If it weren't for Tamamo picking up a lot of shielded chatter from the landing site, I would have been
really concerned when the Skyranger swooped towards a solid mountain in West Virginia. As it was, from inside the vehicle I couldn't even see the landing with my own eyes. However, Tamamo's scans, directed through my brain, saw everything as we literally aerobraked above the mountain and fell, passing through an illusory peak and reigniting the jets just enough to settle us on a moving platform. Minutes later, the heavy aircraft was parked.
The Major looked over at me, eyebrows raised. "Not going to comment on the drop?"
I shook my head. "No need. I'm guessing it's a way to haze rookies?"
"...maybe. Although it's also necessary when there might be watchers nearby."
Tamamo spoke up. "Keeping a facility of this size hidden indefinitely is near-impossible. Why are you attempting to do so?"
The Major grimaced. "...politics, more than anything. But I'm not going to get into that. It's thankfully not my direct problem. I'm a recruiting agent and off-hours commander."
I winced in sympathy. "That sucks Major. Best of luck with the politicians." Pausing, I scanned the interior of the Skyranger, before asking, "Am I good to disembark now?"
"Go ahead. You'll be meeting with the Magus Ops leader, and likely the remaining Base Staff." He nodded. "He's likely on the tarmac." As the door set down, he grinned. "And I was right."
There was an entire swarm of green-clad men who converged on the transport's opening door, moving to unload the cargo and begin refueling.
One man, however, didn't move from his place. White hair stood out amongst the more traditional browns, reds, and blacks of the rest of the base staff, and his black armor stood out even more. His grey eyes skimmed over the Major, before settling firmly on me.
I stepped down from the craft, and bowed. "Hello. I'm Lillie Lee, pleased to meet you sir."
"Do not bow." He said softly. "A salute is more appropriate, although that is not something you could have known." He extended his hand. "Captain Dennis Lehmann, at your service. It will be good to have a mage of your strength in our ranks."
I nodded, smiling at the Captain.
"Tamamo, am I really that strong magically? I still don't exactly remember where on the scale I am. Did I ever ask, actually?"
Aloud, I stated, "It's good to be here, sir. I hope to contribute as much as I possibly can."
As the captain shook my hand, Tamamo got back to me.
"Your Linker Core is more than powerful enough for a military specialist, as was required for my activation. This would place your Core's base power in roughly the top point zero five percent of all citizens. Here, I have detected only a few cores of comparable strength, and none with a standard spell pattern, though my scanning capacity is limited. Most of the cores I have scanned have suffered significant structural damage, so it is difficult to determine what pattern was assigned, if any."
I managed to keep my face straight, the weight of my responsibilities landing on my shoulders, to my private distaste, and hidden joy. I had always wanted to be a hero, though I hated the responsibilities that would come with being one. I shook off my conflict, responding quickly.
"That's good to know Tamamo. Thank you for explaining it to me."
Unknowing of the exchange, Lehmann finished shaking my hand, and turned, motioning me to follow. "I suppose I should be thanking you. From what little I've heard, you've had no reason to fight for us, and yet you signed on without much fuss."
"I can't just not help." I replied, "In many ways, this is my home now."
"Perhaps, but you certainly could have demanded more." Lehmann led me into an elevator, tapping a keypad and standing to one side as we began to sink into the earth. "The Commander was willing to offer a much more significant payout- a quarter of our department's operating budget, and more besides- if it meant having you on board." He paused. "You do realize that our initial offer was intended to be a lowball, correct?"
I shrugged, "I figure I'll be getting a decent check for working with you, and I don't believe it's worth defunding yourself to get your hands on me, not when I'm willing. I'd be a bastard to do that."
"Maybe. Though I will insist on setting additional funds aside unless we actually manage to bring more mages in." Lehmann pursed his lips. "...I suppose you wouldn't know the full details. Would you mind a bit of a history lesson?"
I shook my head. "Go ahead. The more I learn about this timeline, the better."
