The bay doors on the Cutters closed and sealed as Max powered up Terminus to follow them back off the, stopping only long enough to eliminate thest few Behemoths, which might stand a chance of damaging their vessels on the way home.


    Admiral Drake''s voice weed him back into orbit as Max updated his notes to epass thest battle and the strange behaviors they had experienced on the.


    [Commander, we have a full data set for the general poption, including the spread, the markers which identify theb where it was produced, which is here on this world, as well as some data from the government buildings about the operation to innocte the poption against the so-called Alien Diseases, which they imed the Klem could spread through humanity.


    The general poption wouldn''t have known what happened and assumed that the vine didn''t work on their loved ones for some reason until it started to affect everyone, and by then, it was toote 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 hase up with a viral containment n 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 n 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 tond, 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, so it would likely be a short process, but they would be held for a few hours until the more thorough deep tissue scans werepleted.


    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.


    "Wee everyone to today''s debriefing and Command Staff decontamination. I have a mission report in front of you. Check it for uracy, and write your Battalion''s version. I know we aren''t a military force anymore, butprehensive records are essential when we need to look back for missing clues duringter 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 wee across them somewhere else in the Gxy, we will need to know how they got there and as much about them as possible." Colonel Klinger agreed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    [I have the n to finish the decontamination of the ready if you would like to go over it while you enjoy your decontamination.] Nico suggested over the inte.


    "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 n.


    She wasn''t joking. Her n was to have the Cutters fly a grid pattern in orbit, carpet bombing the with Firestorm Bombs, thenbining their firepower with that of Cleansing Light, all on the same spot.


    ording to the seismic scans, that was a weak spot in the tectonic tes, and thebined Orbital Lance assault should send a ripple through the entire''s crust that would shatter the continents and turn many of the pieces over, leaving them face down on the molten mantle of the.


    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 calcted as less than one in a trillion, with a secondary n to use Chemical weapons to eliminate thest microbial life that might have survived, should any be detected.


    "You know, we could have worked out a retroviral concoction that would decontaminate the''s humans." Max pointed out after reading the pure overkill double Extermination n 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 exined.


    "What do we do with that? Do we even have a use for a bunch ofatose 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 matterter.]