: My theory is that the SO was created using the Jjaro tech which was (I think)
: found on the Icarus and Thermopylae asteroids (after all, why would you
: fight over space rocks if there wasn't something good on 'em?), which also
: sparked the conflict which led to battleroids being first developed and
: used in the first place. Perhaps it was there, or perhaps somewhere else,
: but the UESC found information that pointed to the closest Jjaro base: Tau
: Ceti.
: Which is why the UESC were willing to put so much of their resources into
: what would appear to be a completely pointless mission. After all, why
: would they spend a significant fraction of the GDP of Earth to punt a moon
: full of colonists 90-some light-years away when they can't even deal with
: the Martian colonists in their own star system?
: A pointer to some Jjaro tech would certainly give that reason.
My own theory is kinda similar--the Jjaro accidentally left behind neural implants among all the other things uncovered on the Moon (perhaps they were in a hurry), and the ones who do said uncovering are the predecessors to MIDA. The first-gen battleroids at Icarus and Thermopylae get the initial attempt at copying those implants, to catastrophic results; MIDA eventually gets its mitts on the originals, tries copying them, and gives the originals to ten of their second-gen battleroids.
The point about the UESC deliberately choosing Tau Ceti IV because they knew that more Jjaro tech was buried there is an interesting one; I wonder if it could tie into that old, old "we only have the demos for Marathon 2" theory that the Marathon's journey was expected to be a first contact mission...
