As before, this is a summary of Lieutenant Maxwell F Olvani’s mission notes. Should further detail be needed, the original notes can be viewed upon request. Additional notes/insights written by author (Junior Officer Rocia Monero) will be marked by “A/N”.

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Landing On The Ship

• Lt. Maxwell was highly critical of his performance when fighting “the shotgun ones”, highlighting the high amount of damage Alitheia sustained and his failure to engage in a tactical way.
• Lt. Maxwell expressed concern about Mercury maintaining a large distance during the encounter. He wasn’t sure if it was due to Mercury being unfamiliar in a new mech or if it was a trauma response from their encounter with Samira Daub.
• Lt. Ryker’s performance with his “new big gun” was notably impressive, with Lt. Maxwell highlighting how it was able to disable the Bishop’s mech with ease. To quote Lt. Maxwell directly: “Ryker’s weapon is more of a cacophony than a symphony, but with the way he wields it, I am happy with whatever it’s called as long as it’s not pointed at me.”
• Lt. Maxwell mentions that his soul is not heavy (A/N: what?)

Inside The Ship

• Lt. Maxwell made reference to some kind of “flow state” he found himself in during combat, attributing his ability to avoid any further damage to it.
• Records obtained by Lt. Maxwell reveal that the Quartic Church refers to the HUP1 as a demonic entity from the Abujani Empire named Kimaris. Lt. Maxwell does not rule it out as a possibility.
• A fatal incident occurred where an enemy combatant was killed as a result of actions taken by Mercury after the initial skirmish occurred. Lt. Maxwell again stressed his perceived importance that Unit 02 spends time with Mercury in a non-combat context, in hopes to prevent further incidents.

Pegasus Encounter

• HUP1 broke out of the containment cell without external help, and started combat with Unit 02. (A/N: Our intel failed us here. Did Beleriki intelligence come to the wrong conclusion about how successful Dakou was in capturing HUP1? Or did Belerik leak false info in the hopes that someone would be willing to try to steal the HUP1 away from Dakou so their rivals wouldn’t get any political favour with the Quartic Church?)
• HUP1 possesses high combat intelligence and prowess, as it was able to take out both Lt. Vuelo’s and Capt. Hermes’ mechs.
• Lt. Maxwell does not seem convinced that this is the last we’ll see of HUP1. No reasoning was provided.

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A/N: I personally find it hard to call this mission a success. Not only did they fail to capture HUP1, it seems Unit 02 also failed to learn anything that would help us in future paracausal encounters. I think it may have been more beneficial to have let the Quartic Church keep it and research it, that way at least something could have been divined from the entity.

I do not mean to be critical of Unit 02 - I just think that the operation had too many unknowns and may have been rushed into due to personal feelings, and it had a negative effect on the mission.

Finally, Lt. Maxwell seemed to struggle with Alitheia, perhaps due to his unfamiliarity with SSC systems. I am recommending to the engineering staff that they work with the lieutenant to rebuild an improved Ithiki in hopes that he can have more consistent performance without relying on whatever his “flow state” is.