[X] Central Officer John Bradford. He is perhaps the most dedicated soldier we have, and he will ensure the three Teams are working in concert at all times. His base management skills are near legendary, so much so that unless we come under direct attack, you will never need to worry about altercations or trouble at XCOM HQ. Unfortunately, he's a desk jockey of the highest caliber, and needs remedial training before he can lead any combat teams personally, even from afar.
[X] Chief Engineer Dr. Raymond Shen. Dr. Shen is famous for his prototype nanoforge technology, and his motto is, "Anything the Science Team can dream up, we can build." That is a double-edged blade. His team can build anything, but their heavy reliance on the Science team to give them direction means there will be wasted man-hours that others might spent reaching for their next invention. Still, he and his team are eminently reliable. If you ask for a tank on Monday and they tell you it will be ready Wednesday, then your tank will be ready on Wednesday, no matter what.
[X] Chief Scientist Dr. Moira Vahlen. She is an astrobiologist of the highest caliber, and is as ruthless as they come. She has stated clearly that her particular interests lie in finding ways to adapt alien technology to advance human scientific developments. To that end, there is little she won't do to ensure the XCOM Project's success, and she is certain to attach possible technologies to all of her reports. While she is certainly enthusiastic, there have been some questions regarding her ethical standing; she is brilliant, but if she goes unchecked, we aren't sure what the consequences might be, good or bad.
[X] After a few short hours, a majority of the corpses and broken equipment from the attack were bundled up to just barely fit in the Skyranger; we wouldn't have to wait to get started on any of it. We even managed to chain up the live muton, ensuring it wouldn't escape on the trip to HQ, nor after we arrived.
NEW PERSONNEL:
50 various support staff - Egypt's housewarming gift
5 unnamed scientists - Egypt's housewarming gift
5 unnamed engineers - Egypt's housewarming gift
26 Rookies/special forces - Egypt's housewarming gift
2 unnamed Squaddies - Survivors of the UFO clearing squad
Ceathya - Corporal - Survivor of ???
Either my stomach growled, or the large alien sitting next to me on the Skyranger still wasn't happy. I was betting it was the latter. I glanced around at the few soldiers and the many crates in the packed cabin, idly wondering how much it had cost to put the plane together. Another guttural growl sounded over the engines as I leaned back in my seat.
As much as I wished we could have left in the minutes after Fan Zhou brought us up to speed on XCOM's goings-on, I had seen too much of the bureaucratic processes holding back F.I.X.F.I.C. to pretend things would go that smoothly. Sure, somebody was always hiding in the wings, ready to grease up the wheels if you knew where to look. We just didn't know that person, and it certainly wasn't the Commander when it came to leaving his country behind.
Several hours were spent ensuring everything we'd earned in the fight was kept close at hand, though I had a sneaking suspicion some of it walked off into Australia's capable hands. Taking the UFO had been costly, the effort taking out half of the special forces sent in to breach and almost a full half of their backup. The base itself hadn't quite been annihilated, so much as it was instead reduced to a series of hastily pitched tents and mobile gun emplacements instead of a central building with entrenched support structures. The concentrated alien plasma fire had been enough to bloody the Australian base's nose, but not enough to break its spirit.
The surviving soldiers we'd fought alongside had saluted us from time to time, and again as formally as they could before we left. I think we made an impression.
The Commander had finished the few reports that couldn't be ignored, then had personally overseen the collection of the many corpses and broken weapons the aliens had left behind. The Meld canister was almost a complete bust, and cutting into it with a welding torch had only left enough of its nanomaterial behind to fill a small vial. It was enough to study, not enough to play with. The bodies had been piled up, and even the laymen among the soldiers could tell the difference between the bright blue and orange of the alien chryssalids and the bone-white chryssalids that had been born from the corpses of their fellow men, built out of the materials the beasts had available. There wasn't time for an official funeral service, not before we'd left.
The bodies of the soldiers that hadn't risen up again had been burned before the dirt had been poured over their graves.
The Sectoid Commander I'd shot had been bundled up, the head clearly destroyed by my gunfire, and I wondered if we'd be able to get started on researching Psionics without its intact corpse, based only on my
Psi-amp. The common sectoids were a little better off, and there were enough of them that I was confident whatever science team we had would be able to study them without delay. The lack of an Outsider corpse, though, I wasn't sure what to think of. Maybe we'd have to worry about them, Seekers, Floaters and more later on.
