A rough February is behind us. While we made significant progress in research and manufacturing, we also had significant losses among the aquanauts.
Our first contact of the month consisted of two separate craft. We detected one touched down but failed to capture it before it took off. We never caught it again.
We shot down a second and salvaged it. We lost Leon on that mission as the aliens showed more tenacity.
On the 7th, we hit a Gillman craft. On this mission, we found out how outgunned we were with regular harpoons as it took three shots just to stun one Gillman. We had just finished a prototype Gauss rifle and were getting put into production the day prior.

The odd thing is that sometimes these creatures seem to lack tactical sense. OmegaChief and Lord Relevenous were standing right in front of a Gillman and it never attempted to shoot either one of them. They ended up stunning it so we had a live specimen.
We had a glut of research in the middle of the month. We completed autopsies on the Aquatoids and Deep Ones in the span of a week.
We confirmed our suspicions that the Aquatoids are indeed Sectoids with surgical modifications to be amphibious. They still have lungs, but the fins and gills show work of advanced surgical technique. This has been passed along to the UN as evidence that this is indeed an alien threat.

The Deep One autopsy has incredibly disturbing. It is a mesh of human, alien, and cybernetics. Essentially, it's a human body housing an alien fetus. The fetus consumes the body from the inside out and the skin is a metallic mesh.

From this research came some rudimentary understanding of the alien craft skin and SirNitram is overseeing further research on those materials.
We had Gauss Rifles ready to go on on the 17th, having finished research on their magazines on the 7th. We also completed our first run of med-kits and loaded those onto the sub for future missions.

Our last autopsy was on the 23rd -- the Gillman. This one is the strangest thing. From genetic analysis, we concluded that these Gillman are not alien. They are native Earth life thought extinct since the time of the dinosaurs. They entered into some sort of relationship with the aliens, but we need more information on that. We also recovered some implants from their bodies. We don't know what they do.

The last thing of note was a terror mission on the 27th. This really set us back.
ADDENDUM -- MISSION TRANSCRIPT
Hawkwings: Heading out. It's our old friends the Gillmen. Let's see how those Gauss rifles work.
Force Lord: Found one. Firing. :gauss rifle fire: Boom! Headshot! These things work a lot better.
weemadando: However, it seems we still can't shoot for shit on this team.
White Haven: And one just shot the sub. You all banging that one out.
Torben: Gillman just shot something at us! It's some sort of gas! Really . . . pleasant gas . . . night-night gas . . .
Lord Relevenous: Damn you fuckers! Aah, missed. I hit that oil barrel . . . and set it off, killing a Gillman. Sweet!
Gailina: There's a Gillman over here. :unknown sound: AAAH!
Dave: Vengeance! ::gauss rifle:: Got it! Oh shit, another one! :unknown sound: :gurgle:
JonB: Damn it, that's two down. Ooh, up on the towers. :gauss rifle: Nailed it!
OmegaChief: There's a Deep One in the building. :gauss rifle: Through the window, nothing but alien!
Hawkwings: Omega, there's a Gillman near you, I'm taking a shot. :harpoon shots: Damn it! I keep hitting the build-:harpoon shot:
OmegaChief: :impact sound over comm:
Hawkwings: OH SHIT I HIT CHIEF!
JonB: Damn it, people! :gauss rifle: There, I got it. It took out two people first.
Hawkwings: No, it killed three.
weemadando: Frags don't count against them.
Lord Relevenous: Second Deep One and another Gillman down.
Darkdrium: Where are these . . . AAH!
Force Lord: Four of us down, Command says there's still another one left, and we've been searching for several minutes. Maybe up here on this other tower. Found another Deep One! :gauss rifle: I missed! Oh shit, it's coming to me. Oh yuck, it spits! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!!! :collapse:
Edi: FORCE LORD!!! DIE YOU SHIT!!!! :gauss rifle: Got it! Port's clear.
TRANSCRIPT END
Five aquanauts lost on one terror mission. We need massive improvements before we can even think of taking on this threat. Somehow, we were able to pull off a successful month.

On another note, I'm still wondering what we're supposed to do with all these garish busts of Andrew Ryan?
LOG END
OOC: Seriously guys? No Bioshock jokes?