Chapter 328 Schemes and Gratitude
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"Yes, Mr. Ambassador, we would like to buy all the grains that China isn't taking," the Edenian ambassador to Ukraine repeated his request to his Ukrainian counterpart. Ukraine was suffering China's retaliation for voting against their decision in the UNSC meeting.
"Are you trying to help us because we voted in your favor, or is it preparation for when the sanctions are implemented on Eden?" he asked to sate his curiosity, as he had no plans to deny their offer at all.
"It's a bit of both, as we need to have enough of a food surplus that when the import ban is implemented next week we'll have enough to allow us to hold out for a year. Plus, although your vote did nothing to change the outcome, it still made it difficult for the bastards to pass the sanctions." The Edenian ambassador wouldn't bother hiding anything, since everyone knew the ins and outs of what had recently taken place behind closed doors.
"But you've been quite helpful to us in countering the pro-Russian faction in Crimea, so there's no need for you to be grateful for what was basically nothing but pointless support," the Ukrainian said. He was hinting at the intelligence operations that were being conducted by Nyx agents on the ground, helping Ukraine have a semblance of counterintelligence against the Russian invaders. They were trying to infiltrate Ukraine in order to make their upcoming invasion as easy as possible, to the point that they might not even need to fire a single shot at all. And the Nyx agents had been helping them prevent that from happening.
"I'm just doing what my bosses require of me," the Edenian ambassador replied, feeling quite good for his country's action. Even he knew that they were being very friendly with Ukraine, more so than they normally should be for other countries.
Meanwhile, Nyx herself, who was monitoring this phone call, couldn't help but shake her head as she knew Eden was only repaying their support in the UNSC by buying the grains. They had never considered the intelligence help they provided Ukraine to be a favor, since it was a scheme within a scheme, meant to aid Vladimir in rising up the chain of command inside the Kremlin. The plan had been working very well for him, as he was in consideration to be promoted to one of the higher positions in the organization, one where he could move a large portion of the intelligence department without even having to report to the Kremlin. That said, even if he got promoted, he would still have eyes on him paying attention to how he uses them.
"Then I'll inform our higher-ups and get back to you as soon as possible to make sure the deal is sealed before the import sanctions go into effect," the Ukrainian ambassador said. After bidding his farewells, he ended the call and immediately reported the situation to the government officials who could facilitate such a huge order for Eden.
After three back and forth negotiation sessions, the deal was approved and signed. But due to the massive amounts of wheat requiring shipping, as the order was enough to sustain the country's need for grain imports for more than two years, Rachael had immediately put the atomic printers into higher gear, printing massive ships that could retrieve their grain before the sanction went into effect.
...
Aron was standing in front of the building that had the fusion reactor under it, ready to take it offline for a few hours. Once the reactor was SCRAMmed, the smaller, more mobile atomic printers would begin modifying the transformer so it would deliver only electricity, but not transform it to mana.
"Let's begin," he said once he was sure that the building and a ten-kilometer radius around it was empty, with him as the sole human inside the circle.
As if waiting for his order, the printers began their work by digging in order to arrive at the underground where the transformer was. And while they were on their way, the last bit of mana was sent to the main quantum server to allow it to operate without a constant supply of energy for about three days. After that supply was exhausted, the server would go offline together with the fusion reactor. But the dip in power wasn't noticed by anyone on the island, much less those in the country, as the other fusion reactors had picked up the slack and were smoothly providing electricity to every one of Helios' customers.
When the atomic printers arrived at the location of the underground transformer, they immediately started disintegrating it to pieces while at the same time printing a new transformer in its place, one that had just finished its testing in Lab City and had been deemed operational.
Together with that, one atomic printer entered the pipeline in which mana was being transported to the quantum server, where it began its journey. It would print room-temperature superconducting cables stretching from the new transformer to the server room, which was currently undergoing modifications as well. If all went according to plan, the server room's modifications would be completed after the power cable was finished being laid.
It didn't take long before the new transformer was completed and the superconducting high-voltage cable had arrived at the server room. The modification of the server room would be quite a bit more complex; the entire floor was being replaced by that same superconducting material so electricity could travel through the legs of each server rack to power the servers within. But the modifications didn't end there—the rune that currently provided cooling was to be replaced as well. That replacement would render the server room completely inhospitable to human life, as Nova had chosen the most brute-force method of cooling in order to save time on the modifications. The entire server room would simply be flooded with constantly circulating liquid helium through a system that an atomic printer was currently busily printing.
But that was the only thing that would take a bit longer, as with the transformer completed, the changes in the atomic printers would need to be taken care of, so it too will be taken offline for a short time to be modified as well. n)-o-/v)-E)-L)-b)-1).n
"With that out of the way, let's go look for a solution," Aron said as he boarded a vehicle that would take him back to the Cube. He was planning on logging into the universal simulation to continue brainstorming on how to deal with the mess they had unknowingly caused, as well as how to use mana but stop it from looking like a pulsar star going supernova in mana sight.
