Metro Station

The metro station occupies interwoven public-transit levels above the mine. Concourses, transfer corridors, and platforms continue according to the order of the city blocks. Faded route maps cling to tiled walls, turnstiles remain powered, and automated announcements recite unfamiliar station names when no train has stopped. Tunnels divide toward different districts at junctions, while maintenance passages overlap impossibly with canal culverts, drainage channels, and mine transport lines. Stairs to the surface open among the glass towers of the Financial District, and street winds carry dust and paper into the concourse. The Institute's private army has sealed this transit node, maintaining patrols through the concourse, transfer corridors, and surface passages. Broadcasts and vehicle echoes grow clearer toward the surface, while the roar of mining machinery travels upward through the track bed. Trains sometimes pass out of the darkness; their carriage lighting and platform signs still resemble an ordinary commuter system, but sealed gates and patrol lights show that it no longer serves ordinary passengers.