Mandate at the Barricade

The team reached a roadblock built from municipal barriers, crushed transport shells and a line of old automated defense housings. Nothing on the housings showed active power. Their targeting apertures followed the team anyway.

MOTHER issued a route-clearance instruction to the inner command room. The Uncrowned coordinator converted it into a proposal: disable the housings, cross, return. The Warwake perimeter unit refused to fire until they knew whether anything remained behind the barricade.

They waited through a full exterior night. No hostile force emerged. At dawn, the housings shut their apertures one by one.

The route was abandoned rather than conquered. The official summary calls this a failure of command. The crew's shared addendum calls it the first time the barricade did not get to decide what its presence was for.