I entered the command center to relieve Jack so that he could go get some rest. The mission was still in progress so a commander was needed on hand in-case something happened and a decision had to be made.
"Lieutenant Commander Bladestar, time to call it a night. How did the mission go while I was away?" I asked, fighting back a yawn.
"Fairly well considering we encountered yet another new species. I'll give you a quick review Commander; we lost two soldiers. The tank (what’s left of it anyways) won’t be seeing action again." He explained. It annoyed me how unconcerned he was as he mentioned the two casualties.
"Which two soldiers died?" I interrupted him before I could let the matter be brushed aside so casually.
"Squaddie Shigeo Okabe and Rookie Quibble, Commander. I included the details in my report for you to read while you wait for the Skyranger to return." He said, offering a folder filled with various papers and files. "A quick note before I go Commander; Quibble died from friendly fire, we're not sure yet if psionics are involved." He stated calmly. "The new alien species is quite impressive; it was able to withstand two heavy rockets, two high explosive heavy cannon rounds, two shots from our laser rifles and three shots from our laser pistols before expiring. Perhaps the aliens are finally adapting to our tactics."
"We'll see about that." I replied. "In the meantime I'll look over your report. You go get some rest." I took the report and opened it. Inside was a typed up copy of the mission's radio chatter with Jack's notes written in as well as a copy of various statistics and soldier profiles. He had managed to get one of the scientists to have a look at the new species from the mission data and record his thoughts.
It appears to be an insect but much larger than any on earth. Without a live specimen to examine I cannot tell if the creature's lack of ranged capabilities is because of its large claws or its possible feral, non-sentient, nature. Fortunately for the soldiers but unfortunately for us, we did not see the new creature's attack and its effects. They appear to have handlers; a snake-man alien was always seen close-by when the new species was discovered. From the melee, that Squaddie Neil Stranek and the new species partook in, we could see that the alien does appear to rely on its claws to attack. The alien appears resistant to our weapons but not immune, we will have to examine the alien closer to determine if it has specific weak spots or if it is somehow negating certain effects. They certainly are not immune to our high explosive charges as Sigvard demonstrated. On a final note, the last insect alien seen shedding a skin resembling a human is quite curious. Perhaps the aliens thought that such a crude disguise would fool our soldiers. More information could become available if we can recover samples, assuming Commander Snow would part a few scientists to actually spend time with them.I continued looking through the report and had to stop and shake my head when I came to the last page. "Numerous civilian casualties estimated at about eighty percent or higher within the mission area." I wondered if that was the alien's or Jack's fault.
I thanked the stars that Iran was not in on the X-Com project. The month-end meeting was only hours away and after last month's meeting, I was not looking forward to it. With my meeting notes all formatted and typed up on screen by my personal assistant, I decided to amend a piece to the end: "Friendly fire incident in Tehran is currently under investigation, possible psionic involvement."
With Shigeo Okabe gone we would also need another soldier to take his place in Asia. I wondered if Sigvard liked Chinese food.
Hours passed as I waited for the ground team to return. Going over and over my notes, I began to dread the meeting as it neared. The time finally came when I was notified of the representative’s arrival. I organized my notes and quietly walked to the meeting room.
Surprisingly I was met with mostly smiles and firm handshakes. "Thank you all for coming, there is a copy of my monthly report at each of your seats..." I explained as I motioned for the representatives to take their seats.
"You have had a busy month Commander." Commented the Chinese representative. "Your construction crew has been working around the clock at your far eastern facility. I'm pleased that you are investing some of the money we have been giving you back into our region of the world." The Chinese representative looked to the Russian, Japanese and Indian representatives who nodded. "My sentiment is shared by my country's neighbours as well. Tell us what your plans are for Asia."
