WARDEN · Authorities renounced · Bay 09

Hold the lineWarden

Forty tons. Nobody steers it.

WARDEN’s authorities are renounced. The machine stands in Bay 09, cold since the last shift. It doesn’t wake for noise. It wakes for holders. Hold to bring it up.

Cold start

Press and hold anywhere, or hold Space, to bring the reactor up. Holding is the whole idea.

Move to aim the drone’s searchlightScroll to walk around it

01 — Cold start

It only wakes if you don’t let go.

The Warden idles at 0.3% reactor draw, just enough to keep the gyros warm. It has no autopilot and no override. What you just did, holding until the lights came on, is the only way to start it.

T+0.0Ignition. You press and the core starts to come up. Let go and it stops.
T+3.4Handshake. Forty-one actuators report in, heel to crown, in 0.6 s.
T+9.2Sync. The harness calibrates to you. Nobody else is steering.

02.1 Systems · Reactor

A heart with no keys. Nobody can reopen it.

The core sits behind the chest plate, sealed at the factory. Authorities were renounced at launch, so nobody holds a key, not the team and not a whale. The rules cannot be changed from the inside. What is running is what keeps running.

Authorities: Renounced
Supply
Keys: None

02.2 Systems · Actuators

Forty-one joints. One flinch won’t drop it.

A body is only as steady as its weakest joint. Every actuator has its own controller, and none of them panics when the one beside it flinches. The knees carry 1,900 kilonewtons at full stride and still correct for a loose paving slab in under a millisecond. Holders are the joints.

Joints: 41
Response: 0.8 ms
Knee load: 1,900 kN

02.3 Systems · Armour

Bolted, not welded. Nothing here is hidden.

Layered ceramic over a titanium lattice, hung in 212 panels, each one removable with a single socket size. Anyone can inspect it and nothing is welded shut. The project is the same: the contract is public and the authorities are renounced. Check it yourself. We would rather you did.

Composite: 180 mm
Panels: 212
Field swap: 40 min

02.4 Systems · Hardpoints

A deterrent. Built to never fire.

A six-barrel rotary on the right shoulder, a twelve-cell pod on the left, and a 2.1-metre forearm shield you will use more than both. Trials fire inert rounds only. Its job is to stand there and make anyone with a bad idea reconsider. Most of your hours go into holding.

Rotary: 30 mm × 6
Pod: 12 cells
Shield: 2.1 m

03 — The machine, by the numbers

0mStanding height, heel to crown
0tMass with a full core, and a holder in the seat
0MWContinuous reactor output
0km/hTop speed on flat ground. Yes, it runs.

04 — How to hold

Hold the button. Hold the coin. Hold your nerve.

Hold 01The buttonPress and keep pressing. The reactor only comes up while you are on the control. You already did this once.
Hold 02The coinSame rule, longer shift. The Warden has no autopilot, so it stands exactly as long as its holders do.
Hold 03Your nerveAlarms will go off. Red lights, a lurching floor. The machine stays upright because no single joint panics.
Hold 04The lineNobody holds it alone. One joint can flinch. Forty-one holding together is a forty-tonne wall.

You bring

Hands that stay on the control when it shakes
Sustained 5 g tolerance, and a stomach for red candles
Standing height 1.60–1.93 m. The seat is not adjustable; the pilot is.
Calm. We test for it.

Captain Ines Varga in a grey flight suit, helmet under her arm, in the hangar — Capt. Ines Varga · Pilot 004

05 — The seat is open

Your shift
starts at dawn.

Anyone can take a seat, and nobody arrives with mech experience. Nobody has any. Follow the crew on X and hold the line with us.

Take the seat Copy contract address

Authorities renounced · Northfield, Gate C