Hello, Commander...
In light of a potential Extraterrestial Incursion,
This Council has convened to approve your activation of this Initiative.
To oversee our First...
...and Last Line of defense.
Your efforts will have considerable influence on humanity's future.
We urge you to keep that in mind as you proceed.
Good Luck...
...Commander.
...wat?
Hello dear Reader! I assume you are probably confused right now with the intro, the story name, and what ARR even means. Well, fret not! I am here to answer that!
ARR stands for After Action Report (inspired by Eric d'Orléans ARR), and it is the ARR of my current playthrough of Terra Invicta. Within, I will try to lead humanity through the decades as the world crumbles under the onslaught of Xenos, Servants, Fanatics, and Idiots.
I will be playing The Resistance. My Goal? Get the Xenos to back off from humanity. My Means? Not justified by the End. My luck? Whack. My naming sense? Latin. My upload schedule? A bad joke! Current tiredness? Enough to make posting this seem like a good idea.
So, for those still interested, welcome to this attempt at a story resulting from a game! Oh, and obligatory spoiler warning for those who want to play the game themselves.
The heavy clack of my cane against the stone floor echoed heavily within the building, staff of all stripes and occupations looking my way before warily backing off, yet trying to appear as if they didn't fear me. I ignored them all; my bodyguards were more than enough to deal with any rabble that may have slipped through and sufficient armor on my broken body to ensure they'd need to hit my head to threaten me seriously. However, experience from past attempts to do just the same was more than enough to make that risk seem a paranoid possibility to prepare against. And even then, the human skull was surprisingly durable against glancing hits, with the brain sometimes able to survive despite a bullet lodged into it. Didn't mean I was particularly eager to find out, but what can you do?
The clacking of my cane stopped as we halted before the doors to the center of this operation, a momentary halt in my advance to the Panopticon. A lovely sinister name for a room with an even more sinister purpose. The beep of the card reader followed by the finished iris scan rang out, signaling my whole procession to continue onwards, entering the busy room with all the subtlety of a charging bull as a wall of noise, both electronic and human-made, hit us as we failed to elicit any reaction from within. The whole place looked like someone threw in a grenade and then announced that they were giving out free PS5s three streets over, though no paper was strewn around. These people should know that much about information security, at the very least. It was hard enough to be the "Commander" of a secret supranational organization founded to defend humanity at large and Europe in particular. "Heh, the Illuminati ain't got shit on us," I scoffed, chuckling at the subtle shift in my bodyguard's posture that indicated their eyeballs and suppressed chuckles.
"As eager to joke as ever, regardless of the situation, aren't you?" Fiona Ayoade, my Second-In-Command, spoke as she approached from the center of the Panopticon with a slight smile. "Though it may be just what we need right now."
"You look like shit; when was the last time you caught some shut-eye?" I shot back, waving with my cane as I walked down the stairs toward her as people slowly began to order themselves within the room. The boss being with the workers tended to put a damper on shenanigans like that.
"About a day," she shot back just the same, gesturing to some computer expert to move so I could sit, earning herself a grateful nod from me. These bones ain't made for walking any distance anymore, much less any amount of staying in shape. Shame about the latter; I miss the Hungary-Flavor chips I used to buy. "How're your fucked up bones treating you, M'badu?" Fiona continued, leaning against the backside of a raised console.
"Better than your love life," I ribbed back, making her hold up her hands in surrender. "And call me Maria, dammit; how long do you know me for?" I said, causing her overly formal ass to roll her eyes. "But really," I began as my voice took on a more serious tone, "what is going on that needed me thrown out of my bed? So far as I can tell, nothing changed to warrant our activation, nor for me to be present ASAP. So, mind explaining here, or is this a Need-To-Know thing?"
Her face looked at me for a moment, the previously tired cheer bleeding from it with concerning speed, before she took a deep breath and looked as serious as possible. "A UFO crashed in the Lhasa region in China, near the Indian-Chinese Border," she said, the infliction and emphasis on the "UFO" part eliciting no small amount of worry from me.
"Object #389-C." Not a question. A statement. The same damned object that had every astronomer on earth in an uproar, alongside everyone trying to make a buck, spin a conspiracy theory, and dial ET back after not being called when it was done with its butt-stuff to the drunk farmers and local idiots.
"Object #389-C," Fiona said with a nod, taking a shaky breath as she gestured to the now changed main viewscreen in the middle of the Panopticon, the smoking crater transmitted from our satellite over China. "It has already started to make a massive wave, with videos and undeniable evidence being shared across all social media platforms and news outlets worldwide. Additionally, it has massively increased tensions between India and China, the latter having re-deployed the 16th Army in response to Chinese troops securing the site."
I closed my eyes as I heard that, letting the continued explanation of Fiona wash over me. At the same time, the noise of the Panopticon faded into white noise until it began to fade from my mind altogether. This was it. Proof that Humanity Is Not Alone. A dream for me a short few years ago, a potential nightmare now. The implications alone would overthrow the table of geopolitics alone, the potential of the alien species being anything but benevolent all but a guarantee that the world would descend into tribalistic infighting and kill each other for scraps of technology, survival, and any method of escape. Opening my eyes, I looked at Fiona as she had finished her explanation and smiled weakly, though not because of any shaken resolve. She knew it well; she had helped and convinced me of the necessity of what we would do now.
