A City Without an Owner

Tang arrived at the weather station carrying a sixteen-character password and a vocabulary of curses. Lin opened a construction log marked in red. The third Rule Shard lay at the deepest point of Skyvault. Gu had not taken it last cycle because its condition required neither wealth nor access. [HIDDEN CONDITION: MAKE A CITY WITH AN OWNER OWNERLESS.] “We storm it?” Tang asked. “No.” Lin pointed at the list. “We make sure it no longer belongs to Gu.” Skyvault depended on three systems: Gu's satellite network for communications, the consortium identity database for access, and a mountaintop reservoir for survival. None was scheduled to go fully online until Day Five, when the world's disorder peaked. Lin moved the schedule forward four days.