"In the event of a Tier 0 Site Discovery, all personnel are required to document their findings and log appropriate fee claims immediately in advance of site processing. Failure to do so on time and within stated parameters will result in immediate censure, with the offending parties potentially risking indefinite termination, personal liquidation or, more seriously, denial of their introductory finders fee."
Corpus Salvage Edict 47-19
"We should call it in." Kelpo said, after a moment.
The two men had not moved from their spot at the entrance to the vast chamber.
"In a bit." Telin shook his head, "I want to know what we're looking at first."
"A big fat payday, that's what." Kelpo chuckled. He was already unpacking his com unit. "I'll get the transmitter juiced."
"Wait." Telin held a hand up.
"Wait? You serious? You know how seriously Anyo reps treat protocol. "
"I mean wait. This is good salv, Kelp. Life changingly good salv. Let's get a proper sense of what we're dealing with before we call it in."
"This is a bad idea, Tel. And changingly isn't a word."
"It will be when we get paid, Kelp. You wanna get short changed?"
Kelpo hesitated, then wrapped the transmitter back up. Like any good freelancer, a healthy focus on margins was the quickest way to the man's heart.
"Good." Telin snapped on a hand held torch and started forward. "C'mon."
The two scavengers circling the downed ship with some trepidation; Kelpo with his scanning wand, Telin playing his light over the crumpled hull. The ship was big; far bigger than the small skimmer that had brought them here.
As battered as it was, the original design of the ship was much too streamlined to be of Corpus design.
"You think it's Orokin?" Kelpo asked.
"Gotta be. No Grineer ship matches this description."
"Survivors?"
Telin crouched down and scooped up a frozen chunk of organic matter. The ship's very innards had burst. He scraped it into a sample jar affixed to his belt. It was all but frozen solid
"Doubtful." Telin grunted, slapping his hands clean.
Telin swiped snow from the display gauge mounted on the wrist of his environment suit. He keyed a series of commands into it.
The boxy shoulder pad of his suit snapped free and rose into the air of its own volition, repulsors humming. With a metallic clack it unfurled into a drone. It was an avian thing. Unlike the more salubrious models adopted by those higher in Corpus society, HWK-44 was custom made; smaller – a patchwork to be sure - but not lacking in craft. Its hull was stencilled in all matter of logos, memes and serial numbers; a testament to its mongrel heritage.
It chirped an enthusiastic greeting. Telin gestured to the wreckage; all business.
"Audio and visual feed up to five hundred meters; full site documentation; repeating. Prepare for tight beam broadcast on my signal. No stream, we don't know who's out there."
HWK emitted an affirmative cheap and swept into the air, panning sensor beams all over the site. The drone was part aide, field assistant and occasional pet. Under normal circumstances, Telin would have mapped the site himself, rather than risking HWK in such an extreme environment.
These were not ordinary circumstances.
The scavengers stepped onto the hull. It sounded metallic, felt as much to the touch. There were no discernible access hatches that Telin could see.
A deep scar had riven its way through the front of the hull; some kind of beam weapon based on the impact profile. Whatever semi-organic material the ship was composed of had failed to heal the damage fully. Telin was from a mining family; the fused tissue looked like any number of industrial accidents he had seen as a boy.
The gap was just barely wide enough to accommodate the bulk of a single man. The scavengers hunkered down over the wound, peering down into the dark recess.
Darkness stared back at them.
"You seeing this?" Telin asked, incredulous. "This ship wasn't built. It was grown."
Kelpo shook his head, dumbfounded. Without a moment's hesitation, Telin started lowering himself into the gap. Kelpo met his eye as he hovered halfway through the hole.
"You're not actually going in there, are you?"
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained!" Telin grinned. Then he vanished.
Kelpo swore vehemently.
"Tel!" Kelpo yelled. "Tel you bastard; you okay?!"
No response came. Cursing, Kelpo squeezed through and followed.
He yelped as he clattered to a metallic deck. Telin hauled him upright.
"That's gonna bruise." Kelpo muttered.
In response to the sudden commotion, the ship's internal lights began glowing to life. They pulsed sickly; lighting in fits and starts. It was a testament to the ship's design that it still managed to function after so much trauma.