"I am activating Project Resistance; call the Council and inform the Spokesman." Three screens showed me three faces within my office, secure live feeds from around Europe showing me emotions ranging from excitement over concern to a resigned sadness I was sure showed on my face as I beheld my Councillors in this mad race to fulfill our objectives. Then, nodding to Fiona, the feed from our end began to transmit, showing my face in all its glory. "Councillors, as of now, Project Resistance is in full effect, and all operations are granted the full approval of our backers as long as they are in support of our goals: Defend Humanity at large and Europe in particular." A moment of grim determination flitted over each face, though not over that of Stefano, the man ever the sunny outlook no matter the grim tidings. Speaking of the Devil...
"We have known that this day may come," Stefano De Stefano spoke in accented English with some cheer in his voice and a bittersweet smile on his face. "And we have prepared against even this unlikely possibility. Things may seem grim and frightening now, but that is merely the unknown causing us to overreact. Nevertheless, I am certain we will succeed in our mission, no matter what is arrayed before us. And who knows? Maybe the aliens are friendly!"
"Easy for you to say," Adelheid Schenk replied resignedly with a doomy gloom over her face. "You are not the one being sent into a potential warzone between the two most populated countries on Earth to steal information and evidence from the single-most monitored place!"
"I'd offer to go," Joeri Muller spoke with his usual empathy, "but we all know that that isn't possible for me." He chuckled as Adelheid gave him a blank stare, continuing onward. "Besides, Stefano or I would miss every actual piece of information or evidence the scientists could use. So you are the only one we could trust with this challenging task. And these high expectations are born from confidence in your skills, not out of false bravado."
"AHEM," I interjected into the banter between the three, reminding them all of me still existing and technically being their boss. "As sweet and heartwarming as all of your chatter is, I would like to remind you that time has just literally turned into money, that money is useless while not being spent, and we are potentially weeks away from an alien species trying to present us with a bill." Everyone attending looked at me with some raised seriousness, even if the confusion present on Joeri's face told me my metaphor fell flat. God dammit. "So, let us move on with the program," I said and started the meeting, which would end three hours later.
Three hours in which we shaped the world to come.
"I have managed to obtain surveillance footage from several contacts in the Chinese Army, alongside a small amount of debris we smuggled out of the region. I am currently en route toward friendlier shores. I will begin the in-depth examination of footage and analysis of the materials the moment we are in a secure location. However, I have attached a preliminary overview to this report, Commander." - Secure Report From Adelheid
"Quick, easy, and without any unneeded bloodshed, just the way I like it," I murmured, looking over Adelheid's "preliminary examination." The fifty pages she had managed to type up within the three days she spent going there, making contact, and smuggling things out, once again reminded me why we had taken her as one of our Councillors when the whole Project had been established. Competence forgave many sins, and she had none besides being an enemy of Russia. But then again, who wasn't these days? Besides that, this would be invaluable in determining our course of action. If these aliens were so advanced that we couldn't even begin to poke at their materials, we may be boned far more significantly than we could un-bone, even with significant applications of lube and willpower.
And so, the first dominoes of our strategy have begun to fall. Whole networks and stations of the Mass Media Companies within the Benelux Region have fallen under our control via shell companies, strings of people being supported by another, and all that economic legalese that allowed us to take effective control over the hearts and minds of millions. Alongside that, money and favors changed hands, politicians got pulled into party lines, and Joeri spooled up his fame, smile, and influence in our favor, quickly winning over what little remained on the side of legal and moral democratic values.
An unfortunate thing to do, but lives were worth the little push behind closed doors to ensure we had the sway and funds to bring about the birth of what was needed to ensure we could endure. We could have never turned China to our cause, and the US was far too secure against efforts to become ours, with too many actors pulling the strings there to take complete control. Quite the annoyance when your efforts to puppeteer a nation are undermined by its inherent corruption and overflow of puppet masters.
The sigil over the barracks had quickly burned itself into our minds, what it meant, what it represented, and what it would demand of us, our lives, and our future. It loomed over us whenever we donned our gear for training, reminded us whenever we ate and was always there.
Two words that, granted, didn't really make sense when translated, but two words that described everything we were here to do.
"I am Vigilant. I am Necessary. Trust in my Watch."
"I always wondered when the day would come that even the staunchest racist would look at another human being and see not the differences between the "Us" and "Them," but see the similarities of the "We." I cannot say that I am happy that this day came from the potential eve of our destruction or enslavement, but I...am hopeful. The future is uncertain, but I still have hope for a united hum-"
"-GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!" - Maria M'badu, Commander of Project Resistance
"Of course, Of. Fucking. COURSE!" I ranted, throwing my hands up as I paced within my office as I watched the Chinese, Russian, and American representatives all but physically assault each other on the live stream, with the others not a centimeter better, each one bitterly fighting to complete their own agenda despite the potential threat we have before us. It was enough to make me want to rip out my hair, with every second worsening the situation. "Calm down," I spoke loudly, trying to breathe as the pain in my legs increased with every moment, from tiny pin-pricks to medium-sized ones. "Chaos is another ladder; make use of their disunity," I murmured, walking over to my desk and beginning to type up orders after plopping myself into its embracing cushions. "They are looking at each other, not at us or potential threats. This is the time to turn people, not slink away or shout from the heavens about the need to support our cau-"
"They are not "life-forms" or "xeno-sapients." They are demons incarnate. They and any traitors who support them will face our judgment!" - Colonel Hanse Castillo, Humanity First Manifesto delivered to the United Nations Security Council
"They are here to cleanse our sick world. The aliens are our saviors, and all who oppose them are enemies of the future." - Servant Superior Judith Howell's declaration from a hacked speaker to the United Nations Security Council before sending the Servant's Manifesto to every email in the world.
