The Surface of Steinhull, The Steinhull ruins

Sinn'Are'Sen scratches his chin in thought as he looks at the exposed section of hull. The thick metal is bent outwards as if by an explosion, resulting in a jagged hole over three meters in diameter. He pulls out a flashlight and turns it on to illuminate the chamber.

“Ready for another log addendum Dana Tonn?”

“Ready.”

“Begin exploration log addendum.

“I have located an entrance into the Steinhull ruins some fifty meters distant from the last arch. It appears to be caused by an explosion of some type. Source is unknown but could be accidental or perhaps from battle damage. The crashed orbital station that evidently comprises the Steinhull ruins was clearly heavily armed so the possibility of conflict damage cannot be ruled out. Regardless I have an entrance into the Steinhull ruins and will be exploring it. Visual recording will be on at all times, streamed back to RSC-2W-0063 as well as stored locally. Irrelevant sections will be omitted from the log for clarity as I expect a lot of ruined passage ways and desolate rooms. Audio will be recorded only as needed to suppress unprofessional outbursts, as well as to comply with RPC regulations surrounding the recording of psionic invocations. Specifically I am not certain how widely this expedition log may be distributed, and thus if any eventual viewers will have sufficient clearance regarding psionic incantations. Better, In my opinion, to not record audio which may include psionic incantations by default.

“Concerning the breach itself, it is evident that this orbital station was built with single hull construction, meaning that any breach would result in at least one compartment being voided to space. This appears to be offset by simply making the hull out of incredibly thick armor grade materiel. Even this damaged section looks to be a meter thick. I'll secure a sample for analysis, but it is likely to be degraded by whatever forces breached this section. I'll try to recover a sample from an intact section of hull if possible, But I do not believe that I will be able to with my current equipment.

“The compartment directly beyond the breach is devoid of fixtures beyond bare bulkheads and a hatch featuring a mechanical locking mechanism. The ceiling is tall at almost three meters by my estimation. Given the width of the compartment - three meters or so – and it's length of almost twelve meters, this appears to be an oversized airlock. Possibility: a cargo transfer airlock? Unable to determine nature of room at this time.

“End exploration log addendum.”

“Good copy. Are you actually concerned about recording psionic incantations?”

“Not in the slightest. With the audio and video streams being separate we can always redact any incantations if needed. I mostly wanted to give us the option to speak freely.”

“Thank you Sinn. I'll let you know if there is any signal degradation on our communications link.”

Sinn walks down the length of the airlock, letting the light play over the floor and walls as he progresses. The hatch at the far end is shut but does not appear to be rusted. Sinn grips the end of his flashlight in his teeth and sets both hands to the wheel in the center of the hatch. It rotates with some difficulty and eventually clangs to a stop. A strong tug causes it to swing open to reveal a path further into the Steinhull ruins. Sinn picks his flashlight from his mouth and plays the beam around the passageway beyond.

“I'm in.”

“To this section at least. I would expect there to be security barriers further inside a space station. You will need to open or bypass them as you go.”

“I will get to them when I get to them. Lights are all out, but do not appear damaged.”

“Reactor might be offline, or it might be out of fuel.”

“Think we can get it back online?”

“Not without seeing it. And even then It might not be a smart idea. Best case you have sparks raining down from damaged wiring all over the place and the risk of electrocution. Worst case it powers up security systems that promptly blast you to oblivion.”

Sinn plays his light over a fixture mounted on the ceiling left of the hatch. Twin flash hiders curl around the muzzles of a pair of rotary cannons. Heavy electrical cabling loops from the ceiling swivel mount to the backs of blocky generators at the back of the weapons. The whole assembly points limply at the floor, unable to track or traverse without power.

“I think I found one of those 'security systems' you mentioned Dara Tonn. Doesn't look like any weapon system I'm familiar with of course.”

“Directed energy weapons or possibly plasma throwers. Those would make very short work of a Republic Army boarding team. I am a bit surprised that such heavy weapons would be mounted inside a space station. I would expect them to shoot right through any deck or bulkhead and cause significant internal damage. The Republic Army favors low velocity ballistic weapons for that exact reason.”

“So we are definitely leaving the power turned off. Even a powered hostile environment suit would be as paper if that thing opened up.”

“Oh most definitely.”

“Think I need to log this. Ready for an addendum?”

“Ready.

“Begin exploration log addendum.

“I have discovered an internal security system in a passageway at the other end of the cargo airlock. Looks like twin rotary barreled energy weapons of some sort. I am unable to tell if they are merely lasers or something heavier like plasma. The rotary barrel configuration suggests a high rate of fire that I estimate would render even the protection of a powered hostile environmental suit worthless. Accordingly I do not plan to activate any primary power generation systems inside the Steinhull ruins at this time. The chance of powering up this or a similar security system is simply too high.

