The Iron Lungs, originally known as Gilded Quarry Vent Sector Primus, was constructed during the planet's Golden Age. Its purpose was to serve as a fully automated environmental regulation hub, meticulously designed to maintain a pristine, paradise-like atmosphere across the region. The exact date of its founding remains unknown.
Following this era, the planet plunged into a period known as the Thousand Year Silence. During this long decline, the advanced automated systems of The Iron Lungs slowly but inexorably degraded. The meticulously controlled environment collapsed, allowing the planet's atmosphere to thicken into a toxic, unbreathable soup, and the facility was effectively abandoned in its original function.
When the Red Sun Dominion eventually reclaimed the planet, they encountered The Iron Lungs, a crucial yet broken piece of pre-Sundering technology. Lacking the necessary understanding to repair its delicate nanotechnology, they resorted to brutal, industrial patchwork. Massive combustion engines were forced into quantum intakes, and chemical scrubbers were crudely welded over clean energy vents, an act of sheer desperation.
Today, this jury-rigged facility stands as the only thing keeping the planet's Harvested population alive. It filters just enough toxins from the lower habitation zones to prevent immediate asphyxiation, while siphoning pure, scrubbed air exclusively up to the Elite spires. The stark contrast in air quality highlights the Dominion's oppressive social structure.
Within the facility, a powerful legend persists: the myth of "The Breaker." It is whispered that deep within the sealed, dust-choked confines of Command Deck 7, a functional manual override lever still exists. This mythical "Breaker" is believed to hold the power to vent the entire planet's atmosphere into space, offering a final, definitive act of defiance to end the slavery of the Harvested.
The Dominion, wary of the facility's deepest secrets and inherent dangers, actively avoids these lower levels. Their apprehension stems from fears of intense radiation leaks and the unsettling presence of malfunctioning holographic interfaces, which flicker like "ghosts" through the dark, echoing corridors. The Iron Lungs now operates under critical strain and is partially quarantined, a testament to its perilous and vital role.
