The secondary ventilation duct was a narrow, suffocating vein of galvanized steel and copper, damp with the condensation of a thousand steam cycles and reeking of acrid rust mingled with the lingering, sulfurous stench of the Abyss. The metallic walls were hot to the touch, vibrating with the low-frequency thrum of Terragard's gargantuan geothermal engines working somewhere in the distant bedrock. The neon-green luminescence from Dayat's GPNVG-18 goggles sliced through the absolute gloom, illuminating microscopic dust particles dancing in the air and thick, viscous droplets of fluid seeping from the pipe joints overhead.
