The Surface of Steinhull, The Steinhull ruins

Sinn'Are'Sen places his pickax on the hatch to the third compartment and then pauses. Something feels off, wrong, about the door. He places a hand against the hatch. Cool metal is the only thing he can feel, the expected ridges of the bird and cog icon, the faintest coating of dust over the raised surfaces. Sinn takes a deep breath in and lets it hiss out through his nose to steady his nerves. A few murmured words and a push of will extends his mind's eye through the hatch and into the compartment beyond. Sinn does not 'see' anything living, nor any psionic signatures lurking near the door itself. Instead there is the faintest sensation of laughter and whispers just beyond the range of comprehension. A second breath hisses out of his nose as he pulls the hatch open. It groans and grinds along the track. Metal screeches on metal. Sin barely steps aside in time as a metal form crashes to the deck. He readies his pickax to strike, and then relaxes as the form does not move.

“Dara Tonn?”

“Still here.”

“What in the fuck is that?”

“The metallic remains that you are currently looking at?”

“Yes, that thing. What is it?”

“I don't have the slightest idea. It does not match any data available to me. You sound shaken. Why?”

“Be glad you can't feel it. There is something off about this compartment. Badly off. Nothing I can see, nothing I can touch or taste. And yet even before I cracked the hatch the hairs on my arms were standing up and goosebumps were crawling down my spine. Whatever is off about this compartment, whatever is wrong with it, it's something psionic. Then I crack the hatch and this... heap of metal just about crushes my feet.”

“Then this is definitely something that needs to go into the exploration log.”

“Agreed. Ready?”

“Ready.”

Sinn draws a breath deep into his lungs lets it sit there until it starts to burn, and then lets it hiss back out slowly.

“Begin exploration log addendum.

“Be aware that this section concerns an unknown psionic phenomenon. At least it is not one that I have ever encountered before. Accordingly I'm naming it “Whispers in the Dark.” It extends to the entirety of the compartment in front of me, stopping at the threshold but including the hatch. The effect is twofold. First is a manifestation of fear. Raising hair and goosebumps. RPC calming methods work to mitigate any mental effects such as irrational dread. The second aspect of The Whispers in the Dark is evident to any psion that extends their metaphysical senses into the compartment. Mine manifest as aural and limited vial sensations: I 'saw' nothing but heard faint laughter and whispers in a language I do not recognize. I recommend further investigation of this phenomenon by a RPC team specializing in such things.

“The compartment is unremarkable in a physical sense, functionally indistinguishable from the previous two barracks compartments. However it contained the remains now present in the entryway. RSC-2W-0063 returns no match or possible identification. Thus I will perform a field inspection on-log.”

Sinn walks around the form without entering the compartment to give the camera as many angles as he can record.

“The remains are roughly humanoid in appearance, albeit heavily modified. Organic material including bone has been lost to time, but the artificial components endure. I see two foot like treads, two powered mechanical leg braces, a cylindrical section about where the stomach would be on a human - possibly a power generator of some description to judge by the amount of cables emerging from it – a chest harness supporting two appendages, a right shoulder and arm brace, a mechanical gauntlet for a right hand with four fingers and a thumb, the left arm is a quintet of metallic tendrils, each tipped with a different light industrial tool , and what is left of heavy cerebral modifications. I see a lens array, a speaker of some sort, and a curved metal skull plate with all sorts of protrusions on the interior side. The same bird and cog ion is visible in multiple locations, very prominently on the pauldron of the shoulder brace.

“These remains are clearly cybernetics of some sort but I have never even heard of a set this extensive. The light industrial tooling indicates a maintenance or repair function of the individual, but the cerebral modifications indicate that several parts of their brain had been replaced for some reason. I therefore can not determine if these cybernetics were installed voluntarily, to replace injured or destroyed limbs, or were forced on the individual in question for an unknown reason.

“The remains are too heavy to transport back to RSC-2W-0063 at this time. Their location has been marked for future retrieval.

“End exploration log addendum.”

“Clean copy.”

“Moving on now, that compartment is giving me the creeps.”

“But why would a compartment house a psionic phenomenon? Why not the reset of the station?”

“I'm starting to thing the rest of the station is in fact under one or more psionic phenomenon. The sections I explored up to this point were quiet, psionicaly speaking. Too quiet.”

Republic world of Krigertenkere, RPC Site 12

Funi'Happ'Sen idly flips a stylus in his fingers as he contemplates Sinn'Are'Sen's exploration log to date. There was very little out of place. The only exception was the whole 'not recording all audio' thing. The RPC did not restrict the recording or distribution of psionic incantations as each was unique to the psion in question. They did ask to see any recorded psionic phenomenon before releasing the recording to the public but that was no reason to not record audio. Sinn'Are'Sen's remark about unprofessional comments was likely the true reason and a somewhat reasonable one in Funi'Happ'Sen's opinion. Not a safe thing to do with regards to covering one's backside in case of inquiry or review (which is exactly what was happening) but it was reasonable in that it also did not record the endless hours of breathing and routine chatter back and forth with RSC-2W-0063. All of which were logged anyways.

A ding from his communicator alerted Funi'Happ'Sen of a new exploration log addendum. He found Sinn'Are'Sen's habit of recording addendums instead of making a single end-of-day report annoying. Because it meant further mini-updates to wade though. Funi'Happ'Sen hits the key to start the latest one playing. Seconds later he is upright in his seat, eyes riveted to his communicator. The addendum ends and Funi'Happ'Sen cues it up to play again. This time he plugs in a headset to that he can turn the audio on to hear Sinn'Are'Sen's tone of voice. Funi'Happ'Sen hands shake just a bit as he takes of his headset off and pulls up the messaging application. There was nothing to be done instantly, as he was so far away from the person and events in question.

“RE: Steinhull

“Boss, we have a development. I'm attaching most recent exploration log entry. Suspect a Crack in the Veil not caused by S.A.S.

“Funi'Happ'Sen.”

The response took three minutes to arrive.

“Agreed. Recommendation?”

Funi'Happ'Sen pauses to think. A wrong recommendation would be very bad but a right one would be very good for his career. And for the Republic of course.

“Location is isolated. Republic assets and personnel on location extremely limited. Considering local situation: Isolate location digitally as well as physically. Chance of Personnel violating MtV-0001 with regards to Republic at large by S.A.S is thus negated. Republic assets on location are to proceed with mission as previously issued. This will investigate the chance of a Cracked Veil situation. Chance exists of S.A.S causing a Pierced Veil Event. Unable to evaluate chances of such an event occurring at this distance.”

“Agreed."