Location: The Bunker, Director's Office

Vilmire and Allen were looking over the various reports, footage, and messages sent by the Beta Team in adjacent bug nation, and the Expedition Team over in West Virginia. The information was… strange to say the least, and both Allen and Vilmire had to make a few double takes, but they were not in any position to be discounting information for being strange. It was a strange world they had woken up to, and the information wasn't much stranger than a magical bug cracking carbyne.

"Confirmed reports of bug states so close to Washington are troubling" Allen said.

"I have hopes that the substantial radiation blanket left by the cobalt bombings would have prevented the establishment of any major nationstate too colse to the capital. Plus, any encroaching bug state would have to deal with the capital bunkers' security" Vilmire responded.

"Still, their continued radio silence leaves us in the dark, and so far, we have been unable to contact any other bunkers" Allen stated.

"Unfortunately I don't have an explanation for that, perhaps their communications equipment was just hit worse than ours, or maybe they're too busy sticking their thumbs up their ass, but, right now we can't afford to worry about that. Our immediate situation has to take precedence, and we need to open up diplomatic relations, otherwise our time here is going to be a lot more difficult than it needs to be."

"Considering that the old moth that Beta Team has gotten chummy with is our only means of communication, I fully expect them to leverage it as much as possible, and I did not fight in a world war just to be extorted. So I would think hiding our capabilities to keep them out of the know on what we could provide would be beneficial."

"Agreed, though, I have already readied a welcome package of cleaning water and soap to sweeten their opinions of us. The Moth Tribe as far as I can tell believes there can be friends among nations, and I fully intend to exploit that."

"What about that psyker from West Virginia, could he be used as a translator?" Allen asked, "I admit, having only one diplomat for all the various bug nations would make things a little awkward."

"Honestly Allen, I don't know, I was never involved in the psionics program, and I can't really tell you what a psyker can do. For all I know they're some knock off jedi-esque bullshit that shoots glitter out of their hands, or maybe they can read minds and know someone's darkest secrets. The psyker is another unknown we won't fully know until the Expedition Team returns. So for the time being, we're going to have to deal with having only one diplomat"

Allen sighed "Have you decided who you want it to be yet?"

"Not quite, I have been sifting through the logs, and asking several higher ranking staff members for recommendations, but so far, no one with any real experience that would warrant them being a diplomat has come up. We have officers, soldiers, engineers, scientists, but so far as I know, we have no one with any real political or diplomatic experience"

"That's what I was afraid of, we never did plan for this did we?"

"No, honestly Code Green is akin to Con Plan 8888, a thought experiment, but not much else"

"Wasn't that the plan in case of a fucking zombie apocalypse?"

"Yup… even had a section in case of magical zombies, as you can guess, it was never really expected to be used. I mean, If I told someone that we should legitimately plan for the possibility of magical bugs, I probably would have been discharged and thrown into an insane asylum"

"Pfft, yea… well, back on topic, uhm, even if we don't have a decided upon ambassador, have you made any decision on his or her potential bodyguards? I already have a list of regulars fit well-"

"I have already decided, Allen," Vilmire said with a serious tone.

"Well… alright, just give me the names, and I'll begin the process of either pulling them from guard duty, or stasis, and begin their debrief."

"Their names are Janis Nightingale, and Lawrence Stillwell," Vilmire said, casting an expectant gaze upon Allen.

"Okay… give me a moment, I have to pull em up" Allen said, picking up a data pad, and inputting the names of those Vilmire selected.

"Nightingale, Nightingale, Nightingale…" Allen repeated quickly as he imputed the name, Vilmire's gaze intensifying.

Allen paused, and looked up from his datapad and up to Vilmire, and back at his datapad.

"Uh, sir, the only person with the name Janis Nightingale in this bunker is a heavy augmented infantryman…"

"I am well aware, Allen, but, it is necessary" Vilmire asserted, sitting up a little straighter.

"Let me guess, Lawrence is a gene trooper too…"

"That would be correct"

"Oh fucking hell…" Allen whispered under his breath "Alright then, how do you want to play this"

"Huh…" Vilmire said somewhat disappointed, leaning back into his seat

"Hm?"

"I was expecting a different reaction honestly"

"Like… what?" Allen asked.

"Eh, it doesn't matter. Anyway... the reason I want to use gene troopers as guards is both as protection against the "bugs gods" as well as a show of force as to show we have more of the "metal giants" that Beta Team reports the bugs calling them. There is also practically no chance of them panicking at whatever weird shit they see, in fact I fully expect that weird shit to be afraid of the troopers"

"I assumed as much, though, it does bring up something more I would wish to discuss about the combat performance of heavy augmented infantrymen Stephanson, as we believe we are finished examining the combat data"

"Well… spit it out"

"In his confrontation with the bug we believe to be the Pale King, his H.M.M.G was undercharged"

Vilmire's face twisted in slight confusion.

