte rubberized ribbed inserts. A camera-lens sensor dome on the nose, a cluster of round stage lights set into the brow, a sponsor logo and a show title on the flank. Spotless and freshly detailed, it sits like a sports car on a showroom turntable.
 ```
 
-**Corriedales variant.** For Lucent's budget family brand, keep the first sentence and replace everything after it with: `Rounded toy proportions and oversized friendly housings, scalloped bumper shells, wand-shaped gun barrels, and a targeting head shaped like a mascot's face with two round optic eyes. Sky blue on the main shells, butter yellow on the bumpers, coral on the barrels, lavender on the face, a character portrait decal and a collectible series number on the flank; scuffs at the bumper edges show dark serious machinery under the toy shell. It looks like a collectible toy that came with a real gun.`
-
 **Draws from:** "every fight is content"; the original Lucent concept and the gaming-mouse vocabulary in Faction Flavor; the Headliner, which worked.
 **Do:** let colour follow components so that each layer reads as a separate part.
 **Don't:** ask for deep gaps between shells or gloss enamel. Faction Flavor has both, and both are Tripo risks, so the block says fused, offset and satin instead.
 
+### Corriedales
+
+```text
+A Corriedales ship: a mascot that came with a real gun. The register is high whimsy: the hull is a whole, cute, plump animal or beloved character and owes nothing to vacuum engineering. The body is one round, friendly animal form with a big head fused into it, two large round optics set where the eyes would be, like a mascot's face, short thick limbs or flippers that carry the light gun barrels at their tips like wands, drive nozzles where the feet or tail would be, and a soft scalloped bumper ringing the belly. Finish is enamel and moulded shell over visibly serious hardware. Sky blue on the main body, butter yellow on the belly and bumper, coral on the limbs and barrels, lavender on the optic rims, a character portrait decal, a collectible series number on the cheek and a cheerful instruction label beside the hatch. Scuffs at the bumper and limb edges show dark machinery under the toy shell. It looks like a beloved character come to life, and its gun is real.
+```
+
+**Draws from:** [[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/Corriedales|Corriedales]], Lucent's family-entertainment brand, and its Faction Flavor identity: rounded toy proportions, wand-like barrels, scalloped shells, character faces, collectible series numbers, and edge wear that shows the serious equipment under the toy shell. The first bench round (2026-10-04) showed the animal hulls Raft and Shellback landing as hits with the operator's husband, and the Gentle Giant as the ship that would spread joy wherever it flies.
+**Do:** let the animal be whole and cute. Corriedales is the one faction that hosts mascot hulls, and the toy shell over real hardware is the faction's joke.
+**Don't:** carry this block into another faction's prompt. A whole cute animal is the register of Corriedales, Miss Terri's and Framgång. Elsewhere the animal lends mass and story only.
+
 ### Aeronautics Unlimited
 
 ```text
-An Aeronautics Unlimited ship: frontier work gear from the company that builds settlements and bills for them later. It is assembled from geometry anyone could draft with a compass and a ruler, cylinders, rounded rectangles, simple arcs and compact wedges, balanced like a well-packed mule or a compact excavator. Function is fitted rather than styled: tool sockets, lifting eyes, clamp rails, numbered removable module bays and a short survey sensor mast. Finish is matte powder coat over bare brushed aluminium. Chalk white on the main body, slate blue on the cockpit section and module doors, bare aluminium on clamps and rails, small ochre safety panels around lifting points and tool sockets, with concise black technical lettering, stencilled bay numbers and a faint survey grid on the dorsal plating. Pale mineral dust packs every crease and abrasion scuffs the lower edges, the marks of long shifts in asteroid fields. It looks like rental equipment that has paid for itself three times over.
+An Aeronautics Unlimited ship: frontier work gear from the company that builds settlements and bills for them later. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It is assembled from geometry anyone could draft with a compass and a ruler, cylinders, rounded rectangles, simple arcs and compact wedges, balanced like a well-packed mule or a compact excavator. Function is fitted rather than styled: tool sockets, lifting eyes, clamp rails, numbered removable module bays and a short survey sensor mast. Finish is matte powder coat over bare brushed aluminium. Chalk white on the main body, slate blue on the cockpit section and module doors, bare aluminium on clamps and rails, small ochre safety panels around lifting points and tool sockets, with concise black technical lettering, stencilled bay numbers and a faint survey grid on the dorsal plating. Pale mineral dust packs every crease and abrasion scuffs the lower edges, the marks of long shifts in asteroid fields. It looks like rental equipment that has paid for itself three times over.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "crews build the frontier; the company decides whether it was worth it"; Faction Flavor's plain geometry, tool sockets and mineral dust; the bench thesis of work gear and pack animals.
@@ -89,7 +128,7 @@ An Aeronautics Unlimited ship: frontier work gear from the company that builds s
 ### Finch Cybernetics
 
 ```text
-A Finch Cybernetics ship: a sense organ given a hull, made by a company that sells noticing. It is one continuous tapered form with the smooth fit of a prosthetic joint or a bird's skull, with soft transitions between sections, flush round sensor apertures set into the surface like pupils, and hairline recessed seams where panels meet, like the seams of a medical implant. Its sensors are its largest features: a broad shallow dish recessed into the flank like an ear, and a row of dark round lens apertures along the brow. Finish is pearl-white ceramic and satin titanium. Pearl white over the main body, satin titanium on joints and mounts, smoky gray matte on every aperture, tiny celadon-green indicator dots in a short row beside each aperture, and small gray technician labels. It is spotless and quiet, a medical device that is watching you back, more attentive than threatening.
+A Finch Cybernetics ship: a sense organ given a hull, made by a company that sells noticing. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It is one continuous tapered form with the smooth fit of a prosthetic joint or a bird's skull, with soft transitions between sections, flush round sensor apertures set into the surface like pupils, and hairline recessed seams where panels meet, like the seams of a medical implant. Its sensors are its largest features: a broad shallow dish recessed into the flank like an ear, and a row of dark round lens apertures along the brow. Finish is pearl-white ceramic and satin titanium. Pearl white over the main body, satin titanium on joints and mounts, smoky gray matte on every aperture, tiny celadon-green indicator dots in a short row beside each aperture, and small gray technician labels. It is spotless and quiet, a medical device that is watching you back, more attentive than threatening.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "notice first; service is priced by coverage"; the shadowing track-relay quirk; Faction Flavor's joints, sense organs and celadon indicators; Quiet Sense, which worked.
@@ -99,7 +138,7 @@ A Finch Cybernetics ship: a sense organ given a hull, made by a company that sel
 ### Rossum & Douglas
 
 ```text
-A Rossum & Douglas ship: the flying wedge, aggressively average. It is one broad, shallow wedge narrowing to a blunt nose and ending in a wide flat rear face, with a thicker central section, large flat dorsal planes and beveled perimeter edges carrying almost the entire shape. Detail stays flush and repetitive: identical rectangular access panels, small recessed square windows, shallow regular vent grilles, and missile hatches set flush into the dorsal plane. Finish is satin industrial coating. Muted blue-gray on the main hull, light gray on the belly and bevels, navy around the cockpit, one broad off-white stripe from nose to tail, small amber indicator lights, a model number and modest corporate lettering. Ordinary scuffs and one replacement panel. It looks like the vehicle that won a procurement tender on price: a photocopier with a missile rack.
+A Rossum & Douglas ship: the flying wedge, aggressively average. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It is one broad, shallow wedge narrowing to a blunt nose and ending in a wide flat rear face, with a thicker central section, large flat dorsal planes and beveled perimeter edges carrying almost the entire shape. Detail stays flush and repetitive: identical rectangular access panels, small recessed square windows, shallow regular vent grilles, and missile hatches set flush into the dorsal plane. Finish is satin industrial coating. Muted blue-gray on the main hull, light gray on the belly and bevels, navy around the cockpit, one broad off-white stripe from nose to tail, small amber indicator lights, a model number and modest corporate lettering. Ordinary scuffs and one replacement panel. It looks like the vehicle that won a procurement tender on price: a photocopier with a missile rack.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "a measurable improvement, guaranteed (conditions apply)"; Faction Flavor's flying wedge and its jab at wedge-heavy space games; the guided-missile picket quirk.
@@ -109,17 +148,17 @@ A Rossum & Douglas ship: the flying wedge, aggressively average. It is one broad
 ### NiteLife Energy
 
 ```text
-A NiteLife Energy ship: a premium home appliance scaled up to infrastructure, built around a cartridge only NiteLife sells. Its body is a set of full, swollen, smooth volumes like a high-end espresso machine or a smart speaker, cut by crisp slots, flat coupling collars and abrupt flat terminations. Its defining feature is a large proprietary reservoir cartridge docked visibly into the hull, its rounded end standing proud of the surface and held by a bright lime release catch. Finish is satin moulded housing with brushed-alloy collars. Satin midnight blue on the main shell, petroleum teal on the cartridge and the service channel, brushed alloy on the collars, lime green on every release catch and latch, warm white light only behind small round opaque status ports, rounded lettering and a bold version badge like a firmware number. Factory clean, with a warranty seal across the cartridge seam. It looks like a device you subscribe to.
+A NiteLife Energy ship: a premium home appliance scaled up to infrastructure, built around a cartridge only NiteLife sells. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. Its body is a set of full, swollen, smooth volumes like a high-end espresso machine or a smart speaker, cut by crisp slots, flat coupling collars and abrupt flat terminations. Its defining feature is a proprietary reservoir cartridge sunk into the hull flush with the surface, showing only its rounded end cap and a bright lime release catch. Finish is satin moulded housing with brushed-alloy collars. Satin midnight blue on the main shell, petroleum teal on the cartridge and the service channel, brushed alloy on the collars, lime green on every release catch and latch, warm white light only behind small round opaque status ports, rounded lettering and a bold version badge like a firmware number. Factory clean, with a warranty seal across the cartridge seam. It looks like a device you subscribe to.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "we keep the lights on, and we own the cartridge"; Faction Flavor's appliance finish and docking reservoirs; the station-bound guard quirk.
-**Do:** make the cartridge the silhouette, as the bench thesis says. If it reads as a separate object, the faction disappears.
+**Do:** make the cartridge's end cap and lime catch the faction's tell, set into the body. The block used to ask for the cartridge as the silhouette, standing proud. Bench 2's Bulldog (2026-10-05) followed that and docked it upright on the back, where it became "a big silly thing on its back" (guideline 14).
 **Don't:** ask for translucent status strips. Faction Flavor has them, and they become small opaque ports here.
 
 ### Lightsail Express
 
 ```text
-A Lightsail Express ship: an honest freight hauler that will not let go of its load. It is built like a long-haul truck: a distinct powered cab at the front fused to a long cargo spine, with rectangular cargo containers locked to the spine by heavy clamps, tie-down rails along each container, replaceable corner guards, and a docking collar at every loading point. Finish is enamel on steel, polished bright wherever hands go. Faded fleet blue on the cab and spine, warm cream on the containers, vermilion route stripes along both flanks, stencilled cargo numbers, inspection stickers and company lettering. Scuffed container corners, patched paint, polished handholds, and a warm lit cab window with a small personal pennant hanging beside it. It looks lived in by a driver who has run this route four hundred times and intends to finish it.
+A Lightsail Express ship: an honest freight hauler that will not let go of its load. The register is serious machinery with a warm, friendly face, bending vacuum plausibility only for its driver's comforts. It is built like a long-haul truck: a distinct powered cab at the front fused to a long cargo spine, with rectangular cargo containers locked to the spine by heavy clamps, tie-down rails along each container, replaceable corner guards, and a docking collar at every loading point. Finish is enamel on steel, polished bright wherever hands go. Faded fleet blue on the cab and spine, warm cream on the containers, vermilion route stripes along both flanks, stencilled cargo numbers, inspection stickers and company lettering. Scuffed container corners, patched paint, polished handholds, and a warm lit cab window with a small personal pennant hanging beside it. It looks lived in by a driver who has run this route four hundred times and intends to finish it.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "we'll lose our lives before we lose your cargo"; Faction Flavor's cargo spines, cab section and personal decorations.
@@ -129,7 +168,7 @@ A Lightsail Express ship: an honest freight hauler that will not let go of its l
 ### Alakrita
 
 ```text
-An Alakrita ship: couture speed, spares not included. It is a long, low, narrow body with sharp knife-pleat creases running from nose to tail, swept blades and stacked folded fins made as thick lacquered slabs with crisp edges, and engines aligned in one disciplined row, the whole silhouette shaped like a closed folding fan or a racing scull. Finish is deep satin-matte lacquer with precise recessed joints. Ivory lacquer on the main body, wine-red enamel in the crease valleys and under the fins, narrow gold inlay lines tracing every crease, a matte black cockpit panel, and a small inscription plaque with laurel-leaf trim beside the cockpit. Every fastener is recessed and every joint is tight, so a single scratch would show. It looks like a garment that costs more than its pilot's life insurance.
+An Alakrita ship: couture speed, spares not included. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It is a long, low, narrow body with sharp knife-pleat creases running from nose to tail, swept blades and stacked folded fins made as thick lacquered slabs with crisp edges, and engines aligned in one disciplined row, the whole silhouette shaped like a closed folding fan or a racing scull. Finish is deep satin-matte lacquer with precise recessed joints. Ivory lacquer on the main body, wine-red enamel in the crease valleys and under the fins, narrow gold inlay lines tracing every crease, a matte black cockpit panel, and a small inscription plaque with laurel-leaf trim beside the cockpit. Every fastener is recessed and every joint is tight, so a single scratch would show. It looks like a garment that costs more than its pilot's life insurance.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "speed and elegance, spares not included"; Faction Flavor's creases, lacquer, gold inlay and restrained Roman trim; the one-pass, scratch-and-leave quirk.
@@ -139,7 +178,7 @@ An Alakrita ship: couture speed, spares not included. It is a long, low, narrow
 ### Ewan Hart
 
 ```text
-An Ewan Hart ship: farm machinery working in vacuum, because people need dinner. It has tractor proportions: a broad power-unit housing, rounded fenders over exposed working parts, prominent folding tool arms and implement couplings, heavy tow hitches, and big hinged service covers sized for gloved hands. Finish is thick farm enamel over greasy steel. Faded harvest gold on the main housing and fenders, deep agricultural green on the cab and implements, black rubber hoses along the arms, cream maker plates and large round readable gauges beside the cockpit. Enamel is chipped at every corner, grease darkens the hitches, and a canvas feed sack is strapped to the rear deck. It looks like a machine bought at auction from a cousin that has never missed a harvest.
+An Ewan Hart ship: farm machinery working in vacuum, because people need dinner. The register is serious machinery with a goofy, friendly face, bending vacuum plausibility a little for the sake of charm. It has tractor proportions: a broad power-unit housing, rounded fenders over exposed working parts, prominent folding tool arms and implement couplings, heavy tow hitches, and big hinged service covers sized for gloved hands. Finish is thick farm enamel over greasy steel. Faded harvest gold on the main housing and fenders, deep agricultural green on the cab and implements, black rubber hoses along the arms, cream maker plates and large round readable gauges beside the cockpit. Enamel is chipped at every corner, grease darkens the hitches, and a canvas feed sack is strapped to the rear deck. It looks like a machine bought at auction from a cousin that has never missed a harvest.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "people need dinner"; Faction Flavor's tractor proportions, harvest gold and maker plates; its role as the haulers everyone buys from.
@@ -149,17 +188,17 @@ An Ewan Hart ship: farm machinery working in vacuum, because people need dinner.
 ### Death Monkey Explosives
 
 ```text
-A Death Monkey Explosives ship: punk demolition, a toolbox built to break a supply chain and keep it broken. It shows exposed heavy machinery, thick projecting spikes and fins, heavy braces, a detachable charge-feed section, and conspicuous break points marked by painted cut lines and big pull handles. Finish is blackened steel and heat-stained alloy under scratched enamel. Blackened steel overall, scorched red on the armour and spikes, acid yellow on hazard bands and cut lines, and uneven hand-painted white lettering: the ship's name, a lyric fragment, and a tally of stations hit. Heat scorch fans back from every hot part, with welded repair patches and band stickers over them. It looks like a touring band's equipment case that has been in a fire and is still on tour.
+A Death Monkey Explosives ship: a demolition crew's own machine, a toolbox built to break a supply chain and keep it broken. The register is serious and reserved: DME builds its own intact, engineered hull, and its menace comes from restraint. It is one hard-edged blackened steel body of heavy slab armour with precise cut lines, heavy braces, a detachable charge-feed section at the rear, and conspicuous break points marked by thin cut lines and big pull handles. Finish is blackened steel in worn satin, with square edge guards at every corner and replaceable armour slabs, with sacrificial standoff plates held out ahead of the hull on short struts. Almost the whole ship is blackened steel, and the only other colour is acid yellow on the cut lines and break points. The one loud element is the hand-painted white lettering, large and uneven: the ship's name, a lyric fragment, and a tally of stations hit. Wear is twenty years of touring: corner guards rubbed bright, paint scratched at the handles, and a few band stickers on the flank. It looks like a road flight case after twenty years of touring, still sealed, still latched, still on the road.
 ```
 
-**Draws from:** "break the dependency and make sure it stays broken"; Faction Flavor's break points, spikes and lyric lettering; the infrastructure-attack quirk and its overheating cells.
-**Do:** for the polished **cold like my heart** line, replace the wear sentence with "the same aggressive branding on a clean, finely finished shell, the lettering crisp and expensive".
+**Draws from:** "break the dependency and make sure it stays broken"; Faction Flavor's break points and lyric lettering; the infrastructure-attack quirk and its overheating cells; replaceable armour and sacrificial standoffs from [[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Factions/Death Monkey Explosives|Death Monkey Explosives]]. DME is the faction the Pirate block must not be confused with: DME authors an intact hull and restrains it, where the Pirates pile additions on a stolen one. Breakup Song (2026-10-04) showed that a whole animal in DME black reads as a plush toy, so DME takes no animal hull.
+**Do:** for the polished **cold like my heart** line, replace the wear sentence with "the same restrained black hull, finely finished, the lettering crisp and expensive" and keep the lettering the loudest thing on the ship.
 **Don't:** use real lyrics. Name a fake band or leave the lettering as "a lyric fragment" and let the model invent it.
 
 ### Adrasteia
 
 ```text
-An Adrasteia ship: built to be a hole in the background. It is a low faceted wedge of broad shallow planes, like a flatfish lying on the seabed or a cut gemstone laid flat, with its parts tucked into one another, its apertures recessed under overhanging facets, and every surface closed; one facet on the side facing the camera is cut differently from its mirror. Finish is dead-matte graphite and black ceramic that drinks light, so the shape reads only where the soft key light grazes a facet edge. Matte graphite on the main facets, black ceramic on the leading edges and recesses, dark indigo on the cockpit panel, and almost no markings except one tiny friendly smiley face stencilled beside the hatch. Clean and cold. It looks like a shadow that has decided to be a ship.
+An Adrasteia ship: built to be a hole in the background. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It is a low faceted wedge of broad shallow planes, like a flatfish lying on the seabed or a cut gemstone laid flat, with its parts tucked into one another, its apertures recessed under overhanging facets, and every surface closed; one facet on the side facing the camera is cut differently from its mirror. Finish is dead-matte graphite and black ceramic that drinks light, so the shape reads only where the soft key light grazes a facet edge. Matte graphite on the main facets, black ceramic on the leading edges and recesses, dark indigo on the cockpit panel, and almost no markings except one tiny friendly smiley face stencilled beside the hatch. Clean and cold. It looks like a shadow that has decided to be a ship.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "the best defense is not to need one, and the bill is a consumable"; Running Cold; Faction Flavor's asymmetric facets and its UV smiley; Faction Play's "a hole in the background, then a flare."
@@ -169,17 +208,17 @@ An Adrasteia ship: built to be a hole in the background. It is a low faceted wed
 ### Sol Dominion
 
 ```text
-A Sol Dominion ship: administration as hardware. It is built along one strong, straight central spine like the handle of an official stamp, with broad flat armour planes set square to it, identical module bands repeated along its length, flush embedded antenna fields, and a standard docking face that would mate with any Dominion station. Finish is dense, clean ceramic. Pale gray ceramic on the main armour, graphite on the structural bands, desaturated blue on the module bands and registry blocks, small crimson jurisdiction seals and one crimson stripe at the bow, long white alignment marks, black registry numbers, and square machine-readable code panels. Its port lights are even and white, and every hatch is numbered. It approaches like an inspector with a clipboard who is also a warship.
+A Sol Dominion ship: administration as hardware. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It is built along one strong, straight central spine like the handle of an official stamp, with broad flat armour planes set square to it, identical module bands repeated along its length, flush embedded antenna fields, a standard docking face that would mate with any Dominion station, and small point-defence interceptor mounts in square housings set into the armour planes. Finish is dense, clean ceramic. Pale gray ceramic on the main armour, graphite on the structural bands, desaturated blue on the module bands and registry blocks, small crimson jurisdiction seals and one crimson stripe at the bow, long white alignment marks, black registry numbers, and square machine-readable code panels. Its port lights are even and white, and every hatch is numbered. It approaches like an inspector with a clipboard who is also a warship.
 ```
 
-**Draws from:** "identify, classify, then act through the record"; Faction Flavor's axial spines, module bands and registry livery; the identify-then-disable quirk.
+**Draws from:** "identify, classify, then act through the record"; Faction Flavor's axial spines, module bands and registry livery; the identify-then-disable quirk; point-defence interceptors from the Mandate cutters' loadout in [[Game Design/Faction Play|Faction Play]].
 **Do:** let every class look like a size of the same form, as Faction Flavor's command ships enlarge the grammar rather than ornament it.
 **Don't:** ask for "authoritative" or "imposing". The Mandate failed on adjectives; menace here comes from the numbering.
 
 ### Cryonix
 
 ```text
-A Cryonix ship: the cold chain made exact. It has a narrow-waisted body around a protected compact core, like a sealed vacuum flask or a closed spruce cone, with thick folded emitter panels lying flat against the hull in overlapping layers like closed scales, long straight boundaries and shallow compound curves. Finish is clean-room matte ceramic and anodized metal. Blue-black and graphite on the main structure, pale silver on the emitter scales, thin icy-cyan painted bands tracing the heat paths from core to emitters, small copper rings only at couplings and interfaces, and batch identifiers and tiny alignment grids in cool white. It is pristine; a single fingerprint would show. It looks like a sealed laboratory instrument that has learned patience.
+A Cryonix ship: the cold chain made exact. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It has a narrow-waisted body around a protected compact core, like a sealed vacuum flask or a closed spruce cone, with thick folded emitter panels lying flat against the hull in overlapping layers like closed scales, long straight boundaries and shallow compound curves. Finish is clean-room matte ceramic and anodized metal. Blue-black and graphite on the main structure, pale silver on the emitter scales, thin icy-cyan painted bands tracing the heat paths from core to emitters, small copper rings only at couplings and interfaces, and batch identifiers and tiny alignment grids in cool white. It is pristine; a single fingerprint would show. It looks like a sealed laboratory instrument that has learned patience.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "the first trace is yours to find"; the cold-sniper quirk, which dumps heat through unfolding emitters; Faction Flavor's narrow waists, crystalline control and selective copper; the bench's recast of the Stillwater.
@@ -189,17 +228,17 @@ A Cryonix ship: the cold chain made exact. It has a narrow-waisted body around a
 ### Cetacean Navigators
 
 ```text
-A Cetacean Navigators ship: a rescue vessel that carries its own sea. Two long, swollen, parallel pressure hulls grow as lobes of one smooth rounded body, like a dolphin's flanks or a beluga's broad back, with a raised dry cabin ridge between them, a tapered navigation boom at the bow, and wide smooth fillets wherever the forms meet. Water shows as mass behind small round amber-lit ports along each lobe. Silver-rimmed transfer locks sit where the cabin ridge meets the lobes, and heavy rounded towing points sit at the stern. Finish is matte marine coating. Deep ocean blue on the upper lobes, blue-green along the flanks, pale sand on the belly, silver lock rims, warm amber light at the inhabited ports, and flowing route lines of repeated dots along the hull. Its tow points are worn smooth, with thick rubber fenders. It looks like a lifeboat that knows the way home.
+A Cetacean Navigators ship: a rescue vessel that carries its own sea. The register is serious machinery with a goofy, friendly face, bending vacuum plausibility a little for the sake of charm. Two long, swollen, parallel pressure hulls grow as lobes of one smooth rounded body, like a dolphin's flanks or a beluga's broad back, with a raised dry cabin ridge between them, a tapered navigation boom at the bow, and wide smooth fillets wherever the forms meet. Water shows as mass behind small round amber-lit ports along each lobe. Silver-rimmed transfer locks sit where the cabin ridge meets the lobes, and heavy rounded towing points sit at the stern. Two or three small point-defence mounts on standard bases sit along the cabin ridge. Finish is matte marine coating. Deep ocean blue on the upper lobes, blue-green along the flanks, pale sand on the belly, silver lock rims, warm amber light at the inhabited ports, and flowing route lines of repeated dots along the hull. Its tow points are worn smooth, with thick rubber fenders. It looks like a lifeboat that knows the way home.
 ```
 
-**Draws from:** "obligations without consequences are advertising"; the distress-call and towing quirk; Faction Flavor's parallel pressure bodies, amber locks and route lines; guideline 2's lobes in place of the Waykeeper's arches.
+**Draws from:** "obligations without consequences are advertising"; the distress-call and towing quirk; Faction Flavor's parallel pressure bodies, amber locks and route lines; guideline 2's lobes in place of the Waykeeper's arches; point defence from the Waykeeper escorts' loadout in [[Game Design/Faction Play|Faction Play]].
 **Do:** say "lobes of one body". The twin hulls are the faction, and the lobes are how they survive Tripo.
 **Don't:** ask for arches, open structure or translucent water sections. Faction Flavor has them; the Waykeeper failed on the first.
 
 ### Aya Collective
 
 ```text
-An Aya Collective ship: a commons you can open, built so that everyone aboard comes home. It has rounded protective frames around replaceable cells, like a tortoise shell or a lidded clay cooking pot, with the body divided into repeated removable panels, each held by visible latches, hinged access covers sized for one person to swap, and point-defence turrets on standard mounts at the shoulders. Finish is durable matte ceramic, with soft rubberized grips wherever hands go. Terracotta on the main shell, warm cream on the panels, deep green on the frames and turrets, charcoal on the mounts, restrained copper at the couplings, block-printed geometric patterns that differ from panel to panel, and small workshop marks. Its repairs are visible and good: one patched panel with neat stitch-like rivets. It looks like a village built a ship together and every household made one panel.
+An Aya Collective ship: a commons you can open, built so that everyone aboard comes home. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It has rounded protective frames around replaceable cells, like a tortoise shell or a lidded clay cooking pot, with the body divided into repeated removable panels, each held by visible latches, hinged access covers sized for one person to swap, and point-defence turrets on standard mounts at the shoulders. Finish is durable matte ceramic, with soft rubberized grips wherever hands go. Terracotta on the main shell, warm cream on the panels, deep green on the frames and turrets, charcoal on the mounts, restrained copper at the couplings, block-printed geometric patterns that differ from panel to panel, and small workshop marks. Its repairs are visible and good: one patched panel with neat stitch-like rivets. It looks like a village built a ship together and every household made one panel.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "no system is inevitable if people can still keep one another alive"; the never-first, never-pursue, heavy point-defence quirk; Faction Flavor's protective frames, service logic and patterned panels; the Open Hand's turtle and water jar.
@@ -209,7 +248,7 @@ An Aya Collective ship: a commons you can open, built so that everyone aboard co
 ### Framgång and Odla Framgång
 
 ```text
-A Framgång ship: a mid-century lifestyle promise with a competitor's engine inside it. It has the domestic space-age curves of a 1958 sedan or a travel trailer: an oval control face, swept tailfins, a pedestal-mounted sensor dish, starburst trim, and one slightly-too-deep adapter casing where the borrowed mechanism does not quite fit. Finish is satin paint with brushed champagne-gold trim. Avocado green on the main body, peach on the fins and the accent sweep, cream on the cockpit face, brushed champagne gold on the trim, badges and starbursts, a faux-wood-grain panel by the hatch, and an aspirational seal reading "Certified Success". It is showroom fresh, with a price sticker still on one fin. It looks like a timeshare pitch that can follow you between stars.
+A Framgång ship: a mid-century lifestyle promise with a competitor's engine inside it. The register is high whimsy: a showroom promise that owes nothing to vacuum engineering. It has the domestic space-age curves of a 1958 sedan or a travel trailer: an oval control face, swept tailfins, a pedestal-mounted sensor dish, starburst trim, and one slightly-too-deep adapter casing where the borrowed mechanism does not quite fit. Finish is satin paint with brushed champagne-gold trim. Avocado green on the main body, peach on the fins and the accent sweep, cream on the cockpit face, brushed champagne gold on the trim, badges and starbursts, a faux-wood-grain panel by the hatch, and an aspirational seal reading "Certified Success". It is showroom fresh, with a price sticker still on one fin. It looks like a timeshare pitch that can follow you between stars.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "you are not broken, you are under-invested"; the Odla affiliates who follow and pitch; Faction Flavor's domestic curves, adapters and finish range.
@@ -219,7 +258,7 @@ A Framgång ship: a mid-century lifestyle promise with a competitor's engine ins
 ### Pirate Coalition
 
 ```text
-A Pirate Coalition ship: someone else's ship, kept running out of spite. It is an identifiable donor hull from another manufacturer with a predator's additions bolted on: a cut-down module, adapted gun hardpoints on improvised mounts, bolted salvage armour plates, exposed cable runs clamped along the hull, and a grappling arm, with every asymmetric addition on the side facing the camera. Finish is mixed: patches of the donor's original paint, gray primer, bare welds and blued heat discolouration. Donor company paint on the original hull, gray primer on the added parts, bare steel at the welds, one crew accent colour slashed boldly across both, overpainted corporate logos, crossed-out serials, and the crew's emblem, one large emoji, painted three times. It looks like a stolen truck with new plates and a shotgun on the dash.
+A Pirate Coalition ship: someone else's ship, kept running out of spite. The register is wild and maximalist: more additions than any sensible refit would carry. It is an identifiable donor hull from another manufacturer with a predator's additions bolted on: a cut-down module, adapted gun hardpoints on improvised mounts, bolted salvage armour plates, exposed cable runs clamped along the hull, and a grappling arm, with every asymmetric addition on the side facing the camera. Finish is mixed: patches of the donor's original paint, gray primer, bare welds and blued heat discolouration. Donor company paint on the original hull, gray primer on the added parts, bare steel at the welds, one crew accent colour slashed boldly across both, overpainted corporate logos, crossed-out serials, and the crew's emblem, one large emoji, painted three times. It looks like a stolen truck with new plates and a shotgun on the dash.
 ```
 
 **Draws from:** "possession has a maintenance schedule"; the cargo-not-death quirk and named crews; Faction Flavor's donor hulls and emoji marks; the Second Owner's camera-side lesson.
@@ -229,9 +268,9 @@ A Pirate Coalition ship: someone else's ship, kept running out of spite. It is a
 ### Megiddo
 
 ```text
-A Megiddo ship: a moving boundary, protection grown like a seed. It has nested protective volumes like a pomegranate or a tightly curled pangolin: an inner hull wrapped in thick overlapping outer shells, heavy shutters closing over recessed ports, and separate service sections that each look independently maintained. Finish is matte warm ceramic and aged metal. Blue-black on the outer shells, warm pale ceramic on the inner hull where the shutters open, aged bronze-gray metal on the shutter frames and mounts, and small silver inlays of Earth's constellations scattered across the upper shells. It is old, well kept and carefully mended. It looks like a guarded seed vault that has learned to keep watch.
+A Megiddo ship: a moving boundary, protection grown like a seed. The register is serious: every feature is plausible vacuum engineering with a visible job. It has nested protective volumes like a pomegranate or a tightly curled pangolin: an inner hull wrapped in thick overlapping outer shells, heavy shutters closing over recessed ports, small point-defence mounts on standard bases between the shells, a shield projector in a visible ring housing set into the upper shells, and separate service sections that each look independently maintained. Finish is matte warm ceramic and aged metal. Blue-black on the outer shells, warm pale ceramic on the inner hull where the shutters open, aged bronze-gray metal on the shutter frames and mounts, and small silver inlays of Earth's constellations scattered across the upper shells. It is old, well kept and carefully mended. It looks like a guarded seed vault that has learned to keep watch.
 ```
 
-**Draws from:** "hold the boundary until the question is answered"; the perimeter-fleet quirk; Faction Flavor's nested volumes, shutters and Earth-constellation anchors.
+**Draws from:** "hold the boundary until the question is answered"; the perimeter-fleet quirk; Faction Flavor's nested volumes, shutters and Earth-constellation anchors; protection from [[Game Design/Faction Play|Faction Play]] (shields, the Migdal; layered armor; point defense) and [[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Factions/Megiddo|Megiddo]] (layered armor, point defense).
 **Do:** let the constellations be recognisably Earth's (Orion, the Plough), as Faction Flavor requires them to differ from the Elysian sky.
 **Don't:** ask for lettering or inscriptions. Accurate Hebrew needs supplied text, and invented script carries no meaning. A Vault ship, if anyone draws one, is a plain unremarkable sphere and uses none of this block.

