Once I returned to the base and had time to rest I woke up refreshed. There had been no alerts or problems through the whole day. When I awoke I had time to stretch, shower and wake up. A sorely missed luxury as of late. As I dried my hair I checked my messages and among other things, like an amusing picture filled forward from Auraluna, I had received an urgent message from Manny.
Suspecting that he had found something new to freak out about unnecessarily, I disregarded it at first and decided to deal with it once dressed. Once I came back to it I opened it and my eyes went wide. He was pointing out that the listening posts had absolutely no storage space or living quarters! How could I forget such basic things?!
I called up my contractor immediately and asked for the details on the two facilities. It would cost $150,000 for each storage facility and $400,000 for each living quarter block.
"Money is not a factor, how long will it take to build them? I need them by the end of the month." I explained. Though the program's funds were sitting at a decent spot, we needed to spend $1,200,000 extra at the end of the month for the new Interceptors.
"You people and your rushes. Always need it now no matter the cost." The contractor paused for a moment, sizing up the project I imagine. "10 days for the storage facilities, 16 for the living quarters." He finally replied.
"Ahg! 16 days?!" I replied surprised and exacerbated. 10 days was stretching it, I wouldn't be able to arm the Interceptors until the third or fourth of June. Without living quarters I wouldn't be able to station any ground troops there until midway through the second week of June! "Can't it be done any sooner?" I asked with dispare.
"Again "lady" I'm nearly breaking the rules of reality as it is with these estimates. If I scheduled any more people to work on these projects at once you wouldn't be able to toss a dime without hitting one of them. It cannot be completed sooner. But tell you what, I'll put some of the rooms in the living quarters as our top priority and maybe you can send some people over with tents and sleeping bags, failing that you could always rent them a room in a hotel nearby." He suggested with a bit of a laugh.
"Ugh, just do it, I'll have my assistant send you the paperwork, I want you started yesterday." I replied defeatedly, what was I going to tell the funding nations.
I sent my notes to Auraluna and she typed up the paperwork and had it sent out quickly.
Auraluna saw my distress and decided to pry. "You look stressed Commander Anya. Is there anything I can do to help?" She looked at me and I looked at her.
I closed my eyes and rubbed my head, pushing away certain, unprofessional, thoughts. "I messed up, that paperwork you sent, I was supposed to give it to you at least a week ago. The funding nations meeting is coming up and I don't know what I'm going to tell them."
"You write out your meeting notes before hand right? Instead of apologizing for the mistake or pointing it out, try wording it in a positive manner. I could edit and proofread them for you if you like." She offered.
Paperwork, my bane. The meetings were high security though and were supposed to be available to only the department heads, Jack and myself. However there was little in my notes that she didn't already know, I saw no harm in it. "Sure, I'll send you my notes. Listen though, you must not share them with anyone on base, they are for my eyes only. I'm trusting you."
Auraluna looked at me, a bit surprised, I had not spoken to her in that tone before and it appeared to intimidate her. "Y-Yes commander, of course." She replied after a moment.
We were interrupted by an announcement, calling me to the command center. So much for a slow day to unwind, My headache was only beginning. At the command center I was quickly briefed on the situation. Two UFOs were detected simultaneously in North America. One medium sized, the other very small. Both were heading in our general direction.
I quickly moved to my chair and opened up a view of our section of the world and spotted the alien crafts on the image.
"That's not good... We should focus on the medium sized ship first, bigger ship, more aliens." I explained. "Send in Interceptor 2."
"You know commander, like Mac, I have a name." Came a voice from my terminal, I had unwittingly broadcasted my orders over the radio.
"What is it then pilot?" I asked, hiding my embarrassment behind a cold reply.
"It's Bob, figured I'd keep to the three letter call-sign tradition Mac seems to have so much fun with. Don't worry commander, I'll take that UFO down and mop up the other one on my way back. Bob out." He replied. He had attitude, I like pilots and soldiers with attitude.
I knew Mac's Interceptor was still being repaired from the last mission but I wondered if it would be ready in time to assist Bob.
I pulled up a report on Mac's maintenance. It wouldn't be ready for a whopping
41 hours. I had hoped we wouldn't need him in that time.
Bob pushed his Interceptor to the max, fast approaching the medium UFO. Minutes before he would be able to engage the craft it disappeared from our radar coverage.
"What happened?" I asked the radar technician.
"I thought the equipment was being buggy, but the UFO appears to have left our atmosphere. It was climbing slowly and suddenly, it just went straight up." He looked at his computer for a moment, trying to find it again. "I'm sorry commander, It's gone."
"Target lost commander, what are your orders?" Bob asked through the radio.
"Turn around, see if you can catch up with that smaller UFO before it lands... Or decides to leave as well." I commanded, rubbing my forehead gently. I wondered how I could word that one positively.
Bob turned his jet around and set out for the remaining UFO. Within twenty minutes he caught up with it.
He closed in and fired off two avalanche missiles. The missiles connected and disintegrated the UFO instantly. There was nothing but smoking specs of metal to recover from the UFO.
