Europa

April 4, 2054

While I've been testing sample after sample and beginning to draw out the plans for a potential ocean expedition Lee has been continuing his spy mission on the Chinese team.

Early on in this mission I've expressed concern that we were not ready when we launched. That concern was mostly started in my mind after discovering there was a Chinese team, and that was only reaffirmed when Commander Hunt described how half assed our training was when compared to his training when he was younger.

I am not the type of person that likes to compare ethics of different experiments. Just because one isn't as bad as the other doesn't make it acceptable to continue knowing you are the lesser evil. However, I will say compared to the Chinese team we are incredibly well prepared.

We don't know for sure how many members of the Chinese team there are. From the early scouting from Lee, it appears that they have 4 space suits, and as Lee noted they did not seem proper for the extreme Europa conditions.

There are likely more people on their mission, as from the early looks it appears their mission is to create some sort of colony. If there is a plan for the members of their team to return to Earth it will not be through their original ship.

They've also seemed to suffer heavy casualties from the original group. We can't make it out for sure, but it appears that there are at least six graves on the site.

The one thing it does seem they have is little probes that can burrow into the ice. From a distance it is unclear how deep those probes can go or if they have enough battery to reach the ocean, but if those probes are able to burrow down and dive, then our team is in trouble. Their team is located only twenty miles to the north of our second drill site, which is extremely close considering they had the entire moon to choose from. It's actually a region I've studied, and I believe it has promise, albeit not as much promise as our position.

I guess you could say the race to discover life is on.