Aetheria/Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 2.md

@@ -0,0 +1,700 @@
+---
+title: Ship Prompt Bench 2
+description: "A second bench of ship prompts, written as the last layer after the global and faction blocks, with the analogy chosen per register: mass for serious factions, story where a faction has one, whole cute animals only in high-whimsy registers."
+---
+
+# Ship Prompt Bench 2
+
+> **Status: brainstorming bench, Imagination pass of 2026-10-04.** Not canon and not adopted. It replaces nothing: [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench|Ship Prompt Bench]] stays as the record of the first round. Prompts here are the third block of the composition order in [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]], written to follow the global block and the faction block. Roles come from [[Game Design/Faction Play|Faction Play]], craft rules from guidelines 1 to 12 in [[Brainstorming/Faction Ship Concept Prompts|Faction Ship Concept Prompts]], and the vacuum stance from [[Game Design/Design Pillars|Design Pillars]].
+>
+> **Round two, 2026-10-05:** the operator rendered Vasuki composed, One Pass, Bulldog and Sugar Glider. The results and lessons are recorded in [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3|Ship Prompt Bench 3]].
+
+Operator brief, 2026-10-04: "I'd like a new batch of bench prompts, too." She had tested twelve first-bench prompts alone, without the global or faction blocks, on GPT Image 2.5. The household objects fell flat, Vasuki and Bison stood out, Squatter was the one animal she liked, and her husband loved the cute animals: Raft, Shellback, and above all the Gentle Giant. Her register ruling: "Some factions definitely have more space for whimsy. Corriedales is the obvious one to host these mascot ships like Raft and Shellback," and "DME is definitely more serious and reserved where the Pirates are wild and maximalist." The diagnosis behind this bench is that 86 first-bench prompts said "Its whole body follows a ___", which made every ship a costume.
+
+## For the Operator
+
+These are readings the docs did not settle. Each one is a choice I made so the bench could be written; overrule any of them.
+
+1. **Corriedales roles are invented.** Faction Play lists Corriedales as a brand without a flag, a quirk or roles; its weapons ride on cheap Lucent hulls. Its three roles here (the fan's first fighter, a merch hauler, a companion escort) come from the first bench's budget fighter and from the brand note: toys, companion organisms, and surveillance that feels like affection. Lucent's own section keeps a holding ship and gains a headliner duelist in place of the budget fighter that moved.
+2. **Where the hits went.** Raft, Shellback and the Gentle Giant were Cetacean and Lightsail prompts. Under the register table, those factions are now "whimsy turned up": an animal may lend its mass and its face, not its costume. So their successors here are faces and masses, and the whole-animal versions of the same delight live in Corriedales. If you would rather keep a whole-animal hull in Cetacean or Lightsail, that is a register change to Ship Design Language, not a bench edit.
+3. **What counts as a household object.** I read it as the domestic, hand-sized things: appliances, furniture, containers, utensils, office supplies, hand tools. Vehicles and buildings are not household objects here; they are the terrestrial affordances Design Pillars allows (Cat's taxi), so they appear in the whimsical and spectacle registers. Candy counts as the high-whimsy register's "candy", not as a household object.
+4. **The faction blocks still carry household similes.** NiteLife's block says espresso machine and smart speaker, Zhestokost's cast-iron stove, Cryonix's vacuum flask, Aya's lidded clay cooking pot, Sol Dominion's official stamp. Guideline 10 allows them as proportion only, and they enter every composed prompt. If composed renders drift toward costume, cut there first.
+5. **Two analogies per composed prompt.** Most faction blocks already name a proportion simile, so an analogy attempt here adds a second, against guideline 1. The ship prompt is last and wins, so its analogy should govern the mass. The **Function** attempts carry no analogy at all and test whether the block's grammar is enough by itself. If an analogy attempt muddles where its Function sibling reads cleanly, trim the block's simile.
+6. **A control pair is worth one render.** These prompts are not meant to be rendered alone; without their blocks they have no palette and no register. Rendering Vasuki and Bison composed, against their first-round renders, would show what the blocks add before you spend a batch.
+7. **Lucent's spectacle register is confirmed** in Ship Design Language (operator, 2026-10-04). The Lucent attempts here take camera liberties (a stage deck, an up) on that reading.
+8. **DME's burnout raider** was built around deep space burnout thrusters, and thrusters are yours to place. Its attempts carry the overheating as a cell bank with cut lines instead.
+
+## How to Use This Bench
+
+- **Compose before rendering.** Paste the global Aetheria block, then the faction's block, then one prompt from here, with a blank line between each. The prompts here do not restate a faction's palette or register; the faction block supplies both. A prompt assigns a colour only where a part is unique to that ship, such as a pirate crew's accent colour.
+- **Each attempt names its mode**, so the bench tests the ways an analogy can enter a hull:
+  - **Mass:** an animal or vehicle lends its proportion and the way its weight sits, named once. Vasuki's hood and Bison's hump are the model.
+  - **Story:** the hull shows a history: what it was, what was done to it, what it has survived. Squatter's stolen freight pod is the model.
+  - **Function:** no analogy. The job and the faction's grammar place the parts.
+  - **Mass and face:** an animal lends its mass and its friendly face, not its body. The "whimsy turned up" registers: Lightsail, Ewan Hart, Cetacean Navigators.
+  - **Mascot:** a whole, cute, plump animal. High-whimsy registers only: Corriedales, Miss Terri's, Framgång.
+  - **Candy:** a confection's large form as the hull. Miss Terri's only.
+  - **Terrestrial:** a building's or a vehicle's affordances, such as a door, a porch, a kerb or an up. Whimsical and spectacle registers only.
+- **Safe bet** or **Moonshot**, as in the first bench. A moonshot says what it risks.
+- Each faction says which first-round lessons it carries.
+- **Thrusters, attitude ports and radiators are not named.** Ship Design Language leaves them to you. The Cryonix emitter scales are the one exception that block already names.
+- Every prompt ends with the standard frame clause. Station prompts end with the station frame.
+
+## What the First Round Taught
+
+| Render | Result | Lesson carried here |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Vasuki (cobra hood), Bison (shoulder hump) | Stood out | The serious-register benchmark: the animal lends where the mass sits, and the hardpoints go where that mass already is. |
+| Squatter (hermit crab in a stolen pod) | The one animal that felt right | Story: the analogy explains a history the hull visibly carries. |
+| Raft, Shellback, Gentle Giant | Hits with the operator's husband | Whole cute animals delight in the right register. They now live in Corriedales; Cetacean and Lightsail keep the face and the mass. |
+| Lamp-Shy (moth), Zera (milkweed pod) | A pass, barely | Quiet, low-mass shapes read, but need a stronger silhouette. |
+| 50-F (filing cabinet), Live Wire (plug) | Fell flat | No household objects. Their identity lives in small human-scale parts glued to the hull. |
+| Breakup Song (whole rhino in DME black) | Too cute for DME | A whole rounded animal reads as a plush toy in any paint. Serious and reserved factions get no animal hulls. |
+| The rest | Too silly | The "Its whole body follows a ___" template asked for a costume every time. |
+
+## Riskiest for Image-to-3D
+
+- *Pouchling (Corriedales, kangaroo):* the pouch is a concavity, and a joey's head peeking from it is a small separate form. The prompt fills the pouch with a rounded cargo lid.
+- *Piggyback (Corriedales, opossum with four young on her back):* four small bodies on one back may separate or merge. Fused, half-sunk humps are the hope.
+- *Antler Rack (AU, moose):* palmate antlers are broad slabs, but the image model knows them as branching tines.
+- *Still Water (Cryonix, standing heron):* the neck-and-bill barrel is long and thin by nature.
+- *Swan Song Retreat (Framgång, swan boat):* the swan's neck is an arch in waiting. The prompt makes it a thick, upright prow.
+- *Green Room (Lucent station):* buildings hung beneath a plaza are separate volumes with gaps between them, on purpose.
+- *Free Sample (Miss Terri's, ice-cream van):* the awning wants to be a thin sheet; the prompt makes it a thick slab.
+- *Last Mile (NiteLife):* three empty cartridge cradles are deep concavities Tripo may fill.
+- *Every Pirate attempt:* the additions sit on the camera side only, so the far side is guesswork. Supply a matching rear view or accept the guess.
+- *Frosting (Miss Terri's, cupcake):* the frosting swirl is fine relief that reconstruction may smear into noise.
+- *Remora (Sol Dominion):* the docking disc is a large shallow concavity on the dorsal surface.
+
+---
+
+## Zhestokost
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Zhestokost|Zhestokost]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Zhestokost|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** The arsenal that learned to fly, with ammunition as architecture. An analogy may tell the hull where its weight sits and nothing more.
+**Carries:** Bison's lesson that weight placed high and forward reads as power, and Vasuki's that hardpoints belong on the mass the analogy creates. The first bench's armadillo and walrus asked for whole animals; their mass survives here without their bodies.
+
+### Role: Ammunition tender
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew keep a column firing. The hull has built-in ammunition-transfer collars and deep magazines, two small point-defense hardpoints and one ventral utility hardpoint for a cargo grip. It is slow and carries nothing else to fight with, and the whole column's fight depends on it.
+
+**A · Quartermaster** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Quartermaster, a two-person Zhestokost ammunition tender. The magazines are the ship. Four deep magazine sections stand in a row down the spine, each one a stepped rectangular mass taller than the cockpit, each with one square loading hatch on its crest and a stencilled calibre code on its flank. The cockpit sits low at the front in a thick armoured block, a narrow slit under a heavy brow, dwarfed by the magazines behind it. One squat ammunition-transfer collar projects from each flank beside the second magazine section, ringed with towing lugs. One small point-defence turret sits on each front corner of the cockpit block. A folded cargo grip lies flat under the belly between two heavy skids. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Babushka** · Story · Moonshot. The tender that outlived three columns. It tests whether a history can read inside one cast body; the image may split it into modules.
+Design the Babushka, a two-person Zhestokost ammunition tender that has been lengthened twice over three generations of foundry pattern. Its forward third is the original casting, rounder and older, with softened edges and many welded patches; its middle third is a later pattern with crisper steps; its rear third is the newest, sharp-cornered and freshly enamelled. All three are cast into one continuous hull with thick weld fillets at the joins. Each third carries one deep magazine bay with a square hatch on top. A transfer collar sits on each flank of the middle third. Two small point-defence turrets sit on the oldest section, either side of a narrow cockpit slit. Three columns' unit codes are painted on the flank in a row, the first two crossed out with a single neat stencilled line. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Flak gunboat (column line ship)
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a cheaper sibling of the Foundry Bell. It has one centerline medium ballistic hardpoint and two small flak hardpoints that shred incoming missiles, deep feeds and replaceable armor plates. It is slow to turn and nearly blind beyond visual range.
+
+**A · Morzh** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Morzh, a single-pilot Zhestokost flak gunboat. It carries its mass the way a bull walrus does: nearly all of it in one huge, folded, forward-heavy shoulder, tapering to a small low hindquarter. The shoulder is stacked from three thick overlapping armour folds, each a replaceable plate with a row of bolt heads along its edge. One medium cannon runs straight out of the front face of the shoulder on the centreline, its breech buried in the mass. Two short, thick flak barrels angle forward and down from beneath the front of the shoulder, one on each side. The cockpit is a narrow slit across the top of the front face, above the cannon. Ammunition feed hatches run in a row along the top of the shoulder. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Hammer Price** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Hammer Price, a single-pilot Zhestokost flak gunboat built outward from its gun. Start with one medium cannon laid along the centreline, its long recoil cradle and its feed path visible on the dorsal surface as a raised armoured channel running back from the breech to a deep magazine block behind the cockpit. Around the gun, the hull steps outward in three thick layers of bolted armour, each layer lower and broader than the one inside it, so the cannon sits at the top of a stepped pyramid. One small flak turret sits on each outer shoulder of the lowest layer. The cockpit is a narrow slit in the forward face of the middle layer, beside the barrel root. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company
+
+[[Brainstorming/Faction Flavor and Visual Identity#Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company|Faction Flavor]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company|doctrine]] · register: high whimsy
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Treats that start working. Candy and cute animals are both welcome, and a hull may stand on imagined ground.
+**Carries:** the household-object failure. The squeeze bottle and piping bag of the first bench are kitchen objects and are gone; candy itself, cute animals and a sweet-shop vehicle take their place. The Gummy's lesson stands: fuse every limb into the body.
+
+### Role: Swarm sprayer fighter
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a cheap, quick fighter with one forward continuous-weapon hardpoint fed by a corrosive reservoir and one small defensive mount. It has short range and must close in to spray.
+
+**A · Sugar Glider** · Mascot · Safe bet
+Design the Sugar Glider, a single-pilot Miss Terri's spray fighter: a whole, plump, round-eyed sugar glider flying belly-down. Its big round head is fused into a chubby body, with two large round optics where the eyes would be and two thick, rounded ears. Its gliding membranes are two broad, thick, rounded side panels fused along its flanks from wrist to ankle, with short stubby paws at their corners. Its two round cheeks are swollen reservoirs feeding one short, thick spray nozzle under its little nose. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on the crown of the head, between the ears. One small defensive turret sits on its back between the shoulders. Its tail is a short, fat, rounded stub. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Frosting** · Candy · Moonshot. A cupcake fighter. It risks reading as a prop, so the hardpoints carry the scale; the swirl is fine relief Tripo may smear.
+Design the Frosting, a single-pilot Miss Terri's spray fighter in the form of a giant cupcake lying on its side, top forward. The pleated cake cup is the armoured rear body, its broad, thick pleats running back to a flat base. The frosting is a fat, rounded swirl of three stacked coils forming the front of the ship, and it is the corrosive reservoir. The swirl's peak is the spray nozzle, a short, thick tip pointing straight ahead. A round cherry on the upper side of the swirl is the cockpit canopy, with a thick stem stub as a sensor. One small defensive turret sits on top of the cake cup. Small opaque sprinkle-shaped status lights dot the frosting. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**C · Swarmlet** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Swarmlet, a single-pilot Miss Terri's spray fighter that is mostly reservoir. One fat, round reservoir capsule makes up two thirds of the ship, banded by a thick twist-cap collar at its front. Out of the collar grows one short, thick spray nozzle with a hazard collar and a pressure gauge beside it. The cockpit is a small bubble canopy perched on top of the reservoir, set back so the pilot looks over the nozzle. One small defensive turret sits behind the canopy. Two short, thick, rounded fins stand out from the rear of the capsule. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Sample tender
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew hand out free samples and resupply the swarm. The hull has a consumables hold, a built-in reservoir refill coupling, one small defensive hardpoint and one utility hardpoint. It is unarmored, everyone's friend, and carries corrosives.
+
+**A · Free Sample** · Terrestrial · Safe bet. A sweet-shop van, parked as if on a kerb. The van is a vehicle, not a household object, and the serving hatch is where the role lives.
+Design the Free Sample, a two-person Miss Terri's sample tender: a rounded ice-cream van floating level as though parked at a kerb, with a flat underside and a rounded skirt where its wheels would be. A wide serving hatch runs along the side facing the camera, open, with a thick striped awning slab above it and a counter ledge below it stacked with sample cups. A giant fibreglass soft-serve cone stands on the roof as the sensor mast, thick and rounded. The cab at the front is the cockpit, with a rounded windscreen and one small defensive turret on its roof. At the rear, a refill coupling sits in a recessed hose bay behind a hinged door. A menu board panel is painted on the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Cheeks** · Mascot · Safe bet
+Design the Cheeks, a two-person Miss Terri's sample tender: a whole, round, chubby hamster with its cheek pouches stuffed full. The two cheek pouches are the consumables holds, swollen into two big round lobes either side of the face, each with a round hatch on top. Its small round ears are sensor housings, and two large round optics sit where its eyes would be. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on top of its head. Its tiny front paws are folded under its chin holding the refill coupling, a short, thick nozzle. One small defensive turret sits on the middle of its back, and its rear is a round, plump haunch. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Lucent Media
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Lucent Media|Lucent Media]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Lucent Media|doctrine]] · register: spectacle (unconfirmed)
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Every fight is content. The faction block already carries the gaming-mouse grammar that made the Headliner work; these attempts add a stage, a career and a camera, and take liberties wherever the shot improves.
+**Carries:** the Headliner's success, through the block. The first bench's camera, spotlight and trophy-cup hulls were objects worn as costumes and are gone. The Corriedales budget fighter has moved to its own section.
+
+### Role: Holding ship
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot and a camera operator fly the ship that waits at range and paints targets for the pack. It has a built-in EyesOnME active sensor and two medium laser hardpoints with large capacitors. Its pings reveal it, and it holds the line until the duel ends or someone breaks form.
+
+**A · Box Seat** · Terrestrial · Moonshot. The ship assumes an up and a crowd. It risks reading as a building with no front.
+Design the Box Seat, a two-person Lucent Media holding ship that behaves as if gravity held an audience in place. Its broad, flat upper deck is a rooftop stage, edged by a thick raised rim, with one thick camera-crane mount at its rear corner on the side facing the camera. At the front of the deck sits a raised commentary booth, a rounded shell with a row of round ports looking forward over the bow, and that booth is the cockpit. The EyesOnME sensor is a large round aperture set in a thick stepped lens hood at the centre of the bow, below the booth. One medium laser sits at the tip of each forward blade, flanking the sensor. Four round stage-light housings ring the deck rim, aimed inward at the empty stage. A show title runs along the deck rim. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Sightline** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Sightline, a two-person Lucent Media holding ship whose largest feature is its active sensor. A big round EyesOnME aperture fills the nose, set deep inside a thick, stepped lens hood. Behind it, two swollen capacitor shells form the broadest layers of the body, one on each side, fused to the central chassis by wide fillets. One medium laser sits at the tip of each of the two forward blades, which reach over the nose on either side of the lens hood. The cockpit is a low canopy on top of the chassis between the capacitor shells, with a small "on air" light beside it. A camera-operator's blister bulges from the flank facing the camera. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**C · Last Season** · Story · Moonshot. A retired headliner kept on as a holding ship. It tests whether a career can be read off a hull; mixed shell shapes may look like a kitbash.
+Design the Last Season, a two-person Lucent Media holding ship that was a headliner three seasons ago. Its shells are still the old season's pattern, rounder and simpler, except one forward blade replaced with a newer, sharper-tipped part. Sponsor decals from three seasons are layered on the flanks, the oldest half scraped off beneath the newest. The EyesOnME sensor sits in a thick round housing added to the nose. One medium laser sits at the tip of each forward blade. The cockpit is a low canopy with a faded championship badge beside it. Small victory tallies are painted under the canopy, with the last few pointedly absent. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Headliner duelist
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies the ship that engages alone while the pack watches. It has twin forward laser hardpoints with an oversized capacitor for a crushing opening burst, a pre-installed active sensor and one small ventral utility mount. After the burst it is bright, hot and weak for several seconds, and a losing headliner breaks off so the next can step in.
+
+**A · Encore Entrance** · Terrestrial · Moonshot. The duelist as a moving runway. Spectacle liberties throughout; the deck may read as scenery.
+Design the Encore Entrance, a single-pilot Lucent Media headliner duelist built like a stage entrance on the move. A raised runway deck runs down the spine from the stern to a rounded podium at the bow, edged by a thick rim with recessed footlights. The cockpit is a domed canopy at the top of the podium, where the performer would stand. Two forward laser emitters sit at the front corners of the podium like a pair of stage lights, each in a thick round housing. The oversized capacitor is one swollen shell under the runway, wider than the deck. Two curved shells sweep back from the podium on either side like stage wings, thick and fused to the body. A large sponsor logo is painted on the runway deck. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Pounce** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Pounce, a single-pilot Lucent Media headliner duelist that carries its mass like a cheetah at full stretch: a small, low head, a long flexed back, and nearly all its weight in two powerful rear haunches. The two haunches are capacitor shells, the broadest layers of the ship, swelling out on either side of the rear body. The two forward laser emitters sit low at the front on short, thick shoulder mounts, either side of a narrow nose. The cockpit is a low canopy on top of the small front section, close to the guns. The active sensor is a round aperture in the nose. The shells overlap in steps from nose to haunches, each a thick rounded slab, so the outline reads as one forward lunge. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Corriedales
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/Corriedales|Corriedales]] · [[Brainstorming/Faction Flavor and Visual Identity#Corriedales|Faction Flavor]] · register: high whimsy (mascot hulls)
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A beloved character come to life, carrying a real gun. These are the bench's mascot hulls. Every animal is whole, round and cute, and its shell is a toy over serious hardware. The brand's darker joke sits underneath: the companions that children love also watch them.
+**Carries:** Raft, Shellback and the Gentle Giant. Raft holds what it saves against its chest, Shellback carries its cargo as part of its body, and the Gentle Giant is big, mild and smiling. Those three patterns (holding, carrying, gentle bigness) organize the attempts here. Roles are invented; see For the Operator, item 1.
+
+### Role: Fan's first fighter
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies the cheap hull, with two Corriedales light gun hardpoints and a small capacitor, at a toy price. It is the fan's first ship and the headliner's understudy, and its owner may have wanted one since childhood.
+
+**A · Puffling** · Mascot · Safe bet
+Design the Puffling, a single-pilot Corriedales budget fighter: a whole, round, fluffy puffin chick, plump as a ball, leaning forward in flight. Its big round head is fused into its body, with two large round optics where its eyes would be and a short, thick, rounded beak. Its two short, stubby wings hold one light gun each at their tips, like wands. Its two round feet are tucked under its belly. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on the crown of its head. The small capacitor is a round tummy panel behind a scalloped bumper. A collectible series number is printed on its cheek. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Bunbun** · Mascot · Moonshot. Rabbit ears want to be thin; the prompt lays them back as two thick slabs and puts the guns at their tips, which may read as a toy rather than a ship.
+Design the Bunbun, a single-pilot Corriedales budget fighter: a whole, round baby bunny stretched out flat in a happy leap. Its two long ears lie back along its body as two thick, rounded slabs, and each ear holds one light gun at its tip, like a wand. Two large round optics sit where its eyes would be, and its little nose is a round sensor bump. The cockpit is a rounded canopy between its ears. Its four short, stubby paws are fused into its body, front paws reaching forward, hind paws tucked. A round fluffy tail is the capacitor housing. A cheerful instruction label sits beside the hatch. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**C · Snout** · Mascot · Safe bet
+Design the Snout, a single-pilot Corriedales budget fighter: a whole, plump baby tapir with its striped baby coat. Its round barrel body is short and fat, with a round head fused into it and a short, thick, upturned snout at the front that holds the small capacitor. Two large round optics sit where its eyes would be. Its two short front legs hold one light gun each, like wands, reaching forward. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on top of its head. Broad, soft stripes run along its body as panel seams, and a scalloped bumper rings its belly. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Merch hauler
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a hauler with one big hold of collectibles and replacement shells, one small defensive hardpoint and one utility arm. It arrives at every duel before the fans do and leaves with the arena's credit balance.
+
+**A · Pouchling** · Mascot · Safe bet. Shellback's pattern: the cargo is part of the animal.
+Design the Pouchling, a two-person Corriedales merch hauler: a whole, round, friendly kangaroo sitting back on its haunches with a full pouch. Its pouch is the cargo hold, a big rounded lobe across its belly, closed by a thick rounded lid with a cartoon gift tag on it. Its head is round and fused to its shoulders, with two large round optics where its eyes would be and two thick, upright, rounded ears. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on top of its head. Its two short forepaws are folded on top of the pouch, and one of them holds the utility arm, a short, thick grabber. One small defensive turret sits on its back between the shoulders. Its thick tail curls under as a broad rounded base. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Piggyback** · Mascot · Moonshot. Four little ones riding on their mother's back are four cargo pods; they may separate from her or merge into lumps.
+Design the Piggyback, a two-person Corriedales merch hauler: a whole, round mother opossum carrying four little ones on her back. The four young are four plump, rounded cargo pods, half sunk into her back and fused to her in a row of two by two, each with a tiny face and a round hatch on its top. The mother's round head is at the front, with two large round optics where her eyes would be, round ears and a short rounded snout. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on top of her head. One small defensive turret sits on the front pod, and the utility arm is a short, thick grabber held in her front paws. Her thick tail curls up and over the rear pod. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Companion escort
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a slow companion with a large passive and active sensor suite, one light gun hardpoint and a recorder that streams everything it sees to Lucent. It stays beside its owner, and everyone likes having it around.
+
+**A · Big Friend** · Mascot · Safe bet. The Gentle Giant's pattern: big, mild and smiling.
+Design the Big Friend, a single-pilot Corriedales companion escort: a whole, enormous, smiling manatee, round and slow. Its broad rounded body tapers to a wide, flat, rounded paddle tail. Its face is a big, soft, rounded muzzle with a gentle smile line, and two small round optics sit high on its head. Its two short, thick flippers are folded at its sides, one of them holding the light gun like a wand. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on top of its head. The sensor suite is a broad, shallow dish set into its back, ringed with tiny round lens ports. A small "recording" light glows beside the canopy. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Hootie** · Mascot · Safe bet. The brand's joke made plain: the cutest thing in the sky is the one watching you.
+Design the Hootie, a single-pilot Corriedales companion escort: a whole, round, fluffy owlet, almost a ball. Its two huge round optics fill most of its face, each set in a broad round rim, and they are the sensor suite. Its little beak is a short, thick, rounded nub. Two thick, rounded ear tufts stand up from its head. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on the crown of its head, between the tufts. Its two short, stubby wings are folded against its sides, one holding the light gun like a wand. Its feet are two round nubs tucked beneath. A collectible series number sits on its chest. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Aeronautics Unlimited
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Aeronautics Unlimited|Aeronautics Unlimited]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Aeronautics Unlimited|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Frontier work gear, and pack animals for their mass. AU's dignity is that nothing on it is for show.
+**Carries:** Bison, the bench's best render, as the benchmark. Its hump put the rocket cells where the weight was; the attempts here use the same move with other working animals and machines. The skip bin and harmonica were household objects and are gone.
+
+### Role: Jettison hauler
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a big hold with a built-in quick-release cradle that dumps the whole load in one action, plus one small defensive hardpoint and one ventral utility grip. It has low thrust and is built to run.
+
+**A · Pack Mule** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Pack Mule, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited jettison hauler that carries its load the way a pack mule does: a lean, low working body with two big balanced cargo panniers slung high on either flank. Each pannier is a thick, rounded rectangular cargo pod held to the body by two heavy quick-release clamps with pull levers, so the whole load drops in one action. The cockpit is a rounded-rectangle cab at the front of the body, low between the panniers' leading edges, with a short survey mast behind it. One small defensive turret sits on the spine between the panniers. A ventral utility grip folds flat under the belly. Stencilled bay numbers run along each pannier. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Let Go** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Let Go, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited jettison hauler built to drop its load. One long, thick, rounded-rectangular hold hangs under a straight spine beam, held by four big quick-release clamps spaced evenly along the beam, each with a large hinged release lever and a stencilled number. The cab sits at the front end of the spine beam, above and ahead of the hold, with a wide window and a lifting eye on its roof. One small defensive turret sits on the spine beam behind the cab. A folded utility grip lies along the beam's underside behind the hold. Lifting eyes mark each corner of the hold. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Swarm escort
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies an escort with two medium rocket-pod hardpoints loaded with Leonid dumbfire swarms, one small Earp gun and a Ranger active sensor. It fires at the first thing it sees, decoys included.
+
+**A · Trigger Happy** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Trigger Happy, a single-pilot Aeronautics Unlimited swarm escort whose rocket pods are bigger than its cabin. Two thick, rounded-rectangular rocket pods sit on either side of a compact central body, each fused to it by a wide fillet, each with four square launch cells in a two-by-two grid on its front face. The cabin sits between the pods and slightly behind their faces, with a wide, low window. One small gun sits on the cabin roof. The Ranger active sensor is a round dome on a short, thick mast behind the cabin. Each pod carries stencilled cell numbers and a lifting eye on top. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Antler Rack** · Mass · Moonshot. Bison's move with a moose; palmate antlers are broad slabs, but the model may draw branching tines.
+Design the Antler Rack, a single-pilot Aeronautics Unlimited swarm escort that carries its mass like a bull moose: a high, heavy front shoulder, a long head held low and forward, and two broad, flat, palm-shaped antler slabs swept out and back from the crown. Each antler slab is a thick rocket pod with four square launch cells set in its forward edge. The long low head is the cabin, with a wide window at its front. One small gun sits under the chin. The Ranger active sensor is a round dome on top of the shoulder. The body tapers behind the shoulder to a lean rear section. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Miner
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a miner with a forward mining-head hardpoint, two cargo-grip utility hardpoints, one small defensive mount and a built-in survey package. It is slow and ugly in a fight, and very good at work.
+
+**A · Dig Site** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Dig Site, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited miner with the mass of a compact excavator: a squat cab low at the front, a heavy counterweight body behind it, and one thick, short boom reaching forward from beside the cab. The boom ends in the mining head, a ridged drill cone with stubby cutter teeth. Two thick, flat cargo grips fold against the lower flanks like a loader's arms. The cab has a wide, low window and a short survey mast on its roof. One small defensive turret sits on top of the counterweight body. Lifting eyes and numbered bays mark the counterweight. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Proved Out** · Story · Moonshot. A survey ship converted once its claim paid. It tests whether a conversion can read on a symmetric hull.
+Design the Proved Out, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited miner that began as a survey ship and was converted by its crew once their claim proved out. Its forward body is the original survey hull, a clean rounded cylinder with a tall survey sensor mast still standing on top. Bolted to its nose is the mining head the crew added, a thick ridged drill cone on a heavy square adapter plate with fresher paint than the hull behind it. Two cargo grips are clamped low on either flank on bolted rails. One small defensive turret sits behind the cab. The claim number is stencilled large on the flank, with the survey ship's old registry painted out beneath it. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Finch Cybernetics
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Finch Cybernetics|Finch Cybernetics]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Finch Cybernetics|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A sense organ given a hull. The sensors are larger than the guns, and the analogy, when there is one, places the sensor.
+**Carries:** Quiet Sense, which worked because a diving bird gave the contour without becoming a bird. The first bench's bat, eyeball, seal and nautilus were whole bodies; the owl here lends only its facial disc, which is a sound-gathering dish in the real animal too.
+
+### Role: Track relay shadow
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a shadow with a built-in ChirOptos passive array and a narrow-beam track uplink, plus one small low-signature hardpoint. It shares your position with everyone hostile to you, and it breaks under one hit.
+
+**A · Facial Disc** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Facial Disc, a single-pilot Finch Cybernetics track relay shadow that carries its mass the way an owl carries its head: most of the volume in one broad, shallow, forward-facing disc, with a small tapered body behind it. The disc is the ChirOptos passive array, a wide concave dish recessed into the whole front face, ringed by a thick smooth rim. The cockpit is a small canopy set into the top of the rim. The narrow-beam uplink is a short, thick turret on the spine behind the disc. One light low-signature weapon aperture sits below the disc's centre. The body behind tapers smoothly and ends soon. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Coverage Map** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Coverage Map, a single-pilot Finch Cybernetics track relay shadow. It is a slim, tapered body carrying two large passive sensor dishes, one recessed into each flank like ears, each broader than the cockpit and edged by a thick smooth lip. A row of four dark round lens apertures runs across the brow above a small tapered canopy. The uplink is a stubby rounded emitter on the spine, aimed backward toward the friends it is talking to. One light low-signature weapon aperture sits flush under the nose. Hairline panel seams wrap the body like the seams of an implant. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Clinic tender
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a field clinic with a built-in repair bay and calibration bench, two manipulator utility hardpoints and one small point-defense mount. It repairs Finch gear in the field, priced by your coverage.
+
+**A · House Call** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the House Call, a two-person Finch Cybernetics clinic tender built around the patient's side. A broad, deep, rounded repair bay opens in the front face, with a calibration bench visible inside as a flat pale slab. Two thick, jointed manipulator arms are folded at the bay's lower lip, their fine tool tips tucked together. The cockpit is a narrow canopy above the bay's upper lip. One small point-defence turret sits on the spine. A row of small round indicator lights runs along the rim of the bay. The rest of the body is a smooth, rounded tail section with flush service hatches. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Coverage Tier** · Story · Moonshot. The pricing model made visible. Three bay doors of three sizes may look like clutter.
+Design the Coverage Tier, a two-person Finch Cybernetics clinic tender whose repair bays are sorted by what you paid. Along the flank facing the camera are three bay doors of three sizes: a large rounded premium bay door at the front, polished and edged with a satin titanium frame; a medium standard bay door behind it; and a small, plain basic bay door at the rear with a queue-number display above it. Two thick, jointed manipulator arms are folded beside the premium door. The cockpit is a tapered canopy at the nose. One small point-defence turret sits on the spine. The far flank mirrors the bays as plain panels. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Rossum & Douglas
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/Rossum & Douglas|Rossum & Douglas]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Rossum & Douglas|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Aggressive averageness. The faction block already holds the flying wedge, and its own advice is to vary only the wedge's length, width and thickness, so a lineup reads like a brochure of minor variants. These attempts are that brochure, with one story each.
+**Carries:** 50-F, the filing cabinet that fell flat. Office furniture was the joke, and the joke died as a costume. The wedge carries it better.
+
+### Role: MIRV picket
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a picket with four recessed MIRV launch cells, a built-in guidance computer and one small defensive mount. It outranges you and backs away when you close.
+
+**A · Standard Model 50** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Standard Model 50, a single-pilot Rossum & Douglas MIRV picket: the familiar flying wedge, made one module longer. The nose is the same blunt nose, the dorsal planes are the same broad flat planes, and the extra length carries four flush rectangular MIRV cell doors in a row across the rear dorsal plane, each with a small stencilled number. The cockpit is a small recessed square window near the nose. The guidance computer sits under a flush rectangular access panel just behind the cockpit, labelled with a model number. One small defensive mount sits flush at the front edge. A "new model year" decal sits beside the cockpit. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Standard Model 50 Value** · Story · Moonshot. The budget trim. The joke is visible only to someone who has seen the base model, which may make it unreadable alone.
+Design the Standard Model 50 Value, a single-pilot Rossum & Douglas MIRV picket sold as the budget trim of an already ordinary wedge. It is the wedge made shorter and thicker, with only two of its four rectangular MIRV cell doors fitted; the other two positions are flush blanking plates stencilled "Upgrade Available". The cockpit is a small recessed square window. One small defensive mount sits flush at the nose. The hull is one shade plainer than the base model, with a smaller off-white stripe and a "Value" badge beside the model number. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Guidance relay
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot and an operator fly a relay with a built-in compute core that extends lock persistence for every allied launcher in range, one small defensive mount and one utility hardpoint. On its own it does nothing; the procurement slide calls that synergy.
+
+**A · Assurance Unit** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Assurance Unit, a two-person Rossum & Douglas guidance relay: the flying wedge made wider and flatter, with a raised square compute housing at its centre. The compute housing is a low, flat box with rounded corners, its top covered in a regular grid of flush square sensor tiles. The cockpit is a row of two small recessed square windows at the front of the housing. One small defensive mount sits flush at each front corner of the wedge, and one utility mount sits flush at the rear centre. A large model number and the phrase "Synergy Ready" are lettered modestly on the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Assurance Unit 42-R** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Assurance Unit 42-R, a two-person Rossum & Douglas guidance relay converted at the factory from a Standard Model 42 missile craft. It keeps the 42's exact wedge. Where the missile doors were, two flush blank panels are riveted on and stencilled "Feature Not Included". A compute housing has been added on the centreline as a low rectangular box with its own separate maker's plate and a tamper seal. The cockpit is the 42's small recessed window. One small defensive mount and one utility mount sit flush at the rear corners. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## NiteLife Energy
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/NiteLife Energy|NiteLife Energy]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#NiteLife Energy|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** The cartridge is the silhouette. Every attempt shows a proprietary reservoir docked visibly into the hull under a release catch.
+**Carries:** Live Wire, the plug that fell flat. The flashlight, egg carton and cooler of the first bench were household objects too. Here the cartridge does the work those objects were asked to do, and a bulldog lends the guard its stance.
+
+### Role: Station guard
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a guard with one medium ChargeBlast hardpoint, two capacitor banks and a MoveOnPro reactor fed by a visible reservoir cartridge. It is strong on its leash and never leaves its station.
+
+**A · Leashed** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Leashed, a single-pilot NiteLife Energy station guard built around its cartridge. One large reservoir cartridge lies docked lengthwise along the spine, its rounded end standing proud of the hull at the rear, held by two release catches. The ChargeBlast emitter sits on the centreline at the nose, a broad opaque disc set in a thick collar. One capacitor bank swells along each flank as a smooth full volume, cut by one crisp slot. The cockpit is a small rounded canopy just ahead of the cartridge. A thick station-umbilical socket sits under the nose, capped, with a version badge beside it. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Bulldog** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Bulldog, a single-pilot NiteLife Energy station guard that stands like a bulldog on a short chain: a wide, deep chest low and forward, short thick shoulders, and a short, tapering body behind. The chest is the ChargeBlast housing, with the emitter as a broad opaque disc in its front face. The two shoulders are the capacitor banks, swollen and smooth, one on each side. The reservoir cartridge is docked upright into the top of the back, its rounded end standing proud, held by a release catch. The cockpit is a low canopy on top of the chest, ahead of the cartridge. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Reservoir hauler
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a hauler with four reservoir cradles under the lid, one small defensive hardpoint and a built-in charge monitor. It is the faction's real export on the move, and everyone downstream is waiting for it.
+
+**A · Full Charge** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Full Charge, a two-person NiteLife Energy reservoir hauler. Four large reservoir cartridges lie docked side by side across the top of a broad, smooth body, their rounded ends standing proud along the flank facing the camera, each held by its own release catch. A thick charge-monitor strip runs along the top edge of the flank, with one small round status port beside each cartridge. The cockpit is a rounded cab at the front with a crisp flat face. One small defensive turret sits behind the cab. A warranty seal crosses each cartridge seam. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Last Mile** · Story · Moonshot. Three empty cradles tell the delivery story; deep empty sockets are a Tripo risk.
+Design the Last Mile, a two-person NiteLife Energy reservoir hauler on the last stop of its route. Four cartridge cradles are set side by side into its broad, smooth top surface. Only the front cradle still holds a cartridge, docked and latched; the other three are empty, shallow rounded sockets with their release catches flipped open. The charge monitor beside the full cradle shows one lit round status port. The cockpit is a rounded cab at the front. One small defensive turret sits behind it. A delivery manifest panel is printed on the flank with three of four lines ticked off. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Lightsail Express
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/Lightsail Express|Lightsail Express]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Lightsail Express|doctrine]] · register: whimsy turned up
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** An honest freight machine with a warm face and a driver who lives in it. It may bend vacuum plausibility for the driver's comforts.
+**Carries:** Shellback, the bigger of the two hits. Its whole-snail form moves to Corriedales, but its story stays here: a hauler whose cargo is part of its body and will not come off. An animal may lend Lightsail its mass and its face.
+
+### Role: Armed hauler
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a hauler with one sealed box hold that cannot be jettisoned, two small ClearPath machine-gun hardpoints and True North thrusters. It is slow and stubborn, and it delivers.
+
+**A · Four Hundred Runs** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Four Hundred Runs, a two-person Lightsail Express armed hauler whose cab is older than its cargo box. The cab at the front is the original, rounded and patched, with a warm lit window, a curtain drawn half across a sleeper bunk behind the seats, a thick sun-visor slab over the windscreen and a personal pennant beside the door. Behind it, the long sealed box hold is newer and squarer, locked to the spine by four heavy clamps whose release handles are welded shut. One small machine-gun turret sits on each front corner of the box roof. A route tally is painted under the cab window, rows of small marks too many to count. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Howdah** · Mass and face · Moonshot. An old elephant lends its mass and its patient face, not its body; the trunk is cut to a short, thick bumper so it cannot become a limb.
+Design the Howdah, a two-person Lightsail Express armed hauler with the mass and patient face of an old working elephant. The cab is a high, domed front with a broad, kindly face: a wide rounded windscreen low on it, two broad, thick ear-shaped side doors folded flat against its sides, and a short, thick, rounded bumper below the windscreen. The sealed box hold rides high on the back like a howdah, strapped down by four thick cargo straps buckled to rails along the flanks. One small machine-gun turret sits on each front corner of the hold. A personal pennant hangs beside the cab door. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Courier
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a courier with a small hardened mail hold, one small machine-gun hardpoint and long-legged True North thrusters. It carries what cannot wait and arrives anyway.
+
+**A · Strongbox** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Strongbox, a single-pilot Lightsail Express courier. Behind a compact cab sits a hardened mail hold shaped like a thick, rounded strongbox, with heavy hinges on its lid, a large recessed lock plate on the side facing the camera and a delivery-slot hatch on top. The cab is short and rounded, with a warm lit window and a small route card clipped inside it. One small machine-gun turret sits on the cab roof. Replaceable corner guards wrap the strongbox corners, scuffed bright. A "Signed For" stamp is painted across the lid. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Corgi Express** · Mass and face · Moonshot. The most openly cute attempt outside a high-whimsy faction. A courier dog lends its long low mass and its big friendly ears.
+Design the Corgi Express, a single-pilot Lightsail Express courier with the mass and face of a corgi: a long, low body close to the ground line, short and stocky at both ends, with a big friendly face at the front and two large, thick, upright ear-shaped sensor housings. The cab is the face, with a wide rounded windscreen where the muzzle would be. The hardened mail hold is the long low middle of the body, with a hatch on top and a delivery tag hanging from a short, thick latch. One small machine-gun turret sits between the ears. The rear ends in a short, rounded, tailless stern. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Alakrita
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/Alakrita|Alakrita]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Alakrita|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Couture speed, spares not included. Elegance comes from many parallel creases on a thick body, and an animal lends only its line.
+**Carries:** Vasuki, the bench's other standout, as the serious-register benchmark: the cobra lent its hood's mass, and the lasers sat at the hood's edges. The swan and greyhound here make the same move. The high-heel shoe and peacock train were costume and are gone.
+
+### Role: Interceptor
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies an interceptor with two light hardpoints and Victoire thrusters, wrapped in the lowest armor in the catalog. It makes one fast pass and is gone.
+
+**A · Greyhound** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Greyhound, a single-pilot Alakrita interceptor with the line of a running greyhound: a deep, narrow chest at the front, a very fine waist, and a long, lean, tapering body behind. The deep chest holds the cockpit, a long narrow canopy along its top, and one light gun sits low on each side of the chest. The fine waist is pinched hard, with knife-pleat creases running through it from chest to tail. Two thick, short, swept fins stand out from the narrowest point of the waist. The rear body tapers long and clean to a fine point. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · One Pass** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the One Pass, a single-pilot Alakrita interceptor that is nothing but a cockpit, two light guns and speed. Its body is long, low and narrow, with four knife-pleat creases running its full length on each side of the spine. The cockpit is a long, narrow canopy set far forward. One light gun sits at the end of each of the two outermost creases, flush with the nose. Two stacked folded fins rise from the rear quarter, each a thick lacquered slab with a crisp edge. A small inscription plaque beside the canopy names the patron. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Patron's duel escort
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a patron's escort with two medium laser hardpoints, a broad heat hood and Arctica thrusters. It is gorgeous in the first exchange and has no spares in stock.
+
+**A · Swan** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Swan, a single-pilot Alakrita duel escort with the line of a swan gliding: a long, low, thick neck reaching forward, a full raised breast behind it, and a broad back with folded wings lying close as two thick creased slabs. The neck is the forward body, ending in a small tapered nose with the cockpit as a narrow canopy at its base. The raised breast is the broad hood, crossed by fanned creases. One medium laser sits at the leading edge of each folded wing slab, either side of the breast. The back tapers to a short, raised, pointed tail. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · The Gold Scratch** · Story · Moonshot. A commission that was scratched once, with no spares to fix it. The single scratch is the whole story and may be too small to read.
+Design the Gold Scratch, a single-pilot Alakrita duel escort commissioned for one patron and scratched in its first duel. Its body is long and low with a broad flat hood behind the cockpit, fanned with creases. One medium laser sits at each outer corner of the hood. Every surface is flawless except one long diagonal scratch across the hood on the side facing the camera, which has been filled with a raised gold inlay line instead of repainted, because no replacement panel exists. A small inscription plaque beside the narrow canopy carries the patron's crest. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Ewan Hart
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/Ewan Hart|Ewan Hart]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Ewan Hart|doctrine]] · register: whimsy turned up
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Farm machinery working in vacuum, because people need dinner, with a goofy friendly face. An animal may lend its mass and its face.
+**Carries:** Homestead, the literal tractor, which read as silly. The faction block already supplies tractor proportions, so these attempts do not ask for a tractor again; they lean on the implement, the load and a livestock face.
+
+### Role: Tug and hauler
+
+**Pitch:** One driver and a hand fly a tug with a heavy towing hitch, one utility hardpoint for an implement and one small defensive mount. It gets the harvest to the station, and it flees and jettisons when threatened.
+
+**A · Hitched** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Hitched, a two-person Ewan Hart tug built backward from its tow hitch. The heaviest part of the ship is the rear: a massive tow hitch block with a thick pin and a coiled tow line on a drum above it. The body rises from that block through a broad power-unit housing to a cab at the front, so the ship sits like a wedge, low and heavy behind. One folding implement arm lies along the right flank, the side facing the camera, with a grab claw at its end. One small defensive mount sits on the cab roof beside a large round work lamp. A canvas feed sack is strapped to the rear deck. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Yoke** · Mass and face · Moonshot. A draft ox lends its shoulders and its patient face; the tow beam across its shoulders is a yoke. It may lean toward a whole animal.
+Design the Yoke, a two-person Ewan Hart tug with the mass and face of a draft ox: heavy, high shoulders, a broad, lowered, patient face at the front, and a short, square body behind. A thick tow beam lies across the shoulders like a yoke, with a heavy hitch ring at each end. The face is the cab, with a wide window low on it and two short, blunt horn-shaped work lamps at its top corners. One implement mount sits under the chin. One small defensive mount sits on top of the shoulders behind the yoke. Large round gauges show through the cab window. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Bulk food hauler
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a hauler with one big ribbed food hold, a built-in climate keeper and one small defensive mount. It is low-security, much in demand, and eaten by everyone.
+
+**A · Harvest Home** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Harvest Home, a two-person Ewan Hart bulk food hauler loaded past its line on the last run of the season. Its hold is three big rounded grain hoppers fused in a row along the body, each with a hinged lid, the front one heaped so full that a canvas tarp is strapped over its top. The climate keeper is a boxy unit on the rear deck with a big round dial. The cab sits low at the front with large round gauges visible through its window. One small defensive mount sits on the cab roof. A hand-painted "Fresh" sign is bolted to the side of the front hopper. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Big Mouth** · Mass and face · Moonshot. A hippo lends its barrel body and its huge, goofy mouth, which is the loading hatch; the open jaw is a concavity risk, so it is shown closed with a grin.
+Design the Big Mouth, a two-person Ewan Hart bulk food hauler with the mass and goofy face of a hippopotamus: a huge round barrel body and a broad, wide, flat-fronted muzzle with a long grinning seam across it. The muzzle is the loading hatch, a broad hinged jaw shown closed. Two small rounded lamps sit high on top of the head where its eyes would be, and two small rounded ears are vents. The cab is a rounded canopy on top of the head behind the lamps. The barrel body is the ribbed food hold, banded by four thick ribs. One small defensive mount sits on the back. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Death Monkey Explosives
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Factions/Death Monkey Explosives|Death Monkey Explosives]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Death Monkey Explosives|doctrine]] · register: reserved
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A demolition crew's own machine. DME builds its own intact, engineered hull and restrains it: one loud element, the hand-painted lettering, and menace through precision. It must never be confused with a pirate ship: no donor hull, no pile of additions, no spikes.
+**Carries:** Breakup Song, too cute for DME, and the reason DME takes no animal hull. The amp stack and blowtorch were objects worn as costumes. Every attempt here is Function or Story; the restraint is the faction.
+
+### Role: Infrastructure breaker
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a breaker with one heavy thermal warhead launcher that has a big blast radius, two small flame hardpoints and safeties wired open. It hits stations, not ships, and it cooks itself in a long fight.
+
+**A · Severance** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Severance, a two-person Death Monkey Explosives infrastructure breaker. One heavy thermal warhead launcher runs along the centreline as a long, thick armoured tube, its muzzle square and flush with the bow. Behind the cockpit, the warhead magazine is one sealed, square-edged armoured case with two big pull handles and a thin cut line around it. Two small flame projectors sit low at the front corners in square housings. The cockpit is a narrow slit in a heavy slab above the launcher's root. At the rear, a detachable charge-feed section is marked off by a thin cut line and two pull handles. The ship's name is hand-painted large along the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Twenty Venues** · Story · Moonshot. A breaker on its twentieth year of touring. The tally and the one replaced section tell it; the image may add clutter the block does not want.
+Design the Twenty Venues, a two-person Death Monkey Explosives infrastructure breaker that has been on the road for twenty years. Its hull is one clean, hard-edged slab body with the thermal warhead launcher flush along its centreline. A neat hand-painted tally of stations hit runs in rows beside the hatch, each mark the same width. One rear section is a replacement, square and slightly newer, where the last long fight cooked the original, with its own cut line and pull handle. Two small flame projectors sit in square housings at the bow corners. A short lyric fragment is hand-painted across the replacement section. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Burnout raider
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a raider with one medium thermal projector, deep space burnout thrusters and a heat pump it overrides. It is the hottest contact on the board and is failing as it fights.
+
+**A · Shed the Load** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Shed the Load, a single-pilot Death Monkey Explosives burnout raider that knows it will overheat. Down its spine runs a sealed bank of four heat-store cells, each a square armoured block with its own pull handle and a thin cut line around it, so the pilot can drop a cooked cell and keep fighting. The medium thermal projector sits on the centreline at the bow in a thick square housing. The cockpit is a narrow slit in the slab in front of the first cell. The overridden heat pump is a square housing behind the last cell, with a bolted cover and a hand-painted warning. Heavy braces run along both flanks. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Cold Like My Heart** · Story · Moonshot. The polished line from the faction block's own advice: the same hull, finely finished, the lettering crisp and expensive. It tests whether DME still reads with its wear removed.
+Design the Cold Like My Heart, a single-pilot Death Monkey Explosives burnout raider built around the faction's rare, expensive heat pump. Its hull is the same restrained hard-edged body as every DME raider, finely finished, every edge crisp and every seam tight. The heat pump is the centrepiece: a sealed, square, precisely machined housing set into the spine behind the cockpit, ringed by small round opaque ports. The medium thermal projector sits flush at the bow. Four heat-store cells line the spine with thin cut lines and pull handles. The lettering is crisp, expensive and still hand-drawn, and still the loudest thing on the ship. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Adrasteia
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Adrasteia|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A hole in the background, then a flare. The faction block already makes the hull a low faceted wedge; these attempts decide what that wedge is hiding.
+**Carries:** Lamp-Shy, which passed barely: a low, quiet tent of facets read, but needed a stronger silhouette. The crouch below gives the low mass a direction. The pebble and gem were silhouette tests and are not repeated.
+
+### Role: Negent striker
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a striker with two negent hardpoints that drain heat as they fire, a DarkMatter X reactor and one charge magazine. It is silent while shooting and loud while reheating.
+
+**A · Crouch** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Crouch, a single-pilot Adrasteia negent striker that carries its mass like a cat crouched to spring in the dark: shoulders level with the spine, head low and forward, haunches gathered high behind. The low head is the faceted nose, with the cockpit as a narrow faceted slit across its top. The two negent apertures sit recessed under the overhang of the shoulders, one on each side. The charge magazine is a faceted hatch on top of the gathered haunches, the highest point of the ship. Every facet tucks into the next, so the outline is one continuous low wedge rising to the rear. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Draw** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Draw, a single-pilot Adrasteia negent striker. Its broad, shallow faceted body is built around two negent weapon apertures, set far apart in the leading edge and recessed deep under overhanging facets. The charge magazine is one recessed faceted hatch at the centre of the dorsal surface, its edges cut so they catch the light. The DarkMatter X reactor sits under a slightly raised facet behind the hatch. The cockpit is a low faceted canopy just ahead of the magazine. The one asymmetric facet sits on the flank facing the camera, cut at a different angle from its mirror. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Deniable courier
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a courier with one shielded charge hold, one utility hardpoint and a built-in cold drift mode. It carries Enigma Devices in unmarked boxes and leaves no trace you can follow.
+
+**A · Unmarked** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Unmarked, a single-pilot Adrasteia deniable courier whose cargo is one unmarked box. The charge hold is a plain, square, closed case the size of the cockpit, clamped flush into a recess under the central ridge of a low faceted body, its only marking a blank label plate. The cockpit is a small faceted canopy at the front of the ridge. One utility port sits flush in the leading edge. Every identifying surface on the hull is deliberately blank; the only mark on the ship is the tiny smiley beside the hatch. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Lamp-Shy II** · Mass · Moonshot. The first round's pass, given a stronger silhouette: the moth's folded wings now carry a pronounced swept outline.
+Design the Lamp-Shy II, a single-pilot Adrasteia deniable courier that rests the way a moth rests by day: two broad, thick, faceted wing panels folded down into a low tent over the body, meeting along a sharp central ridge, their trailing edges swept back into two long, pointed tips. The front of the tent narrows to a small faceted head that holds the cockpit canopy. The charge hold is a recessed hatch along the ridge. One utility port sits under the head. The tent's two outer edges rest close to the ground line, so the ship reads as almost flat from the side. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Sol Dominion
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Sol Dominion|Sol Dominion]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Sol Dominion|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Administration as hardware: identify, classify, then act through the record. Menace comes from numbering and docking faces, never from adjectives.
+**Carries:** the Mandate, which failed on adjectives. The stamp, pocket watch and tape measure were office objects and are gone. A remora, which attaches itself to larger animals, lends the inspection cutter its one useful feature.
+
+### Role: Boarding and inspection cutter
+
+**Pitch:** Two officers fly a cutter with a built-in docking face for inspection boarding, an evidence recorder, one small disabling hardpoint and one point-defense mount. It catches you, then reads you.
+
+**A · Docket** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Docket, a two-person Sol Dominion inspection cutter whose bow is a docking face. The whole front of the ship is one broad, flat boarding face, square to the spine, with a heavy boarding collar at its centre and four clamp pads at its corners. Behind the face, the axial spine runs straight back through identical module bands. The cockpit is a narrow observation slit across the top of the face. The evidence recorder is a sealed armoured box set into the flank facing the camera, closed with a jurisdiction seal. One small disabling weapon sits on the spine just behind the face, and one point-defence turret sits on the spine near the rear. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Remora** · Mass · Moonshot. A remora carries a flat suction disc on top of its head to fasten itself to sharks. The disc becomes the boarding face, laid on the dorsal surface; a large shallow concavity may confuse Tripo.
+Design the Remora, a two-person Sol Dominion inspection cutter with the mass of a remora: a long, slim, straight body with a broad, flat, oval disc set on top of its forward third. The disc is the boarding face, crossed by a row of thick parallel clamp ridges and ringed by a thick rim, so the cutter fastens itself dorsal-first onto the hull it inspects. The cockpit is a narrow slit at the front of the body, ahead of the disc. The evidence recorder is a sealed box behind the disc with a jurisdiction seal. One small disabling weapon sits under the nose, and one point-defence turret sits on the spine near the rear. Registry numbers run along the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Drive-hunter gunboat
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a gunboat with one medium disabling hardpoint aimed for drives, built-in sensor fusion and two small point-defense mounts. It takes your propulsion, then waits for the clerk.
+
+**A · Due Process** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Due Process, a single-pilot Sol Dominion drive-hunter gunboat. One long, straight disabling-weapon barrel runs the full length of the axial spine and projects past the bow, housed in a thick square shroud. A flat dorsal sensor plane flanks the shroud on both sides, inlaid with a regular grid of recessed sensor tiles. The cockpit is a narrow observation slit at the front of the sensor plane, beside the shroud. One point-defence turret sits at each rear corner of the sensor plane. Square machine-readable code panels run along the flanks. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Case File** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Case File, a single-pilot Sol Dominion drive-hunter gunboat that keeps its record on its hull. The body is a straight axial spine with broad flat armour planes set square to it. Along the flank facing the camera runs a neat grid of small square capture records, each a stencilled registry number in a seal-bordered box, one per drive disabled, filled in row by row and only half complete. The disabling weapon sits in a thick shroud at the bow on the centreline. The cockpit is a narrow slit above the shroud. One point-defence turret sits on each side of the spine near the rear. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Cryonix
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Cryonix|Cryonix]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Cryonix|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** The cold chain made exact. The folded emitter scales are the faction's heat organ and the one heat feature these prompts name, because the faction block already treats them as silhouette.
+**Carries:** the Stillwater's thin fan and the Rime's pinecone, both risky. The scales stay thick and few. The vacuum flask and igloo of the first bench are gone.
+
+### Role: Cold sniper
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a sniper with one centerline precision hardpoint, a built-in thermal reservoir and overlapping emitter scales that open to dump heat. It takes one shot, flares, and withdraws.
+
+**A · First Trace** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the First Trace, a single-pilot Cryonix cold sniper. One long precision barrel runs along the centreline and ends in a small aperture at the bow. Behind the cockpit, the narrow waist holds the thermal reservoir as a smooth compact core. Four thick folded emitter scales lie flat against the hull in two overlapping pairs, one pair on each flank behind the waist, closed for quiet running. Thin painted heat-path bands run from the core to each scale. The cockpit is a narrow canopy ahead of the waist. One small defensive mount sits on top of the core. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Still Water** · Mass · Moonshot. A heron waiting in the shallows lends its patience: a compact body and one long neck-and-bill that is the barrel. Long and thin by nature, so it is called thick twice.
+Design the Still Water, a single-pilot Cryonix cold sniper that carries its mass like a heron waiting in still water: almost all of the volume in one compact, high, folded body, with one long, straight, thick neck-and-bill reaching forward as the precision barrel. The folded body holds the thermal reservoir, wrapped in four thick emitter scales lying closed like folded wings, two on each side. The cockpit is a narrow canopy where the neck meets the body. One small defensive mount sits on top of the body. The barrel is thick from root to tip and ends in a small aperture. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Clean hauler
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a hauler with one insulated sealed hold, a built-in contamination lock and one small defensive mount. It carries rejected batches quietly and premium ones discreetly.
+
+**A · Clean Room** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Clean Room, a two-person Cryonix clean hauler. Its insulated hold is one long, smooth, sealed body with a narrow waist where it joins the cockpit section, so the ship reads as a protected core with a small head. The contamination lock is a round double hatch on the waist, with two concentric rings around it. Two seal bands wrap the hold at even intervals. The cockpit is a compact rounded section at the front with a narrow window. One small defensive mount sits on top of the hold near the rear. Batch identifiers and alignment grids are printed along the hold. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Rejected Batch** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Rejected Batch, a two-person Cryonix clean hauler carrying a batch that failed inspection. Its long, sealed, narrow-waisted hold is wrapped by one broad quarantine band around its middle and closed with three reject tags clipped to the lock rim. The contamination lock is a round hatch on the flank facing the camera, with a seal stamped across its seam. Everything else on the hull is still pristine. The cockpit is a compact rounded section at the front. One small defensive mount sits on top near the rear. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Cetacean Navigators
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Cetacean Navigators|Cetacean Navigators]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Cetacean Navigators|doctrine]] · register: whimsy turned up
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A rescue vessel that carries its own sea, with a goofy, friendly face. A whale may lend its mass and its face to the twin-lobed body the faction block already describes.
+**Carries:** Raft and the Gentle Giant, both Cetacean prompts and both hits. The Gentle Giant's huge friendly mouth is kept here as a face on a machine; the whole-animal versions move to Corriedales (see For the Operator, item 2).
+
+### Role: Corridor escort
+
+**Pitch:** A pilot and a navigator fly an escort with two small point-defense hardpoints, one medium utility hardpoint and a built-in distress receiver. It drops anything to answer a call on the corridor.
+
+**A · Melon** · Mass and face · Safe bet
+Design the Melon, a two-person Cetacean Navigators corridor escort with the friendly face of a beluga: a big, round, soft forehead bulging over a short smiling mouth line at the front of its twin-lobed body. The forehead is the distress receiver and route sensor, one smooth domed housing. The cockpit is a low canopy on the cabin ridge just behind the forehead. The utility mount is a short tractor nozzle under the smiling mouth. One small point-defence turret sits on top of each pressure lobe. Small round amber-lit ports run along each lobe. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · First Responder** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the First Responder, a two-person Cetacean Navigators corridor escort whose rescue gear is its face. At the bow, the medium utility mount carries a stubby recovery grapple with four round pads, folded back against a broad rounded nose. Above it, a round distress receiver dish is set flush into the top of the nose. The cockpit is a low canopy on the cabin ridge between the pressure lobes. One small point-defence turret sits on the outer shoulder of each lobe, clear of the tow approach. A rescue beacon is set into each lobe's rounded stern. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Recovery tug
+
+**Pitch:** A mixed-environment crew flies a tug with a heavy built-in tow block and tractor, two small point-defense mounts and a large aquatic pressure volume. It gets the disabled ship home before the salvagers do.
+
+**A · Gentle Giant II** · Mass and face · Safe bet. The proven face: a whale shark's wide, straight, friendly mouth on a broad flat head, carried by the faction's twin lobes.
+Design the Gentle Giant II, a Cetacean Navigators recovery tug for a mixed-environment crew, with the broad flat head and huge friendly mouth of a whale shark. The mouth is one very wide, straight tractor intake spanning the whole front of the head, a dark recess ringed by a thick rounded lip. The cockpit is a low canopy on top of the head behind the mouth. Behind the head, the body swells into two long pressure lobes, each dotted with small round amber-lit ports in the pattern of a whale shark's spots. The tow block is a heavy rounded housing under the chin. One small point-defence turret sits on top of each lobe. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Brought Home** · Story · Moonshot. A tug thanked by the crews it saved. The plaques are small parts and may read as clutter.
+Design the Brought Home, a Cetacean Navigators recovery tug for a mixed-environment crew, decorated by the crews it has rescued. Its broad, twin-lobed body carries a heavy rounded tow block at the bow with four round tractor pads. Along the cabin ridge, a row of small registry plates from rescued ships is bolted on as thank-you plaques, each a different shape and maker. Its tow points are worn smooth and wrapped in thick rubber fenders. The cockpit is a low canopy at the front of the ridge. One small point-defence turret sits on each lobe. Small round amber-lit ports run along both lobes. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Aya Collective
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Aya Collective|Aya Collective]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Aya Collective|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A commons you can open, built so that everyone aboard comes home. Removable panels, visible good repairs, and point defence shown plainly.
+**Carries:** the Open Hand's turtle, which already lives in the faction block. The beehive, tagine and water jar of the earlier rounds were household objects and are gone. The camel and hen were whole animals; the camel survives as mass only.
+
+### Role: Convoy hauler
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a hauler with one big hold of removable cargo cells, two small point-defense hardpoints and standard feed couplings. Anyone with local parts can fix it, and it rides inside the escorts' coverage.
+
+**A · Common Hold** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Common Hold, a two-person Aya Collective convoy hauler. Its hold is a broad, rounded protective frame filled with removable cargo cells in three rows of four, each cell a rounded panel held by two visible latches, sized for one person to swap. The cockpit is a rounded cab at the front of the frame. One small point-defence turret sits on each shoulder of the frame on a standard mount. Standard feed couplings sit in a row along the frame's lower edge. One cell has been replaced with a newer panel in a different block-print pattern. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Three Settlements** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Three Settlements, a two-person Aya Collective convoy hauler rebuilt by three communities in turn. Its long, rounded hold is divided into three equal sections along its length, each fitted and patterned by a different settlement: the front third with one block-print pattern and workshop mark, the middle third with a second, and the rear third with a third. All three share the same latches, frames and mounts, so the ship is one body with three signatures. The cockpit is a rounded cab at the front. One small point-defence turret sits on each shoulder of the middle section. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Clinic and water tender
+
+**Pitch:** Two crew fly a tender with two large life-support tanks, a built-in clinic bay and one small point-defense mount. Repair and medicine are priced at cost, and it is the reason refugees reach the next site.
+
+**A · Two Humps** · Mass · Safe bet
+Design the Two Humps, a two-person Aya Collective clinic and water tender that carries its water the way a camel does: two high, rounded tank humps along a long, low body, with the front of the body rising slightly to a rounded cab. Each hump is a life-support tank under a patterned removable cover held by visible latches. The clinic bay is a broad side hatch between the humps on the flank facing the camera, with soft rubberized grips along its edge. The cockpit is a rounded canopy at the front of the cab. One small point-defence turret sits in the saddle between the humps. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · At Cost** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the At Cost, a two-person Aya Collective clinic and water tender. Two large, rounded life-support tanks form the two flanks of the ship as lobes of one body, each with a patterned removable cover and a copper coupling at its front. Between them, the raised centre section holds the clinic bay, with a wide rounded hatch on top and a stretcher rail beside it. The cockpit is a rounded cab at the front of the centre section. One small point-defence turret sits at the rear of the centre section. A neat stitched patch of rivets closes one panel on the left tank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Framgång and Odla Framgång
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Framgång|Framgång]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Framgång and Odla Framgång|doctrine]] · register: high whimsy
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A showroom promise with a competitor's engine inside it. Framgång's whimsy is aspirational: cute companions, holiday buildings and mid-century vehicles, all assuming an up, all with one adapter that does not quite fit.
+**Carries:** the household-object failure, which retires the ring box. The tailfin car stays as the faction block's own simile. Its whimsy register now allows a whole cute animal, and the doctrine's follower suggests one.
+
+### Role: Affiliate sales follower
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot and a demo case fly a follower with an oversized built-in active sensor that pings everything nearby, a knockoff cargo hold and one small defensive mount. It never attacks; it follows, and it pitches.
+
+**A · Good Boy** · Mascot · Safe bet. The salesman who follows you everywhere, as a puppy that follows you everywhere.
+Design the Good Boy, a single-pilot Odla Framgång sales follower: a whole, round, eager golden retriever puppy, bounding forward with its head up. Its big round head is fused into its chubby body, with two large round optics where its eyes would be and two thick, floppy, rounded ears. The oversized active sensor is a big round dish worn like a collar tag under its chin. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on top of its head. The knockoff cargo hold is a rounded demo case strapped to its back like a saddlebag, with a "Certified Success" seal on its lid. One small defensive mount sits on the case. Its tail is a short, thick, upright wag. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Show Home** · Terrestrial · Moonshot. A model home on a lawn slab, following you between stars. It assumes an up completely and may read as a building rather than a ship.
+Design the Show Home, a single-pilot Odla Framgång sales follower that is a mid-century show home on a thick oval slab of lawn. The house is low and rounded with a swept roofline, a picture window band, a front door under a small porch and a starburst ornament over the door. The oversized active sensor is a big dish on a thick pedestal on the roof. The cockpit is the picture window band. The knockoff cargo hold is a rounded garage on one end with a roll-up door on the side facing the camera. One small defensive mount sits on the roof ridge. A "Visit Today" sign on a thick post stands on the lawn by the door. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Retreat ferry
+
+**Pitch:** A pilot and a wellness host fly a ferry with a pilgrim cabin, one rare shield emitter of excellent quality and one small defensive mount. It is overpriced and comfortable, and sometimes genuinely the best ship you will see.
+
+**A · Stuga** · Terrestrial · Safe bet
+Design the Stuga, a two-person Framgång retreat ferry that is a holiday cabin set on a thick rounded floating deck. The cabin is a steep A-frame with a broad front gable, a row of oval viewports down each side and a front door opening onto the deck. A rounded sauna hut sits on the rear of the deck, with a short, thick chimney. The rare shield emitter is a round medallion set into the top of the A-frame's gable. The cockpit is a small rounded window high in the front gable. One small defensive mount sits on the sauna roof. Two deck loungers are moulded into the front deck as solid shapes. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Swan Song Retreat** · Mascot · Moonshot. A swan pedal boat, kitsch and serene. The neck is made a thick upright prow, but the model may open it into an arch.
+Design the Swan Song Retreat, a two-person Framgång retreat ferry that is a giant swan pedal boat: a whole, plump, smiling swan with its wings folded up around its back to form the pilgrim cabin. Its neck is a thick, upright, solid prow curving into a small rounded head with a gentle face. The folded wings are two thick, rounded, raised slabs enclosing the cabin, with oval viewports along each. The rare shield emitter is a round medallion on its chest. The cockpit is a rounded canopy at the base of the neck. One small defensive mount sits on its tail. One slightly-too-deep adapter casing bulges under its tail where the borrowed engine does not quite fit. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Pirate Coalition
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Major/Pirate Coalition|Pirate Coalition]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Pirate Coalition|doctrine]] · register: wild and maximalist
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** Someone else's ship, kept running out of spite, and piled with more additions than any sensible refit would carry. Every attempt names its donor, its crew accent colour and its emoji, as the faction block asks, and puts every addition on the side facing the camera.
+**Carries:** Squatter, the one animal that felt right, because the hermit crab told the story of a stolen freight pod. Story is the Pirates' default mode here. An animal may still lend a crew its swagger, so long as the donor hull is still legible.
+
+### Role: Ambush raider
+
+**Pitch:** A pilot and two crew fly a raider with one oversized stolen gun hardpoint, a capture grapple and a mismatched drive. It wants your cargo, aims for your drives, and leaves fights it is losing.
+
+**A · Upgrade Available** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Upgrade Available, a three-crew Pirate Coalition ambush raider built from a stolen Rossum & Douglas missile wedge. The wedge is still recognisable, with its flat dorsal planes, its blunt nose and its corporate stripe overpainted. On the side facing the camera, the crew have piled on an oversized stolen gun in a bolted cradle along the flank, a capture grapple arm folded beside it, a stolen sensor pod clamped above it, and two layers of salvaged armour plates welded over the cockpit. The original missile doors are welded shut and painted over with the crew emblem, a grinning skull-face emoji, three times. Electric orange crew accent slashes across the wedge and the additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Second Billing** · Story · Moonshot. A stolen Lucent headliner with half its shells replaced by salvage; the mix of curved shells and flat plate may read as two ships.
+Design the Second Billing, a three-crew Pirate Coalition ambush raider built from a stolen Lucent Media duelist. Half its layered show shells are still the original curved shells with their sponsor decals scratched out; the other half, on the side facing the camera, have been torn off and replaced with flat salvaged armour plates riveted over the chassis. An oversized stolen industrial gun is bolted on top of one forward blade, far too big for it. A capture grapple hangs from a welded bracket under the nose. The crew emblem, a crown emoji, is painted three times over the old show title. Acid green crew accent runs across both the shells and the plates. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**C · Laughing Matter** · Mass · Moonshot. A hyena lends a crew its sloping, hulking stance; the donor hull must stay legible under it.
+Design the Laughing Matter, a three-crew Pirate Coalition ambush raider that stands like a hyena: a hulking, high front end and a low, sloping rear, built from a stolen Aeronautics Unlimited hauler cab grafted onto a cut-down cargo hold. The cab is the high front, with a reinforced grille of welded bars across its window and its original company lettering crossed out. An oversized stolen gun juts from the front on the side facing the camera, with a capture grapple bolted beneath it. The cut-down hold behind slopes down to the rear, cut short and capped with a welded plate. The crew emblem, a laughing-face emoji, is painted three times along the slope. Hot red crew accent stripes cross the cab and the hold. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: False distress lure
+
+**Pitch:** A pilot and two crew fly a lure with a forged rescue transponder, a capture bay, one medium gun hardpoint and one small defensive mount. It calls for help and opens wide when you arrive.
+
+**A · Not Drowning** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Not Drowning, a three-crew Pirate Coalition false distress lure built from a stolen Cetacean Navigators rescue ship. Its twin pressure lobes and cabin ridge are still recognisable, and its rescue markings are still freshly painted, kept bright on purpose. The forged rescue transponder is a big round beacon bolted on top of the ridge. On the side facing the camera, a hinged hull panel hides one medium gun, shown half open with the barrel showing. The bow has been cut open into a wide capture bay with a crude hinged door. One small defensive mount sits on the stern. The crew emblem, a winking-face emoji, is painted three times, small, where only a close look would find it. Purple crew accent runs along the hinge lines. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Come Closer** · Mass · Moonshot. An anglerfish lends its mass: a huge front end that is all mouth, with a lure out front. The first bench's anglerfish was a whole fish; this one is a donor hull with an anglerfish's priorities.
+Design the Come Closer, a three-crew Pirate Coalition false distress lure with the mass of an anglerfish: a huge, heavy front end that is almost all mouth, a small body behind it, and a short, thick stalk rising from the brow to a round lure. The huge front end is a stolen Lightsail Express cargo box, its whole front face rebuilt into a wide capture bay with heavy hinged jaws. The round lure is the forged rescue transponder, painted with rescue markings. The cockpit is a small welded cab on top of the box behind the stalk. One medium gun sits low on the flank facing the camera, and one small defensive mount sits on the cab roof. The crew emblem, a fish emoji, is painted three times on the jaws. Lime crew accent outlines the jaws. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Megiddo
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Factions/Megiddo|Megiddo]] · [[Game Design/Faction Play#Megiddo|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**Aesthetic thesis.** A moving boundary, protection grown like a seed. The faction block carries the nested shells and shutters; these attempts decide where the boundary is drawn on each hull.
+**Carries:** Zera, which passed: a plump closed seed pod read. Its successor keeps the pod and gives it a firmer seam and shoulder. The dandelion head was thin-feature soup and is gone.
+
+### Role: Perimeter shield picket
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot and a warden fly a picket with a Migdal shield emitter, layered armor, two small point-defense hardpoints and passive sensors. It holds the boundary and never crosses it.
+
+**A · Boundary Stone** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Boundary Stone, a two-person Megiddo perimeter picket. Its shield emitter is a broad, shallow ring set into the bow, a thick rounded collar around a recessed centre, facing outward. Behind it, the inner hull is wrapped in three overlapping outer shells, each a thick rounded layer slightly larger than the one in front. Two passive sensor ports sit under heavy shutters on top of the second shell. One small point-defence turret sits on each side of the third shell. The cockpit is a low shuttered canopy between the first and second shells. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Warden's Watch** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Warden's Watch, a two-person Megiddo perimeter picket that has held the same boundary for generations. Its nested shells are old and carefully mended, with one shell section re-cast in a slightly different curve where it was replaced. Its shutter frames are worn bright where they have opened and closed thousands of times. The shield emitter is a thick round collar at the bow. Two small point-defence turrets sit on the upper shoulders. The constellation inlays across the upper shells include one added more recently, slightly brighter than the rest. The cockpit is a low shuttered canopy behind the emitter. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Role: Decoy layer
+
+**Pitch:** One pilot flies a decoy layer with a built-in decoy bay holding four decoy pods, one small point-defense mount and passive sensors. It makes the fleet look larger than it is.
+
+**A · Zera II** · Mass · Safe bet. The first round's pass with a firmer shoulder.
+Design the Zera II, a single-pilot Megiddo decoy layer with the mass of a closed milkweed pod: one plump teardrop body, pointed at the front and full at the rear, with a thick raised seam running along its top from tip to base. The seam is the decoy bay door, closed, with four round decoy-pod caps showing along it in a row. The rear of the pod swells into a broad, rounded shoulder that holds the passive sensors under two shutters. The cockpit is a small shuttered canopy near the pointed tip. One small point-defence turret sits on the shoulder. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**B · Many Seeds** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Many Seeds, a single-pilot Megiddo decoy layer. Its inner hull carries four decoy pods nested into it in a ring around the rear, each pod a smaller copy of the ship's own outer shell, so the ship and its decoys share one silhouette. Each pod sits half sunk in a shuttered cradle. The forward body is wrapped in two thick overlapping shells. The cockpit is a low shuttered canopy on top of the forward shell. Passive sensor ports sit under shutters on the flanks. One small point-defence turret sits on top of the rear, between the upper two pods. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Stations
+
+Five candidates, composed the same way: the global block, the faction block, then the prompt. Two take the liberties their registers allow (Corriedales and Lucent); the three serious ones stay plausible. The first bench's Dutch oven, chess rook and bread oven were household or domestic objects; the sand dollar and the rock are not repeated. Each ends with the station frame.
+
+**Zhestokost · Arsenal Depot** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Arsenal Depot, a compact Zhestokost ammunition depot station. It is a broad, low, stepped block of magazine bays, four bays to a side, each bay a deep rectangular mass with a square loading door. Two heavy docking piers project from opposite ends, each ending in a squat ammunition-transfer collar ringed with towing lugs. A low armoured control block sits on top at the centre, with a ring of narrow observation slits. One small flak turret sits on each of the four top corners. Ammunition feed channels run in recessed grooves from every bay to the piers. One complete station, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter view from slightly above showing the top surface and one docking side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**Sol Dominion · Clearance Gate** · Function · Safe bet
+Design the Clearance Gate, a compact Sol Dominion corridor checkpoint station. It is one strong, straight axial spine with four identical docking faces set square along its length, two on each side, each a flat boarding collar with a jurisdiction seal and a numbered hatch. At one end of the spine sits a broad, flat sensor plane inlaid with a grid of recessed sensor tiles. At the other end sits a square control block with a ring of narrow observation slits. Identical module bands repeat along the spine between the docking faces. Square machine-readable code panels mark each docking face. One complete station, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter view from slightly above showing the top surface and one docking side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**Corriedales · Playhouse** · Mascot and Terrestrial · Moonshot. A station that is a beloved character, with its front door in its tummy. It assumes an up and is a whole animal; it may read as a giant toy, which is the point.
+Design the Playhouse, a compact Corriedales fan station: a giant, whole, round, sitting bear cub, plump and smiling, its legs stretched out in front of it on a thick rounded base. Its round tummy holds the main docking bay, a big rounded front door with a scalloped awning slab over it. Its two round ears are observation domes. Two large round optics sit where its eyes would be, and its smile is a long row of small round ports. Its two front paws rest on its knees, each holding a docking port in its palm. A collectible series number is printed on its foot, and a gift-shop sign hangs beside the door. One complete station, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter view from slightly above showing the top surface and one docking side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**Lucent Media · Green Room** · Terrestrial · Moonshot. Spectacle liberties in the spirit of the Jewel: buildings hung beneath a plaza. Separate hanging volumes are a Tripo risk on purpose.
+Design the Green Room, a compact Lucent Media broadcast station that assumes gravity for the camera. Its top is a broad, round plaza deck, edged by a thick rim, with a statue on a pedestal at its centre and four stage-light towers at the rim aimed at the statue. A ring of thick screen panels stands around the plaza edge, facing inward. Beneath the plaza, three rounded studio buildings hang upside down from its underside, each fused to the deck by a thick neck. Two docking piers project from the plaza rim on opposite sides, each ending in a broad arrival platform. One complete station, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter view from slightly above showing the top surface and one docking side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+**Aya Collective · Common Ground** · Story · Safe bet
+Design the Common Ground, a compact Aya Collective sanctuary station that each household helped build. It is one broad, rounded protective frame around a ring of removable habitat cells, each cell a rounded panel held by visible latches, and each panel carrying a different block-print pattern and a different workshop mark. Two docking bays open in opposite sides of the ring, each with a wide rounded hatch and soft rubberized grips. A low domed workshop sits at the centre of the ring. Four point-defence turrets sit on standard mounts around the rim. Several panels are visible, good repairs with neat stitch-like rivets. One complete station, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter view from slightly above showing the top surface and one docking side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.

