I have been informed that three other Aktivisten contracted acute radiation sickness due to their tracking-down the VWA|Arsenal - all the way to the edge of The Barrier at Omega-49.
Evidently its radiation shielding was disabled; I don't know the specifics. All I know is that it had not a soul aboard, and it is currently being decontaminated by the Hessians of Leipzig.
I don't believe I need to remind you how important the Arsenal is to keeping ourselves well-supplied. I'd like you to examine the hangar and engineering records thoroughly and attempt to come down to the bottom of why the ship traveled so far from home.
I hope you realize that this situation is very serious, and I cannot spare as much effort on it as I'd like, due to impending Vorstand elections.
[Sarah's eyes were wide with shock, and it took her a moments to muster words. She knew, perhaps better then anyone, the damage that an unshielded reactor could do to an unprotected human being.]
Are they alright? I know Alex as there, but I haven't heard anything from anyone else.
I heard from Alex not long ago and I've been trying to figure out what happened since. I know it won't mean anything, but I'm so sorry! I never meant for this to happen. It was just meant to- I'm sorry. I made a stupid mistake. I should have seen it earlier.
I- I've been working on something lately. I didn't want to tell you about it until it was ready. I thought that there were so many ways it could go wrong before then that it wasn't worth worrying about. Remember Schatten? I was- I mean, I've been trying to build something that could get past the mines and tell us what's going on in there.
A person could never fly in there. It's too dangerous by far, so... I started trying to modify an autopilot to do it. It sort-of got pushed onto the backburner when the Raiders showed up, and after Zwickau... There've been more ships that need fixing then I can get to, and keeping things supplied at the same time... I guess I tried to find a solution. Arsenal was running on remote pilot, pretty much a modified version of the autopilot I was originally designing for Schatten, so that it could fetch supplies while I worked on things here. I thought that if we could rig our transports to fly automatically, we could use the extra hands to help out on Zwickau. It was supposed to go to Gran Canaria to pick up Deuterium for our ships. Some idea that turned out to be.
Anyway, since Arsenal was going to be running without a human crew, I figured I could save power by shutting down life support and shielding. I had the controls with me. I was meant to be able to reactivate them if it came anywhere near a person. I don't know exactly what happened. I had control of Arsenal right up until she jumped to 49. I think the Barrier must've cut the signal.
I had some failsafe in place. The engines were rigged to shut off if the signal went dark, and I thought I'd uploaded the commands to bring life support back up... I don't know. Maybe Arsenal got an old software package. There's a few versions floating around, and maybe I- Gods, maybe I gave it the wrong one. It's not an excuse, I know. It was my fault, and I should have seen it.
After that, I didn't see anything until I got Arsenal's signal back in Omega-9, and even then I only got the connection back for a second before it dropped out again. I just don't know.
I'm so sorry. I know it doesn't make any of this any better, but... Sorry. I never meant for things to go this way. Are the people who went aboard okay? Is there anything I can do to help?
End Message
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
After what happened, I no longer feel I am suited to piloting Arsenal. I have passed my access codes to Activist Eichel. I am sure he will do well. Thought you should know.
End Message
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
![[Image: hCc243n.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/hCc243n.jpg)
