This Interview was documented at Camp Beta six hours after the start of The Demon Invasion.
Operation Jupiter Down.
Subject: Contact 00.
The interviewee is the turret manager, Stevens Philips. Acting as the commanding officer, the Army Colonel: Marcus Finn. Field Agent, Tomas Johnson is present during the interrogations on behalf of the CIA as an observer and for his experience in the field of interrogation.
"Well. You can sit down now, corporal."
"Thank you, sir. Where should I start?"
"Start from the beginning."
"Okay ..." He seemed to be thinking of his next words. "Our armored group had been dispatched to quadrant 4.2 to do a quick sweep of the demarcation line. We were attending to a report on a possible alpha-kilo code when ..."
"You can skip the argot, corporal. Explain the mission in your own words."
"Okay, sir... We were ordered to inspect the perimeter near Omega, when Unit 04 Captain, John Hammond, realized that the wall was moving, exposing an entrance."
"That's where those… giants came from?"
"Yes. There were four of them covered by a metal mesh. They moved rhythmically through that devastated terrain. When we saw them, we stopped the reconnaissance mission and called the base for instructions on how to act."
"What were the instructions received from the base?"
"They ordered us to keep our distances and try to apply The Protocol in case we could establish contact with the creatures."
"Was the Protocol for a First Contact followed?"
"Eh, yes ... But it does not seem to me to be something important for this interview."
"Your reconnaissance mission is currently being documented as the first contact between humanity and an unknown civilization: a contact that has ended in disaster and with unforeseeable consequences. We need to know if the agreed protocol was followed and if you tried to contact them first. We need to know if there was some kind of provocation or if they attacked first."
"Our captain ordered that we follow the recommendations given to us in the base for this situation. At the same time we loaded all our weapons in the event that it was a hostile action. But he didn't order us to open fire. We tested both auditory and visual cues to no avail. They seemed to completely ignore our attempts at communication and when they drew their weapons ..."
"Was then, when the attack occurred?"
"Captain Miller ordered us to fire a warning shot to try to halt their advance and to retreat into the open field."
"Did the titans ignore your warning?"
"They didn't even seem alarmed as half a building to the right of their formation was blown to pieces. They kept advancing towards us as if nothing had happened. When Captain Miller ordered to launch smoke canisters and call in the base for reinforcements, then they did attack us."
"No one of you see it coming?"
"Not. Our sensors barely work in this place. And the thermal was overloaded. When that mass of metal fell from the sky over Unit 04, we could hardly understand what was happening."
"How do you react?"
"Me? I started shooting the moment that thing used its sword to slice through Unit 04's turret. It was anti-personnel ammunition so it had little effect on the armor. But hell, at least was doing something."
"But in the end your unit managed to knock it down."
"After three shots! Three! And we had to use an APDS to punch a hole in that armor. His body was still quite tough. But, on the third shot we had to hit the spine or something similar, because we managed to knock him down to the ground. Once the threat was removed, we picked up the survivors of 04 and left."
"How did the giant's companions react?"
"You know, that's the most disturbing thing: They didn't seem to react in any way. We had just blown his colleague to pieces and they seemed unfazed." The soldier's voice sounded incredulous." No yelling or threats; they didn't try to attack us either. They just stood still."
"Matt, our radio operator, managed to establish communication with the base. You ordered us to go back into the open field, stand guard, and wait for the drones to arrive.
"Tell me about the unknown contact. None of the tank cameras appeared to have captured anything about them."
"As we left that ruined neighborhood, Jack, my companion of the secondary turret, pointed in the direction of where we had been. Then, I noticed what he was pointing at. I saw humanoid forms moving around the fallen giant, they seemed to run through every part of his body. At first I thought they were looters, somehow breaching the security perimeter. But when I picked up the binoculars I realized that this was not the case. Those beings were greenish-skinned and had red eyes. We saw them swirl around the fallen giant. After a few seconds, the titan began to move again."
A third voice intervened in the conversation.
"Didn´t you say that the titan had been disabled?"
A sigh is heard.
"I think those creatures, somehow, were patching it.”
The colonel's spoke again.
"Finish your story, son."
"10 seconds later, the air force dropped their bombs, smashing both the giants and the small figures along with everything that was left of the neighborhood. That was the last time we saw them."
"Well. I think we are done. You can back out, Corporal."
"Yes sir."
The sound of a chair moving and a few steps away is heard. The recorder is still on.
"Well Tom, are they telling the truth?"
The colonel was addressing the other occupant in the room.
"His report has been contrasted with that of all the members of his armored group. The cameras and our observation vehicles tell the same story. Everything suggests that they were not the ones who started the hostilities.
"I was afraid you'd say that."
End of recording.