A human soldier from a doomed futuristic civilization traverses through the fabrics of space and time to flee mankind's imminent extinction, only to stumble upon Zootopia - a diverse world unlike any other. Namely, an antiquated society filled with...
As I ventured further into the climate wall, walking through the narrow service tunnel and taking a sharp right, the natural light quickly faded until it was nothing but darkness. The overhead lightbulbs were either broken or missing in various places, almost as if they were purposefully destroyed. It was hard to see a thing. The only exception was the muzzle flash from my gun as I fired a couple of rounds to break the latches off another sealed door at the end of the corridor. After that, it was just me and my flashlight.
Significant time passed as I wandered through the vast network of empty hallways and rusty catwalks. Tools, workbenches, and deprecated control stations sat frozen in time, collecting dust and dating back many generations. One of the shriveled calendars on a nearby bulletin board was outdated by more than three decades.
I went up another flight of stairs and continued down another service tunnel.
There was no sign of anyone.
Water droplets trickled down the concrete walls from the ceiling above, and air pipes vibrated with a series of quiet hisses, rattles, and pops. I crept down the tunnel, keeping my gun aimed just in case. I had been walking for a while when I finally reached the exit, but there was no light at the end of the tunnel... only more darkness.
As I emerged from the service tunnel, I came upon a massive chamber. My footsteps echoed in the distance, signifying this new area's vastness. It was a lot to take in. My head pivoted in every direction. Heavy machinery could be heard a few hundred meters below, above, and around the catwalk. It had the strangest intricate industrial design I had ever seen—nothing technologically advanced but something far more sophisticated than a pocket watch mechanism. It felt like being inside a subway, a factory, and a warehouse simultaneously.
I didn't really know how else to describe it.
The USG Ishimura ship's interior with a Disney edition makeover? That didn't make much sense... but neither did this place.
As I continued along the endless catwalk, moving between the two hydroelectric generators suspended from the ceiling, I noticed something peculiar about the metal railings. I could feel it in my hands.
I pointed my flashlight to get a better look.
The catwalk railings were bright yellow—likely per industrial safety standards—but they also had golden pieces of thin wire wrapped around them, like vines growing up a tree. It was actually real gold based on its malleable texture. The golden wires stretched in both directions along the catwalk, interwoven with its metal surfaces and connecting to the climate wall's various machinery, equipment, and mechanisms in an organized web-like structure.
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