Vigilo, Confido - An XCOM RP (Open/PM for Entry) (Started)
- Thread starter The Critic
- Start date
"Huh. Well how 'Bout that. I guess I owe my ol' buddy Earl an apology. I never believed him when he told me he saw an alien on his camping trip." Daryl said in his deep voice obscured by his fairly thick southern accent. He rubbed his thick beard like he always had when he was thinking. "Do we have a good idea of what these aliens look like or are we the ones who are meant to find out? I kinda doubt they are little grey men like in the ol' movies i watch on the television late at night."
Today was not Alex's day. His regiment's commanding officer had just been called a superstitious lunatic, he had been openly mocked as a coward by the brass in this outfit and now he was being informed that he was about to go and fight little green men with much more sophisticated technology, if the rumours were true. He could feel his hands starting to become clammy as he slid his face into his open palms. Sure, he had a little more kick when he was sprinting and his intuition was abnormally accurate, but there were dozens of soldiers who had records far beyond anything Alex could imagine himself accomplishing. So why was he here among the best of the best?
After a moment Alex straightened up, ready to absorb as much information as possible. If he was stuck here, he might as well try and live through the experience rather than be cannon fodder like the rest of his former squad envisioned him as.
After a moment Alex straightened up, ready to absorb as much information as possible. If he was stuck here, he might as well try and live through the experience rather than be cannon fodder like the rest of his former squad envisioned him as.
Baxter smiled,
"So, tell me, do we have support from Zeus? The smurfs are acting as field intelligence, right? You guys are secretly werewolves." His smile lessened from the rest of the groups apparent belief,
"I stopped believing in aliens when I was 15, this can't be real." he shook his head,
"You know what, give me any shred of evidence to the contrary, and I'll come with. Hell, I'll fight them in a fucking tutu. Blurry photos of lights in the sky don't count."
"So, tell me, do we have support from Zeus? The smurfs are acting as field intelligence, right? You guys are secretly werewolves." His smile lessened from the rest of the groups apparent belief,
"I stopped believing in aliens when I was 15, this can't be real." he shook his head,
"You know what, give me any shred of evidence to the contrary, and I'll come with. Hell, I'll fight them in a fucking tutu. Blurry photos of lights in the sky don't count."
23:10 (UTC +1)
February 2th, 2015
XCOM Headquarters
"Indeed, Monsieur Bracken, the recent rumors are not -oaxes. The -oax claims were generated by the Council with the purpose of suppressing the possibility of global panic." Attano turned his attention to the large American "And as for information regarding the aliens, Monsieur Vanson, we -ave precious little of it. Our enemy is unknown, I'm afraid."
Attano looked from face to face, trying to gauge the emotions of each recruit. For the most part, there wasn't much in the way of skepticism, but poor Summers did look rather distraught. Attano's eyes flicked to Hagen, then back to Summers. The Central Officer had a good deal more experience in motivating troops than he did, so perhaps it would be best to let her speak to Summers after the briefing.
"So, tell me, do we..."
Oh, no.....so much for the lack of skepicism. Of course, it's that American Yates...
Before the Commander could respond, Hagen had stepped up and began speaking in a mocking (but, as she would always insist, not mean-spirited) tone. "We have all of that and more, Mr. Yates" she said, as a wicked grin began to form on her face. Lucas could already tell where this was going. "We even have some very interesting, very expensive toys to help you out when you go charging in blind to see what the enemy looks like. Do you know...."
She was cut off by the Commander coughing and clearing his throat. "Ahem, yes, thank you, Central Officer. If you wish to see proof, Monsieur Yates, I can provide that."
With that, Attano began manipulating the small tablet computer that he carried with him in his Jacket pocket. The Situation Room's screen came to life, and a map of the Middle East appeared.
"This is a radar map of the Mid-East. Approximately two days ago, an American Air Force F/A-22 Raptor was flying a patrol over the Persian Gulf from an airfield in Saudi Arabia" the appropriate emblems and icons appeared on the map, beginning a symbol-based reenactment of the events in question "An unknown radar contact was made at 01:24 Local time. The Raptor set itself on an intercept course, but the contact quickly began to speed away as soon as the fighter closed to within missile range. the Raptor pursued, -aving to go to afterburners to keep pace. It attempted to get a weapon lock, but the pilot reported the wing being struck by an unknown force before a launch could be made. The aircraft was nearly lost, but the pilot managed to recover control and brought the crippled craft back to base. This was what the result of the failed interception was."
