Cdr. Amyus Bale - Personal log - 28 June

Acceptable losses.  A concept I am coming to terms with, must come to terms with.  At least Mitchell died a hero, saving people, and with a clean conscience, I hope.

Sgt. James "Baron" Arnold

We lose soldiers, and brave souls step up to replace them.  James Arnold handled himself well in Marseilles and will get his Sergeant's stripes.  Anja Meinhardt has what it takes - she's not a rookie anymore.


I'm also promoting "Enigma" Lambert and "Cyclops" Gryspeerdt to Captain, not before time.

Sq. Anja Meinhardt

There's a lot of excitement in the labs.  They've been researching the alien energy sources we've recovered, specifically the fuel, a substance they've dubbed Elerium.  Apparently it's revolutionary, the kind of thing that could solve all our energy problems - the whole planet's energy problems - if we can only learn to duplicate and exploit it.

That's a dream for another day, however.  One I don't have time to be excited about.

There are three satellites down in Engineering and we finally have the uplink capacity to run all of them - but where do we launch?  We've bought a little breathing space in Europe but I'm facing mass hysteria across the rest of the globe.  The Council Nations are in uproar, squabbling amongst themselves.  Australia and China sending joint demands for more coverage over Asia; then going behind each others' backs, fishing for the first satellite with a mixture of incentive and intimidation.  Canada still bitching, the USA stridently shouting down the concerted pleas of Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa.  A dirty little message from Mexico, full of veiled references to secrets from las Grutas de Cacahuamilpa and dark threats of blackmail if Mexico isn't given priority.

There's talk of sanctions, trade embargos, even police actions.  The charts and reports scattered across my desk are giving me a headache already.

It's going to be a long night.