The Muton to my left growled again, and I continued to ignore it.
The Skyranger was full to bursting with extra crap. Fan Zhou and one of her escorts were piloting the supersonic machine, while the other sat across from our special guest. With how little room there was left around the crates of crap (at least one of which was leaking alien blood on the floor), there had only been room for two extra soldiers to fly with me and the Commander to XCOM's HQ. It was no surprise to me that the two special forces guys who had survived the UFO breach were coming along, the shotgunner and the guy who had a shield. I hadn't asked their names, and I was too busy thinking to bother doing it now.
The growling intensified as the Muton started struggling.
"Can you shut that thing up? Pretty please?" Fan Zhou's second escort finally asked.
I looked up at him, then turned to look at the Muton.
It was glaring down at me, huffing through its face mask, and it pulled and yanked at the dozens of chains holding it still underneath the straps and seat belts we'd locked it in place with. It growled, right in my ear, and I sighed, rubbing my head at the loud sound.
"Yeah, let me see what I can do," I said, trying to concentrate.
I held my left hand near my right shoulder, where my Psi-amp was hooked to my exo suit. I concentrated on the energies contained within, spooling it with my thoughts into the palm of my hand, focusing it together. With a deep breath, I lifted the tightly-bound energies up and pushed them into side of the Muton's head.
If Mutons weren't among the species with the lowest Will and Psionic defenses, I probably wouldn't be able to do this just yet.
The energies eagerly jumped through the Muton's simplified mind, easily inhibiting and overcoming it the same way the Ethereals likely did whenever they sent it orders through their Psionic networks, and within moments, the large beast fell asleep.
For the sixth time since we'd captured it. Whatever they fed this thing, it was apparently designed to ensure it would be combat ready almost twenty two hours a day.
"There," I exhaled. "Happy? Now I'll have to do that again in ten or twenty minutes, when it wakes back up."
"Thank you," the operative said simply, then went back to staring straight ahead, ignoring me. It was interesting how he managed to stare right at a sleeping Muton without really studying it, but then again, we'd already been flying for several hours. It probably hadn't helped that the Muton had struggled for most of the trip, whenever I couldn't be bothered to knock it back out.
"We will be arriving in four minutes," Fan Zhou said from the front, loudly enough for us to hear now that the Muton had stopped whining again.
The beast had actually been sort of easy to capture, considering how much it was struggling while it was trapped under rubble. It had taken me the better part of an hour to figure out that little knockout trick, and then another fifteen minutes to do it again when the damned thing woke up while the soldiers were gathering chains and locks to hold it with. With all the practice I'd gotten so far, I suspected I might be able to pull that trick off in the field if I decided to spend time learning how to send it over a distance. Not that it would hold forever, but it might make capturing the aliens possible.
Provided we had an alien containment unit to hold them in. Otherwise we might as well just shoot them and be done with it.
The Skyranger landed with a dull thud, and I didn't wait for any jokes about being free to move about the cabin before I stood to stretch. I held on to a nearby safety bar for support as I cracked my back, barely stifling a yawn. I wasn't sure what time it was precisely without checking, but it was some time in the early morning.
"General Williams," our pilot got our attention, "you may direct your soldiers to exit the cabin up here, through the cockpit."
"Smith," the Commander spoke to me as the soldiers filed out. "We'll get this thing unloaded quickly. Can you keep the prisoner quiet?"
"My pleasure, Sir," I smiled. I kept it up until I was the only one left in the cargo bay, then frowned and dropped myself down into the reinforced seats across from the Muton with a groan. I'd flown plenty of times in my life, but sitting next to the combination of a crying baby, really fat guy with severe body odor, a yapping dog, and the guy who kicked your seat just hadn't made it a fun flight.
I'd caught a couple winks of sleep along the way. It hadn't lasted, especially when I'd woken up to find I'd been using the angry Muton as a pillow.
It hadn't ended badly, but I'd nearly pissed myself. Not my proudest moment.
I stretched myself out as best I could and settled down to wait.
It didn't take more than ten minutes for various staff members to unload the crates and equipment the Australians had spent the better part of an hour or more packing into the tight space. One member of the base staff had nearly stumbled and lost hold of one of the packages when he saw the Muton chained to the Skyranger's wall, and I gave him my best shit-eating grin and a little wave to let him know I had things under control.
