Part 38: Traitors Wake
Chapter 26 - Traitors Wake
"Commanders log; June fourth.
The mutiny has ended. Many are dead and the Laputa is damaged all over. No one is sure how bad things are right now. Damage control is stretched too thin to even report on anything but the critical functions of the Laputa. The soldiers are still patrolling the Laputa, finding civilians who hid during the fighting. Medical is full. So many are wounded, even more are dead. So many lives have been lost, what precious few humanity still has left. The damage to the Laputa and the CoE as a whole is dire, and perhaps unrecoverable. We shall see what remains for us in the next few days."
"Commanders log; June fifth. Situation report.
As we mourn the the many who died I am forced to think of the strength of the CoE and my job to do. After twenty four hours we've managed to assess the situation.
Almost everything on the Laputa has sustained small arms fire. The landing platforms on the surface were badly damaged by mutineers trying to escape. Engineering is heavily damaged and large amounts of equipment have been lost. The armory was raided, providing the majority of the guns for the mutineers and sustained extensive damage from ordnance that was set off during the struggle. The drop spheres launch and recovery mechanisms have been damaged, severely limiting our ability to deploy combat teams to the surface. The short of it is that nearly everything is damaged with the notable exception of engines and most external systems such as communications and scanners.
The personnel report is grim news. Estimates have put the mutineers numbers at nearly one third of the Laputas total population. Nearly all of that number were killed in the fighting and the casualties on our side are heavy as well. Most of our armed forces remained loyal or else the Laputa may have been lost, how ever our military casualties remain high. In the wake of the fighting we estimate the number aboard the Laputa to have been cut by half. We hardly have enough people to keep systems running and the losses in combat personal put us at the breaking point. We lack enough combat ready squads to hold our borders on the surface from the continued attacks of the Cult of Sirius, hoards of transgenants, and the Starghosts. It is regrettable but almost certain that the local human, psionic, and cyborg factions on the surface will be with out aid for the foreseeable future.
We must try to rebuild as fast as possible in order to ensure this blow does not leave us crippled for our enemies to finish us off."
"Commanders log; June tenth. Situation report.
The situation on the surface has turned against us as I feared. While repairs are still being made to the Laputa around the clock our ability to combat threats on the surface remains woefully insufficient.
As can been seen from the map we have been unable to defend our territory from Starghost attack. As a result they have been able to set up several pillars of death on the surface. Scotland, Denmark, Belgium, Ukraine, Greece, southern India, and Alabama, Georgia, and North and South Carolina have be devastated. Our limited recon reports suggest that every natural living thing in those areas is dead. I say natural living thing because transgenants and the Biomass seem unaffected. Given the dire situation Tasuki has given these pillars a through analysis.
The motives of the Starghosts is unknown. It seems that they, like the cult, seem intent on destroying our planet by covering it in Biomass. However they do not seem to be working in collusion with the cult, the pillar placed in the United States devastated their territory as well. While the cult is fine living in the Biomass, they are still human and susceptible to the pillars effects.
Tasuki has also provided further reports about the Starghosts, which I have included in full in this report.
>>Files Attached
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>>Alien ship research
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>>Starghost Lore
The most interesting piece of information is that Tasuki has shown at least some similarities between the Starghost and Wargot races. We can speculate that the two races have met before, however they do not seem to be working toward the same goal, as evidenced by the Wargots allying with the cult while the Starghosts do not. The obelisk in the report is the one brought back to the Laputa by Lieutenant Leaf some time ago. Little was gained from it originally, with out whatever powers the thing it is completely inert and completely resistant to our attempts to crack it open. The interesting part comes from Taskui's keen observation to notice that the pillars aesthetics are remarkably similar to symbols seen inside the Wargot space ship during our assault of it. Perhaps the two races have interacted with each other for sometime and we are looking at signs of xenocultural contamination.
Tasuki and her staff continue to answer and raise more questions every day."
"Commanders log; Supplemental.
Nothing new to report on the tactical front, our situation there remains the same; short handed and losing ground. However Tasuki has delivered another report to me detailing what information she has gained from the salvaged Sectoid battleship. While the information sheds some light on the original events that plunged Earth into chaos, it helps us little in this moment as we have lost all contact with the surviving Imperial Sectoids on the surface and presume them to be wiped out by the Starghosts."
>>File Attached
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>>Sectoid Battleship Archive Analysis