Chapter 3 Part 1 Preparation for Introduction
The peaceful tropical scenery filled the area around the US Main Base. The structures were neatly arranged to be functional as well as impressive for the viewers to see should they viewed the base from the sky. The Barracks and War Factories were lively as the soldiers and maintenance crews handled the vehicles currently repaired and maintained on the field. Airbase air controller tower thrive with activities as the staff are monitoring the F35As currently conducting Combat Air Patrol within the region. Then, passed these activities, there was one room that are quite opposite from the rest.
"No."
Alex replied to the beautiful young woman in front of him that are going to make his life a bit strained for now. Five days after the operation, his work began to pile up more with new files and After Action Reports from his men. Even with the help of Admin assisting the workload and the paperwork, he still has jobs to do.
Unfortunately for him, he had to handle a stubborn yet polite young lady before him.
"But, sir. It has been 5 days now. At least allow us to call our families that we are safe." The lady explained.
Hours after the extraction from Chernobog, the survivors were carried back to Alex's main base. As planned for Operation Jailbreak, the extraction involved two V44 Starlifters callsign Valiant, and three V22 Ospreys, callsign Beatles that had returned from FOB Redwood and FOB Greene after their supply dropoff mission. The journey lasted for 10+ hours but eventually in 0645hrs, they had safely arrived to his faction's fortress, Fort Odyssey, named after a famous Greek poetry.
The survivors were greeted with Ambulances and base security teams. The wounded were treated to medical wards within modified Strategic Center that turned to a field hospital while the dead were handled with care in the morgue for autopsy before buried at the small cemetery near the foot of the hill next to his base.
The reactions of the survivors of the base was understandable as they just realized they were brought back right to a place foreign to them. They were assured of their safety and provided a place to stay in one of the barracks available in the base. Days after treatment and adjusting to the climate of this region without even an access to a communication lines leads to this moment before him.
" Miss Rostova. We know you and others wanted to contact your loved ones but right now there are problems that we need to address first. After that, we will make contact to UE consulate in Lungmen for you to make your calls there using our own communication lines." He explained to the noble lady before him.
He continued, " Now, we just wanted to collect testimonies from all of you and what really happened in Chernobog. These reports must be recorded and audited so that we could provide more evidence against the Reunion Movement on what they did in the city. Plus, we need to make sure all of you are safe and healthy enough before proceeding transfer to your government. "
" Can we directly make a call first just to make them not anxious of our well beings, sir? It has been days now and all we did was stay in a complex where there are guards around and men with hazard suits keep monitoring us ever since we got here." Natalya politely responded even she was unsatisfied with his respond to their current needs.
Alex understands their reaction now. They may be safe from Chernobog but with the situation now may have triggered the trauma, insecurity and anxiety because of the presence of guards around them.
Realizing his blunder on this case, he apologies, " We are sorry about the measures that has been taken but there are survivors had contacted Oripathy during the fall of Chernobog. The medical staff tried their best for your comforts and your needs, but currently we are limited in treating Oripathy as we have no available equipment for further treatment. "
" As of now, we are attempting to contact Rhodes Island Pharmaceutical Ltd. for their expertise in Oripathy treatment. If we are in luck, the Infected ones will be sent to RI for further treatment."
"Oh…" Natalya silenced for a moment thinking for another appropriate respond to him.
Alex smiled a bit but went unnoticed by her. Her aura of responsible leader really shown before him with a hint of sisterly concern of her fellow friends. The heterochromia eyes really suited her appearance.
He is a young man after all, at least he appreciated the beauty before him. Those white silvery hair mixed with a pair of red and blue eyes are the best points in his mind. Then again, he still has another thing to do than observing a beauty. He again interrupted her.
" Miss, things now changes for all of us in entirely new ways. For you and the survivors, all of this may ended with all you returned back to your families and loved ones. For us on the other hand, we had to face a new political shitstorm that facing our way. "
" Sorry, Miss. Pardon the language. " Alex apologize of his rudeness in front of her.
" No worries, General. " She replied.
