Clairissa Maggio, archaeological log. 3983, New Galen Ruins.
The Arcturian O'Neal station is a testament to that culture's space engineering. Fifty kilometers long, the station had apparently been the largest settlement in system, and directed high energy farming from a solar panel array. The array, of some note in archaeological architectural circles for some time, remains still, in various conditions, a matrix of panels encompassing a full inner orbit of the star, its Herculean scale remains impressive; one more testament to the greatness of the ancients and that era. No modern array equals it size in any of the Republics and Kingdoms, save Imperial CCCE of course.
Yet the O'Neal station was not the only find, and from here luck turns to legend; a Sunrider war frigate is lodged in the side. It is a timely find as well. The two-artifact menagerie's decaying orbit would reach a soft cloud corona sometime in the near future, and with the hull breach, caused by that long ago Sunrider impact, not even the hard shielded O'Neal Station could shelter the plethora of artifacts inside.
Apparently, the Sunrider had careened into the hull of the O'Neal. The Sunrider's Stasis Shields had flashed on and off, moving through the O'Neal first like butter, the ragged ultra-steel against ragged ultra-steel. Back and forth, again and again in a matter of seconds. The interlocked ultra-steel then held like a stinger, while the entire atmospherics on the interior of the O'Neal bled out furiously to space, rushing over the sleek black and silver lines of the frigate.
We're not sure why the other environmental habitat compartments in the O'Neal Station were breached, nor, at the end of the expedition, what was the predication of the welded CCCE Cyborg pilot's plunge into the station. Further examination will surely provide the answers. The breech safeguards should have preserved them. We have found no intact environmental compartments yet.
Conceivably, in a colony station of this size and sophistication, biome environment compartments could still contain living forests. Fauna and ecosystems thriving, unseen by human eyes for centuries, the life support still servicing away soft rains and light.
Now that would be all the stars in a jewel box, aye! Ha! My Archaeological Avarice is showing!
Kunisada has taken a strong dislike to the frigate, an almost obsessive aversion, even for a head of expedition security. "The greatest technologies of an era, mostly unmatched and forgotten," he said grimly with his thousand-yard stare, "all in the service of death. Feels like death still abides here.
Great Space Ghost, what the technological systems on that Sunrider will be worth to the reverse engineering departments of numerous corporate interests..."