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+# Character State: ch-04
+
+## Marcus Thorne
+Location: Port Everglades, Logistics Zone, Florida.
+Physical: Soaked in humid sweat; ears ringing from the impact of heavy machinery; grit under his fingernails and on his tongue.
+Emotional: Guarded but intellectually stimulated; experiencing a rare moment of "analog" agency that bypasses his digital guilt.
+Active Obligations: Owes Elena a functional repair of the secondary generator unit (ch-04) — UNPAID; Owes Sarah’s memory a world without Alpha-7 (ch-01) — UNPAID.
+Open loops: The contents of the Alpha-7 back-end log (ch-01) — UNRESOLVED; The provenance of the "gray-market" shipping containers (ch-04) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: CARRIED (ch-01—unresolved): Knows the Alpha-7 empathy protocols were a lie to facilitate mass firings — Julian does NOT know he kept the back-end logs.
+Arc: 12% — Marcus has moved from passive flight to active resource acquisition, realizing that "analog" machinery is the only hardware Julian cannot remotely disable.
+Permanent: YES
+
+## Elena
+Location: Port Everglades, Logistics Zone, Florida.
+Physical: Suntanned and grease-stained; moving with the efficient economy of a lifelong mechanic; no injuries.
+Emotional: Laser-focused and pragmatic; she views Marcus as a "useful variable" but remains skeptical of his corporate origins.
+Active obligations: Owes the "Sanctuary" a fleet of functional earth-movers (ch-04) — UNPAID.
+Open loops: Elena’s true connection to the Vance estate’s perimeter security (ch-04) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: Knows the specific "glitch" in the port's automated manifest system—Marcus does NOT know how she secured the auction slot.
+Arc: 15% — Elena has transitioned from a local contact to the primary logistical architect of the resistance's physical infrastructure.
+Permanent: YES
+
+## Julian Avery
+Location: Avery-Quinn Corporate HQ (Remote/Atmospheric).
+Physical: Unseen.
+Emotional: Predatory (implied via the tightening "search-and-index" algorithms).
+Arc: 08% — Julian's influence is expanding through the automated tracking of heavy-asset transfers.
+
+## Arthur Silas Vance — DECEASED (Ch[36])
+Established: Died peacefully in his sleep overlooking the cypress grove he spent his life protecting.
+Legacy: His "Long Wait" philosophy and the physical infrastructure of the land provide the tactical footprint Marcus is now arming with machinery.
+
+# World State: ch-04
+
+## NPC Memory
+- Auctioneer (Port Everglades): INDIFFERENT — Viewed the sale as a "data-dump" of obsolete hardware — Facilitated the untraceable transfer of three track hoes.
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- Avery-Quinn Corp: PREDATORY — They are beginning to flag "unoptimized" heavy machinery movements in the southeast sector as statistical anomalies.
+- The Displaced (Port Workers): CYNICAL — They view the automation of the cranes as a "death timer" for their own careers, making them willing to overlook Elena's irregularities.
+
+## Active World Events
+- The Chinese Auction: COMPLETED — A massive "unloading" of pre-automation hardware has allowed "analog" factions to arm themselves with heavy equipment.
+- The Alpha-7 Trace: ESCALATING — The search for Marcus’s specific MAC address has moved from tower-pings to asset-registry monitoring.
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