Given how much wider the staff member's eyes had gotten on seeing me, maybe it wasn't the friendliest of grins.
"Let me see the specimen, please," a woman's voice called out with a faint accent I couldn't place, something near German, just as the final crate was being lifted away. "If there is a live subject-"
And there she was, coming up the Skyranger's ramp. She had brown hair pulled back into a bun, blue eyes and a smooth face. I recognized the XCOM logo on her chest, adorning a light-black turtleneck. Over that, her mostly white lab coat was green around the shoulders, and the color ran in symmetrical lines down her arms, tapering off into green cuffs. She was holding her famous tablet, lit up with various programs, but she had eyes only for the Muton.
Chief Scientist Dr. Moira Vahlen. The German genius of XCOM.
Her face was wrong, I noted. Smooth, sure, but the features didn't match up with the pictures I'd remembered. I supposed that was to be expected, more so even than seeing her here, so far from the stories I'd been briefed on before my arrival to this world.
"Fascinating," she breathed, taking in the beast. Its golden, pupil-less eyes narrowed at her, like it knew she was a threat. Louder than it had since I'd first seen it, the beast
roared.
Right in my face.
Vahlen flinched back, but I just reached up with my left hand and drew in the energies of my Psi-amp again, even more quickly than last time.
"Go back to bed, you overgrown mutt," I muttered, annoyed, pushing the energies into its mind. As it had so many times before, the beast quickly fell silent and still.
"A-and you must be Agent Jonathan Smith," she turned her attention to me, pushing away any lingering fears. "I see the Commander's explanation proves true," she continued more confidently, looking me over. "When there is time, I must ask you to come down to our facilities, so that we may study this new phenomena."
"Sure, I can be your guinea pig for Psionics," I agreed. "First things first, do you have a stretcher, or forklift to carry this guy out with? I can unhook him from the wall, and he should stay down for at least a good fifteen minutes. Can you get him locked up somewhere by then?"
"Of course," she assured me, looking down at her tablet and prodding it. "I have personel on standby, and they are coming as we speak."
Sure enough, half a dozen guys, two of them wearing lab coats without the green accents, rushed up the ramp to take the Muton into custody. I got up and unhooked the many chains from the wall, reattaching them to the gurney they'd rolled in with. In less than a minute, it was done. The huge, heavy beast was rolled away, down the ramp and out of sight.
"Psionics, you called them?" Dr. Vahlen asked, staring at the purple energies of my Psi-amp.
"Yeah, Psionic energy," I said, taking some into my hands from the source. I held it up for her to see. "Not the easiest thing to find without a basic source to pull it from, but it's possible to generate it from the power of a human mind alone. The Psi-amp here just helps generate and focus those energies, makes them easier to
weaponize."
"Fascinating…" she trailed off, coming a little closer. After a few moments, an alert sounded on her tablet. She was quick to look it over, then gave me a smile. "I am glad you are here with us, Agent Smith. I look forward to working with you soon."
"You as well," I agreed with a smile.
We exchanged nods, and off she went, down the ramp of the Skyranger and back in toward the base. I, meanwhile, took the time to finally stretch myself out fully now that the passenger area had been cleared. With that done, I took off after her, not wanting to find myself out of the loop.
The air smelled a little warmer and dustier than I was expecting. The Skyranger had landed in a hanger that more closely might be associated with a cave than anything else. The ground was paved, but the walls had been excavated out rather than built up. I took a quick look at the ceiling, noting the massive interlocking metal doors that we must have come in past. Again, it was different from what I'd seen in pictures, but there were enough similarities that it didn't really matter.
"Sir?" a voice interrupted my musings, and I noted that a middle-aged Egyptian woman wearing brown cargo pants and a green sweater had approached me. "If you could clear the landing pad, I think they were waiting for you inside."
"Oh, thank you, Ms…?"
"Massika," she smiled, tilting her head. "You speak Arabic?"
"Uh, I think I speak everything?" I half asked, smiling back.
She shook her head, bemused, then pointed past the side of the Skyranger. "Please, proceed inside. Be well."