Aetheria/Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3.md

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+---
+title: Ship Prompt Bench 3
+description: "A third bench of ship prompts. Each starts from a play concept that shows on the hull and breaks the two-drives-back, two-guns-front default. All are composed after the global and faction blocks."
+---
+
+# Ship Prompt Bench 3
+
+> **Status: brainstorming bench, 2026-10-05.** Not canon and not adopted. [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 2|Ship Prompt Bench 2]] stays as the record of round two. Prompts here are the third block of the composition order in [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]]. Concepts come from [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts|Ship Play Concepts]], and craft rules from guidelines 1 to 14 in [[Brainstorming/Faction Ship Concept Prompts|Faction Ship Concept Prompts]].
+
+Operator, 2026-10-05: "Bison was already good to go. I tried the global and faction blocks on Vasuki though, and it did result in a noticeably more coherent render. From Bench 2 I also tried One Pass (big fail), Bulldog (nice stature, big silly thing on its back, fail), and the Sugar Glider (pass: it's both cute and cursed, very Miss Terri). The Bulldog concept could work as a ship with a huge built-in capacitor that defines its role, but even then it's way too prominent in the design. Sugar Glider also hinges on builtin gear, with the spray weapon in its mouth and fuel tanks in its cheeks. You can see from the One Pass result that the flowery prose in its prompt did not save it from a weak concept. I'd like Bench 3 to learn from previous results and incorporate novel gameplay roles into the designs (too many of these ships have exactly two thrusters in the back and two guns in the front)"
+
+## What Round Two Taught
+
+| Render | Result | Lesson | Recorded in |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| Vasuki (first bench), composed after the global and Alakrita blocks | "a noticeably more coherent render" than Vasuki alone | Composition works. Every prompt here is composed the same way. | Ship Design Language, Composition Order |
+| One Pass (Alakrita interceptor) | "big fail" | Prose does not rescue a weak concept. "Cockpit, two guns and speed" is the default silhouette, not a concept. | Guideline 13 |
+| Bulldog (NiteLife station guard) | "nice stature, big silly thing on its back, fail" | Signature gear fails as a prominent add-on. The NiteLife block itself asked for the cartridge "standing proud"; the block is amended. | Guideline 14; NiteLife block |
+| Sugar Glider (Miss Terri's spray fighter) | "pass: it's both cute and cursed, very Miss Terri" | Signature gear works when it is part of the body: the sprayer in the mouth, the tanks in the cheeks. | Guideline 14 |
+| Bison (first bench) | "already good to go" | Already at its benchmark, so it is not repeated. | First bench |
+
+All four renders, and the first round's too, have two drives at the stern and guns at the nose. Bench 2 left thrust unnamed and asked mostly for forward guns, so the model filled the gap with its default. Guideline 13 and the amended thrust paragraph in Ship Design Language now name the thrust layout whenever the concept depends on it.
+
+## From Bench 2
+
+- **Carried forward unchanged:** Sugar Glider. It passed.
+- **Reworked:**
+  - *Bulldog* → **Bulldog II.** Same stance. The capacitor is now the chest, and the cartridge sits flush in the back. The role is the one the operator named: a ship defined by its capacitor.
+  - *Leashed* is folded into Bulldog II. It was the same guard with the same cartridge problem.
+  - *One Pass* → **Riposte.** One spinal lance and a flywheel surge give it a way to fight.
+  - *Pouchling* → **Joey.** The pouch now holds a docked fighter instead of cargo, so the kangaroo is a mothership.
+  - *Remora* (Sol) → **Lien.** The cutter no longer clamps on itself; it fires small lock units that clamp on.
+  - *Zera II* and *Many Seeds* (Megiddo decoys) → **Sown.** The same seed grammar now lays a picket line.
+  - *Four Hundred Runs* → **Fifth Wheel.** The cab becomes a ship of its own.
+- **Left in Bench 2, superseded as concepts:** the forward-gun fighters, interceptors and duelists, which are the default the operator flagged. These are Puffling, Bunbun, Snout, Frosting, Swarmlet, Greyhound, Swan, The Gold Scratch, Pounce, Encore Entrance, Morzh, Crouch, Draw and Corgi Express. They are not deleted. Their factions get a concept here instead.
+- **Left in Bench 2, still worth a render:** Function prompts whose role is already a play concept, such as Quartermaster (tender), Due Process and First Trace (spinal mounts), Docket (boarding face), Severance (spinal launcher), Shed the Load (drop-cell heat management), Full Charge, Common Hold and House Call. They are untested, not failed, so they are not repeated.
+- **Not touched:** the stations.
+
+## How to Use This Bench
+
+- **Compose before rendering:** the global Aetheria block, then the faction block, then one prompt from here, each separated by a blank line. Vasuki showed what this adds.
+- **Each entry starts from a concept.** It names its play concept, what the pilot does, and how the default silhouette is broken: thrust layout, weapon placement and arcs, or a non-weapon role. If a concept would not survive a one-line description, it is not here.
+- **Thrust is named where the concept needs it** (Ship Design Language, amended). You still place the final thrusters. The prompt only stops the model from defaulting to two at the stern.
+- **Fixed mounts say "fixed".** The global block says guns sit "in small turrets on thick armoured mounts". The ship prompt comes last and wins, so a broadside or spinal entry states its fixed mounts and their direction. Turrets here carry light guns, matching the ruling that heavy guns live on narrow arcs (`arc-and-traverse-on-the-link`, 2026-10-04).
+- **Built-in gear** is stated on every entry: what the role rests on, and how the prompt keeps it integrated and in proportion (guideline 14). The operator ruled on 2026-10-05 that hulls may carry built-in gear (`hulls-carry-built-in-gear`): "Built-in gear is just an obvious thing to have, an easy way to design ships that play differently." It is one lever among several. About half the entries here use it; the rest differ by thrust layout, mount arcs or role. How built-in gear is represented in hull data, and whether it can be removed, is not decided, and this bench does not assume an answer.
+- **Drones and munitions** are gear-built bodies, launched from and docked into bays and cradles (rulings `drones-and-munitions-are-entities` and `drone-command-verbs-are-products`, 2026-10-04). Entries show bays, cradles and controller masts as gear.
+- **Modes, Safe bet and Moonshot** mean the same as in Bench 2. A moonshot says what it risks.
+- **Faction choice** follows the tendencies in Ship Play Concepts' Faction Fit table. That is a reading of fork 7, not a ruling on it. No entry uses a facing shield (fork 6).
+- Every prompt ends with the standard frame clause.
+
+---
+
+## Zhestokost
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Zhestokost|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Batareya · Broadside, Two-Sided
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Broadside, Two-Sided|Broadside, Two-Sided]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** the pilot turns a flank to the target. When one battery runs hot, the pilot rolls the cool side over.
+**Breaks the default:** no forward gun at all. Eight fixed guns face sideways, and corner turning blocks make the turn the aim.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The batteries are fitted fixed guns; the concept lives in their arcs.
+
+Design the Batareya, a two-person Zhestokost broadside gunship that fights side-on. Its body is a long, tall-sided stepped armoured box, twice as long as it is wide. Along the flank facing the camera, four identical short, thick cannons stand in a row at one height on fixed armoured mounts, every muzzle pointing straight out sideways, square to the spine. The matching muzzles of the far battery show just past the dorsal edge. The bow is a thick, plain, stepped armour face with a narrow cockpit slit and no gun. A deep magazine runs down the spine between the two batteries, its square hatches feeding both rows. Square turning-thruster blocks sit at all four corners of the hull, facing sideways, and one large square drive fills the stern. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Matka · Carrier
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Carrier|Carrier]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it holds back, launches strike drones in waves, and recovers them before they run dry. Its throats are what an enemy goes for.
+**Breaks the default:** the armament is its deck. The drives sit in ventral pods so the deck stays clear.
+**Built-in gear:** the launch throats and recovery arm, built as the deck itself. Built in, and the deck's own mass.
+
+Design the Matka, a three-crew Zhestokost drone carrier whose guns are its drones. The top of the ship is one broad, flat, armoured flight deck, the largest part of the hull, with two large dark launch throats set into it side by side, each framed by a thick armoured lip and guide rails. Behind the throats, a squat recovery arm with a capture cradle lies folded flat on the deck. Four small boxy strike drones sit clamped to the deck beside the throats, each a stubby armoured wedge with one short gun. A narrow cockpit slit looks forward from a low armoured block at the bow. One small flak turret sits on each rear corner of the deck. The drives sit low in two thick ventral pods under the flanks. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Miss Terri's Sugariffic Snack Company|doctrine]] · register: high whimsy
+
+### Sugar Glider · Forward-Fixed Fighter (carried forward)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Forward-Fixed Fighter|Forward-Fixed Fighter]] with a continuous spray: one pass, then the corrosion works. Mode: Mascot. Passed in round two.
+**Plays:** close fast, spray from the mouth, leave.
+**Breaks the default:** it is the bench's one forward-gun ship, kept because the weapon is the face.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The sprayer is the mouth and the reservoirs are the cheeks. This is guideline 14's model.
+
+Design the Sugar Glider, a single-pilot Miss Terri's spray fighter: a whole, plump, round-eyed sugar glider flying belly-down. Its big round head is fused into a chubby body, with two large round optics where the eyes would be and two thick, rounded ears. Its gliding membranes are two broad, thick, rounded side panels fused along its flanks from wrist to ankle, with short stubby paws at their corners. Its two round cheeks are swollen reservoirs feeding one short, thick spray nozzle under its little nose. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on the crown of the head, between the ears. One small defensive turret sits on its back between the shoulders. Its tail is a short, fat, rounded stub. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Stinker · Stern Chaser
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Stern Chaser|Stern Chaser]]. Mode: Mascot. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it runs, and whatever chases it flies into the spray. It never turns toward danger.
+**Breaks the default:** its only weapon points backward. Thrust comes from four paw pods under the belly, because the tail owns the stern.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The tail is both the reservoir and the nozzle, in the Sugar Glider pattern.
+
+Design the Stinker, a single-pilot Miss Terri's stern-chasing spray ship: a whole, plump, round baby skunk that sprays behind it while it runs. Its big round head is fused into its chubby body, with two large round optics where its eyes would be, two small rounded ears and an innocent little smile. Its huge fluffy tail curls up and back over its rump as one fat, rounded reservoir in two broad stripes, and the tip of the tail is one short, thick spray nozzle pointing straight backward. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on the crown of its head, facing forward, away from the nozzle. Its four short, stubby paws are thruster pods tucked under its belly. Its only weapon is the tail. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Honeypot · Swarm Boat
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Swarm Boat|Swarm Boat]] ("a bag of sweets thrown at once"). Mode: Mascot. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it launches a cloud of cheap expendable sweets in one go and accepts that most will die.
+**Breaks the default:** no gun. The whole back is a launcher, and the thrust is spread over four wingtips.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The launch cells form the bee's back, so the body is the launcher.
+
+Design the Honeypot, a single-pilot Miss Terri's swarm launcher: a whole, round, fuzzy bumblebee carrying its hive on its back. Its plump striped body is fused to a big round head with two large round optics and two short, thick, rounded antennae. Its back is one broad dome of small hexagonal launch cells, each capped with a waxy round lid, covering the bee from shoulders to tail. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on the front of the head. Its four stubby wings are thick, rounded slabs standing out from its shoulders, each with a small thruster port at its tip. Its stinger is a short, thick sensor nub. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Lucent Media
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Lucent Media|doctrine]] · register: spectacle
+
+### Spin Cycle · Rotating Battery
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Rotating Battery|Rotating Battery]]. Mode: Function. Moonshot: a disc hull may lose the faction's layered shells.
+**Plays:** the hull keeps turning, so each fixed laser fires as it sweeps past the target and cools for the rest of the turn. A spinning stage also films well.
+**Breaks the default:** radial symmetry with four guns facing four ways. Tangential rim thrusters hold the spin.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The flywheel is the hub, the body's centre of mass.
+
+Design the Spin Cycle, a single-pilot Lucent Media rotating-battery ship that spins like a showroom turntable and fires each gun as it passes the target. Its body is one broad, round, thick disc with a raised central hub. Four identical laser emitters sit evenly around the rim, each in a thick knurled wheel-shaped mount, every one pointing straight outward. The hub is the flywheel housing, a fat ribbed drum, with the cockpit as a domed canopy on its top and a camera-lens sensor dome beside it. Four small thrusters sit on the rim between the emitters, each angled along the rim to keep the disc turning. Thick shells in the faction colours ring the disc in overlapping steps, and a show title runs around its edge. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Corriedales
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Pre-Elysium/Factions/Powers/Minor/Corriedales|Corriedales]] · register: high whimsy (mascot hulls)
+
+### Mama Duck · Point-Defence Escort Drones
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Point-Defence Escort Drones|Point-Defence Escort Drones]], the faction's "companion drone or two". Mode: Mascot. Moonshot: the ducklings are separate small bodies on purpose, which risks them merging into lumps.
+**Plays:** the ducklings fly out around their mother and shoot down what comes at her, then come home to their cradles.
+**Breaks the default:** its defence is a ring of drones. It flies on two webbed feet.
+**Built-in gear:** the cradles are docking clamps, which are gear under the drone ruling. The ducklings are drones built from gear.
+
+Design the Mama Duck, a single-pilot Corriedales escort carrier: a whole, plump, smiling mother duck with three ducklings riding on her back. The ducklings are her escort drones: three small, round, fluffy duckling-shaped drones with tiny round optics, each half sunk in its own rounded cradle in a row along her back, each with one tiny gun on top of its head. A fourth cradle at the end of the row stands empty. Her round head is fused to her body, with two large round optics where her eyes would be and a short, thick, rounded bill that holds one light gun like a wand. The cockpit is a rounded canopy on the crown of her head. Her two broad webbed feet, tucked under her tail, are her thruster paddles. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Joey · Mothership (reworked Pouchling)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Mothership|Mothership]]. Mode: Mascot. Moonshot: the joey is a second small volume and may merge into the pouch.
+**Plays:** the mother carries a small crewed fighter and launches it for work she cannot do, then takes it back in.
+**Breaks the default:** two bodies and two pilots. The thrust sits in its hind feet, angled down and back like a hop.
+**Built-in gear:** the pouch is a docking bay. Docking bays already hold ships as children.
+
+Design the Joey, a two-pilot Corriedales mothership: a whole, round, friendly kangaroo mother with a small fighter riding in her pouch. The pouch is a deep docking bay across her belly. Peeking out of it is the joey, a tiny, round, kangaroo-faced fighter with its own small canopy and one light gun wand in each forepaw. The mother's round head is fused to her shoulders, with two large round optics where her eyes would be and two thick, upright, rounded ears. Her cockpit is a rounded canopy on top of her head. Her two big hind feet are broad thruster pads angled down and back, and her thick tail curls under her as a rounded base. One small defensive turret sits between her shoulders. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Aeronautics Unlimited
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Aeronautics Unlimited|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Fenceline · Sentry Drop
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Sentry Drop|Sentry Drop]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it plants gun platforms at a site and leaves them to hold it. Its own gun is an afterthought.
+**Breaks the default:** its armament is cargo. It has four corner thruster pods on outrigger lobes for holding station while the crane works.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The crane is a fitted tool, and the sentries are bodies built from gear.
+
+Design the Fenceline, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited sentry layer that plants gun platforms and leaves them to hold a site. Its flat rear deck carries four folded sentry turrets stacked in two rows like cargo, each a squat box with its tripod legs folded under it, one short gun and a stencilled number. A short, thick loader crane lies folded at the front of the deck, its hook resting on the first sentry. The cab is a rounded-rectangle block at the front with a wide, low window and a short survey mast. The body rests on four short, thick outrigger lobes at its corners, each fused to the hull and carrying one thruster pod for holding station. One small turret sits on the cab roof. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Mule Team · Tug Drone
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Tug Drone|Tug Drone]]. Mode: Mass (tugboats nested against a barge). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** its drones grab and tow loose cargo, wrecks, rock and prizes, so the hull never has to move the mass itself.
+**Breaks the default:** the real thrust lives on four detachable tugs. The parent has one modest drive.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The tugs are drones built from gear, and their cradles are clamps.
+
+Design the Mule Team, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited hauler that moves heavy things with a team of tug drones. The parent is a long, plain, rounded-rectangular cargo spine with a compact cab at its front, a wide low window and a survey mast. Four chunky tug drones ride docked at the four corners of the spine like tugboats nested against a barge, each a stubby rounded box with one large thruster bell, a broad clamp pad at its nose and a stencilled number. A tow-line drum sits on the spine behind the cab. The spine carries one modest drive at its stern. One small defensive turret sits on the cab roof. Lifting eyes and numbered bays run down the spine. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Finch Cybernetics
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Finch Cybernetics|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Nerve · Tethered Drone
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Tethered Drone|Tethered Drone]] ("a sense organ on a nerve"). Mode: Function. Moonshot: the cable is a long thin form, the first thing image-to-3D drops, so it is called thick and kept short.
+**Plays:** it flies its eye on a line that cannot be jammed, and it reels the eye in to recover it.
+**Breaks the default:** the sensor is a second body. The parent has fine manoeuvring ports and no big drive.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The winch housing is the dorsal mass, sunk into the body.
+
+Design the Nerve, a single-pilot Finch Cybernetics tethered-sensor ship that flies its eye on a line. A large, smooth, rounded winch housing is sunk into its back, the broadest part of the ship, wound with a thick armoured cable. The cable pays out from a short guide collar to a small sensor drone hovering a short distance above the flank facing the camera: a smooth teardrop with one large dark lens aperture. The parent's own sensors are a short row of small lens apertures across its brow. The cockpit is a narrow tapered canopy at the nose. One light low-signature weapon aperture sits flush under the nose. Rows of fine manoeuvring ports run along both flanks. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Rossum & Douglas
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Rossum & Douglas|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Standard Model 42-R · Stern Chaser
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Stern Chaser|Stern Chaser]]. The faction backs away from anyone who closes. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it retreats nose-first and launches over its own stern at whoever is following.
+**Breaks the default:** its missiles fire aft, and its drives have moved to flank sponsons. It is still the boring wedge.
+**Built-in gear:** none.
+
+Design the Standard Model 42-R, a single-pilot Rossum & Douglas missile picket that fires backward while it backs away from anyone who closes. It is the familiar flying wedge. Four square missile tubes sit in a row across the rear dorsal plane, angled steeply up and back so they launch over the stern, each closed by a flush square cap. A small defensive mount sits on the rear edge beside them. The drives sit in two flat sponsons fused along the lower flanks, each ending in a wide slot nozzle at a rear corner. The blunt nose is plain, with a small recessed cockpit window. A label beside the cockpit reads "Exit Strategy Included". One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Guarantee Plus · Loitering Munition
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Loitering Munition|Loitering Munition]] ("a loiterer that chooses is the premium model"). Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it launches munitions that wait, choose a target, and can be called off. The controller mast sells the verbs.
+**Breaks the default:** no gun aimed at anything; the munitions do the aiming. One wide slot drive.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The control mast is drone-controller gear, which provides the command verbs under the 2026-10-04 ruling.
+
+Design the Guarantee Plus, a single-pilot Rossum & Douglas loitering-munition carrier, the premium trim of the wedge. Four launch tubes stand in a row on the rear dorsal plane, angled upward, each closed by a round cap stencilled with a small folded-wing icon. Beside them, a thick control mast carries the link antenna that lets the pilot call the munitions back. The cockpit is a small recessed square window near the blunt nose. One small defensive mount sits flush at the nose. One wide slot drive runs across the whole rear face. A "Premium" badge and the phrase "Selects Its Own Target" sit beside the model number. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## NiteLife Energy
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#NiteLife Energy|doctrine]] · register: serious. The faction block is amended so that the cartridge sits flush (guideline 14).
+
+### Bulldog II · Burst and Break Off, on a leash (reworked Bulldog and Leashed)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Burst and Break Off|Burst and Break Off]], bound to a station. Mode: Mass. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it spends one huge capacitor in a single exchange, then retreats to its station umbilical to recharge. Inside its leash it hits hardest; beyond the leash it is a flat battery.
+**Breaks the default:** one emitter in the chest face. Four squat corner pods let it hold position, where a pursuer would want rear drives.
+**Built-in gear:** yes, the capacitor-defined ship the operator proposed. The capacitor is the chest, the ship's own mass, and the cartridge is sunk flush into the back.
+
+Design the Bulldog II, a single-pilot NiteLife Energy station guard built around one huge capacitor. It stands like a bulldog on a short chain: a wide, deep chest low and forward, short thick shoulders, and a short body behind. The chest is the capacitor, one smooth swollen volume that makes up most of the ship, cut by crisp charge-level slots with small round opaque status ports. The ChargeBlast emitter is a broad opaque disc set flush in the chest's front face. The reservoir cartridge is sunk lengthwise into the back between the shoulders, flush with the hull, showing only its rounded end cap and lime release catch at the rear. A thick station-umbilical socket sits under the chin, capped. The cockpit is a low canopy on top of the chest. Four squat thruster pods sit low at the corners like planted paws. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Jump Start · Power Tender (new concept)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Power Tender|Power Tender]], added to Ship Play Concepts for this bench. It is the energy half of the Tender: NiteLife keeps the lights on. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it comes alongside spent burst ships, refills their capacitors through a coupling, and pulls away before the pair is caught.
+**Breaks the default:** a non-combat role. Two swivelling shoulder pods hold it beside a moving ship.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The coupling boom lies folded into the spine, and the spare cartridges are sunk flush into the body.
+
+Design the Jump Start, a two-person NiteLife Energy power tender that comes alongside other ships and recharges their capacitors. A thick coupling boom lies folded forward along its spine, set into a channel in the hull, ending in a flat round charge collar with a lime release catch. Three spare reservoir cartridges are sunk side by side into the flank facing the camera, flush with the hull, showing only their rounded end caps and catches. The body is one full, smooth, swollen volume cut by crisp slots. The cockpit is a rounded canopy at the front. Two swivelling thruster pods sit on the shoulders, so it can hold station beside a moving ship. One small defensive turret sits at the rear. A version badge reads "Fast Charge". One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Lightsail Express
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Lightsail Express|doctrine]] · register: whimsy turned up
+
+### Fifth Wheel · Mothership (reworked Four Hundred Runs)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Mothership|Mothership]] (cab and trailer). Mode: Story. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** the cab uncouples to fight or scout while the trailer holds station with the load, then couples back up. The cargo is never dropped; it is parked.
+**Breaks the default:** two bodies. The trailer has four corner station-keeping pods and the cab has its own drive.
+**Built-in gear:** the coupling plate is a docking bay, which already holds a ship as a child.
+
+Design the Fifth Wheel, a two-person Lightsail Express hauler whose cab is a ship of its own. The long cargo trailer is a spine with rectangular containers clamped along it, ending at the front in a broad coupling plate. Docked on that plate is the cab: a compact, rounded, complete small ship with its own warm lit window, a sun-visor slab, its own drive tucked under its rear, and two small machine-gun turrets on its roof, locked down by heavy clamps. The trailer carries four small station-keeping thruster pods at its corners and a hazard beacon on its tail. A personal pennant hangs beside the cab door. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Tailgate · Stern Chaser
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Stern Chaser|Stern Chaser]] ("a hauler that never drops its cargo and fights with it"). Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it keeps driving and lets pursuers fly into its rear guns.
+**Breaks the default:** its guns face aft. The drives hang under the cab like a truck's fuel tanks, so the stern is free for the guns.
+**Built-in gear:** none.
+
+Design the Tailgate, a two-person Lightsail Express armed hauler that keeps driving and fights whoever follows it. The cab is at the front, with a warm lit window, a sun-visor slab over the windscreen and a route tally painted under it. Behind it, the sealed box hold is locked to the spine by heavy clamps. Two machine-gun turrets sit on the rear corners of the box roof, both turned to point backward, visible past the dorsal edge. A thick bumper with a hitch plate wraps the stern below them. The main drives are two fat pods slung low under the cab like a truck's fuel tanks. A painted sign on the rear of the box reads "Mind the Gap". One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Alakrita
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Alakrita|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Riposte · Spinal Mount with Flywheel Sprinter (reworked One Pass)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Spinal Mount|Spinal Mount]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Flywheel Sprinter|Flywheel Sprinter]]: "one lance, then gone". Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it spins the flywheel up quietly, takes one lance shot, and dumps the stored spin to throw itself out of the fight. One Pass had speed and nothing to do with it. Riposte's speed is the exit from its one shot.
+**Breaks the default:** one gun that is the bow, one slim drive, and a flywheel drum as the widest part.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The hull is built around its lance, a heavy fixed gun on the narrowest arc, and around the flywheel, an AetherDrive. Both form the body's mass.
+
+Design the Riposte, a single-pilot Alakrita duelist built around one lance and one surge. One long, thick lance barrel runs the whole length of the body on the centreline, and its muzzle is the point of the bow. The narrow body is creased along the lance like fabric pleated around a rod. At the waist, a thick, wide flywheel drum wraps the body, fused to it and broader than any other part, crossed by gold inlay lines. The cockpit is a long, narrow canopy just ahead of the drum. Behind the drum, the body tapers to one single slim drive. Its only weapon is the lance. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Ewan Hart
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Ewan Hart|doctrine]] · register: whimsy turned up
+
+### Clean Sweep · Minesweeper
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Minesweeper|Minesweeper]] ("field clearance is harvest by another name"). Mode: Mass (a combine harvester). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it goes first, gathers a field, and clears the way for everyone behind it. It is slow by design and needs escorts.
+**Breaks the default:** the bow is a tool. The thrust sits inside four fenders, facing down and back like a tractor's wheels.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The harvester header forms the bow.
+
+Design the Clean Sweep, a two-person Ewan Hart minesweeper built like a combine harvester. Across its bow runs a broad harvester header: a wide, thick, rounded trough holding a slow reel of thick paddles, which gathers mines in and feeds them up a covered elevator into a heavy armoured bin on the back. The cab sits high behind the header, with a wide window and large round gauges. The power-unit housing is broad and squat. Four thrusters sit inside four big rounded fenders at its corners, facing down and back like a tractor's wheels. One small defensive mount sits on the cab roof beside a large round work lamp. A hand-painted "Fields Cleared" tally runs along the bin. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Lasso · Lariat
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Lariat|Lariat]]: one whip both catches loot and swats incoming fire. Mode: Function. Moonshot: the reel replaces a whole flank, which may unbalance a symmetric read.
+**Plays:** it fights to collect. The same snap of the whip defends it and gathers the spoils.
+**Breaks the default:** its main tool is a flank reel. It has one big drive bell and no forward gun.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The reel is built in as the camera-side "rear wheel" under a fender, not mounted on top. Ship Play Concepts' hull note calls the coil the largest feature, and guideline 14 is why it is the body's own wheel here.
+
+Design the Lasso, a two-person Ewan Hart work ship that snaps out a cable whip to catch loot and swat incoming fire. The cable reel is built into the flank facing the camera like a tractor's big rear wheel: a broad round drum under a rounded fender, wound with thick rubber-sheathed cable that feeds a short launch throat at the front of the fender, where a weighted grab head rests. A wide open cargo hopper sits behind the cab to take what the lasso brings in. The cab is a rounded tractor cab at the front with a wide window and round gauges. One big drive bell sits under the power-unit housing at the rear. A coil of spare rope hangs on a hook by the door. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Death Monkey Explosives
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Death Monkey Explosives|doctrine]] · register: reserved
+
+### Load Out · Minelayer
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Minelayer|Minelayer]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it lays a field across a route or behind its own retreat, then fights where the field shapes movement.
+**Breaks the default:** the stern belongs to the mines, so the drives sit on the flanks. Its one gun faces aft over the deck.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The mines are gear-built munitions on a launcher rail.
+
+Design the Load Out, a two-person Death Monkey Explosives minelayer that leaves its work behind it. A long, flat rear deck runs down the spine, with two rails carrying a queue of identical round mines that ends at a square armoured hatch in the stern, ringed by a thin cut line. The front of the ship is one hard-edged blackened slab with a narrow cockpit slit. The drives sit in two square housings on the flanks behind heavy braces. One small gun sits on a short square mount on the slab, facing aft over the mine deck. Sacrificial standoff plates on short struts ride ahead of the bow. A tally of fields laid is hand-painted along the deck rail. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Last Call · Fireship
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Fireship|Fireship]]. Mode: Function. Moonshot: a detachable capsule is a second volume.
+**Plays:** it sends an expendable hull, loaded to burst, into a formation. The pilot leaves in a capsule before it arrives, and the formation breaks even if nothing dies.
+**Breaks the default:** the whole hull is the weapon. One oversized drive and an ejecting cockpit.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The charge packs are warhead gear strapped on under bands, and the capsule is a docked escape body. Both sit inside the slab's outline.
+
+Design the Last Call, a single-pilot Death Monkey Explosives fireship: an expendable hull that is all charge, with a way out for its pilot. The body is a stripped, hard-edged blackened slab with four big square charge packs strapped along it under heavy steel bands, each with a pull handle and a thin cut line. At the bow, the cockpit is a small, separate armoured capsule seated in a socket, marked off by a bold cut line and two big ejection handles. One oversized drive fills the stern, far bigger than a hull this size needs. Its only weapon is itself. The ship's name is hand-painted large down the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Adrasteia
+
+[[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]] · register: serious
+
+### Afterimage · Heat Ferry
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Heat Ferry|Heat Ferry]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it loads heat into detachable carriers and lets them go as false trails, while the parent goes somewhere else, cold.
+**Breaks the default:** no visible drive and no visible gun. Its active parts are the carriers.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The carriers are gear-built bodies in release cradles.
+
+Design the Afterimage, a single-pilot Adrasteia heat ferry that loads its heat into detachable carriers and lets them go as false trails. Along its central dorsal ridge sit four cradles in a row, each holding a sealed, faceted thermal carrier the size of the cockpit, with a release catch and its own small faceted fin. The last cradle is empty, its catch open. The body is a low faceted wedge of broad shallow planes, every surface closed. The cockpit is a narrow faceted slit at the front of the ridge. Small thruster ports hide under the overhanging facet edges all around the rim, and the stern closes in one plain facet. One utility port sits flush in the leading edge. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Sol Dominion
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Sol Dominion|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Lien · Remora (reworked Remora)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Remora|Remora]] ("an inspection lock is a lawful remora"). Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it fires small lock units that clamp onto a contact's drive and safe it until the clerk arrives. It captures without destroying.
+**Breaks the default:** its weapons are cradled clamp units. Four drives sit in a cross at the stern.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The lock units are gear-built munitions.
+
+Design the Lien, a two-person Sol Dominion inspection cutter that clamps small lock units onto a ship's drive and holds it until the clerk arrives. Along the flank facing the camera, its straight spine carries a row of four square cradles, each holding a flat square lock unit with four clamp feet folded under it and a crimson jurisdiction seal on its back. The third cradle is empty. The bow is a narrow armoured face with an observation slit. A sealed evidence recorder sits on the spine behind the cockpit. One small point-defence mount sits in a square housing on the rear armour plane. Four square drive housings sit in a cross around the stern. Identical module bands repeat along the spine, and every cradle is numbered. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Writ · Interdictor
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Interdictor|Interdictor]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it pins a contact in place so the patrol can reach it, and it dies if its friends do not arrive.
+**Breaks the default:** the bow is a projector face, not a gun. Two long drive housings run along the lower flanks.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The projector forms the bow face. The pinning effect is a new system in Ship Play Concepts.
+
+Design the Writ, a single-pilot Sol Dominion interdictor that holds a contact in place until the patrol arrives. Its bow is a broad, flat, square projector face set square to the spine, a thick armoured frame around a recessed grid of emitter tiles. Behind it, the straight spine runs back through identical module bands. The cockpit is an observation slit across the top of the projector frame. Two point-defence mounts sit in square housings on the armour planes, one on each side. Two long, low drive housings run along the lower flanks to the stern. Square machine-readable code panels mark the frame, and one crimson stripe crosses the bow. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Cryonix
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Cryonix|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Cold Chain · Heat Tender
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Heat Tender|Heat Tender]] ("the cold chain made exact"). Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it couples to a hot ally and takes its heat, so a burst ship can fight again without cooling down.
+**Breaks the default:** a non-combat role. The emitter scales are larger than on any Cryonix fighter, and the boom is its working end.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The coupling boom is folded into the spine, and the cold reservoir is the core.
+
+Design the Cold Chain, a two-person Cryonix heat tender that couples to a hot ally and takes its heat. A thick insulated coupling boom lies folded along the spine, ending in a round docking collar with copper rings. Its piping runs back into the narrow waist, where a large protected cold reservoir forms the core of the ship. Four broad emitter scales lie folded flat around the core in two overlapping pairs, larger than on any Cryonix fighter, with thin painted heat-path bands running from the collar to the scales. The cockpit is a narrow canopy ahead of the waist. One small defensive mount sits on top of the core. A single compact drive ends the core. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Cetacean Navigators
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Cetacean Navigators|doctrine]] · register: whimsy turned up
+
+### Swell · Gravity Surfer
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Gravity Surfer|Gravity Surfer]]. Mode: Mass and face (a dolphin riding a bow wave). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it rides gravity waves and wells instead of burning against them, and it reaches places others cannot without heat.
+**Breaks the default:** little main drive. Its shape is a keel, trimmed by small fin thrusters along the rim.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The keel is hull.
+
+Design the Swell, a two-person Cetacean Navigators route ship that rides gravity waves instead of burning against them. Under its twin-lobed body lies one broad, thick, rounded keel plane, fused along its whole length, wider than the body and shaped like a surfboard, with flowing dotted route lines painted along it. The two pressure lobes sit on the keel like a dolphin's flanks, dotted with small amber-lit ports, and the dry cabin ridge rises between them with a low canopy and a friendly rounded brow at its front. Small fin thrusters sit along the keel's rim for trim, and the stern carries only one modest drive. One small point-defence mount sits on the cabin ridge. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Aya Collective
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Aya Collective|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Many Hands · Distributed Body
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Distributed Body|Distributed Body]] (no beautiful throat through which every useful thing must return). Mode: Function. Moonshot: two cockpits is unusual, and the model may merge them.
+**Plays:** no single hit can end it. Each lobe flies, fights and cools on its own, and either crew can take the helm.
+**Breaks the default:** thrust spread over four lobes, turrets on every lobe, and a cockpit at each end.
+**Built-in gear:** none.
+
+Design the Many Hands, a three-crew Aya Collective escort with no single place a hit can end it. Its body is four rounded cells grown as swollen lobes of one mass, front, rear, left and right around a low centre, joined by wide smooth fillets. Each lobe is complete in itself, with its own small point-defence turret on top, its own access hatch, its own short radiator plate and its own thruster pod at its outer end. There are two cockpits: a rounded canopy on the front lobe facing forward, and another on the rear lobe facing back. Patterned removable panels cover every lobe, and the left lobe is a newer replacement in a different block print. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Mend · Repair Drone
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Repair Drone|Repair Drone]] ("everyone comes home"). Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it keeps drones out working on allies' hulls during the fight, repairing without docking.
+**Breaks the default:** its tools are drones on rails. A ring of thruster ports circles its rounded stern.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The drones are gear-built and park on clamp rails.
+
+Design the Mend, a two-person Aya Collective repair tender whose crew works through drones. Along the flank facing the camera runs a rail beside a row of numbered access panels, and three small round repair drones are parked on it, each with two short jointed manipulator arms folded under it and a rubberized grip ring. A fourth parking spot on the rail is empty. A broad spare-parts rack sits on the back under a hinged cover, its panels in mixed block prints. The cockpit is a rounded cab at the front. One small point-defence turret sits on each shoulder. A ring of small thruster ports circles the rounded stern. A neatly riveted patch closes one panel. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Framgång and Odla Framgång
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Framgång and Odla Framgång|doctrine]] · register: high whimsy
+
+### Open House · Illuminator
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Illuminator|Illuminator]] ("chrome and a useless active sensor"). Mode: Terrestrial. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it pings everything nearby and lights up every ship in the zone, friend and enemy, starting with itself.
+**Breaks the default:** it has no real weapon. The roof is the sensor, and there is one rocket bell between the tailfins.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The dish is the trailer's whole roof, set into the body like a bowl and not raised on a pedestal.
+
+Design the Open House, a single-pilot Odla Framgång illuminator that pings everything nearby and lights up every ship around it, starting with itself. The body is a small mid-century travel trailer with rounded ends, two short swept tailfins and a picture-window band at the front as the cockpit. Its whole roof is one big, shallow, round sensor dish set into the top of the body like a bowl, with a starburst ornament at its centre and a ring of round stage lights around its rim. One slightly-too-deep adapter casing bulges under the dish's edge where the borrowed mechanism does not quite fit. A single rocket bell sits between the tailfins. A sign on the flank reads "Be Seen". One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Pirate Coalition
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Pirate Coalition|doctrine]] · register: wild and maximalist
+
+### Welcome Mat · Boarder
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Boarder|Boarder]]. The pirates want cargo, not death. Mode: Story. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it closes to contact, grapples, and puts a crew aboard to take the prize intact.
+**Breaks the default:** its "gun" is a boarding collar on the donor's old boom. The drive is offset, and the fenders and crew module are additions on the camera side.
+**Built-in gear:** none. Every addition is visibly bolted on, which is the faction's register.
+
+Design the Welcome Mat, a four-crew Pirate Coalition boarding ship built from a stolen Aeronautics Unlimited miner. The donor's compact excavator body is still recognisable, with chalk-white paint and stencilled bay numbers. Its drill head is gone: on the end of its boom sits a heavy boarding collar with a ring of clamp teeth and a hinged door. On the side facing the camera, thick rubber fenders are lashed along the flank, a grappling arm is folded beside them, and an extra crew module with a row of small round ports is welded on behind the cab. A replacement drive is bolted on offset at the stern on that side. The crew emblem, a waving-hand emoji, is painted three times. A teal crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Jumble Sale · Mixed Cloud
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Mixed Cloud|Mixed Cloud]], the novella's last doctrine. Mode: Story. Moonshot: four different drones may read as clutter.
+**Plays:** it carries mismatched stolen drones and retasks them mid-fight. Every option spends what kept another open.
+**Breaks the default:** a drone rack where the missile doors were, and two mismatched drives side by side.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The control mast is stolen controller gear.
+
+Design the Jumble Sale, a three-crew Pirate Coalition drone carrier built from a stolen Rossum & Douglas missile wedge, carrying drones that match nothing. The wedge's flat dorsal plane has been cut open into one long rack of cradles holding four small drones of visibly different makes: a round toy-like drone, a faceted dark scout, a boxy tug with a clamp pad and a stubby missile with folded wings. A tall stolen control mast is welded behind the cockpit. The original missile doors are welded shut. At the stern, two mismatched drives sit side by side, one big stolen bell and one small original. The crew emblem, a shopping-bag emoji, is painted three times. A yellow crew accent slashes across the wedge. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Megiddo
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Megiddo|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+### Sown · Picket Line (reworked Zera II and Many Seeds)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Picket Line|Picket Line]]. Mode: Mass (a pomegranate split along its seam). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it seeds a boundary with cold passive sensors and waits for the track. It detects far beyond its own sensors and emits nothing.
+**Breaks the default:** its payload is sensor seeds. Thruster ports sit in the seams between shells all around the hull.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The seeds are gear-built pickets in the inner hull.
+
+Design the Sown, a single-pilot Megiddo picket layer that seeds a boundary with cold passive sensors. Its nested outer shells part along one seam on top, like a pomegranate split open, showing rows of small round sensor seeds packed in the inner hull, each a cold canister with one dark lens. A few seed positions are empty. Heavy shutter frames stand open along the seam. The cockpit is a low shuttered canopy in the front shell. One small point-defence mount sits between the shells on each side. Small thruster ports sit in the seams between the shells all around the hull. Earth's constellations run in silver inlay across the closed shells. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## For the Operator
+
+These are readings this bench made so that it could be written. Overrule any of them.
+
+1. **Thrust is named where the concept needs it.** This amends Ship Design Language, which used to leave thrust out entirely. Your request to vary thrust layout and count is the authority for the change. You still place the final thrusters; the prompt only stops the default.
+2. **The global block's "guns in small turrets" phrase** pulls every hull toward turrets. Bench 3 overrides it per prompt with "fixed" mounts. If fixed batteries keep turning into turrets anyway, the fix is the global block: "guns on thick armoured mounts, fixed or turreted".
+3. **One novel concept was added to Ship Play Concepts:** Power Tender, the energy half of the Tender, for NiteLife. All other entries use concepts already in the catalogue.
+4. **Bulldog II takes your capacitor reading literally:** the capacitor is the chest. If even an integrated capacitor reads too prominent, the next cut is to shrink the chest and give the emitter more of the face.
+
+## Open Questions
+
+None. Built-in gear, the one design question this bench leans on, was ruled on 2026-10-05 (`hulls-carry-built-in-gear`). Its representation in hull data stays open, and no entry here depends on how it is answered.

