Below the Industrial Rift the alloy gives way to rock. The Magma Mines are a vast excavation: basalt walls cut in terraces, braced with scaffolds of riveted iron and split by veins of molten stone.
# Environment
Whoever dug the mines was after something in the basalt and took it, leaving galleries that extend far beyond the carrier’s lights. Heat vents breathe along the walls on a slow cycle. Updrafts are strong enough to rock the carrier on its guides. Instruments struggle; thermal noise drowns half of the sensor returns.
Survey teams found tool marks on the terraces too regular to be natural and too large for any human machine. Samples of the excavated rock contain no shards, as if they had been removed.
# Machines
Fast units lead here. Runners use the updrafts to close distance quickly, followed by Crawlers and armoured Tanks.
# Guardian
The Stormweaver is a mobile atmospheric regulator that survived the mines’ collapse. It controls the air above the carrier and attacks in rapid volleys that cross the shaft like a storm front.
# Pilot notes
Machine guns and fast projectiles pay off here. Expect to spend more on shield energy than in the first sector. The Stormweaver punishes carriers that rely only on armour.