An image appeared of the plane in question parked in a hanger. It's left wing had a rather large hole torn in it towards the leading edge (several smaller ones dotted the wing, suggesting some form of explosive force had been at play), but the strange part was the nature of the holes. Rather than having the jagged edges that were tell-tale signs of a missile impact or flak, the edges of the impact hole (and the secondary holes) were unbelievably smooth, as if the metal had been flash-melted from the impact, only to cool back down in the resulting dive that the aircraft entered immidiately after it was hit.
"No weapon developed on this planet is capable of inflicting damage like that. If you want a scientific explanation as to why, I suggest that you ask Dr. Vahlen in the Research Labs. If, -owever, you still require convincing, then -ere is a report from the Phillipines detailing a strange skirmish on an isolated island settlement."
The text, as well as the images that had greeted Lucas at his computer screen less than a week ago now filled the screen in the Situation room. The bizarre wounds on some of the dead, the inexplicable burn marks on the structures of the settlement, and finally, the knife, covered in yellowish-green blood.
"As a final note, perhaps you would like to see this photograph, sent to us by your National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was taken by the Cassini probe in orbit around Saturn."
The Cassini image appeared, with the blown-up protion taking up much of the screen.
"Tell me, Monsieur, what do you make of that object? It is small and blurry, I know, but would you not say that it is far too uniform in shape and color to be a meteor?"
Hagen spoke up again, now. Her voice was very even-tempered, an attept to convey empathy with the recruits. "Is anyone still doubting this? Trust me, I know it's hard to believe, but it's real."
February 2th, 2015
XCOM Headquarters
"Indeed, Monsieur Bracken, the recent rumors are not -oaxes. The -oax claims were generated by the Council with the purpose of suppressing the possibility of global panic." Attano turned his attention to the large American "And as for information regarding the aliens, Monsieur Vanson, we -ave precious little of it. Our enemy is unknown, I'm afraid."
Attano looked from face to face, trying to gauge the emotions of each recruit. For the most part, there wasn't much in the way of skepticism, but poor Summers did look rather distraught. Attano's eyes flicked to Hagen, then back to Summers. The Central Officer had a good deal more experience in motivating troops than he did, so perhaps it would be best to let her speak to Summers after the briefing.
"So, tell me, do we..."
Oh, no.....so much for the lack of skepicism. Of course, it's that American Yates...
Before the Commander could respond, Hagen had stepped up and began speaking in a mocking (but, as she would always insist, not mean-spirited) tone. "We have all of that and more, Mr. Yates" she said, as a wicked grin began to form on her face. Lucas could already tell where this was going. "We even have some very interesting, very expensive toys to help you out when you go charging in blind to see what the enemy looks like. Do you know...."
She was cut off by the Commander coughing and clearing his throat. "Ahem, yes, thank you, Central Officer. If you wish to see proof, Monsieur Yates, I can provide that."
With that, Attano began manipulating the small tablet computer that he carried with him in his Jacket pocket. The Situation Room's screen came to life, and a map of the Middle East appeared.
"This is a radar map of the Mid-East. Approximately two days ago, an American Air Force F/A-22 Raptor was flying a patrol over the Persian Gulf from an airfield in Saudi Arabia" the appropriate emblems and icons appeared on the map, beginning a symbol-based reenactment of the events in question "An unknown radar contact was made at 01:24 Local time. The Raptor set itself on an intercept course, but the contact quickly began to speed away as soon as the fighter closed to within missile range. the Raptor pursued, -aving to go to afterburners to keep pace. It attempted to get a weapon lock, but the pilot reported the wing being struck by an unknown force before a launch could be made. The aircraft was nearly lost, but the pilot managed to recover control and brought the crippled craft back to base. This was what the result of the failed interception was."
An image appeared of the plane in question parked in a hanger. It's left wing had a rather large hole torn in it towards the leading edge (several smaller ones dotted the wing, suggesting some form of explosive force had been at play), but the strange part was the nature of the holes. Rather than having the jagged edges that were tell-tale signs of a missile impact or flak, the edges of the impact hole (and the secondary holes) were unbelievably smooth, as if the metal had been flash-melted from the impact, only to cool back down in the resulting dive that the aircraft entered immidiately after it was hit.
"No weapon developed on this planet is capable of inflicting damage like that. If you want a scientific explanation as to why, I suggest that you ask Dr. Vahlen in the Research Labs. If, -owever, you still require convincing, then -ere is a report from the Phillipines detailing a strange skirmish on an isolated island settlement."
The text, as well as the images that had greeted Lucas at his computer screen less than a week ago now filled the screen in the Situation room. The bizarre wounds on some of the dead, the inexplicable burn marks on the structures of the settlement, and finally, the knife, covered in yellowish-green blood.
