Time Remaining: 32 Days, 04 Hours. (Status: Sector 7-Bravo Stabilized. Preparing for Transit.) Location: The Waste Reclamation Unit - Employee Break Room.
The loudest sound in the factory was the silence.
For a week, the Waste Reclamation Unit had sounded like a dying dragon. The pipes had screamed. The floor plates had rattled against the bolts. The steam vents had hissed like angry snakes, spitting scalding water onto the walkways.
Now, it was quiet. There was a low, steady thrum—a deep bass note that you felt in your chest rather than heard with your ears. It was the sound of millions of gallons of sludge moving smoothly through copper veins. It was the sound of a machine that was finally breathing.
