The Magnetic Vault is a storage complex: tier upon tier of sealed bays set into the shaft walls, each closed by a heavy magnetic door. The whole sector hums.
# Environment
A powerful field fills the vault. Loose metal drifts in slow orbits, and the C-9’s guide shoes grip harder than anywhere else in the shaft. Instruments that rely on magnetometers are useless. The bays themselves have never been opened. Survey probes that tried were pulled against the doors and held there.
The strip of alloy recovered by platform P-3 in 2206, the strip that made the phase coupler possible, has a field signature closely matching the vault’s. Many at Asterion believe P-3 never went past sector 3, and that the strip came up to meet it.
# Machines
Tanks lead, heavily armoured and difficult to stop, with Runners and Crawlers in support. Commanders appear more often near the guardian.
# Guardian
The Magnetic Sentinel is a vault custodian that bends loose metal around its shell into rotating armour, turning incoming fire away. It summons Commanders to direct the defence.
# Pilot notes
Lasers are the pilot’s friend here, because energy pulses bend less than shells. Keep the shield charged against the Sentinel’s reinforced waves.
Related articles
BOSSMagnetic SentinelVault security machine
ARCHIVE RECORDReactor and phase couplerThe reactor interface that draws a small, stable current from a Rift Shard, anchors the carrier to its route, and decides which systems get power.
REGULAR ENEMY UNITCommanderSquad coordination unit
WORKING THEORYThe cachesSealed Directorate supply crates found where no Directorate vehicle has been. Their scratches match crates still sitting in Asterion’s stores.