So context behind this is that this is a military complex that has clearly aged from our present day. I want to create essentially a fusion between old and new technology but giving the place an organic feel. Here is what I have so far. The place was decrepit with rust all over the doors, with what looked like a desperate attempt to paint the rusted hallways with a scarlet red. Lumunescent neon blue tubes lined the walls, turning the corridor into essentially a neon rave tunnel where the sky blue light of the tubes were slowly fading in and out. There were vines growing on the walls of the corridor
Maybe if you're struggling with the rest, finding some inspirational pictures would help? If that's what you're asking about. And welcome to the forum.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I'd imagine most of todays military complexes are made of concrete, and some of todays best reinforced concrete only lasts about 100 years, maybe a couple of hundred at most. So realistically 6000 years from now without maintenance, the the metal fitments would probably all be there, but basically be mostly buried in a mixture of concrete dust and aggregate. 6000 years is a long time for things to last. For example, the Great Pyramid of Giza is only about 4500 years old and I doubt it'd still be around if it was made from modern building material instead of hewn stone.
The Romans used concrete extensively, usually faced with e.g. marble, so concrete can last a couple of millennia - probably more. The "reinforcement" of concrete consists of strengthening it by running steel rods through it; if you've seen a nowadays picture of, e.g. a mulberry harbour from WWII, it's actually the steel that's failing - rusting badly. Even stainless steel will rust. To the OP, I'd doubt that the lights would still be working at all, not just flickering on and off.
Roman concrete is a different beast that was made completely different than what we've got today. It was made not only from limestone, but from burning seashells and used volcanic ash as an aggregate that sealed the structure against moisture. Modern concrete is nothing like that, especially not in North America. Not only that, but Roman concrete structures are all around 2-3 thousand years old and not all of them are still structurally sound. Properly reinforced concrete is more than just running steel rods through it, too. There are large nuts that go on the end of the ends of the rebar and when the concrete isn't entirely set the nuts are torqued on the outside of the frames stressing the concrete. This constant tension on the concrete from the bars keeps it in a constant start of compression because it's under compressive force that concrete is strongest. When the metal rusts and that compressive force is released the concrete can be subjected to shear forces and bending that it just can't stand up to and falls apart. ETA: Technically you could add ultrafine silica condensate to the concrete and that would create a material that could potentially last about 10,000-15,000 years, but it would increase the cost of production by about 5-10 times or possibly more because silica fume is slow to produce and if you started buying up the worlds supply to make bunkers, then chances are the price would go up. It's also debatable that the military would spring for it considering they (allegedly) still run nuclear missile protocols off of 8" floppy discs. Though this still wouldn't solve the problem with the rusting rebar considering the concrete would still be porous like most other concretes.
well past ours. People can generate and create metal. The only reason people are using this ancient base Is that it's more secretive that way. It's essentially a big a apocalyptic bunker from a horrible nuclear war that ended up being converted to a military base when it was rediscovered by a few people.
I'm not sure regular vines would grow underground, unless they had been planted there in the first place and had continued to thrive in the neon lighting. If there's rust, there's probably humidity, so you might have algae or fungi. Also, check out lampenflora, plants that grow in caves equipped with electric lighting.