“End exploration log addendum.”

“Clean copy.”

“I trust that you are making a map of my exploration? I know the earpiece has a location tracker built into it.”

“I am, complete with image overlay courtesy of the video feed. It only extends as far as the earpiece camera can see though. And without a heads up display I can only send it to your personal communicator.”

“Good enough. Let me know when it is local noon and I'll start working my way back to you. No point in walking about after dark or trying to sleep in here.”

“That will limit how far you can progress into the Steinhull ruins. You will need to secure a forward camp at some point.”

“Yeah, once I have the equipment to set one up. I don't even have a sleeping bag at the moment.”

“A fair point. Onwards?”

“Only way to go at the moment.”

Sinn crept forwards down the passageway, heading left under the inactive security system. He planned to explore the other way the following day unless he found something really interesting. Sinn notices he passageway curving ever so slightly to the right as he progresses. Sinn frowns in thought for a moment and decided to as a mathematical expert for their opinion.

“Dara Tonn?”

“I'm still here.”

“I think this passageway is curving. Does it loop all the way around the Steinhull ruins?”

“Calculating... yes, it appears to. What an odd construction choice, a mixture of strait nines and pure circles. Republic station designers tend to pick one and stick with it. Usually vertical hexagons tot he humans walking about on the inside can have flat decks and bulkheads. Helps a lot with strength too.”

“Given a station this large, I'd imagine its internals were laid out more like a city center. In that case a 'ring road' or roads makes sense. I'll keep going around for today, then explore the radial passageways tomorrow to try and reach the next ring road or the center of the station.”

“Planning to spend the day just mapping things out?”

“May as well. It will make traversing the ruins easier on all subsequent forays.”

Several hours later...

“It's local noon Sinn.”

“Thanks Dara Tonn. Time for me to start heading back.”

“I'm registering mild surprise at not finding anything other then the security turrets in this passageway.”

Sinn takes one last look at the empty passageway before turning around to retrace his steps.

“Honestly I'm not. Having been sealed off from the outside would reduce the amount of dust and dirt in here, as well as not allowing seeds to blow in and grow. Also keeping a main passageway clear also makes sense if you expect a lot of traffic on it. The turrets are every twenty meters or so, giving them plenty of overlap in the case of a boarding action. I would hate to try and take this place by storm.”

“The turrets are exactly every twenty meters on center in the outermost ring passageway, irrespective of other hatches such as the airlock you entered by or the radial passageways leading inwards. This is most unusual.”

“How so?”

“I would expect security emplacement to be located where they would be most effective instead of simply 'one every twenty meters'.”

Sinn shakes his head in mild amusement, “You clearly haven't seen a Republic standard building. Take my dorm at RPC Stormavsirkel for example. Male only dorm, robotic janitorial and maintenance staff. Females not allowed in the building under any circumstances and enough security to catch any who tried. We still had male and female bathrooms on every floor. Not unisex bathrooms mind you, male and female ones.”

“Isn't that both illogical and against current Republic construction regulations?”

“Yep.”

“They why?”

“The dorm was built under an older set of construction regulations and has not been renovated sense. If it ever is they will need to put a unisex bathroom in every dorm room complete with shower.”

“That would require effectively rebuilding the entire building.”

“Which is why they have never done it. I'd bet the turrets here are the same way. 'In a military installation, internal security turrets of such and such type are to be placed every twenty meters.' Never mind that the installation is an orbital station or that the turrets are the wrong type for such a location or that 'every twenty meters' results in horrible turret placement from an actual security or defense perspective.”

“If that is the case, then I would expect the pattern of turrets to continue on both the radial and inner ring passageways.”

“Possible. Want me to divert down one to see?”

“it's worth an extra hour to look. And, as the outer ring passageway has been mapped out, you should be able to make better time on your way back.”

“Ok, let's try this radial passageway here. I'll poke my nose into the next ring passageway, look about for the nearest two turrets, and then head back out.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

“Radial passageway here...”

A few minutes later...

“These turrets are not every twenty meters.”

“No they are not. Plotting now... The security turrets are placed in perfect radial lines compared to the turrets in the outermost ring passageway. I would expect this pattern to break up a bit as the radius of the ring passageways shrinks. This pattern indicates a station laid out mathematically in accordance with a set of regulations.”

“So the Republic is not the only government riddled with paper-pushers.”

“I would not expect them to be. However I have no evidence one way or the other in the data available to me.”