She finds the plant poorly-maintained and seemingly deserted, with no sign of caretakers Dr. Zek and Robinson, but the latter appears brandishing a golf club and demands that she identify herself.

As Abby attempts to repair the communications relay and Zek remains absent, she gradually discovers more serious problems affecting the plant's performance and becomes suspicious of the oddly-behaving Robinson, who displays a considerable ignorance of the workings of the machines he supposedly maintains.

With Zek moved to the medical bay to recover, a new crisis emerges: one of the plant's two main ventilation fans, ostensibly designed to function flawlessly for thousands of years, inexplicably fails, and volatile gases begin building up in the facility.

Zek urges Abby to send a distress signal to Auxilisun HQ, but with comms still down, she has to venture back outside the plant and build a makeshift array while Robinson is occupied.

Abby confronts Zek with her findings that Gibson Desert North had been decaying for years despite Auxilisun's public assurances that the technology was failsafe, and that the red zone had expanded hundreds of miles into a town called Barrow Creek and was killing the residents.

Zek confirms that Barrow Creek was being covered up to avoid a public relations disaster, as too much of the world was dependent on Auxilisun to allow its technology to be called into question.

Abby makes it out of the imploding facility, but when the only transport craft leaves her stranded, she removes her protective suit's helmet and allows herself to succumb to the radiation.