May 3rd, 2024
East Asian Regional Headquarters
XCOM Commander
Audio Entry #56
Pushing ADVENT forces off from our world was just the beginning of the end of our War with the Aliens. Perhaps...sigh...perhaps there was never supposed to be an end for us. Just a War. Constant. Never ending. To be restarted over and over again after each failure until we reached a desirable outcome. Except that outcome didn't exist anymore. Not even the slightest bit.
After ADVENT had been routed from our homes, the Resistance was all there was to keep the world running. We were getting too arrogant. Believing ourselves to be the only ones who could bring humanity back to what it was.
The War that followed after, dissidents unhappy with the way XCOM was running things, or power hungry factions who saw an opportunity, quickly tore what was left of our home to ruins. The Avenger was forced to dock in DC, the only real defensible location left on the map, and for the first time in decades XCOM personnel were up against humans. Not brainwashed EXALT cannon fodder, or mind controlled XCOM soldiers, but humans. People we were sworn to protect.
That day I believed too much in my sworn duty, and it cost me DC.
...From the ruins we managed to salvage something else. Records, sealed off and redacted under mountains of deliberate attempts to hide the information. Records of The Bureau, a past incarnation of XCOM, for a past alien invasion that I hadn't been informed of, that none of us knew, had been recovered from the wreckage of Washington.
I...it was a moment of painful realisation. I don't know what that realisation is. I'm at a loss. But it was there nonetheless.
I took what was left of my command to Site X-1 and we just...waited out the storm. The Command Centre was archaic and ill-matched to the 21st Century technology...but Shen got it working. Got the Geoscape operational inside the bunker, and from there I just...I just watched as mankind tore itself apart trying to reclaim some semblance of the world that was.
We found weapons and machinery leftover from the Bureau, The Zudjari weaponry was a welcome addition to the XCOM arsenal and Shen had a lot of time, and incentive, to focus the whole of her attention on the backpacks we found.
When the dust settled, well, all there was for us to do was find who was left and tried to rebuild. It was only after a while later that we realized ADVENT troopers leftover from the war and operating on orders sent out after ADVENT forces had been pushed off Earth, had a hand in spurring human forces against each other.
At that point I was resigned. We gathered as many survivors as we could, and repurposed most if not all of the remaining infrastructure to build the Zudjari Off-Earthship. A Colony ship that can take our people far away from Earth. From the war and the death and the destruction.
But that isn't good enough. We can't keep staying here. Not with aliens in every corner of the universe waiting to turn humanity into another test subject. We go elsewhere. Beyond that. Past the reach of whatever threats this world had done to us.
We go outside our Universe.
\V/
August 2nd 2025
East Asian Regional Headquarters
XCOM Executive Officer
Audio Entry #127
Construction of the Ark is nearing completion. A total of fifty thousand souls would soon be boarding the ship - more so if our second scan of the Earth reveal any more survivors. I hope it does. Fifty thousand seems just too little.
...I had spent the better part of a month to urge the Commander to consider the idea of building more Avenger-Class Carrier and Strategic Deployment Aircrafts. Fancy name Tygan cooked up. I...we...We've had our hopes betray us before. I'd rather we be prepared than caught with our pants down.
Thankfully the Commander has listened to my suggestion, and has developed and finished building three Avenger-Class aircrafts. Hopefully they'll be enough.
And while Shen deals with that business, I've Been training our soldiers. Getting them used to the laser and magnetic weaponry, and getting them ready to face the unknown. To face the absolution of our races existence.
I can't even imagine what Tygan is concocting in that head of his in trying to solve this particular mystery. It's times like this that I miss the original team. Moira and Shen...they deserved better. Shen deserved better. Moira at least deserved to be found, to be included in XCOM again. But she isn't. We never found her.
God help me.
\V/
September 12th 2025
South African Regional Headquarters
XCOM Head of Scientific Research
Audio Entry #500
The science here is beyond anything that I have ever dreamed of. A psionic tunnel barreling through the known dimensions to...to...I can't even begin to hypothesize. Let alone try and tap into its power in order to create a stable enough journey for our people.
