XCOM; Turning the Tables

[University of Planet]

- Wake up commander, fucking wake up! – I heard Bradford screaming, but my head was hurting too much for me to understand anything he was saying. – We are under attack. You understand? They are here! In the base!

 

The adrenaline finally hit me, hard. I got up in my feat as fast as I could, reaching for the assault rifle in the ground next to me. Bradford was close to me, in the ground, taking cover in a turned over table. I joined him, I was still a bit shaky, mainly because I was woried, it was some time since I last saw combat. and to top that, my physically wasn’t at its prime.

 

But I was ready to die or kill that moment.

 

And as I witnessed everything; the smell of death, the desperate struggle of my man and woman to contain the attack, that just filled me with a new kind of rage. I saw Bradford ran to help a wounded man nearby, leaving me alone to my thinking. That battle, that was the most crucial battle until that point – what would happen if the aliens destroyed our base, what they would do with humanity…? I can’t even think about it.

 

It was then I heard the scream – I had never heard it so close, but there it was. Screaming and rushing at a quick made barrier of tables, cabinets and wardrobes. I got up, my weapon ready…

 

It all comes back so fast… My finger squeezed the trigger, the bullets flew in all their fashion, and a well-placed headshot sent the Muton against the wall, dead. I turned backwards, to find a Chryssalid climbing onto one of my man. Oh my friend, if there is a memorie that comes back fast, is how to kill.

 

“Hell no” I thought to myself as my feet landed in the creature face, a dangerous move, but proved to work when the creature feel in the ground, trying desperatly to get up, I pointed my guna at it and I finished it off with two fast bursts of my gun. The man looked me in the eyes, in a silent “thank you”.

 

I heard a jet pack ignition behind me, I instantly jumped to the left, taking cover behind some debris from a crumbled wall, the plasma shots from the Floater passed very closely. But he missed, thankfully.

 

I saw the little fuck trying to get away, but I quickly got out of cover and placed three shots on its jetpack and one in the arm. The thing lost total control, he flew all over the place, trying to get in control of his jetapack, but his faith was terrible (for him at least); he ended up crashing onto a wall, exploding in a ball of fame.

 

I smiled. I missed action.

 

I saw Big Sky, our Skyranger pilot, pinned down by Sectoid fire. I ran to an advantage position and prepared my gun. Those fuckers didn't stand a chance, It was then that I heard it, metallic footsteps right next to me, my head slowly turned to find a Mectoid, pointing his plasma cannons at me.

 

I didn't had time to think, I tried to run, but the creature fired his cannons at me. I was able to avoid the shots, but the blast launched me five meters ahead, my head against the wall. My vision blurred as I saw what could be the fall of XCOM.

 

But for you to understand what is happening, we need to go back…

 

 

< INITIATING RECORDING . . .

< DATE: MARCH 2 OF 2015

< RECORDED BY: THE COMMANDER

Initializing . . . >

 

My name is Pedro Lobo. I was born in May 21rd in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I am the supreme commander behind the military force that is the XCOM (the extraterrestrial combat division). The XCOM is a paramilitary organization formed by the world’s nations to combat the alien threat. It’s composed of the best of the best the world ahs to offer in the military, scientific and engineering field. The personnel is formed by the best men the member nations of the council have to offer.

 

The council consist of a group of 16 countries that found and support the XCOM Project. Being three from Africa (Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria). Four from Asia (China, Japan, India and Australia). Four from Europe (United Kingdom, Russia, France and Germany). Three from North America (United States, Canada and Mexico). And two from South Africa (Argentina and Brazil).

 

If we manage to win this battle, I’ll be remembered in history as both the man who handed the aliens their asses and one of the persons with the most impressive military record; over a hundred missions, only seven failures.

 

The reason why I have been puled out of retirement and set at the command position of this project are many.

 

Strange objects have fallen into cities; there have been reports of alien sightings, and mostly important, this war hasn’t even started and in our first operation, three of our finest man die in the hands of the so-called “Sectoids”.

 

The Council has come to the conclusion that if they need to win somewhere, it is in tactics. That’s why they have pulled me out of retirement to head this organization as we try to defend Earth from this new and mysterious threat.

 

Our base is located in Africa, somewhere near the northern border of the DR Congo. The base is located deep underground and in an isolated area, mainly to prevent it from it being found but also making it harder to invade or be bombarded. It’s not locally centered as I would have liked, but whit the VTOL (aka Skyranger), we’ll be able to solve the crisis pretty well. The Skyranger is a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) troop transport aircraft.

 

The base is fully equiped for our needs, with buildings like; the Mission Control, the Situation Room (where my office is located), Engineering, Research Labs, the Barracks, the Hanger, our very own medical station and the Officer Training School. Further development my prove necessary as the war develops.

 

The crew the XCOM project has assembled is quite impressive; below I’ll leave a quick record of the three brains of the operation, which respond only to me and the council.

 

Dr. Vahlen is the Chief Scientist assigned to the XCOM project. She leads the Research Team's efforts with great enthusiasm, as her particular interests lie in finding ways to adapt the alien technology to advance human scientific developments.