Instinctively Kelpo produced his scanning wand, wielding it like a particularly ineffectual sword. Telin for his part took point, his suit's lighting rig automatically dimming in response to the increasing visibility.
The inside of the ship had fared just as poorly. Nearly every console was fried, and scorch marks blanketed the floor and walls. Even in the ship's bizarre internal microclimate, the invading ice chased every surface. Curiously, it still seemed warmed inside the ship than without.
They were stood in what appeared to be the central corridor of the ship. A descending ramp fed deeper into the ship. It too had been fused open; its surface warped and buckled by extreme heat.
"No flight seats, no crew restraints. No damn cockpit." Kelpo shook his head, "Just what the hell is this thing?"
Telin reached up and keyed the record button linked to the side of his visor. He panned from left to right, documenting the devastation.
"Advanced tech, that's for sure. Way above our pay-grade. Wonder what could have done this much damage."
Wand scanning, the two men crept deeper into the ship.
Telin stopped in his tracks so suddenly Kelpo walked smack into him.
Any protestations were cut short by the sight before them.
Slumped in the centre of the ship was an immense figure; of a scale far larger than any human; gene enhanced or not. It was tethered to a central station that had all but collapsed in on itself; the heaped flesh of the ship having pooled around it like melted wax. Entombed, its angular lines were blurred by a coating of ice; its silhouette all but indistinguishable.
"Hell is that thing?!" Kelpo hissed.
"How should I know?!" Telin shot back. "And why are we whispering?! It's clearly dead!"
"I sure hope so!"
They kept a cautious distance from it as they crept forward. Telin looked down and realised he was toting the plasma cutter like a rifle. He shook himself and lowered it. No sense risking the salvage.
Kelpo's scanning wand piped up.
"Readings ahead."
The plasma cutter was half raised again.
"That thing alive?" Telin asked, eyes narrowed.
"Yes and no. Trace biological activity; all but dormant."
"Good." Telin glanced over his shoulder, "I'm sensing a 'but' here."
"But that's not the only signature I'm reading. This next one's all over the damn scale, but localised. It's coming from deeper inside the ship."
They stepped gingerly past the frozen giant. The corridor wove around, feeding into two separate ramps. To either side were two rooms too badly damaged to enter.
At the very rear of the ship lay one final door. The door itself lay broken on the deck, scorched and blackened beyond recognition. Beyond it lay the single largest chamber, some kind of throne room.
It was here where the flesh of the ship's organic material had pooled thickest. encasing a large throne at the back of a vaulted chamber. The throne itself had buckled under the force of impact; all but webbed beneath the fossilized flesh. Kelpo's wand lit up as they played it over the wreckage.
Telin studied the throne carefully. He spoke aloud, for the benefit of the recording.
"Some kind of emergency response. The ship dumped its biological material around critical components. Whatever was in that chair, the ship died saving it."
"You talk like it was alive." Kelpo shook his head.
Telin shot him a look.
"Take one look and tell me it wasn't."
Kelpo shrugged, stepping forward and kneeling over the broken throne.
"Signal's erratic but it's here. Definitely getting some weird readings." He produced a small handheld cutter and began surgically stripping at the wall of flesh. "Give me a hand here Tel."
They got to work, working with the practised methology of seasoned scrappers. Entire rolls of fat were spliced from the throne, where they were cast aside steaming to the deck.
The throne itself took a lot more practised cutting. When they finally prised it away, it revealed the golden casket beneath.
"Statis pod." Kelpo grunted.
And inside, its occupant; perfectly preserved. A young teenager, scarcely older than a boy. His face was hidden by an ebony respirator, chased with silver. His hair was a dark black, shaved on one side. Small implants dotted either side of his brow. He slept peacefully, oblivious to the grim reality of his surroundings.
Kelpo leaned down and checked the readings on the side of the casket.
"Well, there you have it." A pause. "He's alive."
This time it was Telin's turn to swear. This complicated matters greatly.
A survivor meant an entirely different fee structure. Potentially a forfeit on full salvage rights.
"Call it in." Telin glowered. "Advanced ship; possibly Orokin origin."
His voice floating over his shoulder as he stalked out of the chamber.
"Ask 'em if there's a discretionary bonus for a rescue."