I ordered Bob to return to base and left the command center. I decided to return to Auraluna and wish her a good night. I decided to return to a more normal sleeping schedule as well and returned to bed.
Friday morning at fifteen past 6am, The Skyranger finally returned to base along with it's weary ground team. Cerapa was as white as a ghost and covered in blood, he was rushed to the nearby town's hospital for emergency treatment. I received notice of this when I awoke. I was worried that he was not going to make it. I looked over the mission log and Jack's notes. My ground troops were becoming quite an effective team.
I did not like the comments I was getting about the proximity grenades. I went down to Manny's office and had a word with him on the subject.
"Tell me Manny, What makes an explosive, a good explosive?" I asked, annoyed.
"Well one that makes a big explosion I guess, what a daft question commander." He replied, not knowing where I was going with my question.
"Bare with me a moment. What kind of explosive is one that does not explode Manny?" I continued with my tone.
"A dud. Is there a point to this commander?" He asked back annoyed as well.
"Manny, we put up with you because you are the best equipment manager there is. The proximity grenades you cleared for use were duds. What is the problem?" I asked, closing my eyes and touching my forehead as I restrained my anger.
"Duds? I thought the things looked fragile but they should have still gone off easily enough. Let me go grab the batch we sent on the last mission." He, amazingly quietly, went into the adjacent storage room and pulled out a box filled with the proximity grenades. He took one out and pried the top off. "Hmm... That would be the problem. See here?" Manny pointed at a jumble of shrapnel peices. "Those are supposed to be attached to the grenade but they are not. It seems they are too delicate to survive air-travel and come undone before the soldiers even arrive. I thought it was weird when I noticed a couple of the soldiers grumbling about them."
"Well, can we use claymores instead maybe?" I asked, closing my eyes and trying to figure out why someone would make such an explosive so delicate.
"Unfortunately we can't. Claymores cannot be thrown into place, have a limited effective angle and have a hard time actually damaging our alien foes. Proximity grenades are more powerful, can be deployed from a distance and cannot be easily disarmed by the enemy." Manny explained.
"They also don't work." I added with a frown.
"Look commander. I'll get in contact with the producer and explain the problem we are having. Give me a week or two and I can have them replaced with better versions that don't suck." He suggested. Amazing, Manny could compromise!
I returned to my quarters and noticed that I had an message from Manny about the build up of alien crap junking up the place. I decided to tackle the storage facility's inventory. First I wrote up a note for Auraluna to work with Manny to return the defective proximity grenades.
Then I moved onto the substantial amount of alien corpses and equipment we had recently recovered. Going through the list and their values to the funding nations' bounty program, It appeared that the bounty system was an invaluable way to make some money.
I decided to move through list a couple more times. I saw that our recovery of alien power sources was taking up a large amount of room. The funding nations were also offering $250,000 for each of them! I decided to add some to the list along with other objects we had many of and could do without. We appeared to be well prepared financially for the next month.
I forwarded the list to Auraluna and she quickly updated the X-Com program's accounts. She replied once her task was done and added that she had prepared her reward for me and it would be ready around 5pm. I mentally made a note to not make any plans that would interrupt my reward meal.
At 2pm I received an urgent message from the research laboratory.
They had finished their research on the alien metal and had some interesting discoveries. The alloy was comprised of materials that can be found on earth and while expensive, we could create them ourselves. The resulting alloy's molecules are tightly bonded and light weight. The alloy, interestingly, is magnetic but does not conduct heat very well at all. The scientists on base discovered that the alloy could be made pliable under an electro-magnetic currents and found the material to be extremely durable.
Best of all, they included that they already have ideas on how to make a suit of armor out of the metal that would give our soldiers a much better chance at surviving a direct hit from a plasma bolt.
"This is exactly the kind of thing we need more of!" I exclaimed out loud as I pulled up the initial armor design concepts. I quickly sent a message giving the scientists the go-ahead for the next step of the armor development. I had wanted to flex the new financial muscle I had recently built up and went to hire another batch of scientists to join the team. I quickly found a problem with my idea however, the base was crowded with personnel and there was very few empty quarters left available.
I sent a quick message to Auraluna for her to contact the contractor about building a new living quarter block in the North American base.
I had some free time before needing to get ready for dinner. My thoughts had turned to Cerapa and Ashley Smith at the hospital. I called the hospital and had them connect me to Ashley Smith's room.
"Hello?" Ashley asked through the phone.
"Hello captain, this is commander Anya Snow checking in on you. I hope the doctors have been treating you well." I tried to relax, the last several days had been so hectic and prior to that Ashley had been unavailable for any calls, I had not had the chance to talk to her yet.
"I'm doing well, doctor said that I'll be able to lift stuff with my right arm again soon. I'm eager to get back out there and pay those alien freaks some payback!" Ashley Smith sounded tired, likely tired of being stuck in a hospital for so long.
"I'm sorry I haven't called you before now..." I started to apologize.
"Don't worry commander." Ashley interrupted. "I'm sure by now I have shown my dedication to the cause and that I know what dangers it entails. I think I have come a long way from some nameless janitor don't you think?"