"As a final note, perhaps you would like to see this photograph, sent to us by your National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was taken by the Cassini probe in orbit around Saturn."
The Cassini image appeared, with the blown-up protion taking up much of the screen.
"Tell me, Monsieur, what do you make of that object? It is small and blurry, I know, but would you not say that it is far too uniform in shape and color to be a meteor?"
Hagen spoke up again, now. Her voice was very even-tempered, an attept to convey empathy with the recruits. "Is anyone still doubting this? Trust me, I know it's hard to believe, but it's real."
Razvan had doubled back quickly from his escapade to the hangar, just in time to see the Commander welcoming them to the XCOM. Damn it, they seemed to have started earlier than I thought. he thought to himself. Looking at the photographs of the damaged fighter plane he asked the Commander.
"Yes, I have a question, two in fact. Firstly, these UFOs must been pretty well built if they can travel in between planets so quickly. My question is how do we take them down because I assume shooting normal rockets at them is as useful as throwing rocks. Secondly did any of you manage to capture one of those 'aliens' because I am still curious what they look like up close."
"Yes, I have a question, two in fact. Firstly, these UFOs must been pretty well built if they can travel in between planets so quickly. My question is how do we take them down because I assume shooting normal rockets at them is as useful as throwing rocks. Secondly did any of you manage to capture one of those 'aliens' because I am still curious what they look like up close."
"The enemy is unknown? Better get a mighty big weapon then." He said without a hint of worry. He leaned back in his chair. He pondered about what the creatures would appear as. Tentacled abominations? Humanoid? Cyborgs? Eh they all splatter the same. His thoughts wandered. When would he get the cold steel of a gun in his hands again? Its been quite a while.
23:20 (UTC +1)
February 25th, 2015
XCOM Headquaters
"As I said earlier, Monsieur Tanase, we know next to nothing about the threat we face. To your question, Monsieur Bracken, we did managed to get a chemical analysis of the blood from the knife. I'm sure that Dr. Vahlen could give a better explaination, but the gist of it is that the blood was highly toxic, but still blood. Unfortunately, that tells us precious little about the creature whose blood it is. Now..."
The Commander stopped himself when he noticed the door to the situation room slide open and a late-comer recruit do her level best to quietly slink inside. Unfortunately for the recruit, Central Officer Hagen was equally observant.
"HEY!" she shouted, as the whole audience turned to face the new arrival.
After an uncomfortable second or two of silence, Commander Attano cleared his throat. "Ahem. Take a seat, Mademoiselle Labelle. The briefing is being recorded, if you're interested in catching up. No doubt you at least caught the news of the day, I'm sure. Please, sit. I was just answering question now. Feel free to ask any you may have."
"Uh, I have one." came a whisper off to the Commander's side, from Hagen "Who's she?"
"She is another recruit that I had Golovko fly in. Corset Boulian Labelle." Attano whispered back.
"...you didn't recruit her just because she's..."
"No, I did not recruit one of my countrymen just because of nationality, she's quite qualified. And she's properly French, anyways, not like that turncoat from Strasbourg that runs the Research Labs..." Lucas cut himself off before going any further.
"So you did recruit her because..."
Not wanting to continue digging himself deeper, Lucas did the only sensible thing that he could think of: put Hagen on the spot. "Monsieur Tanase, you had questions about -ow we are going to combat our enemy in the air, oui? Central Officer -agen will answer them for you."
With that, Attano quickly shuffled off to the side, past Hagen, who shot him a look and a mischivious smile, while shaking her head. She pointed at him as he passed, then strode to the center of the Situation Room.
"So, Tanase, you wanted to know how we're planning to fight the X-Rays, right? Well, to answer your question about how tough these things are, we honestly don't know, but we have no reason to believe that our current weapons are completely useless. Remember, the contact that the USAF pursued still ran once it got spiked by search radar. If it was trying to avoid being shot down, despite being pursued by a more low-tech foe, that would seem to indicate that our missiles are more effective than rocks, as you say. Besides, you are going to be flying and shooting the best that this planet can give you, anyways. Let me see here..."
Hagen reached down to a case on her belt and retrieved her own small tablet computer, and began to manipulate it. The screen behind her began to display a wire-frame model of an advanced military jet that no one in the assembled crowd of recruits had ever seen before.