"...we are fucked, aren't we?" Fiona deadpan murmured to me, looking at the nervous data specialist currently setting up the barebones meeting I had ordered regarding the appearance of the two lunatics who wanted to cosplay the Imperium of Man or suck some alien dick.
"Depends on your definition; if you mean literally, then, no, your drought has not ended," I murmured back, earning me a glare and an elbow in the ribs. "Okay, okay, I'll be serious," I calmed her while chuckling, looking up as a giggle went through the room to see the specialist hastily open several programs to cover up the scantily-clad goat-person set up as their background. "I pay everyone too much...anyways, no," I said more confidently to Fiona, sitting up straighter. "I doubt that any of them will attract too much attention or that they will be able to secure any funding that comes close to ours. We planned for this general thing for years; these nutters were likely scrambling to make a quick buck when it was released. Nothing to worry overmuch about. Now shush, I want to hear what the guys, gals, and pals from Intelligence managed to dig up about them."
"Great, psychopath supreme managed to get some money and weapons alongside competent people to fulfill his wank-fantasy. They'll be over and done with within three months by some Black Ops teams, tops." - Maria M'badu, three months away from getting saddled with the nickname of Oracle by Fiona.
"Aaaand there we have it: the main reason I like to troll fundies whenever I can, and kicked out anyone that wanted to add religions on our target list after being warned twice. Sick some of our people on her. She'll be dangerous if she gets off the ground. Religion can make the kindest of people into monsters, and it has a tendency to linger." - Maria M'badu, three months away from screaming into her pillow after being notified about yet another country under the Servant's sway and their potential alliance with the Aliens.
[Stepping off the plane, the first thing I noticed was the spiked nervousness of my crew, and the second thing I saw was the greetings committee of Project Resistance. Well, no, the actual second thing I noticed was the bird that dropped a bomb on the head of one of the greeters. After that, it turned into a swirl of meetings, checks, patdowns, and screenings, with a dozen things happening after the other until I was led into a room with six people within. Four white men, all stocky in build and clearly armed and armored, acting as bodyguards. One brown woman in military fatigues standing in parade rest beside the only seated person, a serious frown on her face. And another woman, clearly the daughter of a white and black person and twenty years my junior, a shit-eating grin on her face, two hands on her cane, and a twinkle in her eyes that told me that this person? She was dangerous. Very. Dangerous. Leaning forward, she pointed at me with one finger, the grin still on her face, and spoke: "Welcome to Project Resistance, Miss Tamara Kalibanje. I am glad you decided to throw your lot in with us. Rest assured; your people are already being re-located to better shores."] - Diary Entry of Tamara Kalibanje, 8th October; 19:14:13
The grey skies were filled with roiling clouds heralding rain and cold, the occasional rumble high in the heavens foretelling of the coming thunderstorm to break down unto the world. It would still be a few hours until then, but the first few drops were already beginning to fall, drop by drop, reminding the bustling mass of nervous humanity below that their lives meant nothing to the forces of nature. Water would still evaporate into the sky, gather in clouds, and fall again over the land and world, bringing the lifeblood of nature unto the Blue Planet.
And yet, even as nature marched onward undaunted by the meddling of humanity, its stumbling fall and tumble into a new age before it all came to a screeching halt, one woman sat underneath the grey roiling skies and thought, unaware that some drops had already fallen on her clothes and head, lost in thought.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The rhythmic tapping of the cane from the far end of the balcony brought Tamara out of her introspection, vision moving from the endless expanse above her and her bodyguards to a woman nearly twenty years her younger and now her superior. Eyes and a mind long since used to quickly assess threats to her life scanned over the half-and-half woman, noting no visible weaponry, no flashy decorations, and nothing marking her as anything more than what she appeared at. An eternally annoyed woman who held a light smile on her face, looking like she knew something you didn't and took great pleasure from that knowledge. One who walked confidently in her safety, regardless of where she was, knew she wielded power over others but used it well.
She knew more than one person back hom-a grimace overcame her, the reminder of her home bringing about regrets she had tried to bury underneath lies, assurances, and avoidance.
"Looking well," M'badu spoke, an arched eyebrow upon her face as she sat herself down next to her with a quiet 'uff' and relaxation of the slight discomfort she had shown moments before. "But I bet you're feeling like shit right now, eh?"
Taken aback by her brusqueness and direct manner, Tamara blinked for a moment, collecting herself as she sat straighter in her seat on the bench. "I can assure you that my internal feelings won't affect my work," she began, only to be cut off by a held-up hand from M'badu.
"Spare it. I don't do that whole platitude thing here," M'badu said, spitting the 'platitude' part like a curse with annoyance on her face. "If I wanted sycophants that pampered me, I would've taken a different line of work or made a radically different organization than I have. I can see you are conflicted, and I would rather be able to talk to my people frankly than with stiff protocol and barriers beyond me being your boss. Smoke?" She spoke, adding the last part with such casual offhandedness that it took Tamara by surprise for a moment.
This...was not how she had imagined M'badu to be or behave, ever. Hesitantly, she waved the offer off, "No thanks. I do not smoke."