"Was something wrong with his machine gun or…"

"No, his heavy magnetic machine gun was fine, it's just, he purposely turned down the charge going into it's electromagnetic coils. He apparently believed it to be unnecessary to keep it at such a charge after seeing it level several building sections with a single short burst. He just never got the time to increase the charge in the fight with the Pale King, as he needed to focus more on not getting hit, and fumbling with his gun's dial would have been detrimental to that."

"So, what was the charge he put into his gun?"

"About enough to make it hit with the equivalent of a combustion gun sir. Over all, the whole engagement with the Pale King appeared to be two enemies fighting each other that had no idea what either was fucking doing, or what new shit each would pull out of their ass next,. Stephenson handled himself about as well as he could have, and we do not believe his aptitude is in any question"

"Well… it's good to know at the very least our gene troopers know their ass from a gun barrel… and that are guns aren't impotent"

"I should mention that Stephanson himself is… green, or, at least about as green as a gene trooper can be, he never saw combat after his augmentation"

Vilmire sighed "It's to be expected, we weren't exactly supposed to have them in the first place, and we didn't really have time to go over who was who when the issue of the scout's kidnapping came up"

"Huh, I did find it strange that we were provided five whole H.A.I companies, they're worth twice their weight in gold, and i'm sure any commander in Asia asia or Europe would have loved to have them"

"That they would have, but, the top brass all the way up in SOCOM told me to keep em, saying that there was too big of a risk they wouldn't reach their final destination"

"So what? Did they think nuclear war would break out before they would reach the front?"

"That's what I gathered from it, and judging from the less than idyllic landscape outside, they weren't far off"

"Heh, yea…" Allen glanced down at his data pad, and was scrolling through Janis' profile.

"Hm, she's a veteran, and staff sergeant, I take it she was sent back to train and be put in command of her own squad?"

"That's right, she also previously had experience with VIP protection before she gained that rank, not a single charge of her's died, and it wasn't for lack of trying on our enemy's part. I have no doubt she is up for the task"

"Hm, and Lawrence?"

"Same situation, promoted to staff sergeant and sent back to the states so he could train and command his own squad. He, like Janis, also has experience in VIP protection.

"Now if only we had a VIP to protect… no real use waking them up when we don't even know who they're going to guard"

"The minute one is found, I ordered that I be notified, and since the beginning of our meeting, nothing has come up-"

A notification popped up on Vilmire's computer.

Vilmire shifted in his chair, and pulled the message up.

"Speak of the devil" He said under his breath.

"Did they find someone?" Allen asked, leaning forwards in his seat.

Vilmire chuckled "Not just anyone Allen, what if I told you that we had the former ambassador to Germany, Ralph Monty in this bunker?"

"I would call that unfathomably lucky sir"

"Damn straight, I didn't know this guy was still alive until now"

"So, I'll debrief Monty and his guard, and send them to "King's Station" as the bug's call it."

"Yes, and Monty will come out FIRST, we don't need them thinking another rampage is about to start"

"Understood sir"

"You are to awaken Ralph, Janis, and Lawrence, debrief them"

"Yes sir"

"Good, you have your orders"

With that Allen stood up, nodded, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Vilmire leaned back in his chair and exhaled, tilting his head upward to look at the metal ceiling. It was a moment of truth, on whether he could focus on the development projects, or have to gear up for a war.

Plans being made, tweaked, and scrapped constantly was the norm at the moment with the constant changing situation.

His agricultural project had recently shifted to an agricultural tower rather than a plowed field. Regular's had reported sightings of the bugs that looked like the ones Alpha Team found at the Coliseum wandering into regular patrol paths, and needed to be scared off either by threatening gestures or warning shots.

The R&D department has also been filing questionable requests, such as the capture of bugs to use in experimentation. That of course would possibly kill any chance of diplomacy if the bugs found out about it. It was one thing to say they had an unfortunate misunderstanding at first, another to actively continue to do hostile acts against them.

There were also reports of one recurring bug showing up multiple times. It was large, had six eyes, and always seemed to approach with camouflage, though it was never able to get past regular patrols now that they were on heightened alert.

He would like to think that sparing that bug that got caught close to the Bunker doors played a part in allowing the diplomatic ties to potentially be formed, but he was unsure, perhaps it wasn't the best decision. However, that was in the past and he can't afford to regret it now. Right now he needs to plan for the future, but it is difficult when new variables keep coming in.

He just hoped that the situation would remain stable long enough for him to plan in advance effectively for, without some new law of physics or god popping up out of nowhere. If things went right with this meeting, he would be able to begin rebuilding his little slice of America, without having to wage a war after the war to end all wars.