"This is the FI-340, or, as we call it, the Raven. Most advanced fighter ever developed...on Earth. 4 engines, a scramjet booster, and armed with the best terrestrially-developed missiles in history, the AAM-920, or Avalanche. We're also working on adapting it to use a heavily-modified rotary cannon that we call the Pheonix, but we're still working on that. It most likely isn't as good as what the X-Rays have, but we're not defenceless." Hagen beamed.
"Anyone else have any questions, or tutu donations for Yates?" Hagen said, grinning as she spoke the last bit of the scentence.
February 25th, 2015
XCOM Headquaters
"As I said earlier, Monsieur Tanase, we know next to nothing about the threat we face. To your question, Monsieur Bracken, we did managed to get a chemical analysis of the blood from the knife. I'm sure that Dr. Vahlen could give a better explaination, but the gist of it is that the blood was highly toxic, but still blood. Unfortunately, that tells us precious little about the creature whose blood it is. Now..."
The Commander stopped himself when he noticed the door to the situation room slide open and a late-comer recruit do her level best to quietly slink inside. Unfortunately for the recruit, Central Officer Hagen was equally observant.
"HEY!" she shouted, as the whole audience turned to face the new arrival.
After an uncomfortable second or two of silence, Commander Attano cleared his throat. "Ahem. Take a seat, Mademoiselle Labelle. The briefing is being recorded, if you're interested in catching up. No doubt you at least caught the news of the day, I'm sure. Please, sit. I was just answering question now. Feel free to ask any you may have."
"Uh, I have one." came a whisper off to the Commander's side, from Hagen "Who's she?"
"She is another recruit that I had Golovko fly in. Corset Boulian Labelle." Attano whispered back.
"...you didn't recruit her just because she's..."
"No, I did not recruit one of my countrymen just because of nationality, she's quite qualified. And she's properly French, anyways, not like that turncoat from Strasbourg that runs the Research Labs..." Lucas cut himself off before going any further.
"So you did recruit her because..."
Not wanting to continue digging himself deeper, Lucas did the only sensible thing that he could think of: put Hagen on the spot. "Monsieur Tanase, you had questions about -ow we are going to combat our enemy in the air, oui? Central Officer -agen will answer them for you."
With that, Attano quickly shuffled off to the side, past Hagen, who shot him a look and a mischivious smile, while shaking her head. She pointed at him as he passed, then strode to the center of the Situation Room.
"So, Tanase, you wanted to know how we're planning to fight the X-Rays, right? Well, to answer your question about how tough these things are, we honestly don't know, but we have no reason to believe that our current weapons are completely useless. Remember, the contact that the USAF pursued still ran once it got spiked by search radar. If it was trying to avoid being shot down, despite being pursued by a more low-tech foe, that would seem to indicate that our missiles are more effective than rocks, as you say. Besides, you are going to be flying and shooting the best that this planet can give you, anyways. Let me see here..."
Hagen reached down to a case on her belt and retrieved her own small tablet computer, and began to manipulate it. The screen behind her began to display a wire-frame model of an advanced military jet that no one in the assembled crowd of recruits had ever seen before.
"This is the FI-340, or, as we call it, the Raven. Most advanced fighter ever developed...on Earth. 4 engines, a scramjet booster, and armed with the best terrestrially-developed missiles in history, the AAM-920, or Avalanche. We're also working on adapting it to use a heavily-modified rotary cannon that we call the Pheonix, but we're still working on that. It most likely isn't as good as what the X-Rays have, but we're not defenceless." Hagen beamed.
"Anyone else have any questions, or tutu donations for Yates?" Hagen said, grinning as she spoke the last bit of the scentence.
"I have a question," Alex piped up after observing the exchanges. "Why are we asking things that we have obvious answers for? Or rather, why do you keep telling us what we don't have, rather than what we do have?"
He let the pair of rhetorical questions hang in the air for a few moments before continuing.
"That F-22 wing. It wasn't hit with normal ballistics like bullets or a missile; the cut's too clean. There's also residual splash with similar damage marks. It was seared through, but not in a precise manner like a laser. Acid could account for the splash but would probably warp the metal around the impact zones. It would have to be a pure, unrestrained burst of energy like plasma or controlled fission."
"Considering that these 'X-Rays'" Alex stressed the term with his own air quotes "have access to energy based weaponry, it's probably safe to assume that they have similar defensive capabilities. Something like force fields. It would at least explain how they survived interstellar travel being able to block matter. It would also means they've mastered cold fusion, something we thought physically impossible. So unless that rotary cannon is firing nukes or that jet is made of something not on the periodic table, we're not winning in the air."
