The missing mapping drone caused a lot of speculation among the crew. Possibilities were debated, such as a faulty battery or a defect in the communication array. Of course, the location where it went missing was the cause of speculation too. The most popular hypothesis was that it had found a large fleet hangar, perhaps with some passive jamming equipment still active.
Our assumption turned out to be spectacularly wrong.
When we went up to that location, we found a forest. Pine, birch, spruce and fir trees, under a dome of filtered sunlight. We could even hear some animals making sort of squeaking sounds. We have not found the mapping drone, but it is not designed to map out a forest, so I am not surprised it malfunctioned.
This turns out to be an artificial closed ecosystem, that has been abandoned for centuries. Energy input does not come from power generated inside Mezagorm - that has long ceased to function - but from the sunlight collected and spectrally filtered by the dome above, acting as a one-way mirror letting the sunlight in but trapping the infrared radiation. Part of the solar energy is used to run very basic systems, but mostly the whole ecosystem is self-contained, passive, and recycles its own materials.
At one point this must have been a farming ecosystem; there is still a lot of rye growing in open patches and clearances. This would have provided Mezagorm with food even when systems would fail or power would needed to be diverted for defensive systems. Perhaps the mad Emperor was already taking into account a possible attack or siege.
We repositioned the long-range scanner, so that we can continue the search for the location of the Tetrimon garrison. Once it is set up and triangulating, we will start looking for the mapping drone and exploring the forest a bit.