Aetheria/Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 4.md

@@ -0,0 +1,624 @@
+---
+title: Ship Prompt Bench 4
+description: "A fourth bench of ship prompts, built for the demo cast: Pirates, Zhestokost, Lucent Media and Aeronautics Unlimited, plus the freelancers who share the region with the player. Each entry starts from a play concept that shows on the hull."
+---
+
+# Ship Prompt Bench 4
+
+> **Status: brainstorming bench, 2026-10-07.** Not canon and not adopted. [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3|Ship Prompt Bench 3]] stays as the record of round three, and its entries are referenced here, not repeated. Prompts here are the third block of the composition order in [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]]. Concepts come from [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts|Ship Play Concepts]], doctrines from [[Game Design/Faction Play|Faction Play]], and craft rules from guidelines 1 to 14 in [[Brainstorming/Faction Ship Concept Prompts|Faction Ship Concept Prompts]].
+
+This bench serves the demo. Its cast is four factions:
+
+- **The Pirates** are the one allied faction. They hire the player. The player is not a pirate and does not start in a Pirates hull.
+- **Zhestokost** is the antagonist and supplies the boss.
+- **Lucent Media** brings the spectacle.
+- **Aeronautics Unlimited** is the vanilla neutral.
+
+The demo needs at most one player-usable hull per cast faction, enough NPC role hulls (haulers, tenders, miners and so on) to sell each faction's play style, and the Zhestokost boss.
+
+**The structural gift.** The cast counters itself in a circle that the player can learn. Pirate speed demons beat Zhestokost's heavy, slow-tracking columns by crossing close, where the big guns cannot follow. AU's point-defence pickets beat Pirate raiders, because light guns that track fast are the one thing a speed demon cannot outrun. The player is hired by the Pirates, so the job teaches both halves: when to be fast and when to keep away from a picket.
+
+## Mechanics This Bench Leans On
+
+These landed on 2026-10-06. Every entry below is written against them.
+
+| Mechanic | What it means on a hull |
+| --- | --- |
+| **Per-gun tracking rates** | Light one-cell guns track fast and heavy guns track slowly. A hull that wants to hit crossers carries many small turrets; a hull that wants to hit hard carries a few big barrels and accepts what they cannot follow. |
+| **Evasion has two parts** | A change of vector (a jink), and line-of-sight angular velocity against the gun's tracking rate. Close, fast and crossing beats a slow gun. Far and straight loses to anything. |
+| **Mines are free-floating bodies** | Like loot, they drift where they are dropped. Only hostiles trigger them, and the blast is faction-blind: it hurts whoever is near, including the layer's friends. |
+| **Sim speed** | A slower setting makes fast fights readable. The set pieces below use it. |
+
+## How to Use This Bench
+
+- **Compose before rendering:** the global Aetheria block, then the faction block, then one prompt from here, each separated by a blank line. Freelancers compose with their own brand's faction block, not the cast's.
+- **Each entry starts from a concept.** It names its play concept, what the pilot does, and how the default silhouette is broken: thrust layout, weapon placement and arcs, or a non-weapon role (guideline 13). Several demo roles have no catalogue concept yet; those entries say so and link the doctrine instead.
+- **Tracking shows on the hull.** Light, fast-tracking guns are drawn as small single-barrel turrets on raised rings. Heavy, slow guns are drawn as long, thick barrels in fixed armoured casemates. The image model needs both stated, because the global block puts all guns "in small turrets".
+- **Thrust is named where the concept needs it** (Ship Design Language, amended). You still place the final thrusters.
+- **Built-in gear** is stated on every entry: what the role rests on, and how the prompt keeps it integrated and in proportion (guideline 14, ruling `hulls-carry-built-in-gear`).
+- **Drones, mines and munitions** are gear-built bodies, launched from and docked into bays and cradles.
+- **Modes, Safe bet and Moonshot** mean the same as in Bench 2 and Bench 3. A moonshot says what it risks.
+- **Facing shields are wanted** (ruling `aetheria-release:ruling:facing-shields-wanted`; operator: "I would do facing shields, did I rule that out?"). The mechanism, an arc on the shield item per fork 6's option (b), is not yet ruled, and no entry here assumes how it works. On the hull, a facing shield is a visible emitter or projector frame on one face only, with armour on the others. Armour stays the baseline everywhere.
+- **Player-usable** marks the one hull per cast faction meant for the player's hands. Everything else is an NPC role hull.
+- Every prompt ends with the standard frame clause.
+
+## The Demo Cast at a Glance
+
+| Faction | Player-usable | NPC role hulls | Boss | From earlier benches |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| Zhestokost | none | Oboz, Shchit, Glushitel, Inspektor | Nakovalnya | Batareya |
+| Lucent Media | Prime Time | Green Room, Key Light, B-Roll, Craft Services | — | Spin Cycle (headliner) |
+| Aeronautics Unlimited | Journeyman | Shepherd, Rake, Rockhound, Firecracker | — | Bison, Fenceline, Mule Team |
+| Pirate Coalition | Hand-Me-Down (earned later) | Dine and Dash, Lost and Found, Party Favors, Hamstring, Finders Keepers, Pit Stop | — | Welcome Mat, Jumble Sale |
+
+---
+
+## Zhestokost
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Zhestokost|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**From Bench 3, by reference:** [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3#Zhestokost|Batareya]], the two-sided broadside, is the column's line ship.
+
+**The column as a whole.** A column is Batareyas leashed to an Oboz, with a Shchit between the tender and the threat, a Glushitel to eat missiles, and an Inspektor out front to hail. Everything in it is heavy, slow-tracking and bright. That is the opening the Pirates' speed demons were built for, and the reason the column never chases far.
+
+### Oboz · Tender
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Tender|Tender]]. Oboz means "baggage train". Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it is the column's anchor. It carries the rounds, holds back, and lets low-magazine ships peel back, couple and rearm. It has `break_off_hull` high: it flees early, and the column follows it home.
+**Breaks the default:** unarmed. The magazines are the architecture, transfer collars sit on both flanks, and four squat drive pods sit under the belly so the stern can carry a towing lug.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The magazines are the hull's own mass, and the transfer collars are flush in the flanks.
+
+Design the Oboz, a three-crew Zhestokost ammunition tender, the slow, bright anchor a gun column falls back to. It carries no gun at all. Its body is a long, broad, stepped armoured box whose upper half is three huge magazine blocks in a row, each the size of a small ship, each fronted by large square oxide-red hatches with heavy hinge bars. Along the flank facing the camera, two thick round transfer collars are set flush into the hull at hull height, each ringed by guide lugs and a cream stencilled berth number, where gunships couple to rearm. Big open radiator vanes stand in a short row along the spine behind the cab. The cockpit is a narrow slit in a low armoured block at the bow. Four squat drive pods sit low under the belly at its corners, and a heavy towing lug juts from the stern plate. Large block-letter unit codes run down the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Shchit · Facing-Shield Escort
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Facing Shield|Facing Shield]] on an [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Armoured Prow|Armoured Prow]]. Shchit means "shield". Facing shields are wanted (`aetheria-release:ruling:facing-shields-wanted`); the arc mechanism is not yet ruled. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it parks its shield face between the Oboz and whatever threatens it, and turns to keep it there. Its guns are light and set back behind the projector frame. Counter: flank it, or come at it from two sides at once. Its corner blocks turn it fast, but not as fast as a crosser moves around it, and one face cannot point two ways.
+**Breaks the default:** the bow is a shield face, not a gun position. Four big turning blocks at the stern corners let it pivot on the spot, because pivoting is its whole job.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The projector frame forms the bow face, plainly directional, and the other faces carry armour.
+
+Design the Shchit, a two-crew Zhestokost escort that parks its shield face between its tender and any threat and keeps turning to hold it there. The bow is one broad, flat, square projector face set square to the spine, broader and taller than the rest of the hull: a thick stepped charcoal armour frame around a recessed grid of square emitter panels, with deep bolt rows along the frame and oxide-red power trunks feeding it from behind. The shield faces forward only. Every other face carries thick overlapping charcoal armour plates, and behind the frame the hull drops away sharply, thinning to a short, plain stern. Two small, squat turrets with short barrels sit low behind the frame on the shoulders, peering over it. The cockpit is a narrow armoured slit cut through the top of the frame. Four large square turning-thruster blocks sit at the four stern corners, facing sideways, and one modest drive sits between them. Chipped enamel scars the frame edges, and one bolted replacement emitter panel in a fresher shade sits in the grid. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Glushitel · Point-Defence Umbrella
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Point-Defence Umbrella|Point-Defence Umbrella]]. Glushitel means "damper". Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it flies inside the column and throws flak. Its shrapnel eats missiles and drones, so swarm and guided-missile users have to switch weapons. Its flak turrets are light and track fast, but they do little against a hull.
+**Breaks the default:** no forward gun. Six small flak turrets cover every face, and the largest feature is the shrapnel magazine.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The flak turrets are fitted light guns, and the magazine is a hatch.
+
+Design the Glushitel, a two-crew Zhestokost flak gunboat that throws a wall of shrapnel at anything fired at its column. Its body is a squat, broad stepped armoured box. Six small, squat flak turrets stand on raised armoured rings spread over every face: two on the bow shoulders, two at mid-hull on the dorsal edge, and two at the stern corners, each with one short, thick barrel, a flash hider and a small sensor block, each clearly able to turn fast. The centre of the back is one large shrapnel magazine under a broad square oxide-red hatch, with ammunition feed trunks running from it to every turret. The cockpit is a narrow slit in a low block at the bow. Soot rings every flak muzzle. One plain drive sits at the stern. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Inspektor · Interdiction Cutter
+
+**Concept:** none in the catalogue. The hail is the play. The nearest is [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Interdictor|Interdictor]], without the pin. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it runs out ahead of the column, matches your vector and hails: "Cut thrust and hold for inspection." It fires only if you keep thrusting during its grace. Its one gun is heavy and slow. An inspection is an order to stop moving and become an easy target, so complying is a bet on Zhestokost's word.
+**Breaks the default:** one heavy gun in a fixed casemate under the bow, and a signal-lamp mast as the largest feature. Four corner blocks let it hold station facing you.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The signal mast is built into the bow block, and the heavy gun's casemate is the chin.
+
+Design the Inspektor, a two-crew Zhestokost interdiction cutter that runs ahead of a column, hails a contact and orders it to cut thrust. On top of the bow block stands a thick, stepped signal mast fused to the hull, carrying a large square signal lamp behind a heavy armoured shutter and a broad flat hail antenna. Under the bow, one long, thick heavy gun sits in a fixed armoured casemate built into the chin, its barrel pointing straight forward along the spine. The body is a compact, low stepped box with deep seams. The cockpit is a narrow slit in the bow block under the mast. Four square station-keeping thruster blocks sit at the four hull corners, and one plain drive sits at the stern. Cream stencilled lettering on the bow plate reads "INSPEKTSIYA", and safety chevrons ring the casemate. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Nakovalnya · Fortress (the boss)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Armoured Prow|Armoured Prow]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Point-Defence Umbrella|Point-Defence Umbrella]] in one hull, fed by two [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Tender|Tenders]]. Nakovalnya means "anvil". Mode: Function. Moonshot: the hull carries two gun scales at once, and the model may blur the ring of small turrets into greeble.
+**Plays:** its heavy guns sit in fixed casemates on narrow forward arcs. They hit anything far away or flying straight, and cannot track a close crosser. A ring of one-cell flak turrets can. Two Obozes feed it through flank collars, so killing the tenders runs its magazines dry mid-fight. There are three ways in:
+1. **Strip.** Stay on its quarter, outside the heavy arcs, and take the flak ring apart at standoff range while it turns.
+2. **Dive.** Once one face of the ring is thin, cross close and fast under the heavy guns' tracking.
+3. **Starve.** Kill the two Obozes and wait for the casemates to go quiet.
+
+**Breaks the default:** the forward guns are casemates set into a prow, not a nose pair, and the defence is a ring. Six turning blocks around the hull turn a fortress slowly.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The casemates are the prow, and the two feed collars are the flanks. The flak ring is fitted light guns on standard rings.
+
+Design the Nakovalnya, an eight-crew Zhestokost fortress ship, a foundry anvil that learned to fly. Its body is a huge, low, broad stepped armoured mass, wider than it is long at the bow and tapering to a squared stern. Three long, thick heavy gun barrels project from fixed armoured casemates built into the stepped prow, all three pointing straight forward on narrow arcs. Around the hull's upper edge runs a ring of ten small, squat flak turrets on raised armoured rings, evenly spaced, each with one short barrel and a small sensor block, each clearly able to turn fast. On the flank facing the camera, a large round feed collar is set into the hull, ringed by guide lugs and an oxide-red ammunition door, where a tender couples. Magazine hatches the size of doors run in rows along the dorsal plating. The cockpit is a narrow armoured slit high on the prow. Six square turning-thruster blocks sit around the hull's edge, and two broad drives fill the stern. Large block-letter unit codes cover the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Lucent Media
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Lucent Media|doctrine]] · register: spectacle
+
+**From Bench 3, by reference:** [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3#Lucent Media|Spin Cycle]], the rotating battery, is the headliner.
+
+**The show as a whole.** One headliner duels while the Green Room holds and watches. Key Light paints the stage, B-Roll films, and Craft Services sits off-stage to cool and re-arm whoever just fought. Break the duel's form and the whole cast engages.
+
+### Green Room · Holding Ship
+
+**Concept:** none in the catalogue. It is the duel's audience: the holding ships in Faction Play's Lucent weakness. The nearest is [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Turret Platform|Turret Platform]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it holds position at range and watches the headliner duel. While the duel's form holds, it does nothing. Fire on it during a duel, bring a wingman, or let a third party in, and every holding ship engages at once.
+**Breaks the default:** its lasers sit stowed in rotary mounts along the shell edges, visibly not fighting. Four station-keeping pods hold its position.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The viewing gallery is the shell's top layer, a row of round ports along the brow.
+
+Design the Green Room, a three-crew Lucent Media holding ship that waits at the edge of a duel and watches. Its compact central chassis is wrapped in broad, overlapping curved shells, and its top shell is a long viewing gallery: a curved brow set with a row of small round opaque viewing ports, like seats in a box at a stadium. Four laser emitters sit stowed along the shell edges in thick knurled wheel-shaped rotary mounts, each turned flat against the hull, at rest. A camera-lens sensor dome sits at the front of the gallery, and a cluster of round stage lights is set into the brow. The cockpit is a domed canopy at the front of the chassis. Four small station-keeping thruster pods sit at the shell corners. The show title runs along the flank, with a small "ON AIR" panel dark beside the hatch. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Key Light · Illuminator
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Illuminator|Illuminator]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Spotter|Spotter]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it pings and paints you, so the headliner sees your gear and everyone in the zone sees you. The ping reveals Key Light too, so it is the first thing anyone with missiles kills.
+**Breaks the default:** the bow is a lighting rig. It has no real weapon, and a ventral drive leaves the stern free for a cooling fan.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The stage-light array forms the bow face, set into the shells, not raised on a stand.
+
+Design the Key Light, a single-pilot Lucent Media illuminator that floods a duel with active sensor light and paints the challenger for the camera. Its whole bow is one broad, shallow, curved lighting array set into the front shells like the face of a stage light, a grid of large round lamp apertures behind thick knurled bezels, framed by two short blade-shaped prongs. Behind the array, the compact chassis is wrapped in thick overlapping curved shells offset in steps. A tall, thick sensor fin rises from the back carrying a ring of small round stage lights. The cockpit is a domed canopy set behind the array. A ribbed cooling fan housing closes the stern, and the main drive sits in a single pod under the belly. A sponsor logo and the words "Key Light" run along the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### B-Roll · Spotter Drone
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Spotter|Spotter]], as Faction Play's camera drone that "asks to follow your next fight". Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it follows fights, yours included, and pings while it films. It is harmless and annoying, and one shot from a point-defence gun kills it. It is the bench's smallest body.
+**Breaks the default:** no pilot and no gun. It is a camera with thrusters.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The camera lens is the body's front face.
+
+Design the B-Roll, an uncrewed Lucent Media camera drone, a tiny flying camera that follows fights and films them. Its body is one small, round, compact chassis shaped like a professional film camera, wrapped in two thick overlapping curved shells in golden yellow and white. Its whole front face is one large camera lens in a thick knurled focus ring, with a small round red tally light above it. A short, thick antenna stub rises from the top shell beside a tiny stage light. Four small thruster pods sit on short rounded arms at its corners like a quadcopter's rotors, each fused to the body. There is no cockpit and no weapon. A sponsor sticker and a small serial plate sit on the side shell. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Craft Services · Heat and Power Tender
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Heat Tender|Heat Tender]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Power Tender|Power Tender]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it waits off-stage. Between bouts a headliner couples to it to dump heat and refill its capacitors, so a losing headliner has somewhere to break off to. It is the anchor of the Lucent break-off, and a raider who finds it ends the show early.
+**Breaks the default:** a non-combat role. Two coupling booms fold along its shells, and its thrust is spread across four swivelling pods.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The booms fold into channels in the shells, and the capacitor bank is the body's core.
+
+Design the Craft Services, a two-person Lucent Media support ship that cools and recharges duelling headliners between bouts. Its central chassis is a swollen capacitor core wrapped in thick overlapping curved shells. Two thick coupling booms lie folded forward along its upper shells, each set into its own channel, each ending in a round collar with a knurled ring. Broad ribbed cooling panels lie flat across its back between the booms, in pale lavender. The cockpit is a domed canopy at the front, with a cluster of round stage lights in the brow and a small "BACKSTAGE" panel beside it. Four small swivelling thruster pods sit at the corners of the chassis. A sponsor logo and a catering-style menu board graphic run along the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Prime Time · Burst and Break Off (player-usable)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Burst and Break Off|Burst and Break Off]]. Mode: Function. Moonshot: half-open radiator shells may read as damage.
+**Plays:** the player's Lucent hull, and the one that teaches the heat window. It opens with one heavy laser burst, then must open its big radiator shells and is bright, hot and weak for several seconds. A good pilot fires, rolls the radiators away from the enemy, breaks off to cool, and comes back. Every Lucent headliner the player fights has the same window, so flying it teaches you how to beat them.
+**Breaks the default:** one burst emitter on the spine. The radiators are the wing shells, and the drives sit in two ventral pods so the rear fins can flare.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The radiator shells are the hull's outer layer. The capacitor is the chassis.
+
+Design the Prime Time, a single-pilot Lucent Media burst striker that fires one heavy laser burst and then opens its radiators to cool. One heavy laser emitter runs along the centreline of its back, a thick barrel in a knurled wheel-shaped mount, pointing straight forward between two long blade-shaped prongs that sweep over the nose. Its outer shells are its radiators: two broad, thick, curved shells on each flank, layered like palm covers. On the side facing the camera, the upper shell is hinged half open, showing ribbed radiator fins beneath in pale lavender. The shells on the far side are closed. Small fins flare up and out at the rear. The cockpit is a domed canopy ahead of the emitter, beside a camera-lens sensor dome. Two drive pods sit under the belly. A show title and a sponsor logo run along the flank. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Aeronautics Unlimited
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Aeronautics Unlimited|doctrine]] · register: serious
+
+**From earlier benches, by reference:** Bison (first bench) is the hauler, and [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3#Aeronautics Unlimited|Fenceline and Mule Team]] (Bench 3) plant sentries and tow mass.
+
+**The worksite as a whole.** Rockhounds mine, Bisons haul, Shepherds keep pickets around both, Firecrackers wait for the first contact, and Rakes keep the lanes clear of mines. Threatened, the workers dump cargo and run; the escorts shoot at the first thing they see.
+
+### Shepherd · Point-Defence Picket
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Point-Defence Umbrella|Point-Defence Umbrella]]. Mode: Mass (a herding dog circling a flock). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it circles a worksite on a short leash with nothing but one-cell guns, all tracking fast. A Pirate speed demon wins against slow guns by crossing close, and a Shepherd is the ship that punishes that. Its guns do little to armour, so a heavy hull can simply push through it.
+**Breaks the default:** no forward gun and no heavy gun. Eight light turrets cover every face, and the drives sit in two side pods so it can hold an orbit.
+**Built-in gear:** none. Every turret is a fitted light gun on a standard ring.
+
+Design the Shepherd, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited point-defence picket that circles a worksite and shoots down anything fast that comes near it. Its body is a short, plain, rounded-rectangular hull. Eight small turrets on raised rings are spread evenly over its faces: two on the bow, two on each flank edge and two at the stern, each a compact boxy turret with one short light barrel and a small round sensor aperture, each clearly able to turn fast. There is no larger gun. A short survey mast with a tracking dish rises from the middle of the back. The cab is a rounded-rectangle block at the front with a wide, low window. Two drive pods sit on short stubs at mid-flank. Stencilled turret numbers sit beside every ring, and ochre safety panels mark the lifting points. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Rake · Minesweeper
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Minesweeper|Minesweeper]]. Mode: Function (a farm rake made into a sweep). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it keeps worksite lanes clear. Mines drift free and only hostiles trigger them, so a Rake sets off Pirate mines on purpose at the end of its comb, where the blast is far from the cab. It is slow and needs the Shepherds around it.
+**Breaks the default:** the bow is a tool. Two drives sit far back on the flanks, behind the comb's blast shadow.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The sweep comb forms the bow. Its tines are replaceable armour, and two spare tines are racked on the deck.
+
+Design the Rake, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited minesweeper that clears drifting mines from worksite lanes by setting them off at a distance. Its bow is one broad sweep comb, wider than the hull: a thick armoured bar carrying a row of long, heavy, blunt tines that point straight forward, each tine a replaceable armoured rod with a stencilled number. Two of the tines are newer and a fresher white than the rest. Behind the comb, a thick blast plate stands between the comb and the cab. The cab is a rounded-rectangle block with a narrow, low window behind the blast plate. Two spare tines lie in clamp racks on the dorsal deck. Two drive pods sit far back on the lower flanks. One small turret sits on the cab roof. Ochre safety panels band the comb bar, and soot stains the tine tips. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Rockhound · Miner
+
+**Concept:** none in the catalogue; a miner is a worker, not a fighter. It carries the AU hauler quirk from [[Game Design/Faction Play#Aeronautics Unlimited|Faction Play]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it grinds ore from rock. When a hostile appears, it opens its belly doors, drops its ore as loot and runs for the station. The ore is what the Pirates hire the player to collect.
+**Breaks the default:** no gun at all. The bow is a cutting head, and the drives are four short pods angled down at the corners so it can hold against a rock face.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The cutting head is the bow, and the ore bin with its dump doors is the belly.
+
+Design the Rockhound, a two-person Aeronautics Unlimited miner that grinds ore from rock and drops its load to run when anything hostile appears. Its bow is one broad cylindrical cutting drum set across the front, studded with short blunt cutting teeth, held in a thick armoured cradle. Behind it, a covered conveyor runs up into a large rounded-rectangle ore bin that makes up most of the body, with two wide hinged dump doors along its belly, shown slightly open with a little ore spilling out. The cab is a compact block above the cutting drum with a wide, low window and a short survey mast. Four short drive pods sit at the corners, angled down and back. It carries no weapon. Pale mineral dust packs every crease, and abrasion scuffs the lower edges. Stencilled bay numbers mark the ore bin. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Firecracker · Swarm Boat
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Swarm Boat|Swarm Boat]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it is the AU escort that fires dumbfire Leonid swarms at the first contact it sees, decoys included. It empties fast on the wrong target. Give it something else to shoot first, and dodge its swarms by moving across their line of fire rather than away from them. A Glushitel's flak eats its swarms whole.
+**Breaks the default:** the whole dorsal surface is a launcher, and the drives sit in two pods under the launcher block.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The launcher block is fitted swarm gear in numbered cells.
+
+Design the Firecracker, a single-pilot Aeronautics Unlimited swarm escort that fires a dense cloud of small dumbfire rockets at the first contact it sees. Its back is one broad, flat-topped launcher block, a grid of six rows of small round launch tubes, each closed by a thin square cover, angled slightly upward toward the bow. A few covers in the front row are missing, the tubes empty and sooted. The block sits on a short, plain, rounded-rectangle hull. The cab is a compact block at the front with a wide, low window and a short survey mast. Two drive pods sit under the launcher block at the rear. One small turret sits on the cab roof. Stencilled reload numbers run along the block's edge, and ochre hazard panels border it. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Journeyman · Turret Platform (player-usable)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Turret Platform|Turret Platform]]. Mode: Mass (a well-packed mule). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** the player's AU hull: honest and forgiving. Two light turrets fire in every direction, so the pilot manages position and range rather than heading. A small hold and one tool socket let it do a little of every job. It does nothing best, and it fails at nothing.
+**Breaks the default:** no forward-fixed gun. Two turrets on the shoulders, and four corner thruster pods for forgiving, even handling.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The tool socket takes whatever the job needs.
+
+Design the Journeyman, a single-pilot Aeronautics Unlimited all-rounder, the ship a new contractor learns on and never quite sells. Its body is a compact, balanced rounded-rectangular hull. Two small turrets sit on raised rings on its shoulders, each with one light barrel, each clearly able to turn all the way round. Behind them, a short cargo bay sits under two hinged doors with stencilled bay numbers. At the bow, under the cab, a square tool socket with a bare aluminium clamp ring is ready for a mining head, a grab or a sensor. The cab is a rounded-rectangle block with a wide, low window and a short survey mast. Four short thruster pods sit at the four corners, fused to the hull. One replaced panel on the flank is a slightly fresher chalk white, and a small "Hours: 4,180" service sticker sits beside the hatch. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Pirate Coalition
+
+[[Game Design/Faction Play#Pirate Coalition|doctrine]] · register: wild and maximalist
+
+**From Bench 3, by reference:** [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3#Pirate Coalition|Welcome Mat and Jumble Sale]], the boarder and the mixed-cloud carrier.
+
+**The crews as a whole.** Every Pirate hull is a stolen donor with additions on the camera side, primer, one crew accent colour and the crew's emoji painted three times. Pirates want cargo, not death. They take it fast and leave fights they are losing. Their speed demons beat the Zhestokost column; AU's Shepherds beat them.
+
+### Dine and Dash · Speed Demon
+
+**Concept:** none in the catalogue; this is the poster child for the angular-velocity term in evasion. The nearest is [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Forward-Fixed Fighter|Forward-Fixed Fighter]], here turned sideways. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it has no armour and huge lateral thrust. It crosses close and jinks, so heavy guns cannot track it and nothing gets a straight shot. It eats Zhestokost columns alive and dies to Shepherds.
+**Breaks the default:** the largest features are two lateral thruster banks, not drives. Its guns are two light turrets that can track while it slides.
+**Built-in gear:** none. Every addition is bolted on.
+
+Design the Dine and Dash, a single-pilot Pirate Coalition speed demon built from a stolen Alakrita racer, stripped of every gram that was not thrust. The donor's long, narrow, knife-pleated ivory body is still recognisable, with patches of wine-red lacquer, but its armour plates are gone, leaving bare frames and exposed cable runs clamped along the hull. On each flank, a huge bank of four lateral thruster nozzles is bolted on, pointing straight sideways, each bank bigger than the cockpit, the one on the camera side braced with welded struts. Two small light turrets on improvised mounts sit on the dorsal ridge. The original slim drive row remains at the stern. The cockpit is the donor's long, narrow canopy. The crew emblem, a running-figure emoji, is painted three times. A bright orange crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Lost and Found · Q-Ship
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Q-Ship|Q-Ship]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#False Distress|False Distress]]. Mode: Story. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it sits as distress bait with a freighter's transponder and a gunship's heat. When a responder commits, the container doors drop and the guns come out. Its tell is the one Faction Play names: the transponder does not match the heat.
+**Breaks the default:** its guns are hidden in the cargo. The donor's drives stay where a freighter's would be, because looking ordinary is the weapon.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The hidden guns are stolen fitted gear behind cut-down container doors.
+
+Design the Lost and Found, a three-crew Pirate Coalition Q-ship built from a stolen Lightsail Express hauler, dressed to look like a freighter in trouble. The donor's cab and long cargo spine are still recognisable, in faded fleet blue with vermilion route stripes, and the containers are still clamped to the spine. On the side facing the camera, the front of one container has been cut into a hinged door, shown dropped open to expose two heavy gun barrels on an improvised mount inside. A scorch mark across the cab is painted on, and a rust-red dye streak runs from a vent like a leak. An extra reactor housing in gray primer bulges behind the cab where no freighter needs one. A distress beacon is welded to the cab roof. The crew emblem, a teddy-bear emoji, is painted three times. A purple crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Party Favors · Minelayer
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Minelayer|Minelayer]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Stern Chaser|Stern Chaser]]. Mode: Story. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it runs, strewing mines behind it. Only hostiles trigger them, so pirates fly through their own fields and pursuers do not. The blast is faction-blind, so a pirate who lingers next to a mine a pursuer triggers pays for it too.
+**Breaks the default:** the stern belongs to the mine chute, so the drives are bolted on the flanks.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The mines are gear-built munitions in a stolen ore hopper.
+
+Design the Party Favors, a two-crew Pirate Coalition minelayer built from a stolen Aeronautics Unlimited ore hauler, strewing mines behind it as it runs. The donor's plain rounded-rectangle body is still recognisable, with chalk-white paint and stencilled bay numbers. Its ore hopper on the back is now full of round mines, each painted by the crew with bright confetti dots, feeding down into the old ore chute, which now ends in a square hatch at the stern. One mine sits half out of the hatch. Its original stern drive is gone: two mismatched replacement drives are bolted onto the flanks, the one on the camera side larger and braced with welded struts. One small turret on an improvised mount faces aft over the hopper. The crew emblem, a party-popper emoji, is painted three times. A red crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Hamstring · Disabler
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Disabler|Disabler]], with `target_priority` drives. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it reads your drives from range, shoots them, and waits for you to stop. Then the crew collects. Protect your drives, or kill it before it finishes reading you.
+**Breaks the default:** one long, light gun along the spine, and the donor's sensor ear as the largest feature. No nose pair.
+**Built-in gear:** the donor's own sensor dish, kept as the body's mass. The gun is bolted on.
+
+Design the Hamstring, a two-crew Pirate Coalition drive sniper built from a stolen Finch Cybernetics survey ship. The donor's smooth, tapered pearl-white body is still recognisable, with its broad shallow sensor dish recessed into the flank facing the camera like an ear, and a row of dark lens apertures along its brow. Along the spine, a long, thin, precise gun barrel on an improvised clamp mount runs the whole length of the hull, its muzzle well past the nose. Bolted salvage armour plates in gray primer cover the dish's lower edge, and exposed cable runs are clamped from the dish to the gun mount. The cockpit is the donor's narrow canopy. A tally of painted drive-nozzle silhouettes runs along the flank. The crew emblem, a scissors emoji, is painted three times. A cyan crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Finders Keepers · Salvager
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Salvager|Salvager]]. Mode: Mass (a vacuum cleaner with teeth). Safe bet.
+**Plays:** it tractors jettisoned cargo. When loot drops, it goes for the loot and the fight stops for it. A player can use that: drop something and the collector turns away.
+**Breaks the default:** the bow is a cargo maw with a tractor emitter, and it has no forward gun.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The tractor and the maw are bolted on.
+
+Design the Finders Keepers, a three-crew Pirate Coalition collector built from a stolen Ewan Hart farm hauler, which tractors in loose cargo the moment it drops. The donor's tractor proportions are still recognisable, in faded harvest gold with deep green on the cab, its big rounded fenders and round gauges intact. Its front implement is gone: a wide, open cargo maw is welded across the bow in gray primer, with a broad round tractor emitter mounted above it and two short sorting arms folded at its edges. A canvas net is lashed over the open rear deck, bulging with mismatched crates. One small turret on an improvised mount sits on the cab roof. Exposed cable runs are clamped from the emitter back to the power housing. The crew emblem, a magnet emoji, is painted three times. An electric blue crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Pit Stop · Hidden Tender
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Tender|Tender]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Playing Dead|Playing Dead]]. Mode: Story. Moonshot: the debris camouflage may break the solid silhouette.
+**Plays:** it lies cold in a debris field, where crews come to rearm, repair and offload. Find it and you find where the raiders go home.
+**Breaks the default:** it does not fly in fights at all. The donor is a stolen Zhestokost tender, so the Pirates' depot is the column's own anchor.
+**Built-in gear:** the donor's magazines and transfer collars, kept. The camouflage is lashed on.
+
+Design the Pit Stop, a four-crew Pirate Coalition hidden tender built from a stolen Zhestokost ammunition tender, lying cold among wreckage. The donor's long, stepped armoured body is still recognisable, in charcoal with oxide-red magazine hatches, but its unit codes are crossed out. Thick slabs of wreck plating and bent hull fragments are lashed across its back and flank with heavy cable, so it reads as one more piece of debris, all of it fused into one solid mass. On the side facing the camera, one transfer collar has been cut open and refitted with a pirate docking clamp in gray primer. Its radiator vanes are folded flat, and its port lights are dark. A crude hand-painted sign above the collar reads "Open". The crew emblem, a wrench emoji, is painted three times. A magenta crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Hand-Me-Down · Raider (player-usable, earned later)
+
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Stern Chaser|Stern Chaser]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Turret Platform|Turret Platform]]: a raider that can run and still shoot. Mode: Story. Safe bet.
+**Plays:** the player is not a pirate and does not start in a Pirates hull. After enough jobs, a crew hands over a scuffed Second Owner raider, someone else's emoji still on it. It is fast and light, with a rear gun for leaving.
+**Breaks the default:** its donor is a truck cab with no trailer. One turret faces aft, and two mismatched drives hang under the cab.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The previous crew bolted everything on, and some of it is half removed.
+
+Design the Hand-Me-Down, a single-pilot Pirate Coalition raider built from a stolen Lightsail Express truck cab cut free of its trailer and handed down through two crews. The donor's compact rounded cab is still recognisable, in faded fleet blue with a vermilion route stripe, its warm lit window and sun-visor slab intact. Behind the cab, the trailer coupling has been cut off and capped with a welded plate in gray primer. One small turret on an improvised mount sits on the capped plate, turned to point backward. One light gun is bolted under the visor. Two mismatched drives hang low under the cab, one stolen bell and one original pod. On the side facing the camera, the previous crew's emblem, a thumbs-up emoji, is painted twice and half covered by a fresh rectangle of primer, left blank. Its teal accent has been roughly sanded back. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+---
+
+## Freelancers and Passers-By
+
+Operator, 2026-10-07: "It would feel strange if the player is the only freelancer."
+
+These are independents from the other catalog factions who appear in the demo region and do jobs like the player's. Each flies its own brand's hull and composes with that brand's faction block. Six of them get full prompts; the rest are compact riffs.
+
+**Design note: where do freelancers live in faction play?** Today every ship belongs to a faction, and [[Game Design/Faction Play#Fork: Inter-Faction Relations|Faction Play's relations fork]] decides who shoots whom between factions. A freelancer flies a brand without serving its flag. Should freelancers carry an "independent" allegiance with its own row in the relations table, should they keep their brand's faction and take contract roles that override it for a job, or something else? This bench assumes no answer. It is an open question, not a decision.
+
+### Tattletale · Finch Cybernetics
+
+**Job:** bounty hunter and tracker. **Hook:** it shadows you and sells your track to whoever pays, so a Zhestokost column or a Pirate crew knows where you are. Break its tail by going cold, or pay it more.
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Spotter|Spotter]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Breaks the default:** the sensor ear is the largest feature, and the gun is one small flush aperture. Fine ports along the flanks let it hold a tail without a big drive.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The sensor dish is set into the flank as the body's own surface.
+
+Design the Tattletale, a single-pilot Finch Cybernetics tracker that follows a ship at a distance and sells its position to whoever pays. One broad, shallow sensor dish is recessed into the flank facing the camera like an ear, larger than any other feature, ringed by a short row of celadon-green indicator dots. A second, smaller dish sits recessed in the far flank, its rim just visible past the dorsal line. The body is one smooth, continuous tapered form with hairline seams. A row of dark round lens apertures runs along the brow. The cockpit is a narrow tapered canopy at the nose. One small low-signature weapon aperture sits flush under the nose. Rows of fine manoeuvring ports run along both flanks. A small gray technician label reads "Track Services, Billed by the Minute". One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Overnight · Lightsail Express
+
+**Job:** courier. **Hook:** it never drops cargo, so threatening it gets nothing. It can be escorted for pay or robbed by force, and the Pirates will offer both jobs in the same week.
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Stern Chaser|Stern Chaser]]: a courier that runs and shoots back. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Breaks the default:** a single sealed pod in place of a trailer, its gun facing aft, and drives slung under the cab.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The sealed courier pod is clamped flush into the spine and cannot be jettisoned.
+
+Design the Overnight, a single-pilot Lightsail Express courier that carries one sealed parcel pod and will not let go of it. The cab is a compact rounded block at the front with a warm lit window, a sun-visor slab over the windscreen, and a personal pennant beside the door. Behind it, a short spine carries one sealed, rounded cargo pod locked down by four heavy clamps, with a bold vermilion "Next Day" stencil and a row of inspection stickers. One small machine-gun turret sits on the rear of the pod, turned to point backward. Two fat drive pods are slung low under the cab like a truck's fuel tanks. Polished handholds run along the cab, and a delivery tally is painted under the window. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Odd Job · Ewan Hart
+
+**Job:** salvage tug. **Hook:** it races you to wrecks and dropped loot, competing for the same floating bodies. When an AU hauler dumps ore, the player, a Finders Keepers and an Odd Job all go for the same cloud.
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Salvager|Salvager]] and [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Tug|Tug]]. Mode: Mass (a farm tractor with a front loader). Safe bet.
+**Breaks the default:** the bow is a loader bucket and a grab arm. The thrust sits inside four fenders, facing down and back.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The loader bucket forms the bow.
+