"Good, I don't have any on me," M'badu added with an amused huff, chuckling at the schooled blankness on Tamara's face. "Oh, don't look at me like that. It worked to distract you, didn't it?" A moment passed between the two until Tamara eventually nodded, her mind trying to figure out what her new boss wanted, or hoped, to achieve with this talk. Observing her gathered nothing, the woman had already looked out at the blackening skies above, her face a mixture of interest and calmness. Her posture revealed nothing, though her right hand atop the cane eventually began to do something odd. Her thumb would move over the fingernails one by one before repeating the pattern one finger less, 4-3-2-1, until it reset from the other side. Curious.
"It did," she eventually said after some neutral silence between the two women. "However, I am not sure how long that will hold. Abandoning your home to potential devastation tends to affect people."
"You'd be best served to change that 'potential' to 'almost certain,'" M'badu spoke seriously, not looking back at her from the skies. "OSINT and GEOINT gathered a lot of information, none of it good, and all implications worrying."
"Well, this truly does inspire confidence in my decisions," Tamara drily remarked, a tiny nibble of heat within the comment.
"It should if you are as competent as I think you are," M'badu shot back immediately, her head snapping over with an intense gaze as her hands stilled. "Tell me: what is the duty of Project Resistance?"
"...Safeguard Humanity?" Tamara replied in confusion, continuing upon an impatient handwave from M'badu. "And Europe in particular?"
"Yes, and do you know why that last part is there?" Was the reply fishing for her to finish that information.
"Eurocentrism?"
That got a barking laugh out of M'badu, the younger woman shaking her head with a genuine smile that came as quick as it was wiped off with a single word: "Realism." Tamara stared at her boss for a moment, digesting the reply before she continued to talk. "I did not decide to throw the world under the bus, nor did I choose to abandon it willingly. On the contrary, it was cold, brutal realism that convinced me, alongside months of arguments by Fiona, that the second part was not merely needed but required for our mission." Taking a breath, M'badu looked out at the skies once more. In the distance, a thin sheet of rain began to fall, hazing out the horizon with water. "Europe has half a billion people within its borders. Enough to continue the human race without any problems should all else fall, and enough to continue even with a 95% casualty rate. You may ask: "Why not China or India, then?" To that, I have to ask: "Could we control the former or unite the latter?" You may think that surely there would be better places to control and make into our seat of power like the US. A large army, a larger budget, the largest bastion in the face of a military conflict. If we could hold onto that nation, I would without hesitation. But it has too many flaws to keep, too many issues to try and steer it, and is too obvious a target to remain hidden for long."
Bitterness laced her following words, a hint of danger in her voice as if daring Tamara to speak against her. "South America and Africa? Both will be lambs to the slaughter, neither continent sufficiently advanced, industrialized, united, or led to be of any worth. And Australia is just a joke option only a YouTuber would pick if this were a game. Likewise, the Middle East and the rest of Asia would be such massive black holes for time and resources to make merely viable options; it would better serve us to look elsewhere." M'badu took a deep breath, a specter of sadness passing over her face before determination took over, and she looked Tamara in her eyes. "Europe has the right factors in nearly every category to be perfect for any Long War, should we not be merely wiped out within the next year or three. Extensive, populous, prosperous, large industries, established centers of science, history of unifications, and common threads beyond any division, even to this age. Of course, the nukes don't hurt, either."
Standing up, M'badu looked at Tamara with hard eyes and steely conviction. "Make no mistake Ms.Kalibanje. You didn't abandon your home." She turned around and began to leave, the last part said over her shoulder as thunder rolled across the skies and the light dribble over them intensified. "You got out everyone you could before it died."
"And we are back from the advertisements!" The anchor happily spoke, her pronounced cleavage eliciting an eye-roll from the moody teenager currently eating with her dad as he subtly tried to hide the grimace from eating his cooking. How his daughter could eat it without complaint astonished him every day. "Now," she continued, taking a few steps to the side as the moody teenager looked back down at her phone, checking Reddit for any information of worth. "As you know, due to the recent crash landing of Aliens(!) in China and the upheaval within the UN Security Council Meeting, Europes Leaders and prominent politicians have gathered in Paris in an emergency conference to discuss these events. The European Council has likewise continued its Emergency Session regarding the reveal of alien life and recent tensions across the globe due to the revelation. During these sessions, it seemed like the demonstrators demanding everything and nothing in a wild storm of outrage outside the buildings were joined by another, though more coordinated group: The Europhiles!" She took another few steps, ensuring the attention of men and lesbians guided by their lesser instincts were on the screen. "Numbering nearly a third that of the other protesters, they demanded mass action to be taken by every nation in the European Union to gather and figure out a way to close ranks if the Aliens are hostile, some going even so far as to demand unification regardless of their hostility to better weather the coming storms."
A pause passed as pictures and video were played across the screen while the father sneakily added yet more spices to his dish in an attempt to salvage it. But, by his grimace, that only made it worse. "A call to action supported by Viviane Ecker, Alexander de Croo, and Jan Anthonie Bruijn, the presidents of Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands! A call wholeheartedly supported by even the legendary:"
"Joeri Mueller!" The attention of the moody teenager snapped from her phone to the screen, a somewhat dreamy and fully idolizing look quickly appearing on her face as she looked at the man now prominently featured on the screen.
"-moving on," a much more professional and much less sexualized anchor said, shuffling her papers to appear as if she was switching notes. "President Guðni Jóhannesson has recently announced to seek membership within the European Union due to the recent upheaval of the discovery of alien life and the after-effects of the Corona Pandemic upon the fishing industry. Citing the promises of grants and economic assistance, the move has been applauded and denigrated by his supporters and opponents. Yet, polls have barely wavered, pushing him below 86% approval.
"I have good, bad, and terrifying news," Goat-Girl spoke before the assembled personage in one of the meeting rooms within Project Resitance' Headquarters. Then, ignoring the murmurs in the room, she clicked on her presentation stick and changed the slides of her presentation to show various pieces of technology and metals, annotated with notes far too small to make out without zooming into the picture. "The good news is that when we looked over the debris, pieces of alloy, and metals taken from the crash site, we discovered that the technological gap is not as wide as we feared." A moment passed as visible relief flooded the room. "The alien's material science is impressive, yes, but all of it is compatible with our scientific understanding of the world. It is neither magic nor are we incapable of reverse-engineering it should we get enough time and intact samples to our teams. However," Goat-Girl continued, the slide changing again to show some molecules and notes that made no sense to anyone unfamiliar with advanced chemistry and metallurgy. "That is where the terrifying news begins. That ship in China? The one that crashlanded? Native to our solar system."
"What," Maria said frankly into the stunned silence, eyes firmly locked onto the woman that had just made her reassess the danger represented by the aliens.
"The ship is mainly made up of materials that bear the unique signatures of our solar system's formation. Of course, it contains some foreign elements, but we can safely infer that it was constructed within or around our sun."
"Fantastic," Maria murmured, "they got a base."
"Now, onto the bad news," Goat-Girl continued, the slide changing again to show a graph with two lines: Disappearances and Time. The curve was sharp, going nearly exponential after seven days of the crash. "The occupants of the ship survived and are currently abducting people."
"We have managed to gain sufficient control over the various Trade Unions within France," the face of Jeori Mueller said, the still-image lighting up with a bright green ring to signify him talking over the secured(*) connection from their quarters in Paris. "We have already begun to increase the unions' focus to boost our space efforts and decrease any chance of interference via strikes and internal sabotage, though outside attacks remain a possibility."
(*As secure as possible, enough to talk about their future missions, but not enough to talk specifics. No information or channel was fully secure against an attempt against it, something they all knew after the many (many) information security and safety classes Maria had insisted every person take. Including the one that hounded them about changing all their passwords every other week.)
"A good start," Tamara Kalibanje continued the report, her icon flashing as Joeri's stilled. "In further good news, my team and I managed to bring the majority of the legislature under our control in one way or another. Policy has already been shifted to increase the ESA's funding, and funds have already been allocated to improve and enlarge the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou(*) in South America. We expect a doubling of the current launches within a month after the required parts and personnel have been shipped over and the framework has been put in place."
(*French Guiana is a colonial region within South America with nearly 300 thousand inhabitants. Plagued by high unemployment of almost 20%, the area is not a particular exemplar of economic prosperity, yet remains within France due to the seeming apathy of the populace (the most recent independence vote only made 27,44% vote, with 57,58% voting for independence. The vote was discarded due to the low engagement.) and is a part of the European Union. The recent investments into the Spaceport Centre Spatial Guyanais have since garnered attention and hope for better economic chances, alongside a boost in the popularity of the current French president.)
"However," Tamara continued, "I must note that my crew noticed some covert attempts at spying on me. We have yet to identify or capture one of these stalkers, with nobody on the French Security apparatus able to confirm that these operatives are part of them or the European Union."
"Troubling," Maria spoke, her forehead wrinkling as she leaned to the side and started to write some more notes for after this meeting. "Do you think they managed to identify you or found out your allegiance?"
"Negative," came Tamara's quick reply. "They made numerous mistakes in their surveillance and have yet not made any other attempt at spying on me other than HUMINT-Operations. However, I have taken several precautions against different types of sabotage and will take another route to Hamburg."
"Glad to hear; I'll send Fiona to dig up some information about who tried to shadow you. Now, Adelheid?"
"Emmanuel Macron now backs Project Resistance," Adelheid Schenk added with a hint of self-satisfaction, her icon lighting up as that of Tamara extinguished itself. "And with him, so does the French Army, with the 1st Division Blindee under our direct control as long as we don't overstep acceptable boundaries. Should military force be needed, we now have the bite to back our bark," she added with some humor.
"Good, we may sorely need them in the future. How have our efforts to bring the Mass Media under our thumb gone, Stefano? Sentiments and calls for a united Europe have increased and been warmed up, so I assume there were no problems?"
A moment passed as the icon of Stefano stayed unlit, enough to cause some confusion in Maria, though it lit up before that confusion could morph into concern. "Just the opposite, there are massive problems, though of the 'Long-Term' sort," Stefano said, annoyance clear in his voice. "Though it seemed like we managed to make inroads into the various newspapers and tv stations, most of those in charge have turned away our attempts at bribing, blackmailing, or convincing them to come under our direction. Their current focus on gathering support for a united European Union is beneficial for our cause, but it has a far different undertone than anyone here would like. One that sees the Aliens as benevolent helpers to humanity and not a dangerous unknown. I am certain that, with the information we have gathered, this is due to The Servants starting a propaganda campaign in France."
"Well, nobody thought they would sit still," Tamara remarked as various curses flew through the room.
"Yes, but so fast?" Maria growled, writing down yet more notes as she mentally shifted several plans in her head. "Damned bitch," she bit out under her breath, far too silent to be picked up by the microphone.
"Will there be a change in operations?" Stefano said, a bit of guilt and embarrassment in his voice at his failure to fully lock down France. Though he didn't apologize didn't mean he didn't wish to, yet working with Maria for several years had erased that impulse toward the woman from him. She was never one to hold one's failure due to outside circumstances against somebody.
Half a minute passed as Maria thought, eyes unfocusing from the screen and going glossy as she thought and altered her plans locked away in her mind, various contingencies being considered and discarded within seconds. "No," she eventually decided. You and Adelheid will still travel to the Czech Republic to activate our East European Network, with Stefano and Tamara traveling to Germany to garner public and political support in preparation for our takeover. So let's get moving and see that neither the Imperium Cosplayers nor the Religious Nutcases get hold over Europe's Heart."
"Acknowledged." "Will do." "As good as done." "Just as I got comfortable," the various Councillors spoke over each other, their Icons blinking out with quiet 'Bwoop's' from the screen, leaving behind a woman glaring at her notes as she began to call up Fiona for an Urgent Meeting.
"Not even a month, and we are already off the rails," she muttered disgruntedly, hands flying over her keyboard.
"Vítězslav, you old dog!" Havel shouted across the slightly dusty room with genuine cheer in his voice, arms splayed out as if to hug the man still over twenty meters away. Not that it stopped Vítězslav from throwing his arms out to embrace the man back as both walked toward each other, a massive grin on his face.
"Havel!" he shouted, walking closer with quick steps, "How are you, you rowdy bastard?!" Vítězslav said with an equal amount of cheer, both men now ten meters away, arms still to their side as if to hug each other.
"My life has never been bet-gah!" Havel started to reply, only to be stopped by a fist to his stomach as the mood of Vítězslav turned from genuine happiness to furious wrath with the flick of a switch.
"You utter fucking bastard!" Vítězslav shouted at the man who was coughing on the floor rolled into a ball with both arms around his injured stomach. "Do you have any idea what you have done?" He continued, lightly kicking the man on the floor against his shin, causing him to roll over with a laugh that only served to tick Vítězslav off even more. "Oh, send your sister in a dress over to my girl and tell her to give me a note, WILL YOU? Was that funny? I just got my sweet Pavla to calm down again, and you just waltz back in and ruin everything again?"
Wheezing, pained laughter came from the floor, Havel slowly standing up as Vítězslav still looked as if he might smash a bottle and shank the man with the Irishman's Knife. "Well, it's funny," Havel replied as he stood again, weaving back from the wild haymaker thrown by his friend while he cursed his ancestry back to the first tribe settling down in the region. "Calm down, calm down," he continued, putting up his hands as if to placate his angry friend. "My sister is already explaining my joke to her; she gave me a call more curse than words. You'll be a lucky man tonight after what she put you through, so you should thank me, really!"
His reward was a middle finger and a 'Fuck Off!' as Vítězslav angrily sat on a nearby stool, which time didn't cover in light dust. "I don't care about that; I want to marry her! How are you supposed to marry if there is no trust?" He complained, hanging his head in his hands in exasperation, growling in warning as Havel put a hand on his left shoulder.
"Ah, you'll get over that," the man said as he plopped himself down onto a chair, sending a plume of dust into the air without any care. "And the money we'll get now that we are active will help with her, no doubt!"
"Yeah, fuck off," Vítězslav replied, shaking his head as he stood again. "And shut your mouth; we have only three days to get the building cleaned. I told you not doing anything would bite us in the ass!"
Standing up with a laugh, Havel walked over to the two sports bags adorned with an ADIDAS logo and began to pull out cleaning supplies. "Yeah, but it got us a lot of money for not a whole lot of work, didn't it? And besides, my cousins will get here in an hour or so to help, and I promised some good money and a pizza for each if they'd help. So we will make it before our employers come here."
"Yeah, the guys with the guns who can disappear us," Vítězslav grumbled as he took the cleaning supplies from his old friend, looking around the room to figure out where to start. "And the ones that took over four countries in two weeks," he added to the amused laughter of Havel. "What?" He added defensively. "You think it is a coincidence that, suddenly, after the sliteyes admitted a fucking alien crashed into their ass, and they didn't even blame or hide anything, three countries and France start talking about making the EU a fucking nation? That Germany starts making noise about the need for closer cooperation in military matters, and proposals are being talked about as if they are assembling a European Military? And that even Miloš(*) suddenly shuts his trap, says nothing about Putin, and quietly starts making climate reforms and supports military unification? Directly after we are activated? Shit. Stinks!" Vítězslav finished his rant, angrily pointing a finger at Havel, who had already started bringing the vacuum cleaner from a storage room.
(* President of the Czech Republic after his narrow re-election in 2018. Noted Putin-Friend, Climate 'Heretic' (Self-Described), and an opponent of any further expansion of the EU into the Balkans.)
"Or," Havel noted, looking amused as he plugged the machine into a socket, "you spent too much time on those conspiracy forums talking about how the Gays are going to turn the friggin' frogs gay!"
His mocking was answered by a wet towel to the face.
A gong echoed as the clock struck eight, and a female voice spoke: "Here is the first German Television with the News(*)," while the camera slowly panned toward the news anchor as the theme played and the daily topics were displayed behind him. "Today in the studio: Mark Engels."