"Very well. Now, the Mars Arcology and the Moon observation post were abandoned in some haste, but not so quickly as to abandon many more valuable objects. Of the Devices recovered, the vast majority were low-grade pieces, all of which were non-sentient and most of which had little to no combat capacity." Lemann continued speaking as the doors hissed open, and he led me down a hallway towards a pair of metal doors. "We did recover a large trove of Journeyman Devices, which in turn became our 'battle standard', but we only recovered a few dozen Soldier grade Devices, a scattered few Specialist Devices, and a single Noble Device. Subsequent expeditions into the Gap have recovered a scant few more, but in general those finds are few and far between."
I 'ahh'd' in understanding. "So the fact I found Tamamo is already a massive find, on top of my core's strength. That makes sense." Silently following the man for a bit in contemplation, I continued, "Hopefully we
do find some more mages. And hopefully not children. I… I don't think I'd be okay with forcing children to fight."
Lehmann scoffed. "There are more than enough adults with decent Cores found via scanning to use every device we've found. The trouble is getting them to abandon their lives and take them up in military service without going AWOL at the first opportunity." He shook his head. "It's an odd quirk of Linker Cores that they begin to atrophy from disuse around age thirty. So the pool of candidates is limited to those young enough to be impulsive, or just old enough to be ambitious. We've already had to compromise on our choices to link with the limited amount of devices we have."
"You callin' me second rate, boyo?" A familiar voice came from the side of the room we'd just entered. The room, a large common area with an array of couches, coffee tables and padded carpets, had only a few people inside. The speaker waved from one corner. "Aha! Girl, we owe each other drinks, I think."
I laughed, "That we do! Though you'll have to excuse me if I don't drink more than two glasses, I don't like losing my ability to think rationally!" It was good to see Nguyen again, even if I suspected she'd be someone I avoided more often than not. I was an
introvert thanks. I didn't like dealing with constant exposure to socialization.
"Hah! Rationality's something better left off the battlefield. And call me Harriet, girl." She grinned, flashing a heavy bracelet at me. "They finally decided to let me have a buddy! His name's Fatton."
I nodded. "Nice to meet you again Harriet. I'm Lillie, though you probably already knew that." I looked at the bracelet, smiling, "Glad to have another mage with a device."
"There will be plenty of time for introductions with the rest of the team later. But that does bring up the point I was getting to in our discussion." The captain sucked in a breath. "There are to be 250 soldiers directly serving XCOM. But so far we've managed to recruit only eight combat-capable mages with viable devices. While we have a substantial support staff with Journeyman devices, but…"
"Most of the countries with trained Magi are keeping them home." Harriet growled. "A-Day was only beat off because of folks like us. No one wants their Magi shucked out to XCOM."
I shook my head sadly. "So even in the face of an existential threat, humanity can't unite…" Suddenly feeling quite angry, I slammed my fist into the wall, muttering profanities under my breath. "Selfish assholes. Or, perhaps, scared assholes."
"More likely the second. And in truth, not surprising." Lehmann sighed. "There are only about a hundred device-capable combatants worldwide, most fielding Soldier grade devices like my own. And the nations with those soldiers know that if XCOM fails, or the US tries to use them to secure their own borders, those Magi might be their only means of survival."
I nodded in response. It made sense, as sad as it was. The US I knew could and would be isolationist like that, though I personally hoped that they would lend aide to the other nations of the world. My true hope, one that was but an ephemeral dream, was that the world would simply unite. Alas, such was likely impossible, even with an alien invasion…
"Thankfully, this base and XCOM are an international coalition. The US is leading it, but we're technically all World Citizens for the duration of the war." Lehmann finished. "If things really start going wrong the US might go back on its word, but until then we can trust that they'll send aid to the rest of the world."
"Hope so." Nguyen sighed. "Fatton and I have heads to break."
I sighed in relief. I absolutely did not want to deal with political bullshit. "That's good." I replied, "Anyways, what do we need to do?"