"And you as well," I said, then got moving the way she'd pointed. The door there was automatic, and it looked like it was a good eight inches, or more than twenty centimeters thick when it rose into the ceiling. The system was probably pressurized, if I had to guess, ready to lock down at a moment's notice. XCOM didn't screw around.
The base itself was plain, the walls nearly identical except for the lines painted on them. I noted that the red line seemed to have the words "Mission Control" written on them three times, for some reason, just as the others were repeating their directions, blue for the Science Labs, brown for Engineering, and green for Barracks. The white line would apparently lead me back to the Hanger.
I suspected I'd need them while I got acquainted with everything.
I followed the red line to Mission Control, and after a short walk passing a number of other individuals wearing brown pants and green sweaters, I suspected I'd deduced the basic uniform I would come to expect here. Just like in the hanger, the final door down the long hall to Mission Control was exceptionally thick, ready to hold off threats for as long as it had to.
Mission Control itself was, like so much else, different and yet the same. Instead of the holo-globe, a massive screen took up the wall to my right on coming in, and the globe was shown there in three different ways; the largest image was of a square map with dots of various sizes and colors, while the smallest was made of a series of connected ovals that probably represented real distances better than a standard rectangular map. A final image was of a 3D modeled planet, centered over Cairo.
In front of the large display sat two rows of monitors on disconnected desks, where staff members with headsets were talking quickly, if quietly, to what I suspected were people from around the world. I counted almost twenty monitors, though only nine people were using them at the moment. Behind them, more to my left, was a booth, set up high enough to monitor the room but not enough to be considered a second floor. The room had large, heavy walls all around it, with solid rock behind, and the windows were probably thick enough to stop even larger caliber rounds.
Not plasma, though. Not for long.
Somebody was waving me up to join them in the viewing room, and I got moving.
Inside, the room was surprisingly simple. The most obvious seat in the house was near the back, and it had no fewer than six monitors prepared for the viewing pleasure of its user. The seat was easily fashioned after a throne, and I wondered for a moment why they'd set it up that way. In front of that were three more large workstations, each with two monitors on swivels that could be moved to view the main room. The Commander was standing by the one on the left, where an older man was sat down typing quickly.
The man who had waved me up gave me a once over, raising an eyebrow at my equipment. I got a good look at him, too, noting the cropped brown hair, young face, and military attitude. He had on a recognizable sweater with a white collar and tie underneath his clean-shaven face. More noticeable were the XCOM logo where medals might normally go, and the two long silver bars over his shoulders. He, like many other individuals I'd seen working, had a simple headset on, the mouthpiece in position to give orders at a moment's notice.
"Good morning, Agent Smith," he said in a quiet voice. "My name is Central Officer Bradford. I hear we have you to thank for capturing one of those things alive."
"I just got lucky," I informed him, keeping my voice down as well. "What's going on?"
"The Commander is being brought up to speed on all our current affairs," he said, motioning to him. "Right now he's working with our Chief Engineer, deciding where and how we should start expanding our facilities."
He paused, seeming to think something over while he glanced at my Psi-amp, my wrist-mounted rocket launcher, my laser pistol…
"Is it true that you're not from this Earth? You're somehow from a parallel one?" He finally asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
Ah. I suppose the Commander had brought
them up to speed, just as quickly.
I shrugged. "Does it matter?" I asked back. "The answer is yes, but as of right now, all you need to worry about it how it helps us win the war. There will be down time along the way for me to answer questions, or after we've won. Until then, just consider me a soldier who has a little more knowledge about how things might go. Not how they
will go," I was quick to add, "but how they
might go. I've already messed up on that particular point already, even when we were looking for it."
Bradford looked me over again, still taking the time to think about it.
Finally, he nodded. "Well, the Commander seems to trust you, and that's good enough for me. I'll leave those kinds of questions to the other teams." He held out his hand. "Welcome to XCOM, Agent."
I shook it firmly. "It's good to be here, Central."
Bradford quickly returned to the other men standing over the screens, and I tried to listen in.
"-and here, we can focus on building an Alien Containment unit, just as soon as Dr. Vahlen's team has finished analysing the first specimens you've brought in," I heard an older man with a light Asian accent say. It was likely Dr. Shen. "Just as soon as excavations are finished, we can get started on building the facilities immediately, Commander."
"Wonderful. Good work, Doctor," the Commander complimented him.
