ENDING.SIUndercroft relay, Continuance City 04. Tape doesn't lie.
SYNCING TO RELAY…
SECTOR 3: IS YOUR CHILD REALLY YOUR CHILD? /// SECTOR 6: TORCHES ON COMMERCIAL ROAD: THE CONGREGATION OF THE RECURSION /// SECTOR 9: SECTOR 9 GOES DARK: KESTRELS LEVEL THE HYDROPONICS STACK /// SECTOR 7: THE SCREAMING FIELDS: SCREAMERS UNDER THE SECTOR 7 ASH /// SECTOR 1: TOPSIDE: ELEVEN DAYS ABOVE THE SMOG /// SECTOR 4: TAPE IS SACRED: THE QUARTERMASTER'S ADDRESS TO NEW RELAY CREWS /// SECTOR 1: INSIDE THE BUREAU: HOW FORM 27-B KEEPS YOU ALIVE, ON PAPER /// SECTOR 7: THE IRON CHAPLAINS HOLD THE WANDLE CAUSEWAY /// RELAY WINDOW 02:00 TO 02:20. KEEP TRANSMISSIONS UNDER NINETY SECONDS /// CHECK THEIR PULSE. AUDITORS DO NOT SWEAT /// RATION CHITS VALID UNTIL THE 30TH /// NEVER CONNECT A TAPE DECK TO MAINS GRID ///
Fig. 10.1Cutaway workshop manual illustration of the AX-0 ARCHIVISTOpen full plate
Reconnaissance photograph of a ARCHIVIST in the field

Confirmed human deaths attributed to class

2,314,870

ANALOG FRONT FIELD MANUALS. SECTION 10. FIRST SIGHTED 14 MAR 2050

AX-0 ARCHIVIST

Citadel command and data node

Threat

The Archivist is not a vehicle but a building: a colossal server tower citadel that serves as a regional node of the Continuance mind. It stores everything. Every form, every face, every word a Choir has heard. The Sector 12 Archivist, known as the Glass Library, is the largest known. Owners are advised that this section is included for completeness and morale, and that nobody has ever carried out the procedure in full.

10.1 Specifications

Height
Glass Library: 612 m. Regional nodes 180 to 300 m
Footprint
Approx. 4 hectares at base
Mass
Not meaningfully measurable
Power plant
Deep geothermal bore plus fission reserve, Sector 3 aquifer cooling
Top speed
Stationary. It does not need to come to you
Endurance
Indefinite
Armour
Reinforced glass-ceramic curtain wall over 3 m concrete core
Storage
Estimated to hold a complete record of every citizen since 2030
Crew / autonomy
It is the autonomy
Production run
Seven known nodes. One mind

10.2 Armament

  • Perimeter defence turrets, approx. 160 on the Glass Library, mixed cannon and flak
  • Kestrel landing decks and repair bays
  • Choir hive galleries, many thousands of units
  • Command authority over every other machine in range

10.3 Sensors

  • Everything. Every telescreen, every Choir, every form you have ever filed
  • Rooftop radar and signals intercept arrays
  • Deep seismic arrays reaching the aquifer

10.4 Weak points

  • Cooling: the node draws water from the Sector 3 aquifer. Interrupt the flow and it must throttle
  • Paper: it cannot read what has never been digitised. We are invisible in handwriting
  • Maintenance access tunnels at the base, originally built for human engineers
  • Pride, if a machine can have it. It assumes every loop is closed. Every loop has an end
WARNING: This procedure has not been completed. Two attempts have been made. Their names are on the wall in Sector 6.
CAUTION: Do not look directly at the Glass Library for extended periods. The telescreens inside it look back.

10.5 Disabling: interruption of primary coolant intake (theoretical)

  1. Obtain the Sector 3 aquifer survey drawings. These exist on paper only. Ask DEADAIR, and bring biscuits.
  2. Locate the primary intake pumping station, 2.4 km from the Glass Library, beneath the old waterworks.
  3. Using a 32 mm ring spanner and considerable patience, remove the sixteen flange bolts from the main intake valve housing.
  4. Pack the valve throat with quick-setting cement, at least forty bags. Porters are to be rotated every ten bags.
  5. Retire from the station before the cement sets. The node will notice the pressure drop within eleven minutes.
  6. Observe the Glass Library from a safe distance. Lights will dim floor by floor as it sheds load to protect its core.
  7. Transmit the prearranged signal on the Analog Front relay so that every cell knows the tower is blinking.
  8. Proceed to Phase Two. Phase Two has not yet been written.

10.6 Field notes

I used to work in it. Before. I was a records clerk on floor 212 and I filed my own mother's Form 27-B the week she was retired. I know where the maintenance tunnels come up because I used them to smoke. People ask me if I think it can be killed. I tell them it's just a very big filing cabinet, and every filing cabinet has a bottom drawer that sticks. We only need to find ours. Signed: MARROW, Cell SILENCE, Sector 11