"Right now? Get settled in, and then report back to me here. We've got several dozen empty rooms down here down the left hallway; feel free to bunk alone for now, though if we start getting more Magi you may need to rearrange your space for a roommate." Lehmann explained. "Pick any room without a nameplate on it."
I nodded, "Sir."
With that, I headed towards the aforementioned hallway, off to find myself a nice place to set up my stuff.
Leaving the mage's barracks a half-hour later, I pursed my lips as the Captain tapped a button marked 'Research'. Noting my look, he coughed. "Research is where the primary magical setup which prevents teleportation throughout the base is located. We can key you into the wards there, so that you can quickly infiltrate and exfiltrate if needed." He paused. "That being said, you'll need to request permission before going off-base for any reason; we need to know where to find you should something go wrong."
I nodded in understanding. "Makes sense, Captain. I'll be sure to request leave if I need to leave the base."
"Thank you. Teleportation makes base security a lot harder." He said softly as the doors opened. "And as long as we're here, we should be able to meet with-"
"Ah! Hello, captain. I did not know your newest arrival had come in."
"-some of the research staff." Lehmann unconsciously straightened as he turned to look at the brown-haired woman in a lab coat coming closer. Despite the coat and the sweater beneath it, she seemed to be an attractive woman, though the harsh lines of her face might scare a person off. "Specialist Lee, this is Dr. Moira Vahlen, head of Research and chief scientist of the base."
"Ah, hello, Miss Lee." Dr Vahlen gave a nod. "I must thank you for turning over that crystal of nanotech for study, and helping Dr. Oyekan retrieve his research. Both will be very helpful in the days to come. If you could continue obtaining samples, perhaps even whole cadavers, I would greatly appreciate it."
I smiled happily. "Of course Dr. Vahlen. I'd be happy to. Tamamo's the one who noticed how important it was though, so she deserves most of the credit."
"Ah yes." Vahlen shook out her wrist, allowing a small bracelet with a white chip to emerge from her lab coat's sleeve. "Devices are useful, are they not? Thank you, Tamamo. As an aside, I and Dr. Oyekan both would love to speak with you further, if your master was amenable to leaving you here for a time."
Tamamo's gem lit up. "While I would be happy to speak with you, I am merely a specialist device."
"But you are fully sentient, and have not, from what I read, undergone the standard 'smearing' commonly used between deployments. Your insight into modern practices as compared to the military ones of Al-Hazard might be very valuable."
"Tamamo, it's up to you. I think you should, personally." I added,
"Also, these people can probably ask more important questions than I can, and keeping the scientists happy generally is a good idea." I continued telepathically.
"I am amenable, then. Once my master has the basics mastered and I have satisfied myself that this base is secure, I will allow you to interview me."
"Wonderful. Now, if you'll excuse me, there is science to do." With a wave, Vahlen walked back deeper into the lab space.
"The good doctor is… quite competent." Lehmann sighed. "For now, we should head to the sealing array."
I nodded, following my superior to the sealing aray, gaping at the rather impressive setup, a large, recognizable spell circle seemingly carved with circuitry, surrounded by computers acting as a terminal to the spell.
"I register on the computer, I guess?" I asked Lehmann.
"Correct. Tamamo can do most of the heavy lifting, but the system will want biometrics to confirm your identity. We can't have someone stealing Tamamo and using her to break in." He nodded at a small finger thermometer hooked up to the computer. I nodded in response, pressing my finger against the scanner.
"Tamamo, if you would?" I asked my device mentally, waiting for whatever was going to happen.
Within seconds, streams of code flickered across the screen of the terminal before me. "
The encryption on this setup is remarkably simplistic, as is the means of preventing instantaneous entry. It would be effective, I suppose, if one could not get access to the computer systems via hacking, but enough brute force or a single infiltrator could take it down." She paused as the text faded, leaving a single line reading "BIOMETRICS REQUIRED" behind.