"Now, the skirmish brings up a couple of interesting tactical points too. One is that we know our enemy prefers to engage at a distance, which would be why no one could pin them down. A sound tactical decision when you have portable plasma weaponry, which explains the focused but splattered burn wounds and scorch marks left behind. Our one advantage seems to be that my hypothesized defensive technology doesn't extend to the individual soldier, hopefully, as one of the locals clearly got a good swipe with that knife. I doubt someone would have chanced the close combat encounter unless it was apparent that going into CQB would be beneficial."
"So what kind of yield are we looking at in those AAM-920s? Again, we're talking heavy payload nukes just to even get through energy based shielding, let alone whatever alloy they've developed for their ships to survive potential plasma leaks. How are we taking advantage of the supposed physical weakness or unpreparedness of our enemies in close-quarters? Cause, funny you should ask, but last time I checked kevlar barely stops a grenade, let alone nuclear generated heat. And what about even detection on these things? I know we can't just stick a Geiger counter up into the atmosphere but with that much controlled radiation around we must have some way of focusing in on their movements."
Alex sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between hire forefinger and thumb, closing his eyes for a moment to try and wipe the apparent stress from his now wavering voice of concern.
"All I'm saying is that we seem to be reacting in the worst way possible because we're not analyzing our tactical position, which is apparent with all the shoulder shrugging going on..." he let the last phrase hang for a bit as his retort to the earlier comments Officer Hagen and Commander Attano had made, "...Sirs."
He let the pair of rhetorical questions hang in the air for a few moments before continuing.
"That F-22 wing. It wasn't hit with normal ballistics like bullets or a missile; the cut's too clean. There's also residual splash with similar damage marks. It was seared through, but not in a precise manner like a laser. Acid could account for the splash but would probably warp the metal around the impact zones. It would have to be a pure, unrestrained burst of energy like plasma or controlled fission."
"Considering that these 'X-Rays'" Alex stressed the term with his own air quotes "have access to energy based weaponry, it's probably safe to assume that they have similar defensive capabilities. Something like force fields. It would at least explain how they survived interstellar travel being able to block matter. It would also means they've mastered cold fusion, something we thought physically impossible. So unless that rotary cannon is firing nukes or that jet is made of something not on the periodic table, we're not winning in the air."
"Now, the skirmish brings up a couple of interesting tactical points too. One is that we know our enemy prefers to engage at a distance, which would be why no one could pin them down. A sound tactical decision when you have portable plasma weaponry, which explains the focused but splattered burn wounds and scorch marks left behind. Our one advantage seems to be that my hypothesized defensive technology doesn't extend to the individual soldier, hopefully, as one of the locals clearly got a good swipe with that knife. I doubt someone would have chanced the close combat encounter unless it was apparent that going into CQB would be beneficial."
"So what kind of yield are we looking at in those AAM-920s? Again, we're talking heavy payload nukes just to even get through energy based shielding, let alone whatever alloy they've developed for their ships to survive potential plasma leaks. How are we taking advantage of the supposed physical weakness or unpreparedness of our enemies in close-quarters? Cause, funny you should ask, but last time I checked kevlar barely stops a grenade, let alone nuclear generated heat. And what about even detection on these things? I know we can't just stick a Geiger counter up into the atmosphere but with that much controlled radiation around we must have some way of focusing in on their movements."
Alex sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between hire forefinger and thumb, closing his eyes for a moment to try and wipe the apparent stress from his now wavering voice of concern.
"All I'm saying is that we seem to be reacting in the worst way possible because we're not analyzing our tactical position, which is apparent with all the shoulder shrugging going on..." he let the last phrase hang for a bit as his retort to the earlier comments Officer Hagen and Commander Attano had made, "...Sirs."
23:27 (UTC +1)
February 25th, 2015
XCOM Headquarters
The room was silent for a long moment in the wake of Summers' outburst. Attano and Hagen shared a look, both arching eyebrows. Both were quite surprised by the Canadian's words, and perhaps slightly saddened. Brit, however, seemed to be the only one of the two to actually show any outward indication of any of this, though.
It's amazing how a kid with only 4 years of military experience, none of it particularly distinguished, feels the need to lecture us. Kid doesn't even have a university degree, and he's making "hypotheses" like this. Shame Dr. Vahlen isn't here, I'd love to hear what she thinks of this guy talking out of his ass. Oh.....damn it. Look at me, picking the poor guy apart for no good reason. He's just on edge, probably. Hell, we all are; I can hardly blame him for that. Why's he so confrontational with us, anyways? - Wait.....Oh. Oh, no....he heard me and Luc talking about him, didn't he? Damn it! He probably took it poorly, who wouldn't? Argh, I should probably talk with him after this, put him at ease. Better to have happy, motivated soldiers, right? Poor kid's probably going through a lot right now...