 

Dr. Raymond Shen is the Chief Engineer of the XCOM Project. Dr. Shen has proven to be an invaluable asset with his decades of experience. The XCOM project is lucky to have such a brilliant, dedicated, world renowned, award winning engineer at its disposal.

 

Central Officer Bradford is an officer attached to the XCOM Project, and acts as the junior commander of XCOM. It is likely he served in the military prior to his transfer to the project.

 

Alongside the Skyranger we are also promptly equipped with two Ravens; a pulse-engine fighter aircraft equipped with the Avalanche Missiles, the best our tech has to offer.

 

We are supplied with newly produced weapons exclusively made for the XCOM project, those weapons includes Unnamed Pistols, the XCOM X9 Assault Rifle, Unnamed Shotguns, the exclusives AS-60 Sniper Rifle, X249 SAW and the AT-5 Rocket Propeller.

 

Standard equipment also include grenade, body armor and medkits.

 

A safe and encrypted network for council use only has been set up to inform alien presence and danger at any given location and time, so we can interfere and help as quickly as possible.

 

We are the last and only hope of humanity. I don’t believe in god, but I might as well pray for this one.

 

< RECORDING FINISHED . . .

< DO YOU WISH TO TERMINATE PROCESS?

[Y]/[N]

[Space Voyager]

[N]

[silencer_pl]

[University of Planet]

I’ve never been so enraged in my whole life up until this single moment, where right now I witness my ship, the Skyranger, burning in agony - the single thing I most cared, before humanity of course, was right there, next to me, set ablaze in a giant ball of flames.

 

A quick glance around the hangar proved to be a terrible one; that scene hit me like a bullet to the skull – that place was my home, and it was being burning to the ground by those things; I needed to act, quickly.

 

I was with the army before all this XCOM-thing wasn’t it? Yeah I was, and I know I’m just a pilot, but I got my combat training, and I needed to help my people, I needed to help my home. I needed to get my hands dirty for the first time in that war.

 

And I was ready for it, even though I didn’t want it.

 

I picked up a pistol from a dead body lying in the ground; the guy had no use to it anymore, considering his situation, anyways: the time to mourn would come later, after and if, we won that battle. I then proceeded to check the gun ammo clip, it was full. The poor sod didn’t even have a chance to fire at the alien bastards.

 

I got my head up, ready for action, just in time to see a man right ahead of me trying to run, but one of those things came out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere, strangling him. I believe what we have been calling those types by the name “Seekers”, strange things they are.

 

I shoot the creature ten times before it let the man go; it died before letting the guy go. As it exploded in an action move fashion, I turned around to see one of those things – Mectoids, giant robots, something equivalent to our MEC Troopers, but those guys had better tech and there was no human part in the terrible equation that resulted in those things.

 

It always seemed they are one step further in this matter, but what they have in tech, we have in cunning.

 

As the Mectoid focused on destroying one of our S.H.I.V.S that we managed to activate, I ran to one body, dead in the ground, It was one of the base security guys, and right beside him, I saw it, just what I needed to solve that Mectoid issue, a Rocket Launcher, a rather lucky turn of events, taking in to consideration what was happening around me.

 

I picked it up, putting the gun over my shoulder and taking a fire stance, and then aimed the gun the best I could, and prayed I would be able to hit that thing, and then pulled the trigger; the rocket flew across the room in all its fashion, hitting the Mecoitd’s back. The explosion opened a hole in the creature armor, and at bowed and moved in strange patterns, it started showing defects all over before it finally reached it last moments and exploded in to a violet tone.

 

But I had no time to commemorate my successful shot, as I saw a bunch of people being killed by a salvage of bullets, hailing from a Cyberdisc, I saw it changing its course to a bunch of guys trying to open a door that lead to the lower levels of the base, I knew I had to act fast. The opening of that door was crucial to the survival of everyone in that hangar.

 

I pulled my pistol out and shoot the thing five times, it made a strange sound and aimed his guns towards me, for one moment things seemed to slow down, and I ran a fast as I could while a hail of bullets followed right behind me. I jumped to cover; another of the guys from security was lying there, clearly dead.

 

But this time he hadn’t shit to help me. “Fuck” I thought, odds were against me here, I had to fight that Cyberdisc with a pistol, alone. A suicide mission, all hope seemed lost for me, but then…

 

But then I managed to find luck in the unlucky – as my baby, the Skyranger, gave her final sacrifice, as her main engine went sky high in an explosion, a piece bashed itself against the Ciberdisc back, it threw the thing off balance, it was my chance.

 

I jumped out of cover, putting a few shots on it – driving the machine stability to hell and back and to hell again, it crashed against the ground next to me, I saw the thing malfunctioning a lot, before it exploded.

 

I looked around me, as the alien forces flooded the room, the hangar was lost, and there was nothing I could do about it, nothing at all. I cursed the day I joined the XCOM, I cursed all those aliens, and although I wanted revenge more than anything, I knew I needed to get there as fast as I could if I wanted to stay alive.

 

I looked to see the final moments of the first success In that battle, as some of the man managed to open the door to the lower levels, I sprinted towards the door – I needed to find the commander.