"Our plans for Asia are the same for Europe. Both bases were initially designed to expand our radar coverage to the central and eastern regions of the world. We found that alien activity in these places was far more common than in the west, so the current plan in motion is to expand the listening posts into forward bases. Both bases are being fitted with living quarters, hangers and storage facilities so that they can house and equip interceptors and full ground teams." I paused for a moment to judge the reactions of my audience. The eastern representatives seemed pleased with the exception of the Australian representative while the central region representatives seemed divided. The French, Italian and Nigerian representatives seemed pleased while the German, United Kingdom and Spanish representatives looked on with indifference. "In the future I hope to place listening posts in more remote regions such as Australia, South America, South Africa and both northern and southern poles. This should give us worldwide radar coverage while allowing us to supply adequate response times to alien encounters."
"That all sounds good on paper Commander but how long will that take? Australia has been fortunate so far in that we have not been directly attacked. How long will we fund this operation without any coverage?" Asked the Australian representative.
"You are right; we need to do whatever we can do as soon as we can do it." I replied. "The current bases will be operational within two weeks while the additional listening posts in Australia and South America will have to wait until we have the funding to build and run them. Allow me to break down X-Com's current finances with you all. Currently we have an income of 1350k. The bases new facilities and the cost of the aircraft in them will reduce this number to 150k. While that number is in the green, X-Com still needs to expand." I paused to take a breath.
"Please turn to the fifth page of the report which details the effects of our research and technology division. You should all remember that before our first encounter with the alien threat This project produced and made available to the world the finest portable medical kit; a boon to hospitals the world over. Now I know you have been upset that you haven’t been able to take back any of our laser weapons, and none of you seem all that happy with our psionic research (which by the way shows great promise in the coming months). Today, however, I have something you can take home." I produced from my pocket a small ingot of the alien alloy. "This dark blue metal alloy was made here at this facility; it is the same material the aliens are building their space craft out of. It is lightweight and strong while being extremely resistant to corrosion and radiation. It can be made malleable with the use of electrical currents but to achieve the same effect requires a very high amount of heat. The best part, gentlemen, is that it can be made from natural materials found here on earth." I paused for a moment to let the implications of the last few points sink in. "This alloy will be the new steel, revolutionizing our world's industries."
Each of the gathered representatives took a moment to ponder this new material and what it would mean for their countries. "How do we bring this new material into the world market without the aliens or the world learning of X-Com? The hospitals that have already bought your med-kits are asking for more and want to know where they are coming from. We have been spinning a story but it's coming apart. This is the information age, people are fact checking and displaying their findings on the internet." Commented the Canadian representative. "This new miracle product will only raise more suspicions, what if rumours get out that aliens are supplying the new products? We do not want the world's people to fall in love with its invaders. There are already enough alien worshipping cults going around as it is."
"X-Com is ill-equipped to churn out the quantities of this new material that the world will want. Already we are having trouble keeping up with our own demands of equipment." I explained. "This only compounds with the fact that despite our best efforts at suppressing information, people are finding out about the truth. The aliens are attacking more and more, X-Com has come to defeat them time and time again; perhaps X-Com shouldn’t focus so much on suppressing information but rather educating people." This came as a shock to each representative, none of them had forgotten about South Africa and its own representative.
"We cannot release information about X-Com to the public, are you mad? The families of anyone who works with X-Com will be targets of aliens and pro-alien movements." Argued the Egyptian representative.
"I said educate them, not give them a full disclosure. We should stop covering up our actions and efforts but rather we should show them in a heroic light. We should try to get the public to view the aliens as the antagonists they are. Call it propaganda but it should make it easier for the public to allow us to work covertly and it would serve to make pro-alien cults less acceptable. We should emphasize that our secrecy protects us and that aliens never have human's best interests in mind." I explained. "It would be less work for us for more benefit. We would still not have a public face but the public would be more accommodating."
"I like it." Stated the representative from the USA. "It worked exceedingly well in the world wars and I think it would work even better this time around. People banding together against a common foe. We should draw up some plans and procedures and have a vote in one month." The other representatives nodded in agreement.
"Now back to the point I was getting to." I stated, composing myself. "X-Com's research and technology division has been instrumental to this operation. I wish to hire on ten more scientists and ten more engineers to make best use of the facilities on hand. This will cost an additional 550k per month, putting X-Com 400k into the red. In addition to this I will need more soldiers this month. They will cost an additional 320k a month. I'm going to have additional storage space built at the European and Asian facilities which will cost an additional 10k per month. With these projected costs X-Com will be losing 730k per month. What can our funders afford to send us to mitigate these costs?" I asked, linking my fingers and leaning forward at the table.
