From: Commander James Vega

Hey Loco: I just wanted to let you know that I saw them pouring the foundation to your shack yesterday, and damn man, how much space you really need? You and Doc plan on popping out a little blue baseball team or something? Just kidding man, but really, they got you a killer view of the valley and when I hiked up there yesterday I found something I'm going to have to show you when you get here. Make sure you bring a swim suit.

They are setting you up nice, pendejo. If I had known the severance package for Savior of the Galaxy was going to be this good, I wouldn't have let you do all the work. It's a pretty good trek down to the village though, but nothing an ATV couldn't handle. I think they put you up there so that people wouldn't be knocking on your door all the time, but I don't think you need to worry about that. Pretty much everyone here minds their own business. Not a lot of gawkers, or drama, you know.

There's close to 1,000 colonists now. Brass told me that there would be another couple of ships coming this month, but that would be it for awhile. So, I figure things will pretty much stay small here, which is fine by me. I did hear that the asari are looking to start a settlement somewhere closer to the coast sometime in the future…which is also fine by me.

I've got 100 marines in my unit. The current objective is getting the defense towers up and running and getting the long distance scanner to stop being so damn glitchy. It only works when it damn well wants to, and when it does, we can't always trust that the scans are accurate. Three days ago we picked up a weak signal known to be used by one of the big batarian slave ops before the war. It's pretty unlikely, but I would rather be prepared, then skeptical. It's a freakin' paradise man, but it's the middle of bum fuck nowhere and I get twitchy every time I think about how long it would take for anyone to respond if we needed help.

Other than that, the only problem I really have, is keeping these damn rodents out of the power hubs. Wait till you see these things, Shepard. They are like a cross between a pyjak and a gerbil with the teeth the size of poker chips. They keep getting into anything with wires and chewing straight through them. I've spent the better part of today setting pulse emitters but that just seemed to piss them off. Three medals of honor, and two years N7 training, and I'm running around setting mouse traps. They make for fun target practice though. I'm told they are sending me a "solution", on the next inbound ship. I hope it's an ezo powered rat zapper. That would make my day man.

See ya in a few months, hermano.