Credits are Directorate salvage tallies kept in the carrier’s ledger. Every machine the C-9 destroys is logged as recovered salvage, from a single credit for a Crawler to hundreds for a guardian. They settle the expedition’s internal accounting and unlock supplies from caches. They have no value outside the mission.
# Caches
Supply caches are sealed containers placed along the route. A cache may hold:
- Ammunition for machine guns, cannons and lasers.
- Repair material to restore hull.
- Shield energy canisters.
- Weapon unlocks, which come with starter ammunition but are not installed automatically.
- Upgrades: hardpoints, hull plating, armour, shield capacity, battery capacity, shield efficiency, weapon damage and fire rate.
- Chassis kits for the Scout, Bulwark and Carrier frames.
Repairs restore hull. They do not refill ammunition or shields unless the cache explicitly supplies them.
# What persists
Purchased parts, saved ammunition, credits and permanent research persist between attempts. Field calibrations do not. They are adjustments to one descent and are lost with it.
# Who stocks them?
Officially, the Directorate. Asterion’s stores staff stage supply drops, and Commander Graf signs every manifest. But some caches predate the blackout, and some appear in places no crew has reached. See The caches.
Related articles
WORKING THEORYThe cachesSealed Directorate supply crates found where no Directorate vehicle has been. Their scratches match crates still sitting in Asterion’s stores.
ARCHIVE RECORDThe garageThe carrier’s equipment planner: assign weapons to mounts, switch chassis and preview parts without spending credits.
ARCHIVE RECORDWeapons and ammunitionBasic turret, machine gun, cannon and laser: the four weapon families of the C-9, and why only one of them never runs out.
RECOVERED DOCUMENTDirectorate memorandum on cachesAn internal memo from Commander Graf to the Directorate council, 2216, on supply caches nobody admits to placing.