The walls of the spacious compartment gleamed with a silvery metallic sheen, and a soft glow filled the entire chamber.
Passive lighting and the metallic hull material made this place stand out sharply amid the shipwreck's jumble of different materials.
Clack! Screeeech!
A sharp crack rang out, followed by a burst of grating friction.
An armor plate sprang open along the side of the hall-like compartment, but either a lack of power or structural damage caused it to give off a piercing metallic scrape as it moved.
A metal object seemed about to emerge from within, but it merely shuddered slightly before falling still.
The compartment's lighting gradually dimmed as well.
Bzzzt...
Keenly sensing something wrong, Iax strode forward and crouched, then thrust his mechanical arm beneath the armor plate.
Crunch!
As he exerted force through his arm, a muffled crack came from the armor below. Iax hauled an automated turret fitted with several scanning and identification devices out of the compartment's structure. Beneath it, the hydraulic locking mechanism creaked dully as it slowly secured the base inside the hull.
Once the turret had finished rising, the dim, flickering lights around it brightened again.
"A Heavy Automatic Defense Turret?"
Iax recognized at a glance the device that had nearly cut off the power here.
This was a common piece of equipment in Men of Iron fleets, most often found aboard transport ships.
Every vessel in a standard Men of Iron fleet was itself a weapon, its interior packed with armed robots of various models. Even if someone managed to reach the Men of Iron themselves, they would usually have automated robot guards equipped with low-level intelligence.
The boarding actions so common in the present-day Imperium simply did not occur.
These turrets were installed beneath the inner armor of ships because