"Yeah, you've really shown your stuff. How is you're arm?" I asked tentatively.
"We'll I won't be able to lift heavy stuff for a good long while and I'm going to have one huge ugly scar patch for a shoulder, the kind that makes people cringe, not the cool kind." Ashley sighed through the phone but quickly cheered up. "Rehabilitation was hard once they fixed me up but I'll be ready to bring the fight again soon."
"Good, I'm glad to hear it. How is Cerapa doing? I heard he is in the same room as you." I asked.
Ashley paused before continuing to look over to Cerapa. "He doesn't look too good. Doctor said he appears to have the same wound I did with the addition of another moderate burn on his chest. He's having trouble sleeping and he's in a lot of pain. He's got his morphine though so he'll manage."
I shook my head gently and rubbed my forehead. "At least he is alive. I hope he has a speedy recovery as well."
"Commander, when I get back I'd like to speak with Dr, Richard. I have been having..." Ashley paused again for a moment before continuing. "Nightmares commander. Once I started getting sleep again I started dreaming about the aliens. All I could see of the little gray things was glowing red eyes in the darkness. What is really bothering me is that I'm being chased by the floating disks as they shoot at me. I really need to get past these damn dreams." Ashley sounded somewhat weaker as she recalled her nightmares.
"Don't worry Ashley, I'll have Dr. Richard come visit you and start helping you out with that." I tried to sound reassuring.
"Speaking of doctors, commander, ours has been very inquisitive. He is doing an amazing job but he keeps grilling Cerapa and I for more information related to our work and how we received our injuries. He's not buying our cover story. What should we do?" Ashley asked quietly.
"You won't need to do anything captain, I'll deal with this problem myself. Try to help out Cerapa when you can, I want both of you to have a full recovery." I paused for a moment before continuing. "Get well soon." I hung up and turned to my computer. I sent a message to an X-Com operative in the area to contact the good doctor and arrange a meeting with him.
I prepared myself for my reward dinner and looked at myself in the mirror. I had lost the bags under my eyes and regained some color in my skin. I felt better and was ready to take on the world. I quickly left my room and arrived in the mess hall early. A side room had been made available to myself and Auraluna for the occasion.
I entered the room to find dim lights, lit candles and flowers on a table set with shining silverware and glass goblets. I did not have to wait long before Auraluna came in with two covered plates. She set one in-front of me and the other across from me. She had dressed up for the occasion and looked very nice, She lifted the cover of my plate and underneath was a delicious looking chicken parmesan sided with steamed vegetables and penne pasta.
It was probably the best meal I had ever eaten and to make it even better, I was not needed for anything through the whole event. No aliens, no crazy scientists, no whiny engineers and no exhaustion. Just me, the delicious meal on my plate and apparently a very interested and beautiful woman in-front of me. Auraluna was quiet and watched me as I ate.
We did hold some interesting conversations however. We spoke of the other base personnel and the weird things we had noticed. Auraluna was deeply interested in what I thought about the aliens and if we would be able to stop them completely, soon.
I told her that we could only hope so. I was pretty sure we had different reasons for wanting the conflict to end. I noticed that Auraluna had been blushing a lot during the dinner as we conversed. In my head, I played with the idea that she might want to be more than just a professional assistant. It was strange to me to think about relationships, I had been focusing on my career for so long that I had no time for such a thing.
Tonight would not be the time to start one though and I finished the meal with a contented sigh. I complimented Auraluna on her culinary excellence and excused myself. I took my thoughts with me back to my room and locked them away for the time being.
Before turning in for an early night, I received a message from the mechanics for Mac's Interceptor. They had finished repairs and refueling Mac's Jet but they didn't have enough cannon rounds to fully re-arm.
I replied with another message explaining that we had another shipment of cannon rounds due in tomorrow and that I would send for an ample supply to come in soon after. Mac had been busy taking down UFO's and I didn't mind that he had been chewing through ammo quicker than any other jet fighter I had known.
I layed down on my bed, ready to sleep, but sleep did not come quickly. My thoughts kept returning to Auraluna and the upcoming monthly meeting. I would not sleep for hours as I tried to plan for several different situations.
A few days went by and all was quiet. These stretches of days where there was no alien contact were stressful. Every time I wondered if they had found a way to evade our detection methods or had decided to amass for a real full scale invasion. All we could do was go on with our duties and remain watchful.
On Monday, April 26th, the hangers had been finished at the listening posts.
This prompted me to begin preparing for a difficult task. We needed skilled and experienced ground soldiers to staff the listening posts and that meant breaking up the team a bit. A very difficult situation. I decided to send a message to all of them, asking for volunteers for the move.
TO BE CONTINUED!
I will be forming a team of 10 soldiers at each listening post. I would like to have at least 5 named soldiers at each. Who wants to go to Europe/Asia? Please reply with Europe, Asia or North America as your preference asap or I might have to choose for you.
Hope everyone is enjoying the LP. In the next post we get to introduce the new batch of soldiers! (who can put forth their location preference as well)
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Topic: Anya's x-com LP - UPDATED! Augest 17th (Read 92896 times)