" Thank you, Miss Rostova. Pardon me, if I may asked what Nobility you came from?" He asked. " If you didn't want to share then it no problem. "
Surprised of his sudden inquiry of her lineage, she sheepishly replied, " Oh….Well, the Rostova family came from the New Nobility, sir. We are nobles that uplifted by previous nobility and given properties to rise up on our own. Compared to the Old Nobility, the New Nobility raised up the ranks up the hierarchy by conducting business and ventures in our new influence. "
" Old and New Nobility? " Alex has known of that bit for a while and played along. " You mean the old bloodline aristocracy with long lineage and your group is the new emerging one that came through economic expertise as opposite to the previous practices? "
" Yes sir. You sure know a bit about the aristocracy. Are you involved in any way, if I presume much to you sir? " She tilted her head.
" Not at all, Miss Rostova. For me, my family is third detached family of an old aristocrat family. My grandparents disliked the practices and always reminded us to not to be like them. Good times. " He responded back.
Few minutes of sharing information of noble cultures and local practices with Miss Rostova, a new notification popped on his computer screen. Realizing of that, he had to stop his pleasant discussion with her.
" Well, this is it for now, Miss Rostova. I'm sorry for any inconvenience but I have a meeting after this. Thank you for sharing your concerns to us and sharing about your cultures, we will try our best to accommodate you and others until the problems ironed out. Until then, thank you for your patience. "
" It is a good chat with you, sir. Thank you, for all you had done for us and you're welcome." She smiled back at Alex and gave a short bow before walked to the door of his office.
Another minute passed, there was a knock on the door.
"Sir, may I come in? " Lt. Wilson had arrived to his office.
"Come in Lt. Whats the SITREP?"
"Sir, as of now there are 32 out of 184 survivors had contacted Oripathy. For the POWs inside the Detention Camp, we confirmed they are Infected, all 20 of them. The medical staff are trying their best to learn more about this disease but we are hitting a wall now. So far we all in good conditions with the wounded that are currently treated in the wards and monitored for any progress. Medical department requested more research samples and if possible, procurement of Oripathy treatment drugs from Terran market. Primarily from Rhodes Island."
Alex nodded his head, "Good news for that one Lt. Put them as notes for our future meeting with the RI."
The assistant continued his report, "Next, the RnD teams had conduct tests and recorded the captured equipment taken from the Reunion. The captured exosuits were examined by the science teams and they had found out that the energy source to power them up came from refined Originum batteries. The staff are currently trying to reverse engineering the exosuits with our own power source. If we failed to do so, we just produce the same exosuit structures with our own modifications."
"Any news on our projects?" Alex asked.
Lt. Wilson read the report from his tablet and replied, "Yes sir. Our construction teams have constructed three oil wells and a refinery to process the crude oil into gasoline for our vehicles. The mining operation in the southern sector gave us various metals and minerals. Apparently Terra has rich ore deposits on its surface and this region has abundant amount of ores scattered around for us to exploit. Thankfully, we did not have to spend more on building a dedicated vehicle for our mining operations."
He paused for a moment before gave Alex a bad news, "Unfortunately sir, we have very limited progress in the agricultural project. The flora and fauna of Terra are very different and we had no seeds to be used for the farming operations. Looks like we need to outsource the food from other countries, sir. Currently, we have food supply worth of 18 months and that is it. "
Alex tinker for a while and turned to his assistant, "Looks like we need to make contact with other nations on Terra, one way or another." He turned to his phone and pressed a button, " Sergeant Mills, could you escort Miss Sawyer and Miss Delfina into my office? I want to have a word or two with them."
The sergeant replied through the phone, " Copy that sir. Bringing them to your office now."
Few minutes later, two Lupo women entered the room with their escort. Their capture was abrupt for them to be comfortable with but they were treated fairly inside the base. Thanks to their drone, three of his men perished and caused five more wounded during OP Jailbreak.
For Alex, he respected Spec Ops members as they had to make sacrifices that will not land on the front page of a newsletter. Secrecy is the finest defense for such groups and these journalists are the opposite of them.