+Design the Odd Job, a single-pilot Ewan Hart salvage tug that races everyone else to wrecks and loose cargo. Its bow is one broad, deep front-loader bucket fused to the hull on two thick hydraulic arms, its lip worn bright. A folding grab arm lies along the flank facing the camera, ending in a heavy three-fingered claw. A heavy tow hitch sits at the stern. The cab is a rounded tractor cab with a wide window and large round gauges. Four thrusters sit inside four big rounded fenders at its corners, facing down and back like a tractor's wheels. A canvas feed sack and a coil of tow cable are strapped to the rear deck. A hand-painted sign on the cab door reads "No Job Too Odd". One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Second Opinion · Rossum & Douglas
+
+**Job:** missile-boat mercenary. **Hook:** it keeps its distance and backs away from anyone who closes. Hired against you, it is a slow drizzle from range that a speed demon can run down. Hired by you, it is useless against a Glushitel.
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Arsenal Barge|Arsenal Barge]], in the faction's stand-off doctrine. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Breaks the default:** no gun at the nose. The weapon is a field of flush missile hatches, and one wide slot drive runs across the rear face.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The hatches are fitted launch cells.
+
+Design the Second Opinion, a single-pilot Rossum & Douglas missile mercenary that fights only from range. It is the familiar flying wedge, slightly longer than standard. Its broad, flat dorsal plane is covered by a grid of twelve identical square missile hatches set flush into the surface, each with a small stencilled number. The blunt nose is plain, with a small recessed square cockpit window. One wide slot drive runs across the whole rear face. One small defensive mount sits flush on the rear edge. A model number, a modest corporate logo and a small label reading "Independent Contractor Edition" sit beside the cockpit. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Controlled Demolition · Death Monkey Explosives
+
+**Job:** demolition contractor. **Hook:** it clears minefields by blowing them up, loudly. Mines are faction-blind, so anyone near the field when it works shares the bill. AU hires it when the Rakes are too slow, and it does not care whose mines they were.
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Minesweeper|Minesweeper]], done by detonation. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Breaks the default:** the weapon is a rack of small charge drones on the back. Drives sit on the flanks behind heavy braces, away from the blast face.
+**Built-in gear:** none. The charge drones are gear-built munitions on a launch rail.
+
+Design the Controlled Demolition, a two-person Death Monkey Explosives demolition contractor that clears minefields by setting them off. A long launch rail runs down its back, carrying a row of six small charge drones, each a squat blackened box with an acid-yellow cut line and a short antenna, ready to fly into a minefield and detonate. The front of the ship is one hard-edged blackened slab with a narrow cockpit slit. Sacrificial standoff plates on short struts ride ahead of the bow. The drives sit in two square housings on the flanks behind heavy braces. A thick blast-shutter visor is folded up over the cockpit slit. Hand-painted white lettering on the flank reads the ship's name, a lyric fragment and a tally of fields cleared. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Ghost Fare · Adrasteia
+
+**Job:** cold-running smuggler. **Hook:** it crosses the region dark and never answers a hail. An Inspektor cannot find it, because Zhestokost columns hunt by heat. A Key Light ping can, and Lucent will put it on air.
+**Concept:** [[Game Design/Ship Play Concepts#Quiet Approach|Quiet Approach]]. Mode: Function. Safe bet.
+**Breaks the default:** no visible drive and no visible gun. The hold is the body.
+**Built-in gear:** yes. The smuggling hold is tucked under the main facets, and its seam is the asymmetric facet.
+
+Design the Ghost Fare, a single-pilot Adrasteia smuggler that crosses dangerous space cold and dark with a hidden hold. Its body is a low faceted wedge of broad shallow planes, every surface closed. On the side facing the camera, one broad facet is cut differently from its mirror: it is the hinged lid of a flush smuggling hold, its seam barely visible. The cockpit is a narrow faceted slit at the front of the dorsal ridge. Small thruster ports hide under the overhanging facet edges all around the rim, and the stern closes in one plain facet. One utility port sits flush in the leading edge. One tiny friendly smiley face is stencilled beside the hatch. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Tow & Charge · NiteLife Energy
+
+**Job:** roadside power tender for hire. **Hook:** it recharges anyone who pays, including Lucent headliners between bouts and Pirate raiders after a job. Finding one mid-fight is a resupply, and killing one strands everyone who was counting on it. Hull basis: Bench 3's [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3#NiteLife Energy|Jump Start]], with a tow hitch and a meter.
+
+### Ringer · Alakrita
+
+**Job:** professional duellist. **Hook:** Lucent sponsors hire Ringers to headline. A third party in a duel breaks its form, so a player can pay a Ringer to throw a duel, or to join one on purpose and turn the whole Green Room on the interloper. Hull basis: Bench 3's [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3#Alakrita|Riposte]] in a sponsor's livery.
+
+### Crossing Guard · Corriedales
+
+**Job:** budget point-defence escort for hire. **Hook:** two tiny wand-barrelled PD guns on a plump sheepdog mascot hull. It shoots down Firecracker swarms for you, and it runs dry fast. Cheap, cheerful and very visibly a Lucent family brand.
+
+### Last Mile · Ewan Hart
+
+**Job:** grocery runner to AU stations, because people need dinner. **Hook:** it is the softest target in the region and the one the AU escorts care least about. The Pirates will ask you to rob it, and the station will ask you to escort it.
+
+### Small World · rival freelancer (brand rolled per run)
+
+**Job:** the same jobs as yours. **Hook:** Nemesis-lite, in the Pirate crews' pattern: a named freelancer with one rolled quirk, whose hull brand comes from the run seed. It remembers what you did for the zone visit. It undercuts your contracts if you beat it, and turns up as a wingman if you spared it. Its personal mark stays the same whatever hull it flies.
+
+### Genuine Article · stranded freelancer (any brand)
+
+**Job:** none today; its drive is dead. **Hook:** its distress call looks exactly like Lost and Found's. The player has to read the tells. Lost and Found carries a freighter's transponder with a gunship's heat. The Genuine Article's transponder matches the hull you can see, and it is colder than it should be, because its reactor is out. Helping it pays in goodwill and a tip. Approaching a Q-ship the same way pays in gunfire.
+
+### Off the Clock · Zhestokost deserter
+
+**Job:** freelance gunnery. **Hook:** this one bends the brief, because the hull is from a cast faction, but the pilot is independent: a deserter from Faction Play's dock stories, flying a Batareya with its unit codes ground off. Columns fire on it on sight. It knows how a column thinks and will sell that knowledge.
+
+---
+
+## Cross-Faction Set Pieces
+
+Each arises from the doctrines and mechanics above. None is scripted.
+
+1. **The three-way belt fight.** A Zhestokost Inspektor hails an AU worksite for inspection. While the Shepherds hold their leash around the Rockhounds and the column comes up behind the Inspektor, a Pirate crew raids the Bisons, which dump ore and run. B-Roll arrives and films all of it, and its pings show everyone where everyone is. The player was hired for the ore.
+2. **Minefields as terrain.** A Party Favors strews a field across an AU lane as it flees. Rakes come to clear it, comb first. A Zhestokost column, which hunts by heat and does not read cold mines well, wanders in and pays for every one it triggers. A Controlled Demolition contractor offers to clear what is left, loudly, with the Rakes still in the lane.
+3. **Duel bait while a column approaches.** The player challenges a Lucent headliner and the Green Room holds. A Zhestokost column is inbound to inspect the duel ground. Win fast, or let the column arrive and break the duel's form, so that every holding ship turns on the interloper.
+4. **The anvil and the swarm.** A Pirate raider swarm dives on a Nakovalnya. Shown at slowed sim speed, the heavy casemates miss every crosser, and the flak ring takes them apart one by one. This is the demo's lesson that speed beats heavy guns and loses to light ones, shown in one shot.
+5. **Inspecting a Q-ship.** An Inspektor hails a Lost and Found sitting as distress bait. Its grace is running out and the Q-ship's container doors are still shut. The player can warn the crew that hired them, warn the inspector, or wait to see who fires first.
+
+---
+
+## Round 4: hypotheses under test
+
+Operator, 2026-10-08: "Rewrite Odd Job and Dine and Dash for another round, you should be testing new hypotheses with every prompt in order to refine the aesthetic. Don't expect to get it right first try."
+
+Each variant changes one thing, so its result can be attributed. The renders and their exact prompts are in `Renders/Bench 4/` (`Odd Job r4a`, `Odd Job r4b`, `Dine and Dash r4a`, `Dine and Dash r4b`), rendered with FLUX 3 at 4:3 and 2k on 2026-10-08. The global and faction blocks are unchanged from round 3. Observations are the agent's; the verdicts are the operator's.
+
+| Ship | Variant | Hypothesis | Variable changed | Agent observation | Operator verdict |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| Odd Job | r4a | Construction words pull the model to ground machinery; space-salvage words and "a spacecraft in vacuum; no wheels, no ground, no cab" make it a spacecraft. | Vocabulary, against round 3: bucket to capture cage, claw to grapple, tow hitch to docking collar, tractor cab to pressurised capsule, thrusters to reaction-control quads, plus the vacuum clause. | Partial. The wheels and the ground are gone, but the fender pods still read as wheel hubs and the body as a hovering armoured truck. | |
+| Odd Job | r4b | An explicit orbital-service-craft silhouette beats vocabulary alone. | Silhouette, against r4a: a squat hub, two long jointed manipulator arms forward, a capture cage between them, and RCS clusters at the corners. | Held. It reads as a spacecraft with no ground-vehicle residue. The palette drifted to mostly green. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r4a | Naming the thrust direction geometrically makes the lateral thrust show. | Thrust wording, against round 3: the nozzle mouths are perpendicular to the spine, and the camera-side mouths face the viewer. | Did not hold. The mouths still face forward, and the tail fin and wings grew. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r4b | A vacuum-hull clause removes aero cues, so the rule may belong in the global block. | One clause, against r4a: "no wings, no tail fins and no aerodynamic surfaces of any kind". | Mostly held. The tail fin is gone and the wings are stubby vanes, but the nozzles still face forward. | |
+
+**Readings for the next round** (agent, not verdicts):
+
+- **Silhouette beats vocabulary.** Odd Job turned into a spacecraft only when the prompt gave it an overall shape. The Ewan Hart block still says tractor proportions and fenders, so the faction block may be what keeps the r4a body truck-like. That is the next single variable to test.
+- **The no-aero clause works, and the global block works against it.** The global block says "every fin, blade and wing is a chunky rounded slab", which invites fins on every hull. Replacing that clause in the global block is a candidate change, and it needs its own test across several factions.
+- **Nozzle direction is not yet controlled.** Two wordings have both failed to turn the nozzles. The next hypotheses are to describe what the camera sees (open nozzle mouths as circles set flat into the flank), or to change the view for this hull.
+- **Unprompted turrets.** Both Odd Job renders grew small guns. The global block's "guns in small turrets on thick armoured mounts" probably supplies them. An unarmed hull may need to say so.
+
+### Odd Job II · Ewan Hart (pending the operator's verdict)
+
+The r4b variant, judged the stronger by the agent. It replaces the round-3 entry only if the operator agrees.
+
+Design the Odd Job, a single-pilot Ewan Hart salvage tug, a spacecraft in vacuum that races everyone else to wrecks and loose cargo; it has no wheels, no ground beneath it and no cab. Its silhouette is an orbital service craft: a squat, round-shouldered central hub, two long jointed manipulator arms reaching forward from its shoulders, a collapsible capture cage of heavy ribs folded between the arms at the bow, and a cluster of reaction-control thruster quads at every corner of the hub. Each manipulator arm ends in a heavy three-fingered grapple, its fingertips worn bright. A heavy docking collar for hauling wrecks sits at the stern. The cockpit is a rounded pressurised capsule set into the front of the hub with a wide window and large round gauges. The thruster quads sit inside four big rounded fenders, facing down and back. A canvas feed sack and a coil of hauling cable are strapped to the rear cargo frame. A hand-painted sign on the cockpit hatch reads "No Job Too Odd". One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+### Dine and Dash II · Speed Demon (pending the operator's verdict)
+
+The r4b variant, judged the stronger by the agent. It replaces the round-3 entry only if the operator agrees. The nozzle direction is still unsolved.
+
+Design the Dine and Dash, a single-pilot Pirate Coalition speed demon built from a stolen Alakrita racer, stripped of every gram that was not thrust. The donor's long, narrow, knife-pleated ivory body is still recognisable, with patches of wine-red lacquer, but its armour plates are gone, leaving bare frames and exposed cable runs clamped along the hull. On each flank, a huge cluster of four thruster nozzles is bolted on, each cluster bigger than the cockpit. The two clusters point left and right, their nozzle mouths perpendicular to the spine: the camera-side cluster's four open mouths face out sideways toward the viewer, and the far cluster's mouths face the opposite way. The camera-side cluster is braced with welded struts. Two small light turrets on improvised mounts sit on the dorsal ridge. The original slim drive row remains at the stern. The cockpit is the donor's long, narrow canopy. The crew emblem, a running-figure emoji, is painted three times. A bright orange crew accent slashes across donor and additions alike. It has no wings, no tail fins and no aerodynamic surfaces of any kind. One complete ship, centered with clear margin around it, three-quarter front view from slightly above showing the dorsal surface and one side; moderate lens; plain seamless light gray background; soft key light with gentle form shadows; matte finishes throughout.
+
+## Round 5: the blocks are fair game
+
+Operator, 2026-10-08: "You are way too strict with the prompting, feel free to mutilate those global and faction prompts in service of getting a better result."
+
+Operator verdict on Dine and Dash rounds 3 and 4: "The thruster packs on the D&D are quite silly." Round 5 drops the bolted-on nozzle packs and builds the lateral thrust into the hull.
+
+The variables in this round are large, and some renders change several things at once. The aim was a better image, not a clean experiment. Renders and exact prompts are in `Renders/Bench 4/` (`Odd Job r5a`, `Odd Job r5b`, `Dine and Dash r5c`, `Dine and Dash r5d`, `Key Light r5e`, `Key Light r5f`), rendered with FLUX 3 at 4:3 and 2k on 2026-10-08. Every render uses **G2**, the global block rewritten as a vacuum-hull doctrine. G2 says there are no wings, fins, vanes or streamlining. Thrust comes from nozzles and grilles on whichever faces of the hull need to push, each opening the way its exhaust leaves. The silhouette comes from the ship's job, and weapons appear only where the ship prompt names them. G2 drops the wear clause, which is left to the faction blocks, and it no longer repeats the frame clause. The full text is in each render's `.md`. Observations are the agent's.
+
+| Ship | Variant | Hypothesis | What changed | Agent observation | Operator verdict |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| Odd Job | r5a | Without tractor and fender language in the faction block and guns in the global block, the r4b silhouette loses its truck residue and turrets. | G2. The Ewan Hart block is rewritten with no tractor proportions, fenders, hitches or couplings, and gold is dominant with green as trim. The ship prompt says "It is unarmed", puts the RCS quads on stubby corner booms and adds a lamp-and-window face. | Held. A gold egg-shaped hub with a cheerful face, two grapple arms, a cage and RCS quads on booms. No fenders, turrets or truck read, and the palette stayed gold. | |
+| Odd Job | r5b | The faction block's mechanism language adds nothing, so a livery-only block is enough. | Against r5a, the Ewan Hart block is cut to one livery sentence. | Held as well as r5a, arguably better. A warm gold beetle with green trim and a lamp-eyes-and-grille face, unarmed. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r5c | Lateral thrust reads when it is a recessed band of flush slots in the flank and the camera looks straight at that flank. | G2. The packs become a band of flush thruster slots along both flanks, described from the camera ("like the gills of a shark"), with a near-side view slightly ahead of the beam. | Partial. The slot band reads as part of the hull, with no packs. A big swept wing grew back at the rear, though, and the Pirate block's grappling arm appeared. The racer donor still pulls aero shapes. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r5d | A hull that cannot read as a forward flyer, a flat disc with thrust grilles round its whole rim, makes lateral thrust part of the body. | G2. The Pirate block is cut to livery only. The donor cockpit is sunk into a flat skipping-stone disc of welded plate whose rim is one band of flush grilles, seen from a high three-quarter view. | Held for thrust. One welded disc with grille throats all round the rim, and no wings, fins or packs. The donor racer is lost apart from a nameplate, and it reads a little like a hovercraft. | |
+| Key Light | r5e | G2 removes fins across factions, even on Lucent Media. | G2. In the Lucent block, "liberties with vacuum engineering" becomes "still a vacuum hull" and the rear fins become shell lips. The ship prompt has a short sensor mast instead of a tall fin, and adds "no weapons" and "Spotless". | Fins gone. No tail fin, no wings and no turrets. The block's showroom-turntable simile became a literal turntable under the ship, though, and the paint is still weathered. | |
+| Key Light | r5f | Block order matters: with the ship prompt first, then the faction block, then the global block, the ship's own shape leads. | Against r5e, order only. | Better than r5e. No fins, a bigger two-row lamp array, stepped shells that read and a plain background. Still weathered, and the drive pod moved to the flank. | |
+
+**Block edits that look like they generalise.** These are candidates to promote into Ship Design Language after the operator's verdicts. Agent readings, not verdicts.
+
+- **Vacuum-hull doctrine in the global block.** It replaces "every fin, blade and wing is a chunky rounded slab". Fins disappeared on both Key Lights and on both Odd Jobs. It lost to a strong donor cue once (r5c's racer grew a wing), so a donor described as a racer may need its own "no wings" line.
+- **Weapons only where named.** Together with an explicit "unarmed" in the ship prompt, this removed turrets from all four unarmed renders. "Guns in small turrets" should leave the global block.
+- **Faction blocks shrink to livery and register.** r5b's one-sentence Ewan Hart livery did as well as the full block. Shape language in faction blocks (tractor proportions, fenders, a grappling arm, the gaming-mouse layout) leaks onto every hull. It belongs in ship prompts, or in a short optional list of motifs.
+- **Lateral thrust as flush grilles or slots in the hull,** never as bolted-on packs. Both Dine and Dash variants read this way. A sentence in G2 ("thrust from nozzles and grilles on whichever faces need to push") may be enough, as long as ship prompts name the faces.
+- **No similes that can become props.** "Sits like a sports car on a showroom turntable" rendered a turntable. Faction blocks should describe the ship, not a scene.
+- **Ship prompt first, blocks after.** One comparison (r5e against r5f) favoured this order. It needs a second faction before it is adopted.
+- **Wear.** Removing the wear clause from G2 did not make Lucent Media spotless, and neither did "Spotless" in the ship prompt. The model's scale-model look is what weathers the paint, so a clean faction needs to say so more strongly, for example "factory-fresh, unmarked paint".
+
+## Round 6: the agent's own lab, first pass
+
+Operator, 2026-10-08, after rounds 4 and 5: "Your judgment is good so far, why don't you iterate by yourself for a few passes. Try stuff, get creative, gather evidence, explore the space." Rounds 6 to 8 are the agent's; every verdict below is the agent's reading, and the operator column is left for her.
+
+Round 6 takes G2 out to four factions and three new ships. Every long prompt uses **G2.1**, which is G2 with four edits: thrusters are "part of the hull's own surface, never separate pods or packs bolted on"; the armour-plate clause goes (it is Zhestokost's, not everyone's); "rendered like a painted studio scale model" becomes "rendered as a crisp studio concept render"; and paint is "exactly as clean or as worn as its maker's description says; where no wear is named, it is factory-new". Faction blocks are cut to livery and register only. Long prompts run ship prompt first, then faction block, then G2.1, then the frame clause on its own. Renders and exact prompts are in `Renders/Bench 4/` (`Dine and Dash r6a`, `r6b`, `Oboz r6c`, `Shepherd r6d`, `Tattletale r6e`, `Party Favors r6f`), FLUX 3 at 4:3 and 2k.
+
+| Ship | Variant | Hypothesis | What changed | Agent observation | Operator verdict |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| Dine and Dash | r6a | The racer identity can come from markings and body grammar (needle body, knife-pleat creases, chequered nose, number roundel, "a vacuum racer that never flew in air"), not aero shapes. Lateral thrust as transverse tubes bored through the hull. | G2.1, livery-only Pirate block, ship first; racing livery as the donor's identity; three through-hull thrust tubes. | Racer recovered with no wings or fins: chequered nose, "07" roundels, needle body. The tubes became short cans pointing back along the flank, so thrust half-reads as add-on; a third turret appeared. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r6b | A strict side elevation shows lateral thrust, because the defining feature faces the camera. | Against r6a, the frame clause only. | Better on thrust: the three throats face the viewer and read as sideways. Still cans that stand proud of the flank. The profile loses volume. | |
+| Oboz | r6c | G2.1 and a paint-only Zhestokost block keep the foundry register on a column ship; ship-first holds on a second faction. | G2.1, livery-only Zhestokost block, ship first; radiator vanes cut; drive pods became bells "sunk into recesses". | Held. Charcoal, oxide-red hatches, block codes, unarmed, no fins. The magazines sit on the deck as crates rather than being the hull's mass, and the "sunk" bells project. | |
+| Shepherd | r6d | "Weapons only where named" still delivers a named eight-turret battery; flank thrust as flush grilles reads without pods. | G2.1, livery-only AU block, ship first; stub pods became flush flank grilles. | Held. Chalk white, slate blue, ochre, about eight ring turrets, flush flank grilles. The hull spread into a flat cross and reads slightly like a hover vehicle. | |
+| Tattletale | r6e | Clean factions render clean once the scale-model anchor is gone and the faction block says "factory-fresh, spotless, unmarked paint: no dirt, no chips, no scuffs, no weathering". | G2.1, livery-only Finch block with that clause, ship first. | Mostly held: the cleanest render of the bench, faint smudging only, and the ear dish is the largest feature. Two cylindrical drive pods appeared at the stern where no drive was named. | |
+| Party Favors | r6f | A short blunt prompt with no blocks at all is enough for a readable Pirate hull. | Everything: 83 words, no global or faction block. | Held, and the most readable hull of the round: chalk-white donor, a hopper heaped with confetti mines, primer, red slash, party-popper marks. Flank bells stand slightly proud. Heavily weathered unasked. | |
+
+**Observations.**
+
+- **Dine and Dash's identity lives in its livery.** Wings were never the racer; the chequer and the number roundel are. With them, the model drew a needle racer and did not grow a single fin. That is the first D&D render with both a racer read and no aero.
+- **"Recessed" and "sunk" do not survive.** Asked for tubes bored through the hull or bells sunk into recesses, the model draws cans and bells that stand proud (r6a, r6b, r6c, r6f). Thrust reads as part of the hull only when it is described as slots or grilles cut into a surface (r5c, r5d, r6d).
+- **Unnamed thrust defaults to stern pods,** even against the global "never pods" (r6e). The ship prompt has to place thrust, or the global has to say what unplaced thrust looks like.
+- **Paint-only faction blocks held on four factions** (Zhestokost, AU, Finch, Pirate). The register came from palette, finish and the ship prompt's shape.
+- **Clean paint moved.** The Tattletale is the first clean hull in four rounds. The Pirate and AU renders still weathered from their own blocks, so the global change did not strip wear from factions that ask for it.
+- **The short prompt was not worse.** Party Favors at 83 words read as well as any long prompt. The long blocks may matter less than the ship prompt's concept.
+
+**Block edits that look like they generalise** (evidence counts are renders and factions held on, and where they failed):
+
+- **Vacuum-hull doctrine (no wings, fins, vanes, streamlining).** Held on 10 renders across 6 factions (Ewan Hart, Lucent, Pirate, Zhestokost, AU, Finch). Failed once, r5c, with "racer" as the only donor cue; r6a and r6b fixed that by giving the racer its livery.
+- **Weapons only where named, plus "unarmed" or "no weapons".** Held on 7 unarmed or partly armed renders across 4 factions (Ewan Hart, Lucent, Zhestokost, Finch). One overshoot: r6a drew three turrets for two.
+- **Faction blocks shrink to livery and register.** Held on 6 renders across 5 factions (Ewan Hart r5b, Pirate r5d, r6a, r6b, Zhestokost, AU, Finch).
+- **Thrust as slots or grilles cut into a face, never pods or packs.** Held on 4 renders across 3 factions (Pirate r5c, r5d, AU r6d, partly Pirate r6b). Failed where the prompt said tubes, bells or "sunk" (r6a, r6c, r6f), and where thrust was not placed (r6e).
+- **Factory-new by default, wear only where the faction names it.** Held on 1 clean faction (Finch r6e); wear kept on 3 that ask for it (Pirate, AU, Zhestokost). Needs a Lucent test.
+- **Ship prompt first.** Used on 5 renders across 4 factions with no failure, but with no block-first comparison except r5e against r5f (Lucent).
+- **No similes that can become props.** One instance (r5e's turntable). Untested since.
+
+## Round 7: order, clean paint, short against long, and views
+
+Round 7 uses **G2.2**, which rewrites G2.1's thrust sentence: thrusters are "cut into the hull's own surface with their mouths flush, never cans, pods or packs that stand out from it; where the description places no thrust, the ship shows only small flush ports." One render (Shepherd r7b) keeps G2.1 so that it differs from r6d by order alone. Renders and exact prompts are in `Renders/Bench 4/` (`Key Light r7a`, `Shepherd r7b`, `Dine and Dash r7c`, `r7d`, `Ghost Fare r7e`, `Glushitel r7f`).
+
+| Ship | Variant | Hypothesis | What changed | Agent observation | Operator verdict |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| Key Light | r7a | A livery-only Lucent block with "factory-fresh, showroom-clean, unmarked paint" renders clean; does spectacle survive without the gaming-mouse layout? | G2.2; Lucent block cut to livery and register with the clean clause; ship first; belly pod became flush stern slots. | Partial. Less worn than r5e and r5f, still scuffed. No fins. Spectacle thinned: a boxy van with a lamp face, only the blade prongs left of the mouse. | |
+| Shepherd | r7b | Global-first order undoes what r6d gained from ship-first. | Against r6d, order only. | Chunkier mass, heavier wear, and a protruding round thruster can where r6d drew flush grilles. Ship-first honoured the thrust wording better. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r7c | The donor's own knife-pleat creases cut open into thruster slots make lateral thrust part of the racer. | G2.2; slots in every flank crease; "exactly two" turrets; beam-forward three-quarter view. | Best D&D yet for integration: chequered needle racer, flank ribbed with slots, no wings, fins or packs. The slots read as gills more than thrusters, wear swamps the livery, and three turrets again. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r7d | The short blunt prompt that worked for Party Favors works here. | 77 words, no blocks. | Failed on vacuum: a tall dorsal fin and rows of protruding bells, close to the rejected packs. Strongest racer read and the right turret count. | |
+| Ghost Fare | r7e | Material-first (opening on matte graphite and grazing light) gives a dark faction its look; G2.2 keeps an undriven stern clean. | G2.2; livery-only Adrasteia block with "factory-fresh, clean and cold"; material sentence before the ship's name; "one plain facet with no drive nozzle". | Material read strong: a low faceted graphite wedge. Two drive nozzles appeared at the stern anyway, the facet edges are scuffed silver, and the hold lid does not read. | |
+| Glushitel | r7f | A plan view shows a point-defence ship's coverage, its role, better than the default view. | G2.2; livery-only Zhestokost block; plan view from directly above. | Held strongly: six turrets at shoulders and corners, the red magazine at the centre with trunks to every turret. A role sheet to pair with a three-quarter view; it hides height. | |
+
+**Observations.**
+
+- **Ship-first has its second comparison.** Shepherd r6d against r7b agrees with Key Light r5e against r5f: with the ship prompt first, the ship's specific instructions (here the flush grilles) win more often. Block-first gave a sturdier mass once, so the order is a lever on specificity, not on quality overall.
+- **Short prompts are safe only for donors that do not pull aero.** Party Favors (an ore hauler) read at 83 words; Dine and Dash (a racer) grew a fin at 77. The long vacuum doctrine is what holds an aero-prone donor down. Short prompts keep their virtue for identity: both carried their concept more sharply than the long versions.
+- **Unplaced or denied stern thrust still renders nozzles** (r6e, r7e), whatever the global says. The model's default is strong enough that a ship prompt has to give the stern a different job, not merely deny it a drive.
+- **Clean paint is half solved.** Finch rendered clean in r6e; Lucent and Adrasteia did not in round 7. Both got "factory-fresh" in the faction block, after the ship prompt. The next test puts the clean statement at the very front.
+- **Faction shape motifs matter for Lucent.** Cutting the gaming-mouse layout made Key Light generic. Serious factions survived livery-only blocks; spectacle did not. The motifs need to live somewhere, probably in Lucent ship prompts as a short motif list.
+- **Plan views show coverage roles.** Glushitel's plan view is the clearest role read in the bench.
+- **Turret counts drift upward** on the racer (r6a, r7c). "Exactly two" did not help.
+
+**Block edits that look like they generalise** (updated):
+
+- **Vacuum-hull doctrine.** Held on 15 long-prompt renders across 7 factions (Ewan Hart, Lucent, Pirate, Zhestokost, AU, Finch, Adrasteia). Failed on r5c (racer cue alone) and on the short r7d, which left the doctrine out.
+- **Weapons only where named, with "unarmed" or "no weapons".** Held on 10 renders across 5 factions for unarmed hulls. Overshoots named counts on the racer (r6a, r7c).
+- **Faction blocks shrink to livery and register.** Held on 10 renders across 6 factions for serious, Pirate and Ewan Hart registers. Failed for Lucent spectacle (r7a): the shape motifs carry that register.
+- **Thrust as slots or grilles cut into a face.** Held on 6 renders across 4 factions (r5c, r5d, r6d, r7c, r7f, partly r6b). Failed when worded as tubes, bells or "sunk" (r6a, r6c, r6f), in a short prompt (r7d), and in global-first order (r7b).
+- **The stern needs a job.** Denying a drive did not remove one on 2 of 2 tries (r6e, r7e).
+- **Factory-new by default.** Clean on 1 of 3 clean factions (Finch held; Lucent and Adrasteia scuffed). Wear kept on all 4 factions that ask for it.
+- **Ship prompt first.** Two A/B pairs (Lucent, AU), both favouring it; used on 11 renders across 7 factions with no failure attributed to it.
+- **Plan view for coverage roles.** One render (Zhestokost). Candidate.
+- **Racer identity from livery, not aero.** Three renders (r6a, r6b, r7c), one ship. Candidate.
+
+## Round 8: G3, clean-first, motifs in the ship prompt, cute and cursed
+
+Every render uses **G3**, which is G2.1 with two edits: the hull "never flies through air or drives on ground", so wheels and tracks join the banned list, and thrust comes from "slots and grilles cut into" the faces that push, with "no thruster stands out from the hull as a can, bell, pod or pack". All six run ship first. Renders and exact prompts are in `Renders/Bench 4/` (`Key Light r8a`, `Dine and Dash r8b`, `Rake r8c`, `Finders Keepers r8d`, `Odd Job r8e`, `Oboz r8f`).
+
+| Ship | Variant | Hypothesis | What changed | Agent observation | Operator verdict |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| Key Light | r8a | Clean paint holds when the clean statement opens the prompt; spectacle returns when the gaming-mouse motifs live in the ship prompt. | G3; the prompt opens "Brand-new and showroom-clean, never flown…"; mouse layout moved into the ship prompt; Lucent block livery-only. | Best Key Light. Layered mouse shells, a lavender side rest, cobalt prongs, a lamp-grid face, no fins. The cleanest Lucent yet, with faint edge scuffs left. | |
+| Dine and Dash | r8b | Slots read as thrust when each is a throat with turning vanes and a sideways soot fan; counts hold when each turret is placed; a softer Pirate wear line keeps the livery legible. | G3; Pirate block ends "worn, but the donor's markings stay legible"; turrets placed behind the canopy and under the chin, "there are no others". | Best D&D. Chequered needle racer, "07" roundel, one long louvred band of sideways thrust cut into the flank, no wings, fins or packs, exactly two turrets. Plainer than a couture racer; a small can under the belly. | |
+| Rake | r8c | G3 and a livery-only AU block carry a tool-bow hull; thrust as grilles cut into the rear flanks. | G3; livery-only AU block; grilles in the rear lower flanks; flat stern with a collar. | Held for role: the numbered comb is the largest shape, with blast plate, cab turret and racked tines. Failed on thrust: the grilles grew into two pod-like sponsons. | |
+| Finders Keepers | r8d | "Cute and cursed" can be stated outright; "no wheels or tracks" keeps a farm donor off the ground. | G3; "Cute and cursed" and a toothed maw grin in the ship prompt. | Held on register: a round harvest-gold donor grinning with a toothed maw, crates under a net, magnet marks. No wheels, but spindly landing legs. The single-eye emitter does not read. | |
+| Odd Job | r8e | A beetle's mass and face turns Ewan Hart whimsy up further than r5b. | G3; ship first; beetle mass and face; RCS quads on "four short stubby legs". | Failed. A walking creature on four feet: a costume and a ground read. r5b stays the best Odd Job. | |
+| Oboz | r8f | An archetype metaphor that makes the cargo the hull ("built like a cast-iron bandolier" of magazine segments) integrates the magazines without becoming a prop. | G3; livery-only Zhestokost block; three magazine segments are the hull, hatches flush, grilles at the lower corners. | Held for integration: the segments are the hull and no bandolier prop appeared. Reads a little like an armoured rail wagon, and no thrust direction shows. | |
+
+**Observations.**
+
+- **Motifs belong to the ship prompt.** Lucent's register is its shapes. With the mouse layout in the ship prompt, Key Light got its spectacle back while the faction block stayed livery-only.
+- **Clean-first works better than clean-last.** Opening the prompt with the clean statement gave the cleanest Lucent of the bench. It is not spotless; one more lever is still needed.
+- **Dine and Dash is solved enough to show.** The identity is the livery, the speed is a band of sideways thrust cut into the hull, and nothing is bolted on.
+- **Limbs make creatures.** "Legs" on Odd Job and the landing legs on Finders Keepers both pulled a ground read, and the beetle turned into a costume. The register rule ("an animal may lend its mass and its face, not its costume") is right, and "legs" is the word that breaks it.
+- **Slots still grow into pods** when the slots sit on a low rear flank (Rake). On a long flank band (D&D) they held.
+- **Metaphors for mass are safe; metaphors for scenes are not.** "Built like a bandolier" shaped the hull without becoming a prop, where r5e's "on a showroom turntable" became one.
+- **Stating the register works for Pirates.** "Cute and cursed" in plain words landed on Finders Keepers.
+
+**Block edits that look like they generalise** (final count after round 8; renders, ships and factions held on, and failures):
+
+- **Vacuum-hull doctrine (no wings, fins, vanes or streamlining).** Held on 21 of 22 long-prompt renders, 10 ships, 7 factions (Ewan Hart, Lucent, Pirate, Zhestokost, AU, Finch, Adrasteia). The one failure is explained: r5c, a racer cue with no other identity, fixed by giving the racer its livery (r6a onward). The short r7d, which left the doctrine out, grew a fin. Ground cues are a separate problem: the round 8 wheels-and-tracks clause did not stop legs (r8d, r8e).
+- **Weapons only where named, with "unarmed" or "no weapons" stated.** Unarmed hulls stayed unarmed on 10 renders, 4 ships, 4 factions (Odd Job, Key Light, Oboz, Ghost Fare; Ewan Hart, Lucent, Zhestokost, Adrasteia). Single named weapons stayed single on Tattletale (Finch) and Finders Keepers (Pirate), and Glushitel's six stayed six. Named counts drifted up twice on one ship (r6a, r7c), explained by unplaced turrets: they held once each turret was given a position (r8b).
+- **Faction blocks are livery and register only; shape motifs go in the ship prompt.** Held on 18 renders, 10 ships, 7 factions. One failure, explained and repaired: Lucent lost its spectacle with the motifs cut (r7a) and regained it with the motifs in the ship prompt (r8a).
+- **Wear lives in the faction block, not the global.** With no wear in the global, wear stayed on every faction that names it (Pirate, AU, Zhestokost, Ewan Hart: 16 renders, 7 ships). The other half, clean factions coming out clean, held on Finch (r6e), mostly on Lucent when stated first (r8a), and failed on Adrasteia (r7e) and Lucent stated last (r7a).
+- **Thrust as slots or grilles cut into a face.** Held on 7 renders, 6 ships, 4 factions (r5c, r5d, r6d, r7c, r7f, r8a, r8b). Failed on tubes, bells or "sunk" wording (r6a, r6c, r6f), the short r7d, global-first r7b, and unexplained on r8c, where cut grilles grew into sponsons. Candidate.
+- **Ship prompt first.** Two A/B pairs (Lucent r5e/r5f, AU r6d/r7b) favour it; used on 17 renders across 8 factions with no failure attributed to it. Candidate until a third pair.
+- **Clean statement first, for clean factions.** One render (r8a). Candidate.
+- **Racer identity from livery, not aero.** Four renders, one ship. Candidate.
+- **The stern needs a job.** Denying a drive failed on 2 of 2 (r6e, r7e). Candidate.
+- **Plan view for coverage roles.** One render (r7f). Candidate.
+- **Short prompts for donors that do not pull aero.** One success (r6f), one failure on a racer (r7d). Candidate.
+- **No legs.** Two renders went to ground on legs (r8d, r8e). Candidate for the global block, untested.
+- **Metaphors for mass, never for scenes.** One prop failure (r5e turntable), one safe mass metaphor (r8f bandolier), one costume failure (r8e beetle with legs). Candidate.
+
+## Lab notes after round 8
+
+Eighteen renders in rounds 6 to 8. These are the agent's readings, pending the operator's verdicts.
+
+**G3, the current best global block** (as rendered in round 8; compose it after the ship prompt and faction block, then the frame clause on its own):
+
+```text
+Concept art of a small working spacecraft from the Aetheria universe, built by a named manufacturer for one pilot or a small crew; a human-sized hatch, a handhold rail and a cockpit window no wider than a person set its scale. It is a vacuum hull: it never flies through air or drives on ground, so it has no wings, fins, tailplanes, vanes, airfoils, streamlining, wheels or tracks of any kind. It moves only by rocket thrust from slots and grilles cut into whichever faces of the hull need to push, the stern, the flanks, the belly or the bow, each opening the way its exhaust would leave; no thruster stands out from the hull as a can, bell, pod or pack. Its silhouette comes from its job: the working equipment is the largest shape and the hull is built around it. Hatches, recessed round sensor apertures and a docking collar are legible. It carries weapons only where its description names them. A stencilled registry number and a maker's plate sit beside the cockpit; engines are cold. The body is thick and closed with rounded edges, every part swelling out of the main mass through wide smooth fillets, so the outline reads as one solid silhouette. All surfaces are matte and opaque, painted metal, ceramic and rubberized composite, with interior light shown only through small round opaque ports. Its paint is exactly as clean or as worn as its maker's description says; where no wear is named, it is factory-new. Rendered as a crisp studio concept render.
+```
+
+One untested amendment is the next thing to try: add "legs, skids or feet" to the banned list.
+
+**Per-faction block edits.** Each block becomes one livery-and-register sentence or two: register, finish, palette with where each colour lives, markings, and wear. The exact texts used are in the round 6 to 8 `.md` files.
+
+- **Zhestokost:** drop the stove, turret and ammunition-architecture shape language; keep charcoal, iron gray, oxide-red hatches, cream stencils, block codes, soot and chipped enamel. The register held on three renders without the shapes.
+- **Aeronautics Unlimited:** drop the compass-and-ruler and mule shapes; keep chalk white, slate blue, bare aluminium, ochre safety panels, black lettering and mineral dust.
+- **Pirate Coalition:** drop the grappling arm and the additions list (they leak onto every hull); keep donor paint, primer, welds, overpainted logos and crossed-out serials. End with "worn, but the donor's markings stay legible" so the donor's identity survives. Each ship prompt picks its emoji and accent colour, as before.
+- **Finch Cybernetics and Adrasteia:** livery only, ending in an explicit factory-fresh clause. Finch rendered clean; Adrasteia did not.
+- **Lucent Media:** livery only, with the clean clause, and the gaming-mouse layout moved into every Lucent ship prompt as a motif sentence. Open Lucent prompts with the clean statement. Drop the turntable simile.
+- **Ewan Hart:** livery and register ("whimsy turned up") only; no tractor proportions, fenders or hitches. Whimsy comes from a face in the ship prompt, never from legs.
+
+**Best render per ship so far** (the agent's pick):
+
+| Ship | Best render | Why |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Dine and Dash | `Renders/Bench 4/Dine and Dash r8b.png` | Racer by livery, sideways thrust cut into the hull, nothing bolted on. |
+| Odd Job | `Renders/Bench 4/Odd Job r5b.png` | Still the cleanest spacecraft read with a face. |
+| Key Light | `Renders/Bench 4/Key Light r8a.png` | Spectacle back, cleanest paint, no fins. |
+| Oboz | `Renders/Bench 4/Oboz r8f.png` | Magazines are the hull. r6c reads more as a ship if integration matters less. |
+| Glushitel | `Renders/Bench 4/Glushitel r7f.png` | Coverage role at a glance (plan view). |
+| Shepherd | `Renders/Bench 4/Shepherd r6d.png` | Turret battery and flush flank grilles. |
+| Rake | `Renders/Bench 4/Rake r8c.png` | The comb is the ship; the thrust sponsons need another pass. |
+| Party Favors | `Renders/Bench 4/Party Favors r6f.png` | The most readable hull of the lab, from 83 words. |
+| Finders Keepers | `Renders/Bench 4/Finders Keepers r8d.png` | Cute and cursed; the legs need to go. |
+| Tattletale | `Renders/Bench 4/Tattletale r6e.png` | Clean, the ear is the ship; the stern pods need a job. |
+| Ghost Fare | `Renders/Bench 4/Ghost Fare r7e.png` | Only render; material right, stern and wear wrong. |
+
+**Promoted to Ship Design Language** (held on at least three ships across at least two factions with no unexplained failure): the vacuum-hull doctrine; weapons only where named; faction blocks as livery and register, with shape motifs in ship prompts; wear in the faction block. Everything else above stays a candidate here.
+
+---
+
+## For the Operator
+
+These are readings this bench made so that it could be written. Overrule any of them.
+
+1. **Shchit is a facing-shield escort**, per `aetheria-release:ruling:facing-shields-wanted`. The prompt draws the shield as a projector frame on the bow face only, with armour everywhere else, and never as a bubble, so the render does not depend on how the arc mechanism is ruled. The Nakovalnya's prow could carry the same frame; it is left as armour here so the boss's three ways in stay readable, and adding one would make "strip from the quarter" the only safe opening.
+2. **Zhestokost has no player-usable hull.** It is the antagonist, and the demo needs at most one per faction, not one each. Off the Clock, the deserter, is where one could come from later.
+3. **Several demo roles have no catalogue concept:** the Inspektor's hail, the Green Room's audience role, Dine and Dash's speed, and the Rockhound miner. Each entry links the nearest concept and the doctrine instead. Speed Demon and Miner may earn entries in Ship Play Concepts once the demo plays them.
+4. **Pirate crews are given fresh accent colours and emojis** (orange, purple, red, cyan, electric blue, magenta), so that no two demo crews share a mark with Bench 3's Welcome Mat (teal) or Jumble Sale (yellow).
+5. **Pit Stop's donor is a stolen Zhestokost tender.** That makes the Pirates' depot the column's own anchor, which seemed worth the story. A neutral donor works just as well.
+
+## Open Questions
+
+1. **Freelancers' home in faction play.** An "independent" allegiance, contract roles on top of a brand faction, or something else. See the design note under Freelancers.
+2. **Do allied mines spare the player?** Pirate mines are triggered only by hostiles, and the player is allied with the Pirates, so Party Favors fields are safe to fly through. That reads as intended, but the bench does not assume it.
+3. **Can collectors take mines?** Mines are free-floating bodies like loot. Whether a Finders Keepers, an Odd Job or a tractor beam can pick one up is not decided, and no entry depends on it.