The Commander asks of me the impossible...however, the impossible is what we'll need in order for us to survive. For us to thrive in any conceivable way in the future.
...Thinking back on all I've done over the years...despite the eventual end we had succumbed to, I do not regret my decision in leaving ADVENT in order to join the Resistance. I have seen too much to even parlay with any doubts I had to ADVENTs true intentions. Even so...I regret that we were not enough to save the human race.
The work I'm doing now. It's all the hope we have left. I cannot...will not allow myself to fail.
If only we had a second chance...but such notions are unbecoming of me. I will have it done Commander, and I will make sure not another soul is lost in the pursuit of it.
\V/
July 1st 2026
East Asian Regional Headquarters
XCOM Head of Engineering
Audio Entry #156
Dad, I don't know what would be going through your head if you were here. You missed out on so much, all of ours hopes and aspirations. It's been so long since I've talked to you like this and I just have so much to say...and I don't know if you'd like it.
When we found the Commander, all the things you've told me about him I found out was true. He was like a second reckoning of humanity. He didn't rest, he didn't tire, he worked endlessly to beat the aliens.
...But he wasn't inhuman. He stopped to talk, to live, to breath. I see him sometimes with Bradford, just talking. About the old days. Of you, and Vahlen, and them together fighting the good fight.
I think the Commander misses those days more than Bradford, however possible that is. He tries so hard Dad, like how you said. He tries so much and I think he feels too much. He values the soldiers under his command. Archaic values, duty, honor, service, and it hurts him whenever he loses someone, it hurts whenever he has to sacrifice someone for the fate of others. He hurts and he grieves, and he broods like how Bradford could never do, but he gets up and he keeps fighting and he keeps trying.
But after...after the ADVENT were pushed off...I was glad you weren't still here Dad. I didn't want you to see it.
When we landed on DC, we saw the remnants of the Washington National Guard, we saw the remnants of the heart of America, and we saw that remnant get turned to ash from a people who were divided even before the ADVENT came, and more so after the ADVENT left.
I watched Japan implode over itself as China scrambled to fight with Russia over whatever tech the aliens left behind. I watched ADVENT failsafes detonate across Europe and turned the British Isles into an irradiated heap.
I watched and I cried. I grieved more than I've ever grieved. But I am happy you weren't here to see it.
The Commander? I've never seen him look more broken. Bradford told me he heard screams in the Commander's quarters, furniture everywhere when we came in to look, and half a dozen bottles of alcohol scattered everywhere. The Commander didn't drink. Not until that day.
Now he's got us building that Ark. And he's so tired Dad. I can see it in him. He's so tired and he's done. He wants to start over. He wants to find a place where they can rebuild without the pain or the suffering or the death.
But despite all that. Despite all that he's been through. He's still fighting Dad. He's still helping people. He still cares. He still hurts.
Everything you said about the Commander was true Dad. And I wished you could be here to see that.
\V/
XCOM Memorial Site
A TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN
Audio Loop Entry
I am the Commander of what was once the Earth's Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or XCOM, for short. I am, perhaps will forever be, the last voice of humanity on this planet. What you are looking is the devastation not only brought on by ourselves and our own hubris, but by the outside invasion of alien threats.
If you are listening to this...chances are you are an alien yourself. I don't know if you are the ones that had a helping hand in our inevitable end, or if you're new explorers looking to find another friend out in the stars. Frankly I don't care.
Whatever grievances I've had with the world we've left behind, the heroes of humanity, and humanity itself, deserve to have some mark on their lost home. This memorial, this last striking note of a race that fought until the bitter end, is that mark.
The last of humanity have stepped on what we call the Ark, and we have left the Earth and this universe behind, for better pastures - or at least, we hope they would be better.
