Chapter 6: Epilogue
It was three days before Samsenko woke up. She had vague recollections of being on a ward – and of Meyer being in the bed next to her – but by the time she had fully regained her senses there was no one else in her room's ten other beds. Zhadanovich and Faustaus were standing by her feet.
"How are you feeling Lieutenant?" the admiral asked.
"Where am I?" was her first question. "What happened to the president?" was her second.
"He's fine," said Faustaus, "it took us a while to work out how to revive him from the alien stasis, but he's back at NAFTA as we speak convincing the Americans not to pull their funding." Samsenko forced a smile.
"Mission successful then."
"Half successful. From a political point of view," Zhadanovich looked grim, "as for the XCOM point of view, we took a big hit, and not just to Dujardin."
Samsenko hadn't remembered what had happened to the Commander, and as soon as she did so she was violently sick into a kidney dish. The two men waited for her to compose herself.
"How did I get out? The last thing I remember is drowning."
"The hunter team managed to get aboard Triton Four before the ship went under. They detected the landed alien Hunter on the sea bed, waiting for you. Sharpe told them to try and find a way into the ship and they did, just in time. I'm told Pantenella had to give you mouth to mouth in the Triton."
"Really," Samsenko wiped her mouth without thinking, "how's Meyer. More to the point how's everyone?"
"No one who went on that mission is a hundred per cent," said Faustaus. "Richter needed skin grafts on his arm and wouldn't be able to hold a weapon for a fortnight, if he did what we told him. Meyer was down here with you but he's okay, just a little concussed. One of your men was killed on the hunter team, the other five all have minor injuries of some kind…"
"In a word, it was a disaster," said Zhadanovich. "We lost our two most experienced officers in one mission. Our next most experienced is out for two weeks minimum and we lost nine Able Seamen, meaning that Bravo Squad now only has four personnel with any combat experience."
"Nice way of telling me I'm out for two weeks," Samsenko tried to move her feet, but couldn't. "What's wrong with me, and where the hell am I?" she asked Faustaus.
"Well Lieutenant, you have the following: brain trauma caused by oxygen deprivation, four broken ribs, distension of the small intestine, fractured femur, dislocated collarbone and the shot that ruptured your armour almost shattered your spine, meaning you'll be in a wheelchair for at least a week while your nerves regenerate." Samsenko glared at him. "Oh, and you're in ward two of the BASE HOTEL infirmary."
Like almost all of the XCOM personnel, with the possible exception of Richter, Samsenko had been itching to find out where the secret research base was located. It turned out that it was in the Ross Sea off Antarctica, and probably wouldn't stay secret for very long because it was tethered to the mainland. Lessons from the first alien war had taught that aliens only attacked XCOM bases if strike and intercept craft originated from them, so Zhadanovich and co. were banking on the pure research base not being bothered.
After spending two days at BASE HOTEL Samsenko wanted to be stationed there permanently. Compared to the tight, defence-minded confines of MED ALPHA and YELLOW BRAVO it was a paradise. There was still an airlock between the single sub pen (which also had a workshop module attached which was solely dedicated to making aircraft parts) and the rest of the base, and it was still the only way in and out. However there was also a gangway from the airlock roof over to the icy mainland, meaning the base personnel were allowed onto the shore for leave, which usually involved racing around on snowmobiles.
The first modules joined onto the airlock were two workshop modules and then the laboratory and alien containment modules, all joined with a storage module for easy access. There were three quarters modules, one for the scientists, one for the technicians and one for any injured aquanauts, which also housed the luxurious infirmary that made the medical facilities on the other bases look shameful. A transmission resolver was tucked away at the back of the base, though it was only used for defence and rarely picked up anything so near to the poles.
Samsenko had soon mastered her wheelchair and was whizzing around the base almost as quickly as Colonel Sharpe. After meeting in the mess hall Zhadanovich suggested they headed over to the Sub Pen to meet Dr Faustaus.
They found the doctor on the gantry overlooking the Sub Pen. Down below, nestled amongst its supporting structures and construction robots sat an aquamarine sub of obviously alien origins. It was about the same size as a USO Escort, far shorter than a Barracuda craft.
"Say hello to the Manta," grinned Faustaus, "it's our first submarine based on alien technologies. It's got magnetic navigation, ion beam accelerators, the works. Two of these babies will be able to take on a Dreadnought with little chance of being destroyed."
"Have you flown it yet?" asked Samsenko."
"Only at 50% power. Even then it can outrun a Barracuda or a small USO without issues. It's powered by Zrbite, which has the same drawbacks as Elerium fuels, but the speed of the thing means range will be even less of a problem than with the First War Firestorms."
