Drop Sequence

Audio/Video Transcript

Location: Civilian quarters, Viewing deck

Time: Mission Day 2, 0714

Cptn. Jackson looking out at Beta II.

Asteri: Captain, we are ready for you.

Cptn. Jackson: Roger, on my way.

Location: Launch bay, base pod 746

Time: Mission Day 2, 0738

System: Launch preparations complete. Awaiting zero hour.

Tara: We're ahead of schedule, you think we can launch early?

Asteri: Negative, we launch as per the schedule. Well, Captain, all strapped in?

Cptn. Jackson: Yup, ready to rock.

Asteri: Perfect, standby for launch. Remember, during surface ops, Tara will be the person you're talking to the most. Only contact me regarding situation updates or to announce your return.

Cptn. Jackson: Copy that.

Time: Mission Day 2, 0758

System: Launch sequence initiated.

Tara: Here we go.

Asteri: Good luck down there you two.

Cptn. Jackson: Thank you Transcender, be back soon.

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Internal Log: Day 2

Transcender System

Pod successfully launched

Crew: 1

Cargo:

Hornet-Class scout ship

Basic construction fabricator

Ore drills and processors

Touchdown

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Mission Log

Author: Captain Nathan C. Jackson

Mission 1, Entry 1:

Well, here we are. On Beta II. My body feels lighter, no surprise there. Beta II has a lower mass than Earth. The gravity on the ship is set to 1g, Earth's gravitational power. Beta II has a pull of about 0.85g. Basically standing on Beta II will make you feel only 85% of your actual weight. Well, your weight on Earth anyway. This mission is to last three days.

Pretty uneventful start. As soon as all systems were reported ready I launched off in the Hornet. A small little buzzer, it is used to simply scout out the surrounding area and make preliminary observations on the viability of the site as a base. Plenty of mineral veins to exploit. That is quite the anomaly here on Beta II.  For some reason or another the veins are simply bursting all over the surface. Metallic ore veins practically flow like rivers, I can think of the frenzy the corporations back home could go into just looking at the surface. There is one disconcerting factor though, the presence of oil and coal. For an engineer that is great news: a source of energy. For a biologist, however, it is a reminder of a tragic past, coal and oil most likely form from the remains of living plants and animals. Signs of an extinction event. Not a particularly welcoming sign if you ask me. I distracted myself with some mining.

Even though I am not an engineer, setting up the mining facilities was a cinch. They were essentially a bunch of drills that fed a hopper which then unloaded the gathered ore to a waiting drone which took it to a storage container. All I needed to do was airlift and deploy them as they were unloaded. Remember, the first phase is completely automatic. The facilities will mostly work without a skeleton crew. All in all, considering I am a one-man crew, not a bad day.

Sadly, the day was not to last. Thanks to the log reset the timekeeping also went a little out of whack. So while for me it's supposed to be around 1:30 or so in the afternoon, down here it is probably something more like 6:30 in the evening. And speaking of time, Tara has been programming a new clock. The days on Beta II are 3 hours longer. 3 hours! Imagine all the extra morale we would have if we slept 3 extra hours every day. I am definitely ready to start living on the surface full-time.

I spent the last few hours stargazing. The sky looks completely skewed. None of the stars form any constellation I know of. I don't even know which star is which. Could try asking Asteri for a star chart when sending the next update. In other news, I think I found the Sun.

It is this single, particularly dim point of light, that does not move with the sky. In fact, it seems to be slowly moving against it; Dyson Sphere and Caplan Thruster. The whole point of the program was to expand the boundaries of our reach. Multiple star systems zipping around the galaxy. I am not sure I like the idea if it results in a collision. Another way this could all go wrong, just what I needed to think about.