This is the Commander of XCOM, signing off for the last time, and for any aliens looking to find anything worth finding on Earth...well, you'll have to work fast. Tygan tells me that all that psionic energy exposed to our solar system's sun has caused it to decay at an accelerated rate. If you came into the system on conventional propulsions systems, you have maybe a decade to study and record who we were before it all ends.
If you came on psionic powered propulsion systems...well, good luck.
Field Report 1:
Captain Tania Degurrechaff
Commander, I'm sure you'll be getting this report soon after the Ark has been fully deposited on this strange new world Dr. Tygan's contraption has sent us. If all goes well, then you've been deposited somewhere in the Narrow Sea, much like how our Avenger, the Explorer, had been.
I've sent you a map of the local area as well as the coordinates to the location of our Avenger alongside this data cache. When it reaches you, I do hope you will make fast haste here. The month that my men have spent here has made them quite itchy, and wanting for more familiar and less hostile contact.
As per your orders, the Explorer maintained its objective of finding an area where we can safely deposit the civilians on board the Ark and provide a defensible location for any possible attack from the local life. We have also gathered as much intelligence as we can on them. That information will also be sent alongside this data cache; and I'm sure Dr. Tygan will be most fascinated with what we found.
As an aside Commander, do be wary to keep the Arks profile as discreet as possible. The natives have never seen flying vehicles like ours before, and the location we have chosen to house our fledgeling haven is an island chain known only as the Stepstones. The location is not ideal, and I fully understand if you were to decide on leaving the location for a better pick, however in considering what your orders were, I believed it would be the best place for your arrival, considering its relative closeness to the Narrow Sea.
You'll also have to forgive, because the Stepstones is actually a base of operation of pirates. My men and I have managed to drive off most of the pirates in our island, and have established automated turrets to scare off any would-be vengeance seekers, but it is something to be aware of.
End of Report.
\V/
Zero Hour
July 6 Zero Year
Ark Command Center
XCOM Commander
Audio Entry #59
I have never seen Tygan more animated than when he found the data packet that Captain Degurrechaff sent us. He's spent every waking hour trying to understand and carefully analyse the history of this new world we've found ourselves in.
I can't lie and say that I'm not the least bit interested in it either. Dragons? If it weren't for the fact that one of my Captains was vouching for the information, I would have thought it would be the superstitions of a backwater people. As it were, I have resigned myself again that the universe has deigned to reshape the rules of common sense around me.
I've had to adapt to a shifting landscape before, and I expected a snowball thrown my way when we reached the other side, but this wasn't one of the things I prepared myself for. Even Bradford seemed horribly stumped with what he had to parse through from the reports. At one point he asked me if it was possible the Aliens had actually won and was keeping them suspended in some drug juice that's putting us through loopy land.
What I would give for that to be true, but I've seen too much to believe that. So we plow ahead, facing our enemy and doing it the smart way. The XCOM way. We adapt, we win.
Vigilo. Confido.
\V/
The Black Arrow
Stepstone Pirate Den
Captain Daneal Harkeen
Journal Entry
It was like a blast of thunder and almighty vengeance unlike anything I had ever seen. A chariot of the Seven, the Warrior himself, came upon like a dread eagle looking to pluck all those sinful and decadent to sword.
Fire and blood was all I could see before I had the strength to run to my ship with my crew. Had I been a second slower, then may the Father forgive me, for I would not think I would be long for this world.
Even know I can hear the screams of the island as my fellows fought off metal knights that used the Faith's fury in their hands. I can still hear the rumbling of their great metal beast, demanding blood and sacrifice to appease its hunger.
I pray to Father to spare and the Mother to give me hope for a future. Never in my twenty years of pirating have I seen such death taken so callously. Even that blood horn Euron would have balked at what he saw. I will run, I will run from that horror for as long as I am living.
What monstrosity has been released upon the realm?