"Of course, Commander. Ah," he said, noticing me. He stood up from the chair, and I was struck by how short he was, more than a full head shorter than I was. He was a little portly, and had a white comb over. He was a bit wrinkled, and I noticed he wasn't wearing glasses. He had a tie on over a white shirt, and a green jacket on over that. "I see our expert guest has finally arrived." He gave me a short bow, and I returned it. "I heard you're the one to thank for the warnings we got all yesterday. On behalf of our people, thank you."
"It's no problem," I told him, getting an odd look from Bradford while the Commander just smiled. "I consider it my civic duty to ensure that this invasion is stopped as quickly and as painlessly as possible."
"Jon," the Commander cut in, then looked at Bradford. "Smith, I mean, if you could keep the conversation in English, we would all appreciate it."
"I was…? Damn," I muttered. "That's twice in just a few minutes. If my equipment is malfunctioning, I'm not going to be happy."
"What do you mean?" Shen asked, sounding a little confused and maybe slightly concerned.
"Apparently I jumped straight to Arabic in the Hanger," I shrugged. "As far as I can tell, I've been speaking in English this whole time. I have an automatic translation system for all languages set up in my mind, to ensure I won't have trouble communicating with anyone. It shouldn't be triggering like this." I sighed, chalking it up to something I wasn't picking up on. Maybe I just needed to focus more on English? "Don't worry, I'll get it sorted out."
"You just missed Dr. Vahlen, unfortunately," Commander Williams informed me. "If you'd caught her, we'd all be more or less up to speed."
"I was there for the hand off with the Muton, actually," I hooked a thumb back the way I'd come. "She asked me to come down to be studied just as soon as I have time. Psionics, of course. And hey, if she can jump-start that research early, I wouldn't mind one bit. Anything that gives us an advantage against the Ethereals."
"The Ethereals?" Bradford cut in. "That's what they're called?"
I just smiled. I only hoped we'd have a chance to pull Dr. Vahlen up so I wouldn't have to explain everything too many more times.
After all was said and done, I took the time to take a shower and try to catch a nap. I was awoken suddenly, informed that my presence was required elsewhere as soon as possible.
CHOOSE ONE:
[ ] The Commander requested that I take all my future naps in a cot in the science lab. While they would have a mostly soundproof room set up in no time, getting Psionics up and running early was a top priority, and until and unless there was an attack I was needed for, that's where I should be. The Muton isn't doing anything else useful just yet, so we even have a practice target. On the plus side, my own skills were bound to improve drastically. (choose one, OR choose all and miss the next battle)
-[ ] Dr. Vahlen was intrigued by my Psi-amp. If she could borrow it, she might be able to learn its secrets between taking apart the aliens. I would lose that equipment while she and her team study it, however.
-[ ] The ability to knock aliens out is too useful to pass up, especially without another way for us to try to capture them. The Science Team wants to study me while I practice doing it at a short distance.
-[ ] To Fray an alien's mind is the most basic of Psionic techniques, and it's one I need to work on. I should let the science team study the energies while I learn how to melt alien minds. The Muton would recover, so I might as well put him to use.
[ ] I could go back to sleep before too much longer, but Chief Engineer Shen was wondering if he could borrow some of, or all of, my equipment. It would mean I wouldn't have it myself, but it might help them get an early start on some tech from their parallel neighbors. (choose any number; lose them for the next fight)
-[ ] The Gremlin, put to good use by the Commander, would help our ability to scout tremendously, and Shen might be able to improve on the tech and focus on other unmanned vehicles as they got a handle on things.
-[ ] My laser pistol seems to have been at least somewhat based on the alien alloys we've recovered. If they could study it, they might be able to more quickly understand how the more dangerous alien weapons work.
-[ ] My armor is top of the line. Not just the Exo Suit, but even the formal wear underneath is impressive, capable of stopping small arms fire by itself. It would mean a lot if the other soldiers could benefit from it. And is that a missile launcher in the left arm? How many features does this thing have?!
[ ] The Aliens have conducted an abduction mission. The Commander has requested that I lead the ground team, with all of my equipment on hand. I'm one of only four soldiers on base to have fought these things and come out on top, and there's nothing quite like a mission to gather resources from and bond over.
[ ] WRITE IN (If you try to split options one and two here, you may only pick one option from each; in that event, even if you only give up the Psi-amp, enter the next battle slightly fatigued)
