Hello Commanders, and welcome back to my world.
Got a short little chapter for you today. Nothing crazy, but hopefully you enjoy it none the less. The ground work has all been laid out, and the next few chapters promise to be a lot more exciting.
I hope your all doing well. Staying healthy and having fun.
If your enjoying this story don't forget to review. I love me some reviews, as it also helps gets me more views!
Hope you enjoy, and see you all in the next chapter.
Cheers
Alex Lee
Friday, September 18th, 2024
Time Unknown
Login ID: COMMANDER
Password: ****** *******
"Good morning Commander. You have over fifty new messages available for viewing. All of them are flagged as priority. Additionally, the Council meeting is scheduled to start in ten minutes."
"Good. Bring them up on Screen One please."
"Command acknowledged. Meeting displayed on Screen One."
"Thank you. Please turn on backlights, and enable voice and video transmission."
"Command acknowledged. Lighting adjusted. Voice and video transmission enabled."
"Excellent. Voice recognition off."
"Command acknowledged. Powering down main processors."
Placing his hands calmly on the desk before him, the dark silhouette's of the other Council members loomed before him. A sight that at one point would have been unsettling was now almost entirely expected, especially given his most recent activities.
"XCOM Commander. Sign-in code Tango-Delta-Whiskey-Zero-Seven-Five. Hello, Councilors."
A small pause ensued while his message was encrypted and sent to them for inspection. An annoying, but necessary practice given the unstable times they lived in.
"Hello Commander." "Hello Commander." "Hello Commander." "Hello Commander."
Each of the remaining Council members nodding their greeting to him, before settling back into their seats. Silently awaiting the elected Council Speaker to deliver the opening statements on their behalf and begin what was likely to be a very long meeting.
Glancing at the monster of a man sitting in the dead center of his screen, the Commander could only wait silently while he finished up whatever conversation he was having with the other members before he turning back around to him.
"Commander," he nodded. "The last twenty four hours have been...enlightening...to us, to say the least."
Sitting tall in his own chair, he simply elected to nod in agreement; awaiting for the true reason for this meeting to be outed into the open, least he blunder into some sort of political trap that one or more of the members had created.
Given the events of the last forty eight hours, he seriously doubted there was one to begin with, but one didn't become The Commander by ignoring possible threats and making assumptions.
"As I am sure you are aware, your...actions, while commendable, and frankly speaking, effective, have resulted in some rather alarming, and devastating...consequences."
"You are, of course, referring to what happened to Lahore?" He quickly responded, tapping a few keys on his system to bring up the information on the event. "Yes. I am fully aware of what has happened."
"Then you can no doubt understand our concerns," one of the other members, probably a male judging by his voice, stated; visibly shifting slightly in his seat as he spoke. "The deaths of over eleven million people is, to say the least, a substantial loss."
"I do understand," he nodded back. "Though it should be noted that the city's destruction does provide us with some valuable information on the capabilities of the ADVENT force. Specifically their WMD's."
"And what of your own losses?" The same member continued, undaunted. "I have a report here stating that you lost a total of ten squads, three Interceptors, and two Skyrangers, along with a host of other equipment, in your reckless assault."
He could feel his own fingernails biting into his palm with each word that god forsaken man spoke.
Despite knowing that it was coming, it didn't make the blow hurt any less. Those were his men and woman dying out there. He knew of the losses they had suffered better than anyone of these bastards.
"While that may be true," he started, breathing deeply to help quickly composing himself once more. "Our losses were trivial in comparison to ADVE..."
"Commander." A different female Council member interjected, interrupting his rebuttal completely. "ADVENT just effectively nuked an entire city. They did so with no warning, and most likely as a retaliation to your attacks on their bases. Your actions, while undeniably effective, were also incredibly rash. At the very least, you could have informed us more than a few hours before launching such an operation."
Finally. They were getting to the heart of the matter, and more importantly, falling right into his trap.
"As I stated before in my full report of the assault, we had reliable intel that three of the bases we hit were in the process of being reinforced with more anti air units when we struck." He stated firmly. "Any hesitation would have resulted in even more of my men and woman dying. Something that I cannot, and will not allow to happen."
A small break opened, as several of the Council members each took their time to digest this his words.
"For the record, both Interceptors were shot down by Cyberdisks. Which as I am sure you are all aware, is ADVENTS most effective anti air unit. Each base was slated to have multiple of them on site, for defence against aerial attacks like the ones we just commenced. Quite frankly, the fact we managed to strike before many of them were fully operational may well have saved the lives of every single man and woman involved."
The silence that followed showed him that he had successfully defended against the brunt of that Council members issues. Onto the next topic then.
"A concern of mine however, is not the Psionic attack that destroyed Lahore. Though rest assured, I do recognize that as a significant threat."
Several of the Council members could be seen visibly looking back up at his words,no doubt either shocked, intrigued, or angered by his words.
"It is the potential increase in ADVENT threats, propaganda, and media usage against XCOM, and the countries that have not yet surrendered yet."
Several of the members seemed to murmur and talk amongst themselves as his statement made its rounds.
"They have showed us that they can be manipulative and cunning. Even worse, it seems they are more than capable of potentially using our media outlets and systems to spread their own messages across the globe." He continued undaunted. "They displayed a concerning level of understanding towards how our media works. So realistically, what is to stop them from turning that machine against us?"
He almost smirked at how many of these so called experts seemed to be unsure how to respond to this question. Clearly it was not an avenue many of them considered possible for their enemy. A foolish oversight in his mind.