The UK representative looked to the other representatives and produced a small report. He handed it to me without a word and sat quietly while I went over it.
"While most of your funders have decided to increase their support, some are still waiting to see more effort on your part." Stated the UK representative.
"Well this will put us at -380k per month. With the bounty on our excess alien artifacts we should be able to cover our costs for this month. I hope that your funders see fit to continue increasing our funding next month." I stated, a tinge of disappointment in my voice. In order to setup a base in Australia and South America would require a bit more money coming in. I hoped they could wait that long.
"I've been getting clones of Steve each time he falls in the field. I was not informed of any cloning programs. I don't like that I have the highest clearance on earth and I'm not privy to this information." I asked indignantly.
"That would be our fault Commander." explained the Japanese representative. "There is a secret project in Japan regarding the cloning of humans. For obvious reasons this can never become known to the public. The world is not ready to put a price on immortality but the world of science must continue to expand. Initial tests with Steven show promising results. We are able to grow a new body and quickly train its mind up to a point close to the original person's death. The process is imperfect however; each clone is slightly different than the original (similar to how twins are slightly different) and their memories tend to be odd. The memory retention is based on how honest and thorough they are when recording them. For physical memory, the process involves learning how to do things like walk and shoot again."
"I would like to offer this service to anyone on my team, not just Steve." I replied.
"We also have Quibble in the project; it was actually his idea in the first place. It can be arranged for the rest of X-Com's forces to be enrolled. Assuming they are personally inclined to the program. I will have the forms and instructions sent to you to forward onto whoever you wish. Remember though that this is specifically a very touchy subject and does not leave this project at all." Warned the Japanese representative.
"Now one last thing before we finish up this meeting Commander; we understand that casualties are a part of urban warfare and that your soldiers are doing their best out there. But the mission in Tehran did not appear to go well despite your fulfillment of your obligations. Also we see in your report that there was a friendly fire incident that resulted in the death of Quibble?" Asked the Brazilian representative.
"Yes, our soldiers are still enroute back to base at this time. Once they return there will be a full debriefing. At this time we suspect psionics to be involved with the friendly fire. As for the heavy civilian casualties... I will deal with the commander in charge of that operation specifically. It is not my intention to let the aliens succeed in spreading terror in the world's cities. We will increase our effort to protect civilians at alien conflict zones." I promised. The psionics was mostly a bluff as the information we had, pointed more towards a rookie mistake gone bad. I wanted to give the representatives as little reason to lose faith in the project as possible.
With the meeting finished, the representatives went back to their respective countries. The timing of the meeting's end was perfect though as the Skyranger had just returned. I made my way down to the hanger. The team was just getting off the drop-ship when I arrived.
"Good work guys, I heard you ran into some tough bug things but you managed to pull through. I also heard that Squaddie Dash survived a couple alien explosives. Did he wake up yet?" I asked, trying to raise spirits.
"He's still zonked Commander." Replied Sarah Newman. "I like him better this way, complains about the sun less." She laughed.
Lucsly was the last one out of the Skyranger. He looked quite concerned when he saw me standing outside his drop-ship, waiting for him. "Y-Yes Commander?" He stammered.
"I heard you made a mistake on your first mission." I stated plainly, a scowl on my lips and my eyes locked on his own.
"Y-Yeah I..." Lucsly hesitated, distracted by his guilt and his mind trying to figure out whether to make an excuse or just fess up.
"Look, you just got back; I'm not going to execute you. Go talk to Dr Gableman and we'll have this talk when you're ready." I stated. I felt it best that he rest and get over whatever issues he was dealing with inside. I didn't intend to rush him into a lie or a hurried explanation.
On my way back to my quarters I stopped by Sigvard's quarters. I knocked on his door and waited a moment before getting a response. "What?" Came the response, shouted through the door in a mannerless fashion.
"Is that how you address your commander, rookie?" I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help but laugh a bit inside.