"On the other hand, the structure seems sufficiently paranoid. Whoever put this together didn't quite know what they were doing but knew enough to try to cover their basics as best as possible."
"Should we let someone know, Tamamo? If you can do a better job here, it'd probably be best to beef the security up." I replied, noting that the machine had finished reading my fingerprint. Retracting my finger, I turned around to face my boss, and said "All done Sir. Anything else we need to do down here, or are we continuing the tour?"
"I can't do a better job with the limitations at hand, and I'm no spell designer. Most of my experience was breaking these sorts of arrays, not building them."
Simultaneous to Tamamo's explanation, you hear the Captain speak. "Thank you. And yes, we're continuing the tour. Next stop will be the command center. The Commander wants to meet you, and there may be other members of the senior staff doing the same."
"Understood sir." I replied, following him out of the scientists' lab. As we passed back into the main hallway, I took a moment to glance into the lab beside me. A pair of men in yellow hazmat suits were carefully pulling apart the body of a grey, scalpels gleaming as they dissected the body. I pointedly ignored them, not really feeling the need to observe them pull apart a body, even if it was morbidly fascinating.
A few minutes later, we emerged from the elevator once again to find ourselves in a large chamber, this one filled with an array of monitors around a large, central hub. A massive holographic globe hovered in midair, various countries marked out in grey, green, blue, or orange on a pale blue backdrop. I looked up, jaw open slightly as I saw the globe above.
"That's the Geoscape. It motors the current situation in every country on the globe we have access to, and monitors the whole planet for dimensional breaches or alien craft." Lehmann explained. It's more of a representation of the big picture, rather than a detailed map."
I continued to gape slightly at the globe, "That's amazing, not gonna lie. How accurate is it?"
"As close as it can be at this scale." Lehmann and I both turned to greet a di man in a greenour sweater, who was holding a cup of coffee in one hand. "I'm Central Officer Bradford, Specialist. And I'll be the one issuing you with orders in the field, once you're cleared for combat."
"A pleasure to meet you sir." I replied, before turning to Lehmann, "On that note, when does my basic training start? I assume sooner rather than later."
"We're planning on starting you, Nguyen, and the other two new recruits off tomorrow. For you, we're also assigning that Tamamo put you through at least two hours of sim time every day, to practice your skills which are unique to your Device. The cloaking module and hacking protocols are outside our experience." Lehmann explained.
Bradford grunted. "Specialist, your device is uniquely suited for a number of roles." As I turned to look at him, he nodded towards a line of doors in the far wall. Eyeing the doors, I noted that the one closest to his waving coffee cup was the one marked 'Covert Ops'. "Thus, for the sake of the mission, I need to ask; would you be willing to take on assassination missions if the need arose?"
I winced. That… That was a hard question. "I- Can I ask for some time to think about it? It conflicts with my personal morals a bit, but I'm currently leaning towards yes, mostly because of the current situation."
"I'll put you down as a no, then." Bradford said curtly. "If there's one thing I know, it's never to give an order that results in an agent turning on us or on themselves. And if you give Abe an inch, she'll take it."
I nodded. "Fair, though I'll probably be fine with it given time to adjust."
"I should hope not." Bradford frowned. "Perhaps I should be clear that your targets would be fellow humans, not Aliens. There are quite a few deliberately obstructive individuals and a few possible collaborators that may need removal."
I sighed, running my hand through my hair. "I should be more clear. I'm fine with removing people who are obviously collaborating with the aliens, and are actively working to destabilize the world. In a normal war? The answer would be
hell no. This isn't a normal war."
"...Abe is going to have a field day with you." He muttered. "Right, I'll mark you down as a yes, then. Heaven help you." He downed his coffee cup, and then beelined to one side, refilled it, and returned to his position in about twenty seconds. Glancing around, I spotted eight or nine different coffee makers spread across the room. "Any other questions?"
I shook my head, "No sir. Apologies for my confusing answer."