"I suggest a total media blackout," he replied, much to the dismay and charagin of the present members. "A total stoppage of all non military or government essential news coverage, internet services, television, etcetera."
"Impossible!" "Absurd!"
Several other words were thrown out as the suggestion seemed to be unanimously shot down. Not that this was unexpected by any means.
"Alright then, propaganda against the aliens it is," he smirked knowingly. "We will provide you with as much footage, pictures, and information as we can. Of course do not be afraid to embellish these stories a little to suit our narrative. The general population must continue to see ADVENT as the evil, and destructive invading force."
"A government body lies to its people to ensure their support." One council member muttered, shaking their head. "A tale as old as time."
"You have all done this before to cover your own asses, so stop acting like your holier than thou," he spat back instantly. "We need to keep the masses believing in us for as long as we can."
"Long enough for what though exactly?" The Council Speaker asked, his hands clasped firmly under his nose.
"For us to clean ADVENT off this planet."
Silence followed as the first portion of his plan was brought to light.
"With their resupply bases now mostly gone, they will begin to run low on resources, and low on numbers. We will take advantage of this to slowly take back the planet piece by piece. Eliminating them one by one, until none are left."
There was a few mutterings as some of the members began discussing his plan between themselves.
"The current battle plan involves reinforcing every single Council nation with as many MECs and XCOM soldiers as possible, before launching offensive fronts against the ADVENT forces currently occupying human cities. The more people we can save, the more people who may join the fight. Or at the very least, use to spread the message of how evil and destructive ADVENT is."
Tapping a few buttons on his consol, he began transferring relatively bare boned battle plans, to the other members.
"With the sheer number of fronts we will be fighting on, combined with the psionic suppression device being worked on here, we don't believe ADVENT will be able to gather together enough psionic units to recreate the psionic rift that destroyed Lahore."
As expected, this information doubly garnered the attention he had. Making it the perfect time to lay out his biggest support draw.
"All members who participate will be given equipment to help arm their own military, and protection in the form of the XCOM reinforcements. This will also help to better manage the offensive fronts, and keep the pressure up on ADVENT at all times. I also have here a list of the resources we will providing to sustain the forward movement, along with details on where and when the attacks will first be taking place. I am transferring all of this information to you now."
The mention of XCOM reinforcements and equipment clearly caught everyone off guard, as they all began muttering and whispering between themselves. Save for one member.
"If your theories and technology don't hold up however, then ADVENT will no doubt start leveling cities left, right and center in response to these attacks." A familiar male voice ground out. His hand massaging his forehead endlessly. "No. I'm sorry but no. I cannot risk this."
A small ball of worry began to form as he spoke.
"No. I can no longer entrust XCOM to look out for the safety and welfare of my people." He stated calmly. "Effective immediately I am withdrawing my support from the XCOM initiative. We will instead be putting all of our resources into our own military operations. Good luck, and godspeed Commander."
Tapping a few keys the national flag of U.S.A flashed momentarily, before fabbing out. The man sitting there before, now gone from the Council meeting.
This was it. Any other countries looking for a reason to leave would now have a solid reason to.
"I will understand if there is anyone else here who wishes to conduct their own military operation independently from XCOM, or simply wishes to leave the initiative to focus on their own countries. If this is your wish then I suggest you do so now before you become tangled up in this," the Commander stated calmly. "There will be no going back after this. I was appointed by you all to fight this war. And I will see it through to the end."
There was a moment's pause before the German, Japanese, and United Kingdom flags all flashed. Their members withdrawing from the meeting, and by proxy, their support from XCOM.
In the end, only three members, and the Head Chairman remained. China, Russia, and Canada.
"Alright." The Commander grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Now then. If you would please open the documents I just sent you and go to page fourteen, we will start with the details on Lockdowns next mission…"
It was an arduous process.
Laying out the groundwork for the planned offensive was hard enough. But procuring enough man power and equipment between the three nations to back it up? That was a miracle in of itself.
As things stood, they barely had enough resources to launch, let alone sustain. They would have to make due with scavenging more recourse as they went. A process which was not ideal, but well, beggars couldn't be choosers.
Then there was the whole city sized psionic rift issue…
A deep sigh escaped him as the lies he had spewed to keep the nations happy came back to him. One day he would pay for his deceit, of that he was sure. Just maybe not today. Not yet.
Who knew that destroying a single city would have invoked so much fear. Clearly he had underestimated the the Council's capacity for psychological warfare...
Currently it was around four in the morning. Roughly eight hours after the meeting began, when the propaganda messages were eventually finalized, the battle lines were properly drawn out, and support was pledged.
A moment he could not have been anymore thankful for, even if he tried.
Logging out of his system, he immediately went to his stash of whiskey and poured himself a generous glass of the amber liquid, downing the first gulp immediately before returning to his desk.
Below him, he could hear the ruckus of a party dying down out across the base. No doubt the product of the successful attack they had launched the day previously, and a much deserved one at that.
They all knew what was going to be coming by now. There was no way they didn't after the X1 charges he had deployed went off. It was about as obvious a message as it came.
Tomorrow, Lockdown would begin preparations to seize what he hoped was a game changing piece of technology.
Tomorrow, they would begin preparations for the largest human offensive the planet had seen in years.
No more hiding. No more sneaking around the shadows. Tomorrow they would emerge into the light, and take back this planet piece by fucking piece.
He would win this war for all of humanity.
The other nations be damned.