You've come to a decision. You wave off Shen and turn to your Comms Officer.
"Get me Gendo Ikari. Now."
The Hologlobe is replaced by the visage of the commander of NERV. He's amazingly only lost a bit of his cool, managing to remain dispassionate and alert even at this level of tension. You are impressed to say the least. Time to get to the point.
"We stopped the aliens in your basement, Commander."
You wonder what must be running through his head right now, the shadowy visage of a relative unknown gazing down on him, telling him in probably the second most blunt way possible he'd discovered NERV's darkest secret.
You hope. Lord only knows what you'll do if it turns out NERV has more secrets behind this one. They probably do at that. SEELE definitely does.
Gendo takes a breath and then sighs deeply.
"Everyone who doesn't have access to the LCL Production Plant, leave the room immediately."
Everyone but Ikari, Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki and Dr Ritsuko dutifully file out of the room. Your stare only intensifies. So, only three people know about this thing? Ironic. Because after today, everyone at XCOM will know about this nonsense, yet not even the pilots of the Evas and NERV's own Operations Commander know about this. You muse its because you don't have to keep secrets, because you don't have anything to lose.
Your mind drifts to a different track. The aliens. You know they could have deployed far more force to this location. Even with the two new types of alien seen, it would have been easy to overwhelm both NERV Security and your own forces with just Thin Men and Sectoids, yet they didn't. It must have been a conscious choice, a ploy to let you know about this being. Just what is the aliens game plan? After today you're less sure than ever of what they want.
You tell him everything you have on the Angels and the Evangellions, but decide to avoid discussion of SEELE. You know he's aware of the organization, or at least you're fairly certain, but you don't wish to take the chance he reports back to them about you. If they're not sure that you know about them, they'll be less inclined to act against you. Probably. Spy mind-screws, how you didn't miss them.
Gendo sighs again and taps the side of his chair in the near empty room. He seems to come to a decision, and then starts talking.
"Well, commander there is a good explanation for all this. You were led to believe that Second Impact was a meteorite going at relativistic velocities. This is not the case. In truth, we, that is a classified research expedition connected to the high command of NERV, led by Captain Katsuragi's father, discovered a strange alien being in the south pole, which was designated Adam. Upon experimentation, something went awry, and it awakened, doing something, probably connected to AT fields, that triggered the Second Impact catastrophe. This destroyed the being and the expedition. GEHIRN and later NERV were formed to combat this threat. This is why we developed the MAGI and Evangellions well in advance of the Angels arrival, to be clear. We're not sure what happens if an Angel reaches this new being, called Lilith, but we do know it will be a disaster on the scale of Second Impact, if not more so. I assure you, we are keeping the world safe just as much as you, if not more."
Hmm. You think he's telling mostly the truth, but you're very much not convinced about that last bit. Experience and a hasty lie-detector set up makes you think at the very least he's not spewing total bullshit, but the SEELE connection worries you. Maybe he just doesn't know and is really on your side-
Okay you can't actually finish that thought. Of course he's shady as all hell! No way you're trusting him. You want an eye on him.
"Well, commander Ikari, surely you wouldn't object to an outpost in your base for security purposes?"
He grimaced, and for a moment you were worried he was about to call your bluff, before he finally relented.
"Very well. We will allow you a security station in the GeoFront to prevent a repeat of this incident, commander. Gendo Ikari, out."
You turned to Dr Vahlen. She had several things to say about the recovered alien artifacts.
Video Conference Room, NERV HQ, The Human Instrumentality Committee.
The five men of the committee sat before Gendo. Needless to say, they did not look overly happy about the situation.
The silence was first broken by Gendo, who leaped to his own defense.
"What was I supposed to do? I couldn't lie outright for several reasons, and they have seen Lilith herself. I couldn't deny them either, or they'd become even more suspicious. I performed the best course of action at the time. Simple as that. Besides, they don't know about the Evangellions true purpose, or you. Our plans for human instrumentality continue unimpeded."
The US representative leaned back and snorted disdainfully both at Gendo and the rest of the committee, before leaning forwards and speaking his own mind.
"Best option it may have been, but if you think XCOM are no threat to our plans, you must be living in a very different world than I. Look at what they already knew. They knew we had created the Evangellions from Adam, that they are actually angels, they had a read on the angels and their capabilities after a minimum of expended effort, they know a decent bit about GEHIRN and they have just discovered Lilith. Should their investigations continue at this rate, they will likely discover our plans and the true nature of the angels before we finish the construction of the remaining Evangellions. Worse still, we do not know for a fact they don't know about us. In fact, it would make sense. They have an eclectic collection of information, and the connecting factor is SEELE. Why would they investigate, or even know about GEHIRN? They could knew it was connected to NERV from SEELE, and they searched to sniff us out."
From the head of the table, Lorenz nodded grimly, his mouth set into a thin line.
"I believe it is so. The file raids, the agents following me, connecting it all back to XCOM is the logical thing. What other organization would have the means and motive to do these things but XCOM if they knew about us?"
The French representative took the pause as an opening to speak his own thoughts on the matter.
"And what of the aliens? They must have known about Lilith to launch an attempted strike on her, and we must regard them as no lesser threat than XCOM in regards to our plans. Worse still, they have one mention in the scrolls."
Looks of shock and horror washed over the faces of the other five members of the conspiracy present. How could they have missed something like that? And what did it mean for their plans? It seemed the day wouldn't stop getting worse for SEELE.
"I took the liberty of re-reading the Scrolls, and found talk of calming the angels with, and this is just my abridged version, "the dreaded great weapon of The Thrice-Accursed Reapers, The Eternal Foes, The Merciless Annihilators, The Foul Revengencers, The Eternal Nemeses, and this goes on for quite a while longer, They Who Ended Us, The Ethereal Ones" as a potential last resort for "The Knowledge Bearers", aka the Lilim. Us. The brief description fits exactly with the calming of the boy Shinji after the battle with the Third Angel. Artificial calming from Berserk is an event not otherwise acknowledged in the scrolls. These Ethereal Ones must be the leaders of the aliens."
Looks of stunned silence emanated from throughout the room. This had the potential to change everything. After a moment of silence, the chairman took control of the discussion once more.
"We must act then. I will have our agents move to counteract the growing influence and support base of XCOM and this "Council" immediately. The assassination attempt is to go ahead of schedule. Whether or not it succeeds, we will go forward with the planned emergency strike. If this fails we shall launch a sweeping condemnation of XCOM as best we can, and be prepared for the worst in all cases. Is the mass driver ready?"
The Russian representative simply nods assuredly and gives a sadistic grin.
"Good. We shall use it as a last resort only, however it shall remain an option. This meeting is adjourned. May the First Ancestral Race watch over us."
XCOM HQ, Commander's Office. Research Proposal Hour.
Seeker Autopsy- 5 points.
Thanks to the heroics and aptitude of Strike-3, the cloaked tentacle machines, now named 'Seekers', did not get a very impressive performance. Nevertheless, we should not make the mistake of underestimating them. It would appear their preferred method of attack is to wait until an enemy is engaged, and then strike from ambush in a surprise attack. Their primary methods of attack are rapid strangulation and a mouth based cutting beam, weak by the standards of plasma weapons but to be feared nonetheless. Their cloaking device is extraordinarily potent, and can hide them from even the sharpest sight and most advanced sensors. The good news is they do not appear able to maintain it forever, meaning they cannot stalk our troops back to base or the like. Somewhat reassuring, I hope.
Floater Autopsy- 5 points.
The Floater, perhaps an even more practical designation than Thin Man, is a horrid cyborg abomination made of equal parts flesh and machinery. It is in a constant state of blood-lust for its most likely short life, but retains some tactical acumen. It's jet pack allows it to get up to extraordinary speeds while maintaining a good fuel capacity, and its life support system allows it take several hits. A fearsome foe.
Elerium- 15 points, 5 Elerium.
Element E-115. The aliens power source and just as revolutionary as the other two materials we have recovered. In a way it is the most important by far, and I am almost disappointed by the fact we have got it only know, several weeks into our campaign. It appears to generate various amounts of energy when hit with various accelerated particles, it doesn't really run out and it is energy positive. This material truly is impossible, and we will not discover its secrets for quite some time commander. Its primary usage will be in constructing pure Elerium power-plants and micro-reactors, but it could also be used in smaller quantities to spike fusion reactors, and it has so many other uses as well. If we win this war, human society will be changed forever. Count on it commander. Count on it.
Specialist Beam Weapons- 10 points, 5 Alloys.
While we have created a useful weapon in the Laser Rifle, the fact remains specialists such as heavy troopers and snipers have been left out in the cold. This is a project to remedy that by creating three weapons: the heavy laser, scatter laser, and the precision laser, or laser sniper rifle. This will fill the gaps in our armories and allow us to finally bridge the gap between ballistics and lasers in full. With this and the carapace armor, we will enter a new era of warfare.
Alien Navigation Computer- 20 points.
The alien navigation computer is a marvel of technology. It uses a neural interface to link directly to a pilot, allowing unparalleled reaction speed and control of a craft. This will be necessary should we choose to make Elerium powered vehicles.
Alien Power Source- 20 points.
The alien power source is also a marvel of technology. It uses Elerium, but unlike a normal Elerium reactor uses a highly miniaturized particle accelerator to generate an extreme amount of energy from the Elerium present in comparison to is size. This cannot be easily miniaturized and will have to be mounted on vehicles, and will be a necessity should we choose to make Elerium powered heavy units.
-All from Dr Vahlen.
There are also notes from Shen on your desk, telling you of his plans for the base in NERV HQ and that XCOM has been requested to begin construction of satellites to replace the ones lost in the windup to the NERV base assault.
Satellite creation will cost 30 credits. Base construction total is 100. 30 necessary this turn for setting up basic command post.
The good news for your poor budget is that the council has managed to arrange for XCOM grade base security to be marshaled and sent to Tokyo-3. Time to get rolling.
Week 6 Planning
Engineering Queue:
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Research:
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Diplomacy:
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Intrigue:
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