\V/
SQUADCOM
XCOM Strike Force
Frontal Assault Team
CPT: Captain Victoria Kendrick
LT: Lieutenant Emmanuel McEwen
SGT: Sergeant Tessa Koenig
CPL: Corporal Kane Thompson
Central: Executive Officer Bradford
CPT: The pirates seemed to have retreated deeper into the cave, should we pursue Central?
Central: Engage and eliminate, Captain. If all goes well the island will be free of the taint and we can set the Ark down on the western mountain range.
SGT: There's a cave system on the east end of the island, it seems the pirates were using it as a makeshift dock. There's a ton of coins and ships here, Sir.
Central: The Commander asks that you preserve them as much as you can. They may be useful in the future. In the meantime secure the island area.
CPT: Roger Central. Frontal Assault Team, Out. Alright guys let's pick up the pace.
LT: Ma'am there seems to be several slaves here. Orders?
CPT: Scan them.
LT: Corporal, do as the Captain says.
CPL: Yes, Sir. Sending the data packet to Tygan now, Sir.
Central: Tygan seems to recall that their features are synonymous to natives of Essos, with the darker complexion and the hardier set of their bones. It doesn't matter. We do not harm civilians, XCOM. Sedate them and we'll handle them later.
LT: Permission to use sedative gas, ma'am?
CPT: Permission granted. Make it quick and rendezvous with our position on the double. We'll have to clear out the rest of this scum quickly in case the Ark's running on fumes.
LT: Roger. Do you want me to place down some turrets? Shen gave me a dozen deployable turrets to put down for initial beachhead.
CPT: Place the turret facing west, towards the Seven Kingdoms. Tygan has identified it as the most likeliest threat to our Haven.
SGT: I would have pegged Essos to be our greatest threat.
CPT: Besides the Braavosi, who have no interest in military expansion, the only thing we need to worry most about is the political unrest in the Seven Kingdoms. The Mad King isn't someone we want to risk our lucky stars on.
\V/
July 20th Zero Year
New Haven Regional Headquarters
XCOM Head of Engineering
Audio Entry #159
New Haven's construction wasn't the quickest thing in the world, but considering how experienced my crew was in building things quickly and on the fly, we were making good timing. The local terrain of the Stepstones wasn't helping much though, and beyond it's strategic and tactical importance, it was a dump to be renovated from the ground up.
Swamps and grooves had to be completely upended and the water drained in order to make way for basic agriculture. Slopes and hills were completely leveled - the troops had fun improvising drills with explosives - and prefab housing had been set down in order to build shelter for families and people.
If I can thank ADVENT for anything, it would be their quick and easy house building technology. It hurts to know that for as much harm they did, they made a lot of good in disaster relief and medicinal advances. Well, I can at least thank them for that - even do I really don't want to, but that technology has saved our ass more times than I can count.
But that's far from the point. The island chain that we are inhabiting, the Stepstones as it's known in the local dialect, is a den for pirates. Dad always did have a fascination on the Golden Age of piracy, My favourite was Ching Shih, for obvious reasons. Queen Pirate and all that.
These guys are probably what reminds that humanity have a penchant for their own kind of brutality to each other - even without the Aliens.
The Commander cracks down hard on them. I think they remind him of what humanity devolved into after ADVENT was pushed off. There's no shortage in volunteers for the teams either. Almost everyone wants to take on the uniform now that we're all they've got. Literally.
I doubt we'd be able to get the veterans we're so used to from fighting with the Aliens, but pirate subjugation was a better start than what Bradford could have hoped for...Bradford, he's not well. He doesn't like leaving home. He doesn't like the new place we've ourselves in. He's a lost duckling that's only staying strong because the Commander is here. I don't know what Bradford would do if the Commander wasn't here, probably go back to living in the forests and being a hermit.
Meanwhile, I'm stuck here building turrets, and buildings, and plumbing...and listening to Tygan. Great.
