Commander's Rounds

Entry ??.?- Oversight

The following is a transcript of the meeting taking place at [REDACTED] on the date of [REDACTED] between a number of individuals concerning the development of the KANSEN program. Any material of this nature is classified as TS/SCI, individuals without the proper clearance and additional authorization from the Joint Security Committee are FORBIDDEN from viewing this material and will suffer the maximum legal penalties for its possession.

The individuals present at the meeting were as follows:

VICE ADM. REGINALD HUNT, Royal Intelligence

LT. GEN BERNARD SHALE, Military advisor to the Joint Security Committee

CAPT. ROBERT CROSSWELL, Eagle Union tactical instructor, member of the Joint Security Committee's Strategic Study Group

COL. AUGUSTIN MARAT, Assistant Director of Joint Iris/Iron Blood Cubetech R&D efforts.

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GEN. SHALE: I know we're all busy, so I hope we can keep this as brief as possible. However, I have been informed by the committee that Colonel Marat had a proposal that required your individual expertise.

ADM. HUNT: Since we're familiar with the Colonel's work so far, Royal Intelligence will gladly give him a hearing.

CAPT. CROSSWELL: He and his unit have been doing good work trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of the tech we're trying to make heads or tails of. Better than anyone else at the moment.

COL. MARAT: We've been doing our best, certainly, but the loss of Sector A-14 years ago was a serious blow, and we've been doing our best to make up lost ground. Thank you for your confidence.

GEN. SHALE: Before we begin, I would like to make sure that Captain Crosswell is entirely cleared to take part in these discussions.

ADM. HUNT: Captain Crosswell was appointed to the Special Strategic Study Group by the Joint Security Committee. The only thing which he hasn't been cleared for is to sleep with my wife. Though, if he showed up with that paperwork for such a thing in his hands, I would be somewhat dismayed, but not entirely surprised.

GEN. SHALE: All right. I just wanted to be sure, because Crosswell's group did produce useful findings to back the steps we've taken so far.

CAPT. CROSSWELL: Unfortunately, the testimony of Johnathan Cochrane was less useful than we would have liked. There were quite a few things he said that did ring true later, but it's obvious that he was pretty far gone back when your men talked to him. Permission to speculate, sirs?

GEN. SHALE: You're not here to be a seatwarmer, Captain.

CAPT. CROSSWELL: There's nothing in Johnathan Cochrane's prior record that indicates he's the kind of person to turn tail and run, so I think he saw something up in the Arctic that was beyond the usual Siren automated or even humanoid weapons.

COL. MARAT: Do you have any idea what he might have seen?

CAPT. CROSSWELL: He may have encountered some manner of higher-order Siren. Something that breaks the rules even more than their humanoid weapons already do. The Sirens don't hold territory in any conventional sense, with the exception of the Arctic, so they may have things deployed up there that outright defy any conventional understanding of military technology.

GEN. SHALE: Like the Kansen?

CAPT. CROSSWELL: We can't dismiss the possibility. That or something else we haven't even thought of. The depth of the Sirens' strategic capabilities is still unknown.

ADM. HUNT: Unfortunately, there's not much we can do for Johnathan. Not only was his mind broken, but he also has to live with being known as a coward rather than someone who survived to give us important intelligence. Any attempt to try to rehabilitate his image at the moment would lead to even more trouble for us, considering how destructive the Sirens proved themselves to be. No one said that life was fair, certainly, but it doesn't need to be so enthusiastic in its reminders.