By the end of the second mile, the natural geology of the continent ceased to exist.
What fighters called the deep earth was not a chaotic bed of ancient rock and dormant ore veins. Lin Tao swung his boots against the upright face of the rift. Then, the shattered dark rock opened up to reveal massive, sharp-angled slabs of black star-iron. Massive stone load-bearing inner walls three paces thick, bolted together with rivets the size of temple bells.
Between the seams of these iron plates, thick bundles of braided gold-silver metal cables ran straight down into the depths.
Each cable was thicker than an ancient oak. It was bound in tarred hemp and vulcanized resin that had turned brittle and cracked over deep-rock epochs. Through the frayed gaps in the heat padding, Lin Tao could see the spiraling strands of silver and refined spirit-copper, pulsing with a faint, rhythmic heartbeat that sent static sparks dancing across his knuckles.
In distributed spark grids, Lin Tao analyzed, his test sight mapping the current flow, bare conductors running parallel through high-humidity upright shafts create massive capacitive coupling. The energy loss along these lines alone could power three country capitals. Yet the legacy system continues to dump current into the void.