"These things are going to be the key to the next phase of our counter-attack," said Zhadanovich. Recently he had started using the term 'counter-attack' instead of 'defence'. "We've secretly been constructing the remaining bases in our world wide sea net and all five are nearly ready for intercept duty. We'll ship Mantas out to them as soon as they're ready, one per base at first, then two once the first seven have been completed. Then once the quarter modules have been completed each base will have its own squad, responsible for assaulting and defending in its own area."
"Sounds pretty heavy. And expensive."
"It will be," smiled the Admiral, "but we've come up with a new tactic for raising funds. We've been sending the Barracudas out shadowing the alien supply ships and have discovered that they're all restocking alien colonies hidden deep throughout the world's oceans, obviously acting as breeding grounds and staging posts for surface attacks. So far we've detected seven, and the number is increasing all the time.
"Shit, we'd better get on with destroying them."
"What and risk all that MC activity?" smiled Faustaus, "from what we can tell the colonies need to be re-supplied every twenty-four hours. When the Mantas are up and running we'll be able to blow every supply ship out of the water with the minimum of fuss, and what we sell from a supply ship Recovery will make us more money in a day than the sponsor nations give us in a month. Pretty soon XCOM is going to be entirely self-sufficient."
"And there'll be no more wasting time going after small fry," said Zhadanovich, "anything smaller than a supply ship we'll blast out of the water until there's nothing for the aliens or us to bother salvaging. Aquanaut deployment will be reserved for large ship assaults, surface attacks and alien installation assaults."
"Good," said Samsenko, "no more of my best men getting grenaded by the last Gillman on a scout ship. Can we really cover the whole Earth with seven assault bases?"
"Of course," said Zhadanovich, "size wise only the Atlantic and Pacific hold any coverage problems. To combat this we'll place the bases at choke points, stopping the USOs slipping into or out of the main body of water undetected."
"Where will the bases be located?"
"Well with hindsight MED ALPHA isn't really ideally positioned, but we figure it'll be very useful in covering USOs over-flying Asia, they seem to be taking that route to outrun our flying subs, but the Manta's speed should put paid to that. YELLOW BRAVO will continue to monitor the Sea of Japan/South China Sea area, with particular focus on blocking the passage between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. GULF CHARLIE will be positioned to allow coverage of the whole of the North American continent, including the western seaboard. INDI DELTA will cover the Indian Ocean and probably be the major force in the Southern Ocean if needed; ATLANTIC ECHO will take the south and central Atlantic, with ALPHA and CHARLIE splitting the far north. FIJI FOXTROT will cover the South Pacific, and BERING GOLF will be placed in the Bering Straits, allowing coverage of both the North Pacific and the Arctic Ocean. GOLF, FOXTROT, BRAVO and CHARLIE will form the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'."
"And the 'Atlantic Crucifix' will be ALPHA, CHARLIE, GOLF and ECHO," suggested Samsenko. "How will the bases be crewed?"
"Minimum garrison of fourteen Ables, with a shifting number of Seamen and cadets gaining experience and transferring between bases until they find a berth as an Able. All will be the same layout as BRAVO, although we'll just have to get ALPHA as close as we can, so no labs or workshops."
"Nice and spacious then?"
"No, but there will be ample opportunities for shore leave here on HOTEL," smiled Zhadanovich. "By the way, while you were out cold we've made a few changes to the ranking system."
"Oh?"
"Yes. We plan for each base to be controlled by a Commander with a Lieutenant as their deputy. As GULF CHARLIE will be fully operational around your point of recovery, I'm promoting you immediately. We had been given permission to promote one person to the rank of Captain, effectively the senior officer for all of XCOM, however due to your current condition…" Zhadanovich shuffled.
"I understand. If Richter got the job, that's fine by me."
"I'm glad to hear it. Commander Samsenko."
The three of them began to move down the gantry, which took them all the way around the Sub Pen.
"There might be a shortage of suitable candidates if the bases will be online that quickly."
"We're not rushing into things," said Zhadnovich. "As well as yourself and Richter we've promoted Lieutenant Brehme, she will command Alpha Squad. Other than you three we're not about to promote anyone else directly to Commander, although everyone who survived the presidential mission is now an officer. At the moment we are looking at Lieutenant Pantenella controlling INDI DELTA and Lieutenant Meyer taking ATLANTIC ECHO, both will remain at that rank until they have proved themselves as combat leaders. FOXTROT and GOLF should be completed far enough in the future for us to have plenty of candidates."
"Do you have a deputy for me yet?"
"Not a Lieutenant, no. Ensign Tom Tarantino will join you from Alpha Squad as the second officer for the first few missions. I'm sure he will earn his promotion in short order, and your Ensigns can be drawn from the most outstanding of the new recruits."
"Sounds very cosy," said Samsenko, looking down at the Manta as its ion accelerators started to whir. If this all came true, if the web of bases really was wide enough to trap the aliens in their colonies, then there was hope. For the first time, deep down in her soul, Samsenko felt she was fighting a war that she had a decent chance of winning.