The bay doors on the Cutters closed and sealed as Max powered up Terminus to follow them back off the planet, stopping only long enough to eliminate the last few Behemoths, which might stand a chance of damaging their vessels on the way home.
Admiral Drake's voice welcomed him back into orbit as Max updated his notes to encompass the last battle and the strange behaviors they had experienced on the planet.
[Commander, we have a full data set for the general population, including the spread, the markers which identify the lab where it was produced, which is here on this world, as well as some data from the government buildings about the operation to innoculate the population against the so-called Alien Diseases, which they claimed the Klem could spread through humanity.
The general population wouldn't have known what happened and assumed that the vaccine didn't work on their loved ones for some reason until it started to affect everyone, and by then, it was too late to do anything about it or the ones who had created it.
The mutations seem to have been partially intentional, but they evolved in unexpected ways when the virus mutated within hours of the initial distribution.
Miss Tarith has come up with a viral containment plan for you to peruse at your pleasure, and the Illithid Doctor has verified that the viral containment procedures for the Regiment will be sufficient to have eliminated the threat. It seems that after the initial mutation, it began to spread by direct contact and was no longer an airborne pathogen.]
[We will go over the plan as soon as I arrive. Prepare a meeting room and inform all of the Battalion Commanders to meet there in fifteen minutes.] Max replied.
That would be just long enough to land, get a quick shower, and change to meet the Regiment, though it would leave some of the Commanders tight on time after getting their units disembarked.
The Mecha could stay in the Cutters, as they would need to be fully sanitized, along with the bay that they arrived in before they could be repaired and moved to storage, so that wasn't the Pilot's problem today. They only needed to go to the scanning and decontamination room.
The sensors on the Cutters didn't detect any signs of diseases, viruses, or other hostile life forms that might have been picked up on the planet, so it would likely be a short process, but they would be held for a few hours until the more thorough deep tissue scans were completed.
The Commanders could all be quarantined together during their meetings, a standard practice for many Regiments that allowed them to save hours of hassle and get all their paperwork done during the scanning process.
They had all been on the same battlefield, and none of them had left their Mecha during the deployment, so with a quick sanitization of their Mecha, before they exited, there was little chance that any of them were going to be infected anyhow.
With the apartment-level luxury inside the cockpit of the Thunder Pattern Super Heavy Mecha, there weren't a lot of good reasons for the Commanders to disembark during battle unless they were holding negotiations with another human force, something that would likely never happen with the Klem.
"Welcome everyone to today's debriefing and Command Staff decontamination. I have a mission report in front of you. Check it for accuracy, and write your Battalion's version. I know we aren't a military force anymore, but comprehensive records are essential when we need to look back for missing clues during later battles." Max reminded his Officers.
"Some things never end. Paperwork is eternal, but you have a point, Commander. Especially for this mission, where we encountered so many new actions and patterns of Klem, it is imperative that we keep good notes. If we come across them somewhere else in the Galaxy, we will need to know how they got there and as much about them as possible." Colonel Klinger agreed.
[I have the plan to finish the decontamination of the planet ready if you would like to go over it while you enjoy your decontamination.] Nico suggested over the intercom.
"Does it involve Firestorm Bombing or Orbital Strikes?" Max asked.
[That's the best part. I managed to find a way for both of them to work together for an extra fresh, minty clean feeling.]
The Command Staff chuckled at Nico's enthusiastic response before looking over the plan.
She wasn't joking. Her plan was to have the Cutters fly a grid pattern in orbit, carpet bombing the planet with Firestorm Bombs, then combining their firepower with that of Cleansing Light, all on the same spot.
According to the seismic scans, that was a weak spot in the tectonic plates, and the combined Orbital Lance assault should send a ripple through the entire planet's crust that would shatter the continents and turn many of the pieces over, leaving them face down on the molten mantle of the planet.
Combined with the Firestorm, the chances of Microbial life surviving were less than one in a billion, with a chance of the Klem infestation surviving calculated as less than one in a trillion, with a secondary plan to use Chemical weapons to eliminate the last microbial life that might have survived, should any be detected.
"You know, we could have worked out a retroviral concoction that would decontaminate the planet's humans." Max pointed out after reading the pure overkill double Extermination plan for the infested world.
[I already did that. After the virus is eliminated, they no longer stand any chance of contaminating others, but the majority of their Genome is still Klem, and they are essentially brain-dead. Given time, they might recover some brain function, but the instinct-driven portion of their existence is all that is keeping them functioning.
Disabling the Virus makes the Klem portion of their bodies dormant, and it could safely be surgically removed, in most cases, but it leaves them with the brain functions of a newborn.] Nico informed them.
"So, the test subjects are dead?" Colonel DiFranco, of the Fourth Battalion, asked.
[No, just infantile. They are very much breathing.] Nico explained.
"What do we do with that? Do we even have a use for a bunch of comatose Klem Hybrids?" The Colonel asked.
[Of course, we do. I'm not sure what it is, but I am going to put them in cryogenic stasis anyhow. Maybe it will matter later.]
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