 

Otherwise that day would be the fall of XCOM…

 

< INITIATING RECORDING . . .

< DATE: MARCH 2 OF 2015, SECOND ENTRY

< RECORDED BY: THE COMMANDER

Initializing . . . >

 

The rest of the personnel have finally arrived, before they came in it was just me, Bradford, Vahlen, Shen and the set-up crew; thirteen guys which helped us to get the place up and running.

 

The recruits came first: around a hundred-sixty of the best soldiers the nations in the council could offer, as well as mercenaries, bounty hunters and other undercover agents – those were the best the world had to offer in those initial stages, and yet I feared that wouldn’t be enough. Then the engineers and the scientists, about fifteen each, as well as the rest of the personnel, pilots, cleaning crew, medics, IT guys came in.

 

In total we had three-hundred and sixty guys working and living at the XCOM headquarters, and I personally did a quick background check of the guys, just to make sure things would work out and we wouldn’t have any inside problem. I was more than happy with the crew I had, and although they are the best we had in hand in those first stages of the project, I still feared they wouldn’t be enough.

 

I called for a meeting with the crew in the situation room by the end of the day. By the end of the day so they had some time to get situated, guard their things and think about what was going to happen with their lives from now on.

 

But before we get with the meeting, there was cryptic event today, to explain why you need to understand that I had my first meeting with the council headsman - not an actual meeting, I was sent to the situation room by Bradford, he told me the council had a welcome message for me.

 

When I arrived at the room I had little time to look around as the big main screen lite up revealing a silhouette of a man, hidden in the shadows, protecting his identity from god know what.

 

- Hello commander. – He said – In light of the recent extraterrestrial incursions. This council of nations has convened to approve the activation of the XCOM Project. You have been chosen to lead this initiative, to oversee our first and last line of defense. Your efforts will have considerable influence in this planet future, we urge you to keep that in mind as you proceed. Good luck commander.

 

And then the screen turned off. Simple as that, that man expected me to lead humanity through its hardest battle yet, and he wished me luck? I would need much more than luck, much more. Luck was the least of the things I needed, I needed access to resources, and those greed motherfuckers didn’t gave me all I need. Why? Because they feared we would fail?

 

“First and last line of defense my ass” I thought “For them, we are but an option – but they better believe in us, because we can guarantee we are the only option”

 

I had that thought stuck in my mind through the rest of the day, I thought about quitting, first from the job, second from life. But then I realized after some time thinking and bashing my head against a wall, I realized I was the chosen, I was the chosen to lead our first and last line of defense, and If I quitted so soon, what hope would humanity had?

 

And then, when I walked in the Situation Room, and I saw those three-hundred and sixty, each one different but every single one ready to kill and die for their people. I didn’t have a drip of fear in me. I raised my hands, took a quick look at the crowd and said:

 

- Ladies and Gentlemen. If you are here, you are one of the best humanity has to offer, you are among us now, and we are a family. I’ll tell you this now, to be honest, many of us will not see the end of this war, some of us might not even see the end of this week, but it is crucial that we do not give up, that we do not lose hope, that we do not lose faith. Not faith in god, luck or even rituals, but faith on humanity. Because we can win this war, and the faith of our species is at our hands.

 

It was then I descended of where I was, and stated walking amongst them. The way they opened a path, letting me walk between them, that was empowering. I felt that we could win, I felt at home after so many time running away from her, I felt, for the first time in my life, in control of my destiny.

 

- If you wish to defect now, no one will stop you. If you do not believe in this project sucess, leave right now. But do not stop the other from believing, because I do believe, with full confidence, that if we all do our duties, if nothing is neglected, and we do our best to win, we shall prove once again to be able to defend our standings, to ride out of this storm, and to outlive our enemies. At any rate, this is what those who stay are going to try to do, me included.

 

I stopped, looking at the eyes of three soldiers’ right next to me. I flashed a smile to them, and all their tension seemed to go amiss, their doubts gone.

 

- I can’t blame you for being the first to lose heart if I, your commander, will not share in your exhausting marches and your perilous campaigns; it would have been natural enough if you do all the work merely for others to reap the reward. But it is not so. You and I, gentlemen, will share the labor and share the danger, and the rewards are for us all. Not for the ones in this room, but for their families, and not only to their families, but the families of their families, as well as the world.

 

And then I started walking again.

 

- This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country. This war is a worldwide war. All the mistakes, all the delays, all the suffering, do not alter the fact that there are, in the world, all the means necessary to crush our enemies one day. Vanquished today by mechanical force, in the future we will be able to overcome by a superior mechanical force. The fate of the world depends on it.

 

- Luck is not on our side. Technology is not on our side. Numbers are not on our side, but if we fight, If we do not give up. We will endure, so… Who is with me?

 

The screams and shouts of my people were the confirmation, that couldn’t have worked better. Of all the men and woman that heard that discuss, none left, all stayed with me – ready for war.

 

And that my friend, was my first victory.

 

< RECORDING FINISHED . . .

< DO YOU WISH TO TERMINATE PROCESS?

[Y]/[N]

[Space Voyager]

[N]!