Hagen stepped back up to her speaking position, clearing her head of extraneous thoughts as she did so.
"Our "shoulder-shrugging", Mr. Summers, is due to the fact that we don't want to fall prey to what you've just done: Assumption. The points you bring up are, and there's no other word for it, conjecture, plain and simple. You have to understand, when we said that we know little about our enemy, we mean it. That's the point we've been trying to make for the past half-hour. We can look at what little evidence we have and spend days trying to draw inferences from it, but at the end of the day, we are still in the dark." Hagen's perpetually sunny and playful demeanour began to falter now, her face took on a more pleading expression "Please, don't take our lack of a clear picture as a lack of resolve or a lack of competance, we're trying to do our best with this. It's just that we literally have next to nothing to go on. To address your points; we don't know if the aliens have shields on their ships, because we have only one reported encounter with them, from an aircraft that wasn't ours. We can't say that they don't, but we can't say that they do, either. Same thing with their supposed power source. And it's a similar case with their weapons, their technology, and even the aliens themselves. That's our bottom line: until we actually encounter these things more directly, we might as well be telling a bedtime story. The situation sucks, I know, but it's the hand we've been dealt."
Hagen looked out at the assembled recruits, then looked at Summers in particular. "Since that's the case, we just have to work with the tools we have, which I'm afraid, isn't a whole lot. We have our fighters, our transports, weapons and armor for troops, a satellite or two, and, most importantly, good people. We just don't know what we're going up against." Hagen's tone was far more somber than it had been at any point today "So we're going to do what we can do. We're going to fight the way we know how to fight, operate the way we know how to operate. Then, once we meet the enemy, once we begin to learn, then we'll begin to adapt. But untill then, all we can do is just try and prepare for what we think is most likely, and hope that we're ready."
With that, Hagen stopped, looked at the crowd, and then started back towards the side of the screen, to let Lucas take control of the briefing again. She faultered slightly as she walked, the pain in her leg flaring up again, but she tried her best to look dignified, to put on a brave face for the troops. Attano toke to the center.
"While I was -oping that this briefing would stay away from such....negativity, Monsieur Summers and Central Officer -agen -ave both brought an important fact to light: we lack knowledge of our enemy. As such, your duties are more than just those of simple soldiers and pilots. You are investigators, searchers, explorers. Through your efforts, not only will we combat the enemy, we will learn of the enemy, and grow in our ability to fight -im." The Commander sighed, the length of the day getting to him "I believe, then, that this would be a good time to end the briefing, if there are no further questions."
February 25th, 2015
XCOM Headquarters
The room was silent for a long moment in the wake of Summers' outburst. Attano and Hagen shared a look, both arching eyebrows. Both were quite surprised by the Canadian's words, and perhaps slightly saddened. Brit, however, seemed to be the only one of the two to actually show any outward indication of any of this, though.
It's amazing how a kid with only 4 years of military experience, none of it particularly distinguished, feels the need to lecture us. Kid doesn't even have a university degree, and he's making "hypotheses" like this. Shame Dr. Vahlen isn't here, I'd love to hear what she thinks of this guy talking out of his ass. Oh.....damn it. Look at me, picking the poor guy apart for no good reason. He's just on edge, probably. Hell, we all are; I can hardly blame him for that. Why's he so confrontational with us, anyways? - Wait.....Oh. Oh, no....he heard me and Luc talking about him, didn't he? Damn it! He probably took it poorly, who wouldn't? Argh, I should probably talk with him after this, put him at ease. Better to have happy, motivated soldiers, right? Poor kid's probably going through a lot right now...
Hagen stepped back up to her speaking position, clearing her head of extraneous thoughts as she did so.
"Our "shoulder-shrugging", Mr. Summers, is due to the fact that we don't want to fall prey to what you've just done: Assumption. The points you bring up are, and there's no other word for it, conjecture, plain and simple. You have to understand, when we said that we know little about our enemy, we mean it. That's the point we've been trying to make for the past half-hour. We can look at what little evidence we have and spend days trying to draw inferences from it, but at the end of the day, we are still in the dark." Hagen's perpetually sunny and playful demeanour began to falter now, her face took on a more pleading expression "Please, don't take our lack of a clear picture as a lack of resolve or a lack of competance, we're trying to do our best with this. It's just that we literally have next to nothing to go on. To address your points; we don't know if the aliens have shields on their ships, because we have only one reported encounter with them, from an aircraft that wasn't ours. We can't say that they don't, but we can't say that they do, either. Same thing with their supposed power source. And it's a similar case with their weapons, their technology, and even the aliens themselves. That's our bottom line: until we actually encounter these things more directly, we might as well be telling a bedtime story. The situation sucks, I know, but it's the hand we've been dealt."
