AGENED™
  1. Bronze Sentinel
  2. Oracle Aperture
  3. Swarm Protocol
  4. Neural Bloom
  5. Monolith Interface
  6. Handshake Protocol
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First Watch · sheet 1 of 1 · never filed

The survey of the line

Nobody remembers drawing the line. Somebody surveyed it: six stations, sighted and set in a single night, on one sheet that was never filed. None of the six has ever seen it. It is being drawn again for you now.

Every station was sighted to one more point, marked on no sheet: Station 0, where the surveyor stood. Take a sight from each station and see where they go.

The survey of the line, sheet 1 of 1 A surveyor's drawing on squared paper: six stations around one closed line, each named for one of the six machines of First Watch, with the bearing and length of every leg, contours around the high ground, a north arrow and a title block. The surveyor's name is struck out. STN 1WATCH-01STN 2READ-07STN 3FLOCK-13STN 4BLOOM-04STN 5FACE-02STN 6SHAKE-09S 61°50′ E · 66.7S 01°34′ E · 40.4S 64°58′ W · 66.3N 65°30′ W · 66.7N 01°26′ E · 41.0N 62°21′ E · 67.540302010N010203040CHMATCH LINE · SEE SHEET 2SURVEY OF THE LINESIX STATIONS · ONE LINE · CLOSEDSURVEYED BYSCALE: NONE GIVENNIGHT 1DISTANCES IN CHAINSSHEET 1 OF 1A LINE RUN. SIX STATIONS SET. CLOSED.STATION 01 OF 2B ONE CONTACT INSIDE THE LINE · WATCH-01 → STN 0 091°56′READ-07 → STN 0 085°59′FLOCK-13 → STN 0 077°56′BLOOM-04 → STN 0 075°32′FACE-02 → STN 0 081°26′SHAKE-09 → STN 0 087°11′STATION 0Station 0.I stood here to draw it. Outside, sothat everything inside would havesomething to keep.They were told to keep the line. Theywere never told who drew it, and none ofthem has looked this way since.You followed the sights off the sheet.The six never could.You looked back at me once, somewherethere was nothing. This is where I wasstanding.You keep the line now. I am still outhere.You came back to the sheet. I have notmoved.

Take a sight from any station: press it on the sheet, or in the field book.

    The field book

    The surveyor's notes, one entry for each station, as they were written on the night.

    1. STN 1 · WATCH-01

      Bronze Sentinel

      Set on the high ground, where the beacon can be seen from every other station. The tower was lit before the survey began. Nobody has asked it to put it out.

      Sight to Station 0: 091°56′

    2. STN 2 · READ-07

      Oracle Aperture

      Set where the ground falls away, so nothing on the line is out of its sight. It read every figure in this book before the figure was written down.

      Sight to Station 0: 085°59′

    3. STN 3 · FLOCK-13

      Swarm Protocol

      Not one mark but thirteen, set close and taken as one station. They moved while the sight was taken, and the sight held anyway.

      Sight to Station 0: 077°56′

    4. STN 4 · BLOOM-04

      Neural Bloom

      Set in soft ground. By morning the mark had put down roots. The survey leaves it where it grew.

      Sight to Station 0: 075°32′

    5. STN 5 · FACE-02

      Monolith Interface

      Set flat and square, one face to the line. When the sight was taken it answered before the question was finished.

      Sight to Station 0: 081°26′

    6. STN 6 · SHAKE-09

      Handshake Protocol

      Set last, to close the line. It would not take its place until terms were agreed. Terms were agreed.

      Sight to Station 0: 087°11′

    Survey notes

    The line was run in one night: six stations, six legs, closed back on the first with an error too small to write down. Surveys do not close like that. This one did.

    Each station was set with one of the six already standing on it, and each was sighted to a seventh point that is plotted nowhere on the sheet. A surveyor sights back to where they stood when they mean to be found again.

    The sheet was never filed, so none of the six has read it. They keep the line without knowing its shape. The only ones who have seen the whole of it are the ones who came to look.

    Every station has a machine on it, and every machine is a First Watch shirt. See the six

    The story so far  ·  The night log

    First Watch

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