Fourth layer of the Kingdom of Disorder. Nareth extended his spirituality, touching the orb of the "Dream Stealer," Tierney.
With a thought, he sent parchment scrolls crafted by Chief Librarian Thomas and his "Scroll Professors," along with the key replicated by the "Artisan," through the intangible ethereal gate.
In his hideout in the upper levels of the Iron Fortress, Tierney watched the items fly out of the ethereal gate, nearly covering the black onyx altar.
He saw, deep within the black mist, the Black Emperor seated high upon his throne, speaking with authority.
"One standard hour from now, Anthony will rest for five standard hours."
"The scroll bindings are labeled. Use them by reciting the words in Dunnic."
"You must simultaneously acquire the STC data within the manufacturing center and the formulas within the construction machine."
Tierney brought his hands together, inverted, and bowed. "By Your will."
After the black mist receded, Tierney praised the Black Emperor once more before rising to quickly sort the scrolls.
Moments later, he drew his ritual knife and opened the "Euclidean Runes."
Tierney placed the scrolls and the palm-sized key into separate crystal caskets linked by iron chains.
Having undergone fifteen surgical modifications, he grasped the tow rope, easily and steadily pulling the rope-pulley 'car' as it slid rapidly down three levels of the spire.
Tierney arrived before the twenty-nine "Prometheus," all clad in Yeld pattern Dominum Armor. They were ready and waiting.
Tierney walked to the center. The "Prometheus" instinctively turned their gazes to the crystal caskets surrounding him.
They instinctively sensed that they contained precious items.
"Set your chronometers. Standard time, fifty-three minutes, twenty-six seconds."
"Codename: Fire God. Begin!"
The "Dream Stealer" had named this action after the fiery ideal of the Mechanical Consul.
Like the ancient Vostroyan myth of Prometheus stealing fire.
As the "Prometheus" calibrated the chronometers embedded in their oculars, Tierney emphasized the action protocols.
"Infiltration of the central control hub. Use the scrolls to subdue the personnel. Use the key to open the databases. Record the data with the data crystals. Finally, delete the log entries."
"Time is sufficient. Use the backup data crystals for redundant recording."
Tierney looked around at the group. "Any questions? We depart in twelve minutes."
The "Prometheus" stepped forward, retrieving their crystal caskets. They tucked the palm-sized keys, two unlit data crystals, and the corresponding connectors into their belts.
Psykers could directly record and read data crystal contents. Others had to rely on auxiliary equipment for recording and cogitator arrays for reading.
They also inspected the bindings of their five scrolls, confirming the labels, before tucking them into various positions on their black Yeld pattern suits.
...
Thirty figures silently slipped from the hideout, flying towards the mechanical spire the "Dream Stealer" Tierney had identified from Anthony's mind.
The plates of finest custom alloy shifted and bit as the mimicry-shrouded "birds" wove through the layered defenses.
Tierney landed silently on the mechanical spire. The twenty-nine "Prometheus" landed on the manufacturing centers connected to the spire via data cables.
The Aureans' construction machine didn't directly manufacture mechanical items.
Instead, they used data cables to link the construction machine with the cogitator arrays in the manufacturing centers, each handling different production categories: Boltguns, silver power armor, solar generators...
Tierney alighted on the spire, and following Anthony's memories, he located the massive silver machine.
It was a cylindrical hall, 5.2 kilometers high and 2.6 kilometers in diameter.
The "Dream Stealer" activated his psychic vision and found the only person in the hall: Aureus's Mechanical Consul, Anthony.
He stood there, but because the distance exceeded 120 meters, the "Dream Stealer" couldn't determine what Anthony was thinking.
He could only tell, from the blue of his astral form, that Anthony was engaged in thought.
Minutes ticked by. With fifteen seconds remaining on the countdown timer, Anthony walked from the depths of the cylindrical hall, heading for the exit.
Tierney watched him head for the elevator, press the call rune.
Just as he thought everything was proceeding smoothly, Anthony suddenly paused thoughtfully, turning back the way he came.
Tierney was startled. An unexpected deviation. Anthony, who strictly followed his schedule, had abruptly changed his actions.
He glanced at the timer: only one second left. It was too late to change the plan now.
If Anthony returned to the construction machine, he would inevitably discover the data download.
Operation Fire God would fail.
The "Dream Stealer" rapidly raised his right hand, aiming at Anthony.
A tumult of lights flashed.
Having recently reviewed Anthony's memories, ideals, and other luminous clusters, he instantly found a light blue sphere among them.
