Shouting can be heard all day long whenever a Mining Monitor, like MM-0001-01-T here, arrives back in an anchorage to trade materials, metal, machinery, and things of interest for food, air, medicine, crew, tools, and orders to sail to a new section of the battlefields to salvage in the void. Here, Work Captains organize their Work Units to plug in the great hoses pumping tons of promethium every second from tanks deep within the station, or coolant into engines and other sections are exchanged and topped off, providing significant relief to overheating machinery. In contrast to the smooth exchange of fluids above, great heaps of processed and unprocessed metals spew forth from holds and bays, thousands clambering across titanic machines and lorries to ensure not more than these behemoths of machinery could carry before rumbling onwards to smelters or industries eagerly awaiting the bounty from the stars. Down below, on the bottom, throngs of people move here and there; children eagerly run between the tracks and underneath the dumping chutes once clear of lorries to snatch missed pieces of metal from the ground for an extra token at the end of the day. At the same time, adults organize the movement of goods and people, crews seeking relief from challenging voyages and harsh shifts in liquor, prayer, and flesh of all kinds.
Officials shout and count, numbers slowly brought down to those in the greatest need of learning them first, having had them taught to them within the Cradle-Shrines to allow the economy and industry to function better with every day. Each successful voyage brings more than "mere" metals and machinery, as each ship contains hidden and found stashes from now long-dead crew and the secrets of vessels ripped from their bellies. Those ships that salvaged the Kil'drabi craft offer the machinery and genetic history of now-dead lineages to a representative of the Protectorate, solemn lines of crew offering the chance for a last farewell or glorious return to a stoic male, each a testament of the grim nature of warfare in the void.
But those who salvage Imperial ships sometimes return with more than mere prices, technology foreign or superior to some things able to be produced on the station entering its repertoire, with the fragments of various STCs improving crucial industrial processes with refined methods or better tools. And then there was MM-0001-01-T, which had found something beyond a mere price or treasure. Something that could alter how the station would sail into the future altogether.
What was found?
[] A Rho-Tau 17 Surveillance Robot STC Fragment
Basically nothing more than a pict-recorder, two legs, and a bolter stapled together with an utterly rudimentary if-then cogitator decision-making program, the Rho-Tau 17 automata would be a tremendous boon for our troops in scouting out hostile terrain, enhancing their combat capabilties, and provides extra firepower for acceptable comparative costs.
(Gain: Infantry Units are augmented with Scout Automata.)
[] A Damaged Void Abacus
Ships that brave the Warp without a Navigator are not comparable to the titanic lengths those ships can traverse. They are reduced to hopping between two systems for weeks if they wish to ensure their arrival or a singular week if their captain feels brave or foolish. But ships equipped with a Void Acabus can drastically increase the speed of their journey by four to five times as much. However, each Abacus will require a great effort by the station, as they are not cheap or easy to produce.
(Gain: The ability to produce a Void Abacus for one Action, drastically improving non-navigator Warp travel.)
[] Spiced Chocolate
"Okchinta Simga has fallen?! Quick, dispatch a Crusade to retake the world; our chocolate is grown there! We cannot lose access to that critical resource!"
-High Administrator Olaistus van Van Van.
(Gain: Genetically engineered chocolate beans that produce spiced chocolate significantly improve morale and caloric availability for your people once grown industrially while massively boosting diplomatic or subversive actions against fellow human planets and organizations.)