Tuesday, December 11, 2007

November 17, 2189 [0900 U.T.]

Dear Diary,

Search Squad One is already in the hanger preparing for their short hop over to the Sulaco.(7) We’re fortunate that there’s an airlock almost mid-ship, so the ship’s tumbling shouldn’t be much of a problem. The problem will come when we try to re-activate the ship. What these eggheads are telling us is that at the rate she’s spinning, we’ll be experiencing a force of about 2-Gs in the reactor room. How the hell that ship managed to hold itself together this whole time, I have no idea. It’s going to be quite a challenge to restore ship’s power, but it shouldn’t be anything old Jimbo(8) hasn’t done before.

If we can restore power to the ship through the emergency power, we should be able to get the ship under control using the attitude thrusters. Whether we can get the main engines working will depend on if we can get the reactor going again. Once Search Squad One gets the ship under control, hopefully, I’ll be following them in Search Squad Two, along with the company dickheads.

That Gorman(9) sure is a lucky fuck. He gets to stay here while we’re busting our asses out there on the Sulaco. Those company assholes had better follow everything we tell them, or I’ll break their necks. God, they are really starting to get on everyone’s nerves. This begs the question, why are they so anxious to get on the Sulaco? What do they expect to find?

I’m really starting to think that the company is not telling us something. Whatever it is, I’m starting to think it has something to do with how the Sulaco disappeared. What exactly happened aboard that ship?

…I’m getting goosebumps.

-A.


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(7)
Prior to leaving Fomalhaut, a personnel shuttle (model number WYS-926) was added to the Tonoro’s hanger. This small shuttle is how the team will move between the Sulaco and the Tonoro. The plan was to dock the shuttle up against the Sulaco’s mid-ship airlock. The rotation of the Sulaco made the docking maneuver difficult, since the airlock was not exactly on the axis of rotation.

(8)
James ‘Jimbo’ Everson was one of the oldest of the team, apart from Sergeant Wilman(8-1). Everson joined the Marine Corp only a year prior to the Sulaco’s discovery. Before joining the corp, we worked on the salvage vessel Zapiga. In March of 2186, the Zapiga ran into the Weyland-Yutani freighter Ventra, adrift after her crew jumped ship three days earlier(8-2), so, naturally, the Zapiga claimed salvage rights to the ship. Everson was in charge of restoring the ship’s power. He had quite a hard time, since the ship’s rotation was generating a force of approximately 2.5-Gs in the engine room. Everson was able to restore the ship’s power and got the tumbling under control. The Zapiga towed the Ventra back to Earth where the crew received a big reward from Weyland-Yutani.

(8-1)
Sergeant Andrew Wilman was second in command on the mission to the Sulaco.

(8-2)
The Ventra had experienced a fairly catastrophic malfunction. One of the auxiliary engines on the starboard side blew up as the freighter was leaving Sirius. The blast knocked out most of the Ventra’s systems. Unable to control the ship’s tumbling, the crew abandoned ship. Everson managed to repair some of the ship’s systems and got it under control. The damage to the Ventra was extensive. She was down for repair for 10 months.

(9)
Lieutenant Charles Gorman was the commanding officer of the Tonoro for the mission. He was the brother of Lieutenant William Gorman, who was the commanding officer of the Sulaco. He was killed on LV-426.

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