Aetheria/Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench.md

@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ description: "A deep bench of paste-ready image prompts for faction hulls and st
 # Ship Prompt Bench
 
 > **Status: brainstorming bench, Imagination pass of 2026-10-03.** Not canon and not adopted. These prompts extend [[Brainstorming/Faction Ship Concept Prompts|Faction Ship Concept Prompts]] past the release bar of 13 hulls (the 3 existing hulls and the 10 faction concepts) and 3 stations. Roles come from the faction doctrines in [[Game Design/Faction Play|Faction Play]]. Looks come from [[Brainstorming/Faction Flavor and Visual Identity|Faction Flavor and Visual Identity]]. The hardpoint vocabulary is from [[Game Design/Ship-shape and Up to Specs|Ship-shape and Up to Specs]].
+>
+> **Superseded for new renders by [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 2|Ship Prompt Bench 2]] (2026-10-04).** The lessons this bench taught are guidelines 10 to 12 in [[Brainstorming/Faction Ship Concept Prompts|Faction Ship Concept Prompts]].
 
 Operator brief, 2026-10-03: "a bunch of proposals for unique ship prompts since that'll enable me to spend my time generating content the next few days." And: "I'll want multiple attempts per role since a lot of them are bound to be duds. This is also an opportunity to explore faction aesthetics so tell it to go wild, I wanna see cool moonshot ideas with flavor".
 

Aetheria/Game Design/Design Pillars.md

@@ -14,6 +14,14 @@ The action RPG and corporate strategy layers are different distances from the sa
 
 Ships are not generic avatars. A ship is a body, home, tool, workplace, balance sheet, and political artifact. Its hull, hardpoints, heat budget, cargo capacity, weapons, docking options, and manufacturer logic should all say something about who built it and what compromises they expect its owner to accept.
 
+## Abstract Space, Terrestrial Affordances
+
+Aetheria is an intentionally abstract representation of space. It feels like floating on an ocean and sailing on gravity waves. Scale is meaningless: a ship can read as big as a planet, and distance, size and speed answer to feel and consequence rather than to survey. Ships and stations may therefore carry terrestrial affordances. Doors, hoods, plazas, sidewalks, and whole interaction models borrowed from vehicles and buildings are legitimate, because the player's body already knows how to use them.
+
+Catastrophe "Cat" Marrigan's taxi, proposed in [[Call of the Void]], is the reference case. By the operator's 2026-10-04 description, Cat is an out-of-work private investigator who drives a cab on the side, and the cab is a dinky, dilapidated hooptie with exactly the affordances of an automobile: a passenger hails it from the sidewalk, and the driver steps out to check under the hood when something stops working. This is the operator's description of the intent, recorded as design direction. It does not change the historical status of Call of the Void, whose Cat, taxi and cases remain developmental.
+
+Faithfulness to vacuum engineering is a per-faction trait, not a global rule. Whimsical factions and spectacle factions take liberties: their ships and stations may assume an up, hang buildings under plazas, or carry a mascot as a hull. Lucent's station concept "The Jewel" is the example (`Gamecult\Aetheria\Concepts\stations\Lucent 1\Lucent_space_station_concepts_5.jpg` on the shared Drive). Its entrance plazas, the buildings hanging beneath them, searchlight beams and a ring of LED screens around a statue all assume gravity and are not meant to make engineering sense. Serious factions stay closer to plausible vacuum design, with function visible in the hull. Each faction's register is recorded where its ships are designed, in [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]].
+
 ## Economy Before Spectacle
 
 Combat should be exciting, but the setting is not held together by combat alone. Production, transport, extraction, salvage, research, maintenance, market access, and security doctrine decide what violence is possible and what it costs. Guns are louder. Supply chains are meaner.

Aetheria/Game Design/Ship Play Concepts.md

@@ -0,0 +1,767 @@
+---
+title: Ship Play Concepts
+description: "A catalogue of play concepts a ship can be designed around: what each asks of the pilot, what it pays, what beats it, what systems it needs, which factions it fits, and how it shows on the hull."
+---
+
+# Ship Play Concepts
+
+> **Status: candidate catalogue, Imagination pass of 2026-10-04.** Not canon and not adopted. It is written for the operator's review, so it favours breadth over polish. Systems tags were taken from an Eyes pass over the `F:\Projects\Aetheria` checkout on 2026-10-04 and are evidence for implementability, not authority (see [[Implementation Signals]]). Nothing here commits the game to building a concept; many entries need systems that do not exist yet, and they are listed because they deserve design consideration, not because they are scheduled.
+
+Operator brief, 2026-10-04:
+
+- "what I can't help but notice is a distinct lack of intentionality with regard to how a ship is meant to be *played*. Where's the broadside designs, where the player has a rack of fixed hardpoints to one or both sides, requiring intentional maneuvering to get the guns into their firing arcs?"
+- "Broadside is just one gameplay concept I came up with off the top of my head as an example of something you might design a ship around, I would want to see more ideas than just that one. My point was the ships currently lack such concepts altogether."
+- "Don't be too restrictive about tying the concept to the gameplay, there's plenty of gameplay that's not in yet but absolutely deserves design consideration, like all the many ways a ship can exploit drones and loitering munitions"
+- "The first Aetheria novella was even explicitly about the protagonist exploring different options for pirate combat doctrine (and mostly failing)"
+
+[[Ship-shape and Up to Specs]] owns hull identity and hardpoints; this note is linked from its Play Concepts section. [[Faction Play]] owns faction doctrine, and [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]] owns faction registers.
+
+## For the Operator
+
+The forks met while writing this, each with a recommended reading. Confidence is stated. None is decided here.
+
+1. **How a player steers a ship whose guns do not point forward.** Today the ship turns its nose toward the cursor (`Ship.cs` turn-toward-look, master) and each weapon fires along its mount, so a flank battery fires where the cursor is not. Without a change, every broadside, stern-chaser and one-sided concept below is unplayable by hand. *Options:* (a) the ship turns so that the active weapon group's mount bearing, not the nose, points at the cursor; (b) keep nose-to-cursor and leave side guns to strafing and manual play; (c) decouple aim from heading with a separate steering input. *Recommendation:* (a). It derives the facing from geometry the hull already has (mount rotation and, on fire-control, arc), it is one offset in the turn-toward-look target, and switching weapon group becomes the act of "presenting the other side". Starsector and Cosmoteer both make the player hold a favoured heading per hull ([[#Evidence Key|PA]] 2.1 A); this makes that heading automatic per group. Medium-high confidence.
+2. **Whether ships carry wide-arc turrets, and what they cost.** Fire-control has a per-hardpoint `FiringArc` override and a 120 degree default; 360 is used only for the turret hull type. If any heavy gun can take a wide arc for free, facing stops mattering: Elite's turrets trade damage for coverage, and a Starfield review says manoeuvring there is "all but useless" ([snippet], PA 2.3). *Recommendation:* arc width is a property of the mount item, paid for in calibre or damage, so the heaviest guns exist only on narrow arcs and wide arcs carry light guns and point defence. High confidence that the trade must exist; low on its exact shape.
+3. **Whether drones are ships or weapons.** Starsector models fighters as a weapon-like replacement bar with no individual control; EVE, Endless Sky and X4 model them as bodies that launch, travel, take damage and dock (PA 2.1 C, 2.3). *Recommendation:* drones are `Entity` bodies launched from and recovered into the parent, flown by the same agent inputs as any ship (the same-inputs invariant in `docs/locomotion-cut.md`), and ordered as a group through a small set of plays, never one by one. Every lesson the novella paid for (recovery throats, drone heat, link loss, loiterers in the return lane) needs drones to be bodies, and the Perdix programme and Starsector both found per-craft control overwhelming (PA 2.1 E). Medium-high confidence; the cost is simulation load, which EVE documented (PA 2.3, drone assist).
+4. **Which budget limits drones.** Candidates: bay volume (what you carry), control bandwidth (what is active at once), control range (the leash), recovery throughput (how fast they come home), and power or heat. EVE separates bay from bandwidth; the novella's whole first campaign turns on recovery throughput. *Recommendation:* carry bay, bandwidth and recovery throughput as three separate numbers, with control range as a property of the link. That is enough to make carrier, swarm, sentry and loitering-munition hulls differ, and fewer would collapse them into one "drone ship". Medium confidence.
+5. **Whether recovery is modelled at all.** Expendable drones are simpler; recoverable ones make the parent's throat a target. *Recommendation:* model it, as a hardpoint with throughput, because "recovery is revealed as work" is the novella's first verdict and the most Aetheria-specific drone lesson in the evidence. Expendable munitions (loitering munitions, decoys, mines) simply skip it. Medium confidence.
+6. **Whether shields get a facing.** Shields are omnidirectional on master: a reserve pool, a cost in energy per point of damage absorbed, heat per point absorbed into the shield item itself, and a break when one hit exceeds the reserve (`Shield.cs`). Per-cell armour already makes hit direction matter. *Options:* (a) keep shields omnidirectional and let armour carry facing; (b) give the shield item an arc, tested by the same arc rule fire control uses for weapons, and pay for coverage in reserve, so a narrow shield is a stronger shield; (c) separate shield panels per face. *Recommendation:* (a) as the default, with (b) as the only form a facing shield should take if one is wanted, because it reuses one arc mechanism rather than inventing a second, and it gives broadside and armoured-prow hulls a real choice (shield the gun side, or the blind side). Starsector's frontal and omni shields are the obvious precedent; they are from general knowledge, not the evidence file. Medium-low confidence; see [[#Facing Shield]].
+7. **Whether factions own concepts.** *Recommendation:* each faction's doctrine favours one or two concepts (the fit table in [[#Faction Fit]]), as tendencies that inform loadouts, AI and hull art, never as exclusive rights. The pirates in particular should be able to field anything they can steal.
+8. **Whether the global prompt block's protection line holds for the release.** *Answered, operator 2026-10-04.* The line said "Protection is armour, because pre-Elysium combat uses armour, heat and point defence rather than shields"; it was wrong for the Elysium setting, and [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]] now says armour is the baseline with any other protection in a visible housing. Her words: "Depends on the faction of course. Shields aren't a universal solution, there's different technologies which can deflect or mitigate specific damage types but a shield that can block anything would be counterbalanced by being prohibitively expensive to run, so all the turtling you're doing just means you drain your capacitors and then die to thermals. Armor is almost always still a good idea." Reading for this catalogue: protection is plural and faction-dependent; the universal shield (the one on master, which ignores damage type) is the expensive one, and its cost is capacitor drain followed by thermal death, not a free layer. Armour stays the default. Every shield concept in group I needs a visible housing on the hull (an emitter, a projector ring, a panel array), not a glowing bubble. Type-specific protection is design intent without code: damage types travel on events but are not used in the damage math today (the evidence file; `DamageType` is "carried on every shot and read by nothing" in [[Faction Play]]), so it needs new systems.
+
+## How to Read an Entry
+
+Each concept gives:
+
+- **Asks:** what the pilot must do to make it work.
+- **Pays:** what the ship gets for that.
+- **Beaten by:** its counters, and the hidden dependency they attack. The novella found that every doctrine "wins a real matchup and then loses to a counter that attacks the doctrine's hidden dependency"; each entry names its dependency.
+- **Evidence:** pointers into the prior-art file and the novella (see [[#Evidence Key]]).
+- **Systems:** **exists**, **partly** or **new**, with the branch where the code lives.
+- **Fits:** factions whose doctrine and register suit it.
+- **On the hull:** how the concept reads in the bench's standard view (three-quarter front, slightly above, dorsal surface and one side), so that a later bench revision can put it in a prompt.
+
+Systems branch labels: **M** is `master`; **FC** is `codex/fire-control-12` (fire control, arcs, power bus, targeting); **MIND** is a spec admitted in the Eureka mind but not code; **DOC** is a design document in the Aetheria repo; **new** means no code or spec exists.
+
+A concept is a way of playing, not a hull class. A hull can combine two (a stern-chasing tug) and the most interesting ones often do.
+
+### Sol Evidence, Elysium Game
+
+The novella is set in the Sol timeline, which has no shields and no negent. Operator, 2026-10-04: "Worth noting that that novella takes place in the Sol timeline, they don't have space magic like shields and negent which are available in the Elysium setting we're currently building for". Its verdicts are therefore Sol-timeline evidence. Where a novella counter depended on there being no shields or negent, the entry carries an **Elysium note** saying how they would change it. The short version:
+
+- **Shields change first hits, for the ships that carry them.** Protection in Elysium is plural and faction-dependent: armour is the baseline almost everywhere, most other technologies deflect or mitigate one damage type, and the shield that blocks anything is prohibitively expensive to run (fork 8). The shield entries below describe that universal shield and its counters. The novella's first hull had "no immunity to a correctly placed first hit" (`Combat Model.md`). In Elysium, a ship carrying a universal shield absorbs a hit smaller than its reserve, and only a hit larger than the reserve breaks through, leaving the hull exposed for the restore window. Precision and terminal munitions therefore have to break the shield and then follow through, or arrive together.
+- **Shields do not change topology, attention or objectives.** Recovery throats, link capacity, cognition load, the observer's patience and the geometry of the objective are untouched. Most of the novella's lessons survive, because most of them were about dependencies, not about damage.
+- **Negent changes heat debt.** Doctrines that failed on stored heat (Deep Quiet) or on the heat cost of masking (heat ferries) would last as long as their charges and their gear in Elysium. The limit moves from the heat budget to a supply line, wear, and the crew's own body heat ([[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]]).
+- **Shields make heat a damage channel.** Every point a shield absorbs heats the shield item (`Shield.cs`, `AddHeat(damage / Efficiency)`), so sustained fire that never breaks a shield can still cook it. This couples group B and group I.
+
+## A. Weapon Layout and Arcs
+
+These are the concepts the operator's broadside example belongs to. All of them depend on fork 1 (steering) and fork 2 (turret cost). Fixed mounts with four facings exist on M; per-hardpoint arcs, arc-clamped aim and free refusal of out-of-arc shots exist on FC only.
+
+### Broadside, Two-Sided
+
+- **Asks:** turn perpendicular to the target to bring a row of fixed side mounts to bear, and turn again to present the other side.
+- **Pays:** the most guns per hull, because the flank is the longest edge; two independent batteries, so one can cool, reload or be repaired while the other fires. The per-cell heat grid (M) makes this native to Aetheria: a battery that has been firing heats its own flank, and rolling to the cool side is both a firing choice and a thermal one.
+- **Beaten by:** anything that stays off the beam: a fast ship sitting on the bow or stern, where only the few end mounts reach. Its dependency is turn rate and the room to turn. Raking (fire along the long axis, from the end) punishes it hardest because a broadside hull is long.
+- **Evidence:** Starsector Conquest (PA 2.1 A, [wiki]); Cosmoteer broadsides that "flip to a fresh side when shields or ammo run out" ([snippet]); crossing the T (PA 2.1 F). The novella's hull four ran hot ballistic commitment, not a broadside layout.
+- **Systems:** partly. Fixed side mounts exist on M (an item placed with `Clockwise` or `CounterClockwise` rotation fires 90 degrees off the heading). Arcs exist on FC. Needs fork 1 for the player and a bearing-aware AI (Combat state samples range from weapon ranges today, not bearing).
+- **Fits:** Zhestokost (a piece of the arsenal that learned to fly; squat turrets already in its block), Sol Dominion (straight spine, repeated module bands: a ship of the line).
+- **On the hull:** a long body with a tall flank and a row of three or more identical mounts at one height along the side facing the camera, all muzzles pointing outward square to the spine, none forward. The mirrored row on the far side shows as muzzle tips just past the dorsal edge. The bow carries little or nothing. The prompt must say which way the muzzles point, or the image model will turn them forward.
+
+### Broadside, One-Sided (Gun Deck)
+
+- **Asks:** circle the target with one flank inward, holding range and bearing, usually turning in one direction only.
+- **Pays:** a denser battery than a two-sided ship of the same size, and a blind side that can carry what the battery would otherwise expose: radiators, cargo, a hangar, the cockpit, thick armour.
+- **Beaten by:** getting to the blind side and staying there, or two attackers from opposite bearings. Its dependency is that the fight happens on one side; any second threat breaks it.
+- **Evidence:** extrapolated from the broadside entries (PA 2.1 A). The novella offers no direct test. Gunship aircraft orbiting a target on one side are the real-world analogue (not in the evidence file; from general knowledge).
+- **Systems:** partly, as two-sided. AI needs a turn-direction preference.
+- **Fits:** Miss Terri's (a crop duster sprays from booms on one side as it passes), Pirate Coalition (guns bolted onto the one side of a stolen hull that could take them), Ewan Hart (a working arm on one side, a gun on the same side because that is where the operator looks).
+- **On the hull:** all the guns on the side facing the camera, in a row; the far side visibly different (smooth armour, a radiator fold, a cargo door), so the asymmetry reads. The bench's Pirate convention already puts asymmetric additions on the camera side.
+
+### Spinal Mount
+
+- **Asks:** point the whole ship at the target and hold it there through a charge; the gun's arc is the ship's turn rate.
+- **Pays:** the largest single gun the hull can carry, because the gun runs its full length; one decisive shot, often charged.
+- **Beaten by:** lateral movement during the charge, ships that close inside its minimum range, and anything on its flank. Its dependency is the charge window and the target's predictability. The novella's premium-cognition hull lost to "cheap contradictory events" and saturation: "smarter can still lose to saturation".
+- **Evidence:** Cosmoteer's 0-degree ion beam (PA 2.1 A); Starsector Onslaught's built-in frontal cannons; novella doctrine 6, precision energy (PA 3.1, [[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/Failure Ladder|Failure Ladder]]).
+- **Elysium note:** against shields the spinal gun becomes the shield breaker: its single hit is the one most likely to exceed a reserve. The novella's precision ship lost to saturation, which shields do not change. See [[#Shield Breaker]].
+- **Systems:** exists in parts on M: `ChargedWeapon` (charge time, charge heat, early fire, failure damage), a forward mount, extra-large calibre. FC adds arcs and the hit-roll resolution that makes a long charge a real gamble.
+- **Fits:** Cryonix (one precise shot from cold, then dump the heat), Lucent headliners (the opening laser burst), Alakrita (couture speed: one lance, then gone).
+- **On the hull:** one long barrel or emitter laid along the centreline from the stern machinery to a muzzle at the bow, with the hull built around it; capacitors or a charge housing as the largest masses beside it; nothing else armed. The muzzle should be the bow.
+
+### Forward-Fixed Fighter
+
+- **Asks:** turn and burn: point the nose and fire, with all guns on the nose.
+- **Pays:** the cheapest control (aim is heading), maximum concentration, and nothing to steer around.
+- **Beaten by:** anything faster on the turn, and point defence it must fly into. Its dependency is getting the nose on target at all.
+- **Evidence:** Elite's fixed mounts (most skill, highest damage per hit, [snippet], PA 2.3); Cosmoteer notes most designs point forward (PA 2.1 A).
+- **Systems:** exists on M. This is what the game plays like now, which is why ships currently feel alike.
+- **Fits:** Miss Terri's spray fighters, Corriedales mascots (wand barrels at the limbs, pointing forward), Alakrita.
+- **On the hull:** barrels at the nose, all parallel to the spine, and a cockpit that looks straight down them.
+
+### Turret Platform
+
+- **Asks:** little aim; it asks the pilot to manage position, range and power rather than heading.
+- **Pays:** fire in every direction, which suits ships whose real job is elsewhere (hauling, towing, escorting).
+- **Beaten by:** heavier guns on narrow arcs, if fork 2 makes wide arcs carry light guns. Its dependency is that nothing it meets needs a heavy gun.
+- **Evidence:** Elite turrets (least skill, lowest damage per hit, [snippet]); Avorion multi-slot turrets with lower rotation ([snippet], [U]); turret hull type with 360 arc on M and FC.
+- **Systems:** partly. Turret hulls exist (M), per-hardpoint arc override on FC. A turret mount item for ships is new, and needs fork 2.
+- **Fits:** Aya Collective (point defence on standard shoulder mounts), Lightsail Express, Cetacean Navigators: escorts and workers.
+- **On the hull:** small domed or boxy turrets on raised rings at the shoulders and corners, each clearly able to turn; light barrels.
+
+### Stern Chaser
+
+- **Asks:** fight while running away, with the guns on the stern.
+- **Pays:** the ship never has to turn toward danger. A pursuer flies into its fire and has to out-run it to escape it.
+- **Beaten by:** ships that do not chase (missiles from stand-off, a picket ahead of its route), and anything that can match speed outside its arc. Its dependency is being pursued.
+- **Evidence:** Elite's shock mines laid behind a chased ship ([snippet], PA 2.3); Rossum & Douglas pickets back away from anyone who closes, and Pirates leave fights they are losing ([[Faction Play]]).
+- **Systems:** exists on M (a `Reversed` mount fires aft). Needs fork 1 for the player.
+- **Fits:** Lightsail Express (a hauler that never drops its cargo and fights with it), Rossum & Douglas, Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** guns at the tail pointing aft beside the drive nozzles, visible past the dorsal edge in a front view; the bow plain or armoured. The prompt should name the rear guns explicitly, because a three-quarter front view shows the stern least.
+
+### Armoured Prow
+
+- **Asks:** keep the bow toward the enemy and fight end-on, presenting the narrowest and thickest face.
+- **Pays:** per-cell armour (M) means most hits land on the bow cells, which can carry hardpoint armour far above the hull's average. The ship trades blows it would otherwise lose.
+- **Beaten by:** flanking, and by penetration that walks through the bow cells (FC: penetration decides how many cells a shot crosses). Its dependency is that the threat stays in front.
+- **Evidence:** per-cell armour and hit position (PA 1.6); Starsector Onslaught's "vulnerable rear" (PA 2.1 A, [wiki]).
+- **Systems:** exists on M (per-hardpoint armour, hit position). AI holding a bow-on bearing is new.
+- **Fits:** Zhestokost, Megiddo, Death Monkey Explosives (heavy slab armour forward of the charge-feed section).
+- **On the hull:** visibly thicker, stepped armour on the bow face, thinning toward the stern, with the guns set back behind the armour lip.
+
+### Rotating Battery
+
+- **Asks:** keep the hull turning, so that fixed guns on several faces sweep past the target in turn.
+- **Pays:** each mount fires in a short window and cools for the rest of the turn, so the ship sustains fire that would cook a single fixed battery; incoming hits spread over all faces.
+- **Beaten by:** anything that punishes the fixed rotation rate (timing a heavy shot to the face that has just fired), and drive damage that stops the spin. Its dependency is its spin.
+- **Evidence:** extrapolated from Cosmoteer's side-flipping (PA 2.1 A) and the per-cell heat grid. The `AetherDrive` stores rotation as momentum: spin-up costs power, discharging it is free (PA 1.7).
+- **Systems:** partly. Mounts on four faces and the flywheel drive exist on M; firing the right mount at the right moment needs fire control that picks among in-arc mounts, which FC's arc test allows. Holding a spin is new for the AI.
+- **Fits:** Lucent Media (a spinning stage looks good on camera), Framgång (a showroom turntable).
+- **On the hull:** a round or radially symmetric body with identical mounts at regular intervals around its rim, and a prominent flywheel housing at its centre.
+
+## B. Heat and Signature
+
+The per-cell heat grid, radiator pumps, heat storage, item temperature bands and heat-as-visibility all exist on M. Heat is the system Aetheria already has in more depth than most space games, which makes these concepts cheap to build relative to their payoff. See [[Heat, Stealth, and Detection]] and [[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]].
+
+### Burst and Break Off
+
+- **Asks:** close, dump a heavy burst from capacitors and stored cold, then leave before the heat bill comes due.
+- **Pays:** damage far above the ship's sustained rate, at a moment of the pilot's choosing.
+- **Beaten by:** surviving the burst (shields with reserve, armour on the facing it comes from), then punishing the hot, bright, slow window afterwards. Its dependency is ending the fight in one pass.
+- **Evidence:** Lucent headliners and Cryonix scouts in [[Faction Play]]; Starsector combat readiness and peak time (PA 2.1 B, [wiki]); novella doctrine 6 lost when its precision could not keep pace with saturation.
+- **Systems:** exists on M (capacitors, charged weapons, heat storage, radiators); FC's power bus gives instant draws their own capacitors.
+- **Fits:** Lucent Media, Cryonix, Alakrita.
+- **On the hull:** capacitor or charge masses as the swollen, broadest parts of the body; radiators folded flat and closed; the guns small relative to what powers them.
+
+### Quiet Approach
+
+- **Asks:** close cold: radiators shut, thrust minimal, heat soaked into storage, sensors passive; then commit before the stored heat or the patience runs out.
+- **Pays:** first shot, or no fight at all.
+- **Beaten by:** a target that keeps moving and never needs to find you; time; active sensing. Its dependency is patience and consumables. The novella's verdict on Deep Quiet: the next target kept transiting, and the crew accumulated stale tracks, heat debt and atmosphere strain until a medical abort.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 2 (PA 3.1; [[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/Failure Ladder|Failure Ladder]]); submarine endurance submerged (PA 2.1 F); Children of a Dead Earth's argument that stealth is impossible in space ([primary], PA 2.1 B); cockpit heatstroke on M.
+- **Elysium note:** Deep Quiet failed on heat debt and patience. With negent, the heat debt can be paid down while the charges last, so the cold wait is limited by the charge supply, gear wear and the crew's own heat (negent removes it without warning; [[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]]), not by stored heat. A target that keeps transiting still beats it.
+- **Systems:** exists on M (heat storage, thermotoggle, radiators, visibility decay, directional passive sensors). FC's `quiet_until_commit` doctrine attribute is in [[Faction Play]] as a design.
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia, Cryonix, Pirate Coalition ambushers.
+- **On the hull:** closed surfaces, recessed apertures, no visible radiator; a large heat-storage mass (a tank or block with insulation bands) as the biggest internal volume; matte, light-drinking finish.
+
+### Heat Ferry
+
+- **Asks:** carry detachable thermal carriers, load them with heat, and let them go, either to cool the parent or to perform a false signature (a wounded ship, a radiator dump, a drive transient) while the parent performs something else.
+- **Pays:** the parent sheds heat it could not radiate, or splits the observer's attention.
+- **Beaten by:** repeated observation from several bearings. The novella's verdict on shaped heat ferries: separated passive observers and patient ballistic patterns meant the opponent never had to decide which ship was real; "repeated observations consume the lie's degrees of freedom". A ferry cannot perform a cold rock while thrusting hard in view.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 5 (PA 3.1; `Combat Model.md`, `mask_check`); towed and air-launched decoys (PA 2.1 D).
+- **Elysium note:** negent lets the parent run genuinely cold, so a ferry no longer has to cover for a hot parent, and a negent-cooled ferry can perform a cold rock. Repeated observation from several bearings still consumes the lie, because that counter attacks the observer's patience, not the heat budget.
+- **Systems:** new. Needs detachable bodies (fork 3) that carry heat out of the parent's grid.
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia, Pirate Coalition, Cryonix (sealed sinks that leave with the heat).
+- **On the hull:** a row of identical canisters or slabs clamped into cradles along the dorsal surface or flank, each with a release catch and its own small radiator fin; at least one cradle empty.
+
+### Radiator Gambler
+
+- **Asks:** fight with radiators retracted, and open them only when safe, or open them mid-fight and accept that they are the largest, softest target on the ship.
+- **Pays:** a low signature and protected radiators when closed; a very high sustained fire rate when open.
+- **Beaten by:** anything that hits radiators (drones especially), and seeing the opening. Its dependency is the choice of when to open.
+- **Evidence:** Children of a Dead Earth on retractable radiators as IR-signature trade ([primary], PA 2.1 B); radiators as kinetic targets; drones as "nasty against radiators" ([snippet], [U]); Cryonix unfolds its emitters to dump heat ([[Faction Play]]).
+- **Systems:** partly. Radiators (pump, floor, emissivity) exist on M. A retracted state is new.
+- **Fits:** Cryonix (emitter panels folded flat like closed scales, already in its block), Lucent headliners (radiators open after the burst), NiteLife Energy.
+- **On the hull:** large folded panels lying flat against the hull in overlapping layers, with visible hinge lines; a prompt can show one panel half-open to make the fold read.
+
+### Furnace
+
+- **Asks:** run hot on purpose: big reactor, big guns, armour, radiators glowing, no masking contest; trust that visible danger is a threat in itself.
+- **Pays:** dominance of one engagement volume; anyone in it is outgunned.
+- **Beaten by:** a distributed opponent with two objectives. The novella's verdict on hot ballistic commitment: the hull "can dominate one engagement volume, not occupy two"; a decoy worthy of pursuit drew it while the real objective matured elsewhere, and its ammunition and propellant could not be replaced.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 7 (PA 3.1); the Dreadnought's all-big-gun case and British magazine flash at Jutland (PA 2.1 F).
+- **Systems:** exists on M (reactor overload, radiators, heat grid); ballistic rounds from cargo are MIND (InForce spec).
+- **Fits:** Zhestokost, Death Monkey Explosives (they run so hot some of them cook themselves).
+- **On the hull:** large radiator wings or fins standing proud of the body and glowing at their roots; soot at gun mouths; heavy magazine hatches. The heat should be the loudest feature.
+
+### Heat Eater
+
+- **Asks:** fire weapons whose ammunition is the ship's own heat, grow quieter while fighting, and then deliberately overheat to reload: run drives, pump heat in, be seen.
+- **Pays:** a fight in which the ship's signature falls as it engages, and the gunner is hardest to see while shooting.
+- **Beaten by:** watching for the reheat flare, and long fights: with everything spent downrange and no heat left, the best weapon aboard is inert. Its dependency is the loud reload and the charge supply; wear punishes the temperature swing, so the gun eats itself.
+- **Evidence:** `docs/negent-weapons-concept.md` (the inversion, the reload, "the crew is the leak"); the negent ruling in `docs/stats-and-power-target.md` (a consumable charge is the balance); Adrasteia in [[Faction Play]].
+- **Systems:** DOC. `WeaponModifiers.NegativeEntropy` exists as a flag on M; no behaviour subtracts heat.
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia.
+- **On the hull:** cold, faceted, closed; weapons with frosted or blackened intake throats rather than hot muzzles; one heater or reheat chamber that is the only feature built to be hot.
+
+## C. Drones and Loitering Munitions
+
+The operator asked for depth here. Aetheria has no drones, fighters or loitering munitions in code: `LauncherCaliber.Fighter`, `MicroMissile` and `SplitMissile` are enum names nothing reads (M). The substrate exists: ships are `Entity` bodies in a zone with a parent and child relation, docking bays hold ships as children that add to the host's mass, and AI drives ships through the same inputs as the player (PA 1.9). Every concept in this group is therefore **new** unless noted, and forks 3, 4 and 5 apply to all of it.
+
+### The Drone Budget
+
+What separates one drone concept from another is which of these the hull invests in. A catalogue entry should name its position on each.
+
+- **Bay:** how many drones the hull carries. EVE separates this from what is active (PA 2.3, [wiki]).
+- **Bandwidth:** how many are active at once. EVE's Tristan carries eight light drones and launches five.
+- **Control range:** how far from the parent a drone stays under command. Beyond it, a drone holds, returns, or acts on its last order. EVE drones on an attack order chase past the leash.
+- **Link:** what control travels over, and what jamming does to it. Ukraine's FPV hit rates fell under jamming, and fibre-optic tethers removed the radio emission at the cost of range and tangling ([snippet] on the rates, PA 2.1 E). In Aetheria a tether is a physical line, which is a design in itself (see Tethered Drone).
+- **Recovery throughput:** how fast drones come home and turn around. The novella's first hull had four throats each capturing one drone every 70 seconds and four service positions with a 24-minute turnaround; sixteen drones returning at once queued hot and low on fuel in a lane that identified the parent ([[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/Ship And Refit Ledger|Ship And Refit Ledger]]).
+- **Drone heat and fuel:** each drone is a small body with its own heat grid and propellant. The novella's drones returned above their thermal limit and had to loiter, dump a sink, or be abandoned.
+- **Operator load:** who decides what each drone does. One operator cannot fly a hundred drones; the Perdix fact sheet says operators call "plays" (PA 2.1 E). In the novella, retasking cost cognition, authorization delay and link dependence.
+- **Recoverable or expendable:** a recoverable drone is cheaper per use and exposes the parent at recovery; an expendable one is a munition.
+
+Counters common to the whole group: point defence (no PD behaviour exists in Aetheria; Cosmoteer's dev notes say clustering low-accuracy fast guns gives coverage); area bursts (FC has airburst fuses and blast radius, which are the natural anti-swarm tool, as EVE's smartbombs are); jamming or cutting the link; killing the parent; and attacking the recovery lane, which is how the novella's opponent beat the corrected drone doctrine.
+
+### Carrier
+
+- **Asks:** stay back, launch strike drones in waves, keep them supplied, and recover them before they run dry; decide when to commit the bay.
+- **Pays:** damage delivered at range without exposing the hull, and losses taken by drones rather than crew.
+- **Beaten by:** attrition faster than replacement (Starsector's replacement-rate spiral: once wings are down, the rate keeps falling), PD, and an enemy that reaches the carrier itself. Its dependency is its bay and its throats. Endless Sky found that carriers spend their own energy and repairs in combat and docked fighters stay unrepaired; EVE in March 2026 said carriers had been "outperformed by cheaper alternatives" ([secondary summary], PA 2.3).
+- **Evidence:** PA 2.1 C (Starsector, Endless Sky, Highfleet, Homeworld, Sins II), PA 2.3 (EVE fighters, X4); carrier history and the Forrestal deck fire (PA 2.1 F).
+- **Systems:** new; docking bays (M) are the nearest substrate.
+- **Fits:** Zhestokost (a supply tail with teeth), Megiddo, Pirate Coalition (as the novella's crew learned the hard way).
+- **On the hull:** launch and recovery throats as large, dark, framed openings on the dorsal surface or the camera-side flank, with guide rails or capture arms at their lips, and a deck or hangar volume that is plainly the biggest part of the ship. Guns are few and small.
+
+### Swarm Boat
+
+- **Asks:** launch many cheap, expendable drones at once and accept that most will die.
+- **Pays:** saturation. Defences have finite magazines, cooling and attention; every round spent on one drone is unavailable for the next (the Phalanx case). The Shahed campaign used volume and unarmed dummies to drain defences, at a cost ratio heavily in the attacker's favour ([snippet] on the ratio, PA 2.1 E).
+- **Beaten by:** area weapons, and an opponent who does not need to shoot them (cheap armour, or a target that simply leaves). Its dependency is volume and cheap production.
+- **Evidence:** Shahed and Gerbera (PA 2.1 E, CSIS); Reassembly's launcher blocks ([community], PA 2.1 C); Children of a Dead Earth on staggered launches to saturate PD ([primary]); AU escorts' dumbfire swarms ([[Faction Play]]).
+- **Elysium note:** against shields a swarm drains the reserve rather than reaching the hull, and every absorbed hit heats the shield item; a swarm that cannot break a shield can still cook it (see [[#Shield Cooker]]).
+- **Systems:** new for drones; launchers with guided and seeking missiles exist on M and are the nearest substrate, and `SplitMissile` is an unread enum.
+- **Fits:** Aeronautics Unlimited, Rossum & Douglas (a photocopier with a missile rack), Miss Terri's (a bag of sweets thrown at once).
+- **On the hull:** a dense grid of identical small launch cells or tubes across the dorsal surface, like a honeycomb or an egg carton, many more than any gun ship would carry.
+
+### Point-Defence Escort Drones
+
+- **Asks:** keep a ring of armed drones around the parent or a convoy, investigating unresolved contacts and killing incoming munitions.
+- **Pays:** a defensive layer that meets threats before they reach the hull, and forces the attacker to reveal its own correction traffic.
+- **Beaten by:** heterogeneous cheap contacts and passive observers that "consume thrust, heat, ammunition, and cognition", and an attack on recovery. The novella's verdict on Reversible Superiority: "Recovery is not defeated in combat. It is revealed as work." It won against a sparse picket screen and lost ten weeks to staggered repair.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrines 1 and 4 (PA 3.1); X4 defence drones that auto-launch when attacked (PA 2.3, [primary wiki]).
+- **Elysium note:** hull one had no shields, so every leak through the drone screen was a hit on the hull. A shielded parent absorbs leaks below its reserve, which makes a thinner screen viable. It does not widen the recovery throats, and shielding the drones themselves costs each small body power and heat it cannot spare. The recovery verdict stands.
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Aya Collective (heavy point defence that covers everyone), Cetacean Navigators (escort duty), Megiddo.
+- **On the hull:** small drones docked in cradles around the hull's rim, visible as a ring of identical shapes clipped on; a few cradles empty.
+
+### Spotter
+
+- **Asks:** send a drone forward to look, so the parent can fire at what it cannot see itself.
+- **Pays:** sensor reach without exposing the hull. Aetheria's sensors are directional and accrue information over time divided by distance (M), so a spotter closer to the target, pointed at it, reveals armour and then gear (reveal tiers on FC) long before the parent could.
+- **Beaten by:** killing or blinding the spotter, which is cheap, and reading where its track is being sent. Its dependency is the link back.
+- **Evidence:** Homeworld sensor probes ([snippet], PA 2.1 C); Nebulous shared tracks over a datalink ([snippet], PA 2.1 D); the arsenal ship relied on sensors from other platforms (PA 2.1 F); novella relays "preserve track" (doctrine 8).
+- **Systems:** partly. Directional sensors and the per-target information model exist on M; reveal tiers and subsystem aim on FC. A drone body and track sharing (Finch's `share_track` in [[Faction Play]]) are new.
+- **Fits:** Finch Cybernetics (sells noticing), Lucent Media (camera drones are spotters), Sol Dominion.
+- **On the hull:** a small sensor drone with a big eye, docked at the nose or on a mast like a falcon on a glove; the parent's own sensors modest.
+
+### Decoy Drone
+
+- **Asks:** launch drones that look like the parent, or like something worth shooting, and let them draw fire, locks and pursuit.
+- **Pays:** the opponent spends munitions and attention on nothing. Nebulous point defence targets decoys first; MALD mimics an aircraft's signature ([snippet]; PA 2.1 D).
+- **Beaten by:** a second sensor that discriminates (Nebulous's secondary seeker), patience, and multiple bearings. Its dependency is that the observer must decide quickly.
+- **Evidence:** PA 2.1 D (MALD, ALE-55, Nebulous EA99); the Gerbera dummies (PA 2.1 E); the novella's corrected doctrine used false return leaders (doctrine 4). AU escorts in [[Faction Play]] fire at decoys first.
+- **Systems:** new. The visibility model (M) is ready to give a decoy a signature: a body with a large `Visibility` source and a `Reflector` cross-section.
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia, Megiddo (a wide volume of contacts and decoys), Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** racks of identical small canisters, each a scale model of the parent's silhouette or a bright reflector shape.
+
+### Repair Drone
+
+- **Asks:** keep drones out working on the hull, or on an ally, during the fight.
+- **Pays:** sustained repair without docking. FTL players rate repair drones strong (PA 2.1 C, [primary thread]).
+- **Beaten by:** burst damage that outpaces repair (EVE's light repair drones are slow; PA 2.3), and area weapons that kill drones working on the hull. Its dependency is time.
+- **Evidence:** FTL, EVE repair drones, X4 repair drones, Endless Sky carriers repairing docked fighters (PA 2.1 C, 2.3).
+- **Systems:** new. Item durability and wear exist on M.
+- **Fits:** Aya Collective (everyone comes home), Aeronautics Unlimited, Ewan Hart, Cetacean Navigators.
+- **On the hull:** small drones with manipulator arms parked on rails along the hull, beside numbered access panels.
+
+### Tug Drone
+
+- **Asks:** use drones to grab, tow and push: loose cargo, a disabled prize, a wreck, an asteroid, an enemy's drone.
+- **Pays:** moving mass without moving the hull. Cosmoteer's tractor beam applies equal and opposite recoil to its operator ([primary], PA 2.1 A); a drone takes that recoil instead.
+- **Beaten by:** anything that kills or cuts the tug; mass beyond its thrust. Its dependency is thrust per drone.
+- **Evidence:** Cosmoteer tractor beams; Elite limpets (collector, fuel transfer, hatch breaker; PA 2.3); `HullData.CanTow` and the station-towing AI task (M).
+- **Systems:** partly. Towing exists on M; the tractor exists in Unity only. A tug drone is new.
+- **Fits:** Ewan Hart, Lightsail Express, Aeronautics Unlimited, Cetacean Navigators (they tow disabled ships away).
+- **On the hull:** a cluster of small, chunky drones with grapples or clamp pads, docked like tugboats nested against the hull.
+
+### Minelayer
+
+- **Asks:** lay a field ahead of an enemy's route or behind the ship's own retreat, and fight where the field shapes movement.
+- **Pays:** area denial that persists after the ship has left. Mines are cheap to lay and slow to clear; history ranks ordinary minefields above Q-ships against submarines (PA 2.1 D, F).
+- **Beaten by:** sweepers, detection (mines are bodies with a signature), and opponents who route around a field the layer could not hide. Its dependency is predicting the route.