He nodded. "In any case, thank you for doing your part in this crisis. We need all hands on deck, and the Commander herself will thank you once she-"
There was a loud bang, and a large potted plant sailed through the Geoscape to impact the far wall. "NUTS TO THAT! If you rotten bastards think you can saddle me with more work, then you've got another thing coming! Extradimensional operations-"
Over the loud voice ranting, Bradford sighed. "She may be a few more minutes. She's still arguing with the Council."
"Politicians?" I ask, cocking my head to the side. "Do you need any of
them removed?" The last portion is delivered in an utter deadpan, as to hopefully convey the joke.
"The council is on our side." Bradford took a long pull on his fresh coffee cup. "They are where XCOM gets its funding."
"They are also still mired in personal interests and nationalism." Lehmann said. "Without their support XCOM would not be possible, but they often attempt to modify our mission statement and may want to deploy our forces to back their own agendas. Commander Tazri can't afford to give them a single inch on the matter. Fortunately, the Commander is determined enough to dig in her heels no matter how many times they try to add more work to our plate."
I winced once again, "Gotta love nationalism. The Commander sounds like a fun person though." I idly fidgeted with my hair and bracelet as I waited, occasionally humming something to myself to the background noise of the Commander and Council arguing.
Bradford winced. "Fun. That is a word." Moments later, the yelling cut out. "I think she's done."
"Should I be worried?" I asked, suddenly not so confident.
"Tamamo, did you happen to catch anything in the exchange, by the way? I'd like to know what this council I'm dealing with is, if possible."
"Out of respect for the command structure, I'm going to ask before I hack anything. As for what little I heard, it seems as though the council was trying to request that Commander Tazri use her Mage Strike Team for expeditions into Dimensional Space." Tamamo replied as I looked up.
As Tamamo finished speaking, a
distinct figure only a half-head taller than myself emerged from the communications room. The Commander was a lean woman, latte-brown skin and black hair not distracting from her whipcord muscles. She came to the edge of the balcony over the geoscape, and proceeded to vault it, landing square on the monitoring floor. Growling, she turned her single eye on the three of us. "Bradford. Coffee, with a splash."
"Of, ma'am?"
"Jack."
"Affirmative, ma'am." Bradford walked over, setting down his own coffee cup and pouring another from the nearest pot, reaching under the counter to retrieve a bottle of agave and another marked 'Officers Only.' Adding a dash of each to the mug, he handed it off to his boss, who promptly swallowed the entire steaming cup in one long draw.
I respectfully kept quiet as the officers drank from their mugs, silently observing them as they finished,
"I wouldn't ask you to hack Tamamo, just wondering if you overheard anything useful. Thank you for the info!"
As the commander finished her cup, she turned to me, eye searching. "So. You're the newest mage-recruit. And already blooded, at that." She reached out one hand, the other casually setting her empty coffee mug on a nearby computer. As I took her hand, she gripped it firmly. "Thanks for bailing out Van Doorn. He's gonna make my life a lot easier."
I shook her hand firmly. "It was the right thing to do, and I would do it again in a heartbeat," I replied, "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."
"Glad to hear that. We need all the help we can get, even if they're asses; and anyone we get who isn't is even better." She nodded. "I'm Colonel Ashley Tazri, the commander of XCOM and the one who rebuilt this organization out of chickenwire and cast-offs. Honestly, from the sound of things you're one of the best walking weapons we have, and right now one of the few soldiers I'd feel comfortable sending into the field if we absolutely needed a win. Has Captain Lehmann gone over the Magi Strike teams' battlefield role?"
"He has not, no." I replied, "May I ask what it would be?"
"Support and special operations. We're planning to field four to eight man teams equipped with more conventional arms on normal operations, and support each dispatched team with a Magi if need be. Granted, that plan is still in the works since we're going to have over thirty teams of soldiers and we only have twelve mages, but that's the working plan. Once you get teleport-capable, we can also use you as an alpha strike, to slow and cripple an enemy assault until conventional troops can respond." Tazri explained. "Of course, that's assuming we can get you seasoned up enough for combat."
