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+# ✅ The stage drift is my NAVIGATION, not the save — slot 01 is deterministically Stage 02
+
+Settled 2026-08-26, **statically** — no emulator needed.
+
+## ❌ Refuted: "slot 01 is the auto-save, so the restored mission moves between runs"
+
+[The previous note](two-entity-enumerations.md) blamed save drift for one run
+loading the S01 training area (with `UN_S01_Asteroid_cmesh_*`) and another
+loading a Stage-02-style escort roster. The file says otherwise:
+
+```
+2026-08-23 16:37    278  .../535107D4/00000001/game01/savedata
+2026-08-26 22:18  26596  .../FFFE07D1/.../535107D4.gpd
+```
+
+**`savedata` has not been written since 23 August.** Every run today left it
+untouched; only the `.gpd` profile/achievement files moved. And there is exactly
+**one** save (`game01`), so a wandering save-list cursor cannot explain it either.
+
+## ✅ What the save actually holds: Stage 02
+
+The save is `GDHA` + a zlib payload at `0x92` (545 bytes decompressed), carrying
+`GDAA`, `GHAD`, `NETA`, 2 × `BUNK` and the 16-record `SHAB` table.
+
+```
+rec  0 (stage  1): (2, 4101, 324773, ...)
+rec  1 (stage  2): (0, 0, 0, ...)
+...
+rec 15 (stage 16): (0, 0, 0, ...)
+```
+
+**Only record 0 carries clear data**; records 1–15 have zeros in all three result
+fields. Three independent readings agree on what that means:
+
+1. `324773` ms = **05:24.77**, which
+   [`SESSION-2026-08-11.md`](SESSION-2026-08-11.md) documents as exactly what
+   MISSION SELECT displays as the Stage 01 best time.
+2. `4101` matches
+   [`structures/weapon-datasheet-runtime.md`](structures/weapon-datasheet-runtime.md),
+   whose capture session is recorded as *"Stage 02, 'At Standby', 5 % clear,
+   **4101 P**"* — the same save, already described in the corpus.
+3. Reading the `GHAD` field block at tag+8 (i.e. past the tag and its length word)
+   gives `+52` = **2**, the documented 1-based `Stage` field.
+
+So `LOAD GAME → slot 01` restores **Stage 02** every time. It is deterministic.
+
+🟡 One caveat, stated rather than smoothed over: brute-forcing the `GHAD` field
+base gives **seven** candidate offsets whose `+52` is a plausible stage, three of
+them yielding 2. I picked tag+8 because it is the natural layout and it agrees
+with the two independent readings above — not because the search isolated it.
+
+❌ And "stage = filled `SHAB` count + 1" must not be used: all 16 records are
+*present*, and the corpus already lists that rule as **refuted**. Presence is not
+filledness.
+
+## ✅ So the S01 asteroid run was never the save
+
+Stage 02 is the `Acropolis` escort mission — which is precisely the roster the
+most recent run produced (`UN_f101_TCAF_Acropolis`, `UN_bf001_TCAF_SchlosBase`,
+cruisers, frigates). The odd run out is the earlier one, whose briefing read
+**"Glasner Training Area"** — a *tutorial*, not a story stage, and
+[`structures/unit-struct-runtime.md`](structures/unit-struct-runtime.md) confirms
+tutorials are separately reachable ("all six tutorials **and** Stage 02").
+
+The cause is in my own driving: that run's navigation log shows the menu probe
+reading `other` repeatedly and the `dpad down` + Ⓐ being issued from a state that
+was not confirmed to be the main menu, so the selection landed on a tutorial
+entry instead of `LOAD GAME`. The nav taps a fixed sequence and never verifies
+*what it selected*.
+
+## Consequence — the cheap fix
+
+Runtime rosters are reproducible after all, provided the route is verified. Two
+one-line guards, neither of which needs new tooling:
+
+* Confirm `screen_id.py` reads `menu` **immediately before** the `dpad down`, not
+  merely at some point earlier in the loop.
+* After reaching flight, assert the definition table contains
+  `UN_f101_TCAF_Acropolis` (Stage 02's signature) before trusting any comparison
+  against an earlier run.
+
+❔ Not settled: I did not re-run the emulator to demonstrate the tutorial
+mis-selection directly. The evidence here is the save file plus the earlier run's
+own screen log and briefing title, which is strong but circumstantial about
+*which* menu entry was hit.