\V/
XCOM General Meeting Archives
Divisional Heads of XCOM
XCOM Commander
Ark Command Center
XCOM: Commander
Central: Executive Officer Bradford
Science: Dr. Tygan
Engi: Lily Shen
Engi: Your daily reports are here Commander. As far as we can see, most if not all of the civilians have been relocated onto the island, with a separate Haven having been built on the smaller chain of islands located close New Haven. The locals have named it Gateway Link, because it's the only sea pass into New Haven big enough for a ship.
Central: The civilians seem to have adjusted to life here relatively well.
Science: One would assume that after everything they've been through, they would be more than a little accepting to any new circumstances in their life.
XCOM: Either way, that's good. As long as they move past the trauma and the state of our...previous home, then we can focus ourselves to more immediate inquiries.
Engi: Like the rebellion in the Seven Kingdoms?
Central: Personally I don't much care. Let them fight. The more they squabble the less likely it is for them to find us.
Science: Concurrently, the worst the war becomes, the higher the chances we have of some desperate refugee to stumble upon New Haven and reveal us to the world.
Engi: Tygan right, Sir. There are tons of refugees leaving the Seven Kingdoms for Essos, and their ship's flag right past the Stepstones all the time. These refugees have a high chance of finding us, and we can't just wipe their memories and ship them off to a nearby port town like we did with the slaves.
XCOM: That is not acceptable. We are not in a position capable of taking on refugees, not when we ourselves still are refugees. The conflict in the Seven Kingdoms is none of our business and we have word to do on our own.
Engi: So am I to take that our increased pirate raids have nothing to do with the number of refugees now sailing across the Narrow Sea?
XCOM: ...
Central: Shen.
Engi: Sorry Commander, I don't know what came over me.
XCOM: You're tired, we're all tired. Sigh. We may need to establish a mandatory vacation time for ourselves. There's too much to do here for us to be losing ourselves to stress and accumulated pains.
Central: As the oldest here - and that means you too Commander - I personally feel offended at having my operational capabilities questioned.
XCOM: Bradford, put a lid on it. I wasn't attacking you.
Central: I know, just wanted to say it.
Science: Yes, well, I've been analysing the atmosphere of this planet to find out how they were able to have such long stretches of seasons without upsetting the delicate ecosystem. It's all so fascinating. Is it perhaps possible for us to capture live specimens of these Brindled Men and the species of humans on the Thousand Islands? An in depth analysis of them can help me in unlocking how evolution has transformed the inhabitants of this world.
XCOM: Negative. Sothoryos and the Thousand Islands are off-limits. Until at least we get more information out of the area. I am not risking you or any of our personnel to get dragged off by cannibals and pagans who would sacrifice you like an animal.
Engi: You're really pushing your usual boundaries here Tygan.
Science: I know, but I feel my usual methods are no longer applicable in this new world. To understand where we are, we need to be prepared to face the unknown at every turn.
Central: True enough Dr.
XCOM: We'll discuss this at a later date. For now the meeting is adjourned.
Engineer and Science leave the room.
XCOM: As an aside, Bradford, how goes the surveillance on Dragonstone?
Central: As far as we can tell the Queen and her children are taking refuge on the island. Would you like me to send in a strike team.
XCOM: Let's wait and see what this Robert Baratheon does first. Even if I do say we can't take on refugees, the callousness with which war crimes are regarded in this world is troubling.
Central: Trouble in morals, Commander?
XCOM: Morals are all we have left, Bradford. They're all we have left.
\V/
Field Report 37:
Captain Tania Degurrechaff
Archer-Class Carrier and Command Aircraft; Explorer
Covert insertion of XCOM teams consisting of Rangers and Grenadiers into the town of Braavos has proved fruitful. The Braavosi navy, of which has been of particular headache in the Stepstones, has been recalled back to the city-state ever since the the rebellion in the Seven Kingdoms have reached their peak. It's also of note that most of the pirates that we kicked out of the Stepstones have taken to attacking the Braavosi navy in desperation.
The Rangers and Grenadiers have managed to open an account in the Iron Bank and deposited at least one third of the currency that we've procured from the pirate dens we've raided. There were cursory checks and basic forms that needed to be signed, but beyond that there were no complications.