Hagen looked out at the assembled recruits, then looked at Summers in particular. "Since that's the case, we just have to work with the tools we have, which I'm afraid, isn't a whole lot. We have our fighters, our transports, weapons and armor for troops, a satellite or two, and, most importantly, good people. We just don't know what we're going up against." Hagen's tone was far more somber than it had been at any point today "So we're going to do what we can do. We're going to fight the way we know how to fight, operate the way we know how to operate. Then, once we meet the enemy, once we begin to learn, then we'll begin to adapt. But untill then, all we can do is just try and prepare for what we think is most likely, and hope that we're ready."
With that, Hagen stopped, looked at the crowd, and then started back towards the side of the screen, to let Lucas take control of the briefing again. She faultered slightly as she walked, the pain in her leg flaring up again, but she tried her best to look dignified, to put on a brave face for the troops. Attano toke to the center.
"While I was -oping that this briefing would stay away from such....negativity, Monsieur Summers and Central Officer -agen -ave both brought an important fact to light: we lack knowledge of our enemy. As such, your duties are more than just those of simple soldiers and pilots. You are investigators, searchers, explorers. Through your efforts, not only will we combat the enemy, we will learn of the enemy, and grow in our ability to fight -im." The Commander sighed, the length of the day getting to him "I believe, then, that this would be a good time to end the briefing, if there are no further questions."
Colina kept a wide view of the briefing from the back as it went on, her arms crossed and posture ridged. She wasn't as shocked as she thought she would be at the revelation that they would be shooting down aliens.
Then again, it made a strange kind of sense. In the past Colina had attended quite a few international aerospace conventions and flight competitions, and everyone who had anything to do with flying knew someone who had a story: a strange reflected flash on the horizon; a radar contact that moved impossibly then vanished in a second; radio interference miles from where there should be none. The long and lonely hours zooming over the earth made one acutely aware of just how small the earth, and humanity, was. Why wouldn't there be something else out there? It really wasn't all that surprising at all when you thought of it like that.
Colina was well aware that the commanders didn't seem to want to answer any more questions, they seemed to really dislike that outburst of... negativity. But there was still something that she and others needed to know. When she spoke up her voice still carried a fair amount of her accent, but it was mostly void of emotion. This wasn't some personal curiosity, it was something a consummate professional would need to know.
"So we don't know much about them. Fine. What about us then? How many wings O' these Ravens have we got? How many basses like this one?"
Then again, it made a strange kind of sense. In the past Colina had attended quite a few international aerospace conventions and flight competitions, and everyone who had anything to do with flying knew someone who had a story: a strange reflected flash on the horizon; a radar contact that moved impossibly then vanished in a second; radio interference miles from where there should be none. The long and lonely hours zooming over the earth made one acutely aware of just how small the earth, and humanity, was. Why wouldn't there be something else out there? It really wasn't all that surprising at all when you thought of it like that.
Colina was well aware that the commanders didn't seem to want to answer any more questions, they seemed to really dislike that outburst of... negativity. But there was still something that she and others needed to know. When she spoke up her voice still carried a fair amount of her accent, but it was mostly void of emotion. This wasn't some personal curiosity, it was something a consummate professional would need to know.
"So we don't know much about them. Fine. What about us then? How many wings O' these Ravens have we got? How many basses like this one?"
Daryl mused about his kids. About how hard the divorce was on them. About all of the times he should have just let something go but insisted on fighting about it with his wife. About the families of all the people he killed in battle. Living without their fathers or mothers or husbands or wives. Maybe he could make for it. Maybe this would be his penance. Protecting them from what ever was coming. Shielding them from the eventual horrors of full invasion. Unimaginable death. A deep sadness rolled over him. Shown to any others only by his eyes. He shook it off. "So when will we see some action. Is there already something going down or do we have to wait for it to hit the fan somewhere?"
"So when will we see some action. Is there already something going down or do we have to weight for it to hit the fan somewhere?"
"I'd guess we're waiting if we have time to ask questions about something so serious."
"I'd guess we're waiting if we have time to ask questions about something so serious."
"I'd guess we're waiting if we have time to ask questions about something so serious."
