The Tech began its existence as a common Series 4 Excavator Mask, a piece of standard safety equipment. It was part of countless units discovered by the crate load within the long-forgotten storage vaults of the Gilded Quarry, located in the distant Ioles system.

Its mundane purpose shifted dramatically when the Red Sun Dominion violently annexed the Ioles system. The conquering regime forced the native Harvested population into the perilous, toxic depths of Vent Sector Primus, a region colloquially known as The Iron Lungs. In this hostile environment, these mass-produced masks transformed from simple tools into crucial lifelines for survival.

This particular unit, however, underwent a radical transformation at the hands of ingenious rebel technicians within The Iron Lungs. They modified it into a "Canary" unit, an illegal and highly sought-after piece of equipment. The rebels jury-rigged the mask's original mining sensors, designed to detect pockets of explosive gas, for an entirely new purpose.

These repurposed sensors now specialized in detecting the unique electromagnetic signatures of Red Sun Dominion security drones and cloaked automated turrets. This ingenious modification transformed a standard piece of mining safety equipment into vital guerrilla stealth tech, indispensable for the Harvested resistance in their fight against the Dominion.

The "Canary" modification made the mask highly illegal and aggressively hunted by Dominion forces. Whispers persist among the clandestine Mortal Veil smugglers that this specific unit harbors a dormant "Breaker Protocol."

If these rumors hold true, there's a 20% chance that plugging the mask's data port into the Command Deck 7 terminals within The Iron Lungs would unleash a devastating power. It wouldn't merely filter air; the mask would act as a hardware key, bypassing the critical atmospheric venting lockouts for the entire sector. This capability would grant the wearer the terrifying power to threaten the Dominion with the planet's own atmosphere, turning it into a weapon.

Currently, this unique piece of resistance tech remains in active circulation, passing through the shadowy networks of the black market and residing within a smuggler's cache. Its potential for both survival and destruction makes it a phantom of immense value in the ongoing conflict.