Critical Components

Journal Entry

Captain Nathan C. Jackson

Day 15

We are not alone. Beta II has another faction on the surface. I mean, it is obvious that there is another force here, but the fact that it is organized is a bigger scare. During mission 5 of the surface operations, the one where we tested the Sentinels, Asteri picked up a signal from the planet. The signal was communicating with the attacking forces. So they have some sort of a chain of command. Speaking of the attacking forces something is chilling about them too.

They were droids. Man-made droids. In fact, they were droids not even meant for combat, which was probably why they dropped like flies when an AP round hit their hull. They were Prospector-class light mining droids and their 'arms' normally have mining drills or low-yield laser equipment to quickly work through tunnels. Someone messed around and replaced the mining equipment with cannons. And someone had to give the order to attack our bases.

We are now trying to find out who. Asteri managed to triangulate the signal to a particular area on the planet, albeit that area still covers a large portion of the planet. The Transcender has been deflecting into position over the area over the last two days. We took our time so that we could deploy some more of our own bases on the surface as we proceeded there. Those missions were a success as well, and the bases are currently standing firm with defences of their own.

That is not to say the enemy has not tried to destroy them. We had to go back to each base twice to repair the damage and to fortify the area even more. Asteri said one of the next priorities would be coming up with something that can repair damage autonomously, and I have to agree. Repairing existing equipment is far more economical and efficient than replacing losses, and going down to replace those losses puts me at risk.

That might sound trivial. After all, what is one man's life worth when there are nearly fifty million others to take my place? And of whom a good two million are probably better at handling the current situation? Well, a lot apparently. If I die, sure, Asteri and Tara can wake up another person to take my place, but then they'd have to wipe their data cores again and they would lose all communication with any ground-based assets which would then be taken over.

What's to stop them from waking more than one person? That is more than one person's life they are risking, even if everyone but the one goes for the surface operations, and I can assure you, no one on the advance team would want to 'cower' on the ship. Anyone who was not on the advance team and was not military would not be able to handle the situation as it stands. As for the military personnel not on the advance team... well, to put it lightly, there was a reason they were not and that reason disqualifies them for this situation as well.

Well then, Asteri and Tara can just function alone, right? Well, yes and no. Asteri and Tara are capable of great things, but the way they were programmed bars them from doing most of their tasks unless a human crew member is awake to oversee their actions. And that crew member has to be either someone from the advance team or someone with a clear space-faring background.

Then why not wake someone up while I am still alive to keep the information safe? As flattering as the suggestion that I have memorized everything that has happened thus far is, I have not. At least certainly not to the precision with which Asteri and Tara can. And there are multiple other things those two are keeping track of as well. And this situation now becomes similar to that of awakening multiple people.

But the most important reason simply has to do with the critical components of Transcender's functioning, Asteri and Tara themselves. Constantly wiping their data cores can very easily lead to them becoming corrupted. And that will cause a whole host of new problems that we certainly do not want to be dealing with right now.

Now enough about that, I meant to write more about our target, but instead droned on about how I am guaranteed to die a lonely death with two voices in my ear admonishing me for making the mistake that I did.

So we know that the enemy is using human equipment, whoever or whatever the enemy is. We can assume that most of the planet is under their control, and we are currently over an area where we can possibly hope to find some clues as to what we are up against. This will also give us a clue as to the whereabouts of the missing individuals. Asteri and Tara assume they could have either been left behind during the advance team's pullback or they splintered off from the rest of the mission, for whatever reason in either case.

Personally, I am not sure it is either case. If what we were up against was human resistance wouldn't some kind of warning have been issued at us? You would think one human owes another that much. And if instead some members of the advance team were left behind, why have they not launched some kind of distress signal? Something happened on the ground. And the way we have been treated so far, I am not inclined to believe it takes prisoners.