I nodded in understanding. "I appreciate you giving me time to be combat trained, ma'am. It's a great relief to me."
"...I mean, we don't want you to die first thing." Tazri scratched the back of her head. "That means training you. What, did you think we were just going to throw you onto the front lines?" She snorted. "Get real, Specialist. Every mage we've got is too important to risk carelessly."
I smiled happily, "Even still, thank you."
"Right." She shook her head. "Anyway, the UN is prepared to hand you a couple of medals for your actions. They want all pomp and circumstance, I'm willing to batter them into just having them sent over. What's your preference?"
I pondered it briefly, before asking, "Would there be any significant increase in morale if I accepted it on stage? Morale of the general population is probably important if we're going to have a rather… long war with the aliens."
"There might be, yeah."
I sighed. "Then I'll accept it on their terms. Mind as well give the average person some hope." Internally, I was not as accepting as I was externally, somewhat freaking out, though I would hopefully calm in time.
"If you're certain." She shrugged. "It'll take a few weeks for them to get their acts together and arrange a ceremony. Until then, we've got training to do." She paused. "And, as I said, I do want to thank you myself. Anything in particular that Hipster didn't get for you?"
"Nope, I'm good on the material front. Hmmm, actually- Nevermind. I have too much stuff to do to really- Actually, yeah. Would you be willing to get me a computer I can use to write my thoughts down on?" I replied, scratching the back of my head, "I had a habit of writing creatively back when I wasn't… here. I'd like to keep up with it, to a point."
"Gotcha. Computer and secured internet connection, got it." She nodded. "We'll have to do periodic checks for security purposes, but-"
"So long as you're a good girl, it shouldn't be a problem." A smooth, sensual voice cut off the commander's own. Half-turning, you looked up at the
taller woman with a small, wry smile on her lips. She grinned at me. "I have ways of solving problems, but I'd rather not use them on someone like-" the new woman reached out and tapped me on the nose. "-you."
Staring at the finger tapping me in annoyance, I firmly pushed it away, giving the woman a cross look. "Apologies, but I really don't like being touched suddenly. May I ask who you are, ma'am?"
"This is Mariko Abe, head of information security and Covert Operations." Bradford said dourly. "Don't be fooled. She's vicious."
"Aww, you always say the nicest things, John." The woman seemed to pout, before abruptly dropping the coy look, her face going slightly placid. "But he is right, and if you really are willing to work for me, I suppose I should be a bit more professional." The flirty air was replaced with a hard edge, and her eyes were sharp as she evaluated me. "I've seen a little of your footage. With some training, you could do great things under me. Or fun things." She said with a wink. "I don't judge."
I blushed lightly, before composing myself. "I honestly wouldn't mind fun things, but I don't think fraternizing is allowed." I riposted.
Tazri and Bradford both groaned. "...it shouldn't be. But XCOM's charter was founded back when having any female staff was considered unthinkable, and since then it still hasn't been added in. One of the founding lines of XCOM is against it."
I blinked, "Well then. I guess fun things are on the table. Anyways, I appreciate the compliment, Mariko-senpai. I look forward to working with you."
"...senpai?" Her giggles were slightly more honest this time. "Try sensei, little one. We'll have to try roleplay some time~" Without a word, she seemed to vanish, the door to her office swinging closed on its own moments later.
"She seemed fun." I commented, smiling. "What do you think of her, Tamamo?"
She spoke back.
"She's carrying an inheritor's device, of a similar grade as my own. I could barely detect her presence at the end, and she was constantly poised to strike until you made your last joke. She's as hot as sin, but very, very dangerous."
"Thanks for the info Tamamo" I replied mentally, the smile on my face fading slightly, before it reestablished itself with full force. "Commander, do you need anything else from me? Or am I good to resume my tour?"
"...go ahead." Tazri said, glancing between me and the door Abe had returned through. "Be careful, okay?"
I nodded. "Of course."
