Continued

Docs/Vault/07_Sessions/2026/2026-06-03_M6_Aether_Cycle_CoreLoop.md

@@ -76,6 +76,33 @@ the return gate comes back to base AND starts Defend early; HUD reads phase/coun
 (both gates baked with authoring defaults — the BaseGate worked only by coincidence); fixed with
 `manage_components set_property` + verified via the `mcpforunity://scene/gameobject/{id}/component/...` resource.
 
+**Stage 3 + 4 — build/structures (automation-ready) + turret + ability tiers + goal (DONE + validated).**
+Adversarially design-reviewed first (3 critics incl. a dedicated M7-automation-readiness lens; caught the co-op
+double-spend, the BaseAnchor-occupancy-cache contradiction, the persistence/offline-catch-up entanglement).
+Built a GENERIC structure foundation per the operator's automation-forward directive: `PlacedStructure`
+([GhostField] Type byte + server-only Cell/NextTick/LastProcessedTick — the tick fields are the M7 offline-
+catch-up linchpin, baked now), a data-driven `StructureCatalog` buffer, occupancy DERIVED from live ghosts,
+`BuildPlaceRequest` RPC with in-place ledger+occupancy commit (co-op-atomic), a hitscan `Turret` (reversed
+`EnemyAISystem` → direct `DamageEvent`), ability tiers via a growing `StatModifier` (replace-by-SourceId), a
+`GoalProgress` meter on the CycleDirector ghost, and HUD goal bar. **Validated headless + screenshots:** turret
+placed at cell (10,10) (Ore 50→40, replicated); two same-tick requests for one cell → one structure + one
+withdraw; built turrets auto-killed all Husks; ability damage 20→25→30 with the buffer bounded to one row;
+goal increments per cycle (HUD "GOAL n/10"). **Persistence disk-writer DEFERRED to post-M7** (schema frozen +
+tick fields baked so it's additive). Full architecture + the M7 contract: [[DR-014_M6_Build_Structures_Automation_Foundation]].
+
+**Fiction reconciliation — "The Awakening Engine" (DONE).** A judge-panel workflow (3 framings: Aether-as-Blight /
+Reawakened-Operator / unreliable-Voice → synthesis) reconciled the magic-tech/amnesia/voice/THEM premise with the
+locked frontier-colony identity into ONE coherent, skin-only world (no mechanical rework). Core: **Aether is the
+single substance** (cyan = claimed/ordered, orange-red = wild **Blight**, white-hot = conversion) powering every
+machine/ability/structure and, uncontained, animating the colony's dead into **Husks** — it maps 1:1 onto the
+built economy + loop. The base = the **Awakening Engine** (recharge pod restoring memory+power from deposited
+Aether); the voice = **the Echo** (your future-self imprint); the goal = **the Wellspring** ("ENGINE CHARGE →
+THEM"); phases re-named **Sortie/Siege/Forge**; field = **the Blightfield**; gates = **Wake-/Recall-Gate**.
+Operator locked four forks: Echo **ambiguous**, THEM **kept open** (3 readings), corruption **atmospheric-only**,
+**per-Sleeper** Echo. Rewrote [[Identity]], recorded [[DR-015_The_Awakening_Engine_Fiction_Adoption]], updated
+[[Pillars]] — resolves the DR-013 fiction-reconciliation open item. Narrative payoff (memory beats + Echo VO,
+subtitle-first) is net-new content for a later milestone, not a systems change.
+
 See [[DR-013_M6_Aether_Cycle_Region_Split]] for the full architecture + validated evidence.
 
 ## Decisions