Time Remaining: 32 Days, 06 Hours. (Status: Day 4 of the 7-Day Deadline. Trial Phase Active.) Location: Sector 7-Bravo - The Waste Reclamation Unit.
The tank was not empty. It was filled with the ghosts of a thousand industrial failures.
Arthur stood at the access hatch on top of the massive central reservoir. He looked like a monster from the deep. He was wearing a heavy, rubberized diving suit scavenged from the scrapyard. It was patched with black tar and smelled of old sweat and sulfur. On his head was a heavy brass helmet with a single, thick glass porthole. Trailing behind him was a bundle of hoses—one for air, and a thinner, fabric-wrapped cable for the Hard-Line Intercom.
"Sound check," Arthur shouted inside the helmet. The acoustics were terrible; his own voice echoed back at him, tinny and metallic.
