We have a whole heck of a mess. There's a Dreadnaught on the bottom off the coast of Morocco, and another Fleet Supply Cruiser was shot down near the Florida Keys. The Triton will be taking off to assault the Dreadnaught shortly, but first, we need to get everybody briefed in.
WeaponsMost of you are familiar with the Sonic Cannon now. If you aren't, you should be. We'll also cover its smaller cousins, which aren't likely to be issued here but might be at Xenowatch. The Sonic system of weapons is very impressive, and in all honesty there are parts of it we still don't truly understand; coherence of the bolt for one. But we can copy what we see, and in the end all you really need to know is which end you point and what you pull to shoot. A sidenote: the person who chose the name "Blasta" has been sacked.
EnemiesAs near as we can determine, these Sectoids are not actually affiliated with the Ethereal Empire like the ones we fought in 1999. They're running their own show. Our captures have been unfortunately low-ranked so we know relatively little, but they were quite surprised to discover both the current date and the First Alien War. We think, although we can't prove, that this group was on the run from the Ethereal Empire when they accidentally crashed their ship (or city; they've described it both ways and don't appear to get Stargate Atlantis jokes) into Earth.
The Gillmen are something of a surprise. We knew, for example, there were male and female Floaters back during the First Alien War, but the distinction was academic after the surgical hatchet job the Ethereals did on them. This is the first time we've ever encountered direct evidence for the concept. No, for the record, female Gill Men aren't very sexy. The difference is in fact hard to assess at a glance. The Gillmen appear to regard us as usurpers and despoilers of a world that should have been theirs. They also resent their servitude to the Sectoids, which was a survival choice, but we doubt we can use this for psy-ops or a wedge between the two groups. They hate us more, and the Sectoids' Molecular Control tech makes it unlikely a Gillmen rebellion would get far.
The Lobstermen appear to be the Sectoid answer to the Mutons. There is, however, no question of their being a naturally evolved creature.. Lobstermen are manufactured, not born; most of them is mechanical and assembled, then biological bits plugged in. There are only a few components that are completely biological; the brain, one of the three pairs of eyes, magnetic sensing organs which let them operate at deep and murky depths without getting lost. Of interest is that their claws have a similar hydraulic boost system to the Chryssalids, though mechanical rather than biological. We don't know what to make of that, considering the two branches of aliens we've fought are separated by several million years.
They are also far more intelligent than Mutons; they easily show a human level of problem-solving ability. The good news is, we think they're slow to manufacture. If we keep killing them at our current rate we might be able to wipe them out in a year or two, assuming no further manufacturing capacity is brought online.
The Deep Ones can be summed up as "disturbing". If we fail, they could well be the future of the human race. They are part Sectoid, part human host. They could be considered a failed experiment, since they're not as tough as either, but their skin material could make good armor if it were applied more than paper-thin and we've learned a lot about how to make such a suit by studying Deep One anatomy.
This is a mistake the aliens have made. We expect it to cost them dearly.