Safety Measures

Journal Entry

Captain Nathan C. Jackson

Day 10

You know, I am beginning to get sick of this situation we have found ourselves in. Looking at the day counter you can tell it has been a while since my last update. That is because I so wanted to update the log on a good note, like the establishment and survival of a satellite base. But nope. 6 days and 4 missions later, we still have nothing to show for our troubles. The second mission was worse than the first: we had barely arrived before we came under fire again, this time it was way worse. The third and fourth succeeded as far as setting up the base and avoiding enemy contact went, but now the bases have stopped transmitting information to us, so they are presumed lost or captured.

Asteri, for the most part, refused to consider the idea of hostile forces. But during the second mission when performing the preliminary scouting flight, I was almost shot down by what were definitely more missiles, and I can attest to that. And before we lost communication with the fourth base, it reported contacts on its ground radar like in the first mission. So he finally gave in to the possibility of some hostile force but he still had his doubts as to where they had come from. Then again, don't we all?

So that's how it stands for now. I called a halt for all surface ops until we could figure out what was going on. We can't afford to keep losing resources, especially if those resources are being lost to whatever is on the ground.

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Audio/Video Transcript

Location: Crew bunks, No. 5,000 to 10,000 

Time: Mission Day 11, 0840

Cptn. Jackson fiddles with his stylus and PDA.

Asteri: Captain.

Cptn. Jackson: Yes, what is it?

Tara: We may have an idea for a way to restart our surface operations. Rather we found a way to restart surface ops and keep them running as well.

Cptn. Jackson: Really? And what would that be?

Tara: If you can come to the bridge, it would be easier to explain there.

Cptn. Jackson: (heavy sigh) All right. Be there in ten minutes.

Cptn. Jackson gets up and leaves. 

Location: The Bridge

Time: Mission Day 11, 0853

Cptn. Jackson enters, Asteri and Tara forms projected from central console.

Cptn. Jackson: All right, talk to me.

Asteri: So, first of all, let me say that I've come to your way of thinking- this definitely is some sort of hostile force.

Cptn. Jackson: Gee, took you long enough.

Asteri: Also, ideally, we don't want to change our mission doctrine.

Cptn. Jackson: Ideally.

Tara: We've been going through the historical archives.

Cptn. Jackson: You already have access to those? It should only be possible once phase 2 has begun.

Asteri: We hacked in.

Cptn. Jackson: (raises eyebrows)...

Asteri: Desperate times...

Cptn. Jackson: ...Fair enough. Well, what good did it do?

Tara: Our interest was specifically in the military background.

Asteri: And we came across this.

Centre console illuminates displaying blueprints and models

Cptn. Jackson: Wait... I know about this...

Asteri: You do?

Cptn. Jackson: It's the Sentinel Program, isn't it?

Tara: Precisely.

Cptn. Jackson: It was pre-Nexus, before the stabilisation of world order. The idea was to create a network of autonomous turrets along the borders of countries and on standby in vulnerable zones. It never saw the light of day though, because we never needed it.

Asteri: Until now. Of course in this case the network is more to the scale of a few hundred metres rather than country borders.

Cptn. Jackson: Nobody's complaining, they want to build it on country borders later, they can do it when there are countries to worry about. Right now we need to focus on our short-term survival.

Tara: And every little thing can help.

Cptn Jackson: I like it, all we need are a few turrets around the perimeter and a wall in front of them and they can, at the very least, hold the ground until we can do something about it.

Asteri: We're glad you feel that way. We have prototypes under construction as we speak. You just need to say the word.

Cptn. Jackson: (looks up for a moment) Okay, prepare a surface mission. We'll leave in two days.

Asteri: Yes sir.

Time: Mission Day 11, 0907

Asteri: So... You know about Sentinel...

Cptn. Jackson: Hmm? Oh, well... Yes, I do, it was a bit of military history I learned about back in school.

Asteri: Hmm...

Asteri and Tara chuckle to themselves.

Cptn. Jackson: What's so funny?

Tara: Nothing, it's just that we've managed to approximate your age.

Cptn. Jackson: (blinks) My... Age? What about it?

Asteri: Nothing...

Tara: Nothing at all. (chuckles)

Cptn. Jackson: (rolling eyes) Okay, I'm old, sue me.

Asteri: Oh, come now, age is just a number.

Cptn. Jackson: (waves his hand at the two projections) Yeah, yeah, I'm going back to my bunk. Find me if you need me.

Asteri: Yes sir.

Tara: Yes sir.

Asteri and Tara disappear as Cptn. Jackson leaves the bridge.