He hated the outcome but Alex knows these women are doing their jobs as combat correspondents. It takes a new breed of individuals to have the nerve to enter an active battlefield, unarmed, and tried to record as best as they could under fire, so the world would know what happened. He respected that dedication. These women were brought forward yet their eyes show their determination to pass through instead of just fear. There are a little bit of discomfort but anything else, they are ready for the court.
"Thank you, Sergeant Mills. You are dismissed." Alex said to the escort.
"Yes sir." The sergeant saluted and walked out of the room.
Alex studied the new guests and said, "Good day, ladies. Please take a seat. " He gestured the newcomers to sit on the available seats in front of his desk.
Miss Sawyer and Miss Delfina moved to their seats as Sawyer replied, "Thank you, General. What do you want from us? "She asked directly to Alex.
Alex amused of her action, " Straight to the point, I say. I like that." He lean forward a bit, his eyes gleams with secrets against her own curiosity, "Tell me Miss Sawyer, would you like to host a live TV show?"
Sawyer and Delfina's wolf ears perked up to his proposal. They stared at each other for a while and came up with a response.
Sawyer replied, "We're interested, tell us more of your proposal, General."
Alex smile widen, " Well, ladies, listen up…"
After nearly two hours long discussing with the captured reporters on his proposal on how to introduce his faction to the world, Alex and his command staff continued their previous plans of integrating themselves into the societies of Terra. Thus, he formed a new sub-faction.
Task Force 416 aka Axiom Security & Consultation Ltd.
A company was made to be the public front of the Task Force that gave a subtle interactions between his forces and Terran denizens. This company is tasked to provide actual PMC operations in the same time gather any Intel of whereabouts of the Players scattered through out Terra.
Thus, the very first official operation center for Axiom would be in Lungmen, a semi-autonomous city that belongs to the Kingdom of Yen that held significant power in world economy of Terra.
The ruling power of this city is autonomous from the kingdom's rule, thus Lungmen would be the best spot for any reconnaissance or intel gathering missions. This city is independent yet held very complex corporate holdings and real-politics in the world of Arknights made from.
To emphasize his reasoning on this new establishment, Lungmen is the second city ever mentioned and visualized in the game. Thus, if there are players know about Arknights, there are high probability of Players roaming around and inside the city itself.
Alex had to made various preparations of documents among his command staff in the creation of Axiom Security. The documents prepared also included the information of Axiom as a PMC group formed by independent military advisers that broke away from their countries' politics with most of the personnel data redacted to show the authenticity of the documents provided to Lungmen Company Registration Department.
Ironically, there are some truths provided to Lungmen administrators as US Forces are classified especially USSOCOM members as the record are for need to know groups.
Yet, Alex knew that even with such preparations, that sly dragon will know about the rouse with a push of a dial and a call. Well, at least he tried to make them legit in positive notions and not against the law.
Or he had to kiss his own boot by a certain Lung inspector.
"God, there are many fishes in the sea but why I attracted to a bloody dragon lady for?" Alex exclaimed.
After done with his lamenting of his personal interests with unfairness of the world compared to his, Alex found many good sources.
Leisurely opened his interface, he began his readings provided by the servers within his Command Center. Various holographic files floated in front of him displaying much information he needed to learn more about Terra.
According to the current sets of data from hijacked links by the primary Command Center, his current forces in the UE region are quite far from the intended mobile city, Lungmen yet safe from the Catastrophes Storm lines.
For his new home, his main base is surrounded with peaceful scenery of tropical jungles with exotic biome. His neighboring countries would be Rim Billiton to the northern side and at the western approach, Iberia. With that in mind, Alex had to explore more of the southern undiscovered region for spaces and new resources.
Its quite astonishing to know that Terra's surface is three times larger than Earth yet the composition of oceans and landmass are 6 : 4 ratio compared to Earth's 7 : 3. The nearest comparison of this world would be Homeworld's Karak where deserts covered the planet and habitable zones are in the North and South of Karak but still contains large seas in it. At least there are not that much of deserts as there are normal climates around the world with the presence of nomadic cities roaming on the planet's surface. Sargon's existence proved the world climate are not as whacky as he thought.
Terran geography clearly looks similar to earth but most of the flora and fauna are different in comparison to the former. According to the common information gathered within the Internet, Terran Internet in this case, there are various nation states with their own problems.
