Chapter 14: Data-Heist at 30,000 Feet
The alarm sirens aboard The Needle weren't standard bells; they were a digital shriek that vibrated in the very air Arthur breathed. Red emergency panels slid over the observation windows, but Arthur could still feel the thin, freezing atmosphere of the high altitude pressing against the hull.
Thorne was scrambled on the floor, gasping as he tried to recalibrate a handheld override. Arthur didn't give him the chance. With a flick of his wrist, the Archivist Combat Shroud rippled, and Arthur vanished.
The Archive's Hunger
[ SKILL ACTIVE: BLINK ]
Arthur reappeared inches from the central mainframe. He didn't smash it—not yet. He slammed his left hand, palm flat, against the glowing data-port.
"You said I'm a repository, Thorne," Arthur shouted over the roar of the engines. "Let's see how much your system can handle."
[ SYSTEM OVERRIDE ]
Initiating: Data Leech (Rank D)
Target: Thorne's 'Edit Logs' and Chrono-Research.
Progress: 12%... 34%...
Warning: You are absorbing 'Corrupted Data'. Divergence is fluctuating.
The blue light from the console surged up Arthur's arm, turning the midnight-navy of his Shroud into a neon-webbed lattice. Fragments of Thorne's research flooded his mind: blueprints for Tesseract-powered bombers, the location of a 'Solomon Protocol,' and most disturbingly, a list of names—members of the Howling Commandos marked for 'Historical Deletion.'
The Weight of the Future
"Stop!" Thorne screamed, finally finding his footing. He pulled a lever on the wall, and the laboratory floor began to shift. "That data is not for your primitive mind! You are a recorder, not a god!"
The floor beneath Arthur retracted, revealing a sheer drop into the engine room below. Massive, rotating rings of Tesseract energy—the 'Needle's' heart—spun with a dizzying hum. Arthur gripped the edge of the console with one hand, his other still locked in the data-transfer.
[ DATA LEECH: 100% COMPLETE ]
New Item Gained: [The Thorne Files - Encrypted]
New Skill Blueprint: [Chrono-Vision (Passive)] — Allows the user to see the 'intended' path of objects.
The Sabotage
With the data secured, Arthur finally let his Kinetic Conductor Staff do what it was built for. He swung the staff downward into the exposed mainframe, discharging every ounce of [Vita-Cell Overload] he had left.
The result was a cascade of blue lightning that short-circuited the lab's gravity stabilizers. Thorne was sent slamming into the ceiling as the ship tilted 45 degrees toward the earth.
"The Needle is falling, Thorne," Arthur said, his voice calm amidst the chaos. "And I'm not the one who needs a parachute."
Arthur kicked off the tilting console, diving straight into the engine core. He didn't want to destroy the ship—he wanted to use its energy to get home.
[ OBJECTIVE UPDATED ]
Current Goal: Perform a 'Spatial Leap' using the engine's residue.
Divergence: 21.5% (The destruction of The Needle is a massive historical shift).
Current Status:
DP Balance: 3,700 (500 gained for Data Theft).
Energy Level: CRITICAL (Bio-electricity drained).
Inventory: [Encrypted Thorne Files].