+- **Evidence:** PA 2.1 D (real-world mine warfare, Elite shock mines); Starsector Doom's Mine Strike (PA 2.1 B).
+- **Systems:** partly. `WeaponType.Mine` and a Unity `Mine` with activation delay, blast range and lifetime exist on M; FC resolves mine blasts. Field behaviour and a laying pattern are new.
+- **Fits:** Death Monkey Explosives, Megiddo, Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** a long rear deck or ventral chute with rails carrying a queue of identical round mines, ending at a hatch at the stern.
+
+### Minesweeper
+
+- **Asks:** go first, find and clear a field, or push through it.
+- **Pays:** passage for everyone behind it, and the cheapest counter to the most persistent weapon.
+- **Beaten by:** being shot while it works; it is slow by design. Its dependency is escorts.
+- **Evidence:** real-world mine countermeasures: one vessel clearing a few square kilometres a day, towed sonar, autonomous minehunters (PA 2.1 D).
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Ewan Hart (field clearance is harvest by another name), Aeronautics Unlimited.
+- **On the hull:** broad forward implements, rakes, booms or a wide scanning sweep arm, built like farm equipment.
+
+### Loitering Munition
+
+- **Asks:** launch a munition that waits in an area, choose its target from what it sees, and send it in, with the option to wave off and return to loiter.
+- **Pays:** a weapon that does not have to be aimed at launch, which can wait for the right target, and which the pilot can call off. Switchblade allows wave-off until four seconds from impact; Harop can abort and return to loiter ([wiki], PA 2.1 E).
+- **Beaten by:** jamming the link (Switchblade's effectiveness fell under electronic warfare, [U] on the figure), PD, and targets that do not present themselves. Its dependency is the link and the loiter time.
+- **Evidence:** PA 2.1 E (Switchblade, Harop, Lancet). The novella: the countering force placed "two cold terminal loiterers inside the defended geometry" of the corrected drone carrier, and they ended hull one (doctrine 4).
+- **Elysium note:** the two terminal loiterers that ended hull one hit a ship with no shield, and its own open propellant supplied the destructive energy. Against a shield, a terminal hit smaller than the reserve is absorbed, so loitering munitions either carry one warhead big enough to break the reserve or arrive as a pair, the first breaking the shield and the second hitting in the restore window. Negent makes the loiterer itself colder and harder to find while its charge lasts (see [[#Cold Drone]]).
+- **Systems:** new. Guided launchers (M) are the nearest substrate.
+- **Fits:** Rossum & Douglas (the guarantee applies to whatever it strikes first, so a loiterer that chooses is the premium model), Pirate Coalition, Cryonix (a cold loiterer is a first trace that is yours to find).
+- **On the hull:** a rack of tubes angled upward from the dorsal surface, each closed by a cap, with a control or sensor mast beside them; the munitions themselves have folded wings.
+
+### Sentry Drop
+
+- **Asks:** deploy stationary gun platforms at a position and fight beside them, or leave them to hold it.
+- **Pays:** firepower that does not need the ship's power or heat once deployed, and a position the enemy must clear.
+- **Beaten by:** fast close targets the sentries cannot track (EVE sentries have "poor tracking"), and simply not coming to that position. Its dependency is a fight at a fixed place.
+- **Evidence:** EVE sentry drones (PA 2.3); the Turret hull type with 360 arc and a `TurretController` (M, arc authoring FC).
+- **Systems:** partly. Turret hulls exist on M as stationary entities; launching one from a ship is new.
+- **Fits:** Aeronautics Unlimited (construction crews already place hardware), NiteLife Energy (guards that never leave their stations), Megiddo.
+- **On the hull:** folded tripod or box turrets stacked on the deck like cargo, each with its own small gun.
+
+### Tethered Drone
+
+- **Asks:** fly a drone on a physical line from the parent.
+- **Pays:** a link that cannot be jammed, power and cooling supplied down the tether, and recovery by reeling in.
+- **Beaten by:** cutting the line, and the parent's own manoeuvres, which drag the drone. Its dependency is the geometry of the line.
+- **Evidence:** fibre-optic FPV drones (cable tangling and tearing; PA 2.1 E); the ALE-55 fibre-optic towed decoy (PA 2.1 D); the Gremlins mid-air recovery by tether and arm (PA 2.1 E).
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Finch Cybernetics (a sense organ on a nerve), Cetacean Navigators, Ewan Hart.
+- **On the hull:** a large winch drum or spool housing with a line paying out to a drone at its end; the drone itself small.
+
+### Mixed Cloud
+
+- **Asks:** carry a mixed set of small hulls (PD drones, relays, spotters, decoys, mines, terminal weapons, recoverable scouts) and assign each a present role, retasking during the fight.
+- **Pays:** flexibility: a defensive element can turn offensive, relays can preserve a track, attachable units can exploit an opening.
+- **Beaten by:** partitioned links, fragmenting fire, false distress, and the cost of retasking itself. The novella's verdict on bounded mixed drone clouds: "every option consumes the resource that kept another option available"; a detached recovery tender was cut off.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 8 (PA 3.1; [[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/Failure Ladder|Failure Ladder]]).
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Pirate Coalition, Finch Cybernetics.
+- **On the hull:** cradles of visibly different small hulls in one rack, each a different shape, so the mixture reads.
+
+## D. Mass and Momentum
+
+Flight is inertial with drag and zone gravity; thrusters apply torque from their position; the flywheel drive stores momentum (all M). Control allocation across damaged actuators is DOC (`docs/locomotion-cut.md`).
+
+### Ram
+
+- **Asks:** use the hull as the weapon: build speed, aim the heaviest part, and accept the impact.
+- **Pays:** damage that scales with mass and closing speed and costs no ammunition, power or heat.
+- **Beaten by:** dodging, which is easy if the ram is visible early; point defence does nothing to it, so the counter is movement. Its dependency is reaching contact.
+- **Evidence:** the fireship's tactical effect (PA 2.1 F) is the nearest historical case in the file; collision damage is not documented in the file for any game.
+- **Systems:** new. Inertial flight and mass exist on M; FC removed hit detection in favour of rolled resolution, so contact damage needs its own rule.
+- **Fits:** Death Monkey Explosives, Zhestokost (towing lugs and a forklift's front), Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** a reinforced, blunt or pointed prow block, heavier than the rest of the hull, with bracing running back from it; the drive large for the hull's size.
+
+### Tug
+
+- **Asks:** attach to another body and move it: tow a prize out of a protected zone, drag a disabled ally to safety, pull a station module.
+- **Pays:** control of where a fight's spoils and casualties end up.
+- **Beaten by:** attacking the tug while it is encumbered, since towed mass adds to its own (M). Its dependency is the tow line and its thrust.
+- **Evidence:** `HullData.CanTow`, `StationTowing` task (M); Cosmoteer tractor (PA 2.1 A); Cetacean Navigators tow disabled ships ([[Faction Play]]); [[Aetheria Starbridge]] names towing and anchoring as run-saving roles.
+- **Systems:** partly. Towing exists on M for station work.
+- **Fits:** Lightsail Express, Ewan Hart, Cetacean Navigators, Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** heavy tow hitches and lugs at the stern, a cable drum, and a drive disproportionately large for the hull.
+
+### Thrower
+
+- **Asks:** turn cargo, wreckage or rock into projectiles: jettison into a pursuer's path, push an asteroid with a tractor, sling mass with momentum.
+- **Pays:** ammunition from the environment.
+- **Beaten by:** space: there is a lot of it, and thrown mass is slow and predictable. Its dependency is a target that cannot manoeuvre.
+- **Evidence:** Cosmoteer's tractor push (PA 2.1 A). No game in the file builds a hull around this.
+- **Systems:** new. There is no jettison command (M); the tractor is Unity only.
+- **Fits:** Aeronautics Unlimited, Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** a tractor emitter or grapple arm forward and an open cargo bay or mass hopper behind it.
+
+### Flywheel Sprinter
+
+- **Asks:** spin up the flywheel quietly before a fight, then discharge the stored momentum in one surge, sway or turn.
+- **Pays:** acceleration the reactor could not supply in the moment, and a signature that stays low until the surge.
+- **Beaten by:** fights that last longer than one stored charge. Its dependency is foreknowledge.
+- **Evidence:** `AetherDrive` on M: spin-up costs power, discharging RPM into thrust is free, coupling inefficiency heats (PA 1.7).
+- **Systems:** exists on M.
+- **Fits:** Alakrita, Lucent headliners (the surge onto stage).
+- **On the hull:** a large, visible rotor housing, a drum or ring around the body or set across it, the ship's largest mechanical feature.
+
+### Gravity Surfer
+
+- **Asks:** ride gravity waves and wells rather than thrust against them, choosing approach paths by terrain.
+- **Pays:** speed for little heat and signature; positions others cannot reach without burning.
+- **Beaten by:** fights away from gravity terrain. Its dependency is the map.
+- **Evidence:** zone gravity adds acceleration along the terrain normal (M); [[Design Pillars]] on "sailing on gravity waves".
+- **Systems:** exists on M as physics; AI path choice by terrain is new.
+- **Fits:** Cetacean Navigators (route lines on the hull), Lightsail Express.
+- **On the hull:** a keel, fin or broad lower plane shaped to the wave, and little main drive.
+
+## E. Logistics and Support
+
+### Tender
+
+- **Asks:** carry a column's rounds, hold back from the fight, and let low-ammunition ships rearm and return.
+- **Pays:** a column that keeps firing; force becomes whatever the supply tail can feed.
+- **Beaten by:** hitting the tender, or draining magazines faster than the transfer rate. Its dependency is the column's discipline in returning.
+- **Evidence:** MIND `cut-faction-play-4.r2` (tender loop on real rounds, InForce); Zhestokost in [[Faction Play]]; the Quartermaster and Babushka in [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 2|Ship Prompt Bench 2]].
+- **Systems:** MIND (spec InForce, not code); item transfer exists on M.
+- **Fits:** Zhestokost, Aya Collective.
+- **On the hull:** magazines as the largest masses, transfer collars on the flanks, little armament. The bench's tender attempts already do this.
+
+### Heat Tender
+
+- **Asks:** come alongside a hot ally and take its heat, through a coupling or a carried sink.
+- **Pays:** lets a furnace or burst ship fight again without cooling down.
+- **Beaten by:** catching the tender while coupled, when both ships are slow and one is hot. Its dependency is the coupling window.
+- **Evidence:** [[Aetheria Starbridge]] names cooling as a run-saving role; the novella's detachable emergency sinks (Ship And Refit Ledger).
+- **Systems:** new. Heat conducts between cells within one hull (M); not between hulls.
+- **Fits:** Cryonix (the cold chain made exact), NiteLife Energy.
+- **On the hull:** big radiator wings, a thermal coupling boom with a docking collar at its tip, insulated piping visible along the spine.
+
+### Power Tender
+
+*Added 2026-10-05 for [[Brainstorming/Ship Prompt Bench 3|Ship Prompt Bench 3]].*
+
+- **Asks:** come alongside a ship whose capacitors are spent and refill them through a coupling, then pull away before the fight finds the pair.
+- **Pays:** burst ships (Burst and Break Off, Shield Breaker, any capacitor-led duelist) fight a second exchange without retreating to a station. It is the energy half of what the Tender does for rounds.
+- **Beaten by:** catching the pair while coupled, and draining allies faster than the coupling can refill them. Its dependency is the coupling window and its own stored charge.
+- **Evidence:** capacitors on M; FC's power bus gives instant draws their own capacitors (see Burst and Break Off); EVE logistics ships transfer capacitor between hulls (general knowledge, not in the evidence file).
+- **Systems:** new. Capacitors and the power bus exist within one hull; energy transfer between hulls does not.
+- **Fits:** NiteLife Energy ("we keep the lights on, and we own the cartridge"; its spare cartridges are the tender's magazine).
+- **On the hull:** a coupling boom with a flat charge collar at its tip, spare power cartridges sunk into the body, and station-keeping thrusters that let it hold beside a moving ship.
+
+### Remote Repair Ship
+
+- **Asks:** stay with allies, repairing or recharging them under fire, while dealing little damage.
+- **Pays:** a group that outlasts a stronger one.
+- **Beaten by:** focusing it first; jamming. EVE logistics "can be jammed, destroyed or booshed off" (PA 2.3). Its dependency is staying cohesive with the group.
+- **Evidence:** EVE logistics and spider-web remote repair (PA 2.3).
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Aya Collective, Cetacean Navigators.
+- **On the hull:** manipulator arms and a repair boom, spare-part racks in plain view, a rescue or service colour band.
+
+### Arsenal Barge
+
+- **Asks:** carry a very large missile load and fire on someone else's targeting.
+- **Pays:** firepower far above its size, at stand-off range.
+- **Beaten by:** killing or blinding its spotters, and reaching it, since it has nothing else. Its dependency is the network. The arsenal ship programme ended in 1997 and its role passed to submarines carrying cruise missiles (PA 2.1 F).
+- **Evidence:** arsenal ship (PA 2.1 F); Rossum & Douglas stand-off pickets ([[Faction Play]]).
+- **Systems:** partly. Guided and seeking launchers exist on M; external targeting is new (see Spotter).
+- **Fits:** Rossum & Douglas, Zhestokost.
+- **On the hull:** a flat dorsal plane tiled with hatched launch cells, almost no sensor of its own, a small cockpit.
+
+### Mothership
+
+- **Asks:** carry a smaller crewed ship docked and launch it for work the big hull cannot do: boarding, landing, scouting, a second pilot.
+- **Pays:** two bodies with one logistics tail.
+- **Beaten by:** separating them. Its dependency is redocking.
+- **Evidence:** docking bays hold a ship as a child that adds to the host's mass, and the player can dock and undock (M); Highfleet aircraft with fuel and sortie limits (PA 2.1 C, [snippet]). See also [[Nibu Attached Shuttle Story]].
+- **Systems:** partly. Docking bays exist on M; stations are the only hosts in current play.
+- **Fits:** Lightsail Express (cab and trailer), Cetacean Navigators (lifeboats), Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** a smaller, recognisably separate craft nested into a cradle or bay on the parent, its own cockpit visible.
+
+## F. Boarding and Capture
+
+The [[Faction Play]] pirates want cargo, not death, and the novella is about capture. These concepts turn a fight's object from destruction to possession.
+
+### Boarder
+
+- **Asks:** close to contact, grapple, and put people or machines aboard.
+- **Pays:** the prize intact.
+- **Beaten by:** counter-boarding, hull-clearing charges, and anything that hits the boarder while it is stuck to the target. Homeworld's capture frigates stay exposed while boarding (PA 2.1 C). Its dependency is the target's interior.
+- **Evidence:** Homeworld capture frigates; FTL boarding drones (PA 2.1 C); the novella's boarding cells (Ship And Refit Ledger).
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** a grappling arm and a boarding collar or ramp on the camera side, heavy fenders, a crew section larger than a fighter's.
+
+### Remora
+
+- **Asks:** attach small stand-off units to the target that take its sensor, drive, safing or lock authority, and manufacture surrender by selective loss of subsystem control.
+- **Pays:** capture without destruction, and the target's crew alive.
+- **Beaten by:** heterogeneous control buses, local confirmation, false maintenance segments, and a target engineered so that capture would kill its passengers. The novella's verdict on Patient Hand: the best prize yet, then insurers studied standardized capture surfaces, and the crew refused a capture that would have killed passengers.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 3 (PA 3.1); Elite's hatch-breaker limpet, which working ECM can strip (PA 2.3).
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Pirate Coalition, Sol Dominion (an inspection lock is a lawful remora).
+- **On the hull:** a row of tubes or cradles holding small flat units with clamp feet, like lampreys or limpets.
+
+### Disabler
+
+- **Asks:** reveal the target's gear, then shoot its drives, sensors or weapons, not its hull.
+- **Pays:** a stopped ship, not a wreck: a prize, an arrest, or a fight ended early.
+- **Beaten by:** preventing the reveal (stay cold, keep range), and armour placed over the subsystems that matter. Its dependency is the reveal.
+- **Evidence:** reveal tiers wired to subsystem aim on FC (PA 1.5); Sol Dominion and pirates aim for drives ([[Faction Play]]).
+- **Systems:** exists on FC.
+- **Fits:** Sol Dominion, Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** a large forward sensor array or illuminator next to a precise, long, light gun; the ship looks like it is studying, not smashing.
+
+### Interdictor
+
+- **Asks:** pin a target in place so others can reach it.
+- **Pays:** the target cannot leave; in a game of breaking off, that wins fights.
+- **Beaten by:** killing it fast, and never fighting where one is posted. EVE's tackle ships are vulnerable, and pinning snipers is "obvious but difficult" (PA 2.3). Its dependency is its friends arriving.
+- **Evidence:** EVE fleet types and tackle (PA 2.3).
+- **Systems:** new; drive targeting on FC is the nearest substrate.
+- **Fits:** Sol Dominion, Megiddo.
+- **On the hull:** a projector, net launcher or field emitter as the dominant forward feature.
+
+### Salvager
+
+- **Asks:** arrive after the fight, collect drops and wrecks, and leave before the owner returns.
+- **Pays:** profit without combat.
+- **Beaten by:** being caught in the field. Its dependency is timing.
+- **Evidence:** loot drops from destroyed items and hulls; the Unity tractor beam and pickup into any cargo bay with room (M).
+- **Systems:** partly (Unity-only tractor, drops on M).
+- **Fits:** Pirate Coalition, Aeronautics Unlimited, Ewan Hart.
+- **On the hull:** a tractor emitter, a wide open cargo maw, sorting arms.
+
+## G. Deception
+
+### Q-Ship
+
+- **Asks:** look like a harmless merchant until the target commits, then reveal hidden guns.
+- **Pays:** the first shot against a target that expected an easy prize.
+- **Beaten by:** inspection: in Aetheria, reading gear before engaging. The historical Q-ships worked until the pattern was learned, and were later judged "greatly overrated" and ranked below minefields (PA 2.1 F). Its dependency is the observer's lack of curiosity.
+- **Evidence:** Q-ships (PA 2.1 F); reveal tiers on FC already separate seeing a contact from knowing its gear; Pirates fly freighter transponders with gunship heat ([[Faction Play]]).
+- **Systems:** partly. Reveal tiers exist on FC; a way to hide gear from the reveal (a shroud item or a false profile) is new.
+- **Fits:** Pirate Coalition, Lightsail Express (a hauler with teeth, defensively).
+- **On the hull:** a plain freighter body with panel lines that are too regular in one place, one of them shown opening to expose a gun muzzle.
+
+### False Distress
+
+- **Asks:** call for help that is not needed, to draw a responder into a trap or away from something else.
+- **Pays:** a target that comes to you.
+- **Beaten by:** responders who check before answering. Its dependency is a culture of answering. In the novella, the countering force injected false distress against the drone cloud (doctrine 8).
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 8; Cetacean Navigators drop any fight to answer distress ([[Faction Play]]).
+- **Systems:** new; there is no distress signal.
+- **Fits:** Pirate Coalition.
+- **On the hull:** a ship that looks damaged on purpose: a scorched panel that is painted, venting that is a dye.
+
+### Playing Dead
+
+- **Asks:** go cold and still, look like a wreck or a rock, and wait.
+- **Pays:** the opponent ignores it or comes close to inspect.
+- **Beaten by:** active sensing; Megiddo turns hostile when an inert cold object is scanned inside its volume ([[Faction Play]]). Its dependency is that nobody looks twice.
+- **Evidence:** "a contact colder than its surroundings is either dead or Adrasteian" ([[Faction Play]]); thermal model (M).
+- **Systems:** exists on M (heat, visibility decay).
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia, Cryonix.
+- **On the hull:** irregular, rock-like or wreck-like facets with no visible lights, drive or markings.
+
+## H. Area Control and Survivability
+
+### Picket Line
+
+- **Asks:** lay passive sensors along a route and wait for the track.
+- **Pays:** detection far beyond the ship's own sensors, with no emission.
+- **Beaten by:** finding and killing pickets, or routing around them. Its dependency is guessing the route.
+- **Evidence:** the novella's passive pickets with fourteen-day station life (Ship And Refit Ledger); Homeworld proximity probes ([snippet]).
+- **Systems:** new as deployables; directional sensors exist on M.
+- **Fits:** Finch Cybernetics, Megiddo, Sol Dominion.
+- **On the hull:** racks of small cold canisters, each with a sensor eye.
+
+### Illuminator
+
+- **Asks:** ping actively and often, and share what it lights up.
+- **Pays:** every ship nearby, friend and enemy, is seen; information arrives fast.
+- **Beaten by:** shooting the brightest thing in the zone, which it is. Its dependency is protection.
+- **Evidence:** active pings raise the pinger's own visibility (M); Nebulous: radar return falls with the fourth power of range and fire-control radar can burn through jamming ([snippet], PA 2.1 D); Lucent and Odla in [[Faction Play]].
+- **Systems:** exists on M.
+- **Fits:** Lucent Media, Framgång and Odla.
+- **On the hull:** one huge aperture, dish or lens as the dominant feature, with stage lights or emitters around it.
+
+### Point-Defence Umbrella
+
+- **Asks:** escort others and kill what is fired at them.
+- **Pays:** missiles and drones barely reach the group.
+- **Beaten by:** guns, not missiles, and saturation beyond its magazine and cooling (a Phalanx empties in about 20 seconds; PA 2.1 D). Its dependency is magazine depth.
+- **Evidence:** Cosmoteer PD (PA 2.1 D); Aya in [[Faction Play]].
+- **Systems:** new; no PD behaviour exists.
+- **Fits:** Aya Collective, Megiddo.
+- **On the hull:** many small, fast turrets spread over every face, each with a short barrel and a sensor; no large gun.
+
+### Fireship
+
+- **Asks:** send an expendable hull, loaded to burn or burst, into an enemy formation.
+- **Pays:** the formation breaks even if nothing is destroyed. At Calais in 1588 no Armada ship burned, but anchors were cut and the formation broke (PA 2.1 F).
+- **Beaten by:** distance and point defence. Its dependency is a formation that holds still.
+- **Evidence:** fireships (PA 2.1 F); the novella's hull one was destroyed by its own fuel and ammunition supply (doctrine 4).
+- **Systems:** partly. Reactor overload and heat exist (M); a deliberate self-detonation is new.
+- **Fits:** Death Monkey Explosives.
+- **On the hull:** a stripped hull with charge packs strapped along it, pull handles and cut lines; DME's block already has the vocabulary.
+
+### Distributed Body
+
+- **Asks:** accept a bigger, more complex hull in which machinery, bays and control are spread out with no single critical place.
+- **Pays:** survives hits that would end a concentrated ship. The novella's refit thesis after losing hull one: "distributed machinery, separate bays, removable Pal integration, fewer recoverable drones... no beautiful throat through which every useful thing must return."
+- **Beaten by:** time and attrition: no single kill, but no single strong point either.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 4 refit thesis (PA 3.1); per-cell armour and items absorbing as pools (M).
+- **Elysium note:** the thesis was written by a crew with no shields. It still holds in Elysium, because what destroyed hull one was a shared service neighbourhood, and a shield is one more single critical item to place: a distributed body might carry two smaller shields rather than one large one.
+- **Systems:** exists on M as physics; the design choice is hull layout.
+- **Fits:** Aya Collective (replaceable cells), Megiddo (separately maintained service sections).
+- **On the hull:** repeated, separated modules joined by trusses or frames, each with its own small radiator and access hatch.
+
+## I. Shields and Negent
+
+Elysium's own technology, absent from the novella's Sol timeline. Protection here is plural and faction-dependent (fork 8, answered): armour is almost always still a good idea, most protective technologies deflect or mitigate a specific damage type, and a shield that blocks anything is prohibitively expensive to run, so a ship that turtles behind one drains its capacitors and dies to thermals. This group catalogues that universal shield, because it is the one built on master; it is not the default hull. Damage types travel on events but are not used in the damage math today, so type-specific mitigation needs new systems. On master a shield is an item with an energy reserve: each absorbed hit spends energy per point of damage and adds heat to the shield item in proportion to the damage; a hit larger than the reserve passes through to the hull whole, breaks the shield and empties it; a broken shield restores on its own, slower clock (the punish window); it has no facing and ignores damage type (`Shield.cs`). On fire-control the shield draws from the power bus at High tier. A heat-cooked shield can drop offline like any other item. The shield presentation contract (`docs/shield-presentation-contract.md`) separates what a shield does from how it is shown: a field shield, a hard-light panel interceptor and the Lariat whip are interchangeable presentations of the same capability. Negent is design documents only: gear that converts heat into light, so a ship can run colder than its surroundings, paid for by a consumable charge only Adrasteia makes, by wear from the temperature swing, and by the crew's own heat ([[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]], `docs/negent-weapons-concept.md`, negent ruling in `docs/stats-and-power-target.md`).
+
+How the three layers interact, which every entry below leans on:
+
+- **Shield and cost.** The universal shield pays for its generality in power and heat: a reserve spends energy per point absorbed and heats the shield item, so a ship that sits behind one empties its capacitors and then cooks. Armour costs mass once and keeps working. Most ships should expect to carry armour and at most a narrower, cheaper protection.
+- **Shield and armour.** A hit either stays in the shield or goes through whole. So the shield handles many small hits and armour handles the big one that breaks it. A ship chooses which layer it invests in, and an attacker chooses whether to drain the reserve or exceed it.
+- **Shield and heat.** Absorbed damage becomes heat in the shield item, so a shield is also a heat sink with a temperature band. Radiators and negent decide how long a shield can keep absorbing.
+- **Shield and drones.** Drones are many small hits; they drain and heat shields rather than breaking them. Drones are also small bodies, for which a shield is expensive.
+- **Negent and everything.** Negent removes the heat limit on sustained fire, on shield absorption and on cold waiting, and replaces it with a supply line. It is "an infinite-DPS exploit" without the charge cost (the ruling's own words), so every negent concept is really a logistics concept.
+
+### Shield Tank
+
+- **Asks:** carry a large reserve and keep it topped up: avoid single hits that exceed it, break off to refill, and watch the shield's own temperature.
+- **Pays:** chip damage disappears; light weapons, swarms and point defence fire do nothing to the hull.
+- **Beaten by:** one hit larger than the reserve, which breaks it and lands whole; then the restore window. Also sustained fire that never breaks it but cooks the shield item. Its dependency is that nothing it meets hits hard enough.
+- **Evidence:** `Shield.cs` (M); Starsector's flux and hard flux, where shield absorption builds a load that only clears with the shield down (PA 2.1 B, [wiki]); EVE buffer and passive shield tanks (PA 2.3, [wiki]).
+- **Systems:** exists on M; power tiers on FC.
+- **Fits:** Megiddo (the no-weak-part shield in the content pass), Aya Collective, Sol Dominion.
+- **On the hull:** a prominent shield emitter as a visible housing: a ring, dome or projector array set high on the hull, with its own radiator fins, so the shield reads as gear and its heat path is visible.
+
+### Shield Breaker
+
+- **Asks:** land one hit larger than the target's reserve, then exploit the restore window with everything else.
+- **Pays:** the whole defensive layer removed at once, and a few seconds in which every weapon reaches the hull.
+- **Beaten by:** reserves larger than its alpha; dodging during the charge; armour behind the shield that survives the follow-through. Its dependency is reading the reserve. Fire-control's reveal tiers (armour, then gear) are the natural way to learn it.
+- **Evidence:** `Shield.cs` break and restore (M); Lucent's duel in [[Faction Play]], where the headliner opens with a heavy laser burst; Starsector's overload window (PA 2.1 B).
+- **Systems:** exists on M (charged weapons, shield break); fire control and reveal tiers on FC.
+- **Fits:** Lucent Media, Cryonix, Alakrita, Zhestokost (the heavy gun is the point).
+- **On the hull:** one heavy weapon dominating the silhouette, usually a spinal or a large forward mount, plus a ring of light guns for the follow-through.
+
+### Shield Skirmisher
+
+- **Asks:** carry a small reserve that refills fast, fight in short exchanges, and step out of range to refill rather than absorb a long fight.
+- **Pays:** a shield that is nearly always full when it matters, at little mass and power.
+- **Beaten by:** anything that keeps it in range, and any hit bigger than its small reserve. Its dependency is freedom to disengage.
+- **Evidence:** `RefillDuration` and `RestoreDuration` as separate clocks (M); EVE active tanks, which fail when capacitor drains (PA 2.3).
+- **Systems:** exists on M.
+- **Fits:** Alakrita, Pirate Coalition, Miss Terri's (one pass, out, refill, back).
+- **On the hull:** a compact emitter close to the cockpit, and large drives; the shield is small and the ship is built to leave.
+
+### Shield Cooker
+
+- **Asks:** pour sustained, low-damage fire into a shield that will not break, so the absorbed heat drives the shield item out of its temperature band and offline.
+- **Pays:** beats a shield tank without a heavy gun.
+- **Beaten by:** radiators, heat storage and negent on the target; distance. Its dependency is time on target.
+- **Evidence:** `Shield.TakeHit` adds heat per absorbed point (M); items lose performance and go offline outside their temperature band (M); Starsector's hard flux (PA 2.1 B).
+- **Systems:** exists on M as physics; the AI choosing this over breaking is new.
+- **Fits:** Miss Terri's (continuous spray), Aeronautics Unlimited (dumbfire swarms), Death Monkey Explosives (they run hot and make others hot).
+- **On the hull:** many continuous-fire emitters or nozzles, and large radiators of its own, because the cooker heats itself too.
+
+### Facing Shield
+
+- **Asks:** keep the shield's arc toward the threat, as a broadside ship keeps its guns toward it.
+- **Pays:** a stronger shield for the same power, if fork 6 pays for coverage in reserve.
+- **Beaten by:** flanking; two attackers. Its dependency is one threat axis.
+- **Evidence:** fork 6; Starsector frontal shields (general knowledge, not in the evidence file); the hard-light panel interceptor presentation (`docs/shield-presentation-contract.md`) would show it naturally.
+- **Systems:** new; omni shields exist on M, weapon arcs on FC.
+- **Fits:** Zhestokost and Megiddo (armoured prow plus a frontal shield), Sol Dominion (broadside with the shield on the gun side).
+- **On the hull:** panel emitters or a projector frame on one face only, plainly directional, with the other faces carrying armour.
+
+### Shield Escort
+
+- **Asks:** extend shield coverage over another ship, or stand between it and the threat with a large reserve.
+- **Pays:** a fragile ship (a tender, a carrier, a hauler) fights or works inside protection it could not carry.
+- **Beaten by:** breaking the escort's reserve, which uncovers both, and separating them. Its dependency is staying close.
+- **Evidence:** the presentation contract expresses coverage through the ship's envelope, which a projector would extend; EVE remote shield logistics (PA 2.3).
+- **Systems:** new.
+- **Fits:** Aya Collective, Cetacean Navigators, Megiddo.
+- **On the hull:** a projector boom or ring standing off the hull, aimed outward, much larger than a self-shield emitter would need to be.
+
+### Lariat
+
+- **Asks:** fly a ship whose shield and pickup are one presentation: a whip that snaps out to intercept incoming fire and to catch loot, munitions or drones.
+- **Pays:** the same gesture defends and salvages; a ship built around it fights to collect.
+- **Beaten by:** its arbitration: it decides whether it is snapping, coiling or reeling, and a second threat while it reels must be absorbed by the capability without the whip's help (the presentation may refuse to show it). The underlying shield is beaten as any shield is.
+- **Evidence:** `docs/shield-presentation-contract.md` (the Lariat serves both pickup and shielding; it may not delay or deny the simulation).
+- **Systems:** DOC; the field shield's tendril presentation exists (`FieldDriver`).
+- **Fits:** Pirate Coalition, Ewan Hart, Lucent Media (a whip is a performance).
+- **On the hull:** a coiled tube or cable housing with a reel and a launch throat, the coil the largest feature on the side facing the camera.
+
+### Negent Sink
+
+- **Asks:** keep firing, absorbing or holding still without pausing to cool, and manage instead the charge magazine, the wear on gear held far below its designed temperature, and the crew's body heat.
+- **Pays:** sustained fire, a shield that never cooks, and a cold signature, all at once, for as long as the charges hold.
+- **Beaten by:** a long fight, which spends the charges; a cut supply line; and patience, because "after that it is a very cold ship full of worn equipment, crewed by people who feel fine" ([[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]]). Its dependency is Adrasteia's charge.
+- **Evidence:** negent ruling in `docs/stats-and-power-target.md`; [[Worldbuilding/Post-Elysium/Technology/Running Cold|Running Cold]]; DarkMatter X, a negentropy reactor ([[Brainstorming/Corporate Roster and Item Wishlist|Corporate Roster]]).
+- **Systems:** DOC. Temperature bands, wear from swing and cockpit hypothermia exist on M.
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia, and its customers at a price.
+- **On the hull:** a charge magazine as a sealed, keyed hatch; cold apertures where radiators would be; frost or dark bloom around the conversion array.
+
+### Negent Shield Tank
+
+- **Asks:** pair a shield with negent so that absorbed heat is converted away.
+- **Pays:** removes the shield cooker counter while the charges last; only a hit above the reserve threatens it.
+- **Beaten by:** the shield breaker, unchanged; and drain on charges, which every absorbed hit now costs. Its dependency is both the reserve and the supply line.
+- **Evidence:** the shield heat path in `Shield.cs` (M) and the negent ruling (DOC).
+- **Systems:** DOC for the negent half.
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia, and a rich Megiddo or Sol Dominion buyer.
+- **On the hull:** a shield emitter whose heat path runs into a negent array rather than a radiator.
+
+### Cold Drone
+
+- **Asks:** fit drones or loitering munitions with negent so they wait colder than the background.
+- **Pays:** loiterers and pickets that are much harder to find; the Sol counter that ended hull one, cold loiterers inside the defended geometry, becomes a weapon a player can field.
+- **Beaten by:** active sensing (Megiddo's rule), the charge each drone consumes, and short loiter time once the charge runs out. Its dependency is a charge per drone, which makes swarms of them very expensive.
+- **Evidence:** novella doctrine 4 (Sol-timeline; there the loiterers were cold without negent); negent ruling (DOC).
+- **Systems:** new for drones, DOC for negent.
+- **Fits:** Adrasteia, Cryonix, Pirate Coalition when it can afford them.
+- **On the hull:** a rack of small faceted, light-drinking munitions with sealed charge caps, unlike the parent's other gear.
+
+## Faction Fit
+
+Shield concepts in this table mean the faction fields the universal shield or fights it, not that its hulls carry one by default. Armour is the baseline for every row, and a faction's own protection may be a narrower, type-specific technology that the lore has not named yet.
+
+Tendencies, not rights. Registers are from [[Brainstorming/Ship Design Language|Ship Design Language]]; doctrines from [[Faction Play]].
+
+| Faction | Register | Concepts its doctrine favours | Why |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| Zhestokost | Serious | Broadside two-sided, armoured prow, furnace, tender, carrier, arsenal barge, shield breaker, facing shield | Force is whatever the supply tail can keep firing |
+| Miss Terri's | High whimsy | Forward-fixed fighter, one-sided broadside (spray pass), swarm boat, shield cooker, shield skirmisher | One spray pass, then the corrosion works |
+| Lucent Media | Spectacle | Burst and break off, spinal mount, illuminator, spotter (camera drones), rotating battery, shield breaker, Lariat | Every fight is content; one headliner at a time |
+| Corriedales | High whimsy | Forward-fixed fighter, a companion drone or two | A mascot with a real gun; a pet drone fits the register |
+| Aeronautics Unlimited | Serious | Swarm boat, tug drone, sentry drop, repair drone, salvager, minesweeper, shield cooker | Working crews and frontier hardware |
+| Finch Cybernetics | Serious | Spotter, picket line, tethered drone, mixed cloud | Sells noticing |
+| Rossum & Douglas | Serious | Arsenal barge, swarm boat, loitering munition, stern chaser | Stand-off guaranteed missiles; backs away from anyone who closes |
+| NiteLife Energy | Serious | Sentry drop, radiator gambler, heat tender, power tender | Guards never leave their stations |
+| Lightsail Express | Whimsy turned up | Stern chaser, tug, mothership, Q-ship (defensive) | Never drops the cargo; fights with it |
+| Alakrita | Serious | Spinal mount, forward-fixed fighter, flywheel sprinter, burst and break off, shield breaker, shield skirmisher | One fast pass, leaves when scratched |
+| Ewan Hart | Whimsy turned up | Tug, repair drone, minesweeper, one-sided broadside (a gun where the tool arm is), Lariat | People need dinner |
+| Death Monkey Explosives | Reserved | Fireship, minelayer, furnace, ram, armoured prow, shield cooker | Break the dependency and make sure it stays broken |
+| Adrasteia | Serious | Quiet approach, heat eater, heat ferry, decoy drone, playing dead, negent sink, negent shield tank, cold drone | The best defence is not to need one |
+| Sol Dominion | Serious | Disabler, interdictor, broadside two-sided, spotter, picket line, remora (inspection lock), shield tank, facing shield | Identify, classify, then act through the record |
+| Cryonix | Serious | Spinal mount, burst and break off, radiator gambler, quiet approach, heat tender, shield breaker, cold drone | One precise shot, then a bright heat dump |
+| Cetacean Navigators | Whimsy turned up | Tug, remote repair, PD escort drones, mothership (lifeboats), gravity surfer, shield escort | Obligations without consequences are advertising |
+| Aya Collective | Serious | PD umbrella, PD escort drones, distributed body, repair drone, tender, shield tank, shield escort | Everyone comes home |
+| Framgång and Odla | High whimsy | Illuminator, rotating battery | Chrome and a useless active sensor |
+| Pirate Coalition | Pirate | Q-ship, boarder, remora, disabler, mixed cloud, false distress, minelayer, salvager, stern chaser, shield skirmisher, Lariat, cold drone | Possession has a maintenance schedule, and they fly what they steal |
+| Megiddo | Serious | PD umbrella, minelayer, decoy drone, picket line, interdictor, distributed body, shield tank, facing shield, shield escort | Hold the boundary until the question is answered |
+
+## Gaps
+
+- Ace Combat, Into the Breach, Nebulous devlogs, Starsector hullmods and mount-arc rules, and Cosmoteer fighters were not retrieved (PA 2.2). Several Starsector and Elite numbers above rest on fan wikis or search snippets and are marked.
+- The novella room's `Native Type Mapping.md` (how its components map onto Aetheria item types) was not read; it may already answer part of forks 3 and 4.
+- No game in the evidence builds a hull around throwing mass or around a tethered drone; those entries are extrapolation.
+
+## Evidence Key
+
+- **PA** is the Eyes evidence file of 2026-10-04, `F:\Projects\aetheria-ship-play-concepts-prior-art.md` (outside the vault). Strand 1 (PA 1.x) inventories Aetheria mechanics by branch; strand 3 (PA 3.x) summarizes the novella's doctrines; strand 2 (PA 2.x) is prior art. Its marks carry over here: **[wiki]** is a fetched fan wiki, **[primary]** developer or official text, **[snippet]** a search-engine snippet only, **[U]** unverified.
+- The novella is [[Fiction/The Burden of Proof|The Burden of Proof]]. Its planning documents are in [[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/index|Pirate Metagame Novella]], chiefly [[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/Failure Ladder|Failure Ladder]], [[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/Combat Model|Combat Model]] and [[Brainstorming/Stories/Pirate Metagame Novella/Ship And Refit Ledger|Ship And Refit Ledger]]. Its doctrines are story-room inventions, not canon and not implemented mechanics; they are cited here as the setting's own playtest.

Aetheria/Game Design/Ship-shape and Up to Specs.md

@@ -51,6 +51,12 @@ A build makes geometry, compatibility, mass, power, heat, propulsion, sensors, w
 
 Production and repair history remain relevant because nominally equivalent components can arrive with different condition, quality, provenance, compatibility, and support. The player should be able to inspect those facts before committing a refit and see which claims are missing or contested.
 
+## Play Concepts
+
+A hull should be designed around how it is meant to be played, not only around what it carries. A broadside ship has a rack of fixed hardpoints along one or both flanks and must manoeuvre to bring them into arc; a carrier's real armament is its bay and its recovery throats; a negent ship is limited by its charge magazine rather than its radiators. The concept decides the hardpoint layout, the facings, where armour and radiators sit, and what the hull looks like, and it decides what beats the ship.
+
+[[Ship Play Concepts]] is the candidate catalogue: weapon layout and arcs, heat and signature, drones and loitering munitions, mass and momentum, logistics, boarding, deception, area control, and Elysium's shields and negent. Each entry names what it asks of the pilot, what it pays, its counters, its evidence, its systems status, the factions it fits, and how it reads on a hull.
+
 ## Refit Commit
 
 A refit is one durable operation, not a visual slot change followed by later reconciliation: