[Fr: Sanctuary Pipeline, Project Second Sun]
[To: Ministry of Energy and the Office of His Majesty, Coruscant]
To whom it may concern:
Milords and gentlemen otherwise, it is with much appreciation to my immediate superiors that I can send this missive to you. The trust that has been placed in me to help complete this Project is nothing short of the highest honor to receive and my investment into the success of this Project is all the deeper for it. The Project has progressed as scheduled and I am very pleased to say that we are meeting all of our deadlines. Unfortunately, there are a few minor concerns that I feel that I must address in this report that take precedence over the standard, accompanying statistics data sheet.
Firstly and to start, while our molecular furnaces have seen no reduction in efficiency and our alloy assembly progresses as expected, minor resource shortages have become a stopgap for the further securing of the forest moon's surface. In a series of unfortunate events, it seems as though our supply chain has lost nearly twenty-seven percent of all of our municipal outpost supplies, and they seem to have disappeared into the cosmic aether. The report chain surrounding the supplies has logged a labyrinthian series of conflicting requests that account for the missing supplies, but as to the ends and beginnings of said reports, we are still unfortunately in the dark. Simultaneous, down to the microsecond, submissions from different departments for the same resources created an overload that was never processed by the microdroid brains assigned to report filtration and instead shoveled off to the aides. With human error then entering the mix, it seems most officers chose to expedite the process rather than critically analyze the source or logistical reasonability of the requests.
As such, when the severity of the situation was finally revealed to on-site commanders, they chose to prioritize the recuperating of the most important resources. This includes essential "power-management" supplies that happened to be on-site at the time, as well as defense resources like troop supplies. What we lost is not essential, per say, but I must stress that a complete lack of caff has started to generate a rising slump in morale.
As an aside, I would like to ask that COMPNOR's Coalition for Improvements fund a study on the ethics and effects of caff on military structure and efficiency. I find myself both quicker to anger and prone to tangents as of late in light of our current shortages. In fact, at this point, the small supply we have left has started to become a premier currency, used only among the "elite" officers lucky enough to secure their own supply. I fear that the exchange of "favors", which is to say the bartering of paltry sums of caff for an offload of work, will soon become more valuable than the Imperial Credit for the rank-and-file soldier.
Secondly, I must reluctantly admit that we have lost much of the territory we tenuously extended control over on the Sanctuary Moon to the native population. Previously we had corralled much of their population into designated and supervised zones, with patrols scheduled to maintain the rough cordon. Under that system, all convoys were safe and efficient, and we had no reports of material loss. Unfortunately, while we were adjusting our systems and accounting for our material shortages, a brief and costly war erupted between our garrison and the natives. As a result, our troops created highly defensive, but logistically nightmarish convoy routes that they have stuck to ever since. I must admit that the scale of the enemy's coordination was impressive and is the only reason I give the conflict with the contemptible savages more notice than I would with any other random skirmish on an unconquered world.
I have dismissed the claims of "Ewok Supercommandos" as stress-originated superstition and therefore highly unlikely to have any real rooting in objectivity. Additionally, it is my belief that the majority of the native tactical efficiency is a result of our chain of command's preoccupation with our own supply chain issues, and not from any real talent. Despite this, there was clear evidence of long-term planning and logic in the strategy the natives employed to besiege our troops that wasn't displayed in any previous engagements. Due to this fact, I suspect that a hitherto unknown local warlord was able to galvanize the scattered tribes into a loosely effective fighting force. Several missions were carried out by our scout complement on the moon's surface to find this possible high priority target, as well as a dreadful travesty of a mission carried out by our special forces complement, but all attempts to find this possible warlord have failed. My personal Analysts agree that it's likely that there is an elder veteran of earlier inter-tribal warfare that has survived somewhere on the planet who took advantage of the chaos to implement some rudimentary small unit tactics.
I assure you all that our grasp on the planet remains strong and that the security of the Sanctuary Pipeline has not been compromised in the slightest. Our garrison is recovering slowly, but I am sure that we will return to full planetary security very soon. Further reinforcements and the presence of the Supreme Commander will not be necessary at this time as we have taken minimal casualties even while surprised. That, more than anything, reassures me that the state of affairs seems much worse than it actually is.
Thirdly, and lastly, I would like to request that the ISB's Modell Sector Office send a small party of re-education agents to our operation. I should clarify that I suspect none of our officers of treason and would inform you all immediately should that suspicion arise. Instead, many of our senior command officers and much of the stormtrooper complement have reported a sharp increase in negative sentiment over their stationing. I am not overly concerned that… rebellion can fester here, more that the perspective of our forces is shifting unfavorably towards an increase in aggressive and other overly emotive behavior.
You see, after the skirmish I have previously addressed in this report, senior command rotated the groundside compliment off of the forest moon and on to the Project in orbit itself in order to alleviate immediate combat fatigue and stress. When it came time to revert to the previous stationings, many troopers expressed obstinance, and in a few very cases, outright refusal, to return to their moon-side duties. In all cases, after disciplining (sometimes harshly) the troopers and officers in question returned to their previous posts. We've had no disobedience since, but Commander Igar has noted that it's likely that the experience during the skirmishes has had some delayed and long term negative consequences for the mental health of those involved.
Some troopers, who I believe were caught in a (surely exaggerated) accident involving an AT-AT, some cargo, and early morning fatigue, have since then started hyperventilating at the mere sight of electrical grease until they're dragged out of view. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some of the scout units have displayed unprofessional, if not strictly unallowed, new habits of collecting the bones of the natives after battle; sometimes creating gruesome effigies to drive fear into the hearts of the local savages. While I believe that this method does fall under the much loved Tarkin Doctrine's Rule Through Fear, I have had to dismiss many complaints from contemporary units that find the methods both horrific and utterly barbaric.
As such, I must insist that re-education agents give a small tour through our facilities to promote more healthy practices for the soldiers of the Empire. I believe this will alleviate many of our present issues and help our less essential sectors return to full efficiency without causing a loss in ground complement to the reassignment of soldiers elsewhere.
Outside of these minor, if notable, concerns, the work on the Project proceeds quite smoothly. The primary generator has been fully assembled and the external superstructure has reached thirty-two percent completion. Our progress is on-schedule and I expect full operational capacity to be completed in just under a year. I thank you for your consideration and hope to see a swift reply on allocation of the requested resources.
Signed,
Director of Imperial Energy Systems (Moff) Tiaan Jerjerrod
Project Second Sun