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen; I welcome you to the News," the news anchor spoke calmly, hands on the table between him and the camera and prompter rattling off his lines. "In Iran, the unrest and rising violence caused by the death of multiple women before and during the protests have suddenly stopped as the military couped the Iranian President Ali Chamenei, with General Huraira el-Mostafa having taken control over the country. After promising a quick transition to a democratically led government, he has garnered much support in the country and surrounding regions after ordering every member of the Iranian Morality Police to be rounded up and summarily executed."
Four that the person within the story knows of, not in total. Iceland is so far out of their mind that they honestly forgot it existed until they were reminded, and then promptly ignored again. Also, "Can we join the EU for economic benefits" is much easier to understand as a natural thread than "LET'S MAKE EU MILITARY!"
Edit: Also, the their country gettin taken over by someone via illegal means is completely expected by them.
Four that the person within the story knows of, not in total. Iceland is so far out of their mind that they honestly forgot it existed until they were reminded, and then promptly ignored again. Also, "Can we join the EU for economic benefits" is much easier to understand as a natural thread than "LET'S MAKE EU MILITARY!"
Edit: Also, the their country gettin taken over by someone via illegal means is completely expected by them.
I'm honestly hoping you take over Poland just to see how you will justify them being more Euro-friendly despite the current ruling parties stance and how many Polish names I will need to correct.
I'm honestly hoping you take over Poland just to see how you will justify them being more Euro-friendly despite the current ruling parties stance and how many Polish names I will need to correct.
I will do that...eventually. After having taken over the Benelux region, Iceland, France, the Czech Republic, and Germany (seen next turn, which will take some time. Academy, aliens, and groundwork for a united Europe ahoy!), my CPs are over the cap, so I'll be fortifying and waiting.
"Beautiful," I breathed into the awed room, the spinning depiction of the Alien ship slowly rotating around its axis, showing off every facet of it we managed to capture until today with the telescopes and satellites pointed in its direction, and into that of its twin ship following in its wake. "Especially the radiators," I added somewhat lamely, trying to re-focus my mind back onto more productive matters than continue to stare at a picture I had spent more than a few hours on, analyzing every facet I could, from the visible spectrum to heat and the emissions we could detect from its engines.
'Twin Fusion Torches,' I thought, watching as one of my aides stood up to begin the current review of our activities to bring the world together and away from the current panicked chaos engulfing us all. After the customary introduction of every person in the room, with titles and accomplishments, though mine had to be cut short to a mere: 'Doctor Li Qingzhao' for brevity's sake. 'At the very least, not magical, but real. Buildable,' I continued, missing the introduction before ripping myself away from the ship and looking at the man giving the presentation.
"The internet has since dubbed this ship the 'Roaring Void' and its twin the 'Faithful Wanderer,' poetic names termed, as far as we can tell, due to the interference and campaign by 'The Servants,'" he spoke, faint distaste rising in my throat at the mention of those people. The moment we know that there were Xenosapients out there in the vast universe and already a cult popped up to worship them. Still, they were marginally better than those immediately calling for their xenocide to 'Safeguard Humanity.' Utter psychopaths, any being that could bridge the gap between the stars, were far too advanced to engage in primitive war. They had no resources out of their grasp in far more straightforward to exploit locations everywhere one could look.
"Luckily, their efforts at preaching their new gospel have not impeded our efforts to convince the United Kingdom, Italy, and Denmark to stand behind reason and not panicked reaction. Thanks to the aid of prominent scientists and researchers, our arguments and points fell on fertile soil in both the people and the governments, with funding and personnel already being diverted to facilities to study the Xenosapient's machines and materials brought from China." So he spoke, various reports lighting up behind him on the projector as names began to appear, names I knew well from many a year spent working with, under, and above them, many of them utterly dedicated to the pursuit of a better world by lighting the dark with knowledge.
"Our current efforts in joining hands with ESA have hit a few snags due to an unexpected shift in priority funding from France, Germany, and the Benelux Region, but we managed to secure several launches in the immediate future for ourselves, particularly to bring up one of our people to the ISS and start the construction of an additional module."
"Yes, that snag," I spoke into the room, leaning forward as the representation of the ISS gently floated behind the man, its beauty enthralling as ever but sadly paling before the simple elegance of the Xenosapient design. "What is going on there?" I asked, looking into the room at people who were as puzzled about the current events as I had been. With fears over the ongoing war in Ukraine (in which the Ukrainians had managed to push nearly all Russian military assets to a mostly pre-war border) shifting over to a fear of a possible Xenosapient invasion, Germany had intensified its military budget again. This came alongside an expansion of its commitment to the ESA by nearly half a billion euros. Even France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and even the Czech Republic are increasing their funding by staggering amounts, with hundreds of experts and thousands of tons being shifted to accommodate rapid expansions of launch facilities, the ESRT, Columbus, and Toulouse Space Centers becoming hives of new constructions greenlit within days instead of months.
At any other time, this would have been a miracle for me, a sure sign that my trust in humanity was well-placed and that we were finally on the right track to a better tomorrow.
Now it made me think someone was pulling strings in the back. But that couldn't be, right?
Shaking those thoughts from my brain, I listened to the aide's response. "We do not currently know why these nations have decided to massively boost funding for the ESA, or their current cooperation in settling a groundwork for a 'United European Defense Army' as they call it, but we do know one thing. During a routine check of our computer systems, we managed to find scrap data that shouldn't have been there," he spoke, gathering the attention of everyone within the room. "Not because somebody tried to hack into our systems, mind you, but because our firewalls managed to contain and destroy what appeared to be a virus carrying a data packet within itself, aimed at the general address of London."
