By morning, the Perseus campaign looked less like a single job site and more like a chain of small towns.
Cable barges floated above anchor stations. Cook crews handed out soup at the shift gates. Repair teams worked under bright lamps while tired riggers slept in shielded bunkers. Every station knew which route to take if the shelf began to move.
The full plan still called for fifty thousand main jacks. Only twenty thousand were connected. Austin refused to hurry the rest.
Tie Kuang brought him the latest map. Red marks showed three places where the new tiebacks carried uneven loads.
“Group Seven is taking twice its share,” Tie said. “Group Nine is barely working.”
“Shorten Seven’s cables and lengthen Nine’s,” Austin said. “Then test them together.”
Tian Luo stood nearby with a grease gun. “Why not make every anchor stronger?”
“Because stronger isn’t the same as balanced,” Tie answered before Austin could. “A stiff anchor grabs load from its neighbors. Then it fails, and the next stiff anchor grabs even more. The failure runs down the line.”
