The Snowflake

"I don't like it." "There's nothing to worry about. It's just a giant snowflake, sitting out in space. It's been there for centuries and never done a thing." "That's why I don't like it. It gives me the feeling that it hasn't done anything because it's not supposed to yet." "Whatever. Just go home and get some rest ey." -Mirran Caspar and Kulus Kara, Illatian astronomers.

Purpose / Function

The Snowflake has been boarded several times, analyzed, attacked, etc, but to no avail. The construction is nothing particularly new-- just a material that is a slight variation on Transparisteel-- but how it rotates, moves, what its purpose is, who built it, where specifically (it is obviously not from the Allergreen system, or from the orbit of Gannet at all) it is from, etc, are total mysteries. No internal components can be identified, no operation, nothing. There are strange crystalline structures all over the inside, but beyond that, there is nothing. It is posited that these crystal structures could be some strange form of technology, as analyzation and tests have shown that the structures appear to act in peculiar ways when fired upon by lasers of varying energy, but beyond that, everyone is at a loss as to what it is.

Alterations

The Snowflake has remained largely untouched for most of its existence, with attacks and expeditions doing little to change its appearance.

Architecture

Six rings of reflective, translucent light blue, each with spiky, snowflake-like protrusions. The six rings are arranged to form a sort of tube, hovering several thousand miles apart and rotating different directions at different speeds. The first ring is approximately 8,000 miles across, with its three protrusions adding an extra 6,000 miles in diameter. Each proceeding ring is 1.5 times larger than the next (12,000 miles, 18,000 miles, 27,000 miles), with 3^n protrusions (first has 3, second 9, third 27, fourth 81), until the fourth ring, which is the largest. The fifth and sixth rings have 27 and 9 respectively, and are 18,000 miles and 12,000 miles across respectively. The holes in the middle remain the same diameter through the length of the structure.

History

The Snowflake has hovered in Allergreen space for millennia, but has recently (within the past 150 years) come extremely close, to the point that it can be seen on cloudless nights. According to Aller legends, the Snowflake (or Opta Azur as they call it, meaning Silver Eye), has done this before, during periods that coincide with Acquisitions.

Alternative Names

Big Blue, The Silver Eye, Opta Azur

Type

Orbital, Station

Parent Location

Allergreen