Hey, Zero!
I thought the credo of Uncle Bob was, "Parts is Parts" LOL! Just kidding. I am also a dyed-in-the-wool Pacifist. My "Fight or Flee" response is permanently set on "Flee"! The probes have been placed in a situation where they have no choice but to fight since fleeing is not an option. I find it difficult to believe that the Chinese were/are capable of sending any kind of manned mission to Mars, even a "Suicide" mission. The number and size of the launch vehicles required just to reach Earth orbit is beyond practicality and then you would need almost a permanent presence in Earth orbit to assemble the vehicle destined for Mars. Even NASA is a number of years away from that kind of commitment. I don’t believe that the Chinese or anyone else for that matter could have pulled off that enormous an expedition without the world’s press reporting on it.
Let’s assume that there are no humans on Mars. What’s at the main lander? I like the idea of a C-Probe manufacturing plant, guided by some sort of AI with input from Earth. Due to the transmission time lag an AI presence is a must. Now, bear in mind that Artificial Intelligence does *NOT* equal sentience. If the C-Probe lander AI *IS* sentient perhaps our probes can reason with it and achieve an alliance at best or at least a truce. If it isn’t sentient they will need to "Pull the Plug" on the thing, if possible. If it turns out that there *IS* a human in the lander, we’ve got a big problem! Let’s hope I’m correct and there aren’t any people up there. ;-)
I agree with Enoch and Zachary using the Ipso tram to shorten their journey. If they don’t eliminate the C-Probe threat at the source, and soon, it isn’t going to matter what the Ipsos do since all of our probes may be destroyed.
What about the burn/caleb s. debate? Our probes are inherently "good" while still young and ignorant. I have to trust that "good" will triumph, that the Ipsos will see the truth in burn’s arguments and eventually decide in favor of the probes. This is the only "just" result possible.
PEACE-THE FINAL FRONTIER!
Uncle Bob