Vault Re-Alignment

Docs/Vault/01_Vision/Identity.md

@@ -91,6 +91,18 @@ Industrial synth, weighty impacts, a low hostile drone for Husk proximity. **Add
 | Automation as progression | The colony's surviving Aether-machines compounding output while you raid |
 | Persistent base + instanced expeditions | The Engine's safe Aether-bubble (`BaseAnchor`) vs. the blighted **Wild** beyond |
 
+## The braid (locked 2026-06-08) — combat is the verb; the colony is what you fight with and for
+
+> [[DR-028_Combat_Primary_Verb_Depth_First]] · roadmap [[Path_to_Fun]]. No fiction changes — this names how the three pillars **reinforce** instead of sitting side by side as three separate modes (fight, OR build, OR watch automation tick), which is what made it not feel like a game.
+
+The fusion only reads as a game when the pillars **braid into one loop**, and in fiction the braid is already here:
+
+- **Automation makes what you fight WITH.** The colony's rebooted Aether-industry refines raw Aether into the **charges, munitions, turret feed, and upgrades** your abilities and defenses burn — the factory is your war economy (The Riftbreaker).
+- **Combat threatens what automation lives IN.** Husk sieges hit the **Engine and its machines**, not just the operators — defending the base is defending the economy, with a real loss beat (They Are Billions / The Riftbreaker).
+- **The Sortie feeds both.** Harvesting the Blightfield is the seed the factory needs *and* the act that provokes the siege (Deep Rock Galactic / Core Keeper).
+
+So every fight is fought *with* what the factory made and *for* the base the factory lives in. **Combat is the primary verb; the Awakening Engine and its industry are what give the verb stakes** — the same systems already built, pointed at each other instead of at a ledger.
+
 ## Locked narrative choices (2026-06-03)
 
 - **The Echo is ambiguous** — never fully trusted; "by any means"; needs a payoff beat at the goal.