Lots of them.
Majority of the world surface were damaged by the Catastrophes, fortunately there are some safe-zones formed according to the Catastrophe Messengers' public data. More worrying matter was the infection cases made from the Originum itself.
Alex then switched to the next file that attracted him from after he was summoned in this world and began to learn more about this particular group.
The Infected. The prosecuted Terran denizens infected by the Originum either having direct contact with the mineral or exposed for a long period of time has been one of the true interests in Arknights' Lore.
As the mineral acts as conduits for the Casters to use, the Infected should have the highest number of individuals capable of utilizing Arts yet they were unable to do the casting properly thanks to the damage caused by the Originum itself.
These minerals are mainstay of their civilization for hundreds of years. Then, why would they treated those who infected with it with such horrible manners?
It was baffling for Alex as why would these people prosecute someone just because of a disease caused by the main source of world's energy that they mined to power their mobile cities to survive. Its hypocritical in every sense of reasons.
More depressing news, the HQ command staff even found out there were even less laws to protect the Infected and instead there were more to prosecute them to the point of being villainized by their own populace.
Case on point, the Ursus Empire, one of the largest nation in Terra with vast armies and strong economy began their ethnic cleansing of their own Infected groups in the northern parts of their empire.
Reason? The Empire lost a war and needed a scapegoat to be blamed for it.
That reason alone was the most pathetic excuse he had learned from these reports. This pseudo-Russian Empire acts like the previous European Colonial empires in past 100 years ago. This kind of empire is guaranteed to have lots of skeletons kept tight in lock and key. Not surprising if he remembered of Russian Empire and Soviet Union, there should be gulags and forced labor camps to maintain their economy. Thus, the best place for GLA to grow.
He is sure that the nobility were responsible for these cleansing. The laws written in Ursus Empire reeks nobility handwriting on them. Especially the Old faction if his interaction with Miss Rostova strengthen his theory of their involvements.
Its disgraceful.
Someone had to wonder why Reunion leader Talulah looks very regal for a resistance leader?
A fallen noble or a heir, all he remembered that Ch'en had childhood relationship with her and that is it.
What is more concerning is that how much arsenal had been taken from fallen Chernobog armories or even before that, other raided military installations?
The reports made by his analysts had shown Ursus military leaders were forcefully removed from Empire's ruling power by the nobility because of lost of trusts due to the defeat in previous war or even underhanded ploys by the upper echelon. Vacancies in the empire's military leaderships themselves may give opportunity for Reunion forces to acquire various military equipment from the military, either by discreet support or by theft or through the usual bit, the black market.
The amount of war gears captured and analyzed by his RnD teams may be small but the research team had reported the quality of these armaments are sturdy yet quite lacking due to misappropriate use and poor maintenance by the users.
Those acquisition of war materials to Reunion hands clearly shown the decaying empire's hold on its army and its people. Someone or groups may have played their hands in this sudden support for the Reunion movement. Corruptions ran rampant in all ranks of once proud nation which now slowly torn apart by infighting.
Satisfied with records he had read, Alex turned to another function of the interface. He closed the tabs and selected a new interface,
Upgrades.
To ensure the survival of his forces in this new world, Alex made changes in his faction. Major changes in the forces that would be suitable for longevity of his life and survival of his troops.
Thankfully, he has all the access to US infantries. Basic units of USA in Generals but these men also the strongest starter units including those from Rise of the Reds mod. Other more expensive units may had to be on hold as they are not much needed for now. If he wanted more elite units, he must secure stable supply connections to his faction.
Alex found out even with Command and Conquer controls eases his preparations, the prices of his units changed drastically from the original prices.
Infantry units and vehicles doubles their prices from its previous deployment points while Faction Buildings and Tech Buildings are 5 times more expensive than their in-game prices.
With these changes, Alex decided to restructure the force compositions and optimized the costs of building and maintenance of his field units.
Thanks to Command and Conquer's Standard Production Autonomous Modules, affectionately called SPAMs. Small arms, ammo and spare parts could be manufactured in good pace as long as there are raw materials available.
