Chapter 22 - The Absolute Zero[]
Debris Field of the Battle of Sian
LCS Cutter 2114
Capellan Confederation
Sian Star System
January, 3159 CE
The wreckage was significantly intact, especially considering what they'd done to kill it. Their Capellan hosts were being friendly and helpful as PO3 Weckman's team from Cutter 2114 moved into the bowels of it.
Bodies.....so many bodies. thought Weckman.
"These aren't Republic uniforms, they're too...white. I don't recognize the iconography either." he pulled a corpse closer and shined his helmet lights on it so the camera got a good steady look at what had been at some point a man.
"No ranks, no unit patches. They didn't expect the hull to lose press-these guys are in shirtsleeves." He clambered through a half-open bulkhead door.
"The AR-10 launcher, looks like a late model from the Star League era with the improved feed. The unfired ordnance in this bay matches standard SLDF markings, no date codes. They hardened the crap out of this bay though structure looks like it was meant to support a NAC or Naval Gauss, not a missile rack. Personnel airlock up ahead, placement's non-standard for the apparent type."
"Is it jammed?" the voice on the radio asked.
"I'm checking...no jams. Its a manual wheel to lock it, this ship's supposed to have a crew and they're supposed to be under thrust when this is open. I'm forcing it now."
The hand crank pumped the door open and he entered the next space.
Row after row of blinking box-like structures. Server towers, but more than anyone should need.
"Alright, someone made a prop for a speculative fiction movie in here. I'm reading em flux, means the power's on in here. Bo air still...which can't be doing good things for those air-cooled racks."
He shut off his magnetics, and kicked up.
"Holy ******...are you guys seeing this?"