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A giant shuddering sound escaped from deep within the bowels of the great industrial machine. In the

pin-drop silence that followed, an ominous hiss could be heard far below the iron gangplanks where the

night crew plied their trade, feeding a constant stream of waste into the ovens of the thermal plant, the

engineering marvel whose energy output fed the ever-hungry city.

"Sulfur leak," bellowed the shift manager, the panic rising in his voice as he dropped his clipboard midcheck. His cry had barely subsided before the general shock gave way to panic, shift workers jostling

over each other in a frenzied rush for the ventilation shaft.