Starting military chief of staff log entry, record on recent events and further actions planned.
Review of reports provided by individuals from our first field base codenamed First Haven and military unit under command of major John Marlow confirmed involvement of RuzDet in act of sabotage that forced us to abandon said location in favor of the current camp established in area we refer to as Industrial Caves.
Taking into consideration activity of unauthorized groups on the surface of the New Gaia and options we have right now for completing the key objectives of our expedition, I made decisions aimed to reinforce the security of our staff, while enabling them to perform investigation of the alien facilities we discovered within the area of Industrial Caves.
At the moment, scientists and engineers are working in several cells across the location, focusing on uncovering buried sections and studying available buildings, alien language, appliances and various types of encountered technology.
Hopefully, better understanding of these pieces can potentially lead to reverse engineering processes that would allow us to use the discovered technology for our benefit, also for further exploration across the planet.
It appears that the amount of data to process within Industrial Caves is quite high and would require months to be properly investigated. While this is a fact and we should be able to profit from it, we still aim to proceed with our main target of investigating the largest alien installation discovered on the planet, therefore we will be continuing efforts to reach that destination.
Having said that, I came to a conclusion that rushing towards our goal is not the best decision at this point and would be considered too risky without proper preperations. Due to that, when our science teams and selected engineers work on learning about alien installation we are using as our base of operations, there is a number of people from military and engineering staff working on restoring our manufacturing capabilities in order to enable the crew to both repair and create the necessary equipment.
Losing First Haven caused portion of the resources to be lost to RuzDet collaborators and will definitely result in delays, but it also showed how important it is to secure our assembly lines and procure required items.
We also need to ensure the safety of our staff and be prepared for any potential encounters with RuzDet moving forward, for which previously mentioned manufacturing will be a key factor as our military equipment currently in use is far from acceptable condition, not performing in expected capacity and being prone to faults in crucial situations, all caused by maintenance limitations related to lack of specialized facility and mechanics using mainly basic tools. Since full reliance on equipment is not possible at the moment, new safety protocols were introduced to ascertain operations of our camp are not hindered.
This plan will require a significant effort since having necessary skilled staff is one thing, but materials to build necessary appliances is a completely different topic. Because of that, our scouting units are checking the surrounding area not only for the potential dangers, but they also scan for resources our specialists require.
So far, we are managing to get what's needed owing to good cooperation between different groups, including colonists who proved to be great assets when it comes to gathering resources our scouts find. In all honesty, given what many of them had to go through so far, I had to re-think my opinion on non-military personnel joining this mission. Over the course of our expedition so far, I was proved wrong on several occasions already.
Taking into consideration all factors so far, the team we have at Industrial Cave is performing up to the standards and maintaining good fortitude despite all negative events they have been through.
However, as the threat of RuzDet is real, I cannot allow myself to be lax by any means and give too much trust, even to those people who contribute to our case the most. Even though someone can be fully dedicated to his work, it does not necessary mean they cannot be threatened into doing acts of sabotage against their will.
Having spoken with several people who stayed at First Haven until the very end, it seemed that some of the collaborators could have been blackmailed. If that was the case, anyone could be turned into a traitor, thus safety protocols were launched for such cases too.
What I find concerning about RuzDet's activity is their coordination. With so many natural hindrances present on this planet, they were still capable of acting in organized way and being aware of different parties' movement. I do wonder what kind of tools they have at their disposal that enabled them to perform that well and allowed to outplay organized military with a gathering of seemingly random people.
No matter how hard I think about it, such activity is not possible without a proper base of operations. To be completely honest, I cannot imagine high-level information flow would be possible without any units outside the planet's surface, yet in close vicinity, and such perfect area is nothing else than its orbit.
Still, we saw no traces of activity with Future's sensors and picked nothing on the way to the surface, so it would have been either well-hidden, maybe cloaking tech or simply good positioning, or such device was brought somehow together with the entire expedition. It is hard to believe any other sort of solution they could have, and even with such one, the magnetic activity of the planet is still something that greatly limits options. Thinking of it, not only transmitters on the orbit, but a proper equipment on the surface is needed to communicate. After all, we have many great engineers here and none of them is able to build anything of the sort without resources.
This suggests the organization we are up against not only may have an edge when it comes to technology and equipment, but also in relation to staff at their disposal. As already mentioned, profiles of people who defected in First Haven were not having a record of skills they used during the entire event, which leads me to think that portion of staff had their personal data files falsified in order to hide their real profiles. Additionally, based on reports from other staff members, it is likely the case that portion of the staff was completely unregistered and somehow slipping through security checks. However, for this to be possible, someone with high-level permissions would have to be involved.
If that indeed happened, it means a great complication for the entire chain of command and demands my proceeding with caution. Moving forward, I intend to proceed with a thorough profiling of everyone with high enough access levels, regardless of their contribution so far. Because of that, I have initiated special, AI-controlled safety protocol.