Beat 2 — Eclipse Strikes

The team hit first. Eclipse hits back. This is the consequence of Beat 6 — not the planned infiltration, but the destructive choice the players made.

Purpose

The lab destruction was a choice. Eclipse’s retaliation is the cost. This beat forces the players to experience what it means to have drawn first blood against an enemy they don’t fully understand.

This beat also serves the Nolan Cut’s thematic spine: power without information is just destruction. They hit the lab. They don’t know what they destroyed or what they missed. Now Eclipse demonstrates that they, unlike the team, know exactly who they’re targeting.

The Strike

Timing: Midday. The team has had their morning at the Hall. Maybe they’ve pulled threads. Maybe they haven’t. Eclipse doesn’t wait for them to be ready.

Method: SHADE constructs. Not a full assault — a message. Three or four constructs, not targeting the team directly. They’re sent to a civilian location: a community center in Riverside Ward that has been providing refuge and support to first responder families — people affected by the SHADE construct attack during the press conference. The building matters to the community. Eclipse knows this.

Eclipse isn’t trying to kill the team. They’re doing three things simultaneously:

Testing the team’s response time — How fast do they mobilize? Where do they go? What are their capabilities in the field?
Sending a message — “You hit us. We hit near you. We know where your neighborhood is.”
Destroying evidence — The community center has a basement that was being used as informal storage for first responder relief supplies — and among those supplies are Eclipse-linked logistics records that trace Vane’s money through PROMETHEUS supply chains. Eclipse is sanitizing a site that could connect Vane to the SHADE program. The team doesn’t know this yet.

What the Team Sees

Alerts come through Sloane’s surveillance: SHADE signatures in Riverside Ward. Not at the Hall — near it. Close enough to feel like a threat, far enough to be deniable.

When they arrive, the constructs have already started. The community center is partially on fire. Civilians are fleeing.

The fight is about protecting civilians, not defeating the constructs. The constructs aren’t there to fight the team — they’re there to burn the building. If the team spends time fighting constructs instead of evacuating people, the building burns faster.

What’s Happening That the Team Doesn’t Know

The basement storage had traces of PROMETHEUS supply chain logistics — how Vane’s money moves from Eclipse to the SHADE program. That evidence is being destroyed right now. If any team member investigates the basement, they might find fragments before the fire consumes it.

The Aftermath

The community center is damaged or destroyed. The civilians are safe — the team saw to that. But a community resource that Riverside Ward needed is gone.

Eclipse’s message is clear: they know where the Ironworks are. They know the neighborhood. They can reach the people around the team, not just the team itself.

The team has less evidence than they think. They destroyed one lab. Eclipse just destroyed another. Two sites down, and neither one had the full picture.

Potential Consequences (Play to Find Out)

If the team investigates the basement, they find fragments of a shipping manifest — Vane’s money moving through Eclipse subsidiaries. Not enough to prove the connection in court, but enough to confirm what they already suspect: Vane and Eclipse are financially entangled.
If they focus entirely on civilian rescue (the right call), they lose the evidence entirely. The fire consumes it. This is a meaningful choice with real cost.

Connection to Later Beats

The manifest fragments (if recovered) give the team a specific thread to pull at the Gala — they can now look for specific Eclipse-linked companies on the guest list.
If the evidence burned, they arrive at the Gala with what they already have from the first lab — less than they need. They have to improvise.
The community center’s destruction makes the Gala’s framing — “benefit for first responders” — land with real bile in the players’ mouths. Vane is raising money for the city while his company burns it.

What Not to Do

Don’t make this a boss fight. The constructs are dangerous but not the point. The point is the choice: save civilians or chase evidence.
Don’t have Eclipse target the Hall directly. They’re smarter than that. They’re probing, not invading.
Don’t hand the team clear evidence. Fragments. Incomplete. Enough to know they’re right, not enough to prove it. That’s the gap the Gala is supposed to close.

Last updated: May 2026