The descent of the Kernel Archon was not with physical footsteps. It drifted forward on invisible waves of aligned gravity flux. Its massive eight-meter was dark shape gliding three inches above the glassy quartz deck.
Behind its faceless silver head, four crescent-bladed glaives of dark star-iron circled in silent, magnetic floating.
Each weapon was four paces long, forged without wooden hafts or leather grips. Their crescent cutting edges shone with a high-hum violet blur, swaying at twenty-four thousand cycles per second. The air displaced by their edges whistled with the shrill scream of high-pressure steam escaping a narrow pinhole.
Lin Tao stood rooted to the Diagnostic Dais, his left hand clamped to the cold star-white-gold bezel. His right hand gripped his star-white-gold metal pen.
In physical security systems, Lin Tao analyzed. His test left eye tracked the invisible gravity distortion waves rippling through the air, when an intrusion prevention daemon deploys to sanitize an active breach, it doesn’t negotiate with the caller. It executes a total termination set. Eighteen tons of fine china armor moving at sixty miles per hour carries enough striking force to collapse a city wall.
Tie Shan stood fifteen paces in front of the dais. His fourteen-pound star-iron pry-bar was held across his chest in a two-handed guard.