Daryl looked toward him and said, "Well I figured that maybe they wanted to make sure we knew everything we needed to before sending us out to battle. Better us to take a few extra minutes and be prepared then sending us all in blind to a combat against aliens with more advanced tech then us."
Daryl looked toward him and said, "Well I figured that maybe they wanted to make sure we knew everything we needed to before sending us out to battle. Better us to take a few extra minutes and be prepared then sending us all in blind to a combat against aliens with more advanced tech then us."
"Well I figured that maybe they wanted to make sure we knew everything we needed to before sending us out to battle. Better us to take a few extra minutes and be prepared then sending us all in blind to a combat against aliens with more advanced tech then us."
"They gave us time to wander the base as well. If somewhere was under attack right now and they knew it we would have been pumped with drugs to keep us aware, quickly briefed and sent out. Unless they already have another team out there in combat, but that would usually mean that the CO would be overseeing something so vital as contact with ET."
"They gave us time to wander the base as well. If somewhere was under attack right now and they knew it we would have been pumped with drugs to keep us aware, quickly briefed and sent out. Unless they already have another team out there in combat, but that would usually mean that the CO would be overseeing something so vital as contact with ET."
Captcha: weylan yutani
Just thought it was relevant.
Just thought it was relevant.
23:43 (UTC +1)
February 25th, 2015
XCOM Headquarters
"For you, Campbell, you and Tanase shall be flying the two Ravens that we have on-sight here. We have smaller satellite facilities on every continent on Earth, subtracting Antartica." Commander Attano announced, taking back control of the briefing "Now, we have no way of striking the enemy, at least at the moment. So, for the time being, we are stuck in the inevitable position of only being able to respond. Now, that concludes this briefing, you are all dismissed."
With that, The crowd began to filter out of the Situation Room. Followed by the Commander and the Central Officer.
"I think that Summers overheard us" Hagen said to Attano, as soon as the recruits were safely out of earshot.
"Unfortunate, but perhaps not very surprising. It shouldn't matter very much, he is a soldier, he needs to follow orders."
"I think that he's going to be a morale problem if he's left unchecked."
"I'm aware that one unhappy soldier can defeat an entire army from within, but are you certain that -e will be such a serious problem? Such a small slighting, relative to all things, -e would have to be incredibly thin-skinned to be affected by that to such a degree."
"Still, I want to talk to him. Put him at ease. Remind him that we're all on the same side, that their shouldn't be any bad blood between us."
"As you wish, Brit. It is your decision, and your time."
"I'll talk to him. Thankfully, the rest of the recruits seem to be on-board."
"I agree, I am quite pleasently surprised that we have such good troops at our command."
"Good soldiers, and they're looking for a good commander to lead them."
Attano looked down for a moment, his voice becoming somber "I only -ope that I am up to the responsibility."
February 25th, 2015
XCOM Headquarters
"For you, Campbell, you and Tanase shall be flying the two Ravens that we have on-sight here. We have smaller satellite facilities on every continent on Earth, subtracting Antartica." Commander Attano announced, taking back control of the briefing "Now, we have no way of striking the enemy, at least at the moment. So, for the time being, we are stuck in the inevitable position of only being able to respond. Now, that concludes this briefing, you are all dismissed."
With that, The crowd began to filter out of the Situation Room. Followed by the Commander and the Central Officer.
"I think that Summers overheard us" Hagen said to Attano, as soon as the recruits were safely out of earshot.
"Unfortunate, but perhaps not very surprising. It shouldn't matter very much, he is a soldier, he needs to follow orders."
"I think that he's going to be a morale problem if he's left unchecked."
"I'm aware that one unhappy soldier can defeat an entire army from within, but are you certain that -e will be such a serious problem? Such a small slighting, relative to all things, -e would have to be incredibly thin-skinned to be affected by that to such a degree."
"Still, I want to talk to him. Put him at ease. Remind him that we're all on the same side, that their shouldn't be any bad blood between us."
"As you wish, Brit. It is your decision, and your time."
"I'll talk to him. Thankfully, the rest of the recruits seem to be on-board."
"I agree, I am quite pleasently surprised that we have such good troops at our command."
"Good soldiers, and they're looking for a good commander to lead them."
Attano looked down for a moment, his voice becoming somber "I only -ope that I am up to the responsibility."
Alright, I think that we should time-skip to the first mission now. Take one post to settle in/build character/interact, then we skip. Sound good?
Thomas silently took in everything he could during the briefing that was relevant. Once it was over, he made his way out of the situation room and finally took one of the rooms in the barracks. Early the next morning, he spent a few hours in the gym before familiarizing himself with the weapons available in the armory.