Tuesday, December 11, 2007

November 20, 2189 [1600 U.T.]

Dear Diary,

We have just sealed the Sulaco for the last time. We are expecting the ship to enter the planet’s atmosphere in about 20 minutes (time of impact estimated to be at 16:23 U.T.(19)). The nasty attitude from the company people, coupled with the fiasco the night before, has put everyone around here in a bad mood, including myself. There is a lot of hostility going on around here. I just want to go home.


You know what, I’m glad we can finally say goodbye, and good riddance, to the Sulaco. We’re going to stick around to see the fucker burn. The company people are obviously too preoccupied with their findings to give a damn about the ship. Maybe that was the real purpose of our mission. It wasn’t to retrieve the Sulaco, but to gather whatever shit was inside of it. What I want to know is if the Marne Corps knew that they weren’t going to get their precious ship back? Did the company lie to them as well? We are getting really suspicious about the company.(20)

…are we in danger?


-A.


============================

(19)
U.S.S. Tonoro C172689 to Network Comcon 01500 –
Final mission report of U.S.S. Tonoro C172689 –
Unable to salvage U.S.S. Sulaco C172689. Vessel entered atmosphere of Gamma Serpentis at exactly 16:24:12 U.T. Vessel broke apart on entry.
Unidentified objects, possible alien species, found aboard U.S.S. Sulaco. Medical officers investigating objects in Med Lab.
U.S.S. Tonoro C172689 preparing to return to Fomalhaut. Estimated time of departure – 17:00:00 U.T. Estimated time of arrival – Nov 26, 2189, 14:00:00 U.T.

Time – 16:42:16 U.T. – 11/20/2189


(20)
Private Hendrick was actually on the right track here. It turns out Weyland-Yutani had lied to everyone so that they could get their hands on the alien. Because the company was experiencing financial problems at this time, they needed the help of the United States Colonial Marines to get to the Sulaco. Unfortunately after all of the rumors had spread, and after the loss of the Sulaco, the U.S.C.M. at first refused to help Weyland-Yutani, since Weyland had already caused them enough problems already. Eventually Weyland-Yutani convinced the Marine Corp to help them out by promising their ship back as well as helping them repair it.
This was quite a lie, since Weyland didn’t have the means at the time to pay for such expensive repairs to the Sulaco. They knew well in advance that the ship was probably seriously damaged. Trying to repair a ship like the Sulaco requires large sums of money; money that Weyland did not have. One thing that the company did not mention to the Corps was that the Sulaco’s orbit was decaying. Then again, if they had told the Corps that, they would have definitely refused to help them out. Trying to pull a ship like the Sulaco out of a decaying orbit is quite a challenge if you can’t get its main engines going, even for some of the most powerful towing vessels. Sure enough, they send the worst ship imaginable to do the job. The Conestoga class ships are completely useless as tug boats, especially if they have to tow their sister ship. To put it simply, Weyland knew that it would be almost impossible to pull the Sulaco away from Gamma Serpentis, unless its main engines were usable. This might explain why the Tonoro had to leave in a hurry, so they would have time to search the vessel thoroughly before its orbit gave out.

No comments: