Smart Shielding Array

The other began at the walls. Deep dishes were turning away from their original orientation near the inside edge. From pointing down at a diagonal angle toward the ground outside the walls to facing back at the Last Light, the rounded dishes expanded further. They released subtle tremors, like deep frequencies from a speaker one could feel rattling their teeth.

Those positioned on the walls could feel it too, though they were already accustomed to what it felt like when the GPR arrays activated. But this was only half of the intended action.

Thick, supersized modules whirring like the shielding generators below began protruding from the inner face of the wall, each dipped with a single radio emitter. They blinked alive at the same time, and back inside Directory Control, a tech flinched away from her monitor.

"'The combined GPR and seismograph array has commenced the scan. An ETC isn't providable at this time'." Four spoke as if reading from a script. "But the shielding generator array is alive and well. There have been no accidents or malfunctions. It appears your partnership with the Sixth Headman continues to bear fruit, sir."

The Prime Beacon nodded his agreement to that. The R&D for the shield generators had been a tumultuous affair, seeming nothing more than a funnel of resources into a pit that remained stubborn and refused to fill. Shielding technology above the size of handheld or wearable nodes, like those present in Directory-issued skinsuits or WAVs, was nonexistent.

The scientific community's lack of understanding of the technology itself didn't help matters, making upscaled production impossible. The situation had only seen change with the introduction of the Sixth's invested introduction as one of their many secretive joint projects with the First.

Several of its senior researchers did not rely on state-of-the-art technology alone; not every Vigor provided through the Old Man's Blessing was combat-purposed, though none would ever say that as long as humanity lived there would ever be a useless Vigor. They utilized this special advantage to conduct exotic and unfamiliar experiments, and though he knew not of the specifics, the results were clear to see now.

"It's good we're protected from above. But I confess I'm uncomfortable with not knowing what's beneath the Last Light. Did the Fifth and Ninth undertake adequate measures in the event Aud are burrowing below the city?"

"Yes, and no, sir." One of the officers sitting at the wide console twisted around in his chair. "I don't know how much of the past weeks' efforts for those two rays you've been privy to, but they had to abandon some propositions due to time or resource constraints; as things stand, the Fifth has already emptied much of the Directory's accumulated scutumsteel reserves."

"Really? How much?"

"A little over ninety-two percent." A frown and diminished double take. "They're still performing the finishing touches now, so that's ninety-three as of seventeen seconds ago. I apologize for the inaccuracy, sir."

"What kind of proposal did In-3 accept?" It was his turn to frown, and he knew the downward plummet of his blossoming jowls had to have been magnificent from the way Two glanced at him. "What are they using so much refined scutumsteel for?"

"It's another proposition the Second Headman offered, though this one was in private after the most recent meet. Her thoughts were that the Last Light is too large in square meterage to have sufficient coverage and on-hand intervention squads ready should any Aud breach the ground, or worse, the ground floors of a ceilingscraper, so why not block the ground off instead? Not in a perfect sense, of course, nothing can stop the Aud with complete effectiveness, but--"

"What is that supposed to mean? 'Block the ground off'?"

"She asked the Fifth Headman if it were viable to produce sheets of hammered scutumsteel like those on the bottoms of the halls inside Titans, and similarly layer them over the entirety of the Last Light's base."

He didn't know whether to direct his amazement at the sheer ambition of the proposal itself, the amount of scutumsteel needed and used to carry it out, or the simple fact that In-3 had been willing to entertain the whole matter in the first place.

Even if coming from the real leader of the home interest, his conservative, sparse capital spending tendencies ought to have compelled him to at least argue for a less expensive option considering materials. This was the entire surface area encircled by the Last Light's walls they were speaking about! But others carried it out already, so there was no sense dwelling upon it.

"And have they done this?"

"As I said," the sitting officer added, "they are applying the finishing touches now. The story would be different if they started a day later, but they're confident they'll have every last sheet and plate secured against ground intrusions before any come, even if any tunneling Aud have long begun their approach."

He received a communication from the Sixth Headman then. Excusing himself from his head generals, he stepped back and out of the way of the flurry before accepting. "Where are you?"

"Busy. But I wanted to check in. Was the shielding generator array brought into play?"

"I didn't ask for your status. But yes, you missed it. The output of the supersized nodes was stable, and the engineers monitoring them haven't reported signs of premature deterioration among any of the components." His memory returned to the instance where he saw the visible dome from the monitors. "My curiosity has an itch to scratch. Have a minute to spend?"

"Several. Talking takes little concentration."

"Then I wanted to ask, why doesn't the projected shielding dome extend to the ground outside the city, or at least border the outer face of the walls?"

"Let me ask you something in return: if you've got a square of mesh made to block falling pebbles from above, would you then stretch it out further, reducing its integrity and effectiveness in the process, to also halt the tide of rocks racing toward you from a rockslide?"

"If this is a metaphor of sorts, I'm afraid its meaning evades me."

The Sixth Headman sighed. "It's fantastic to hear that the shielding generator array is stable upon its first real field test, but we shouldn't push things. We brainstormed this avenue for developing shielding technology in the beginning for a different purpose, but right now its use is to protect us from above, no?" When the Prime Beacon muttered his confirmation, the older man continued. "If we extended the height of the dome so it reached the ground or even made contact with the top of the walls, the generators would need to perform in a manner immediately beyond their initial specifications. Could they do it? Yes."

"Would they provide decent performance? Debatable. Plus, you should take into account the Aud, the pebbles and rocks. I equated those that might perform a repeat of their Io stunt as pebbles because they don't pose that much risk to the continued operation of the shielding generator array. They were so effective at Io because they dropped down and were immediately among unprepared and vulnerable targets. But when hitting a semi-spherical, frictionless surface? Their initial impacts will be the extent of what we should worry for. If they don't bounce off immediately and fall, the frictionless property of the dome will ensure they will find no grip to even hit it twice, and they will slide off until they fall, as should the others."