COALCOM: Power Station Operations Terminal

You're the new operator at Riverside Coal Power Station.

Your predecessor, Earl, was three weeks from retirement when he decided to test whether the plant could run itself while he napped. It could not. Two city blocks were evacuated. You got hired because your resume said you "worked with computers."

Your training lasted four hours. Chuck, the plant supervisor who smells of diesel and disappointment, pointed at gauges and said: "Keep pressure at 165 bar. Too low, no power. Too high, boom. Keep water between 40% and 60%. Too low, tubes overheat. Too high, turbine gets wet. Wet turbines are expensive."

Then he handed you a coffee-stained manual from 1987 and left.

Now you're responsible for keeping the region powered. The grid operator calls every few hours with new demands. Equipment breaks. Systems cascade into each other. If you trip the plant, everyone notices — the news, your boss, that guy who named his cat after a substation.