M05 — Shrinkage

Field	Data
Date	April 2029
Location	Northern Usean coast; an industrial research cryogenics node and the coastal approaches to a nearby city
Weather	Night; low cloud over the coast, clear inland
POV / aircraft	Thorne ("Over") / F-35C
Wingmen	Six, Nine, AME
Enemy	POSTHUMUS at fuel rung 3
Type	Night intercept; restraint
Time limit	20 minutes

Related: MNZ-41 fuel ladder · Victor James Thorne · MINOZIS Encounter Design

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1. Narrative Purpose

The first time the squadron sees the aircraft, it is slow, visible and vulnerable, and the correct order is to let it go. Thorne gives an order that feels like cowardice and is in fact doctrine. The mission teaches restraint as a weapon and yields the radar signature that makes the rest of the campaign possible.

2. Briefing

Tier 1 inventory auditing has flagged unexplained high-purity liquid hydrogen loss at an industrial research node on the northern coast: 4,000 liters over two nights, consistent with a rung 2 top-up. The aircraft is likely transiting at rung 3, subsonic, terrain-masked, at night.

This is not a kill mission. You are to establish contact, collect radar and thermal signature, and track. Do not pursue into populated airspace. Do not close inside 12 kilometers.

3. Objectives

Type	Objective
Primary	Establish contact
Primary	Collect 60 seconds of continuous radar signature
Primary	Break off before the city's air defense boundary
Secondary	Collect thermal signature of the repaired port wing
Hidden	Do not fire

4. Flow

Phase 1: Search. Low over dark water. Asano's Read and Thorne's Command Picture combine to sweep the coast. The aircraft is found by what it lacks: a gap in the coastal radar clutter that moves.

Phase 2: Contact. It is visible on radar for the first time: no plasma stealth at rung 3, slow, low. RCS hotspots flicker on the radar picture at specific aspects. The player must hold aspect geometry to keep collecting signature.

Phase 3: The lie. The aircraft begins to compromise the flight's datalink. A wingman's track drifts; a missile-launch warning appears with no launch. The player must cross-check (HUD integrity). Loads rise.

Phase 4: The invitation. The aircraft turns toward the coastal city and slows further, letting the flight close. The Command Picture shows a firing solution. Six wants to take it.

The player, as Thorne, chooses:

• Break off (doctrine): the flight disengages, keeps tracking from standoff, and the aircraft disappears into the city's radar clutter.
• Pursue: the flight crosses the boundary. The aircraft fires its emitter at the closest pursuer near the city's air defense radars, which enter diagnostic standby (a reprise of Case Alpha) and the city's defense network is compromised for an hour. The aircraft escapes either way.

5. Key Radio

OVER: "All Six-AME, break off. Do not pursue. That is an order." SIX: "We have it, James—" OVER: "It has us. Break off."

6. Systems Showcased

System	How
Fuel rung presentation	Phase 2: rung 3 tells (no glow, low speed, visible RCS)
Signature collection	Phases 2 and 4
HUD integrity	Phase 3
Restraint choice	Phase 4
Thorne's Load profile	Phase 4: a valid order that might cause harm

7. Failure Conditions

• Flight destroyed.
• Firing inside the city's boundary (immediate failure).

Pursuing is not a failure; it changes the debrief, raises Thorne's Load going into the next mission, and denies the secondary Ledger upgrade.

8. Debrief and Circle

If the flight broke off, the cell confirms that the signature collected is the best in the program's history, and that pursuit was what the aircraft wanted: it was mapping their reactions. In the circle, Thorne passes. Eirhei later finds him alone on the flight deck and does not say anything.

Katya's analysis (cutscene). Via Task Force link from Sonza, Katya walks the cell through the thermal signature of the repaired port wing: the panel line runs hotter on one side, and under hypersonic thermal shock it will fail first.

9. Ledger Entries

Entry	Grade change
Rung 3 transit profile	High → Confirmed
RCS hotspot map	New, High (Confirmed with secondary objective)
Port panel line as structural failure point	New, Medium (Katya Belyaeva); High with secondary objective
Pursuit is reconnaissance	New, High