NEREID SECTOR — Several weeks after the alleged drill-through incident on Abyssis, the story has begun to take on a life of its own among workers stationed across the Nereid frontier. What started as quiet talk of lower-shaft fog has evolved into something closer to legend. Miners now speak of a “fog that breathes,” describing colleagues who return from long shifts pale, withdrawn, or prone to sudden flashes of anger. One spacedock medic aboard Tartarus Station described the talk as “half gossip, half ghost story—but with just enough truth to make people uneasy.”

OrionEX has not shifted its position, maintaining that no biological or chemical hazard exists at the Abyssis site. In a recent press circular, the company reaffirmed its earlier statement: “Environmental readings remain nominal. Respiratory equipment upgrades were precautionary, and operations continue as scheduled.”

Officials nearer to Republic core systems echoed a familiar refrain, downplaying the chatter as typical frontier rumor. “Such stories are common in remote development zones where oversight is limited and isolation breeds imagination,” said one source within the Exploration and Development Committee.

Still, within the Nereid Sector, the unease lingers. Station message boards now feature firsthand anecdotes—claims of miners waking up with memory lapses or refusing to return underground. Others insist it’s simply the strain of long shifts and recycled air.

For most citizens of the Republic, Abyssis remains little more than a small red circle on a distant chart, four sectors removed from anything resembling civilization. Whether “cave sickness” and “death rot” are the first signs of something real or just the newest superstition of the deep frontier, the truth remains buried—along with the miners still working beneath the surface.