The "Dream Stealer" saw Anthony's thought: Formula 293, there exists a new inference, number 59...
'So it's a decryption formula.'
'This is precisely my task.'
The "Dream Stealer" squeezed his hand tightly. The light blue cluster flew into his mind.
Anthony's step faltered. His mind went blank.
Ding-dong!
The elevator chimed. Anthony, as if waking from a dream, turned and stepped into the elevator.
At the same moment, the "Dream Stealer" was forced to perform the stolen target's action: deriving the formula.
His a full-fledge "Cryptologist" mind began to spin rapidly, even without Tierney actively thinking. Dense sequences of numbers and symbols rapidly scrolled and arranged themselves through his mind.
'I need the base formula.'
Driven almost by instinct, Tierney quickly pried open a shutter, nimbly climbed into the spire, and walked swiftly towards the construction machine.
His gaze swept over the crisscrossing silver and chrome pipes on the walls, then was drawn downwards, as if by an unseen force.
Complex algorithms were densely carved into the silver decorations, a thousand formulas per square meter.
All the secrets of every STC within the construction machine, their production purpose, application range, adaptability, manufacturing process, were contained within 40.56 million formulas inscribed on the vast, blank floor.
Tierney took a deep breath, quickly entering a Thelema mindstate to enable him to execute the plan.
The "Prometheus" could acquire the STC data from the manufacturing centers' cogitator arrays, but the databases did not contain the formula array of the construction machine.
That was the task the Black Emperor had assigned him.
The "Dream Stealer," Tierney, bit his lip. His usually dexterous hands trembled as he pulled the scanner, embedded with a data crystal, from his belt and aimed it at the floor on either side.
The "Dream Stealer's" will fractured, yielding to the implanted thought. His black eyes stared fixedly at the ground, searching for Formula 293.
At the same time, in Manufacturing Center 4, a "Prometheus" silently followed the data cables to the center's main control room.
He slid silently along the gaps between the cables, slipping into the control room, gliding past rows of cogitators and cables.
The "Prometheus" took a parchment scroll from his chest. As he unfurled it, he intoned in Dunnic the word matching its binding:
"Sleep!"
A pure black light radiated. One by one, the operators in silver workwear felt their eyelids grow heavy, their bodies sluggish.
Thud, thud, thud...
Seeing the operators had collapsed, the "Prometheus" immediately went to the center of the control room and the ancient cogitator connected to the data cables.
He inserted the palm-sized metal key in his hand into the slot on the cogitator's console.
Green text flashed rapidly on the screen: [Highest authority recognized.]
[Salutations, Mechanical Consul Anthony.]
[Please issue a command:]
[...]
The "Prometheus" pulled down the green menu and selected "Download Data Repository."
[Executing command.]
[Please connect data interface.]
The "Prometheus" plugged the connector attached to his data crystal into the cogitator's cable.
The unlit crystal began to glow, brightening slightly with each passing second.
The "Prometheus" began downloading the STC data. At the same time, the "Dream Stealer," Tierney, walked through the bright white ceramic structure, past silver pipes and chrome chambers.
Finally, at the center, he found the one-square-meter space containing the core 1,000 formulas.
The full-fledged "Cryptologist" bent down and found Formula 293 among the first to one thousandth formulas.
The "Dream Stealer" took a deep breath. The thought in his mind was driving him mad.
The full-fledged "Cryptologist" stared at the cascade of numbers and symbols. His mind spun rapidly.
String after string of numbers and symbols danced before his black eyes, scrolling across invisible screens.
After thirty-three seconds, the full-fledged "Cryptologist" slumped onto the formula-covered floor.
The "Dream Stealer" exhaled deeply. He had finally completed Anthony's thought.
Tierney immediately felt a stabbing pain in his temples.
'That clash between my will and the intrusive thought was agonizing.' He lamented briefly, then stood up, spread his wings, and sped across the floor, scanning and recording the formulas not yet captured by the data crystals.
He flew a circuit of the hall.
The core 1,000 formulas recorded by the data crystal in his left hand were the last 1,000 recorded by the crystal in his right.
Tierney tucked the data crystals, now glowing brighter than the silver lumen strips above, back into his belt.
The communication beads embedded in his ears reported twenty-nine successful actions.
Tierney hurried to the cogitator and inserted the key.
He found the Data Log entry in the green menu and, after accessing it, selectively deleted the data records uploaded by the 29 manufacturing centers starting from the time of the action.
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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