Acheron Protocol
The Acheron Protocol is one of Draedon’s highest-level emergency contingencies. It picks up where the Draedon arc leaves off, once the quantum network is restored. Draedon walks you through the Swarm crisis and offers a scorched-earth evacuation; refusing it sends you on a strike mission into the Corto system.
The arc opens with Draedon’s star-map briefing. After refusing evacuation you take a drop pod into Corto III, meet tactical android Apollia on the surface, watch a gargoyle scout flyover, and are led toward an abandoned fortress on the right side of the map. A separate Void Colonies thread is still in development; only the Glitch Wraith encounter is currently playable.
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”| Step | Notes |
|---|---|
| Signal tower quest | All ten towers online; quantum network restored |
| Feather of Fate (optional) | Can trigger when the tower quest completes |
| Galactic crisis | Swarm shadow + scorched-earth briefing |
| Protocol launch | Refusing evacuation triggers the Corto III mission |
See Draedon for the pre-Acheron line.
Galactic crisis
Section titled “Galactic crisis”Once the network is live, Draedon walks you through the war in three acts.
Act I: crisis and extinction
Section titled “Act I: crisis and extinction”Draedon shows the shadow devouring the galactic arms. Millions of Exo Titans failed to stop an endless war of attrition. His only plan with a success rate above zero: detonate the planetary cores of every world from the Outer to the Mid Rim, reducing tens of thousands of light-years into an absolute dead zone so the Swarm starves and is forced into neighboring galaxies. Terra is on the scorched-earth list, but he offers you a starship for evacuation.
The star map opens with the galaxy, then the Swarm shadow closing in, and finally the extinction protocol overlay.
Player choice
Section titled “Player choice”The two options are narratively equivalent and both lead to the backup plan:
- There must be another way.
- ……(Remain silent and grip your weapon)
Act II: expected twist
Section titled “Act II: expected twist”Draedon admits he predicted a 99% chance of acceptance, but was waiting for that 1% of irrational behavior. Rejecting the shortcut to survival is exactly the singularity trait he has been observing. He then reveals the shelved low-success operation.
Act III: Corto briefing and androids
Section titled “Act III: Corto briefing and androids”| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| Target | Corto system, fallen but not yet fully digested |
| Priority | A high-purity Exo vein forming in Corto III’s mantle |
| Mission | Break through the sea of bugs, reach the core, detonate the vein, destroy the planet |
| Advance team | Tactical androids Altis and Apollia, signals lost after landing |
| Your job | Confirm their status; fight alongside them if they can, otherwise recover their core data |
The map closes by zooming into the KORTO system, the planet view, and finally the android profile.
Drop pod reentry
Section titled “Drop pod reentry”You enter a short cinematic subworld where the pod handles the fall.
Incoming call
Section titled “Incoming call”Once you enter the atmosphere, Draedon opens a comm channel. He reports that warp transit was unusually smooth, that you are passing over Corto III’s low orbit, and that you should avoid the Exo Mech wreckage left over from the Apocalypse-class war.
He also confirms that the authorization chip is burned with your permissions, that you are about to enter the Swarm’s shielding field with all outside comms cut, and that killing the node creature near the planetary core should drop the field.
You can nudge the pod’s horizontal drift with the movement keys.
Transition
Section titled “Transition”A full-screen sci-fi loading overlay plays between subworlds, with rolling hints such as “The Acheron Protocol is one of Draedon’s highest-level emergency contingencies” and “Tactical androids know no fear, because fear itself is their weapon.”
Machine surface landing
Section titled “Machine surface landing”The main Acheron subworld: machine biomes, a custom sky, machine water, and ambient Tesla arcs.
Crash landing
Section titled “Crash landing”A crashed drop pod spawns above your landing point. The screen shakes hard and the pod sticks in the ground. When the prompt appears, click the pod to open the hatch; you are launched out, and only after the ejection do the arc effects and Apollia’s sequence start.
Apollia
Section titled “Apollia”A tactical android formerly of the Ninth Legion. Her dialogue uses the Exo Fleet’s signature presentation, and her portrait swaps with her mood.
First meeting
Section titled “First meeting”Apollia arrives at the landing zone shortly after the pod ejects you. She tracked the drop trajectory and assumes you are an Exo Fleet vanguard guide.
| Choice | Branch |
|---|---|
| (Hand over Draedon’s authorization chip) | Direct read |
| How do I know you’re not a Swarm mimic trap? | Suspicion first, then chip demand |
Both paths converge at the chip read. Apollia reacts to “Just you?!” with rage and the screen shakes; she takes a deep breath, acknowledges the Source’s arrangement, and formally commits to assist all operations on this planet.
Hero panel
Section titled “Hero panel”After the dialogue, Apollia’s status bar appears on the left along with her command panel. The bar shows her HP, damage, and defense; the commands are:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| Follow | Apollia follows you |
| Hold position | Stay in place |
| Aggressive | Attack nearby enemies on her own |
| Defensive | Prioritize protecting you |
The panel is only active inside the machine surface subworld.
Gargoyle swarm and fortress
Section titled “Gargoyle swarm and fortress”Shortly after the hero panel unlocks, a scout swarm streams overhead. The camera pans up while gargoyles cross the sky en masse, then Apollia warns:
……A Swarm scout cluster. The main swarm is highly likely right behind them.
They’ve definitely spotted you. Follow me. There’s an abandoned fortress ahead; we can use its fortifications to hold them off for a while.
She then keeps moving right, flying over walls and gaps as needed, headed for the fortress on the right side of the map.
Void Colonies · Glitch Wraith
Section titled “Void Colonies · Glitch Wraith”The Glitch Wraith belongs to the Void Colonies thread, which runs separately from the Corto drop line but reuses the same dialogue and portrait assets. The Void Colonies subworld itself is still in development; only the Glitch Wraith’s behavior and its Hack-Time counterplay are currently playable.
What it is
Section titled “What it is”The Glitch Wraith is a lethal threat that is only visible under specific perception. Activating Hack Time lets the scanner mark it as a target.
It ignores tiles and crawls toward the nearest player, occasionally glitch-teleporting to close the distance; the screen distorts as it approaches. Touching it triggers an instant-kill sequence: mosaic, blackout, then execution.
How to counter
Section titled “How to counter”Inside Hack Time you can scan the wraith as a Wraith target and upload one of the following paranormal protocols:
| Protocol | Effect | Upload time | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| System Halt | Freeze for about 10 s | 180 | 50 |
| False Memory | Break pursuit for about 15 s | 240 | 75 |
| Self-Dismemberment | Triggers spectral disintegration and removes the wraith | 360 | 99 |
The scan UI lists it as Unknown Wraith with the threat reading Unassessable ERR://-∞.
Pending
Section titled “Pending”The following is not yet in game and will be added once it ships:
- Full handoff from Galactic Crisis completion into the subworlds
- Fortress layout, defense encounter, and node creature boss
- Altis’s appearance scenes
- Field exploration under the Swarm shielding and the core objective
- The Void Colonies subworld proper and Glitch Wraith spawn rules