(Previous entry — first entry)

Sunday, January 17
Evening

It’s troubling to me that we’ve confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial life over the barrel of a gun. The existential implications are enormous; the military implications are frightening.

The loss of life…

Bear was a promising soldier, and his performance on this mission was superlative. Wolf and Weasel appear to have been gassed; they should recover, but being sucker-punched like that can’t be good for morale. Losses in combat are expected, but we had them outnumbered and outflanked. We need some new tactical ideas.

And promotions. Beetle, Wolf, Tiger and Eagle all showed excellent combat readiness. Sergeants, all.

These troops need leadership, and those four are going to be leaders, whether they like it or not.

Chimpanzee assigned to transport roster. I have a few ideas about throwing explosive objects at little grey bastards, and Chimpanzee’s got the best arm I’ve seen yet.

Tomorrow I need to review this recovered alien tech. See if we can’t use some of this to our advantage.

—

Monday, January 18
Morning

I’m going ahead with the laser rifle project, though I’m tempted to have the geeks look into the plasma weapons we recovered as well. It’s a shame we didn’t have any of the new laser pistols off the assembly line in time for last night’s op.

And these ship components. Techs tell me the stuff is fascinating at first glance.

And we need to get an autopsy going on these recovered aliens. A lot to do. Those extra scientists can’t get here soon enough. I’d bring in more still, but the budget is almost blown and I won’t get reallocated until the start of the month.

The question remains as to what the craft we secured yesterday represents, exactly. Was this a sole excursion? Part of a group of ships currently on around Earth? A scouting party?

—

Wednesday, January 20th
Morning

New science and engineering bodies arrived today. Putting them to work on existing projects immediately.

—

Saturday, January 23rd
7:42

Another craft on the ground, Wyoming/Colorado border. Aircraft en route.

—

10:25

At the site. Landing party engaging. Combat recorders active.

—

01

Sun won’t be up for a while in Wyoming. Visibility a serious issue. Hopefully they can’t see any better in the dark than we can.

Wooden buildings in the area. Unknown if there are civilians present.

No immediate sign of hostiles. Team fanning out around ship.

…

Hydraulic door noises — incoming fire from the south! No one wounded, no ID of hostile.

—

02

Mouse checking window on structure to the west of the transport. Contact, one grey inside. Taking the shot.

No good, shots went wide, return fire knocked Mouse out. Gorilla on cleanup with an auto-cannon loaded with high explosive, grey is down along with half the building. Mouse possibly caught in the splash. Dammit.

Chimpanzee reports room clear.

Sgt. Wolf taking a strike team south. Weasel on point, no sign of source of enemy fire.

Albatross scouting north: craft sighted. Sending Sgt. Tiger that way with a strike team.

These guys saw us coming and had time to really spread out. Perimeter sweep vital.

…

More fire from south, ship took some superficial damage but no one hurt. Grey spotted this time, ducking out from behind building to the south. Sgt. Eagle took a shot, but no joy.

Big mistake, alien.

—

03

Ox put a few HE rounds into the southern structure. Visual and audio confirmation of grey down. Sgt. Wolf’s strike team will continue sweep to be sure he was alone.

Chimp checking second level of west building, Gorilla backing him up.

Sgt. Tiger’s team closing on ship, Sgt. Eagle flanking.

…

Movement at the ship. Hostile fire, Albatross is down.

—

04

Sweeping. No sign. Taking up positions on alien craft door.

…

Contact at the door, incoming fire, no casualties. Bull gets the takedown with his auto-cannon. Bam.

—

05

West building clear, Chimp on lookout on second story overlooking alien craft. There’s some hedges between westward team and the craft, but a little controlled fire from Falcon takes care of that.

More guns pointed at ship entrance while support teams catch up with Sgt. Tiger et al.

…

Sgt. Beetle reports sound of gunfire but no apparent vector. Sweeping western region with Wolverine.

—

06

Beetle tossing a grenade into nearby field, chance of flushing out or even nixing combatant. Darkness seriously hampering our operation efficiency, blowing things up beginning to look like an appealing strategy in general.

Chimp takes the roof of the west building. Bingo, target in a field to the northwest, just north of Wolverine’s position.

Falcon has a good line. Controlled burst, enemy down.

…

No movement.

—

07

Gorilla makes contact, rear of the craft. HE burst. Enemy down.

…

No movement.

—

08

Sending Bull to the ship entrance, breaching it shortly. Perimeter sweep nearly complete, need to find out who is inside, and who might be on the far side of, that ship.

…

Hydraulics again. Inside.

—

09

Bull is in. One grey on south branch of the ship lobby. Nixed, notch one Bull, but he’s bleeding. We need to clean this up quick and clear out.

…

No movement.

—

10

Breaching the lobby, guns on both internal doors. Exterior sweep complete. I don’t know if aliens wear pants, but if they do they’re shitting them right now.

If aliens shit.

…

No movement.

—

11

Securing internal doors.

…

Door noise, must be farther inside.

—

12

Peregrine opens north door, grey bastard staring right back at him. Clean rifle kill at point blank. Additional contact in pilot chamber, pulling Peregrine back to cover for now. No time to flank from south entrance.

…

No movement. No door sounds — target is still in the pilot chamber?

—

13

Peregrine back through the door into the pilot chamber. No sign of our friend; P taking up position and holding, Sgt. Tiger and Eagle as backup.

Weasel entering from south antechamber — contact! Rifle burst, two hits but enemy still standing, fires a gas round. Sgt. Wolf confirms both Weasel and hostile apparently unconscious.

…

Area cleared, mission complete.

—

12:54

Debrief:

We could have brought that last fellow home alive, I think — he was still breathing on the trip back, Sgt. Tiger kept a gun on him during the return flight. But then something went south fast.

Looks like those “alien containment” blueprints might be worth ordering construction on after all.

No new surprises; same ship model as last time, slightly larger crew, similar tech recovered.

Losing Mouse was a mistake. Need to up training discipline with high-explosive rounds — I think we’ll get a lot of use out of them if we continue to see combat in uninhabited territory, but these friendly fire incidents need to not happen.

Ox promoted to Sergeant. Tiger is the team’s new Captain; handling of storming the ship was excellent.

Bull is on the injured list, docs say he won’t be back in action for almost a month. A shame, but glad we got him back alive. May need to put some attention on field-medic research.

Gila, Gazelle, and Hamster put on active roster.

(On to entry #5…)