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How it works

Last updated 5 October 2026 · the company game (Async Industries, Sub-Branch 7)

The loop

You run a sub-branch for Async Industries. Take jobs at the JOB BOARD in the corridor, power up the gate, dial a floor, do the job out there, come back through the gate. Each time you come home the shift closes: head office pays for finished jobs, pays your grant, takes wages and running costs, and prints a shift report.

Where the money comes from

• Jobs: the JOB BOARD, by department (recovery, research, disposal and so on). Up to three at once. Paid when you are home with the job done. A job you cannot finish can be dropped.
• Grants: work under one grant for a stipend every shift and a bonus with its department.
• Odd goods: anything from the floors sells at SUPPLY above market, more the deeper it came from; corporate orders pay double.
• Cases: what you capture and bring home goes to MEDICAL; sell it to the Hale Foundation, study it, or keep it contained for a stipend.
• Ventures pay every shift; bearer bonds (the VAULT's bond press) pay a coupon every shift.
• Visitors who come through the gate pay at the gate room.

The gate

E on the console in the gate room opens the GATE panel: battery, how long the portal has left, the grid, the checklist, and every place you can dial.

• The checklist (the board on the gate room wall): main breaker, cells charged, coolant pump, aperture calibrated, console warmed up. Any light red and the gate refuses to dial. Staff walk to the red ones and fix them; on your own you do it yourself.
• Cells: three for Level 0, one more for each level deeper, six at most. Bought at SUPPLY. Each cell holds the gate open about a minute; hum coils make every cell hold more.
• Where to go: MISSIONS (every active job's floor, each its own button), KNOWN ADDRESSES (every floor on your record), A RANDOM GATE (somewhere new at a depth you have reached), AN UNKNOWN ADDRESS.
• Addresses: a floor is an address and a level, like AI-01 / LEVEL 1. AI is Async Industries' gate directory; the number is which place the gate opens on (AI-01 is the first, the one under your own building). Each address has its own Level 0, Level 1 and so on, so AI-08 / LEVEL 1 is a different place from AI-01 / LEVEL 1. The job line at the top says WRONG FLOOR if you are on the right level at the wrong address.
• Close the gate from the console and the charge left stays in the cells. The kill switch also stops head office re-dialling.
• Out there, X is the emergency return while the gate is open. When the cells run dry with you out there, the reserve holds the way home for a short while, once.
• The hold: the first time anyone goes onto a floor (through the gate, a door, a ladder, a ramp or a fall), it is built as you cross. The screen says so and time stops for a moment. A floor you have walked before opens straight away.

Power

The branch makes power and draws power, in kW. What is spare charges the cells. The GRID bar on the gate panel shows it; the ELECTRICAL section lists every source and every load.

• Sources: mains through the transformer in POWER (40 kW; its switch is on its side, leave it on), a diesel generator from SUPPLY (60 kW while it runs, burns diesel, refuel from drums), the West Wing generator room (30 kW), the Hale reactor once six research projects are done (250 kW).
• Loads: lights and the console, each working staff station, each containment platform, each West Wing room, vending, the kennel.
• Overloaded, the cells only trickle. More staff and more platforms mean you need more power.

Invited specialists

At SUPPLY, one a shift, for a fee: an electrician (mains +15 kW, twice at most), a gate engineer (the gate dials 30% faster for three shifts), a surgeon (sees to every injury), a recruiter (skilled applicants for every open post).

Staff

Hire from the JOB BOARD's STAFF tab: maintenance tech, console operator, cell builder, grower, field hand. Each wears the colour of their post. They work while you are out, want wages each shift, and can train for a certificate. Give them tasks (guard, count, bonds, study); talk to them with E.

Salvage runs: from the GATE console, send your field hand through to any known address. They come back a few minutes later with odd goods for the storeroom (SUPPLY sells them). Deeper finds more, and they are likelier to come back hurt. A run uses a minute of charge.

Out there

• Pressure builds the longer you are on the floors. Ordinary things around you slow it (the shelter kit: lamp, chair, cot, screen; P sets one down). At home, the West Wing couch or TV wears it off.
• Food, water, energy: the vending machine (meals, coffee, packs and energy packs for the bag), the SUPPLY shelves (ration packs, water), the free water cooler. F eats or drinks out there.
• Carrying: up to 25 kg costs nothing; heavier slows you; 45 kg is full. I opens the bag.
• The bar (1 to 0, or Tab): everything you can hold. Flashlight, markers, counter, tape, camcorder, knife, gun, and what SUPPLY sells: pry bar, stun baton, medkit, stim, pills, the shelter kit. Click uses what is in your hand.
• Capturing: stun it with the baton, cuff it (zip cuffs), strap it to the hand truck, bring it home.
• The map (M, once you have the field recorder): click a room you have walked and you walk there yourself, through the doorways. Any of W A S D takes over.
• Stuck? Esc, then STUCK? puts you back somewhere safe.

The team

O opens the team panel. Up to three of you join the same party code. On the same floor you see each other, the people out there move the same for everyone, and doors, lights, searches and dropped things are shared. Send money or samples to each other; dial a teammate's floor from the team panel.

Reports

B (or the ? button) sends a bug or an idea. Every report is read.