Operatives have also managed to purchase several pounds of iron and tin from the Braavosi markets, as well as a dozen swords and food produce to be examined by both Shen and .
Of secondary note; information on a probable threat has been discovered by Operative Kattia Zielenski that has been identified as the Dothraki horde. Comparisons to our own history has them pegged as this world's version of the Hun. Attached with the file is more information on the threat that we've as so far identified.
Dr. Galia's observation of the local culture and practices have also been noted and attached to be viewed by the good Dr. Along with it are historical archives that I believe you will find intriguing Commander.
End of Report.
\V/
283 AC
Dragonstone
Robert Baratheon's rebellion has ended, and has named him the victor and the new King of the Iron Throne. The last of the Mad King's loyalists have either been sent to the Wall or put to the sword. Meanwhile, on Dragonstone, the Dowager Queen and the last child of the Mad King were hiding out from the wrath of the Baratheon Usurper as they awaited the coming reprisal from the King of the Iron Throne.
Ser Willem Darry and the remaining loyalists on Dragonstone were despondent. They knew they could not survive an attack from Robert Baratheon and Stannis Baratheon's fleet and army. Their options were gravely limited as it was. From what they gathered, their best option was to take the children and sent them to Essos, where they will wait until maturity before returning to the Seven Kingdoms to retake their seat.
But Ser Willem had a problem with that idea. For one thing he didn't trust the carnal sensibilities of the inhabitants of Essos. He didn't think for a moment that the greedy minds of the common Tyroshi, Pentos, or Myrish thieves would move to exploit the young prince and child-to-be. The Garrison Commander and the last Commander of the loyalist forces were adamant in sending the children to Essos, however.
They argued well into the storm, drowning out Queen Rhaella's screams with their fervid shouting. They were only made aware of the Targaryen fleet sinking into ocean by the wailing screams of the soldiers drowning just outside Dragonstone, and by then their options might as well have been written out for them.
The Queen's death only served to reinforce that idea. The growing dissent among the garrison quickened the process. Ser Willem quickly smuggled the children out of Dragonstone, offering a prayer to the Dowager Queen's corpse as she was buried on Dragonstone.
The Master-at-Arms of Dragonstone and the Commander of the last loyal Targaryen army bid Ser Willem goodbye with a brief nod. The Master-at-Arms of King's Landing stared forlornly at the world he had left behind, and cursed Robert Baratheon a thousand times and a thousand more for everything he did.
He cursed the old fool Jon Arryn, and he cursed the fools in Essos that he knew would take advantage of the forgotten and lost Prince.
Just as he felt his will slip away and to be replaced with a slow kindling flame, the waters nearby shook, and the boat they sat on tumbled from side to side. Viserys cried out, and the baby whined. Ser Willem, staring at the skies, thinking what other misery the heavens have decided to throw at him, he saw a bright white light gleam down on him.
He felt his curses choke in his throat. The light was so bright and white that he thought it was perhaps the light of heaven itself. Delirious as he was from the running, the fighting, and his tumbling emotions, he almost thought that angels were descending to rescue him and the children from a life not worth living in Essos.
That thought was dashed away as the light moved aside, and rather than the angels he thought he would see, he instead saw the grey belly of some sort of beast. He thought for a moment it were a dragon, as though they had risen from their long slumber to slave the last of their riders, but he discarded it quickly enough. A dragon would sooner kill him and save the children, and he was still breathing.
To add to that, the rope that was dangling down the side of the beast evidently proved that it wasn't a dragon. He severely doubted a dragon could hold up seven heavily armored knights all that well, and even if it could, it would surely be a perilous ride.
The soldiers turned to look at him, their features obscured behind helmets or cloth, and the looked down on the Prince and nearly born Princess of the Seven Kingdoms. "What do you want?" He asked, pulling on his sword with agitated wariness.
"To win." They replied.