Asteroid Blues - The O-12 View

At this point in time, when the pressure exerted by the EI forces seems about to breach our defenses on the Paradiso front, the conclusions reached by our team of analysts may seem farfetched to you. But you must believe us, this threat is real and dreadful. I beg you, do as we have done: look beyond the turmoil and the conflagration of the combat on Paradiso. Lift your eyes to the unfathomable void and see what’s hiding there.

It may very well be that the most noxious consequence of the entire Third Offensive launched by the Combined Army on Paradiso is that it has served to divert our attention away from their infiltration into Human Edge.

Admittedly, we already suspected that some isolated teams of Shasvastii operatives might have broken through the Abyss Blockade that protects the Jump Gate connecting Paradiso and Human Edge. Our suspicion was based on reports of certain irregularities in that Gate’s traffic, and we had also extrapolated it from the incursion that went through the Daedalus Blockade towards the Ereeva system; there’s more information in the [files classified as Daedalus’ Fall]. However, we could have never fathomed the real magnitude of said infiltration.

The fortuitous exposure of a Shasvastii cell in Novyy Bangkok (more information in the reports about Operation: Asteroid Blues and the related file “Incident in Bubba’s Khạntiǹā”) revealed a clandestine network capable of surreptitiously moving an Onyx incursion force and large amounts of engineering material into the Human Sphere. As this operation is still in progress, we haven’t been able to determine the purpose and the final target of all these logistic materials and of the Onyx forces. Nonetheless, if we consider the connections of the Jump Gates at Human Edge, there are two obvious targets: the Solar System and Concilium, the cradle of humanity and the core of our international government, respectively. Regardless which one it is, it’s obvious that the EI is aiming for our heart and that we must put both systems under close surveillance.

Therefore, it’s vitally important that all the powers work together in patrolling and performing search and destroy operations both against Shasvastii cells and Onyx incursion squads, as well as against the
engineering teams that the EI might have infiltrated into these two systems.

Even though the Shasvastii and the Onyx may seem like the most immediate threat, our analysts believe that possibly the greatest danger may stem from those engineering teams, since we haven’t been able to ascertain their purpose yet and, until we can shed some light on that conundrum, they pose a threat that we won’t be able to contain.

Surveillance and security tasks will still be redoubled in Human Edge, in case the Combined Army forces haven’t managed to breach the Jump Gates to the Solar System and Concilium yet. But the danger is too great to neglect these two strategic systems. The fleets of the powers collaborating with the Paradiso Coordinated Command will be authorized to carry out joint patrols in the Concilium system, where in principle the transit of armed spaceships is prohibited.

All the commanding officers and specialist troops will be in direct communication with the designated Bureau Aegis command in order to coordinate these operations and process all the collected information.

Our team of analysts would like to point out that, as with other scenarios where Shasvastii cells have been involved, paranoia and suspicion have led to our forces suffering casualties from friendly fire,
in addition to having been exploited by certain powers for their own benefit to gain an advantage over rival nations.

I urge you to prevent such situations from happening again. It is not an overstatement to say that what is at stake here is the very future of the Human Sphere. If the Earth or Concilium were to fall, the rest of the systems would soon follow. I beg you, act with determination, but do it together. It’s evident from the experience gained over all these years that divided we will not survive.

Thank you.

Colonel Mariëtte Wijnkoop, Bureau Aegis Officer, in a closed session meeting
of O-12’s Security Council. Access authorization required: Alpha.