Unfortunately, Alex must have access to new Arms Factory, a new highly advanced tech building to make more SACLOS missiles for the Defenders, TOW missiles for the Humvee including other heavy explosives and pyrotechnics. This new structure are now currently build by his construction teams in the main base.
The current situation is not promising for him but he is grateful that the barrack and war factory have capabilities to manufacture their own small arms and ammunition for his frontline forces. It was truly a God send for his men.
As he has the access to his own arsenal, Alex began to restructure his infantry forces. There are pros and cons of Command and conquer series but its too rigid for real life applications thanks to the game mechanics.
Here on the other hand, he was able to form his units accordingly to the field they capable of and equipment needed for their tasks.
Rangers would be the mainstay infantry for his forces. The costs to train them are expensive for basic unit but they are very versatile. Thus he formed Ranger Squads instead.
As a squad of 9 men, Rangers were equipped with M4A1s, MCR light machine gun kits and Soldier Plate Carrier System (SPCS) body armors as they must be mobile to begin with. Airborne and Patrol operations will primarily conducted by Ranger squads to maintain security at the outer perimeter of the base. They also acts as main operators and QRF for Axiom forces.
the Defenders were reformed as a 6-man squad, one squad leader, two automatic-riflemen and three riflemen. These squads will share same equipment with Rangers with addition of M240L GPMG as to cut maintenance cost for current equipment while maintaining superior firepower. Their missile launchers had to be kept as trump card should he needed them the most.
Defenders acts as garrison infantry for Alex. Opposed to the Rangers doctrine of rapid assault, Defender squads are armed with more machine guns to suppress the assault and provide extra firepower for base defenses.
Vanguard squads has the same number of personnel as Rangers. But their role would be the Heavy assault squad for the task force.
True to their name, these soldiers will head straight to the firefight to provide heavy support in the frontlines. As such, Alex upgraded the Vanguards with fully armored Improved Outer Tactical Vest to increase their survivability in Close Quarter Combat.
Truthfully, these troopers would be menacing on the front, quite similar to their Gulf War predecessors.
Vanguards previously used M870 Modular Combat Shotguns alongside M4A1s and MCRs in their arsenal prior to Operation Jailbreak. Alex concluded that AA12 is an excellent auto shotgun but for now it just ate too much ammo in current situation and too early to show trump cards for Axiom forces.
Pathfinders and other elite units has been upgraded without much hassle as they are already suitable for their fields of operation thus formed as small teams of four men. Pathfinders with suppressed M4A1 and compact DesertTech SRS made a good combination of long range sniper support for his forces. Same as the Vanguards, they are proven effective during Op Jailbreak.
In addition to that, all infantry units are authorized to use SR25 and M16A3/Mk12 SPR hybrid rifles as their Battle Rifles or DMRs if the situation needed extra firepower or marksmen support.
After upgrading his infantries, the size of Axiom Security Forces has been decided among his command staff. The overall size of the TF416 would be a full infantry company of 120 men. Three infantry platoons, two sniper teams and two Enforcer teams including five officers as the main core of the Task Force. Two Little Birds and 12 Humvees were also added to make a legitimate front of a PMC in Lungmen.
This formation were chosen as a show of force to Lungmen should Chief Wei questions the capabilities of Axiom Security Forces.
Alex, with the help of his staff had created a new structure made for VTOLs for the frontline forces. The newly designed structure was the Helipad, a modified US Airfield that has its landing strips removed and replaced with two extra helicopter pads. The more powerful fixed wing airborne assets may be useful but with his current stockpiles, it just not suitable for long term progress of the company for present needs. At least he had build a fully functional Airfield in his main base.
The construction of Helipads in the region gave Alex the ability to build new helicopters needed for his ops and a suitable landing zone for the Starlifter to land and drop supplies for his men stationed there. Its a win as he already has access to Covert Forces, the UH-6 and AH-6 Little Birds are now in his disposal.
Thus, with his preparations for his company debut finished and the base prepared. Alex began his new mission to meet one of the major players in this desolate world.
Knowing Lungmen, he better carry extra pants...just in case.