"That seems..." I trailed off, unsure about the specifics. I had not been very well versed in cybersecurity, so I couldn't know if that description wasn't significantly dumbed down for our benefit. "Like a good thing?" I added, not sure where the man was going with this.
"It would be," he replied, tapping a few buttons to bring up a badly restored and glitchy image. "If the hackers hadn't sent these packets with a calling sign and a way to return the call."
Meanwhile, in Berlin:
The doors to the small conference room shut closed, and all eyes went straight to the brown woman sitting opposite the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a small smile upon her lips as she stapled her hands and leaned slightly forward.
"Vielen Dank," she said in perfect german, her native tongue not a single bit rusty or out of use. "dass sie mich so schnell empfangen konnten. Unsere Zeit ist sehr wahrscheinlich stark begrenzt, und jede Minute ist kostbar."
"Thank you for seeing me so quickly. Our time is most likely very limited, and every minute is precious."
Maybe add some sort of indicator to the beginning of the chapter? It was very confusing and took me a while to figure out you switched to the Academy POV, especially since it was still in first person.
Maybe add some sort of indicator to the beginning of the chapter? It was very confusing and took me a while to figure out you switched to the Academy POV, especially since it was still in first person.
Added this sentence to the second paragraph, hope it helps in differentiating the POV before too long into the update.
HeroCooky said:
After the customary introduction of every person in the room, with titles and accomplishments, though mine had to be cut short to a mere: 'Doctor Li Qingzhao' for brevity's sake.
"You think that these panicked reactions are justified?" The host of the late-night talk show 'Luxembourg Daily' said in an incredulous tone to her guest star, Joeri Mueller, who sat in his seat with the ease of a man long used to such shows and the proper way to weave what narrative he wanted to be seen by the people watching.
"Yes, and, to quote a movie, I am tired of people thinking they aren't," he spoke calmly, gesturing with one hand at the host as he leaned forward. "I would love nothing more than for this to be the beginning of a new era for humanity, to look at the stars and know that there are other lifeforms out there, living, loving, thriving, and that they are willing to extend a hand, or whatever else they have, in peace and friendship. But," he said, leaning back into the plush cushions of the chair, "I can't be sure that this will be that. It is reasonable to expect that one alien who crashed on an unfamiliar planet with uncontacted life would hide and call for help. Still, it isn't likely that said help would arrive within the snap of a finger on cosmic timescales, instead of months, even with FTL available. Therefore, these two ships, which we know will come on a staggered timetable, are also extremely suspect," he continued, taking a short drink of water before continuing. "Why are they staggered? We know they are of the same make, at least appearance-wise, so why haven't they arrived together to minimize any hostile reaction from us? Additionally, why haven't they responded?"
"Now, hold on for that," his conversation partner interjected, tilting her head in confusion. "Why do you think they would even understand us in the first place? They are aliens," she spoke, offering the lowball question she had been fed before the show.
"I am not talking about any intelligible diplomatic discourse, where we can speak and clear up any possible misunderstanding, but rather them doing something, anything, to respond to the hundreds of terabytes of data and thousands of communication attempts from governments, independent organizations, and individuals. Yet they haven't; neither of the ships have responded in any way we can detect, continuing their course toward Earth undeterred. In addition, these ships are eerily similar to the one that crashed into China, which does not bode well for what could happen when they arrive in orbit."
"Do you think they could conduct orbital bombardments? Shoot at us like fish in a barrel?"
"No," Joeri Mueller replied. "In my honest opinion? They will either land and collect their crashed brethren or crash too. And if they do the latter? Then we do not have crashes on our hand, but the opening of an invasion of Earth: An Insertion Of Agents."
"Unrest has continued to rise across the world and within Europe, fears of the impending arrival of the two additional spotted alien ships spurring paranoia, xenophobia in the literal sense, and a collective need for increased security across all nations, with defense spending skyrocketing across the globe as militaries are placed in ever higher readiness statuses for eventual conflict," the radio-host spoke over the airwaves, hundreds of thousands of people listening intently on their way to work, at home, on factory floors and everywhere else one may listen to the airwaves.
"With reports from several African countries, notably from Senegambia, Middle and Upper Guinea, stoking tensions and fears ever higher, as news emerges of an unidentified disease spreading across the populace radiating from impacts of alien debris. Many countries have already initiated the newly improved lockdown procedures and quarantine orders refined due to the ongoing Covid Crisis. However, experts warn that turning attention away from the pandemic in favor of a potential one will hurt efforts to distribute vaccines, especially among the poorer countries."
"In other news, calls for a united Europe have intensified among the people of many European nations, the potential threat posed by the alien arrival stoked by inflammatory ads, advocacy groups, and the general paranoia. Though many heads of state have urged the people to remain calm, the continued discussion and seemingly looming ratification of a European Defence Force to establish a supranational military above that of the member states own are feeding into the arguments. Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Dutch, Belgians, and even the Czech Republic have thrown in their complete support behind the move, all but guaranteeing that the legislation will come to pass within the following months, with most other full members of the European Union following with varying levels of enthusiasm and support."
"I Do Not Fear Death As A Pioneer, For It Paves The Way For You," - Unattributed Quote written over the soon-to-open 'Outer Space Habitation Research And Application Center' of the European Space Agency outside of Berlin.
![[Terra Invicta ARR] The Illuminati Ain't Got Shit On Us!](/data/threadmark-index-icons/l/65/65622.jpg?1664832203){kind=icon}
