Endless light and heat shone onto Torch 1's enormous membrane, and the Mechanical Insects began converting the intercepted radiation into energy of their own.
Energy interception rate: 35%. Torch 1's energy reserves increasing...
In the Virtual Command Room, Lawrence watched the scene before him nervously as the system announcements sounded.
They had supermaterials capable of withstanding extreme temperatures, but how to convert that immense, violent energy, compress it, and store it without bursting was the crucial step that would determine the success or failure of the Prometheus project.
"Stealing fire" from the sun was easy. The hard part was doing it without getting burned!
Bzzzt! Before long, blue arcs began flickering across the enormous umbrella-shaped membrane. This was the energy overflow phenomenon unique to the Mechanical Insects.
Then an immense amount of energy was converted into electricity and channeled into the hemispherical pod. Complex optical circuits gradually lit up inside it, their outline looking rather like... a cannon?
Beep! Energy threshold reached. Initiating laser targeting... confirmed: Torchbearer has received the targeting signal! Torchbearer is ready for alignment! Torch ignition countdown! 10, 9... 3, 2, 1!
The next instant, brilliant light blazed inside the pod!
Bzzzt! A bucket-thick, high-energy laser fired from the pod, shooting straight into the void away from the sun!
Angled slightly away from the Solar System's ecliptic plane, the high-energy laser crossed the vast distance at the speed of light and was finally received by a strangely shaped craft thirty million kilometers away!
This craft was named the Torchbearer. Its core components were still constructed from Mechanical Insects, and it looked like an old-fashioned, slightly curved telescope, wide at the front and narrow at the rear.
After traveling that immense distance, the beam had spread to cover dozens of square meters. It entered