"I'm not a rookie anymore, got my first kill." Sigvard shouted back.
"Very well
Squaddie, is that how you address your commander?!" I shouted, feeling less amused at this point.
Sigvard opened his door, his uniform hastily thrown on. "Sorry commander, you caught me as I was going into the shower. What did you need me for?" He stated, trying to suppress a stupid grin.
"I need you to fill in for Squaddie Shigeo Okabe at the Asian forward base. Think you can handle that?" I asked, smiling widely.
"Aw I mess around just a little and you're going to ship me off to the other side of the world? That hardly seems fair commander." He replied, displaying emotional pain.
"Just until things get stable over there. If you still want to come back here just let Colonel Smith or I know. If you really don't want to go then you're going to need to give me a pretty good reason." I explained.
Sigvard took a moment to think before speaking. "Well commander... I think I'm in love with you." He finally replied, with all the seriousness in the world.
I stood there for a moment, wide eyed and dumbfounded. "Wait what!?"
Sigvard however could not continue to hold back his laughter. "Oh commander, I'm sorry, I could not resist. Sure I'll go to Asia."
"All kinds..." I mumbled to myself as I felt my skin turn two shades closer to red and steam well up in my ears. "Very funny Squaddie. You must still be riding your first kill high if you think that was funny! Be ready to leave in seven days. Don’t hurry back to North America." And with that I shoved him back in his room so I could slam the door closed. "Seriously, where do we find these people?!"
By the time I returned to my quarters I had cooled down a bit. I decided that he should have his fun; He might not make it back to North America. I decided, before fiddling with finances, to take a walk and visit Ashley and Cerapa.
At the medical room I found Dr Ross tending to Cerapa's wounds while Ashley lay in the next bed, reading up on some of the specifications of the Asian base. "Good morning Colonel. You look like you're doing well." I stated.
Ashley Smith looked up from her papers and smiled. "Commander, nice of you to visit. I think I'm already well enough to fight but Dr Ross told me to stay in bed for two more days at least."
I picked up Ashley's chart and skimmed over it while she replied.
"You've been in bed a long time Colonel, you sure you can still walk? Much less fight?" I asked surprised.
"I've been walking every day for two weeks. My arm and shoulder took a lot of damage but after some muscle repair and skin grafts all I had to do was heal. I'm going to have to go easy on my arm for a few weeks while I get used to moving it again and the muscles will take longer to get back up to strength but I'm expected to make a full recovery." She replied with a smile.
"Excited about Asia?" I asked, smiling back.
"Oh yes, it's going to be quite the experience. But I'm not done fighting yet commander; I still have to get a bit of payback for my arm." She replied.
"Just make sure you don't get yourself killed over something like revenge. Your base will come to depend on your strength to lead them in times of difficulty." I explained.
"With the exception of those new bug things, our weapons appear to be fairly effective against the aliens. I heard the scientists talking about the possibility of making an even stronger hand held laser weapon!" She replied excitedly.
"Well I'll let you get back to your studies then Colonel Smith, don't forget to rest too." I smiled and saluted her casually.
I moved over to Cerapa's bed next who was having his bandages changed at the time. He was grunting and wincing from the pain of old, hard, and dead flesh being pulled off his new, sensitive flesh. His arm and shoulder had a weird shape to them, withered, I thought. I picked up his chart to have a quick look while Dr Ross had his attention.
I winced inwardly; he would be out of commission for at least a month. "How are you doing Sergeant Cerapa?" I asked tentatively.
"I'm doing *ahh* pretty good. All things considered." He replied. "How much longer am I going to be stuck here commander?" He asked, breathing deeply as the good doctor applied fresh bandages to his arm.
"You don't want to know sergeant, on the bright side though you can have as much jello as you want for the next month!" I smiled, trying to raise his spirits.
Cerapa didn't look too amused. He closed his eyes and turned his head. "Permission to swear commander?"
"Granted as long as you're in that bed." I replied. I assumed that venting frustration would be good for him.
"Fuuuuck!" He barked, clenching his right fist. His right arm was fine but his left was in bad shape. He also took a shot to the abdomen which was being treated in a similar manner.
