Journal Entry
Captain Nathan C. Jackson
Day 11
Well, tomorrow will be round two. If this does not work, this colony will never see the light of day. Still, the odds are definitely better now.
The Sentinels were built to hold off armoured regiments and low-flying air threats. We still have no idea what kind of threat to expect, as far as the ground radar contacts are concerned. I had some concerns as to how we were going to make ammunition. We were not expecting any kinds of hostile forces on the worlds we were going to colonise, so Transcender had no ammunition on board. But the answer turned out to be simple, we could manufacture our own ammunition right on the surface, there were plenty of raw materials after all. Asteri and Tara had already finished designing and testing a small-scale 3-D printing factory, and the rate at which it's able to produce anti-tank rounds is, frankly, terrifying.
Each turret has a capacity of 300 rounds. A single factory can produce that amount in three hours. Mind you, that number assumes that the material is readily available in excess supply. On the surface, it will be a lot slower than that and it will have to feed more than one turret. But the drills and smelters work sufficiently fast enough to override this pretty quickly. In fact, worst comes to worst, considering how pure the ores are, they can be fed directly to the printers to use as the base material.
The Hornet received an upgrade too. It is now, pretty much, a VTOL strike craft. It does not have missiles, but the auto-cannons have a certain satisfaction in their use to make up for that. The craft is also much more manoeuvrable, though the engine power had to be toned down to make that possible. Time will tell how I feel about that.
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Internal Log: Day 12
Transcender System
Pod successfully launched
Crew: 1
Cargo:
Hornet Mk. 2
Basic construction fabricator
Ore drills and processors
Ammo fabricator
Sentinel turrets x 6
Touchdown
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Mission Log
Author: Captain Nathan C. Jackson
Mission 5, Entry 1:
Touchdown. We got to work immediately. Tara and I had a minor argument on which systems to place first, industry or defence. As it turned out, the defence would not work without the industry in place. So that definitely had to be done first. Having had practice, I finished quicker than usual, which allowed me to get to work on the defences. Asteri and Tara modified the design to allow for better storage and transport. This, however, meant the turrets needed time to deploy. We seemed to have the time though.
The ammo fabricator is running and two turrets are in position. Unfortunately, the Hornet ran out of juice, and the reduced power is also biting back on how well it was as an airborne crane. So it is refuelling and for now, the base has to do with two turrets. I am sure we will be fine, it is not like we have been pounced upon before, right?
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Audio/Video Transcript
Location: Pod 472, Sector 36
Time: Mission Day 12, 1534 (Beta Day 8, 1034)
Cptn. Jackson looks up from writing the log.
Cptn. Jackson: Do you think they'll attack while we're still here?
Tara: Why do you ask?
Cptn. Jackson: Last two missions they just waited till we left to capture the bases.
Tara: True, in that case, we may have to wait here until they make their move.
Cptn. Jackson: How long do you think it'll be before they lose their patience?
Tara: Who knows?
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Internal Log: Day 12
Transcender System
System:
Warning- IR scans detecting movement south-east of base site
Distance from base site: 20476 m
MasCon: /SYSTEM- ETA?
System: 4 hrs, 2 hrs if targets accelerate
MasCon: /SYSTEM- Base status?
System:
Defences- 33% set up
Infrastructure- 75% efficiency, 100% set up
SOpsAsst- Online and present
Crew- At base site
MasCon: /SYSTEM- Warn base site, reposition over base site, prepare for possible abort launch
System: Executing...
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