"Those alien guns are like high powered acid radiation throwers. You're lucky to still have both your arms along with your life. Once your skin heals up we can start restoring your muscle tissue and trust me, that's going to be more painful than this." Interrupted Dr Ross.
"So how many of those bed-side manner awards did you win Dr Ross?" Asked Cerapa with a painful roll of his eyes.
"Hang in there Sergeant, think of it as the worst vacation you've ever had. In the meantime, let me know if you need or want anything. I'll see what strings I can pull." I suggested.
After a few more minutes I decided to leave. Project X-Com's finances suddenly felt much less tedious.
Back at my quarters I was ready to sit down and figure out where X-Com stood financially.
"Ok so... The new bases can start receiving equipment in one day while it will be another seven days before they can receive any personnel." I mused for a moment before turning my attention towards X-Com's account numbers. "That means I cannot have anyone hired for a week. Hopefully the aliens take a break for that long while I get everything sorted out."
"I'm starting this month off with 6,800k. I want to purchase ten more engineers and scientists which will cost 1100k." I talk to myself as I pen down the numbers on a piece of note paper.
"I will need a new heavy weapons platform again... We go through these things too quickly. That will cost 480k. New soldiers will cost a total of 640k." I paused and thought for a moment. "New conventional weapons at the two additional bases will cost money but not a terribly large amount. I'll budget 500k for that and include the cost of arming the interceptors." Conventional weapons were certainly a step down from the newer laser weapons but our engineers were bogged down with too much work. The new recruits for the new bases were going to need weapons and conventional weapons were all I could get them.
I picked up a printed report from the workshop and examined it.
"Approximately 100k for the remaining laser weapons to be produced and once they are done we can finally start producing armour." I enjoyed the thought of the alien's panicked actions as they discovered their weapons becoming ineffective against our soldiers.
I took out a copy of each forward base's design. "Storage space fills up fast, so the new bases will quickly require more of it. Best to start building more now rather than later, when we need it. This will cost 300k now and an additional 10k per month." I notated what I wanted on the copies and put them aside to send to Auraluna once I was finished.
That left me with the following:
6800
-1100
- 480
- 640
- 500
- 100
- 300
=3680
"That doesn’t look too great." I thought to myself as I rubbed the temples of my head gently. Then I remembered that we still had a storage facility full of alien stuff. The aliens appeared to have a rather limited variety of items so we didn’t need to hang onto every single object we came across. I quickly pulled up a storage report and began shifting some numbers around.
"Perfect!" I exclaimed triumphantly. The alien goods were worth 2000k in bounty and would cover almost two thirds of the money budgeted to be spent. The final total would be approximately 5680k, I wondered how accurate that would end up being.
After an hour I received an email from the scientists in charge of setting up the psi-labs. It was also sent to Dr Gableman. The psionic conditioning course would take a month to complete and was comprised of six sections.
The first section was a warning, for the subject, of the observed side effects involved with psionic training and conditioning.
The second section was a diet and supplement plan to condition the body and brain for optimal mental function.
The third section was to introduce the subject to psionic booster chemicals to check for adverse reactions.
The fourth section was reserved to introduce the subject to the psi-amps once they had been completed.
The fifth section was to teach the subject meditation techniques to focus their mind on specific tasks.
The sixth section was to teach the subject psychological tricks and techniques to use against alien targets.
The email continued on to explain that the conditioning and training would allow subjects to accomplish several supernatural feats such as: communicating with others without the use of traditional means, share the senses of others (sight, sound, touch, taste, etc.), invade and dominate or overwhelm a target's mind and exert a low amount of force over physical objects. The email also included a warning that the psionic booster chemical had been observed to cause other uncontrolled psionic effects with repeated use.
The scientists explained that there was room for ten subjects to begin the training. If the subject at any time wished to opt out of any of the sections, their strength and skill could still be analyzed to be included with their file. I decided to sign up myself and the ground troops still assigned to the base.
To Be Continued!
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Topic: Anya's x-com LP - UPDATED! Augest 17th (Read 92328 times)